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Why I Won’t Be Joining the Masses on July 11th

On Friday, July 11 2008, at 8:00am, the iPhone 3G will be upon us. Those with disposable vacation days have started to line up already: (Photo courtesy of Engadget) As the first person in line at the Auckland, New Zealand Vodaphone store, this lucky bastard will be the first person in the world to own an iPhone: (Photo courtesy of Gizmodo) So comes the question at hand: will the Geek in Heels, the self-professed Apple lover and gadget freak, be lining up as well come this Friday? The answer is no. I confess I would have broken my Verizon contract and jumped ship if the 2nd generation iPhone seduced me enough. But it didn't. Tempted? Just a smidge. Seduced? Eh. David Hasselhoff doing his "Hooked on a Feeling" routine is more seducing: ...

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Confessions of a Former Best Buy Employee

The Consumerist is currently deep into the 2008 Worst Company in America contest, with 16 companies left in the round 3 bracket. They just posted the third installment of its "Sweet 16" matchup: Best Buy vs Diebold. Personally, I think Diebold is worse than Best Buy. Not only due to the voting machine fiasco, but to the fact that I've dealt with them many times in my prior job and I've found that the company couldn't be more poorly run. That being said, Best Buy is pretty terrible too. I should know, because I worked there. My tenure at Best Buy was short, from 2000-2001, and things may have changed since then. (But from reading comments on sites such as the Consumerist, things do...

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My Clan at Work

A shot of my toys at the office:From left to right: Spud Trooper, Artoo-Potatoo (with a hologram version Princess Tater by his side), and Darth Tater. Notice the gray rock on the bottom left. This stress toy is one of the gifts my company gives out at conferences. It is a rock that says "CS Rocks!" (Get it?) It's surprisingly one of our most popular items. I gave a bunch to J and supposedly they're very popular at his office too. Back to the Potatoheads. I'm thinking of adding two more to my collection. The first is Optimash Prime:The second? Taters of the Lost Ark:The latter one plays the theme from Indiana Jones when you press on his fedora. What do you think? Would they make nice...

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My Disappointment with WWDC 2008

New York is in the midst of a heat wave. How did the temperature go from 60 to 90 overnight? Where was spring? With record-breaking temperatures comes mass transportation delays, school closings, and the delightful eau-de-NYC-summer. But my mind was on other things yesterday. Actually, the minds of many geeks and Apple fanboys were all on one specific event from the hours of 10am-1pm PST: the WWDC keynote address. The major announcements: Mac OS X 10.6 is called "Snow Leopard" and will be more evolutionary than revolutionary, as predicted. .Mac will switch over to .Me (again, as predicted) and will host mobileme, an "Exchange for the rest of us." The second generation of the iPhone will be released on July 11, with the iPhone 2.0 software available then as...

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Mac OS X 10.6 on the Way?

Every Apple fan has two events to look forward to every year: Macworld in January, and WWDC in June. Very often at these conferences, the keynote will be delivered by none other than Steve Jobs himself, announcing drool-worthy products and upgrades. Even those who are not in the industry travel from across the world to attend these events, just for a chance to be present at the world release of the next "it" product, to mingle with fellow MacHeads, and revel in the presence of some of the greatest minds in the world of Apple. Yes, attending a Macworld (and sitting in on a Steve Jobs keynote) is on my list of things to do before I die. This Joy of Tech from 2001 illustrates the fervor magnificently: With this...

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