Random coolness found on the 3rd week of June
- Despite my constant workouts, push-ups are my Achilles heel. That’s why I started up the One Hundred Push-Ups challenge this week. I just hope my forearms don’t snag like twigs somewhere along the way.
- This one is pure, unadulterated vanity. Check out the Kor One water bottle:
Pretty damn sleek and perfect for those skinny treadmill cup holders. But more importantly, it’s open / close with one hand. I want one now.
- I discovered Popurls through Stumbleupon this week. It’s a web 2.0 type site that collects the rss feeds from popular sites (Digg, Fark, Google news, Youtube, Flikr, etc…) and displays them on a aesthetically pleasing page. You can move around the order of the sites on the main page or even go with a category layout if you prefer. Anyway,it’s now my home page in the new super-fast version of Firefox.
- 20 Superfoods to lose body fat and gain muscle; I eat about 13 out of 20 of those on a daily basis and can attest to their success. I’ll have to pick up some Quinoa tomorrow as well as some fish oil.
- Youtube recommendation for this week: Peep Show. Not a youtube series at all, but rather a popular British comedy. It’s about 2 guys living in a flat in London and their successes / failures in their careers / relationships. Extremely funny and very easy to understand (No thick accents like The Office).
Why GPS on the iPhone is so damn interesting
I was chatting with a friend about the upcoming 3G iPhone and we got stuck on the topic of GPS for a while. Obviously GPS isn’t a new idea. Plenty of people are perfectly happy with their in-car GPS systems or even the current capabilities of their GPS enabled phones. There’s no real added value for current GPS owners to switch over to the iPhone specifically based on the hardware.
Apple’s strategic advantage will be in the applications that are created with live tracking GPS in mind. Apple already demoed Loopt.com; an app that tells you your friend’s exact location, recent pictures, little messages and alerts you when they are nearby. The possibilities are so ridiculously intriguing. For instance…
JesusPhone 2.0
So Steve Jobs and his legion of Apple minions announced the next iPhone for release on July 11th and I’m scratching my head on buying it next month.
The Good:
- The price is reasonable now and within my range; $199 for the 8 gig model. The 2 year contract doesn’t bother me since I’m already with AT&T.
- GPS is cool and actually portable compared to my car GPS.
- Internet browsing is almost 3 times as fast as the older model.
- The App store looks really cool. The games look as good as the stuff on the Nintendo DS and Ebay / social networking stuff looks spot on.
- The new instant messaging system looks great.
- The battery life looks much better than my Razr.
- It’s good to go for international travel.
The Bad:
- The cost would go up another $30 a month for me if I opted for the unlimited internet plan. I hope there are varied tiers of data plans otherwise I’ll have to stick to Wi-fi hotspots.
- The App Store stuff is expensive.
- The picture quality of the camera still sucks and still no front facing camera.
- I’d probably have to install iTunes, something I’ve been glad to be rid of with my Zune.
- I have to wait a bit over a month; I want a new phone now.
So I’m undecided. I can pay less for a Blackberry right now, but not by much. Decisions, decisions.
Freshman seasons
Anyone who reads this blog knows I ramble on about Lost or consistently tune into The Office each week. I really don’t spent lots of time on TV besides a few choice series, but there are two shows that snatched my attention in their freshman season this year before the strike.
- Pushing Daisies: My absolute favorite new show of the season. It’s about a pie-maker that has an odd ability to bring the dead back to life with a single touch, but only for 60 seconds and only once. He teams up with a private investigator to solve cases, but the true narrative involves the pie-maker’s love for his childhood sweetheart that he revives & refuses to touch again to return her to death. They both love each other, but can never touch again due to his ability. The acting is fantastic, the writing is witty, the characters are quirky and the artistic design of the show is very Tim Burton-esqe.
- Reaper: Ridiculous premise, but the supporting characters sell the show. Basically, a 21 year old guy finds out his parents sold his soul to the Devil when he was a baby. The devil forces him into a life of bounty hunting souls that escaped from Hell. It’s very much like Smallville’s format, but with believable acting, competent writers and an evolving storyline. It’s a light comedy that takes itself just seriously enough to be extremely entertaining.
There were a few highly touted freshman shows I tried to watch, but failed miserably. Mad Men comes to mind, the show about the sexual exploits and social mores of a 1960’s advertising agency. Despite recommendations from friends, I found the lack of plot to be incredibly boring most of the time. Another AMC show, Breaking Bad, killed my interest in a couple episodes. It was a novel idea, but the B-List actors got on my nerves. I tried NBC’s Chuck as well, but found it to be a poor man’s Jake 2.0. Eli Stone had my interest peaked, but the story moved along far too slowly and it got bogged down in political messages.
I’m looking forward to a couple new pilots in the fall, My Own Worst Enemy with Christian Slater sounding the most interesting. It’s about a guy with a split personality, one half being a mild-mannered, middle-class family man and the other being a Jason Bourne type character that works for the military. The premise sounds promising and I’d like to see poor Christian Slater finally get a hit. I’m also looking forward to The Cleveland Show, the spin-off from the Family Guy character.
Lost Finale Thoughts
As I was sitting in the San Diego airport this week, I was anxiously downloading the finale of Thursday’s Lost to my laptop before the battery died. Fortunately, my battery lasted the length of the flight and I found that my previous predictions held up. I do believe that Lost may have lost (no pun intended) some viewers with their foray into the possibility of time travel. But they probably gained as many sci-fi nerds.
The Desmond / Penny reunion felt a bit flat compared to their hopeful phone call in The Constant (which was one of the best scenes in Lost history). But the important part was Desmond lived. Jin is a question mark right now, but I can’t imagine the show going without him next year. It also fits in well with Sun’s motivation to work with Widmore.
Michael’s death was justified and felt like a bit of redemption for him killing Ana Lucia and Hurley’s girl. He did his best to save Jin and pass the torch of fatherhood to him. It’s strange that Walt didn’t get to say goodbye to dear ole dad, but I’d imagine Walt will be chatting with the ghost of Michael eventually.
Keamy’s death was satisfying to say the least. And let me just say Sayid gave us a friendly reminder why he’s an official badass. The fight scene versus Keamy was ridiculously visceral. The whole radio transmitter ploy was fairly stupid, but it worked well for the majority of the audience that doesn’t give a flip about the science. Ben got his revenge and gave Keamy a painful death.
As for the reveal on the coffin, I had a feeling it was Locke as soon as Ben popped up in the room. I also think that Locke’s death means one of two things: Locke is officially dead, but returning him to the island will bring him back to life or that wasn’t Locke at all. Does anyone remember the video with the two rabbits? What if moving the island caused a doppelganger of Locke to be created a.k.a. Jeremy Bentham? It’s not probable, but it is possible.
Other random tidbits:
- Looks like Saywer and Juliet are going to hook up after polishing off that rum.
- Miles snarky outlook is growing on me. Charlotte got a whole lot more interesting.
- If Jin is alive and got moved with the island, it’s safe to assume that Daniel as moved as well.
- I think Sawyer told Kate something about his daughter.
- I love that Hurley was played chess with Mr. Eko’s ghost.
- Finally, I believe Ben is heading back to the island by hitching a ride with the Oceanic 6.
Internet fights back
I love stories like this: Link
To sum it up, a Yelp user wrote a negative review for a Mexican restaurant in Saint Louis and the restaurant owner threatened her with a lawsuit if she didn’t remove it. For those that don’t know, Yelp is a social networking site for people that like to eat out. You can sign up to write reviews of your favorite restaurants and browse other opinions via a city breakdown.
Getting back to the story, she received a threat of a $100,000 lawsuit if she didn’t remove the review from the site. Being the social networking butterfly, she responded by using Twitter to pose a question to the collective internet about what she should do. It spread to Digg and the restaurant’s Yelp page is now being bombarded with bad reviews.
So instead of watching the negative review slip away among the positive ones (assuming the food & service was consistently decent), the restaurant owner effectively destroyed his restaurant’s rating in the online world. Not only is the Yelp rating getting trashed, but internet users are spreading the word to any publication that mentions the place; St. Louis blogs, newspapers, forums , etc… I wouldn’t be surprised to see local news coverage eventually.
The iPhone Waiting Game
In yesterday’s snail mail, I received a friendly reminder from AT&T that I can upgrade my phone since my two year contract is running out. I knew those bastards enjoyed my $50 for letting me talk a few minutes and send a couple texts a month. My trusty, but woefully dusty, Razr was a wonderful upgrade for me a couple years ago. I had been carrying around a gray monstrosity from the late nineties that was as thick as a computer mouse, so the super thin Razr was an obvious choice for me. Unfortunately, the poor battery life and painfully directional earpiece has annoyed me from the start. So I’m in the market for a new phone.
I’ve been browsing the blackberries, but haven’t seen anything I’d like to pull the trigger on. I’d love to have an iPhone, but the cheapest model on sells for an absolutely ridiculous $400; that’s with the two year contract discount. So as much as I salivate over the coolness, the price is an extreme deal breaker. But wait, what’s this I hear about a 3G iPhone?!
I’ve gleefully stumbled into a fantastic time to be in the market for an iPhone. On June 9th, Apple is rumored to announce a 3G version of the iPhone at their developer’s conference. I had no idea what this meant until I started reading about what the 3G iPhone will offer. Here’s what I dug up:
• Cheaper Price: AT&T is rumored to trim the price to $199 with a two year contract. They would have the ability to cut the price due to the nature of 3G. Apple would continue to sell the unlocked version of the iPhone in their stores, but service providers would finally be able to offer discounts. $200 is just about my limit for spending money on a new phone, especially one as cool at the iPhone.
• Better Specs: Namely a higher quality camera and built-in GPS caught my eye. The 3G hardware supports up to a 5 megapixel camera and video chat, so one would assume that Apple would upgrade the pitiful 2 MP camera in the original iPhone. It could be a dual camera system if video is enabled. I’ve also read rumblings about a FM transmitter to send those iTunes songs wirelessly to your car radio, voice dialing, increased storage, flash support, and a slightly thinner build.
• Close Release Date: AT&T employees have been issued a memo that they will be denied any vacation time during the period of June 15th to July 12th. The reason? “An exciting product launch”. The original iPhone launched on June 29th, so a late June / Early July launch is feasible for the 3G iPhone. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it out on June 15th or the day of the announcement considering that iPhones have been in development for a year.
So it’s time to wait and see. I’ll live with my Razr for another month and hope ole Steve Jobs gives me enough of a reason to upgrade.
5 Predictions for the Lost Finale
As I watched last night’s Lost episode (Part 1 of the finale), I felt that tons of groundwork was being laid for the Oceanic Six’s return to the island over the next season. But I do have some predictions for the final episode in a couple weeks based on what’s currently happening on the island.
1. Jin & Desmond live. I’m absolutely sure the freighter is going to go boom before the episode is over as it’s a great way to kill those extras that Daniel ferried over already, but Jin & Desmond will escape the blast. A Desmond / Penny reunion has to happen before the end of the series and Jin is too good of a character to kill off. However, I believe Sun will be convinced that Jin dies; either by Keamy’s hand or Locke’s action at the Orchid. (more on that in a minute)
2. Michael dies. I can see Michael sacrificing himself to save Jin / Desmond, but failing to escape the blast. The island will have no use for him anymore and allow the death. This also lends credence to the theory that Abbadon is a future version of Walt; searching for answers to what happened to his Dad on the island.
3. Keamy will die by Ben’s hand before the end of the episode, the rest of Keamy’s men by an Other ambush. It’s going to be a sweet revenge kill for taking the life of Alex. This sets up an empty chopper for the Oceanic Six to ride off the island before Locke gets down to business in the Orchid.
4. The Orchid doesn’t physically “move” the island, it moves the entrance. By shifting the electromagnetic field around the island, time is also altered as well. Unless someone searching for the island knows the exact entrance, they would spend years upon years looking for it.
5. Paik Industries is involved with Widmore / Dharma. It would be the most obvious reason why Sun would purchase a controlling interest in the company. It also offers a peek at how the Oceanic Six will be able to return to the island. I have a feeling Ben is in cahoots with Sun, similar to Sayid, and they will work together to defend the island from Widmore.