Sing, sing, sing....

Some days, all we want to do is "sing, sing, sing..."

Two versions of the classic "Sing", by Travis. At the top, the most recent one, by Peter Jöback and Kate Pierson. The bottom one is by Travis themselves, live on the "Later" show. And there goes a decade...

Sem palavras...

Recebi hoje meu exemplar do "The New Yorker" desta semana, e o cartoon da capa me deixou sem palavras. Este é para emocionar mesmo um ateu de carteirinha como eu...

Should I Buy the New iPhone 4S?

I'm the best possible "target" buyer for the new iPhone 4S: I still have an iPhone 3GS, and my 2-year contract has expired, so I should be able to get the new phone for the lowest price possible. However, until this morning, I still wasn't completely convinced I should upgrade to the iPhone 4S.

This story in today's New York Times convinced me that I should, indeed, fork over the $300 and get a new phone. It's the best review I've seen so far, and the one that really explains the differences between this and the older iPhone models. I went to the NYT's web site looking for the story, and found out it's the MOST EMAILED story today! That's a big deal for the paper (hundreds of thousands of people must have emailed it today), but it's even a bigger deal for Apple, since the review is basically a big "thumbs-up" on the new iPhone.

I went to the Apple site and also did a rate plan comparison, and came to the conclusion that Sprint is probably the best carrier for me (as opposed to AT&T and Verizon). AT&T and Verizon are much bigger companies, and probably have better coverage areas, but Sprint, the new kid on the block, is offering the best data (unlimited), messaging (unlimited), and voice (almost unlimited) plans around. Sprint is also throwing in a 4G mobile hot spot as part of the deal (for $20/month for 5G of data), which is huge!

By the way, I've been trying to download the new iPhone update system (iOS 5) since about 11 a.m. this morning, but Apple's servers are too busy...

Steven Jobs' Death in the Media

The New York Times consistently has some of the very best obituaries around. I actually often use their obituaries in class, to teach my students that you can report about someone's death (and celebrate their life) without being boring or bureaucratic about it. The NYT's obituaries are the opposite of boring or bureaucratic. They outdid themselves today, publishing Steven Jobs' obituary on the front page (main headline). One of the best obituaries I've ever read.

In fact, most U.S. newspapers today had Steven Jobs' death on the cover, many of them as the main headline. The coverage continued inside with the main, business and technology sections devoting several articles to him, to Apple, and to Jobs' influence on areas such as computers, technology, music, animation (Pixar), as well as society in general.

One of my favorite obituaries today came from a British publication: The Economist, which also always has some of the best (and most idiosyncratic) obituaries.

Something about Jobs that was rescued by the NYT's and the Economist's stories include the fact that he was very much the product of the "flower power" generation--a visionary rebel, influenced by the concepts of social justice, equality, creativity, and the power of technology to change the world. In fact, when Steven tried to convince John Sculley, who was then the CEO of Pepsi-Cola, to leave Pepsi and come to Apple, he said: "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?”