Archive for the ‘ Web & Technology ’ Category
I don’t think Toy Story 3 needed help to be a top trending topic on Twitter, but apparently it pays to insure that it is:
Promoted Twitter Trend Topic - Toy Story 3
I had assumed an advertising model was going to run through eventually, but I hadn’t thought about promoted trending topics. Makes sense. I wonder if it costs more to also include #toystory3 hashtag as a bonus?
-cct
Everything x 3
The “summer blockbuster” seems less applicable to the movies and more to electronics lately. With the announcement (and pre-order craze) of the iPhone 4 and more information/demos/hype for the PS3 Move and Xbox Kinect coming out of E3 – you’d think that there would be some more creativity a-buzz with taglines.
Nope.
Perhaps it’s just naturally the way electronics are supposed to be innovative – the next best thing, the coolest new feature – but apparently the catchphrase is that everything not only includes all that, but is bordering on revolutionary, or maybe, evolutionary is a better word.
Maybe it’s true. Maybe it’s not. But bonus points to the Xbox 360 Kinect for thinking outside of the box…so to speak!
-cct
After reading the letter on Gizmodo from Damian of OK Go, I have decided to do a post where I embed this video. Major labels and corporations have this tenuous relationship with social media – clamoring for its attention while simultaneously doing crap-like things that dissuade the consumer from telling others what they like. Read the letter and learn about how you can’t embed YouTube videos. I’m a big fan of OK Go – one of the best concerts I’ve ever had in my life featured them. It was at a rinky-dink dive bar in Hollywood where they ran down to the floor and did a live recording. So here’s their latest song – This Too Shall Pass.
OK Go – This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.
-cct
My internet light was not included for awhile (okay...this picture is from 1995, but you get the dramatic idea!).
For over an hour I tackled my lack of internet, this after basking in everything being so easily set up just a couple of days before. Problem was I knew what was wrong, I just didn’t know exactly how to “find the doors” to fix them.
For the foundation of things, I was using my modem/router from my previous residence – that was obviously set up with the previous residence’s settings. This is fine when it involves things like the router and wireless connectivity of the computers – in fact that was perfect. But there’s this thing called modem settings and having the right username/password.
In my backhanded way I was able to figure out how to make a username/password (AT&T did not prep me for this at all!). But then after this was figured out, I had no idea where I was supposed to go add this information on the modem/router. What happened to ease of graphic user interfaces? That lovely bit of “fill this in” “click next” “click finish”.
And yes, I tried calling tech support – haunted by the red light of internet death on my modem – but after some failed attempts and re-routing, it just didn’t feel like it was meant to be. Aside from that – as my latest tweet professes – “you know what’s wrong & what you need to do, you just don’t know how to get there.”
But after some experimentation with the router settings, I was able to find the elusive username/password location and voila! Green light!
Green means go? Well – I am blogging this on my internet (non-stolen variety anyway!).
-cct
iphone 3gs from Flickr - ntr23
When Apple announced the iPhone 3GS earlier this month, along with the ooh’s and ahh’s were some hefty fees for AT&T’s bevy of current iPhone 3G users if they wanted to upgrade. While LA Times Tech Blog recently reported that ‘AT&T Relents on iPhone 3GS upgrade pricing‘, the situation itself reveals that the iPhone has changed expectations and is waiting for things to catch up.
Trolling through some online articles, I caught many comments left by those who felt that the “irate” iPhone user was being grouchy over nothing. Legitimately, the iPhone user signed a contract and AT&T was providing the circumstances to get out of that contract and into a new one, i.e. a costly fee. While the above is true, it’s a perspective bounded by the understandings of a traditional cellular phone plan. The problem fundamentally becomes that the iPhone isn’t a traditional cellular phone. Ironically, the iPhone is only marginally seen as just a phone.
Don’t get me wrong, the phone aspect is definitely more useful than my Tap Tap Revenge 2 Application, but the reality is that the opportunity to have a decent phone and make phone calls isn’t why a customer purchases an iPhone in the first place. It’s that desire to have a mobile online device at one’s fingertips. With the recent roll-out of the iPhone 3.0 software, I’m reminded that no one talks excitedly about how many minutes are in their plan or how much their data component is a month. We’re happy that we can copy-and-paste (while having better calendar synching, more applications, and landscape typing)!
In all honestly, I’m not riding from the wave of a desirous early adopter. I have an original Edge-network phone and am swayed not to get a 3GS because of the additional monthly cost (not swayed for now anyway…). As an electronics-minded consumer, I understand the extra cost is to change to a different internet network with better options. In the case of 3G to 3GS, from the iPhone user’s general perspective, the desire to purchase a 3GS is simply a matter of getting a better device – like paying for a new computer. No one demands that the person who buys a new computer has to upgrade their internet connection type too.
In a world of twitter and facebook, where people can geocode their location to upload photos on the go and in the moment, there’s still a technical divide – of old ways of thinking that don’t fall in line with changing/shifting expectations. And there always will be this divide, but at Round 3 for the iPhone, it’s a little sad to see – even if they answered to the bedlam…eventually.
-cct
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