So Friday has come and left and all of you lucky iPhone 4 owners will get a shinny new bumper for your phone. But at what cost? Only affecting .55% of the people who have iPhones, the antenna problem is so minor that I wonder why they held the press conference at all. Apple has never come out and said, well, the Apple TV wasn’t so good, we will try harder next time and give you all an Apple sock! No. Never. But Apple’s cash cow the iPhone can’t fall into the realm of having even a slightly bad reputation. However, I was shocked by the way Steve Jobs presented it.

Blaming other phones for the same problem is essentially like stealing, and when caught saying “other people steal too.” It doesn’t really help fix the problem, it only points the blame at a wider range of people. “This is a challenge we as an industry have to face,” not so much. Sure people complain about this problem on other networks, and I guarantee you the biggest problem people go to customer service about is their service, however it has never been this big. What other companies have had article after article written about their phone antennas not working. The perplexity I see in this whole thing is, why couldn’t they have put that little “gap” where you lose signal if you touch it, on top of the phone? I never, EVER, hold the top of my phone when I’m using it, especially making a call. Just the placement of this gap could have avoided all of this trouble in the first place. You would also think that with those million dollar rooms that they would have figured this out before it left Apple HQ. Someone at Apple is going to get fired, besides the nerd who got drunk at a bar and left his iPhone unattended.

For all you iPhone 4 owners, your case is well deserved. You paid a lot of money for a phone, you deserved a case in the box anyway. To Apple, a company that is driven by addictive marketing, you are losing the sense of the company you were, and becoming the company you hate. Ironic, paradoxical, whatever you call it, Apple, through it’s business power, has strayed away from the underdog title, to becoming the jock in college everyone wanted to punch in the face.

The United Kingdom’s Ministry if Defence recently unveiled the next cover artwork for Journey’s Greatest Hits Compilation a new unmanned combat air vehicle. The droid jet is named after Taranis, the Celtic god of thunder after months of testing out names from famed author J.K. Rowling. You can read the specifics of the jet, here. But we are posting this just to give you a look-see.

Photos courtesy of AP

When it first came out Facebook was a private community of college students who used the technology to find new friends and keep in touch with old ones. Now, Facebook faces what MySpace came too. An overpopulation of add-ons, plug-ins, applications, and games, that have become less fun and productive and more time wasting and useless.

I bring this up today because Farmville is now advertising above 7-Eleven’s badly made sandwiches. Besides Farmville, Mafia Wars and YoVille are promoting itself at 7-Eleven as well, the more you buy the more free points you get in your game.  The obsession with these online social games is eating up people’s lives. Obama even commented on how companies are fighting for  every last minute of our day. It’s not enough we spend an hour a night planting crops on Farmville, they want me to buy the app while drinking a blue Slurpee.

The days are gone where kids go outside, to the pool, and swim away their summers. Now, kids spend hours inside playing games like Farmville that have little educational value. As an avid gamer and all around entertainment whore I do enjoy locking myself in a room for hours upon hours watching and playing games. However there is a key difference between Farmville and games, film or TV. The conflict, the characters, the storyline are all specifically artistic. The lighting in a film creates contextual meaning as does the violent nature of a videogame. Why does John Marson in Red Dead feel the need to go defend these people? Why does Captain Jack want to bang Miss Swann? And for fuck’s sake why does Macgrubber have a piece of celery up his ass?

Even playing Farmville is a waste of energy. I’d sooner advocate binge drinking than playing Farmville. Even video games are making you get up nowadays to create a sense of emersion. Microsoft’s Kinect or Wii or the Playstation Move are all new pieces of tech that are getting people up off their couches. You could even say we are using technology to revert back to a simpler times; where my parents told me to go dig a hole in the backyard with a toothbrush. Nowadays I can buy WiiDig where I can pay $50 for a game that simulates me digging a hole in my backyard. I may continue to spend hours watching all of Mad Men on my fancy TV, but at least in the end I will have learned about different characters, studied their psychology, and use their right and wrongdoings to better my own life. All of you people playing Farmville at work, at home, or on your iPhone, tell me… What the hell are you doing with your life? Move to Amish country, buy a tractor, and PLANT SOME REAL FOOD!

With this upgrade a huge population of home entertainment enthusiasts will have 3D capable players in September without buying any new equipment. That might be enough of a push for players and movie watchers to switch out their 50 inch LCD HDTV’s for a new 3D TV. My question is, what’s next?

4k- That’s what’s next. Did you think that HD was amazing? Well companies are now making their start on 4k projectors,cameras, and other various technology. Youtube announced that they will be showing off content in 4K now. Few theaters are even offering screenings of Toy Story 3 on expensive 4k theatrical projectors. This up on quality helps with the eye strain many people feel while watching 3D movies. 4k seems to be the solution to this problem, but will it lead to higher ticket prices, bigger budgets for films, and more fancy equipment you can buy for your living room? You bet your ass it will.

To put in in perspective 4k is around the equivalent to 4 Blu-Ray players at full quality (4 x 1080p = 4k or 4096×2160) The resolution is overwhelming when you think of it, but besides the comfort watching 3D is there a huge difference in clarity? Is it enough to drive up ticket sales? A family of four going to a major movie theater to see Despicable Me might spend close to $80 once they buy tickets, snacks, and drinks. Are we willing to pay more? And at home once everyone has a 3D HDTV what’s next? 4K, then 6K, then Special K. When will it end? It won’t. Apple is a brand that proves this time and time again. The iPhone, the iPad; with each one a swarm of followers continue to buy fancy technology before the rest of the population. It is even classified as a real addiction. “Technology Addiction” plagues the nation! Watch out, your living room is in danger!

In 5 years when we are all buying 4k TV’s and Pink Ray players the cycle of continual technological advancement for monetary gain in the entertainment industry will continue. We will continue to want the latest and greatest because it is ingrained in us to want the best, have the best, and show off to our buddies that their TV sucks in comparison.

“it is a 100% interactive way to feel the value of energy on your own . During the movement of feet, kinetic energy is collected to play music. The inverse dynamism of “Dancepants” motivates you to move your feet in order to hear your beloved music. And as long as you keep running or dancing you can be sure you won’t run out of battery.”

Ya know… if you’re overweight and love music, this could really help.

Source Here

T9Word works for a very select few people. But a new product from the company that brought you T9 has developed something that may help those that feel touch phone keyboards do not work for them either. The new program, Swype,  could completely change the way we type on touchscreen phones and is only available for Verizon’s new Samsung Omnia II smartphone.

TechCrunch explains, “the way you type with Swype is you literally swipe your finger from one letter to the next as fast as you can.

Check out a side by side showing in the video below.

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However, it doesn’t really work. A lot of the reviews on Apple’s website are negative or reduce the quality of the wind sped to simply blowing out a lighter. As one user put it: “…I can blow wind at about the speed of a gecko fart.”