To Fly. To Serve

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Last year, British Airways released a truly amazing commercial titled "To Fly.  To Serve." Recognizing the sacrifice the early pioneers in aviation made in mapping the skies, it brings to light what us pilots still bear; the truth in leaving their families at home waiting for their return. I can't stop thinking about it ever since I first saw the ad and wanted to share with you the commercial that still gives me goosebumps every time I watch it.  It makes me proud to be a commercial airline pilot and yes, there are days that I need a reminder.  Maybe someday, the prestige will come back, but until then, we have amazing CGI and story telling to keep us at bay.  What are your thoughts on the advertisement?

RE: Techmeme Redesign

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Throughout the day, I find myself on my iPhone, MacBook Air or on whatever device with the first instinct to pull up Techmeme.  It has become my go to for tech news replacing almost everything else in the last year helping me navigate the junk around the web.  Today, they launch a redesign of their website and I'll be up front.  The margin for the main body stinks.  It's no longer my home page and I refuse to visit it now on my laptop's browser.  Count me in as a mobile reader only. This is their new design.

This is the old design layout where they compare it side by side with Drudge Report but if you take a look, there is far more room for the headlines rather than the "sponsored posts."  Also, if you take a look at Mediagazer (their sister site), they have yet to implement the new look.  Which design do you prefer?

Push Pop Press' First Release: Our Choice by Al Gore

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A coupe of months ago, adellelijah posted an article dubbing Push Pop Press as the creator of the next digital book. After months of development and available for purchase ($4.99 on iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch), Push Pop Press has released it's first full featured iPad book / application called "Our Choice" by non other than Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Academy Award Winner and past Vice-President Al Gore. Also known for his full featured film, An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore has "conveniently" teamed up with Push Pop Press to present to us new groundbreaking studies, insights and solutions to our current worldwide dilemma. Not only has this app / book been fun to browse and navigate but it takes learning to a whole new level. Providing interactive graphics, entertaining animations and even lending his voice for various narratives, Al Gore reaches out to us showing us really what Push Pop Press can do. The information itself, we'll just call it fluff material for showing off the awesomeness that Push Pop Press can deliver but that's just my opinion. There's really great stuff in there no doubt, but I can't wait to see more books that take full advantage of this technology. What I really can't wait and see are textbooks that fully take advantage of this amazing publisher or action books or who knows...pick your own story types from years ago!

Al Gore's Our Choice Guided Tour from Push Pop Press on Vimeo.

Here's a TED Talk that features Push Pop Press presenting the book. It's quite amazing!

Push Pop Press TED Talk from Push Pop Press on Vimeo.

Kickstarter: Vere Sandal Company, USA - 2011 Collection

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If you aren't familiar with the idea behind "Kickstarter," get to know them. Behind every good idea, project and dream is the need of funding. With the help of ordinary citizens such as yourselves, you can be your own "Angel Investor" and make these dreams come true. I'm proud to put forth that we have supported two successful funded projects which are just now being shipping and will have pictures and reviews of both. The two were C-Loop - Camera Strap Mount Solution and the now very famous TikTok+LunaTik Multi-Touch Watch Kits. If you want in, you can jump in on this next project whether or not you are thinking about buying a pair of sandals. I mean, why not support these guys and pick up a $25 pair. If you leather, go for the $50 backer! You might just ended up saving a little money and helping a company do it the American way! They are cheaper than most of the elitest brands out there such as Rainbows (which are now made in China rather than San Clemente, CA and even have a good sense of patriotism. Support 'em just as we have at adellelijah. =)

Another “V” Day for History

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Did you take a vacation right after New Year’s and miss out on all the CES news?   If you did, don't worry about it.  However, the biggest news to break out from Las Vegas was nothing that was introduced at the world famous convention but instead trumped its very existence.  More specifically, on Friday afternoon, privileged members of the tech press core, minus one naughty iPhone 4 prototype buying blog, received invitations for a special event in New York with Verizon serving as their host.   A matter of fact, Verizon even held their usual unveiling of products at their CES Press event but completely stayed away from the words iPhone or Apple saving it for a separate day. Insiders privy to this announcement have already drawn conclusions that it will mark the day that Verizon will introduce their version of Apple’s fourth generation iPhone.  Over the last few days, other tidbits have risen about the event.  From data plans said to be remaining “unlimited” at $29.99 a per device combating AT&T recent introduction of tiered data plans and further speculation of what models and whether or not Steve Jobs will show up are floating all over the internet.

Causing various controversy, ranging from Gizmodo’s ban from future Apple press events to the now famous Antennagate scandal, this device is marked to be a breath of fresh air for the iPhone 4.  Not only with the placement of the external antenna but most importantly the capability to take advantage of a network that has yet to experience the deluge of iPhone users and their hormongering data habits.

Questions range from mobile voice and data pricing plans, to Early Termination Fee costs, will the new iPhone have LTE capabilities or come equipped with the standard 3G CDMA technology, will it be capable of simultaneous voice and data and is there something special accompanying the set date of January 11, 2011?  I mean, we've also already read around that the iPhone 4 won't be for sale until the end of the month, so why now?

We’ll all know for sure in less than 12 hours so stay tuned for a summary of today’s exciting event right here on adellelijah.com.

Migrating from AT&T to Verizon? What it'll take...

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To start, it just so happens that Adelle had her iPhone 4 ripped off from her while walking through the Atlanta Airport. Since then, she has reverted back to a hand me down / kindly donated Blackberry Curve suffering various withdrawls from using an aged handheld. It hasn't been pretty and it hurts me to see her not be able to play Words with Friends or check Facebook and Twitter every moment she gets. Being a "valued customer," AT&T is offering us the lower price of $399 to replace the stolen iPhone the stolen iPhone 4 but I keep on coercing her to wait until Verizon's unveiling. Hesitantly, she has agreed and now the question comes to, "Will it be worth it...what it will take and why?" Back in July, when AT&T and Apple announced the iPhone 4, many owners of the Apple iPhone 3G found themselves at a crossroad. Do I upgrade to Apple's new God phone and deal with the crappy service for 2 more years praying that it will improve or just wait till next year when Verizon and Apple announce they've copulated. I made the decision to just dive in and stick it out because honestly, the iPhone 3G experience was just getting to be awful, irritating and frustrating. Buying everything in twos, one for me and one for my significant other, I bought two new iPhone 4s online, renewed our awesome unlimited data contract which by the way still costs an arm and a leg, sold the previous models at a price that paid off the upgrade and have been feeling good ever since. Win-win right?

The experience with the phone was tremendously better but the overall network experience was still (is) lacking. With the looming prospect of a better network, I set out thinking of the economic costs. Currently, we both have unlimited data plans under AT&T which is worth the figurative bird in the hand. If I were to terminate in next February (that's about 8 months proration at $13.54/mo = $108 from the $325 gets me to about $217 for each contract), I'm guessing I can sell my iPhone 4 32GB for around $400 canceling the ETF and then I'm out of pocket another $199 x 2 plus whatever Verizon offers on their plans. Simple math, not much of a hassle and I'd assume that I'd be happier on the new network.

But what will it take? If Verizon has an unlimited data plan for iPhones, I'm in. If they are somewhat more affordable / cheaper and unlimited...I'm in. Shoot, if they pay my ETF, I'm in. I'm willing to forgo the crappy AT&T service and will even help others switch, scouts honors, but for now, we haven't seen any changes or any kind of caving in from the big V. Instead, all we have seen is their continued arrogance in being the the best and now the Rules the Airwaves Campaign? Pure crap I say. Trust me. No Droid phone or campaign you have released has wanted me to change. Its all been for naught when trying to lure others away.

If Verizon wants to capitalize on this earthquake announcement and take in the massive tsunami wave of customers who are eagerly willing to sign away their lives and wallets for two years, they can take advantage of it but the time is NOW! If I was a shareholder, I'd be bothering Mr. CEO and texting him non-stop. The bottom line is, by offering something that current unhappy AT&T iPhone customers want, we will migrate! SO DO IT ALREADY!

Just my usual rant, but hey, I'm just saying. Happy weekend!