The Pink Mac

Can you hear me now?

Funny story is making its way around the web today about Apple’s colossal FAIL over the iPhone 4’s antenna. I’m sure we have all seen the videos of people holding their iPhones in the “Death Grip” and watching their full 5 bars plummet down to a No Service. Well Apple has heard the complaints and has figured the solution to it: they were giving you too many bars of reception to begin with!!!

That’s right, when your iPhone says 5 bars, it actually doesn’t have that much reception! Apple’s calculations for reception display have been off this whole time. It showed too many bars when you really don’t have that much, so your spotty AT&T service seems to have just gotten worse. In an upcoming free software update they will fix the illusion of more bars and show you what you are really getting. Why is this being done? So the big drop of bars when holding the phone in the Death Grip doesn’t appear that dramatic. So now your reaction of: “5 bars to nothing holding it like this? What???” Will now, according to Apple’s dreams, will be like: “3 bars to nothing holding it like this? Oh that’s understandable…. maybe I should buy some iTunes gift cards”

Oh and in an attempt to trick you into thinking you have good reception they are making the 1, 2, and 3 bars bigger, “so they are easier to see”. Sure.

lifestyle The Pink Mac

What home phone?

It seems now more than ever that old technologies from not too long ago are being pushed completely out of the way. One dying technology I am interested in is that of the home phone. Only 10 years ago it was the only way for personal communication with anyone instantly in the world. But then cell phones became smaller, and the internet took off, so did e-mailing, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, texting, and I guess now- FaceTime. So many forms of instant communication we are now a forever connected society always on the go. It seems like everyone over the age of 8 now has their own cell phone and multiple social networking pages they check every minute so why bother with being tied down with a home phone?


I myself do not have a phone in my house that cannot fit in my pocket. When people ask me for a number to reach me at, I never worry that I don’t have a home phone for them to reach me at because I have a cell phone with me 24/7. Why even pay X dollars more a month for a home phone from your service provider? Is there any benefit to having a cell phone and a home phone? Just the cell phone works just fine, it has everything a home phone has – it can make and receive calls and record a voicemail. Done.

So the question we have to ask – is the home phone dead seems pretty obvious. Sure it will hold out for maybe a few more decades but eventually just as the last Pinto is rolled out, the last Cassette Tape is recorded, and the last VHS is boxed, the home phone will die out soon enough.

(Unless this is the home phone of the future – in which case, that’d be awesome.
Wait, Steve Jobs… did you travel Back to the Future to come up with FaceTime?)
lifestyle The Pink Mac

In Defense of Phone Books.

The above image has been surfing its way around the internet, and I just thought I would say a few words in defense of the big yellow book that arrives on our doorsteps. Although I agree that the world be a much better place if there weren’t so many phone books sitting around without use, they do have a time and a place.

One day, about 2 years ago, I had moved into a new apartment in a new city. Like most people in the middle of a move, I needed some take out as I was not about to try to cook with a kitchen full of boxes. I walk over to my laptop, open safari, and “Webpage not found” appears. I didn’t have internet installed at the new place yet and these were the days before my blackberry and the ability to tether my phone to the computer. I sat discouraged for a long time, wondering how did people find phone numbers to take out places before the internet? Then it hit me. The PHONE BOOK!
So you see, there are still times when the use of such analog methods is still required. Not to mention, old people still need phone books, and sometimes they come in handy as step stools or doorstops!
tech

Cousy’s Vid of the Week 6/18

As most of you that spend more than 3 seconds on the internet know, the web is a great place to find cool and funny videos of whatever your heart desires. The web as provided a great breeding ground for artists and comedians to share their work with the entire world. That’s why the Pink Mac wants to share with you some of our personal favorite videos we have found on the interwebs in the past 7 days.

I just realized that I missed a Vid of the Week post a few weeks ago! I don’t know how this happened as it is my favorite thing to blog about. Sorry if anyone’s lives were crushed about this and to make it up I bring you a record THREE videos for this week! Enjoy.

As a nerd who plays World of Warcraft this video made me crack up. Perfect parody of Run This Town by Jay-Z. To all the citizens of Azeroth: get pumped, grab your Mountain Dew, headset, and get ready to kill Arthas with this playing – this song is for you.

_________________________________________________________

Bonus Video of the Week!

OkGo is a popular band know not so much for their great songs, but rather their amazingly mind blowing music videos. From the Youtube viral hit – Here it Goes Again (The Treadmill Video), WTF, and both videos for This Too Shall Pass (2nd one here) OkGo has done new and exciting things with each song. So it’s no surprise that the video for the new song End Love is fantastic. Try not to make a big mess when your mind is blown.

__________________________________________________________

Bonus – Bonus Video of the Week!

I am a big fan of the Fully Sick Rapper and was pleased to see him share this video of a fellow sick rapper. Josh Sundquist lost his leg to cancer but that hasn’t slowed him down or stopped him from making a hilarious rap video.

lifestyle The Pink Mac

iPad Economics.

This morning as I was driving into work, a thought suddenly hit me. Does the success of the iPad mean the recession is truly over?

After all, we are talking about a product that has sold over 2 million units in its first 60 days of life; 1 every 3 seconds as Jobs himself told us at D8 and WWDC. Now, if you factor in the 2 iPad a person limit, at the minimum, we have 1+ million individuals purchasing a machine that costs at least $500 a unit in just 2 months, and demand for the product is only rising. Apple itself cannot produce iPads quick enough to satiate consumer demand, so I beg the question, are we out of the recession yet? I think we must be at this point. It’s either that or Apple has some secret recipe for success even in bad economic times. I guess both are possible. What do you think?

tech

No iPad for me!

So, I’m currently sitting on a Bolt Bus on the way home from NYC, totally devistated because there were no ipads at the 5th Avenue Apple store. I have concluded that I will just never get an ipad at this point, that is, until the 2nd gen model comes out and I preorder it like a sane person would!

tech The Pink Mac

Cousy’s Vid of the Week 6/11

As most of you that spend more than 3 seconds on the internet know, the web is a great place to find cool and funny videos of whatever your heart desires. The web as provided a great breeding ground for artists and comedians to share their work with the entire world. That’s why the Pink Mac wants to share with you some of our personal favorite videos we have found on the interwebs in the past 7 days.

No big intro here, just a video mocking the incompetence of BP. Enjoy.

The Pink Mac

Google Bans Microsoft Windows.

In a shocking blow for Microsoft, yesterday it was revealed that Google is now banning the use of Windows on office computers for security purposes. Apparently, Google believes that hackers in China were able to gain access to email accounts due to flaws in Windows security, and to prevent this from happening in the future have approved the use of Apple’s OS X and Linux OS only. Now, I realise this is only one company taking a drastic measure, but I have a feeling that this might cause a slight wave of change for some other tech companies as well. Google, after all, is a giant and if they have taken this step, to me the question is not who else will follow, but how soon?
{Image via Flickr}
tech The Pink Mac

Cousy’s Vid of the Week 5/28

As most of you that spend more than 3 seconds on the internet know, the web is a great place to find cool and funny videos of whatever your heart desires. The web as provided a great breeding ground for artists and comedians to share their work with the entire world. That’s why the Pink Mac wants to share with you some of our personal favorite videos we have found on the interwebs in the past 7 days.

Its a sad day in the Mac advertising world. The popular “Get a Mac” commecials, featuring John Hodges as the bumbling PC and Justin Long as the suave Mac, have finally ended. No longer will we hear the familiar “Hello, I’m a Mac” on our TV’s and computers as Apple has decided to move on. The ads have even been removed from Apple’s website. So this video is a tribute to some of the great laughs and lines this little mini-series has given us. Enjoy.


__________________________________________________________

Bonus Video of the Week!

In honor of both the end of the “Get a Mac” series and the end of the trip for the Pink Mac staff to Europe, I wanted to share with you all the British version of the “Get a Mac” series. That’s right, Justin Long and John Hodges were not the ones seen around the globe. In England the stars of the ads were from the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb. David Mitchell plays the failing PC and Robert Webb is the ever cool Mac. Most of the commercials were used with the exact same scripts for the US and UK versions, just different actors. However, some were changed to fit in with some of the local lingo and sayings – as extremely evident in this commercial. Again, enjoy!