Apparently I am pretty lucky. I pre-ordered the HTC Droid Incredible a few days before launch. This little guy ended up being so popular for Verizon (go figure) that they couldn’t keep it in stock. So now a bunch of unlucky folks are stuck waiting. And since they next top of the line phones still haven’t dropped yet, it’s purgatory for those who keep checking their order status. For those of you still waiting, or even contemplating canceling their order, I suggest you wait. This gadget is well worth it. Even though I came from the worst phone Verizon ever sold, I can honestly say the Incredible is top notch.
There are plenty of reviews out there that will go in depth and pour over the details. I’ll just stick to talking about a handful of great point, a couple negatives, & what it was like switching from the BlackBerry Storm.
As so often happens in the television industry, shows get cancelled. I can live with that, in theory. But over the past ten years, it seems like the networks are too quick to cancel a series. But it happens, I get it. However, since you, dear ABC, didn’t give Sports Night a real shot, my biggest beef will always be with your definition of “development.”
Series that are spawn of the hot new concept have the lowest survival rate. Since Lost premiered, has there been a successful sci-fi/fantasy show? Nope. And since that is my favorite genre I always get screwed. The latest flare up of cancelitis was FlashForward. Was it an awesome show? Nope. Was it executed well. Nah. But I loved it. It was an interesting concept. And in the right hands (read: not Brannon Braga) it may have survived it’s freshman year.
You must give shows with long story arcs sufficient time to develop. One year is not enough to prove its worth. But the way you decided to end FlashForward just pisses me off. I’ve known for at least a month that the show was destined for the dust bin. Normally I am quickly put out of my misery. Show gets cancelled, show goes off the air immediately. Like a band-aid. Pull. Fast. Ouch. Better now!
Instead you decided to air the remaining shows of the season. I was hoping that at the very least the creators would be allowed to finish out the story lines. For the past month I watched each week. And then the finale last night. The day of the flash forward. The whole season, from pilot on, had been building up to this day. Tension builds as scenes play out as they did in everyone’s flash forward. Disaster approached. True love happened. And then the realization sets in that the next flash forward would happen at the end of the hour. Shit. I mean really. Shit. Did you have to do that? Did you have to keep airing the episodes? The finale was upon us and you decide to add more mythology to the story? The flash forward happens and everyone sees their future again. Many, MANY, more questions are laid at our feet. WHY?
ABC, you should have just pulled FlashForward off the air the moment your braintrust decided to cancel it. And seriously, damn you for airing a finale that answered no questions and gave me a desire to know more of the story. But I never will find out why everyone seemed to see their futures at different points, instead of like in the pilot where everyone saw the same moment.
There is a reason cable networks have been so successful. They have great shows and give them time to develop. If FlashForward had aired on TNT, I would bet $100 there would be a second season.
Sorry for the lack of content the past two months. I’m hoping to do a whole site redesign that will motivate me to keep the posts coming. More on that later.
But for now, I’d like to share that I made the decision to Go Android. While I’m still an Apple fan first, the fact that Verizon still isn’t offering the iPhone led me to choose the HTC Droid Incredible. I will post a review in the next couple days. One thing is for sure, the Incredible will make Verizon’s summer. It’s simply that nice.
At some point this year I will be moving away from the BlackBerry platform. To say that I will never look back is an understatement. My first and only BB handset is the first generation Storm. Quite the apropos name. Research In Motion moved into my world like a hurricane and I’ve never quite been the same. The Storm is a big flaming pile of turd. It’s so bad that they released a sequel roughly a year later and Verizon has pretty much pretended that the original never existed (the last official OS upgrade was back in October). Storm 1 is The Phantom Menace to the Storm 2′s Attack of the Clones. The second installment is a marginal (at best, Lucas shitty storytelling-enabling vehicle at worst) improvement that does nothing to reverse steady brand erosion. Click screen technology is Jake Llyod. Death to your product.
Quo vadimus. Latin for “Where are we going?” The answer to this question is, seemingly, either towards the iPhone or Android. Since it’s debut 3 years ago, the iPhone has become a technological and media darling (although AT&T has tried it’s darndest to kill the Golden Goose). But now it appears that the iPhone has company. Android based phones are approaching iPhone daily sales levels and developers are racing towards the platform faster than you can say “Sega Dreamcast.”
Despite being the Apple fan that I am, the wait for a mythical Verizon iPhone has stopped me from switching carriers. Well, that and the fact that AT&T doesn’t seem to know how to fix their bandwidth issues. Or maybe it’s AT&T’s awesome brand tactic of blaming the customer. This waiting period has allowed Google’s Android OS to become a part of my decision set. There are probably millions of Verizon customers just like me. Apple is losing App Store revenue during the waiting period. Once I spend money to fill an Android phone with apps, the switching cost will probably be too great.
I love Apple. It’s no secret. But as I move towards an Apple-centric technological experience, the iPhone seems more and more likely to be the forgotten son.
I still haven’t jumped into the real-time location game. Friends have attempted to get me to try out Foursquare or Gowalla. Call me crazy, but I’m just not that into the idea of broadcasting daily whereabouts to friends. However, Facebook may just change my mind. (via Tech Crunch)
At the very least, this piques my interest. Especially from the small business advertising aspect. While positively intrusive, and very Minority Report, I don’t mind the idea of being served ads based on my location. If I’m passing by Melt, it would be great to know about the specials. The only difference between this and a Tweet/email blast is the fact that someone would know my exact location. Is this ripe for abuse? Sure. But is there value to this concept? Absolutely.
The first service to effectively change the way I shop/spend money by using targeted location-based advertising wins a gold star.
Usually during the midpoint of the Oscars I’m surfing the web on my phone. I mean, call me crazy, but short form film/technical awards just don’t interest me much. The best documentary short award was announced, I saw the director head up to the stage, and my eyes glazed over. As I checked Pro Football Talk for the elevety millionth time looking for Browns free agent news, Christine said “I think that woman just pulled a Kanye.” Looking up at the screen I saw the director and a woman sharing the stage. It struck me as odd since I didn’t see her hit the stage with the director. You could obviously tell that there was some sort of awkward moment going on.
One might think that NBC’s online property would best all other sites for total Olympic web traffic. Wrong.
Yahoo takes the prize with 32MM uniques while NBC nabs 18.9MM. Although official streaming video kept NBC users around longer. Too bad they can’t seem to do that for certain prime time shows.
In case you haven’t seen this yet, here is the trailer for Iron Man 2. Who would have ever thought that Jon Favreau would be one of the quintessential comic book adaptation directors?
Excellent post by Vivek Wadhwa over at Tech Crunch. Much like the bet between Mortimer and Randolph Duke, he asks the question “Can Entrepreneurs Be Made?”. Short answer, yes.
This is a particularly interesting subject to me. Pretty much since childhood I have had designs on starting my own business. My Dad (along with his brother) started their own deli (later turning it into a restaurant). The restaurant met the same fate as most, closing after a half dozen or so years. There were many valuable lessons learned growing up in close proximity to a great American Experiment. The perils of decisions made (and not made) and the gut wrenching affects on family.
Through all of the ups and down, I still felt the need to one day stake my own claim. This desire is one of the main reasons I decided to start down the MBA path at Case Western Reserve University. Wadhwa talk about the important role education plays in entrepreneurial system. There is a direct correlation between startup founders with Ivy league pedigrees (although there is not much difference between, say, Harvard or any other B school) and startups with high school educated founders.
Going to B school school hopefully will give me a boost should the day ever come when I decide to take my own chances. At the very least, it’s good to know that Mortimer was wrong.
My perky little Netgear router had finally bit the dust. Signal dropout was just one of the issues the little guy was facing. I began to research all the routers out there. When it came down to it, and thanks to my bias (see Apple TV Review), I decided to get the Apple AirPort Extreme.
Set up was very easy on my iMac. I’ll break it down, step by step. Continue Reading >>
