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I've never before obsessed over a product as much as the iPhone. With expectations so ridiculously high, it would be easy to be at least a little disappointed, but I'm not. The iPhone truly is a thing of wonder. I like that if I have a spare minute somewhere, I can easily listen to a song, or watch a video. Perhaps one of the most amazingly beneficial features is the built-in speaker. I'm not going to carry around my earbuds with me everywhere on the off chance that I'll get an opportunity for some extended music listening. The fact that I can watch a TV show, or video podcast anywhere is great. Moreover, I can share the experience with others nearby. For such a small speaker, it's remarkably powerful, especially if you cup your hand and direct the sound towards yourself.
And then there's the internet. Much has been said of the EDGE network. No, it's not very fast, but in my experience, it's absolutely usable, and I can understand the size/battery tradeoffs involved. I would much rather have a super-thin phone that walked through the internet than a brick that sprints. For my priorities, Apple made the right decision. The browser itself is, of course, fantastic. I really love that I can quickly look up something on Google or IMDB when I'm out and about, or even just on my couch. Also, the widgets are nice to have; I like to keep an eye on Apple's stock price (wishing I had some), and also on the weather.
The decision to use glass for the screen was pure brilliance. As soon as I take it out of my pocket to show people, they always ask, "Don't you have a case for it?" I love to take my keys and rub them across the surface to the shock of my friends and co-workers. It just doesn't scratch. At all. No case necessary.
Before I begin the rant, I should start positive. I'm very much into the "Web 2.0" thing. Sure, there's too much hype, but when done right it can be a wonderful thing. Flickr and YouTube do it perfectly. They make the "social web" easy. MySpace certainly qualifies for 2.0 status based on its social nature. It also has something very important going for it: critical mass. A site revolving completely around user-created content can't survive if it doesn't have any users, and MySpace certainly has that down, even if millions of its users are duplicate accounts and fake profiles created by porn sites.
My biggest complaint against MySpace is the complete lack of attention to the user interface, and I mean that on all levels. First there is the overall graphic design of the site, or lack thereof. Even the parts of the site not customizable by users are just horribly ugly. But it's so much deeper than that. It's not just a matter of negligent typography and a bad color scheme. The whole layout is remarkably unintuitive. Indeed, the entire user experience is just awful.
You go to a profile page and click on the link to see more pictures. You have to sign in. You just signed in half an hour ago? Who cares? Do it again. I understand security concerns, but on a computer that isn't ever shared, shouldn't I at least be able to stay signed in perpetually? It's not like MySpace is a bank; nothing that bad can possibly happen. Just let me stay signed in and ask for my password only if I want to change some important account settings. That's the sensible thing. Or, at the very least, don't put adult ads on the sign-in page. That's just good manners. (The real Web 2.0 way to do it would be an AJAX sign-in box that shows up in the page when needed, completely eliminating a separate sign-in page.) Also, frequently when I sign in after clicking a link to view profile pictures, I'm just taken straight to my profile page, and have to hit the back button to get where I want. Sloppy code.
Even though the official MySpace design elements are bad, the individual profile pages are indescribably worse. I remember, with embarrassment, back when I had a tacky Angelfire page. Unfortunately MySpace takes that level of tacky to entirely new levels. Gigantic (and busy) background images? Go for it. Just make sure you put your text in boxes with clear backgrounds, so you can easily see the page background. You want to read the text? Why bother? Bizarrely sized fonts rule the day, along with pale and/or neon colors. I mean, you've got a color screen, right? Black on white is so printing press. Also making a return from the Hellish nascent days of the web are animated GIFs, frequently with sparkly text and other garish delights.
But the worst offense, and one for which MySpace is directly responsible is auto-playing music. News flash: I've got iTunes running ... all the time. I'm already listening to music, and I don't want some other music to suddenly start playing and interrupting the selections from my carefully culled library. If I want to hear something I'll hit "play." Instead, I'm forced to search for "stop," and I want to place emphasis on "search." Due to the customizability of a user's profile, elements can appear in seemingly random locations.
My last objection is one that has grown considerably in the past couple of months. Now, every time I visit MySpace, usually to delete spurious friend requests, I am deluged with even more requests. I get add requests from 18 or 19 year old "bisexual" females in the Dallas/Forth Worth Metroplex on a regular basis. I'll visit MySpace, sign in, deny the requests, and promptly leave. Shortly later, I'll have a half-dozen requests. I especially love when I see multiple profiles with the same picture, and very different stats.
Though I didn't blog about it, I had been very eagerly anticipating the sixth book in J.K. Rowling's series. My greatest objection is that I still must wait another two years for the seventh book. Thankfully the fourth film comes out in November.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a phenomenal book. It maintains all of the quick wit, suspense, and sense of wonder that made the series into the blockbuster that it so justly deserves to be. This installment, however marks a turning point. Harry has matured greatly and, in the end of the sixth book, stands resolved for the ultimate battle against Voldemort in book seven.
Though I hesitate to use the term, the previous books have been somewhat formulaic: they begin towards the end of Summer, Harry goes to school, he fights the bad guy in the Spring, Dumbledore reveals some more mysteries, then he goes back home to the Dursley's. This one, however, begins early in the Summer. The school year still proceeds along the same basic plot-line, but the ending is certainly different. Dumbledore does not reveal more mysteries, and the entire end-of-school circumstances are thrown into chaos and horror. Harry is then ready to embark on his quest almost immediately. He's not waiting for anyone else to protect him; it's his time to act.
Despite the emotional turmoil at the end of the book, the rest of it is fairly upbeat. In Order of the Phoenix, Harry spends most of his time frustrated. It's hundreds of pages of teen angst. This one gets over that and finally gives us some long-awaited romance. The romance isn't fully satisfying, due to Voldemort's interruption of their lives, but I get the feeling that it will all work out in the end (think Spider-Man 2).
As a Father's Day gift, I paid for my dad and me to go see Episode III. I've already written about seeing it before, but I have some additional observations, having seen it three times. There are a few lines in it that, first time around, seemed pretty bad. They appeared either treacle or melodramatic. Notably, I think of Anakin's and Padme's exchange about how in love they are with each other. It's actually not so bad. The central issue of that dialogue is Anakin being blinded by love. In their conversation, the blinding is about making her look beautiful. However, we all know that the real result of her "blinding" him is his eventual turn to the Dark side.
The only problem that remains, and will always remain, is Obi-Wan's bizarre promotion of subjectivism. Are the Sith really the only ones who speak in absolutes? One of the great things about Star Wars is its moral clarity and--yes--absolutism. Obi-Wan is absolutely good; Emperor Palpatine is absolutely evil. Indeed, Anakin is the only character with any sort of moral abiguity, and yet he is the one condenmed for speaking in absolutes. Obi-Wan's line is completely out of character and radically at odds with the story. As soon as he reluctantly concludes that Anakin is going fully over to the Dark side (that is to say, "against him"), he fights to kill. Anakin is no longer with him, and so Obi-Wan must defeat him.
Aside from that one incongruous exhange, the movie is free of any
other really bad lines.
On Saturday I bought the movie Big Fish. I didn't get a chance to watch it, however, until last night, when I went to Fiona's to watch it. Towards the end, she went into her room and I heard a somewhat muted scream. Not the kind of OMG a crazed killer with a bloody knife in one hand and the head of my neighbor in another--rather the kind when you see a weird insect. Specifically, it was a Scutigera coleoptrata, better known as the "house centipede." I bravely grabbed a shoe and started my attack. It scurried along the floor and hid behind some stuff in her closet. Cautiously, I moved aside the fortifications and made my final attack. Swat after swat and some crushing finally defeated the monster. My heroic efforts surely saved a life; I'm proud. It was the freakiest looking thing I've seen in a long time. I must admit, I checked the floor a lot the rest of the evening.
In vaguely related news, I bought another movie today: Peter Pan. I saw in in theaters and was entranced. It really is an excellent movie. I particularly love the guiltless arrogance of Peter. How can one help liking something so sublimely joyful? The story is just so overhwelmingly happy, but not at all sappy. I also love a movie with really good bad guys. Pirates somehow seem the best baddies. My all time favorite is Dennis Hopper in Waterworld. It may be a Kevin Costner (aka bomb factory) movie but Hopper's character is just so deliciously evil!
My parents bought The Last Samurai today. I've not yet seen it but I here good things. I shall promtly report my findings, since I know I have thousands of devout fans whose every purchase is based solely on my awesome word.
I have my final exam tomorrow in World Literature Though the Renaissance. This exam will cover The Song of Roland and Macbeth. It will also have a small portion on the movie Scotland, Pa., which we watched because it is a modern adaptation of Macbeth. The movie was actually really good and I am considering buying it. It moves the setting from medieval Scotland to a hamburger stand in 1970s Pennsylvania. The transition works surprisingly well. I wrote a possibly excellent paper on the similarities and differences between the film and the play. I should probably actually finish reading the play before I take my exam tomorrow. In fact, I will now offer my essay. Maybe some student can plagerize it and get kicked out of school. It wouldn't be the first time my words have ended up in someone else's paper. I'm proud of that!
