New York:
Last month at a meeting in Hollywood, it was time to plot out the sequel to "Star Trek," last year's blockbuster reboot of the sci-fi franchise.
The attendees all brought smartphones -- gadgets far more powerful than the videophones imagined by the "Star Trek" writers 40 years ago. Bob Orci brought something the writers back then could only dream of: an iPad.
Mr Orci, meeting with the producers JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk, and his fellow writer Alex Kurtzman, jump-started the discussion with an iPad slide show, showing stills from the first film, snapshots of potential locations and a photo of a suggested actress for one of the roles. On the woman's photo, he had used his iPad to paint on a Vulcan ear.
"When you're carrying a little TV around, you bring the power of imagery to places that you don't normally have it," Mr Orci said in an interview.
When Apple introduced the iPad six months ago, ushering in an era of tablet computing, experts predicted that tablets would transform the habits of groups of people like college students (who would carry digital textbooks) and doctors (who would manage patient records). They can add Hollywood to the list of those affected.
The iPad is the must-carry accessory on sound stages this season, visible behind the scenes of television and film shoots and in business meetings. When Paula Abdul, the former "American Idol" judge, wants to preview her new dance show for prospective sponsors, she turns on her iPad and pulls up a YouTube video. When Julie Benz, a star of "No Ordinary Family" on ABC, has downtime between shoots, she plays Angry Birds, the popular physics-based puzzle game.
"It's perfect for the long hours here," Ms Benz said in her trailer on the Walt Disney Studios lot this summer.
All this acclaim amounts to free advertising for Apple, which has rarely if ever given away its products to A-list customers. And the use of iPads inevitably ends up inspiring story lines that millions of people see. On the NBC show "The Office" this month, when one character asks what time it is, another character pulls out his iPad, like an oversize pocket watch.
The iPad's most prominent appearance in prime time came in April, just days after it was put on sale, on the ABC sitcom "Modern Family," when one of the characters desperately wanted an iPad for his birthday. Eyebrows were raised because Apple's chief executive, Steven P Jobs, is on the board of ABC's parent, Disney. An Apple spokeswoman said the company does not pay for product placement, and an executive producer of "Modern Family," Steve Levitan, said the iPad story originated with the show's writers.
Mr Levitan happens to be an avid iPad user, sometimes posting to Twitter from the tablet.
According to the Nielsen Company, Apple products have popped up about 2,438 times on television programs through September of this year. Some of those are news programs: iPads are visible on the set of the "Fast Money" talk show on CNBC, and Glenn Beck sometimes brings his to "Fox & Friends," the Fox News morning show.
Hollywood's converts to the iPad say it can drastically reduce the amount of paper that is wasted on script rewrites.
The actress Dana Delany, who will star in "Body of Proof," a coming ABC drama, said she now has revisions sent to her digitally. "I think it's the greatest invention in years," Ms Delany said. (The iPad will be a fixture in the medical examiner room on "Body of Proof," which will start in early 2011.)
Mr Orci's iPad has served as the daily "call sheet" with the day's instructions; acted as a map in an unfamiliar location; and allowed him to keep tabs on "Fringe" and "Hawaii Five-0," two shows he helps produce. "Oh, and it woke me up in the morning with its alarm," he said.
His one complaint is that the screen is hard to see in the sun.
There are some iPhone and iPad apps made especially for the entertainment community, like Rehearsal, which helps actors learn their lines. John Carroll Lynch, who appeared in the A&E series "The Glades" last summer and will appear in "Body of Proof" next year, swears by Rehearsal, which was created by the actor David H. Lawrence XVII.
The app imports the script for a television episode. "Then I run the scenes with just the others' dialogue, and I speak when I'm supposed to be speaking," he said.
In his downtime in his trailer, Mr Lynch also plays the Madden 2011 app and watches shows he downloads from iTunes. He said he was surprised by how much he had come to use the tablet.
"It's like we're getting to the tricorder," he said, referring to the scanning and recording gizmo from the original "Star Trek."
The attendees all brought smartphones -- gadgets far more powerful than the videophones imagined by the "Star Trek" writers 40 years ago. Bob Orci brought something the writers back then could only dream of: an iPad.
Mr Orci, meeting with the producers JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk, and his fellow writer Alex Kurtzman, jump-started the discussion with an iPad slide show, showing stills from the first film, snapshots of potential locations and a photo of a suggested actress for one of the roles. On the woman's photo, he had used his iPad to paint on a Vulcan ear.
"When you're carrying a little TV around, you bring the power of imagery to places that you don't normally have it," Mr Orci said in an interview.
When Apple introduced the iPad six months ago, ushering in an era of tablet computing, experts predicted that tablets would transform the habits of groups of people like college students (who would carry digital textbooks) and doctors (who would manage patient records). They can add Hollywood to the list of those affected.
The iPad is the must-carry accessory on sound stages this season, visible behind the scenes of television and film shoots and in business meetings. When Paula Abdul, the former "American Idol" judge, wants to preview her new dance show for prospective sponsors, she turns on her iPad and pulls up a YouTube video. When Julie Benz, a star of "No Ordinary Family" on ABC, has downtime between shoots, she plays Angry Birds, the popular physics-based puzzle game.
"It's perfect for the long hours here," Ms Benz said in her trailer on the Walt Disney Studios lot this summer.
All this acclaim amounts to free advertising for Apple, which has rarely if ever given away its products to A-list customers. And the use of iPads inevitably ends up inspiring story lines that millions of people see. On the NBC show "The Office" this month, when one character asks what time it is, another character pulls out his iPad, like an oversize pocket watch.
The iPad's most prominent appearance in prime time came in April, just days after it was put on sale, on the ABC sitcom "Modern Family," when one of the characters desperately wanted an iPad for his birthday. Eyebrows were raised because Apple's chief executive, Steven P Jobs, is on the board of ABC's parent, Disney. An Apple spokeswoman said the company does not pay for product placement, and an executive producer of "Modern Family," Steve Levitan, said the iPad story originated with the show's writers.
Mr Levitan happens to be an avid iPad user, sometimes posting to Twitter from the tablet.
According to the Nielsen Company, Apple products have popped up about 2,438 times on television programs through September of this year. Some of those are news programs: iPads are visible on the set of the "Fast Money" talk show on CNBC, and Glenn Beck sometimes brings his to "Fox & Friends," the Fox News morning show.
Hollywood's converts to the iPad say it can drastically reduce the amount of paper that is wasted on script rewrites.
The actress Dana Delany, who will star in "Body of Proof," a coming ABC drama, said she now has revisions sent to her digitally. "I think it's the greatest invention in years," Ms Delany said. (The iPad will be a fixture in the medical examiner room on "Body of Proof," which will start in early 2011.)
Mr Orci's iPad has served as the daily "call sheet" with the day's instructions; acted as a map in an unfamiliar location; and allowed him to keep tabs on "Fringe" and "Hawaii Five-0," two shows he helps produce. "Oh, and it woke me up in the morning with its alarm," he said.
His one complaint is that the screen is hard to see in the sun.
There are some iPhone and iPad apps made especially for the entertainment community, like Rehearsal, which helps actors learn their lines. John Carroll Lynch, who appeared in the A&E series "The Glades" last summer and will appear in "Body of Proof" next year, swears by Rehearsal, which was created by the actor David H. Lawrence XVII.
The app imports the script for a television episode. "Then I run the scenes with just the others' dialogue, and I speak when I'm supposed to be speaking," he said.
In his downtime in his trailer, Mr Lynch also plays the Madden 2011 app and watches shows he downloads from iTunes. He said he was surprised by how much he had come to use the tablet.
"It's like we're getting to the tricorder," he said, referring to the scanning and recording gizmo from the original "Star Trek."
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