a(HUGE)company

Ok so I got this nice new 22″ LCD monitor (225BW) on Black Friday (day after thanksgiving) from Circuit City, except randomly I notice it flickering, like the screen goes black for a fraction of a second and then comes back. I called Samsung’s support line since I’ve dealt with them before about another 19″ LCD, which they replaced with a refurbished one. The only complaint I have thus far is when I first called in the menu told me “we are experiencing extremely heavy call volume,” except the phone was answered instantly and I didn’t have to hold. Weird; just a way to scare people off I guess.

After verifying my information, getting my product id and serial number they arranged for me to receive a brand new monitor! I’m still waiting for a call from the UPS Store, they must have some sort of deal with them because I have to go there and exchange it–weird. I’m impressed by how it was handled, that’s all I have to say.

While it may not be promiscuous, Google Reader will make them boys go loco. It’s easy, but not sleazy. Feed trends come and go like seasons. That’s right, it’s hot, hot. If you hadn’t noticed by now I’m blatantly ripping off Fergie.

Before I tarnish all credibility I think I’d actually better say something meaningful about Google Reader. It’s a really great product ever since they re-launched with the current version. Prior to that I wasn’t into rss aggregators, but it turns out it’s a really great way to read The Internets. Let me just put it this way, if you already use Gmail and love that, then this is virtually the same thing–an inbox for the web.

Last week during the CES and Macworld explosion, my Reader had a mild case of diarrhea. Everything seems to be plugged up now; if I read one more iPhone story I think I might explode. One feature I hope for in the future would be clustering. Let me explain; let’s say there’s multiple stories about the same topic. Why not take a Techmeme approach to it and present them in clusters, preventing duplicates–which I so often get. Search would be nice too…

Lastly, if you’d like to find out what I’m sharing, here’s my linkblog link. You can also find a snippet of it at the bottom of my blog; it appears as a regular post. Be prepared for some high traffic on that though, because even according to Matt Cutts my “feed voracity” is extreme.

From your 305 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 17,213 items, starred 166 items, and shared 991 items.

Being a Mac evangelist I’m all over these new products. I don’t know how to describe it but Mac users are just different from the rest of the world. It should be made know though that I don’t use a Mac full time, simply because I don’t have one powerful enough at present to do everything at once. My G4 Mac Mini handles GarageBand just fine though and that’s about it; makes a good guest machine also.

Apple TV

The only factor that disappointed me about the iTV Apple TV is 720p. Even though most consumers probably won’t notice the difference between that and 1080i, Apple normally goes above and beyond expectations. The price could have been ~$50 less, or at least maybe they should have included a component cable. There aren’t many details about what video it really will play back, as far as I can see H.264 and MPEG-4 is it. DivX would be nice—maybe it will offer add-ins. Plus, what is the USB port for? Bringing content to the living room has always been one of the challenges I’ve faced. Either you buy a big clunky computer and hook it up, or an “embedded” one like the Apple TV. Why no SuperDrive … just a thought.

iPhone

I wasn’t overly impressed with the iPhone; I think it’s a little overpriced. Apple didn’t balance the feature to price ratio this year. The Apple TV should have been given more features for its price point and the iPhone less. I don’t think I’d ever pay $500 for a phone with a two year contract. Only 4 gigs of space, yeah that’s ok but what do I do when I run out? No expansion slot.

The Cingular CEO looked dumbfounded; he had notes with him and had no idea what he was saying. I’ve seen this somewhere before… Bush maybe?

Other

AirPort Extreme Base Station wasn’t even mentioned at the keynote and clearly it would have been a nice segue when Steve talked about Apple TV. Looks fancy, 802.11a/b/g/n. I wouldn’t buy it though, they are using the draft-n spec, which as far as I know could change and render all these products useless.

John Mayer is cool and all; just what the hell was his analogy “Steve Jobs and Apple Inc. just kinda makes life more fun. It’s like the exact opposite of terrorism, it’s amazing.” Whoa, stop the press, terrorism? How is Apple the exact opposite of terrorism? Looking at the antonym for terror, it is peace. Apple is peaceful then? I doubt John even knew what he was saying, it sounded like it just spilled out as he was trying to make a corny joke to get an iPhone early from Steve.

Bottom Line

I’m going to probably buy the Apple TV, but chances are a month or so after I do a new revision will come out and I’ll be pissed. I won’t be purchasing an iPhone because 1) I’m in contract for a long time with CellularOne anyways, and 2) nobody in their right mind would ever pay $500 for a phone with a two year contract.