My nephew and I have a long-distance postcard relationship. For a couple of years now he and I manage to see each other rarely but instead send each other postcard dispatches in which I will describe a cool attraction I visited and he will get excited about a local dish or delicacy from a vacation spot around the US. I travel a lot internationally so I have sent him postcards from places like Singapore and Paris, and even more obscure places like rural Massachusetts (the homemade pasta e fagiule soup at Il Forno in Fitchburg = to die for) and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This latter spot was memorable because in the middle of 98-degree summer heat, a woman who was missing a front tooth was selling Siberian Husky pups outside on her pick-up truck bed. $400 in cash and that precious pup could have come home with me in a bag on my flight back to SFO –ah, the things I regret in my travels. Read the rest of this entry »

When the iPhone/iPod Touch app store opened less than a month ago, it was greeted with mixed emotions: it brought with it the promise of increased security and quality, yet on the other hand forced app developers to adhere to Apple’s rigid standards, which may or may not diminish third-party, non-Apple creativity.

That said, it baffles the mind when something like I Am Rich passes Apple’s strict development standards and makes it into the app store for customers’ consideration.

A Business Expense?

The application, designed solely for the purpose of reminding you that “you were able to afford this”, is a ‘work of art’ according to the designer Armin Heinrich.

From the Apple Store:

For supporters of Apple’s app store and system, it begs the question, “did this one just slip through?” or Read the rest of this entry »

The Scenario:

You’re sitting at your desk, listening to some Katy Perry streaming in from your Yahoo! Music. The beat and mood are right, you’re into the groove and you’re making some serious progress on your project. Then you hear:

“DZZZZZSHT DIHHHT DU DIGHHHHT ZZZZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIT”

The GSM signal from your mobile device causes your computer speakers to emit devilish sounds, obliterating your mood as well as your music, sending you into a virtual frenzy in search of your cell so that you can toss it into the waste receptacle.

Ok, not quite that bad but annoying enough.

In scouring the net for a possible preventative measure, it appears this Read the rest of this entry »

Those who decide to take the plunge for the new 3G iphone on July 11th are in for a surprise.

In addition to the curious extension of the no-MMS policy (the current iPhone currently cannot send photos to another mobile device via MMS), iPhone owners will now have to pay extra to send ordinary text messages.

Provisions of the new data plan ($30) indicate that text messaging is no longer included in the already-exorbitantly priced, standard contract that is Read the rest of this entry »