5 posts tagged “iphone”
Parties, dinners, pageants and more. How does technology help you survive the hustle and bustle of the holidays?
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If I get invited somewhere I've never been, Google Maps on my iPhone shows me the way. If I get bored, Facebook and NetNewsWire on my iPhone give me something to do. If I want to take a photo, my iPhone lets me snap one without carrying several devices. iPhone iPhone iPhone. Sorry, but that, my laptop and my Xbox 360 are my favourite widgets right now.
It's crazy times right now. Lots happening. After the surprise birthday party last week, we were somehow more manic this week.
On Thursday, Jess and I got out of work early, went to see WALL-E and had dinner together. Afterwards, we met co-workers at a bar as it was the day of Laura's birthday. They had been there since they got out of work, so we were by far the most sober people there. Until Lindsay's Doug showed up. Poor guy. We ducked out of there early.
I... can't actually remember what we did during the day on Friday. I do know we got lunch and did a bunch of shopping at Target, but other than that, I think we bummed around. At 7pm, we met up with Laura with a mini-picnic then went to the harbour. Lindsay and Doug met us there and we all sat on the waterfront to have our picnic. Eric and Mitchell showed up shortly after, just in time to watch all the fireworks going off along the lake.
We dumped shit off at home, then went to a nearby bar for a couple of drinks.
On Saturday, we had a ton of errands to run. We paid our economic stimulus cheque into our bank account, went through the pre-approval process at AT&T (ahead of the iPhone 3G release on Friday!), then Jess went to the dentist while I took a faulty item back to Target. We were going to go to a barbeque, but after having a long nap, we just went to our favourite Mexican place and chilled out.
Today, we went for lunch and did more shopping. We needed more sporty clothing as we've been asked to fill in on my office softball team. Yes, me, playing sport. I know, right? Anyway, we got all of that stuff, got it home then got ready for our first softball practice. There were only a handful of people there, but we got a good go of it. Neither of us was as bad as we expected - I connected with the ball a lot, and wasn't a total washout at catching. Bowling (sorry, pitching), however, was another matter.
This week is going to continue the activity. We're taking tomorrow off as we have a lot of chores to do. We have Wolf Parade on... Tuesday? I can't remember. I need to listen to their new CD more. Hopefully this means we get to see The Josie after what seems like forever. Thursday is the Big Kahuna - my green card interview. After aeons, it's finally a reality. Jess is currently wading through a file of paperwork the size of Alaska so we're ready. Then Friday is possibly iPhone day, if they have enough in stock.
Busy busy busy.
On an unrelated note, one of my favourite albums of last year - Heresy & The Hotel Choir by Maritime - came with a bonus 7" featuring two songs. One of those songs was called 'Boy From School', and was pretty awesome...
It turns out, it was a cover of a Hot Chip song...
Which was also covered by Portastatic...
I have heard of some retarded complaints in my time, but the latest complaint about the iPhone is up there with the legal hot water McDonald's went through over the lack of warnings on their coffee cups. Yes that pun was intended, read it and weep.
At the time of its release, I expressed my confusion over people who would queue out in all kinds of weather to get an electronic device on the day of release - especially a $500/$600 phone that was, by all accounts, in plentiful supply from the get go and despite its unique interface, not really worth the money. But queue they did, and lots of them (500,000+ were sold in the first weekend alone).
Combined with the custom tariffs and - if you were on another network - hefty cancellation fees, it wasn't exactly a cheap purchase but somehow all these people easily justified it to themselves. So when Apple announced this week that they were dropping the price by $200 to bring it in line with their new iPod range, you would have thought the mood of consumers everywhere would have been ecstatic. Finally, those who didn't want to cough up full whack for the device would be able to make weird hand gestures at their phone on buses all over the country.
Guess again.
Forums, blogs and everything in between have been throbbing with the bile unleashed by early adopters who feel Apple have "screwed", "cheated" or "ripped off" those silly saps who plunked down wads of green to get the iPhone early. Given the outcry, you would think this was an entirely new phenomenon, but I could rattle off trillions of examples of products being upgraded, discounted or replaced. Whenever you buy anything - a car, a vacuum cleaner, a computer or anything else, you run that risk.
Granted, a 33% price drop in only a couple of months is a big change, but that's the price you pay for bragging rights. I just don't understand why $600 was entirely acceptable when these people first bought the iPhone, but somehow now they have been "ripped off".
Then you have the astonishing response from Apple. Their CEO, Steve Jobs, took time to personally write a notice on their web site advising all early adopters that they would be able to claim back a $100 dollar gift certificate as an apology. AN APOLOGY. Apple are apologising for doing what every consumer electronics company on the planet does regularly. The only other time I can recall this happening was when the original Microsoft Xbox was reduced in price shortly after its European release. Microsoft offered two free games and a controller to early adopters.
And this still isn't good enough? Oh sure, Apple "still get your money" as some cynical bloggers have pointed out, but you whinging bastards are getting far more than you would have had they not reduced the price in the first place, and you were happy with your iPhones then. Right? And if not, why the hell did you even bother?!
As we walked to the bus stop this morning, Jess and I saw a small group of people huddled outside of the Cingular/AT&T store. On the news last night, it showed people queueing outside the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue. These scenes are happening all over the country.
I don't need to tell you which electronic device they are queueing for.
I find it all very weird. The same as I find it weird that people queue outside of stores for games consoles, albums, books and any other releases. How they queue at cinemas dressed as the characters from the film they are trying to get a ticket for.
People are so weird!
I've pre-ordered things, and I've sat on the phone trying to get tickets for Glastonbury once or twice, but I don't think I've ever been so obsessed with anything that I've braved the elements to queue somewhere - dressed in a stupid costume or not - to obtain something.
Show us your current cellphone and/or your dream cellphone.
Submitted by Reika Lee.
My previous mobile phone that died because the charge port was shoddy and snapped off when I tried to insert the cable:
My current mobile phone, which Jess ordered for me when I moved here:
My dream mobile phone:
What, you expected a Mac user to want anything else? As much as I hate Motorolas, of all the big name phones, they were the best for syncing up with my Address Book and Calendar on my Mac. An Apple iPhone, which uses basically the same operating system as a Mac, will be even better.
Not only that, it means instead of carrying around a phone and an iPod, I can carry around one device, knowing that the audio player portion won't suck as it has on my myriad other MP3-capable phones (going back to the Nokia 5510 I had back in the day).
