Lesson Learned

Okay I learned my lesson.  I will not tag my blog with the words “Blackberry” or “iPhone” anymore.  I got 30 new comments and all were spam.  Thanks Internet!

-Mike

thought I was popular there

iBerry?

According to the interwebz my Motorola RAZR V3xx l-m-n-o-p cell phone has a little quark.  When the SMS inbox reaches a certain point (around the 400-ish mark) it changes all SMS messages to MMS.  This weird little glitch is the final nail in the coffin for this phone.  I have been toying with getting a new phone for a while now and now it just became a necessity.  I have seen an uptick in my texting (hence the inbox glitch) and I really want a full QWERTY keyboard.  This pressing the “2″ key three times to get the letter “C” is for the birds!

And from there it snowballs.  A really web browser would be really nice.  My RAZR has what AT&T calls web access, but it’s bull!  A camera would be nice, but no phone has a good camera.  So I back to where I started before.  I’m not changing carriers.  I’ll agree that AT&T is one step above the spawn of Satan, but better the devil you know.  Over all, I have been pretty pleased with their service (unlike Nextel).

The Blackberry Curve or the iPhone are my two front runners.  The iPhone has been getting a lot of flack and I’m not above jumping on the Apple Hate Wagon, but the Curve has it’s issues too.  The big thing that was holding me back in the Data plans.  From what I can tell each one requires a $30 a month data plan and that doesn’t include text messages.  WTF?  Are those bytes different?  The whole thing screams rip off to me.

I hate the idea, but I need to look into this more.  Ugh.

-Mike

run around

Netflix looks into Crystal Ball, likes what it sees

The times, they are a changing.  Think about, it all started back in the age of Napster.  College kids across the world would download their music for free with reckless abandon.  Then came the crack down.  TheRIAA put a stop to that fun (or so they wish).  Now the intertubz are bigger and badder.  Music is kid stuff, movies and video is where it’s at.  P2P is the new public enemy #1.  At least to theRIAA, news flash RIAA you’re losing…bad!  Now one would hope that the Movie Industry and the other Video Content Makers would learn a lesson from theRIAA.

That lesson:
You either live by the web or die by the web.

These newer tech companies see that.  Netflix, Hulu, and Youtube get it!  But the industry they are partnered with doesn’t.  Partnerships and syndication agreements muddy these waters way too much.  Here’s another lesson:  Make it easy, or risk losing…everything.

Here’s what I mean by that.  As a consumer, I enjoy visual media.  I have certain TV shows I watch and movie I want to see.  Good old fashion TV is great. DVR’s have made missing shows a thing of the past.  But these cost money.  Currently I don’t have one.  It’s a luxury I simply can’t afford.  But wait, theInternet has become more of a necessity then a luxury.  I can do a lot more with an Internet connection then I can with DVR.  Now I can get my content in a couple of ways.  I can hit up Hulu for the last episode of Life that I missed because I was in class.  I can go to Netflix and watch the entire series of The A-Team when I feel nostalgic.

What we are seeing is a paradigm shift in the way people get the things they want.  Now some of these companies are scared.  They should be.  They need to evolve with the times.  If people can’t get the content they want, they’ll find a way.  I don’t advocate theft here.  I buy my music and rent myDVD’s (or stream).  But what I have run into is best described at kind of a bait and switch.  One minute I can get something and the next I can’t.  Why?  I wish I knew for sure, but I can tell you this.  If I can’t get it from the that source, I know I can get it else where.  They may not like it, but that is the fact of the matter.  I could watch the last episode of Chuck on Surf the Channel for free with no adds if I wanted to, but I go toHulu.  I like it.  It works.

Netflix is looking into a strait streaming rate plan.  I’m sure they saw it coming, they had to.  It only makes sense.  They just need the content creators to get on board.  The NBC’s and HBO’s of the world could make this work for them.  Get this, the easier they make it for the consumer the more money they’ll make.  Trust me, that is going to win this for who ever does it better.  My gut is telling me that 2009 is going to see more changes then just ones promised by our President.  So gofigure this out guys.  Oh yeah, monthly subscription fees are a bad idea too.

-Mike

now we play the waiting game

Realy?! Who’s Reality?

Believe it or not, I’m just old enough to remember some of the first Real Worlds and Road Rules that hit the cable tv back in the day.  You might remember those.  Back when they really had to work for their money for things like gas for the RV, and food.  Today “Reality TV” can be as far away from reality then anyone can go.  Honestly, when was the last time you got sent to a desert island with Dave Mira to win a Saturn?

Like professional wrestling, this too is fake.  Sure, it might be kinda real, but for the most part it is fake.  There, I said it.  Live with it.  I stopped watching these shows about the time they started to jump sharks.  But it most make people money and now there’s a web site to soically network with people looking to make it big (as if anyone has) in Reality TV.  I wish I could make it stop, but I feel powerless.  IF you’re the type that is longing to get on a basic cable reality show that air at 10pm on every third Tuesday, hey this is the site for you (I think).  But if you like me, you go there just to make yourself feel better.  Yes, I perfectly happy not being reduced to an exaggerated stereotype for others enjoyment.

-Mike

I’m so drunk!

Redesign

I know websites will redesign from time to time.  So when it happens I often reserve judgment and give myself time to let it sink in.  Facebook took a lot of heat for their redesign a while back, and rather then jump on the “I hate Facebook” bandwagon (it was full by the way), I gave it time.   Now that it has been a while I can safely say, I dislike it.  Nothing seems to be in the place one would logically think it would be.  I have a hard time trying to distinguish where info is and is not.  My unfiltered thought is that someone vomited the internet on my screen.  Sorry Facebook, your design is FAIL.

 

-Mike

 

Nothing personal