social media « fivepuddles

Archive | social media RSS feed for this section

iPhone 4: Worth Pitching a Tent For?

At 07:00 Thursday June 24, 2010 the new Apple iPhone 4 will be released in the United States, exciting apple fans across the globe. And as with any new release, such as the iPad and the iPhone 3GS etc, there are those hardcore fans that have been lining up outside apple stores across the US. According to this article on CNN, the first was a Dallas man who pitched his tent outside an apple store over a week ago already. If you take a spin down 5th avenue in New York tonight, you’ll probably see the line-up beginning to swell already as that 7am release time creeps closer and closer.

But I have to wonder, is it really worth it lining up for yet another hyped up release of an apple product? Lets look at 5 new features with the iPhone 4.

1.First up, the new iPhone 4 is boasting its new multi-tasking capabilities, now you can run up to 7 app services at the same time. But other smart phones such as the Droid have had unlimited multi-tasking capabilities for a long time already, old news…

2.The iphone 4 has the standard camera on the back, but now also a front facing camera as well for ‘FaceTime’ video calling. Yeah that’s cool, but my Nokia X6 has had that feature long before Apple thought about it. Its technology dating back to 2004.

3.Increased battery life is a new thing for apples latest phone. You would think that as Apple releases more and more versions of the same product, that things such as weight would be decreasing. But that’s not the case, the iPhone 4 weighs more than both previous version of the iPhone. A larger battery is attributed for this, which is a good thing, as the 3GS had one of the shortest battery lives of all smartphones.

4. Optics have been greatly improved and apple is claiming the new version has a display that ‘exceeds what’s perceivable by the human eye’. Maybe, but Apple has been lagging behind other smart phone display quality such as the AMOLED and TFT screens that Android phones like the HTC Evo4 have been using already.

5. The iphone 4 has moved the simcard slot to the right spine, but has switched to micro-simcard format. No longer will standard simcards be able to be used with the new phone. While this may not be a big deal to many. For myself, I value the compatibility a standard simcard format has when travelling etc.

I know I am a notorious Apple critic, but I do think the iPhone 4 is a great phone, just not worth the usual apple hype that goes along with it. Apple has been neck deep in lawsuits over patent infringement with multiple other phone companies over the past couple years, which only makes apples revolutionary claims even more questionable. Apple always does a great job at selling a decently ordinary product at an inflated price, and I’m sure they will continue to do this with the new iPhone 4. I mean what other company can make people call in sick for work, so they can run into a store first thing in the morning, high-fiving people, laughing and smiling as they purchase a mediocre product at steep price. Apple can. So if you feel this apparent breakthrough phone is worth sleeping in a tent on a cold hard sidewalk for a week, then by all means, go ahead, but I wont be there joining you!

Comments 1 Comment
Categories advertising, camera, current events, life, living, music, social media, technology

Nike and Tiger: Did you learn anything?

9 Apr

You’ve heard it on the news, you’ve seen the commercial, and the parodies are already popping up on youtube. There is alot of buzz about Nike’s new commercial, which features a black and white slow zoom of Tiger’s face, with a recording of his father playing over. Check it out:

So what’s going on here? I was scratching my head at first, what’s the point of this ad? We all know about the scandals and turbulance that Tiger has been apart of. When people thought golf, they thought Tiger, he was an icon, but Tiger has been busy chasing tail a little too much during his career and his marriage and it finally caught up with him. He backed out from the golf scene, sponsor’s were dropping him left and right, and finally it went quiet. It seemed we had seen the last of Tiger for a while.

But then this ad comes out of nowhere. Nike is pushing Tiger in our face again, just when we had enough. Is this ad tasteful or disgraceful? That clip of his father speaking, it was never intended for Tiger, it was a recording of his deceased father Earl speaking about his wife Tida, with Tiger’s name dubbed infront. Tiger told reporters: ”I think it’s very appropo. I think that’s what my dad would say and it’s amazing how my dad can speak to me from different ways even when he’s long gone,”.

Did Tiger learn his lesson? Did we learn our lesson about idolizing a golfer? Did Nike learn anything?

All I know is that Nike is getting what it wants, attention, good or bad, they are banking on that old Brendan Behan quote “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”. So bravo Nike, you’ve got us talking, but are we all really thinking of buying new shoes now?

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories advertising, current events, social media, sports

Travelling without the iPod

2 Jan

At a time, when anyone and everyone is seen with little white earbuds in their ears; on the bus, on the train, in school, on the street, riding their bike, I find it necessary to point out certain times to leave the iPod at home.

And one of those times I find it not only necessary, but critical that you leave your iPod or any other electronics at home, is when you are travelling. Let’s face it, if you went through the effort of lugging mini speakers along for your iPod, you probably didnt venture too far off the beaten path, and that beach your at will probably have somebody else playing Bob Marley anyways. And nothing screams “don’t talk to me I’m antisocial” like headphones on while riding the train or bus to the next city on your itinerary. Point is, if your blocking out your surroundings on a trip, your also blocking out potential conversations and experiences at a time when you should be absorbing as much as possible.

Travelling is about experiences, its not about killing time between the next “snap a picture proof I was here lets move on now” moments. It’s about listening to the sounds around you, the way the train wheels squeel along the tracks, the strange music that bus driver is playing, picking out key words in a conversation between people speaking a foreign language your trying to grasp. This is it, you went through a great deal of trouble to be somewhere else other than home, you came to see how people live, new smells hit your nostrils, your touching and feeling, why not listen, listen to the sounds of this new place.

You’ll be surprised at how many chance encounters with friendly strangers can happen when you simply open yourself up to the possibilty of interaction. You can listen to your new playlist anytime when you are at home, how many opportunities are there to converse with somebody who lives a world away?

Are we in a new era of antisocial behavior never seen before? Is it healthy? Lynne Truss doesn’t think so, in her book ‘Talk to the Hand’ she figures “this is an age of social autism, in which people just can’t see the value of imagining their impact on others..”. Not convinced? Google the term “ipod antisocial” and you’ll find a plethora of articles and blogs discussing the topic.

So if a cellphone or an iPod can have such detrimental effects to our social life at home, the reasons to leave the iPod behind are only compounded when embarking on a new trip. So do yourself a favor, when your packing your bag, leave the iPod in the dock, you’ll be glad you did.

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories health, life, movies, music, music video, social media, technology, travel

Battle of the Smart Phones

9 Dec

A battle is brewing between two technological devices, and as the 2009 Christmas season creeps up, things are only getting uglier. With Apple recently holding top position among smart phone sales with its iPhone, and with the new release of the iPhone 3GS, one may wonder if there is any competition out there. Well there is, and one of the leaders in the field of competition is the Motorola Droid from Verizon Wireless.

Watch tv for any length of time and you can see tension between AT&T which carries iPhone, and Verizon Wireless which carries the Droid. With wireless coverage slams left and right, to the newly “private” commercial Verizon put out portraying the iPhone as a pretty phone that only somebody in a beauty pagent would want. That commercial seems tough to view anywhere on the internet, due to recent articles about it, and the negative feedback. Nothing new for Apple as it’s entire ad campaign since its popularity the last few years has focused on competitor bashing.

Droid does have a very hefty arsenal when put up to the Apple empire. The iPhone has more apps, but the Droid has Google’s Android marketplace with plenty of applications, most of which are free. The Droid also boasts supierior navigation capabilities when compared to the 3GS. The Droid has a very customizable interface, and also boasts a removable battery, which is one of the first things to go in any phone. Another perk for the Droid is that in addition to the full touch screen it also packs a full QWERTY slide out keypad making for much faster texting and browsing.

Crunching some numbers, both phones have 16GB of storage space. The Droid has 6.4 hours of 3G talk time compared to iPhones 5 hours. Droid has 5.0MP camera, iPhone has 3.0MP. iPhone has over 93000 apps, Droid has 10000. Droid has multitasking capability, iPhone does not. Both phones sport accelerometers. Droid has a 3.7″ screen with more pixels than iPhones 3.5″ screen. The iPhone does sport the pinch-to-zoom function where as the Droid does not. And the sad truth is that if your in the United States, Verizons network coverage is significantly better than AT&T’s.

So it comes down to what you want from your phone. The biggest thing going for Apple is it’s reputation, even with a lesser product if you can convince people to buy it, you’ll win in sales. This is something Apple has excelled at. Maybe we will actually see some competition for the iPhone come 2010. Afterall a little competition is healthy.

I very good review of each phone running side by side through browser speed tests and functionality can be found here:

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories advertising, camera, current events, life, social media, technology

A True Cordless World

13 Sep

So bluetooth has been around for a while, we’ve all gotten used to wireless routers, so whats the next step. No its not wireless earbud headphones that I am praying for. Well according to WiTricity, a technology company, its cordless electricity. No more laptop charging chords, cell phone chargers, dont bother plugging in the hybrid just park it in the garage, and we can forever be done with unsightly powerlines and disposable batteries. Well maybe not right away, but the technology is well on its way.

There are a variety of methods used by different companies, and some commercial applications are already in use. WiTricity ( http://www.witricity.com/) converts eletricity into a magnetic field which is then radiated through the air. Some refining is needed, but advances are being made which means we could see applications for computers and cell phones within a year.

Another company known as Powercast from Pittsburgh used radiowaves to power an LED lightbult 1.5miles away from the power source. According to CNN:

Now, Powercast’s technology is used in office buildings to power temperature sensors that regulate air conditioning systems and in other low-power applications. The company also has sold wireless artificial Christmas trees strung with LED lights for about $400, Ostaffe said.

But radio waves can’t transfer the larger amounts of electricity needed to power laptops or mobile phones, he said.

Magnetic technology seems to be the only currently available method of sending larger amounts of electricity. But reasearchers at MIT admitted there may be health risks associated with the technology. Apparantly the technology can produce magentic levels consistent with the density of the earths magnetic field.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/02/wireless.electricity/index.html