iPhone Predictions

I hope everyone has been having a good Thanksgiving break! I've enjoyed it, aside from UT's loss, of course. But hey, your team can't always be one of the best in the nation, and we're still not out of the running for the Big 12 Championship, per se, since as of the time of this post OU is still playing Oklahoma State. Anyway, I felt like talking about the iPhone today, as cheap a topic as it is, so deal with it if you're one of those people who despises the possibility of an iPod phone. We have too much evidence to back up its announcement to just call it weak speculation, at this point. I like Mac 360's predictions for what will be inside the iPhone because they're so realistic. The bottom line is that this could do what no mp3 phone has been able to achieve thus far: complete integration. It can synch up with iTunes, iPhoto, and iCal (and probably Outlook), which is software a Mac user already has from when they first buy their machine. People love simplicity, and that's what made iPods fly off shelves. I don't think people should complain that this will replace any of the iPod models though, because it doesn't make sense that it would. The most far-fetched prediction is probably the inclusion of a camera, but since so many other phones are cameraphones Apple may suffer from lack of one, especially since it could encode videos with Quicktime. They've already achieved a great form factor with the Nano, so we know that they could fit an 8GB iPod into a cell phone. The biggest issue is really whether or not they'll be able to handle efficient power management. They've had a lot of experience with this, so I think we should give them a chance here. Personally, I just want to see them shake up the cell phone market.

Just one more thing here about Apple: their market shares have hit yet another all-time high at $91.63. That's almost double what it was back in July, which I'd consider pretty impressive investor confidence. I haven't seen much of this myself, but one blogger claims to be seeing Google's blog search being integrated with its normal search results, which I think is pretty neat. They already do that for possible Google Local and Google News matches, why not for blogs? Also, Google seems to be throwing some punches at Microsoft about open standards and the growth of interest in information and applications being hosted online. Microsoft has been striking back claiming that online applications will merely become integrated with PC-installed software and that proprietary software is better choice for "mission critical" situations. I think I like what both sides are saying because they make very good points, and I'd say that this level of competition is exciting purely because it's encouraging such different viewpoints to flourish. Lastly, I don't know the details (I guess no one really does though), but Nintendo Europe has confirmed a DS mp3 player. It sounds like this is just like a booster pack of sorts for the DS rather than a new iteration of the DS, and then you'll use SD memory to store your media on. I'd say that it's a pretty good idea to continue to lock out the PSP from the handheld market and attract back the people who would like their handheld gaming device to play other multimedia as well.



Virtually nothing has happened in the world of movies. The long-rumored return of the Revenge of the Nerds was squashed due to a very risque script that the studios weren't comfortable with. The only other thing is some clips from Spider-man 3 that were aired on Fox. They don't reveal much that the trailers haven't already, so don't get too excited about it or anything, but I'm too much of a Spider-man fan to not plug them. Oh, I just ordered the Spider-man Deluxe Edition DVD set so I look forward to re watching the first two movies in the very near future. I hope that disc 3 has some good special features, and I'll naturally let you guys know once I've checked them out.

I might as well give the Saturday Six a go:

1. Take the quiz: What was your Thanksgiving horoscope?

Thanksgiving Horoscope for Libra

You're the sign most likely to upstage the host or hostess with your charm. Your signature dish: Green bean casserole Your signature dessert: Chocolate cake This holiday: Make plans early and stick to them. It's easy for you to change your mind.

What's Your Thanksgiving Horoscope?

2. Did you have either of those two dishes on your Thanksgiving table? Of the two, which would have been your choice?
There were some green beans (not in casserole form), but the chocolate cake probably would've been my choice had I been forced to choose.

3. Which single food do you blame most for your weight gain?
Just dessert in general (pies, trifles, and cheesecake).

4. Take the quiz: How thankful are you?

You Are 75% Thankful

You are a very thankful person - for both the big and little things in life. Your optimism is powerful. Getting through hard times is fairly easy for you.

How Thankful Are You?

5. Which are you more thankful for: your family, your friends, your career or your possessions?
That's pretty hard. I'm going to go with my career because I'm grateful to have figured out what I want to do in life and that it's such a broad career track. There's so much to do in computer science and a lot of those jobs are a lot of fun.

6. Did you do any shopping at all on "Black Friday?"
Nope. I was thinking of it, but I had gone to bed at 2AM on Thursday night and had the A&M game at 11AM (went way the Hell out to Barker-Cypress to watch it with some family and some of my brother/sister-in-law's friends), so I decided to just sleep in. Not enough great deals to make it worthwhile.