Al's Blog-o-Sphere

You’ve got to admire the way Verizon is attacking Apple’s iPhone and it’s lousy AT&T coverage. They’re not going to take it like Microsoft…

Despite a lawsuit from AT&T over the red and blue maps, they’ve come right back with this ad that calls the iPhone a “Misfit Toy” – a reference to the place where broken and mis-shapen toy go from the Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer story. Continue Reading…

While watching TV, I’ve learned a few things. No, not from the programs I watch, but from the commercials that we’re hammered with every six-eight minutes. Here’s a few:

October is Ford Truck month. (So was September and so will November be…)

Today’s a great time to buy a new car. (Anytime is a great time, if you’re a car salesman.)

Mac Guy isn’t impressed with PC’s promises about Windows 7. (But forgets that people are having trouble with Snow Leopard.)

25-28mpg is a big deal to some car companies. (Didn’t we get 33mpg from a VW Beetle back in the 70’s?)

Erectile Dysfunction drugs can cause a “sudden drop in blood pressure.” (Yet, some blood pressure medicines cause ED. Maybe they should just give Cialis or Viagra for hypertension?)

If hurt, I should call Dewey, Cheatham and Howe* Attorneys. (I’d much rather call them ambulance-chasers or shysters.) * Not a real law firm. I changed the name because I don’t want to be sued. Of course, someone named Dewey, Cheatham, or Howe might sue me for calling them a lawyer…

It’s been a while since I complained about TV commercials. Does that mean all is good in couch-potato-land? No, it just means things haven’t changed.

But I’ve noticed a new form of commercial lately and it’s – for some reason – particularly annoying to me. Let’s call it the Commercial Introduction. It goes like this:

This episode of Burn Notice is being brought to you by Hyundai.

or…

This weeks CSI Miami is presented by T-Mobile.

Almost every sponsor and show is using this in some combination, followed by, you guessed it, the commercial. Continue Reading…

Have you noticed that the Sci-Fi channel has changed it’s name?

From Sci-Fi, the widely recognized short name for Science Fiction, they’ve changed it to SyFy. What does that mean?

Did people have a problem with Sci-Fi? Were they mispronouncing it as Skiffie?

Or is this a move away from being associated solely with Science Fiction? Now that they’re spending as much time with ultimate cage fighting, as they do actual Sci-Fi programming, maybe that’s the intention. Continue Reading…