Ahhh, if you grew up in the 80s and early-90s, you may have visited Showbiz Pizza Place. Oh man, that was a place where a kid could be a kid.
If one thing about Showbiz Pizza stuck out, it was definitely the stage show with the animatronics… they were called the “Rock-Afire Explosion.” I don’t remember the music, but I definitely remember the stage set-up…
Well, you have to leave it to a crazed fan to actually bring the band back. I’m not sure exactly when Showbiz Pizza fazed out this act, but my guess it would be around the time they re-branded the stores to the now famous, “Chuck E. Cheese” brand. But some fans are bringing back the Rock-Afire Explosion in their basements, having bought the stage shows, they are now bringing them back to life and they’re singing some of our favorite contemporary songs. Check out this one featuring Usher with “Love in this Club.”
Wow, how awesome/weird is that? Ha ha! If you’re feeling a nostalgic trip right now there are a few websites you can check out. The first one is about a guy that is making a movie about the Rock-Afire Explosion, rockafiremovie.com. Right now it looks like it’s being released in Texas and I’m hoping it comes to DVD soon.
The next site you’ll want to check out is showbizpizza.com. It’ll tell you the history of the Showbiz franchise and perhaps spark some memories for you. Well, I guess if I’m going to leave you with anything, it will have to be one of those famous Showbiz Pizza commercials we all saw during Saturday morning cartoons. Enjoy!
For those of you who don’t know, iPhone received a significant update last week that allows the user to download various applications.
This is pretty cool because up until then, iPhone users were left using “web apps” that relied on the internet to work. With the phone’s slow connection, the process wasn’t the greatest solution.
With Apple releasing a 3G (with GPS) version of its phone, it means more capabilities, including location-based services. I updated my phone on July 11th, so I’ve had a over a week to play around with it and experiment with different apps. The following are some of the apps that I use and find useful. Some of them can still be improved upon, but it’s a great start.
Facebook
COST: Free
Verdict: Needs work
I was originally excited about this application, since I am a heavy Facebook user. Unfortunately it’s not as good as its web counterpart at iphone.facebook.com. The good news is that Facebook can always improve on this. My personal complaints are: the inability to view photo albums, inability to write on people’s walls, inbox doesn’t display full messages. I’m sure there are more “quirks” that bother me, but I’d say that those are the biggest ones. Facebook has promised to fix up the application in future updates… let’s hope so.
Pandora
COST: Free
Verdict: Nice
Since I’m still using the first generation of the iPhone, I haven’t played with this app too much. But using it on Wifi, I was extremely impressed. For those of you that don’t know, Pandora is a project that takes what you like and finds similar music. So if I like Coldplay, I can tell Pandora that and it will find music that is similar in style to Coldplay.
So far, the Pandora app has shown itself to be one of the more popular apps on the iPhone.
Remote
COST: Free
Verdict: Nice
I LOVE this app. When using iTunes on my wireless network, I am able to connect my phone to iTunes and control iTunes from anywhere within range of my wireless network.
This comes especially handy when cooking in the kitchen and not having to walk into the room and switch up the songs. If you’re used to the iPod Touch interface, you’ll feel comfortable controlling iTunes using this app.
Day Bank
COST: $3.99
Verdict: Very Good
I used to carry a small notebook in my laptop bag to record my debit card transactions… not anymore! Now I record the transaction and throw the reciept away!
I am hoping that they’ll eventually build some budget functionality into the program so I can keep track of my bi-weekly budget.
AOL Instant Messenger
COST: Free
Verdict: Very Good
The AIM app works pretty good, I’m not a heavy AIM user anymore. But I would definitely use this app more if it could “push” notifications to my phone. For those of you that don’t know, some phones have to login and check for new notifications (pull). But with “push,” the server “pushes” the new notifications to you right away. In the case of AIM, I could leave AIM running and would only have to open the program when someone sends me an IM.
Loopt
COST: Free
Verdict: Great potential
My friend J.D. got me using Loopt. If you remember those cell phone commercials back in the day, “Where you at dog?” This application is the perfect answer to that. When you log into Loopt, it finds your location and puts it on a map. So in essence, it’s like a status message with your location.
For example, J.D. hit up Perkins last night for 99 cent pie night. If I wanted, I could join him, since it shows his location on the map. It’s just one of the many features of Loopt that I have yet to explore, but it’s definitely worth a look!
UrbanSpoon
COST: Free
Verdict: Pretty Good
Looking for a place to eat? UrbanSpoon is a great way to find a place to eat. It can locate your position or you can tell it what area you want it to look into. Basically the program works like a slot machine. You shake the phone and it finds a restaurant for you.
Of course, you can “lock” certain things. So let’s say I wanted an “Italian” restaurant in “Palo Alto”, I could lock “Italian” and “Palo Alto” and shake the device and it will find an Italian restaurant close by in Palo Alto. Has great potential!
WeatherBug
COST: Free
Verdict: I like it!
I’m a weather buff. And when driving up to Michigan last week I ran into a storm. It was tremendously helpful to load up this program, have it find the nearest city, and show me the radar.
It could be more traveler-friendly though. I would love it if I could tell it to locate me and find the nearest radar for me. Right now you have to have it locate you, then the user selects the nearest weather station, and then has to add it to their list. It’s a pain! Especially since it only allows the user to save three locations.
But overall it’s a great application and a must-have.
Shopper
COST: $4.99
Verdict: Makes shopping easier
I’m a nerd, as you can tell by this list. I had been making groceries using a to-do service called “Remember the Milk.” However, the online app for Remember the Milk was slow on edge and a native app has yet to be developed for iPhone.
So for grocery shopping, I have downloaded Shopper. It’s extremely easy to add products to the list and you can customize it… adding products and categories. I’m loving it so far.
Shazam
COST: Free
Verdict: Insanely awesome
Have you ever heard on a song on the radio and wondered, “what song am I listening to?”
With Shazam, it answers that question.
All you have to do is click on the “Tag Now” button while the music is playing, Shazam will listen to the song and send the data to their servers and the song you’re listening to will show up on your iPhone! Here’s a video:
Ahhh, the iPhone 3G is coming July 11th which wraps up months and months of speculation. Will it have GPS? Will it have Exchange support? How much will it cost?
Answers were given today as Steve Jobs spoke at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC). Perhaps one of the biggest stories out of the conference is the price cut from $399 down to $199, making it a more appealing option to smart phone owners.
As time continues, we are seeing the iPhone mature into a more capable device: Exchange support, GPS, third-party applications, 3G data, “push” technologies for those not using Microsoft Exchange.
Yet people still aren’t happy… and here’s why. Over the development of the smart phone, we have been used to a “PC” way of thinking. Most smart phones are designed for geeks, by geeks. Need a keyboard? Just slap it onto the front of the device. Need more storage? Have an ugly SD Card slot on the side. Need to navigate through the phone? Up until the iPhone, no smart phone has had a great user interface (UI).
Now before I get called an Apple fanboy, let me state that I only own an iPod and an iPhone. I have played around with an iMac at work, but do not use it on a regular basis. What I do what to emphasize for the “geeks” out there is a different way of thinking. The problem with most smart phones today is that they’re not designed elegantly. In the consumer electronics market, there has to be both elegance in design and usability.
It is my belief that Apple is trying to achieve both. The problem is that we’ve been used to the way a Blackberry or a Palm is designed, that we fail to think “outside the box.” Is the iPhone perfect? No. It is still missing some features that others find important: multi-media messaging (MMS), cut-and-paste, physical keyboard, the ability to shoot video.
Both MMS and cut-and-paste are all things that can be integrated in later into the software. Why Apple hasn’t included these is anyone’s guess. Having a physical keyboard takes away from the elegance of the iPhone design… but to those who would like to carry around a foldable keyboard, it would make sense for Apple to add support for Bluetooth keyboards. And as for video… in today’s world of HD, why would you want some low-quality footage that sucks up battery life?
I understand that many people want an “All-In-One” device, but this simply cannot be achieved at this period of time because of two things: storage constraints and the most important thing, battery life. The main purpose of any phone is to make and receive calls! And if we are unable to do those two things because we’re sucking the battery life because of these “novelties,” then the smart phone really hasn’t done its job.
I view a smart phone as a communications device. If it can send/receive calls, text messages, e-mails, and access the web… I would deem that a good device. Everything else: GPS, cameras, video cameras, games, MP3 players… those are all non-essential things. While they do add great value to a device, if the smart phone can’t do essential tasks for communications, then the smart phone has failed to do its job.
Having said all that, I’m glad that the Apple iPhone has gone down in price and is now more affordable. I think that the iPhone… as well as other smart phones are evolving and will continue to get better as storage and battery life are greatly improved. So don’t get too upset if the iPhone 3G doesn’t have the features you crave, it is a constantly evolving product and I look forward to seeing what Apple and other companies have up their sleeves.
So this week has not exactly gone as planned for me, hence the lack of posts on here.
It seems that for me, when it rains, it pours. Our web server at Grace has been “compromised” meaning that someone illegally accessed it and has been using it for malicious purposes. Think of it as getting a nasty virus on your computer that you just can’t get rid of.
We’ve been pretty lucky over the past few months to have the server running fairly stable… until this past week. Which brings me to today.
I came home early yesterday because I wasn’t feeling well and was planning on doing some work from home, until I saw that my internet wasn’t working. So I called Bright House and they told me that they would get someone out there by Sunday. Not a huge deal, I thought… I’d just go over to my Dad’s house and use his internet connection. WELL, we had some pretty strong storms pass through on Friday night which knocked out my Dad’s cable connection… NICE.
So now I feel an insurmountable pressure to move the site off of the infected server and onto a backup server. This requires some work, which isn’t too hard, but it’s something I haven’t had to do before. So where do I find internet? Not at work, because the network is too slow… across the parking lot at Tim’s. I’m hoping to get a lot of my work done in a couple of hours and then finish up tomorrow.
Overall, I have been stressed and trying my hardest to relax (which is what I was TRYING to do this weekend before heading back to work on Monday). But instead, I’m working.
I’m very thankful for the job I have, for my apartment, the people I work with, my friends and my family. I just hope that the rest of the summer can be somewhat of an enjoyment… let’s pray that happens before I lose my mind.
Back in 1995, long before Facebook and MySpace, a site called Classmates.com popped up… it was one of the first “social networking” sites. Sure, places existed on the internet to connect (chat rooms, message boards, reunion sites), but Classmates.com made it easy.I signed up for Classmates.com around the year 2000 before I graduated college. Since I didn’t have Facebook or MySpace, it was a great way to see what my friends were up to, unfortunately, to see any real information or make contact, you have to pay. Unfortunately, Classmates.com hasn’t evolved with the times. I am now more connected to my friends in Facebook than I am in Classmates.com.If you look through Facebook, you may notice that the Class of 2001 going forward to today are heavy users of Facebook, while the pre-2001 classes don’t typically have Facebook because it wasn’t around when they were in college (or they were one of the select schools to be on the Facebook platform prior to 2001).
As we look toward the future of the internet, the classmates.com model of having a subscription-based service just isn’t feasible. As soon as new competitors come out with free ad-supported services, they will see a drop in subscribers as those of us who are part of the MySpace/Facebook boom don’t typically have Classmates.com on our radars.
So why am I writing a blog about this out-dated service that I no longer use? Because even though I signed up in 2000, I am starting to get e-mails again from this ancient company. They even claim that I have people writing me or viewing my profile, although from reports I’ve read on the internet, a lot of those are SPAM. There’s not even a way to check to see if it’s SPAM or not unless you sign up for a subscription… WHICH, Classmates.com is notoriously known for automatically renewing your membership and making it hard to cancel.
Kiel’s advice, stay away from Classmates.com. If you’re in the class of 2001, your best bet is to get hooked up with Facebook, which is now open to everyone. If you’re pre-2001, you may have luck with Facebook and possibly better luck with MySpace.
So I’m feeling brave now, I’m going to login to Classmates.com and say hasta la vista baby!
For those of you who don’t know, iPhone received a significant update last week that allows the user to download various applications.
