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

Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? – The Guild

OK, anyone with any geek credibility already knows who Felicia Day is since she was on the last season of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, she starred in Dr. Horrible and she created and stars in The Guild. Now she and the cast of The Guild have produced a great geek oriented music video that feeds on the MMORPG theme that The Guild is based on.

Enjoy

Dany

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

Slumdog Millionaire Review

I saw Slumdog Millionaire on the advice of Lindsey the newly anointed movie buff. The movie was extremely entertaining and funny, but it will be a bit violent for some people. The people I went with were watching a few of the more violent scenes with hands over their faces to block out some of the harder to sit through torture and scenes of violence.

The story overall was entertaining, funny, sweet and uplifting though… and after hearing the M.I.A’s Paper Planes song all over NYC at EVERY single bar with a jukebox, hearing the song here in director Danny Boyle’s film was extremely surreal (video above). I thoroughly enjoyed this film where the Indian police are trying to figure out, using any means necessary,  how a slumdog could know enough to make it all the way to the final question in the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and why this slumdog wanted to win, and no, it isn’t just for all the rupees involved.

The only issue with this movie is that I feel the same way I did after I saw Boyle’s Trainspotting and Sunshine, I really enjoyed myself, but I knew I do not want to rewatch this film, the only one of his movies I’ve ever seen more than once is 28 Days Later… (watch the full movie here on Hulu) and after seeing both the long and short versions of that movie, I don’t feel like ever watching THAT movie again either, even though I liked that zombie movie as well.

The other problem I had though was with the movie theater I saw Slumdog Millionaire in. I saw the film in City Cinemas’ CC East 86th Street theater here in NYC and the official showtime was listed as 7:10pm and we had gotten to the theater early, but promptly at 7:10pm, the lights dimmed and the they proceeded to play 5 minutes of commercials before the actual movie previews started at 7:15pm. It would be fine if before the published movie start time, the theater was playing commercials, but once it’s showtime, the movies previews should be starting, not the commercials. I know that Roger Ebert has even complained of this same issue both here and here. Movie tickets are getting more and more expensive and we currently had to pay $12.50 per ticket here in Manhattan and we didn’t pay to see commercials start once we were expecting to watch the movie. I do not have a problem with movie previews starting at showtime, I consider the previews a key part of the movie-going experience in theaters, but NOT commercials!

So, after the film, I went and found the theater manager and politely complained about this, explaining that I enjoyed the movie, but didn’t appreciate having the commercials start when we should have started watching the previews at 7:10, she said she had no control over it, since the computers were preprogrammed to do this, but she gave me the name and phone number of the person in the main office to talk to about this.

I will call on Monday and will keep note of my progress with this issue. This used to be an issue at all the theater chains, but I know that AMC/Loews changed their policy of at one point showing 15 minutes of commercials after the published showtime, so now their listed showtime actually indicates when the previews begin.

Dany

Scariest TV Commercials to hit the Internet

Thanks to the Digg Reel (subscribe here), I’ve found me some scary tv commercials through Esquire… so scary, in fact, that they’re quite compelling and harder to turn away from than a car wreck on the side of the road.

Enjoy the drunk people the bad acting and the Schwarzenegger-esque accents.

Dany 

1970’s Chrysler Cordoba – Ricardo Montalban and Corinthian Leather

I could tie this article to the current financial crisis and the potential bailout of the big 3 US automakers (GM, Chrysler and Ford), but in reality, I just heard Leo Laporte and Dick DeBartolo talking about Ricardo Montalban and I just love this commercial for the Chrysler Cordoba, especially after finding out that the term Corinthian Leather really meant absolutely nothing while listening to episode 644 of the Daily Giz Wiz (subscribe here).

Enjoy the soothing style of Ricardo Montalbán.

Dany

Viral Video Chart

I’m always looking for the hottest, funniest and most prescient videos each week, well, after listening to Net@Nite (subscribe here) I gave ViralVideoChart (subscribe here) a look and since I found the site, I’ve seen all the videos people are talking about all on their front page, like Sarah Palin Pardoning a Turkey Interview, Cat Drives Roomba and the delightful ad created by the Guitar Hero folks: Bike Hero.

My favorite though, since I’m a huge geek is the Star Wars a capella Tribute to John Williams which was featured on that episode of Net@Nite along with the video’s creator: Corey Vidal (ApprenticeA).

Enjoy

Dany

Sarah Silverman’s The Great Schlep Gets Her Interviewed on Countdown with Keith Olbermann

I know I might have mentioned Sarah Silverman before (like here and here for example), but now she has not only gotten into the political scene by trying to convince grandchildren to head down to Florida to convince their grandparents to vote Obama in her The Great Schlep video, but she was interviewed on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann (subscribe to the video or audio podcast) during his October 9th, 2008 show where she was awesome.

As always, she lulls you into a false sense of security and nails you with a hilarious moment. Did I mention that she is amazing? If you want to see the full version of The Great Schlep, you can catch it below.

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

Why oh Why Goateesaver?!

OK, it has been a while since I wrote about stupid tech, but when the lovely Denise sent me this, I had to respond publicly.

After watching the video demo from Goatee Saver, I… I… I just can’t believe it has come to this. Do guys REALLY need to chomp on some ginormous contraption that brings us just that much closer to looking like Darth Vader while we shave!?!?!

Why couldn’t this have just remained vaporware?

Thanks to Gizmodo for the above pic.

Dany