Grab Your Dick and Double Click

Oh Hugh Hefner. Always trying to bring the fun of naked women to everyone. He announced last week that there’s going to be a Playboy app for iPhone and iPad that will launch in March. No nudity will be allowed because Steve Jobs has moral codes he wants to follow, which I understand. Although I read that the iPad app won’t be censored… I’m confused here.

The app will have old and new issues of Playboy. This means every Playboy ever published. That might be kind of interesting actually. Although, it seems kind of pointless to me to have a Playboy app with no nudity. Isn’t that what Playboy is all about? “Tasteful” nudity? I’m sure the people who buy the magazine aren’t interested in the articles, right? Android doesn’t seem to have a problem with nudity on their network. Why didn’t Hef go there? Either way, I'm not in the market for an app like this.

Manic Monday

Talk about desperation. We all know Verizon lost A LOT of customers when the iPhone came out. I remember calling to make my change and the lady on the other end of the phone had a script that she read off of telling me how bad the iPhone was and not to switch to AT&T. That was desperation for sure. Well, now that Verizon is finally getting the iPhone, they’re offering people a $200 Visa gift card if they buy the new phone on their network. Wow. From my experience, Verizon is a better company. I had fewer dropped calls and more service in more places, but I know that Verizon’s iPhone won’t have the same functions as my current iPhone. I wouldn’t make the switch based on that knowledge. Over time, that may be fixed, but right now I wouldn't make the switch. $200 is a good offer, but I would also keep from making the switch simply because I don’t want to be bribed. Get me to come to your network because you have good products. Not because you’re bribing me. Another reason I left Verizon was because their phone options were horrible. I wanted a smart phone that wasn’t a Blackberry or a PDA and that’s all Verizon offered. They just recently got the Droid and that thing kind of sucks. So again, I stand by AT&T even though I have dropped calls and shitty signal. They’re just smarter with better products.

To top it all off, Verizon is having major network issues now. My office just recently switched to Verizon for our Blackberry's and recently people were complaining that emails weren't being sent when using the device. A lot of people complained to IT and it turns out Verizon's network is down. Awesome. Way to go Verizon. Right before this huge product comes into your hands, you screw it all up.

Overload!

Will there ever come a point where we all get sick of technology? I think I’m beginning to find the abundance of technology a little annoying. Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPhone and all the things I can do with it, but there’s a limit to the insanity. Starbucks, Disney, super markets, etc are making it so that the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Blackberry can act as digital wallets. You can take a club card, gift certificate, etc and plug the numbers into your phone and create a bar code that baristas can scan at the time of your purchases. The iPhone has been able to do this for a few months now, but more and more phones and companies are following suit. I watch my roommates plug in numbers and create bar codes for their super market cards, while I keep the little cards in my wallet and make the checkers scan them. I don’t want my phone to run my life. It’s bad enough that book stores are going out of business because we can all read on our phones and computers. It’s bad enough that I don’t need to remember anything because I can look it up on my phone. Sometimes I want to get rid of my smart phone and go back to the old school ways. I know people are starting to get sick of 3-D so I’m kind of hoping people will start getting sick of the fact that our phones are running our lives.

Keynote Excitement

Yesterday was the Apple keynote meeting and I have to say that I have never hit the refresh button so many times in my life. Apple announced the new iPhone and damn is that thing pretty. It’s thinner and just freaking pretty. Let’s just take a moment to drool at some pictures from the keynote.

The phone will have a better image quality as well, which according to Steve Jobs, no other company will be able to touch.

See? How pretty is that? You know you want one. Of course, there’s more. The camera has been upgraded from 3 megapixels to 5 with an LED flash and the video camera records in HD and has an editing program app for only $5! I AM SO EXCITED!

Aside from all these new amazing features, I think the best thing the Apple peeps could ever create with the new phone is multi-tasking. I know that I speak for more than just myself when I say that. Being able to have multiple applications and folders open at one time will be amazing. Going from one to another and having to close each out is a pain in the butt so this new feature will be nice. You can even create folders that contain all the apps you use the most or divide them into categories.

I am also really excited about the unified mail box. You have to go through 3 different screens to get to each mail box on your phone so if you have multiple email accounts set up on your phone and you need to check them all, it takes a bit of time to go through 9 screens. With the unified mail box, all messages show up in one mail box. If you don’t want that feature you can still check each mail account individually as well.

Right now, Apple’s main search engine is Google, but with the new phone you can choose which search engine you want: Google, Yahoo!, or Bing.

And as we all knew, iBooks is being added to the phone as well. This is something I figured would happen because it just makes sense.

One last thing before we wrap this up. The phone now has video calling called FaceTime. So if you go away on vacation or business for an extended period of time and miss a loved one, you can still see their face when you call iPhone to iPhone. This feature is even good for the deaf so they can sign to each other over the phone. Pretty awesome!

Just like with the existing phone, there will be a black and a white option and the pricing is about the same as it is now. Those with the 3G and 3GS phones can receive free software upgrades, which is very exciting. In case not everyone wants to drop $200 on a new phone, you can just download the new software update.

So there you have it. For those of you who missed the update yesterday, this is just a small list of the new things that are being added to the phone. The official release date is June 24. I will be in that line waiting.

I'm Ready For My Close-Up

I have always been into photography. I love old pictures and Polaroid's. They are just so cool looking to me. I took a photography class where I learned to develop my own photos old school and new school style. I loved it. I found a new iPhone app that takes your pictures and turns them into old looking photos. It's so cool. My mouth dropped for like 10 minutes while I was reading about this app. It's called Camerabag. There are plenty of apps that are just ridiculous and I'm surprised they get made, but this one is freaking awesome. Just upload your pictures to the app and you can do all kinds of stuff. You can add color, take color away, add an old tint, etc. The possibilities are endless. Who the hell needs a real camera when you can do awesome stuff with this app. I will of course still have an obsession with old cameras, but this app makes things so much easier. I think I'm going to do a photography contest. It would be so fun to see what you guys can come up with.

Manic Monday

Well, the iPad came out this weekend and I have to say that it didn’t seem to be as big of a hit as the iPhone. Maybe it has something to do with the economy, but I was in the apple store the day it came out and there was no line. Yeah, there was a small crowd gathered around the table where the iPad was being displayed, but other than that, I saw a few people buying them and that was it. The apple store was closed on Sunday for Easter so if people wanted to buy them, they would have gone on Saturday. One guy bought a bunch at one time, but I’m sure it was to sell on eBay or something. I think the iPad is a waste. If you have an iPhone and a macbook, the iPad is kind of a waste of money. If you have any phone and any computer, the iPad is a waste. I wouldn’t buy it as an e-reader because it’s back lit and that would kill my eyes. I wouldn’t buy it for the email capabilities because I get that on my phone and my computer. I wouldn’t need the picture capabilities because I have iPhoto on my macbook. I just see no reason for it. I wonder if the rest of the world saw that too.

Read Me

Since this blog is supposed to be about guilty pleasures, I would like to touch upon one of mine: Apple. No not the fruit, the company. I was always terrified to use a Mac because the one in school was so weird and confusing, but I got one when I was in college and I don’t think I could ever go back. I use a PC for work, but that’s against my will. I enjoy all the features the Mac has to offer, such as the designing programs and editing programs. I also enjoy the other products from Mac such as the iPhone, which is the best invention ever, as well as the iPod. How many people do you know without an iPod? Probably not many.

To add to this amazing list of Apple products, it is said that tomorrow, Apple will be launching a touch screen tablet called the iSlate. If anyone knows where the “i” thing came from, please inform me because I still do not understand. Anyway, this thing seems pretty freaking sick. The iSlate is basically the competition for the Kindle and other e-reading devices. The cost is said to be more than the iPhone, but less than the Mac book. So in other words, way more expensive than the Kindle. I guess the big thing with this is that the iSlate will pay publishers more for their books causing more books to be made for the iSlate in turn gaining a monopoly on the e-reader. I am pretty ok with that. I mean it’s a sad day for Amazon and Barnes and Noble, but it’s Mac. Soon they will rule the world.

There are no real pictures of the device yet, but there are some pictures of what the product is assumed to look like. It won’t be sold in stores until March. Start saving up!

Technology Rules the World

We all know how insane the iPhone has become. It is the most popular cellular device out there. All other cell phone companies have lost many customers to AT&T because of the iPhone. Not too long ago I read an article that said that the early termination fee for Verizon customers will soon go up to $300. We all know this increase is to keep Verizon customers from switching over to AT&T.

I am an owner of an iPhone and I have to admit it is pretty freaking amazing. It can do everything except cook you dinner and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an app for that soon. You can keep track of your weight loss, your calendar, your Christmas list, play games, check what the wait is at your favorite Disneyland ride. The list just goes on and on. It is quite incredible. I do have fears that one day the iPhone will control our minds without us knowing because Apple is just that good.

The latest invention with the iPhone is pretty freaking scary. I logged on to CNN.com this morning and found a video that discusses how engineers figured out how to make the iPhone drive your car for you. Don’t get me wrong, that is pretty cool, but at the same time freaking terrifying. Who knows what they can make the iPhone do in the future. Again, who knows if the app for cooking your dinner is so far off. What do you think? Terrifying?