Selling My Soul

So as I mentioned on this week's podcast, I'm gonna sell my soul to the devil (aka Comcast). I hate Comcast, but their new Triple Play deal is just too sweet to ignore. Sign up for their plan (which includes cable, Web, and VoIP) for $99/month and you get a free Nintendo Wii. I'm paying $120/mo right now for just Web and cable so I'd have to be silly to let this one go by. So I'm making the leap this week. I'll update this blog and let everyone know how easy (or hard) it was getting my hands on that free Nintendo Wii.

Restaurant Week

I love eating out. In fact, I eat out so much that every week is restaurant week in my life, but this week I don't feel so bad about it 'cause it's "Restaurant Week" here in NYC. Up until August 1st, some of NY's top restaurants will be offering prix-fixe dining with $24 lunches and $35 dinners. Drinks aren't included, but $35 for a 3-course meal ain't so bad when the average dinner for two at some of these restaurants goes for about $90 or more. So this week I'll be checking out Megu in Tribeca and next week I'll be eating at Town. I've been to the lounge at Megu, so I have a sense of what to expect, but I've never been to Town, so I'm psyched about that one. Sadly, I remember back in the day when Restaurant Week used to cost $28 for dinner. Inflation everywhere!

Dark Knight

So I saw the new Dark Knight movie Friday night. I usually don't like "blockbuster movies," but I wanted to check this one out 'cause of the buzz surrounding the new Joker. First off, the movie was kinda long. It was good (in a predictable, mindless kinda way), but coulda been shorter. As for the Joker, with all due respect to Heath Ledger, I didn't like him. I like the Joker's new persona, he's a lot darker and more homicidal, but something about Ledger's Joker was too feminine. Maybe it was his voice, but I just didn't like him as the Joker.

Compared to the first Joker, I think Jack Nicholson was a better actor, but Ledger had a better role. Nicholson had the 80s Joker. Lighter, funnier, clownier. Kinda like the original Joker — Cesar Romero's Joker — which I remember watching on TV as a kid. Nicholson's Joker picked up where Romero left off. On paper Ledger's Joker is better, both as a written role and better costume designers, but in the end, he came across as a smart, depressed criminal with clown makeup. My verdict: Ledger's Joker needs more crazy.

iTunes App Store: First Impressions

So I updated my iPod touch this weekend to the new 2.0 software. Since I'm on an iPod touch and not on the iPhone, I had to pay $10 for the upgrade (grrrr). I avoided all the commotion and updated on Saturday afternoon. The upgrade went smooth, but took exactly 30 minutes. My iPod is now short 200MB. That's not a lot, but it made me wonder how big future software updates will be. So anyways, my iPod is updated. I can now download apps from the iTunes Store. Here are my first impressions:

1)My iPod touch is now a mini-Mac
Seriously. I can do things on my iPod that I never imagined doing before. I can browse the Web, watch videos, play Pac-Man, check up on the weather, browse through my photos, read my Gmail, add in my friends' contact info, and, um, listen to music. I'm very happy with my iPod touch.

2)The app store is half baked
Ok, here comes the bad part. Yeah, the app store is cool. But unfortunately, many of the apps in the app store suck/crash your iPod/or don't work. Was Apple asleep when they uploaded these apps onto the store? They should all work! I downloaded one of them (uLocate Communications' Where), which in theory sounded cool. It uses a Google Maps-style map and Yelp to show you when you're near a bank, Starbucks, restaurant, etc. Guess what? It didn't work. It failed to load. The company has posted a note essentially saying "sorry, we're working on a fix." Granted, it's a free app, but if an app is in the iTunes store, it better damn well work.

3)Apps are over-priced
$10 for Ms. Pac-Man! $8 for Platinum Solitaire! $40 for anatomy flash cards! Are you serious? Apparently the latter is supposed to be "a steal" so I'll let that one slide, but I think the prices for these apps are too high and too inconsistent. I realize the apps can't all be free or cost 99 cents, but some of these prices are steep for what they actually do/are.

4)Gimme demos
Some of these apps are cool, many of them are a complete waste of time. Case in point the New York Times app which pushes NYT headlines and stories onto your iPod/iPhone. Sounds cool in theory, but it's actually slow as molasses. Not to mention those articles, um, they come with banner ads. Not cool. Not cool at all. The NYT app is free, but if in the future I buy an app and I quickly find out that I hate it, I'm down $xyz dollars. Let me try before I buy.

5)Install/Uninstall is wonky
So like I said, I downloaded a bunch of apps to my iPod. The ones I didn't like, I uninstalled from my iPod. That was easy. But when I went to sync my iPod with iTunes later in the evening, it installed the apps again. Needless to say, uninstalling apps is a little wonky, although I'm sure that can be easily fixed.

That's it for now, tho I'm sure I'll have a lot more praise/gripes as I toy around with it more.

Burger Time

I'm a vegetarian. Sorta. Ok, I used to be a vegetarian. (Seriously, I upheld a strict vegan diet for 4 years). But nowadays, I like splurging on a nice seafood dinner and whenever I travel, I throw my vegetarianism out the window and indulge in that country's/region's/state's local foods. So I guess I should say I curb the amount of red meat I eat.

But lately I've been on a bit of a burger craze. A few months ago I ate at Burger Shoppe and just last week I had some tasty burgers at Greenwich Steak & Burger Co. in Tribeca. Neither of them blew my mind, but they were both very good and I'm sure at one point or another this summer I'll be back for more.

Burger Shoppe was hard to get to (it's tucked away in Wall Street), but eating at the restaurant was worth the trek. They have an "old fashioned" counter that makes you feel like you've stepped into a time warp. The burgers were on the small side, but good and juicy. Greenwich Steak & Burger is a bit more modern. They have a good selection of burgers (kobe burgers, classic burgers, stuffed burgers) and they make a killer milkshake. I wasn't too wild about the buns tho. They didn't taste as fresh as I would've liked. They're also a bit pricier than Burger Shoppe (dinner for two at Shoppe tops out at around $30 whereas Greenwich flirts with $75 — altho the latter price includes sliders and dessert).

So I guess you can say I'm temporarily an omnivore again. One who's on a quest for a good, classic hamburger.

iPhone Brouhaha

So this past Friday the new iPhone 3G came out, and while everyone and their mother was excited about it, I admit, I was not even remotely thrilled. Here's why:

1)It's on AT&T
I'm not a fan of AT&T. I used to have it and their monthly plans were through the roof. (They're actually not so bad now). But the main reason I hate AT&T is 'cause of their reception. I have a few friends with AT&T and they have no reception in places where I do. Don't get me wrong, I hate my carrier (Verizon), but I'll give them this — NY, NJ, RI, CA, AL, DC, CT, FL, PA, MO — no matter where I go I've always had a near-perfect signal.

2)It's not the first phone with 3G
3G is cool. It's an improvement over EDGE, but it's not as fast as they're hyping it to be. And not for nothing, but the iPhone isn't the first phone to include a 3G radio, so that whole "cutting edge technology" bit — sorry, it's not breaking new grounds. I like Apple. Their products are superior to their competition (most of the time), but the iPhone 3G is so far behind the times that I can't help but laugh when people treat it as the best invention ever. (For the record: Samsung, Nokia, Palm, etc all had 3G phones before the iPhone was even a twinkle in Steve Jobs' eye). The iPhone has a great interface, probably the best I've seen on a phone, no doubt about that. But it's not "the" phone to end all phones. You can't even picture text (MMS) on it!

3)Battery
Once again Apple is screwing up by not giving users access to the iPhone's battery. Time and time again people have asked for this, but Apple still refuses. I have a Motorola Q (which I'm not a big fan of), and I always carry a spare battery with me. They're smartphones. Smartphones suck up battery life rapidly and people don't always have immediate access to a power plug. Give us access to the battery compartment so we can swap batteries when they die on us. And while you're at it, give us a memory card slot too so we can expand the iPhone's built-in memory via card instead of having to buy a new phone with more memory every year.

The Three Stooges on Hulu

I admit — when I first heard about Hulu last year, I was very skeptical. I didn't think Universal and News Corp. would be able to deliver Internet video without saturating it with commercials or laying on a ton of restrictions. I was wrong. Since it's launch, I've become a huge Hulu fan. It's still not enough to make me ditch cable, but I check the site pretty much every day now. So last week I was psyched when I saw they added episodes of The Three Stooges (it's a mix of episodes and clips).

As a kid I actually hated the Three Stooges 'cause TBS would interrupt my Tom & Jerry cartoons just to air an old Stooge episode. My dad on the other hand was a Three Stooges fan and I remember sitting through a few of those black & white episodes with my dad until I eventually grew to like them. I'm ridiculously picky when it comes to comedy (I think every "comedy" made by Hollywood sucks), but I always manage to chuckle when watching the Stooges. Major props to Hulu for bringing The Three Stooges into the Internet age. Add the Marx Bros.' "A Night at the Opera" and I'll be one happy viewer.