Media Junkie

L

I'm slightly obsessive compulsive at times. Like most people, I am attached at the hip to my mobile device and have been chastised by My Guy, My Kids and my mom about tuning out while zoning out on my cell. A self admitted news junkie, after completing my latest update on my operating system I was pleased to find a new "News" ap that I did not have before. After close inspection I have decided that this is the greatest thing ever! A news ap that I can tailor to all my favorite news feeds! Who knew? I certainly didn't and now that I have this beauty at the touch of my finger tip I'm unstoppable. 

CNN, Huff Post, Fox News, Buzz Feed, The New York Times, ESPN and many, many more. All just for me and whenever I want. This doesn't sound like a problem, does it? But it is. The problem is that I find that I am no longer alone with my thoughts as frequently as I should be. If I find myself with a spare moment, I am at my newsfeed scrolling voraciously for anything that sparks my interest. Good for everyday news but bad for the brain which doesn't leave much time to decompress. Yet I can't stop scrolling. Obsessive? Maybe. Or possibly I'm just someone who craves knowledge. 

Take for example yesterday's NFL games. I am competing in a football pool with 19 other people for money. Since the pool has started I have consistently been in the top ten, but yesterday? I really stepped it up. After a 2.5 hour session yesterday morning, researching and carefully making my picks, I submitted my choices a few hours before the deadline. Not feeling very confident, I decided NOT to obsess over the stupid pool and go about my business. I thought a workout would be just the thing to get my mind off football and I began my workout-mobile device in hand. It is my music device after all, so it had to be with me. It wasn't long before the ESPN ap was front and center with the live game day feed right in front of my face. There I was, working out, listening to my playlist, watching 2 games on my phone. Of course that continued for the rest of the day while I had the TV, NFL Red Zone and my IPad and IPhone all live to the games I had chosen. Seriously, I never missed a down on any of the games and My Guy joked that he has created a monster. He just may be right. 

When I'm working it's not an issue, and when I'm chilling out-the TV is my best friend, but you can bet during commercial breaks the phone is in my hand and engaging my attention.  I know how to relax and I know when it's time to put the phone down, but the lure of the information that I may be missing is sometimes too much. Am I hopeless? I'm not sure, but yesterday certainly didn't help me to come to that decision. I went 5-0 on all my football pics and am currently in 3rd place in the pool. Doesn't look like I will be unplugging any time soon. 

When Did The Flip Phones Flip Flop?

So lately I've been binge watching "Breaking Bad" on Netflix. It's quite possibly my favorite TV series of all time, but I've noticed a curious fact while watching.

Everyone on the show has a flip phone...

So I thought about this for a second and I realized that not only do they have flip phones on this show but NO ONE texts each other. In fact, I am currently on the very last season of the 5 season blockbuster and so far there has been only one text message read in context to the plot and it was on Season 5 circa 2013. I then looked back at the air dates of each of the seasons and I started to understand the flip phone thing a bit better. The Pilot episode first aired in January 2008 and the series then progresses over the next 5 years to it's final episode that aired on Sept 29th 2013. The iPhone didn't launch till 2007 and it revolutionized the mobile device industry over the next few years.                    

So then I got to thinking...where are the "smart phones"on the show? Where are the iPhones and why aren't the cast constantly checking their emails and Facebook updates on their phones during the episodes? Why are they not texting each other incessantly like we all do now? I had to think about it. Not even in the later episodes dating 2011 and later, does the phone become a central part of the plot?

When did the "smart phone" revolution start? There's no question that we are now a mobile device driven society. Do you check your email on you cell phone? Do you use a social media site on your cell phone? If you answered yes to both of those questions then you are a living, breathing adult that functions in the world today. Even my dad, just this morning, texted me something important. So much a part of our everyday society today that 48% of all online sales come from a mobile device.

So I gotta ask again? When exactly did the smart phone revolution take over?

I've Got The Music In Me

I have made it no secret in the seven years I have been writing this blog that I suck at music. There is even a category in the archives of The Daily Dandy that states just that, "I suck at music" with two posts to date. To say that is a bit overstated may be more accurate, but by calling myself out with the generalization I mean that I have never really been much of a music collector through the years. Even in my prime teen music listening years, I was happier listening to the radio than collecting albums. Then Apple and Steve Jobs changed the way the world listened to and purchased music, yet I still seemed content listening to my radio.

I listen to music all day. I listen to the radio on my way to work and all day in my store. At the store I listen to Pandora and can tailor my music tastes to suit the environment, but in my car I am at the mercy of the radio station of my choosing. Yes, I have an iPod and yes, I have a bit of music I have bought in these "iTunes" recent years. I even know what a playlist is but I never really had much of a need to create one. Really.

Well that all changed on Saturday night.

After a fab dinner with 5 of my favorite people, on the ride home in our Uber car, we got stuck in over an hour of unusually heavy traffic. One of my friends asked the driver if he had an AUX cord to which he obliged. She plugged in her phone and we listened to her playlist on her phone. I explained to her that I wasn't sure how all that "worked" with the phone and she explained it to me quickly.

A light went off.

Of course I knew how this worked! I had bought music sporadically here and there on my phone, but I never had really organized it or realized the power I held in the palm of my hand. I started organizing and setting my previously purchased music into playlists! "I don't suck at this!", I thought to myself and I immediately wanted more. I then downloaded the app Shazam and began purchasing songs I liked in the iTunes Store. When the traffic had ended and I was safely encsconsed at home I had already purchased 63 songs.

A monster has been created and I LOVE it! As of today I have purchased over 100 songs and find that during down times I am shuffling and organizing my music on my devices. It's beginning to get a bit pricey and I know the novelty will wear off soon, but for now I am making up for lost time! As a matter of fact as I type this I am listening to some of my favorite songs on my phone.

And this whole experience has helped me to realized that I have pretty good taste in music. Eclectic, yet classic and edgy at the same time and distinctly me. Music makes me happy and you know what?
I don't suck at music!!

In fact, I'm quite good, really. Who knew?

This Accessory Is Not Supported

I recently purchased a new iPhone 5S with an upgrade I had from my wireless provider. I got the 32G too, because I'm damn tired of it telling me that my storage is full. In any case, I love my new phone SO MUCH...that I am ridiculously protective of my week-old device. My smart phone, like most people's, is my life line. It is constantly near me, on my person or in my bag and the separation anxiety I feel when I don't have it borders on dramatic. The pictures and videos I take on it chronicle my life day to day. I've even been known to be talking on my phone whilst furiously looking around for my telephone, only to realized that I am, indeed, talking on my telephone. It's the best mini-PC/tablet on the planet. Period.

So imagine my dismay when I woke up this am to find my new phone plugged into a rogue charger.

Horror and shock, are the two words that come to mind. I immediately went to that "Who Did This?" place in my head until I realized that someone was actually doing me a favor. They couldn't have know that the charger "cross breeding" would offend me. How could they? I keep my original charging device safely enclosed in my purse so that I know where it is at all times. So that the charger thieves that reside in my house can now fight over the other, more common chargers that are left around the kitchen counter. So that I could keep the purest form of my iPhone 5S in near factory condition without the corruption of a black market, miscreant charger.

When I saw the above message on my virginal device this morning I had to accept the truth.

My iPhone 5S is now like the rest of them. Corrupted and flawed, it's eminency has been diminished. It's a shame really, but I decided that my iPhone 5S and I will press on. We will make a new life for ourselves and persevere. I understand that these knock-off chargers are infiltrating society today at breakneck speed. My own home had been tainted. I also understand that only in a dire battery situation, would I even consider the consequences of going over the the dark side of phone charging. Instead I will  try to minimize our exposure to such threats the best I can.

I can't support a accessory that won't support me. I don't even have to like it.

Politically Incorrect Auto Correct

This has been all over the Internet and I thought it was way too funny not to share. Happy Monday!

iJacked

One of the things that I really love about my iPhone 5 is the calender app. For someone like me, it helps me to keep my appointments on track and even alerts me a day, an hour or ten minutes before an important appointment.

So it's no surprise that I'm completely PISSED that somehow, someway, I have no idea how; this fricken "Weekend Event Guide", that came from Facebook, and I  DID NOT add to my calender, has popped up on EVERYDAY of my month. WTF???

Can someone please tell me how to delete this sh*t, because now I'm pissed.

I googled the crap out of the subject, and what I found was the consensus that when you are invited to an event and you respond, you get all the events in your calender, even if you decline. Sources report that this is a FB "bug" or virus and hopefully it will work itself out, but I'm not too happy about it invading my personal space, or in this case my personal calender.

HELP!

MonAPPLEly

So I go my local Apple store in the mall on Saturday, my one day off at the end of the week, to pick up a few accessories for My Guy, who just converted to the iPhone with Verizon. The mall was tempered with moderate traffic, not bad for a Saturday, but not crazy. As I walked through the entrance of the Apple Store, my first destination, I was amazed at the scene before me. It was peppered with tons of people of all shapes and sizes. If I were to guess, I would say that more than half of the population of the entire mall, minus the people who work there, were jammed into the walls that house the Apple store.

To my left, there was a class taking place for new users of the iPad. At least twenty people sitting around a table, with rapt attention focused on the instructors and their devices. To my right, a queue, as they call it at the Apple store, with about 10 or more people waiting to speak to an Apple specialist about their Apple devices. All around me were kids, parents, people alike tapping, rapping and fiddling around with the latest that Apple has to offer. But I was on a mission and I knew exactly what I wanted and needed no assistance from a specialist. I would be quick.

As I approached the wall that holds the accessories for the various Apple devices, I quickly realized that this was going to take a while. It was quite possibly the busiest part of the store. I stood behind the wall of people browsing the hanging accessories and waited a good 10-15 minutes till I was able to get to the front of the wall and make my selections.

Then it hit me. This company, Apple Inc. is not just an average company that produces technology for our consumption, it is a movement. A way of life.

My family alone will soon have 4 iPhone devices, 2 iPads and 3 Mac books. That constitutes a monopoly in my book. What is it about the Apple devices that has captured the attention of our technological psyche? Now, with the dawn of Verizon users being able to convert to the iPhone, Apple has positioned itself as the "techno chic" giant in the industry. They make it easy to convert all of your media and sharing into one tiny, hand held device.

There are those who shun Apple, for reasons only known to them, but if they think about it, wouldn't they say they are curious? Apple has even taken over the televisions in my household. Using my iPhone or iPad as a remote, the media, music and movies in my household are never more that a single touch screen away.

Having said all of this, I must admit to needing my lone PC for other important things. I will contine on with that probably until Apple figures out how to enable users to utilize the Adobe Flash Player.

Mr. PC? It's a good bet your days are numbered.