Well, today’s my birthday. And to celebrate, I had to get up early to get Tim to the airport.  He’s out of town for work until Saturday – some training certification course – so it’s going to be me and … Continue reading →

Right now I’m not at my desk. I’m down by our huge, fancy-schmancy conference room manning the door for a video recording project we’re working on today.  So I cajoled the tech guys into letting me use a laptop for … Continue reading →

It’s amazing what 25 minutes of Pilates does to you.

For those of you who don’t know, Pilates focuses on your “core” muscles. Basically Pilates is a sit-up and/or crunch that never ends. Seriously, I was in this position for most of the 25 minute session:

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(because the new version of WP screws up my feed…grrr) Continue reading →

After Apple’s announcement for the iPhone* yesterday, there’s been a huge amount of complaining about it. Most of the complaints is that Apple didn’t utilize the touch-screen and widescreen display interface for the iPod. Other complaints were that it was “SO EXPENSIVE!!!!1!!one!”

Well, I’m here to address those complaints.

The iPhone is a product that was in development for over 2 years. It’s no secret – although they kept the details for the product under tight wraps – that Apple has been wanting to get into the cellular phone market for years now (the Motorola Roxr, anyone?).

And why not?

Without having any market or sales figures at hand, it’s a market that sells an exponentially higher number of units than any mp3 player market. It’s also no secret that Apple has been wanting to break into the Japanese markets too – and that market is crazy about cell phones.

Secondly, even if they make a tiny dent in the cellular market – that will translate into dollars. Dollars that can be sunk into new products – and UPGRADED products.

Speaking of upgrading products – that’s exactly what they will do with the iPod if this phone is a success. They’re not going to mess around with the cash cow that is the iPod by radically changing a tried and true (and successful!) interface with a yet-to-be-proven interface and operating system. They’re going to use the iPhone as the Guinea Pig for all the bugs, glitches and tweaks that a brand new system like this will most assuredly have and once they perfect it, it will translate to the rest of their products. The iPod will get the touch-screen, wide aspect ratio display, the Front Row remote will most likely get some of the touch-screen elements in order to make the new Apple TV a more robust and more competitive product. The possibilities are endless. But first, they need to make sure it works before they go ape-shit crazy changing everything.

Unless you want them to go out of business by making stupid fucking decisions.

In regards to it being so expensive, have you looked at the prices of other smart phones? Just looking on Cingular’s website, I found the following three smartphones (because really, that’s what the iPhone is) that are the most comparable to the iPhone:

* Blackberry Pearl – $399
* Samsung Black Jack – $449
* Palm Treo 750 – $649

All products in the range of the $499-599 iPhone. Nevermind the fact that the iPhone will run circles around all those products.

“But BlogKitten,” you cry, “nobody pays full price for those products on Cingular’s website!”

True – and they won’t with the iPhone either. Sure, you can buy it outright for $499. But you can also get the phone with a 2-year plan with Cingular and only pay $299 for the phone.

So tell me, how is it any more expensive than a Palm Treo 750? Especially since you also get a good sized mp3 player with it? Seriously – I just went from a 4G 20GB iPod to a 2G 4GB Nano and I don’t notice the difference. Instead of carrying around 18GB of music around that I never listen to I now carry around 3.5GB of music I rarely listen to. What’s the difference? In this case, size does NOT matter.

Also, I think that people are making the mistake of comparing the price of the iPhone – which is really more like a Treo than a Razr – to a regular phone. Of course it’s going to be much more expensive than a regular phone. But that’s not what it is. It’s way more than that.

Chill out, you detractors. Take a deep breath. The touch screen “wide” iPod video will be here soon. You can quote me on that.

* * * * *

* – Seriously, have you been under a rock the past 24 hours? No explanation for you! Two weeks! Continue reading →

After reading the live updates about MacWorld, I have a few thoughts: Firstly, the iPhone looks hot.  Seriously hot.  Blogkitten Trifecta of Hunky Actors hot.  I will most likely still get the Cherry Blossom Razr – but my Apple stock … Continue reading →