Let’s Talk About Text, Baby
Hey you, sexy, swinging Edmontonians. When the good people at WIND Mobile had a few Blackberries to give away, they knew you guys were the ones to talk to (and we were the ones to offer up the provided phones).
Recently, Textuality opened in select theatres (not in Edmonton to my knowledge). It’s a Canadian movie starring starring Jason Lewis (Smith Jerrod to you Sex and the City fans), Canadian actors Carly Pope (Young People F**king, Popular), Eric McCormack (Will & Grace, Lonesome Dove), and Liam Card (also the film’s writer). The movie looks at dating in the age of smartphones. And texting (obviously).
It looks like this:
Now, just because Edmonton wasn’t on the movie’s release schedule, doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun. (That might just be a double-entendre.) Details on getting you a new phone after the jump. (more…)
We heart buttons
By: Colin MacIntyre
There are few things in life more enjoyable than signing a Canadian cellular phone contract.
It’s an event so wonderful, so mindbendingly full of joy, that the Cell-Co’s have to limit our signings to once every three years.
Yes, we've used this photo before. But what other image, than that of the Zack Morris phone, pays homage to cell phones of old?
Recently I was able to take part in this experience, having decided it was time to upgrade my cellular phone. Not that there was anything wrong with my phone mind you. It performed its functions admirably: I could talk into it, I could hear people talking in it, I could take blurry low resolution pictures and send misspelled messages using something called T9 word.
Alas, my phone was way past its normal cellular life span, having reached the ripe old age of 13 months. I’m actually amazed it worked so well, considering that 1 Cell phone month = 18 human years. So with that, I went out to my local cell-co mart, and came home with a little bundle of cellular joy: a Borkberry.
For those who aren’t aware, a BorkBerry is a brand of ‘Smartphone’, which has become the standard amongst the cellphone buying populace. A Smartphone is much very much like your normal phone, as in your normal ‘picture taking, music playing, Lady Gaga ring tonin’ phone.
However unlike your normal cellphone, you can access the Internet, send and receive emails, and generally behave like you’ve stuffed your computer into your pocket. To be fair, there are many kinds of smartphones: There are Borkberrys, as well as those phones made by that fruit company, and, more recently, phones made by that cute, scampy Internet search engine, who just seem to be getting into everything these days. Except for China (Zing!).
Now, one of the reasons I acquired a Borkberry was to satisfy this curiosity about these little devices. They seem to be everywhere! Businessfolk, Hollywood elites, Politicians, all seem to have these things. Hell, I’ve seen people whom I’d question whether they could tie their shoes, typing away on Borkberries! So what IS IT about them that fuels their popularity?
What is it about them that makes people who pay dozens of dollars to attend sporting events, presumably to watch said event, ignore said event, to tap away with their thumbs on a 3-inch keyboard? What is it that makes people who are out enjoying the company of other people ignore those people to stare into a little LCD screen?
After a couple weeks of research, I am happy to say I have solved this mystery, and the answer is so simple, so blatantly obvious a symptom of the human condition, that frankly, I’m a little embarrassed to even report it.
It’s the buttons.
See, we humans are a simple animals. We like simple things. Kitties riding Roombas. A well placed tennis ball into the groin region of an unsuspecting male. Chocolate Rabbits. We also, like pushing buttons. Nay, we LOVE pushing buttons.
Ponder if you will, all the joy you’ve received in life due to pushing buttons. The snooze button on your alarm clock. The satisfying ‘Click’ of your clicker pen. All those buttons you have on your TV remote! Yes, there actually is something on your televison, but if you actually stay on a channel and watch, you won’t be pushing buttons! We just love pushing buttons! Heck, that’s why an ever-growing percentage of us spend our days in front of computers, pushing thousands of buttons per day and NOT. ONE. PERSON. COMPLAINS.
And what do smartphones have a lot of? It’s buttons; lots and lots and lots of tiny, clickable, satisfying, buttons. If you have a smartphone with a physical keyboard, chances are you have approximately 47 buttons in the palm of your hand. If you have on of those touchy smartphones well you can have a bajllion different buttons as well!
So there you have it. Mystery Solved. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to ice my big toe. I…uh…was checking my messages when I walked into a mailbox. ‘Smart’phones indeed.
You found us!
If you could read my mind...you'd know that I wasn't dead. Oopsie by Canwest. (Great screen grab by ChrisD.ca)
What a day on the Interweb tubes!
First, there was the big Laura Secord story this morning. It’s back in Canadian hands, but we (people on Twitter) discovered that this chocolate has left town.
Thank goodness we have the awesome chocolate of Kerstin and Sweet Lollapalooza to fill our bellies. If it gets cold again I think some drinking chocolate from Kerstin’s is in order… (We’ve also been chatting up Edmonton chocolate spots at our Facebook page.)
Then, this afternoon, Gordon Lightfoot died. For about 25 minutes. Online only.
I love how people are blaming Twitter, an inanimate social media platform, for the rumours. Unless the machines are about to take over I don’t think “Twitter” was spreading rumours. I think people were. And they were using Twitter as they would their voice, e-mail or a pen and paper. Oh, and once you mix in some major news outlets, you get why this can spread. (Check the screen capture, from Winnipeg blog Chris D.ca, above.)
Where’s TMZ when you need them? Can Shaw buy that too?
But…onto what I actually wanted to ask you: How’d you get here?
I’ve recently aquired a sweet new BlackBerry, and my venture into the realm of smartphones has been great. I just got an RSS feed reader and I’ve never been more on top of my blog reading!
I also noticed, in our own visit stats (now Edmonton’s 93rd favourite blog), that more people are coming to our website and our stories via our RSS feed rather than just plunking theedmontonian.com into a browser. That blew me away! Until I got my feed reader.
So, I’m just curious, are you coming to the website directly, following links off Twitter, catching up with us on Facebook or waiting for your RSS reader to alert you?
There are no wrong answers. Heck, you could even be doing some combination of all of that.
But I want answers, Edmonton!
