Update 2.2 promises some nice things for the iPhone user. The first thing that I noticed was Safari was a little different. The address and search bar are on the same line similar to how Safari looks on my computer.

The next thing I really noticed was the Maps App. Now when you go to look up directions, you can get walking directions (very handy when walking through the city. I could have used this last year). You can also get mass transit schedule/directions which I find very cool. I just did a test from work back to my apartment and showed me where to get the bus, where I would transfer, and when where the destination will take me along with times for the next available bus and I can also see the schedule for the rest of the day. Again, I imagine this would be really awesome in the city.

Another great thing that I look forward to playing with later is the ability to download podcasts right on the phone. I enjoy a podcast or two, but I am not one that syncs my phone everyday, and as a result, I end up with a lot of podcasts not being enjoyed. However, now that I can download them right to my phone, I may find myself listening to podcasts while driving everywhere. I can’t wait to test this out in the car. Now I’m off to find a good Podcast…

For full details on the update, visit Apple.com

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In the 1920s, Macy’s Department store started what is now a Thanksgiving day tradition. Houses across the US tune in two watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, even if it’s just on in the background while the family begins its Turkey Preparations. The parade has come to symbolize the celebration of family, and the subliminal message of holiday shopping. Well, maybe not too subliminal since the parade is the “Macy’s” Thanksgiving Day Parade, and goes by their big store in NYC. And at the end of the Parade, Santa comes riding in on his sleigh to remind us all that after today when the stores reopen tomorrow, that the Christmas shopping season has begun.

In the world of retail, seasons and holidays always seem to come months before the event. As soon as Halloween was over, Christmas decorations and merchandise were already going up. For people like my sister who watch their shopping budget, the shopping begins before the leaves even turn colors. Until recently, I used to wait until the week before Christmas to do all my shopping. But I guess when you are single and don’t have a lot of people to shop for, it makes more sense. Now, even I contemplate the early shopping. But no matter how early the Christmas season seems to start every year, there is one day that will never move, BLACK FRIDAY.

However, this year I have noticed something new. Maybe it’s been there for a while and I’m just noticing it now, or maybe stores are trying to build the hype. This year I have noticed reports of Black Friday ads being leaked from places like Circuit City, Radio Shack and Best Buy. And with the economy the way that it is, some stores (Circuit City) are hanging on by a thread, and Black Friday is just the ticket to pull them out. Now, I am no longer averse to going to the store on Black Friday (or stay at home and shop online), but there is no way I am getting up early to go to the store on my day off. In fact, getting me to the store before lunch would be a miracle. But the real question is, what is it about Black Friday that will make people get out of bed at 3 AM when they normally groan about getting up at 6 or 7 Am for their job, go out in the cold of night when they hate the cold, stand in a line and then encounter this…

For what, so save $50 on a toy, or a DVD player? Yes, I like to save money, and love finding great deals on products (especially electronics) but nothing would make me get up this early for a piece of plastic with some wires in it. Further more, events like this betray the Christmas spirit and the whole reason we came to the store in the first place. We aren’t out shopping for ourselves (or at least we shouldn’t be) we are out shopping for the people in our lives that mean something. And we are there to get them a gift that shows them that we care about and cherish them. But when I look around and see that Black Friday is only about the consumer in us, then I have to say that it, more than other holiday, is the most American. It is the capitalist holiday that wants us to get out of our warm beds, dress for a snow storm, kiss our loved ones good-bye, and head out for battle against our neighbors for the last 42″ LCD that we are buying for our kids bedroom that doesn’t even have a wall big enough to put the TV on.

In this last week leading up to Black Friday, slow your role, and think about it before you head out. Wouldn’t you rather sleep in and have a nice breakfast with the family and enjoy the day off. And then, if you really want to take advantage of the sales, go out after lunch when all the crazy people have gone home. Sure, it will still be crowded, and maybe the stock pile has gone down somewhat, but there will still be things to buy, and sales to be had. Happy Shopping Everyone!

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One of our partners, Champs Sports, has already sent us their Black Friday Special: More to come soon!

Recycle

There are many things that we use every day that many of use just throw away, even though they can be recycled. The ironic part is that some products that we don’t recycle are ones that we are consuming to try and be healthy. I’m of course talking about water bottles. Bottled water has become huge in the past couple of years, and so has its impact on the environment. From the web site AllAboutWater.org:

According to a 2001 report of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), roughly 1.5 million tons of plastic are expended in the bottling of 89 billion liters of water each year.

That was in 2001, I can only imagine that the number has grown. Some companies are redesigning their bottles to use less plastic, but they are still using mind-blowing amounts of bottles. And what do I see all the time? People just throwing them in the garbage. At least soda bottles have the chance that someone is going to dig them out of the trash for the money, but not water bottles. Listen here people, drinking water is a great idea and is healthy, but let’s keep the planet healthy has well. At home, but your water bottles in the recycling bin, and at work, do the same thing. Encourage your friends and co-workers as well. And you can also try to stop buying bottled water. Go out and by a water bottle and a filter system. This saves production energy and waste material.

But wait, there are more than just plastic bottles to be recycled. In fact, every town that has a recycling program has a list of material that you can but in your plastic bin. Cans, bottles, newspapers, magazines, cardboard… well, these are the basics, but each town is different and they are always expanding, so be sure to check it out on a regular basis. I would recommend that once a year you should see what materials your town recycles. But wait, there is even more than what can go in that bin, and should definitely NOT go in the garbage. Things like batteries and electronics should not be thrown in your garbage. Instead, you can find places that will take these items. Many computer companies like Dell will actually take away your old computer for recycling when you buy a new one for a low fee. Some electronics and office stores will take your batteries, which if thrown in the landfill will leak their acid and then that will end up back in our drinking water. And if you are in a small office, there are companies that will come and pick up your electronic waste.

Of course, all the recycling in the world doesn’t mean anything if you don’t start supporting recycled products. Consider purchasing recycled paper for your printer and your kids school note books. In the home purchase paper goods made from recycled paper products. In our house we have started using toilet paper made from recycled material from Seventh Generation. Consider for a second that when you buy toilet paper, you are buying a product made from trees that were cut down with the sole purpose of wiping your but. Think about that for a minute… Now doesn’t it seem silly to have a product made from trees to just wipe your but and then go down the drain? Instead, but Seventh Generation toilet paper, and at least the toilet paper was a newspaper, or someone’s college essay before it wiped your but.

Even though it may have been a buzz word in school growing up, today it is becoming a serious business. Recycling isn’t just good for the environment, but it’s also good for the economy. An entire industry has been created around recycling and there are several others that now depend on recycled goods. Please don’t let recycling stop, but help to make it grow. The resources on this planet are limited and we need to take care of good old mother earth.

This is where Boxee comes in. Still in it’s Alpha testing phase (that is before beta testing), Boxee is a replacement for the Front Row software found on most new Macintosh Computers. It allows you to do many of the same things, browse your content, stream it over the network, watch it on your computer, etc… They even have a version to install onto Apple TV, which will add itself as a menu item on your Apple TV menu. What sets Boxee apart from Front Row aside from its GUI, is that its latest update has added the ability to stream from the internet many popular streaming sources, such as CBS, Comedy Central, CNN, NBC, YouTube, Flickr, and my favorite, HULU. You could go to all of these sites on your own, and watch the various shows, but now they have been gathered together in one convenient program that will currently allow you to watch them on your Mac or Apple TV. Not a fan of Apple? Don’t worry, they are coming out with a PC version very soon.

The real question is, could you ditch your cable company for an internet streaming medium? Well, it depends on what you are watching. If you like to watch live news and sports, or some of the things you watch aren’t streamed on these sites, than chances are you aren’t there. However, if you are a person who barely watches TV, or only watches a handfull of shows, and you rather watch them when you have the time, then this could be the move for you. Your major cost will be your media box, whether it be an Apple TV (purchased from eBay), or a Mac Mini, and in the future, a mini PC. You can load this software on, and be up and running in no time (as long as you have a good connection to the Internet).

The current downside I see with this technology is that you are going to plug in this box that is streaming Internet Flash video into your nice big HDTV. The quality may not be what you are looking for. Then again, it is still in Alpha stage, they could be adding the option so that you are able to stream the High Quality version of the video. On the other hand, if you are in college, or only have a small TV, or may just want to watch TV in your bed room on your Lappy, while laying in bed, this could be the answer for you, and save you a bundle on cable costs every month.

Please note: because this is still in the Alpha test phase, it is not available for wide spread download just yet. You have to sign up and they may or may not send you a download link and allow to create an account.

AAVR Podcast - 10/28/2008

Now go and relieve your childhood memories of when MTV didn’t totally suck.

Green is the new black. Well, maybe not the new black, but it sure is the new word you hear everywhere. People are talking about going green, companies are trying to save the planet, and hippies telling everyone else “I’ve been recycling my toilet water for 30 years, where have the rest of you been?” But whether you have been living an eco-friendly life style since you realized using hemp was good for mother earth, or you are gleefully saying the heck with it and filling up the gas tank of your H2, I am going to share my helpful tips on how to Go Green. This is will be the first part in a several part series, and for now, we are going to keep it simple.

In the past couple of months going green has started to become an obsession for me. And it hasn’t helped that Discovery launched a new TV channel called Planet Green. I love to daydream about the things I would do with solar and wind power, geo-thermal heating, etc. if I had the money. Living in my apartment, there isn’t much I can do in a place I don’t own and on a budget. Wait one second, that is where most people go wrong. Most of us look at big solar arrays and expensive projects and then get depressed we can’t afford it; instead of taking small steps we just give up. But fear not my eco-conscious friend, there are a lot of things that you can do in your home that will cost you little or no money to do, and in fact you won’t just save the planet’s green, you will save some of your own over time.

Simple things to change around the house with electricity

Before we get into alternate forms of energy, let’s first change how we use the energy in our own home. The first place to start is the brightest thing in your home, your light bulbs. Anyone who has tried to change a light bulb right after it has burned out will tell you that it’s hot, and that’s because a lot of the energy that is used to heat the element inside and create the light is wasted as heat energy. All of that heat is just wasted electricity. The smart thing to do is to replace your old light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Lights, or CFLs. These use less electricity to produce the same about of light. Now I know what you are thinking, because I thought it too, you would love to change all of your lights but that would cost a lot of money to do in one shot. Well that’s true, it would cost a lot of money, and on top of that you would be throwing out light bulbs that still work. That isn’t very green. Instead have a plan like I use. Buy a 4 pack of CFLs, and as your lights burn out, replace them with the CFL. It may actually take a couple of years to replace all the bulbs in your house, but you will spread the cost of the CFLs over time, and you will start to see reduction in your energy bill.

Another waster of electricity is everything that we have plugged in. Today, many of us have a cell phone, a laptop, a desktop, couple TVs, cable boxes, video game systems… All of these suck power even when they aren’t turned on. Don’t believe me? Go and touch your cell phone charger while it’s plugged in and you’re not charging your phone. You might surprised to find that it’s warm. It’s warm because it is converting AC in DC even when you aren’t charging. Your TV and cable boxes are always on standby so that when you use the remote, it turns on right away. Ways to start saving electricity and money: invest in some power strips, and start plugging in all the things that don’t need to be on all the time into them. For instance, with your entertainment center. Plug in your TV, DVD/VCR, Game Console, and home stereo into the strip. When you aren’t using it, flick the strip off, and start saving that money. I didn’t say cable box because many of us now have DVRs, and you want those to record your shows when you aren’t there, so you need those to stay on. If you feel like getting fancy, companies are making power strips that have always on plugs, and switchable plugs, that way you can plug everything into it, and only shut off the items that you want to.

Today, I want to conclude with one more though about electricity. I started off by bringing up alternative energy sources, and then was depressed that I can’t afford them. Well, that isn’t 100% true. I can’t afford to buy them and put them on my house, but I can choose to get my power from them, and I bet you can too. Next time you get your electric bill, see if they have info in there about choosing your energy provider. In many states, it is the law that your electric company has to give you the choice of choosing where you get your electricity from. So even though I am an United Illuminating customer, and they will continue to be my point for problems with my electricity, I have made the choice to get my electricity from wind, solar, and hydro sources. It only cost on average $5 - $10 more a month, but will save the planet years of life.

Check back soon where I will be talking about recycling - how you can recycle, and how you can use the products made from your recycled materials.

We have come to know President Bush as kind of a cowboy figure from Crawford, Texas. Well, this isn’t true of course. He was born in Connecticut, and later moved to Texas. Before his run for his first in the White House began, he moved to this sleepy little town, and that is where the movie “Crawford” picks up.

In the recent years documentaries seem as though they all have to be one sided, trying to drive home some kind of point. “Crawford”, by David Modigliani, is a breath of fresh air in that sense because it is not trying to drive home an agenda, it is not pro-Bush or anti-Bush. In fact, if it’s pro anything, it’s pro Crawford, Texas. The movie starts and ends with the same person on the screen, an older man who is walking into the town domino hall to play with a couple of friends. The camera stays and watches these senior citizens enjoy the game, and each others company, and answer the questions that are asked of camera by the director, who we never see and only hear once at the very end of the film when he asks a question to merely clarify who the on camera person is talking about.

The film was clearly planned long before this economic crisis, before the war in Iraq, before 9/11 and before Bush was even the president. It shows the good foresight of a good filmmaker who wanted to start following a person early on to see what might happen, and it turns out the foresight paid off. In the beginning moments of this film, we meet Misti Turbeville, and high school History teacher, who points out how Bush moved to Crawford shortly before announcing he was going to run for office to create an image of himself as being from a small town. We later find that many people in the town think Misti is filling the heads on the students with nonsense, and one person even called her a communist. Of course, the man who called her a communist also called CNN a bunch of communists.

One of Misti’s students appears in the film when he was part of the band that played at the first inauguration. Tom Warlick, had of course grown up in Crawford, and didn’t know the opinions of those beyond his town’s borders, and in the clip of him when he was a child he said that he now “feels like a part of the political process.” When the film catches up to today, Tom is sitting in his house talking about his experience when he made the trip to Washington D.C., and saw the protestors there. And then he started talking to them, and he said they made sense to him. He is perhaps one of the few people that change from pro-Bush to anti-Bush in a drastic way throughout the film.

Before Bush moved to town, the economy was slow, and many of the stores on Main Street where closed down. After the arrival of Bush, and his election to the Presidency of the United States, the film shows that the economy began to boom due to tourists. But along with those tourists came the protestors that came to town every time Bush was in town. This is when people in the town began to become annoyed with all the attention. One high school student mentions how she just wants to be able to drive down her own street. But when Bush leaves town, so do the circus of protestors and camera crews alike. And near the end of the film we see that main street is slowing down again as protestors are hurting the pro Bush businesses that sprung up, and one can only imagine that with a decline in popularity, that tourists traveling to the area has also decreased.

The film ends with those old men playing dominos and talking about the high school teacher. She decided to leave town to raise her kids elsewhere, and the old men make comments like “she always kept life looking nice around here” and then he continues “I’ve never seen Bush pick up no trash around here” and they all chuckle. Another makes mention about how well Bush cuts cedar, and another remarks “he cuts real well when the cameras are on”, clearly mocking the fact that Bush is claiming to be a rancher like them.

As a documentary, I think this was a great film. Even though I was watching for it, and trying to figure out where the film maker stood on the issues, I found no bias in this film. It was a fair portrayal of all sides of the story. There were no images used to evoke emotion. The only time the film used any kind of dramatic influence was when they had to talk about how one of the residents if the town, who is in the film, died. Clearly the film maker did not intend for this to happen, but it needed to be dealt with in an appropriate way, and I believe that he did just that.

I give this film Two Thumbs up and recommend that you watch it. And don’t worry about going and having to rent it, because you an watch for free on Hulu.com.

AAVR Podcast - 10/13/2008