This Techie is Skipping the New iPhone



I've been waiting for over a year for the announcement. I've kept abreast of all the rumors. I have a saved Google News alert for "iPhone 5." And now that the announcement has been made and the iPhone 5 is set to release next week, suddenly I'm all "meh... Guess I can wait two years until the iPhone 6 comes out."

Don't get me wrong. The iPhone 5 is clearly impressive and has a number of long-awaited improvements. For me, however, this is a clear case of "too little, too late."

When the iPhone 4S came out last year, my immediate reaction was, "Are you shitting me???". Seeing as Apple pulled this "ha ha! We're not really releasing a new model even though you have been waiting a year" game on us before (3GS, anyone?), I should have not been surprised. Yet, I still was. Yes, the camera was improved, and there's Siri; but when you really break it down, there's not that much of a difference between the iPhone 4 and the 4S. And thanks to the incremental steps put forth with the 4S (not to mention the iPad 3, which has some but not all of these "revolutionary" changes in the iPhone 5), what should have been a mind-blowing, game changing announcement was just "Okay. Sure."

There is not enough of a change in the iPhone 5 to make me jump and plunk down $400 (I'm a 64 GB kinda gal). Bigger screen? I have an iPad 3 with an even larger screen, which I bring everywhere. Retina display? iPad has that too. Panoramic pictures? I don't need them, and the iPhone's camera is still worse than that of other smartphones (like the Nokia Lumina or Samsung Galaxy), so it's not replacing my real camera any time soon. Siri, new maps, iCloud tabs, Passbook, photo streaming, Facebook integration?? It's all coming to the iPad with the update to iOS 6.

Look, I'm not saying the iPhone 5 isn't impressive. I'm just saying its not impressive enough to get me to make the jump. What about all of you? Are you sufficiently impressed with the iPhone 5, or will you be holding on to your current i-devices?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Technorati
  • Facebook
  • TwitThis
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google
  • Reddit
  • Sphinn
  • Propeller
  • Slashdot
  • Netvibes

0 comments:

Post a Comment

In keeping with our vow to the Mom Pledge, all comments will be moderated for tone. Any comments made outside the spirit of that Pledge or any comments made to invoke a reaction outside the scope of that Pledge will not be posted.

So... Much... Awesome...

ABC just posted the Season 2 poster for Once Upon a Time and asked fans what do they think of it. What do I think?? What do I think?? I think the season premiere cannot come fast enough!!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Technorati
  • Facebook
  • TwitThis
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google
  • Reddit
  • Sphinn
  • Propeller
  • Slashdot
  • Netvibes

0 comments:

Post a Comment

In keeping with our vow to the Mom Pledge, all comments will be moderated for tone. Any comments made outside the spirit of that Pledge or any comments made to invoke a reaction outside the scope of that Pledge will not be posted.

This MONTH I'm Loving... Fall Returns to TV!!

There is nothing a TVophile loves more than the start of the fall season, and I am there, baby!

I am that dork who puts show premieres on my calendar so I don't miss anything by allowing my ADD to let me forget when a show is set to start. For shows that are already in our DVR playlist and which don't have any dramatic shifts in time slot, we are good to go, but the new shows are sometimes tricky to keep track of.

This week, Entertainment Weekly came out with their Fall TV preview issue:



There is so much awesomeness on that cover, I didn't know where to begin. Actually, that's a lie. I began with Once Upon a Time, which is easily my favorite television drama right now. Thank you, ABC, for the mini-marathon last weekend!

Once was very closely followed by The Big Bang Theory (my favorite comedy), then The New Girl (my favorite theme song), the The Mindy Project (one of my most anticipated new shows).

What will the Pop Culture Household (or at least two of us) be watching this year?

Returning Shows

Sundays:
Once Upon a Time (Sept. 30, ABC)
Family Guy (Sept. 30, Fox)
Dexter (Sept. 30, Showtime)

Mondays:
Bones (Sept. 17, Fox)
How I Met Your Mother (Sept. 24, CBS)
2 Broke Girls (Sept. 24, CBS)
Mike & Molly (Sept. 24, CBS)
Castle (Sept. 24, ABC)

Tuesdays
Private Practice (Sept. 25, ABC)
Happy Endings (Oct. 23, ABC)
Don't Trust the B— in Apt. 23 (Oct. 23, ABC)
Raising Hope (Oct. 2, Fox)
The New Girl (Sept. 25, Fox)

Wednesdays
Modern Family (Sep. 26, ABC)
Law & Order: SVU (Sept. 26, NBC)
Suburgatory (Oct. 17, ABC)
American Horror Story (Oct. 17, FX)

Thursdays
Glee (Sept. 13, Fox)
Up All Night (Sept. 20, NBC)
Parks and Recreation (Sept. 20, NBC)
The Office (Sept. 20, NBC)
The Big Bang Theory (Sept. 27, CBS)
30 Rock (Oct. 4, NBC)

Fridays
Whitney (Oct. 19, NBC)
Community (Oct. 19, NBC)

Saturdays
Saturday Night Live (Sept. 15, NBC) — the first host will be Seth MacFarlane with musical guest Frank Ocean. Yes, please.


New Shows (We will watch these until they suck or get cancelled):*

*indicates I have already watched the pilot on U-verse OnDemand—thank you Big Four networks for making that happen (well, some of you, anyway)!

Sundays:
666 Park Avenue (Sept. 30, ABC)
Call the Midwife (Sept. 30, PBS) — you had me at the title

Mondays
Revolution (Sept. 17, NBC) — blatant Hunger Games ripoff, and I don't care
Partners (Sept. 24, CBS)

Tuesdays
*Go On (Sept. 11, NBC)
*The New Normal (Sept. 11, NBC)
*Ben and Kate (Sept. 25, Fox)
*The Mindy Project (Sept. 25, Fox)

Wednesdays
Guys With Kids (Sept. 26, NBC)
*Animal Practice (Sept. 26, NBC)
Nashville (Oct. 10, ABC)— I'm a sucker for Hayden Panettierre's one-note acting
The Neighbors (Sept. 26, ABC)

Thursdays
Elementary (Sept. 27, CBS) — Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Lu? Yes!

Fridays
Made in New Jersey (Sept. 28, CBS)

So, yes, if it is not totally obvious, I watch a lot of television. A lot. This doesn't even count the shows I love on alternative cable networks, like Psych on USA, which has its own weird season. Now, I just need to go clear the DVR of old Bubble Guppies, Peppa Pig, and Sesame Street episodes [Season 43 premieres Sept. 24, BTW], so we have room for all the grown-up shows!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Technorati
  • Facebook
  • TwitThis
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google
  • Reddit
  • Sphinn
  • Propeller
  • Slashdot
  • Netvibes

0 comments:

Post a Comment

In keeping with our vow to the Mom Pledge, all comments will be moderated for tone. Any comments made outside the spirit of that Pledge or any comments made to invoke a reaction outside the scope of that Pledge will not be posted.

This Week I'm Loving... gMusic: A Google a Music Player (app review)



What's a girl to do when she has Google Play and Amazon MP3 apps on her Kindle Fire and iTunes songs on her iPad and iPhone [first-world problems, I know, leave me alone!]? Well, you could do like Pop Culture Dad did and spend three days converting your entire iTunes music library to MP3s and then uploading that to Google Play, vowing to never use iTunes again... Or you could go the sane and easy route of finding a player that allows you to listen to your Google music on your iOS platforms.

You cannot access Google Play to actually play songs from your iPad or iPhone. Go ahead. Try it. I did, and after Safari crashed several times, I finally got the message.

Before finding gMusic, I tried another app (a free one) which shall remain nameless. Not only did it not work, but the app had the gall to suggest I avoid ads and pay for their upgraded version instead. Considering the ads were the only part of that app that worked, no thank you.

So I took a chance on purchasing gMusic. Normally, I avoid the paid version until I am sure an app will work, but for $1.99 and desperation, I thought it was worth the gamble. It was. As I type this, my iPad is blasting Lady Gaga (don't judge). Now that I feel comfortable and confident about the app's ability to work, I plan on purchasing a lot more music via Google and Amazon. Huzzah!



Hey! Don't look at me like that! I haven't purchased that much from Google, and when I do it is the stuff on sale. I swear I have more… um… varied and sophisticated tastes is music!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Technorati
  • Facebook
  • TwitThis
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google
  • Reddit
  • Sphinn
  • Propeller
  • Slashdot
  • Netvibes

0 comments:

Post a Comment

In keeping with our vow to the Mom Pledge, all comments will be moderated for tone. Any comments made outside the spirit of that Pledge or any comments made to invoke a reaction outside the scope of that Pledge will not be posted.

New Web Address

As fun as it has been being hosted at popcultureparenting.blogspot.com, I have moved to a much less confusing location.

You can now reach The Pop Culture Mom Blog at http://www.popculturemom.com.

Also, if you haven't become a fan of the Facebook page yet, please do so. While I may only post here every now and then, the Facebook page is updated daily. Don't miss out!



Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Technorati
  • Facebook
  • TwitThis
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google
  • Reddit
  • Sphinn
  • Propeller
  • Slashdot
  • Netvibes

0 comments:

Post a Comment

In keeping with our vow to the Mom Pledge, all comments will be moderated for tone. Any comments made outside the spirit of that Pledge or any comments made to invoke a reaction outside the scope of that Pledge will not be posted.