Verizon Wireless Hits AT&T Where it Hurts… Their Highspeed Network Coverage

Verizon Wireless has come out with some pretty scathing advertisements recently and now, they have started cranking out a fresh set of new Christmas themed ads… sure it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but the early bird catches the worm, right?

Now I still think the iPhone on AT&T is still going to sell better than gangbusters this holiday season, but now AT&T’s biggest competitor is really taking their ad campaign hard at AT&T’s sparse 3G internet network availability.

Thanks to Engadget for pointing this out!

Enjoy

Dany

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRIqIWxhTIQ&feature=player_embedded

Macworld and CES 2009 Opening Keynotes by Apple’s Phil Schiller and Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer

This week has brought us two very important keynote presentations. First there was the Macworld 2009 keynote by Apple’s Phil Schiller (the last keynote Apple will give at Macworld) replacing Steve Jobs, who has traditionally given this keynote, then came the opening of CES and Steve Ballmer delivering this year’s keynote, a job that Bill Gates had traditionally filled in years past.

It was very interesting seeing both lectures for their similarities: all the cool hardware and software they were promoting, and the differences: Microsoft made a concerted effort to show off many different hardware and internet vendors, not just their in-house products.

Watch the 135 minute Macworld 2009 keynote here or get the HD version (subscribe to the iTunes podcast here) and watch the 123 minute CES 2009 keynote here.

Enjoy! I actually think the Steve Ballmer keynote (watch it here) was more interesting to watch, especially since they showed off some cool flexible e-ink reading technology.

Dany

Fake Newsflash! The Onion Introduces Apple’s Macbook Wheel

I would stop posting The Onion’s videos (iTunes subscribe here)… if they weren’t consistently hilarious. This latest video is a great send up on Apple and their (at times) lemming-like hardcore fan base.

Just enjoy the absurdity of the revolutionary keyboard-less Macbook Wheel.

Dany

Saturday Night Live’s Vice Presidential Debate and Hilarious show with Anne Hathaway

The political commentary has not been sharper than what is coming out of Saturday Night Live during this presidential election and the hilarity of their take on the recent Vice Presidential debate (video) is only surpassed by their initial Palin/Clinton joint press conference. I never would have thought to make the connection, but Queen Latifah playing Gwen Ifill (who I still hope takes over as the Meet the Press anchor after the election) was an inspired choice along with Jason Sudeikis playing a funny Joe Biden and the AMAZING job that Tina Fey did again as Sarah Palin.

I just WISH that NBC would post full episodes of Saturday Night Live on either NBC.com or Hulu. If they did, I would be able to SHOW you this entire episode, because it was easily the best entire episode of SNL in the past few years. Anne Hathaway did a great job as host, I even liked her intro, when I usually find that SNL intros are annoying or boring. I’ll post the rest of the funny clips I’m allowed to show. I’d post more, but that’s how I got my youtube account canceled (master1228). If anyone from NBC is reading this, please start posting entire episodes of Saturday Night Live. Hulu has been such a great success, you’re making money off the comercials on Hulu and you’d make your SNL fans extatic.

I know you sell each episode for $1.99 on iTunes and Amazon, but Joss Whedon did this on iTunes AND offered (and still offers) up Dr. Horrible on Hulu and monitizes through their commercials as well and the fans LOVE it. I know no one at NBC really cares what I think, but they should. NBC was one of Hulu’s founders, you’d think they’d support it fully by offering up ALL their shows on the platform that they want to succeed, especially the shows they air on free network television.

Enjoy

Dany

Apple’s New Announcements – Kevin Rose was Right

Well, it looks like Kevin Rose’s leaked rumors were true. Steve Jobs announced today that Apple was releasing a new iPod Nano (8 and 16gb versions for $149 and 199 respectively) that looks exactly like the leaked photos, that they were reducing the prices on the iPod Touch (8, 16 and 32gb versions for $229, 299 and 399) and letting loose iTunes 8.0.

I was very surprised that the leaked Nano photos were legit though, the idea that Apple is moving from flat screen displays to a curved glass display is very strange. I could understand if they only curved the metal/plastic body, but curving the glass introduces a lot more reflections into your viewing experience and if they’re heavily promoting the video experience with these new players and their newer, larger screens, this is a very odd turn indeed. Remember the glare you used to get on your old tube televisions and monitors before they all went to the more expensive flat screen models?

Now, I haven’t gotten my hands on the new Nano yet, I’ll be heading over to an Apple store to get a hands on before my final judgement, but from what I’ve heard, they’ve vastly shrunk down the thickness of the Nano to an almost wafer thin state, which sounds quite nice.

The only other major change to their lineup is that they consolidated their iPod Classic lineup by cutting out both their 160 and 80gb versions and splitting the difference with a new thin 120gb version for $249. This was surprising since the new Zune was leaked to be only 120gb, but this brings down the high end version of the iPod Classic down to that same capacity for less than a dollar more than the rumored Zune.

Thanks to Engadget for the above pic and the best live blog of the entire event today.

Enjoy

Dany

Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld Unveil Microsoft’s New Ad Campaign

Microsoft’s new ad campaign has officially kicked off with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld now.

This is Microsoft’s long overdue response to Vista’s publicity woes and Apple’s Mac vs PC ads, which have gotten progressively more aggressive against Microsoft over time.

Enjoy

Dany

WALL-E Review

Before Wall-E came out, I thought the robot was a ripoff of Johnny 5 for kids too young to remember Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2. After seeing the movie though, I can admit that I was wrong… the good thing is that I am not usually this glad to be wrong about something. There were also some great nods to classic science fiction and technology fans, with callbacks to 2001: A Space Oddyssey and the classic Mac startup chime,

to just name a couple.

I consider myself a jaded New Yorker and that’s why I was so surprised to be emotionally knocked on my ass for many scenes in this film. I even teared up during some of the scenes between Wall·E and Eve (the slick white robot that resembles ASIMO), which was the most surprising thing for me. I was NOT expecting to be hit so hard by the love story and the ability of Pixar’s animators to imbue that much emotion into robots that say less than 5 words to one another.

One of the most interesting aspects of the film though was the first 40 or so minutes of the film on Earth, first with WALL·E alone and then with Eve. This was some of the best pantomime since Charlie Chaplain and what really moved me was the interaction between WALL·E and Eve reminded me of Chaplain’s City Lights. I liked the juxtaposition between Fred Willard’s live action scenes from the past and the animated humans who are now blubberous blobs of laziness and a shell of their ancestors, played to a tee with voicework from Jeff Garlin John Ratzenberger and Kathy Najimy.

This movie is a definate must see, even the silent animated short with a hungry bunny and an obnoxious magician was entertaining to watch and I know I’m going to be looking for this movie when it is finally released on dvd. Thanks to MoviePatron for the above pic.

Dany

The Apple “i” – College Humor

CollegeHumor (subscribe here) has come out with another funny video. This time, they ape Apple’s Steve Jobs‘ traditional keynote style with their new video, called The Apple “i.”

The whole thing perfectly captures the reality distortion field that Steve Jobs seems to bring to anything Apple!

Thanks to CollegeHumor for the above pic.

Check it out

Dany

Movie Trailer Sunday – Serial Killers and Al Pacino

The first trailer that caught my eye is for the upcoming Willem Dafoe movie where he’s hunting down a serial killer, Anamorph.

Another serial killer movie, this time starring Al Pacino is 88 Minutes, apparently the film was released worldwide over a year ago, but we’ll get to see it on April 18th (get the HD trailer here from Yahoo Trailers).

Lastly, we have Righteous Kill, which is only the 3rd movie starring both Al Pacino and Robert De Niro (Godfather II and Heat) and only the second with the two acting together on screen (Heat). I don’t know how good it will be, but just having the two on screen together gets me interested in seeing it (get the HD trailer here from Apple Trailers).

Enjoy

Dany

Apple Software Update is PISSING ME OFF!!

I thought it was a fluke or just a marketing ploy, but now that it has happened twice, Apple’s corporate methods are really pissing me off.

I use the Apple Software Update tool on Windows to keep my copies of Quicktime and iTunes up to date. Last week though, Apple tried to push an installation for their Safari v3.0 browser. Now, I use the update tool to keep my current software up to date, not to get advertised new software to download… especially not a 4th web browser! Having Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera is more than enough for me.

Now, a week later, after NOT downloading Safari 3.o, Apple just popped up an offer for Safari 3.1, with the pitch:

“Safari for Windows is the fastest and easiest-to-use web browser for the PC. It displays web pages faster than any other browser and is filled with innovative features — all delivered in an efficient and elegant user interface.

For more information on Safari 3.1, please visit http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307467“

Apple, if you are listening, STOP DOING THIS! I don’t want to have to opt out of getting new software to download, if you want to offer new software, make me opt IN! Even Microsoft has stopped using this style of tactics recently, for Microsoft’s last Microsoft Update, they wanted me to download their Silverlight software, but it was offered in with a whole bunch of other downloads… the difference with Silverlight though, if I wanted to download it, I would have had to check the box to opt into the download.

Now, I have NO inclination to even TRY Safari! If Apple was a computer company with a larger market share, this type of tactic would get Apple in a LOT of trouble with anti-competitive tactics.

Thanks to All Things New for the above pic AND the similar feelings on the issue that I read after I wrote this, looking for a good photo to use for this post. Also, check out this HILARIOUS article from The Register, which maintains that Apple’s own Safari License Agreement does not allow you to legally install Safari on a non-Apple-labeled (ie: Windows) machine, when I read it, I made sure to read the Safari 3.1 for Windows License Agreement for myself and verified that this was STILL the case! I LOVE it!

Dany