Walmart TV

Just walking through Walmart… Can’t believe it but they installed flat screen TVs at every 4th isle. They run ads and short episodes of this cartoon family.

I can see where they can take this with RFID capable credit cards to personalize ads… Bit far fetched but who knows what the future will bring. Reminds me of that movie… Minority Report.

What was even funnier was the women on the PA reminding us there was “only 4 months remaining before the holiday season” … !?!

Missed Radiohead @ Amphitheatre, Toronto

My luck… Both Eddie Vedder and Radiohead were in town last week. Thanks to my concert budget, had to choose just one. Eddie’s unique solo gig was too tempting to pass up.

Hope I picked the right one…

… I think I did.

BTW… This was posted using the WordPress iPhone app. Slowly getting the hang of this keyboard. More on iPhone apps later.

Eddie Vedder @ Massey Hall, Toronto

My sister contacted me last minute yesterday asking if I wanted to go to the second of two Eddie Vedder shows at Massey Hall. Honestly, at first I thought, “Another PearlJam concert?” since I’ve attended a couple in the past and was growing tired of the rock concert scene. But I’m certainly glad I accepted the invitation and was rewarded with a more mature evening with the Grunge band frontman.

Though there was a small percentage of the crowd that was still in PearlJam mode and had to add their 2 cents between songs, the rest of the evening was a seated affair with mellow unplugged renditions of his solo material, covers, and even some PearlJam songs thrown in. Just Eddie + a guitar.

Not sure why people have the urge to shout out words in between songs. For example, when Eddie Vedder pulled out a mandolin for his next song, someone in the crowd had to shout out, “ukulele!”….ooook.

Overall, a great night! Massey Hall is the best place to watch a show. Might even convince me to go to another concert.

Funky Photo, Massey Hall Lounge before show:

Guess who owns an iPhone? First Impressions

I finally gave into the fad… and I must say… it’s SO PRETTY!

First impressions:

• Again.. it’s SO PRETTY! Apple media design team did an awesome job as usual. Glossy graphics, smooth transitions, nice!
• Touch screen is usable, though has some issues in responding to touch near corners
• Love having iPod and Phone in one.. one less gadget to carry around, though it’s slider makes it tougher to navigate through an audiobook.. especially back a few seconds to re-hear a sentence
• Lots of free apps to download and play with
• $30-6GB (Rogers) plan is practically equivalent to an unlimited plan for me – I’ve used it for 2 days and only managed to wrack up 15MB of usage. Mainly because it connects to my WiFi at home and work.
• GPS/Maps is annoying in that it doesn’t orient the map in the direction the device is pointed (ie. north is always the top of the screen)
• No Lotus Notes/Sametime app! argh! In fact no IM at all… strange when your target audience is mostly teens and young adults (and 30 somethings that love gadgets :)
• I connect my iPod to my aux jack in my car, so I though with my iPhone I can have a good handsfree system – sound comes out of my system, but people say sound quality is not good when I talk
• Touch screen keyboard – takes some getting use to. You won’t beat your BlackBerry friends in a typing race

Well, that’s it for my impression after 24 hours of use … watch for more feedback in future posts.