Weirdest Cover (Lately)
Sep 11Take a look at this Gene Colan cover to The Phantom Zone #3, written by Steve Gerber:
Let’s unpack.
1) Superman is gettin’ up close and personal with a strange woman wearing a mask. Above this woman, a seductive face floats.
2) The mask comes off to reveal–OH NOES–the woman’s real head is a planet, namely Krypton.
3) The Krypton head explodes. The floating face laughs.
4) Accompanying it all is the smart-ass, Marvel-esque tagline: “Have you ever noticed…that on some days…everything seems to go WRONG?”
If by “wrong,” you mean that on some days, I am sexually attracted to a mysterious masked woman whose head is actually my home planet which then explodes while I stand there shellshocked, then NO, I have never noticed that.
ALSO: The answer to An Important Question has arrived: With 46% of the votes, Kirstie Alley has been named Alert Nerd’s Cutest Saavik. A tastefully-framed certificate will be forwarded to her care of Weight Watchers at our earliest convenience.
Thing's Thing
Sep 07OK, I didn’t notice it ’til a certain dirty-minded friend pointed it out, but does this LEGO rendition of Thing (as rendered in the stupefying Times Square Toys R Us) have…well, a package?
Well, that's over.
Sep 05It’s about 1:50 p.m. EST and it looks to me as though the big Jobsnote at One Infinite Loop in Cupertino is wrapping itself up.
It’s an interesting lineup of products. The new Nano would seem to be a sure-fire hit, with more memory than the current Nano and video capability. On the other hand, it’s fat.
Then there’s the iPod “Classic,” which was previously just the iPod, but I guess now has to be a “classic.” I’ll run with that; I have a fourth-generation 60GB model and it’s in use pretty much every day. New models are 80GB and *gulp* 160GB.
That’s right: 160GB. I consider myself to be an extremely obsessive music listener, and I have only managed to build up a little under 100GB worth of music.
I truly LUST for this device.
Finally, the iPod Touch, which is an iPhone minus the phone part. Literally. It’s got the touch screen, the iPod functionality, the organizational stuff, and yes, wifi with Safari and YouTube. Also, a new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store that will sell you songs via wifi. 8GB and 16GB versions, $299 and $399.
That’s the intriguing part. Who will buy this? It’s got the glossy Apple user interface, it’s a neat portable web browser, you’ve got iPod functionality but only in smaller Nano-sized doses…so it’s like a smartphone, with no phone, and much less functionality. If it’s crackable, maybe there’s a lot to play with here, but if not…
Will there be an audience for this? Probably, because it’s Apple. Also, it’s gonna launch worldwide so all the overseas customers will want one yesterday.
Beyond that, it seems like a stopgap measure between the iPhone going down eventually in price once they’ve worked out the bugs and streamlined the process, and the current pricing of a $600 iPhone.
Anyway. I’ll take one 160GB iPod Classic, please. Now.
Eve of Destruction
Sep 04Here we sit on the precipice of change yet again–tomorrow’s another Big Apple Event where Steve Jobs is expected to unveil the latest iteration of the iPod lineup.
You can poke around for the rumors; everyone seems to have settled on a revamp across the line, possibly bringing in the multi-touch technology from the iPhone on a new high-end iPod with wifi capability and uberstorage in the form of up to 120 GB. (Bestill my beating heart!) Also on tap may be a new stubby Nano with video capability and the Beatles catalog in the iTunes Music Store.
Here’s what I know: I will be at my computer around 1 p.m. refreshing over and over, vainly pinning something akin to hope on a device that will do everything I want it to do and nothing I don’t. I won’t be alone.
What do you call this, exactly? I know there are Apple nerds (“Apple scruffs,” perhaps?) and gadget geeks, but what of us who just tingle at the thought of seeing anything glossy and shiny that will fit into one’s pocket and change one’s life?
I am addicted to possibility.
