American Madness

It’s been a good long while since we have had really ridiculous product to mock discuss here.

Today though is just a jackpot of a day where we have come across not one, but two totally different products worthy of being called out for this distinction.

First up we have Phone Fingers. “What’s a Phone Finger?” you ask (and I’m glad you did). A Phone Finger is, essentially, a condom for your finger. Made of very thin durable latex, you just roll it up your index finger and you’re protected.

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By now you must be familiar with services like iTunes or one of its many competitors trying to suck you dry of your hard earned cash.

Well, now there is a new player in the game: Spiral Frog. Similar in some aspects to iTunes it allows you to download music and videos over the internet from singers and groups you have actually heard of. A bit smaller then the iTunes library with only 800,000 songs available (meaning you won’t be able to find everything you are looking for) there still remains a nice selection, even of new music, such as Amy Winehouse.

So, we’ve covered the similarities to iTunes, now some differences- first (and this is the big one) it is absolutely and totally free! Yup, no credit card needed, no money asked for, kind of nice. Oh, also you don’t need any special software to start downloading, it is not exclusive to any software (though you do need an internet plug-in to make sure it all works). All kind of nice, there is, however, a catch: This service (like too many other services available on the internet today) is only for folks with PCs. Got a Mac? Well, you’re out of luck. In fact Spiral Frog strikes out against Apple- Won’t work on a Mac, can’t use the music in iTunes and, last, but not least, the songs won’t play on an iPod. (more…)

I like new technology, but I have my limits. Every now and then I find something that just doesn’t work for me. iPod ear buds–lovely design, but I find them to be the most uncomfortable fit ever. Bottom line, some things just aren’t for everyone. Have I given up on listening to my iPod? No, I use different headphones instead.

Then there is this guy. He wanted an iPhone bad. Unfortunately he had large thumbs, making it difficult to operate the technology. He’d run into similar problems with his Palm Treo as well and was always loosing the stylus for it too.

Instead of carrying around an extra stylus or switching to a phone with a keyboard pad, Tom Martel elected to go under the knife and have plastic surgery to have the size of his thumbs reduced.

No, seriously, he did.

According to the Dr. Robert Fox Spars, who performed the surgery: “This is really, on the edge sort of stuff… We’re turning plastic surgery from something that people use in service of vanity, to a real tool for improving workplace efficiency.”

How much work was Tom not able to get done with his massive thumbs?

You must be tired of hunting down coffee shops with free WiFi every time you want to use the internet. Gotta be tired of having to check all the connections that you can see from your apartment, looking for the one that is open without a password.

Well then this is the program you have been waiting for. iStumbler is a program you can download to your computer that will use your wireless card to search the waves and let you know which networks are around you that you can connect to and which of those networks is not password protected.

Of course, you need to also not care that you are piggybacking on soemone else’s network and, essentially, stealing from them (though stealing bandwidth is a pretty abstract concept of theft).

So, if you don’t have high-speed at home (and you use a Mac) then you might want to check out iStumbler for yourself.

Maybe he thought he would be playing to the fans who like Apple because they think it is a socially conscious company. Maybe folks are just misinterpreting what he meant. Maybe he really did just mean it was Steve Jobs and not Apple as a whole, but when the head of Sony, Sir Howard Stringer called Steve Jobs greedy on the 12th a few people noticed.

Stringer was commenting on something Jobs said about record companies being greedy for wanting a to be paid for downloaded music. He followed it up by saying that Jobs is the greedy as he wants a world where only he makes money.

Well, who doesn’t? Frankly if I am going to invest in a business I want to know that the head of that company wants to corner a market, hold a monopoly on what ever they are doing and bringing in the most money for the company. frankly, if the head of Sony doesn’t get that, well then Sony isn’t getting my money.

Yes, I am a bit of a technology geek, so, bare with me here. There was a time when I was solely a PC person. I felt all the hype around Apple was just too much. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have anything against Apple, they seemed like a nice enough company and they definitely had an eye for design, I just didn’t think they were anything too special.

Then I started using Macs at work. Took a little adjusting to, but was a pretty simple transition. At home I was still using a PC. I got my hands on a 1st Generation iPod and thought it was a nice little gadget, but for the most part kept with my CD player rather then going through the hassle of downloading music on to my computer and then copying that music to my iPod.

I made the transition pretty slowly, in fact, up until last year my computer on my home desk was a Gateway tower, then I got a MacBookPro about a year and a half ago. I know the chances of going back to a PC are slim now. There may not be much of a difference between Macs and PCs now, they both use Intel chips, a Mac can run either OS X or Windows, there is little that can’t be done on either machine, but when it comes down to it, Apple just has better designs.

And this isn’t a new revelation. Apple has been design conscious for a long time. In fact there are websites devoted to this. I came across one yesterday that looks at the evolution of Apple computers and iPods from the original computer that was built into a writing desk to the iPhone that was released last week. I forwarded this to a friend who sent me back the site Apple History that explores not just the design, but also the technical aspects of Apple computers, though, from the looks of it the site hasn’t been updated in a few months (almost a year).

AmericanMadness Exclusive!

A fight broke out today between two men at Apple’s 5th avenue store that left one man bloodied on the floor and resulted in the other being tossed into the street.

This exclusive is courtesy of crack American Madness stringer Matt Friedlander who was present at the scene where he too was waiting for a chance to play with the newly released iPhone, which some are calling “the Jesus phone,” a gadget as eagerly anticipated as…well…nothing has ever been this anticipated.

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So, I was trying to keep the posts this week to a minimum. It being a holiday week, I figure a bunch of folks are just phoning it in, but with so many things just jumping out at me, some of these just write themselves.

This past weekend Reverend Billy, from the Church of Stop Shopping was arrested at the Critical Mass bike ride that ended at Union Square…

Wait for it…

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As many people know today is D-Day* for the long awaited iPhone, the next generation iPod that is also a phone, is being released today at 6pm. While I am sure lines have been forming for the last few days for the new AT&T phone (because it is a sure sign a product will be good when they sign on to America’s least reliable or used carrier) companies like T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon are fearing the loss of some customers today.

In a bid to retain their customer base and maybe even gain a few new customers, Verizon issued a press release yesterday announcing: “Verizon Wireless Stores Open All Day June 29 For Customers To Test Drive The Nation’s Most Reliable Wireless Network, Purchase Any Of 18 Multi-Media Music Devices.” For the record, this is the same promotion that Verizon has been pushing in their television commercials for the last 2 months.

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So, while you are at the park doing your work you realize maybe you shouldn’t have had that Extra Large Coffee and the bottle of water cause now you are in the middle of Bryant park and your really need to pee. You have a few options, finding a restaurant and buying the cheapest item to gain entry to their bathroom, looking for a dark doorway or corner without a lot of people walking by or you can text MizPee.

MizPee is a service that allows you to text them with your general location and it will tell you were the nearest bathroom is and how clean it is. You can also access their map online if you have a computer handy.

There was another dashboard widget I found as well which allows you to find the nearest bathrooms, but I managed to lose that page, when I come across it again I will add the link.

Another useful tool (if you have a Mac Laptop) is the Public Toilet Finder Widget Just enter your city and location and you’ll receive a list of where public toilets are to be found. Again this seems like a great idea (if you have access to your computer and a Wireless Network).