All right, so I started off yesterday ready to pen a rant of Whazzmaster-like proportions against that entity known as AT&T. What inspired my ire? The downright strange policies surrounding current AT&T customers and the new iPhone 3G S, of course. Primarily the steep upgrade pricing for current iPhone users, though as demonstrated by the reception at WWDC the lack of immediate MMS and tethering capability also reek of epic fail. I even took the time to craft my post in the form of a “Really !?!” segment straight out of Weekend Update/Saturday Night Live.
So imagine my surprise when I go back to check the eligibility tool on Apple’s website last night to confirm the troubling details of the situation and discover that suddenly I AM eligible for the phone discount again. I have no idea what happened between last night and last week, but before I knew what was happening I’d already reserved a 3G S for myself at the local Apple store.
I just want to be clear that AT&T has provided amazingly poor phone “service” (of all things) during my time with my v1 iPhone — the thing simply is not able to receive and make calls in seemingly normal areas of multiple cities I’ve been to — and yet the Apple experience is still enough to make me leap for the chance to sign another 2-year contract. Isn’t that amazing? Maybe it’s incredibly shrewd on AT&T’s part, milking that exclusivity and investing as little in infrastructure as possible during their time in the sun, but as soon as that exclusivity runs out (or the Pre/Android becomes available on Verizon) I can’t see anything but major hemorrhaging of AT&T’s customer base. They’ve still got some time to correct this, and I do hope they actually follow through.
But yes, I can’t help hearing a voice whispering, “Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?” as I ponder renewing my contract.
The simple answer: yes, yes I have. Dancing with the devil gets you the best consumer electronics product that money can buy. Ocassionally this product makes phone calls.
I was pleasantly surprised (actually, quite dumbfounded) today to discover that my office building was already available as a check-in point in foursquare. And triangulated from my first-gen iPhone’s EDGE signal, no less.
I also hadn’t realized that Blackberry App World already went live. I used it to download the latest Facebook upgrade and found it a much better experience than I expected — the UI’s got that same space-age style introduced with the Bold and Storm. Oh, and it looks like some companies are actually pricing apps way above App Store price points…wonder how that’s going over?
I also noticed the latest TwitterFon update finally introduced AdMob ads. Sigh. I’ve been enjoying desktop Tweetie so much I may just purchase the iPhone app.
Despite its lackluster title, Salman Rushdie’s In the South ends up being a satisfying little exercise with enough frills to keep me interested. The story centers around two senescent Indian neighbors who have little to do except wait around for the end together, having outlasted most of their immediate family members. Their sobriquets are Junior and Senior because they share the same last name, and while their relationship isn’t overtly affectionate they’ve come to rely upon each other as relevant signposts on the final leg of their journey. The language isn’t quite as lyrical as his best stuff from East, West (one of my favorites), but there’s some good metaphor dealing with shadows and a well-drawn scene with the two men guiding each other to the post office to collect their pension checks.
True to form, Rushdie is quick to poke fun at himself before coming across too purple or enamored of himself, and so one character’s interesting conceit of a “mortal soul” is immediately dismissed by the other as pure tommyrot. Yeah, I just found that word by thesaurusing “rubbish.” And yeah, I just used thesaurus as a verb. What are you gonna do about it?
A little shocking to realize this is the first time I’ve done one of these since I stopped riding the Muni Metro regularly (hence the newly abbreviated post title). Spotted on public transport today:
The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
I believe I would really like to start reading some DFW.
There are two people I’m extremely jealous of these days. They’re actually kind of struggling where they are right now, but I think they’ve been thrust into fantastic opportunities that they will eventually be able to deliver on. I think what I’m even more jealous of is the fact that I know they are learning and growing and bettering themselves with every passing moment. There are certainly days when I’m able to feel this way at my job, but these guys inspire true envy.
1) Mark Zuckerberg — CEO of a property no less than Facebook in his early twenties. Yeah, he started out knowing nothing about business. And yeah, those first few press interviews and Facebook keynotes were cringe-worthy, particularly when the poor guy actually tried to channel Steve Jobs. But dude’s only in his 20’s, and sitting on a frakking goldmine just begging to be monetized. This thing’s got legs, and the potential to truly be a long-term business. Just give him time: if he plays it right, he will be Jobs in a few decades.
2) Jimmy Fallon — new host of Late Night. I’ve only seen an episode and a half so far, and it seems like it’s been a little rough going. But how awesome is it to be given your own late night talk show? Setting aside the fact that choosing him to replace Conan seemed pretty out of left field, it’s clear that anyone backed by Lorne Michaels is going to get more than a fair shot. Conan took a while to hit his stride, and I’m sure Fallon will do the same.
So if there’s one thing I’m really saying in this post, it’s that I want to be a startup CEO who hosts his own talk show. Totally doable, right? Though what I really want to do is direct.
I’ve gotta confess to harboring an ungodly amount of gadget lust of late. On my list:
I’ve been playing around with my old DV camcorder recently and I’ve decided that I really want me some HD video. I’m thinking either Flip MinoHD or the Canon Vixia HF10.
The idea of owning an Xbox 360 has been haunting me for months, and then I find out they’re coming out with a red one THIS WEEK.
Though I was underwhelmed with the Kindle 2 design I still find myself wanting it.
The poor performance on my three year-old MacBook Pro has caused me to seriously consider getting a new computer, and gasp…I’m not even requiring that it has to be a Mac. If only Windows 7 would hurry up and release already.
I’ve held up on upgrading my iPhone, but only because I’m dying to see what the Palm Pre and the next gen Android and iPhone models look like before deciding on my next contract.
And well, thus concludes my brief ode to consumerist hedonism in the midst of economic fallout. At least the market was up today.
Shout out to Anthony for getting a content management system up and running!
I’m still trying to decide whether CoolIris is more than just a slick gimmick but I was impressed to encounter this screen during setup:
What’s cool about this is that they’ve anticipated the user’s context within the browser — here, they know exactly what warning Firefox will display and where it’s located — so they’re able to tell me exactly what to do by pointing to something that’s outside of their actual webpage. Pretty nifty.
Coincidentally, Vizio used a similar device in their recent Super Bowl ad where they used an arrow to point to the brand logo that’s typically positioned right below the screen on tv sets. Truly outside of the picture box. It’s like breaking the fourth wall!
Ok, a few corrections are in order: unfortunately I made it to the gym not 75 times in 2008 but 73. Woefully short of my target of 100, but I blame the cold December and the ridiculous sickness that had me bed-ridden for 2 weeks (nevermind the pace I was keeping those other 11 months).
On the other hand, I’m most happy to report that I saw 31 movies instead of the 29 quoted previously. That still leaves me with a downright unprintable Top 10 Movies of 2008, but hopefully I’ll be able to catch up on a few more contenders as we roll into Oscar season. And yes, I vow to do better.
A few more of my favorite things from 2008: Arinell’s Pizza, my work MacBook Pro, Parallels, brunches/TV show plotting with Nicole, dinners with Ben, the primaries, the blogs of Jane and Amanda, any kind of sushi served by anyone anywhere, Chris Paul, Bi-Rite Creamery, that LeBron James commercial for Nike basketball, writing my first spec script for 30 Rock, outings with Rich and his cousins, the new MacBook redesign, lunches at Google, that David Fincher commercial for Nike football, seeing Night of the Living Dead at the Castro with Anthony and Ryan, Hulu.com, pho from Turtle Tower, conducting interviews for LeadersWiki, A Date with Lu Yu, and the genius addition of flashforwards to Lost.
And I guess that’s enough about 2008. Game on, 2009.
8 trips taken to places outside the Bay Area/Illinois.
And here are some of my favorite things from 2008: The Wall Street Journal, 30 Rock, Little Star Pizza, visiting Japan, Pushing Daisies, my iPhone, The Sandman, the fish burrito at El Castillito, the first 10 minutes of the Daily Show, trivia nights, This American Life, vodka sodas, Google Reader, indie movie theaters, Tony Stark, the San Francisco Public Library, red wine, Dr. Horrible, the national spotlight on Chicago (pre-Blago), dinners with Eric, dinners with Christina, dinners with the Hsiungs, Vitamin Water, the something night book club, post-work drinks with See Yew, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Barack Obama.
So SNL’s ratings have been absolutely killer this election season and while the explosion of Tina Fey has been nothing but all-around goodness, I realized that for me the most indelible moment of all of the election skits was actually this one. I think it was while watching this that it finally hit me just what the Cubs had managed to do with their season, and well…that look on Bill Murray’s face just says it all.
