JASON MARSHALL JOHNSON: November 2007 Archives
On Monday (dubbed the Day of Liberation) I turned 20. This was the first time in a number of years that my Birthday fell during a school day due to the proximity of Thanksgiving, so my wonderful parents decided to celebrate with me a few days early.
On Saturday morning, they called me down to open a huge box which, short story shorter, was filled mostly with bubble wrap, tissue paper and an iPhone. Needless to say, I was in a state of disbelief when I opened the package. After some very odd proceedings at an AT&T store (post coming soon) I was able to activate my iPhone without a hitch.
This brings me to my short review of the device. In the 6 days that I have used it, I have to say it is easily the best device I have ever used. The Google Maps integration (and now GPS-like technology), iChat-esk Texting, integrated camera, and Mail.app use highlight the elegance of the phone. Even the EDGE Network can't sour my delight over this as Safari renders most pages in seconds.
But what is my favorite part of having an iPhone? This one was easy, it has to be the 2 earbud calling system which lets me make calls without having the phone up to my ear. The greatest part is when passers by stare at you, seemingly talking to yourself while listening to an iPod. Not going to lie, I have purposely made calls downtown just to see the reaction (and facial expressions) of people who see me doing this, only to watch their jaws drop when I pull out the iPhone to end the call.
Strike up the Band! On Monday, the Daily Collegian reported that Penn State will be giving our Favorite Cisco VPN the boot as part of PSU Wireless 2.0. I had heard rumblings of this about 3 months ago, but I wanted to hold my tongue because of the sensitive nature of the topic (and the fact that I had no evidence aside from conversation/speculation).
Allow me to start off by saying "Bravo Penn State", thank you for finally seeing the light. Obviously, I attribute my favorite Facebook Group and the 46 Heros members as being the catalyst of the change. In all seriousness, this is a long overdue and much welcomed change. With UMPCs, iPhones/iTouches, and countless Wifi enabled Cell Phones coming out or already on the market, Students, Faculty and Staff should be able to enjoy wireless freedom at (at least) University Park soon.
A few days ago, Apple released its first ad for the iPod Touch. This one was created by a student, nice to see that Apple is reaching out to the Users for commercial advertising, who better?
Now to the point of this post, the Touch ad uses the same music (courtesy of Ms. Kelly Clarkson CSS) as a very strange Microsoft ad touting the Zune, released last year. All I have to say is "Are you Kidding Me?" kind of like our good friend Kevin from NBC's The Office.
Apple iPod Touch
Versus
Microsoft Zune
Are You Kidding Me? I will take Safari over Wireless Sending any day, especially if a Lion tries to eat my arm after sending me a song that I can listen to for a limited amount of time before I have to purchase it.
*Update* So apparently I am an idiot. I assumed that the iPod Touch search (beginning of the ad) was for Kelly Clarkson because she was the one singing on the commercial. Dumb me, the group is actually called CSS and Kelly is certainly not a member. CSS (Cansei de Ser Sexy) is an independent group out of Brazil who is making a good bit of noise in the music world. And no, I do not wish they would change their name to the Cascading Style Sheets.
