So I’m gonna spoil the fun right here and say that this is one of four viral videos created by “Cardo Systems” to advertise a boring headset or something. These were watched by over 16 million viewers on YouTube and probably more; mine was via a forwarded email. At first glance this seems pretty plausible, but there’s a couple of obvious clues that it’s a total fake. Firstly, the corn doesn’t move. Anyone who’s popped a kernel or two in their life will know that it’s a pretty explosive occurence. Yet in the video, once the popping starts, the unpopped kernels, even when placed snugly together, remain undisturbed. I would expect at least some movement. The other dead giveaway is that the camera pans away from the popcorn for several seconds. This happens in every video.
Now that’s not to say that this kind of advertising shouldn’t be applauded. I think it’s brilliant. And way more original than something like the Air Force One gag. There’s a few reasons the cellphone popcorn concept in particular makes for successful viral marketing. Firstly, there were four separate videos seeded to YouTube, each apparently from different countries. This adds to the authenticity, creating the illusion that it’s a worldwide phenomenon. Secondly, the videos appear to contain real people who seem genuinely astonished at the result; the Japanese one especially. You believe it because they believe it. The third reason unfortunately alludes to gross scientific ignorance. The majority of people have little or no understanding of how cellphones work or radio waves for that matter. So they believe it because they can’t easily explain it. One physicist summed it up nicely by pointing out that if cellphones emit enough energy to cook popcorn, they would cook our fingers (not to mention ears and faces) every time we used them. Actually I think it’s a combination of ignorance and the media hype around cellphones and the dreaded “R” word in general. This leads to widespread but relatively mild distrust, which spawns the little voice whispering “Hey… that might actually work”. The final reason I can think of is that while it looks simple enough to do, you’d have to actually make the effort to go get some popcorn, then get eight phones set up to try it out for yourself. Now there are plenty of people who have actually gone to the effort, as a simple YouTube search proves. But most people will just watch it and forward it on to their friends who will just watch it and forward it on, etc.
Alas the Mythbuster in me can’t just let it rest there. We’ve disproven the myth, now we have to reproduce the result. And you’re not allowed to use CGI like Cardo did. That’s CHEATING dammit! One theory involves a hidden heating element, but that’s busted because it would burn right through the table. Or if it was under the table, you wouldn’t get enough conduction through a wooden table, for example. You might be able to use Kari’s microwave gun… Anyway it’s gonna annoy the bugger out of me until I solve it. Or at least until I lose interest.
… maybe the whole thing was staged inside a giant microwave… or maybe the phone’s infrared was just on a really high setting…
I think “Shuffle” is a silly name for an iPod. From the name, you assume it’s permanently set to play songs in random order. I just convinced myself that I could live with an iPod that only plays in random order. When I took it out of the box I found a switch that toggles between “shuffle” and “play in order”. OMG Apple! Why have I been without a Shuffle all this time? Because of the stupid name you gave it, you idiots!
*sigh* That said, it’s a great little MP3 player. I have a playlist in iTunes called “Hot Right Now” that I put on it. It’s smaller than a Nano, and smaller than most pieces of food I put into my mouth. So maybe a better name would be the “iPod Pico”? I think it’s a cute name. But when I started up iTunes, there was only one name I could give it. Warning: link contains J-Pop ^_^
Our favourite Baywatch Babe is rumoured to have been paid $500 000 to appear on Ten’s reality series Big Brother, a show whose emotional exploits could easily be considered cruelty to shallow twenty-somethings for the purposes of entertainment.
So she’s fine with cruelty to people, but the animals, man. We have to save the animals.
Then the ultimate irony is that KFC have managed to indirectly fund her appearance on the show. Oh the irony! My head a-splode.
I have collated all the iPhone plans and Optus’ $49 cap plan looks the best for my needs. All other plans are too expensive, and Telstra simply don’t compare, even on their business rates. And who could live with only 5MB data anyway?
The spreadsheet is my attempt to dispel the marketing bullshit that is “capped” plans. You know, the ones that cost $80 per month but include $500 worth of calls. Doesn’t anyone realise that if the call rates were lower, it would only include $80 worth of calls??? Anyway, it has my averages at the top so won’t be applicable to everyone.
So I bought that Brawl game everyone’s talking about. I used the Gamecube controller. I tried the Wiimote/chuck setup but with these intense games (MK is another one) my left hand very quickly starts to ache from holding the Nunchuck like I am trying to strangle a small animal.
Single player adventure mode is absolutely awesome. Clever cut scenes that make the characters look like they are ready to kick some serious butt. Strangely it feels like I’m playing Final Fantasy again. Great way to have some fun while getting to know the different characters.
Now online multiplayer… I tried the quick brawl feature to “play anyone, anywhere” and to say I was disappointed would be the understatement of the year. I don’t know how this game’s hosted (server or P2P) but the brawl was UNPLAYABLE. It would lag every second for about half a second. And the worst part: you can’t exit even using the Home button. So it was hard reset time. VERY POOR. Let’s hope this is fixed somehow or at least the friend battles are lag-free otherwise there will be A LOT of Aussie Brawlers who are gonna want Nintendo to suffer. And I mean suffer on the scale of Microsoft Antitrust suffering.
UPDATE: From a quick glance at some forums, it may be that Nintendo’s servers can’t keep up with the demand. Found some more info from Nintendo, limited in usefulness as it is.
…and Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 and Beautiful Katamari and Bioshock and Ninja Gaiden II (assuming I like Ninja Gaiden I).
In what we can only assume is an effort to steal sales away from Nintendo, Microsoft have dramatically reduced the price of their Xbox 360 console. RRP is now $349 with some retailers such as Big W selling for as low as $279.
UPDATE: I just found out its the Arcade version, with no hard drive. And apparently you need a hard drive to play original Xbox games, and they’re about $60-80. Not a huge problem since I can always play the games on my Original Xbox.
After spending each day since the keynote nervously chewing my fingers through chattering teeth at what to do, I’m glad to announce that I’m officially counting down the hours until I can get an iPhone 3G!
So far, both Telstra and Optus have released some information regarding plans & pricing; Optus’ by far being the most comprehensive. If I had to choose Optus now, I’d get the $49 cap plan, which has virtually identical call rates to my current Virgin $44 plan, but with 200 MB more data and double the included calls. And get this: handset repayments for 8GB model on 24-month contract are $7 * 24 = $168. The same model on prepaid costs $729 outright. Figure that one out!
I’m also considering Telstra…
Wait a sec, stay with me here. Before you hit that unsubscribe button in disgust, consider this. Like it or not, Telstra’s UMTS 850 network (I refuse call it by the marketing buzzword name*), probably is the best coverage in Australia. And I’ve recently been enlightened to the fact that having an A.B.N. (as I do) entitles me to their business plans which are considerably cheaper than their consumer plans. Still, I remain undecided until they release some concrete pricing information.
I called Virgin today about the iPhone and I’m still waiting for my call from the sales clerk…
Oh yeah, if you hadn’t guessed already, I put my old iPhone on eBay. Listed for $500 Buy-It-Now, and it sold after 26 hours; a personal record. The price was $75 less than what I paid (including postage from the US). And I probably could have got a bit more for it, but didn’t want to risk an auction end date dangerously close to July 11. I have Josh to thank for drawing my attention to the inexplicable sale prices of first-gen iPhones. As recently as June 20 they were selling for $700 Aussie o_O leaving me left wondering why these people can’t just wait 2 weeks to get much better phone!?
* stay tuned for a lengthy post explaining what NextG actually is, and why I have “issues” with the way it’s been marketed.
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