I know everyone has already given their two cents about the new Macbook Air, but I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon as well. When I first saw the ad, my first reaction was basic combination of "No Way!" and "You gotta be kidding me!". But as I took a closer look, I started to notice how stripped down this thing actually is. No Ethernet, no built-in CD ROM, and no exchangeable battery. "But it's so damn sexy," you say. Yeah, that may be true, but how functional do you think it can actually be?
I still use CDs for many things, and I'm sure a lot of other people do too. The external CD ROM just wouldn't cut it for me.
No Ethernet? I have a Computer Engineering degree and I still have trouble with my wireless network. Until wireless internet can actually prove itself to be as stable as wired internet, I will not settle.
The battery on my Dell laptop only lasted about 1.5 years before I had to replace it. I guess this is not really a deal-breaker though.
But regardless, the Macbook Air will still sell millions of units. It's just interesting, and somewhat humorous, that Apple is starting to define what good technology actually is. When they release a product, Steve Jobs tells you that's how it should be designed, and then people listen. Just look at the iPhone. Because of it's ridiculous demand, Apple is probably the first company in history to boss around the telecom industry. Company's are bending over backwards to accommodate for it's bandwidth-whoring needs. Apple has still not given Rogers Wireless permission to sell the phone, because they don't have an unlimited data plan yet.
Before I digress, that is all I really have to say about the Macbook Air. I will leave you with 2 videos. The first is the Macbook Air commercial. The second is the real reason I'm writing this post. It's a parody of the Air commercial, highlighting the "basic" functionality of a Sony Vaio that the Air doesn't have... enjoy :P
About 4 months ago, a friend introduced me to Scrabulous, the online version of Scrabble for Facebook. Reluctant to except his invitation, I eventually succumbed to the peer-pressure, mostly just to see what all the hype was about. Now, writing this post, I can officially say that I am addicted to this bloody thing... but that's not such a bad thing, is it? The way I see it, this game is constantly building my vocabulary, and I'm honestly learning new words everyday. I've never run to the dictionary this much! Just check out this screen shot of a game I played recently against an unnamed opponent:
Never in my life could I fathom that I was capable of playing such a game. So when Hasbro threatened the Scrabulous creators to take down their application because of copyright infringement, I jumped onto the Save Scrabulous Facebook Group. If anything, this application has exposed Scrabble to such a larger (untapped) market. Many people, including me, never even owned a Scrabble board until this application came out. So, if anything, Hasbro should be paying these guys for free marketing! Ideally, the two parties will reach some sort of agreement. I think a viable solution would be to brand Scrabulous with the Hasbro logo... maybe as an offical sponsor or something. I agree the game needs to be tied back to the original creator some how, but taking it down will not help either party. I guess I'll just have to wait and see :S
Let me finish off with the Scrabulous Song (below). I found it absolutely hilarious how much I could relate to this :P
