Posts Tagged ‘Things I want very badly’

iPhone 4 Day

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Apple’s new iPhone 4 is being released today.

Think I’ll just wait until iPhone 5 comes out in 2011.

Bad Apple

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

Wow, I guess I’m glad that I don’t have an iPhone: “The Scary Truth About Your iPhone.”

Naw …. I still wish I did.

Mini vs. iPad

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Yes, I’d like a Apple iPad when they come out in 18 days. But I’m wary of being an early adopter, especially on new Apple products. You might remember when Apple cut the price of the iPhone by $200 two short months after it came out. Plus sometimes new products have bugs, especially when they’re as new and untested as the iPad.

So I’ve thought up a more economical use of my $500.

Well, theoretical $500.

Take a Refurbished Mac mini 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, which happens to sell for $499 – the same price as the current iPad. Add a $20 cable you can hook this up to your television: instant home entertainment system.


For the past 3 1/2 years we’ve used our 5.5th Generation iPod to play movies and TV shows to our TV (see iPod, TV and Me). That’s fine, and works quite well, but only holds 30 GB of entertainment. The Mac Mini has five times that, plus external hard drives.

Also it would be a hub for all of our music, which right now reside upstairs on a hard drive out of reach. Sadly our laptop has nowhere near the space needed. But with a Mac Mini we could play the songs over our network; all of our music would be at our fingertips anywhere in the house.

So while, yes, I’d like an iPad, I think the Mac Mini would work better for us in the short run. I know eventually we’ll have gobs of cash with which to buy all of the neat toys our hearts desire, but for now …

Cable TV Bundling

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Peter Kafka at All Things D has dug up a fantastic list – the wholesale prices that cable providers pay the broadcasters for each channel. Check out: “Hate Paying for Cable? Here’s Why.

SNL Kagan

Every so often my father and I get into a frustration match about the bundling of cable TV. This happens mostly before or during baseball season, as NESN isn’t “basic” cable – it’s on the more expensive pricing tier.

You know, because “basic” cable should cost $55 a month.

We want a la carte pricing – why pay for Fox News, truTV or the Style Network if we don’t watch it? I don’t buy magazines I don’t like to read, or food I don’t want to eat.

Of course, every commercial enterprise has their tricks and quirks, and long ago the cable industry made the brilliant move to bundle everything we want and don’t want together. Getting them to change that seems less-and-less likely as downloads and streaming video take over the web and the mega-corporate broadcasters have more frequent disputes with the mega-corporate subscription-television providers over transmission fees.

Also, as pricing sends a signal (i.e. you get what you pay for) broadcasters would probably want their channels to command a higher price. As the lower the price of the channel, more people would infer the channel is crummy and probably not sign up for it.

Oh well. I guess we can dream that someday Time-Warner will allow me to pay $4.06 for ESPN, $0.88 for Disney, $0.24 for MLB Network and a scant $0.14 for Comedy Central. That someday they’ll be hurting enough to get my $5.32 instead of the $55 that I’m not paying them today.

UPDATE: Just saw a New York Times article from Wednesday about cable-cord cutter who ditch their subscription-television provider and watch cable over the internet tubes, a rising number as cable bills rise. Check out: “Changing Channels, From Cable to the Web.”

iPad Ad

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Awwwww yeah:

April 3 is now “iPad Day”

Friday, March 5th, 2010

You might have seen this already: “iPad Available in US on April 3.”

Green-Eyed Josh

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Got an email from a former coworker yesterday telling me about another coworker’s new book.

At the bottom?

“Sent from my iPhone.”

I hate those words.

I was so jealous – not only of my author friend but also my iPhone-having friend – that I almost threw my back out.

It did throw me into a shitty, jealous mood all afternoon though.