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cyberbarf

WHAT KIDS WANT ARTICLE

It was just before Black Friday when I wandered into the Apple Store around 6 p.m. The store has more patrons than nearby retailers, but someone remarked that the crowd had left for dinner. But soon, a new wave of customers filled the display tables. There was a section that was roped off, with military lines of nanos, iPods, Touchs, and accessories ready for the Black Friday discount sales.

As I have said before, the Apple Store is not a retail store, but an arcade. Children gravitate to the hardware and immediately pick up a device and use it. They know their Angry Birds, their Tiny Wings, and other game apps. They have no qualms about using their fingers to navigate the screens.

Nielsen did its annual research report on what children ages 6 to 12 and children 13 years and above wanted for the holidays. By combining and ranking the data sets, the 2011 wish list for children was as follows:

1 iPad

2 Computer

3 iPhone

4 Tablet (non iPad)

5 TV set

6 iPod Touch

7 Kinect for XBox 360

8 E-Reader

9 Smartphone (non iPhone)

10 Blu-Ray player

11 Nintendo 3DS

12 Playstation 3 PS3

13 Nintendo 3D line

14 Nintendo Wii

15 XBox 360

16 Playstation Move

17 Other Mobile Phone

18 Playstation Portable

One could remark that some of the older electronic brand/devices like the Wii or XBox console are lower in priority because the children already have those devices from prior holidays or birthdays. What was out of the ordinary, and ranked highly by both sets of children, was the desire for a television set. It is unclear whether it is because the newer sets have more connective features, or that they want a new set for their personal rooms.

However, some of the rankings are clearly age related, with older children desiring things that may be useful for school work (computer or e-reader).

6-12 YEARS: % WANTING ITEMS

iPad 44%; iPod Touch 30%; iPhone 27% ; Computer 25%; Tablet (non iPad) 25%; Nintendo 3DS 25%; Kinect XBox 360 23%; Nintendo DS line 22%; TV set 20%; Smartphone (non IPhone) 19%; Playstation 3 PS3 17%; Blu-Ray player 17%; E-reader 17%; XBox 360 16%; Other Mobile Phone 12%; Nintendo Wii 11%; Playstation Move 10%; Playstation Portable 10%.

13 + YEARS: % WANTING ITEMS

iPad 24%; Computer 18%; E-reader 18%; TV set 17%; Tablet (non iPad) 17%; Blu-Ray player 16%; iPhone 15%; Smartphone (non iPhone) 14%; Kinect for XBox 360 12%; Nintendo Wii 9%; Palestine 3 PS4 9%; iPod Touch 8%; XBox 360 8%; Playstation Move 5%; Nintendo Ds line 5%; Nintendo 3Ds 5%; Other Mobile Phone 4%; Playstation Portable 3%.

Source: cNet.com /Nielsen research

A comparison of the Top 5 requested items by age group finds that they agree that the iPad is Number One Choice and Computer is second:

6-12%/13+%

1 iPad 44%/ iPad 24%

2 iPod Touch 30%/ Computer 18%

3 iPhone 27%/ E-reader 18%

4 Computer 25%/ TV set 17%

5 Tablet (non iPad) 25%/ Tablet (non iPad) 17%

 

The desire for the latest electronics and game devices is strong in American children. The electronic gadgetry world has fully engulfed the culture and age demographics. It has staggering economics; the latest video game, Call of Duty:MW3 broke all sales records upon its release, selling $775 million in five days in global revenue. This gross is larger than most blockbuster summer movies. And the runner up in the video sales release last month, Assassins Creed: Revelations sold 2.16 units in its first week. The video game industry racked up more than a billion dollars in sales from two titles within a month. The electronic tweens still have economic power, even during a recession.

cyberbarf

THE MAKING OF MURMUR REAL NEWS KOMIX

For a long time, we have published an original comic each month besides the editorial cartoons (iToons). These were expanded four panel comics that attempted to comment on various aspects of internet life (Rapter Agent on computer gaming, Dr. Philistine on web relationships and cyberbarf on the interpersonal aspect of man and his machine.) For the past several months we were aware that cyberbarf was going to conclude its run. We had promised either a reboot, re-issue or a new comic.

So Ski started to the task over a recent long weekend. He decided that the theme would deal with the concept of interpersonal relationships and memories that seem to connect, disconnect and reconnect over time. Our culture now depends on more communication between each other; the links that validate one's own existence.

The creative process takes many trails. In this situation, once the theme was established, Ski began to outline the series through key dialog and phrases. He quickly found that each episode could have a duality to it in order to move the story forward.

Once the general outline was finished, he began to draw the characters. In an assembly line fashion, he used the same document size to speed along the process of drawing. He used an old, simple computer paint program to do this work even though he had more specialized integrated comic programs and newer drawing applications.

It quickly occurred to him that this new feature would not be a standard four panel humor or satire comic. This had turned into a graphic novella. Black and white were the primary contrasts while spot color would infuse a change in mood or direction.

Knowing that time constraints and future procrastination priorities could crop up, he decided that he would write, draw, format and layout the entire series in one assembly line. Finish the product before it would be published on the site. So he set a personal goal to make 50 drawings to match the general outline. He could always go in later and re-draw panels as needed to clean up the final draft.

Once the first main set of drawings were complete, Ski then imported them into a comic layout program. The program has preformated page designs as well as blank pages for self-customization. He began on page one. One has to balance story dialogue the creation of mood and mystery elements. After four full pages, he realized that the overall story that he outlined would need to be segmented into chapters. Each chapter fell into place after five pages. He used the layouts and outline dialogue to re-work the verbiage to fit the scenes. Several re-writes and changes occurred during this process. As a result, an additional 20 drawings were made to fill in the final story plot. The creative process itself takes an artist on tangents.

The next day was devoted to final assembly of the drawings and dialogue. Final editing and copyreading followed each chapter presentation. The final chapter added an additional page, so the entire work numbers 36. Once completed, he left it alone for a week. It was a method of decompressing from the process of completing the entire project in two days. A week later, he reviewed the final draft. He made only a few minor adjustments to the final product. The project was completed in three days total. This style probably will not work for everyone, but with time restraints and other commitments this is how Ski decided on how to complete the task as quickly as possible.

The original synopsis stated: “a girl reconnects with a boy who moved across town a long time ago in an attempt to rekindle or close her feelings about him.” The new comic, Murmur: Lost Souls, will debut in the January cyberbarf edition.

 

cyberbarf

CYBERSACKS OF PRESENTS BARFETTES

 

The first thing that Santa needs to bring the staff is a new home DSL Wi-Fi network router. This home network idea has been on the back burner to-do list for more than a year. Yes, the local telecom information and pricing was obtained, back in April. But nothing has happened to upgrade the home front in the losing battle against slow net connections. Besides, the latest iMac superstation is a wireless monolith that needs an airport connection to fully function.

Everybody sees the Boss with his new iPhone. They ask him how he likes it (fine). They ask him has he downloaded any games or apps (nope). Then they cringe at why have a new smart phone without the . . . fun bits? Will the data plan kill you? (no). What's the use of the phone then? (to make/take telephone calls?) So maybe the business phone needs a little personal app attention.

The world probably needs a web site Style Manual. If a web page has more than a few banner ads plus animation or video graphic links, the upload times are becoming unbearable. Most surfers have the attention spans of grains of sand in the beach surf so they will move on to find their information elsewhere within a half minute. The Internet prides itself on standards but there is no set rules for how to make a modern, functional and fast loading web pages for the masses.

The final cyberpresent would be World Peace. If that could be accomplished by giving everyone a tablet and a copy of Angry Birds to occupy their minds, then so be it. In a world of instant communication and exchange of ideas, in many ways people of different cultures are actually getting farther and farther a part in their relations and public discourse. Instead of breaking down barriers, the Internet has been used to reinforce one's own culture and ideas.

 

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EXAMINE THE NET WAY OF LIFE

 

You never want to give a man a present when he's feeling good.

Lyndon Baines Johnson

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