I feel like a traitor

   

    I feel like a traitor. I've recently, after quite a hiatus, decided to get back into illustration and try and make a go of earning money through an Etsy shop. I graduated back in 2015 from university with a degree in visual communications. After one failed attempt at working for a business, I totally crashed and burned and basically had a nervous breakdown. I won't go into all of that, but it burned me out and I went from one crap manual labor job to another until finally, Covid-19 brought that to an end. 

    Like most people, I've been home unemployed for the last few months and I'm now going to try and use my artistic talent to make some money without having to leave the house. If you've followed my blog, which you probably haven't, I've always been a staunch anti-Apple person. I can't stand them, and I've always vowed that I would never buy an Apple product. Well, today I purchased an Ipad! I feel like a traitor, to myself at least. I won't be receiving it for a couple of weeks thanks to the slowed-down infra-structure in the U.S. due to Covid-19. I've been hearing for years about how great the Ipad is for artists, and that a program called Procreate is the best app to use on it. Procreate only being available for IOS. I've got an Android tablet that I've been using for a while for art, and it's perfectly usable. So why get the Ipad? I'm not even sure I know why. Maybe I'm just tired of bucking the system. I see plenty of artists who seem to be making at least somewhat of a living making artwork that is no better than mine. Maybe I just want to be a member of the club instead of the one that's outside looking in.

    Frankly, I keep forgetting that I have this blog. I'm going to try and update here more often what with the state of the world and all. So stay tuned and I'll try and post here once in a while about what's going on.

The New "Porn App" For Kids

Is there anyone who didn't see this coming? A new app service has been making waves on the Iphone and Ipad called, "Vine". The service, an off-shoot of Twitter, allows users to upload six second long video clips. The idea being a kind of Youtube for the Twitter generation. You know, people with really, really short attention spans!

Originally the app claimed it was appropriate for anyone twelve years old and up, but apparently there have been several incidents in which clips of porn have been available on the service. They've now updated the app so that users will see a warning about possible adult content and have to click a button affirming that they are seventeen years or older in order to view the content. Yeah, it's real hard for a child to figure out if they just click that button that they can get access to all the six second porn they want.

You know, I never liked Steve Jobs, but at least when he was at the helm at Apple, an app like this would have been stripped from the I-store the second this problem cropped up. At least he ran a tight ship and worried about his brand's reputation. While I think most people in this country take porn way too seriously, and should be more worried about the violence that we let children see every day, it just seems to me that this app is just asking for trouble with a capital "T".

AT and T's and Apples Evil Plan Revealed...

Talk about curious timing! First Apple unveils their newest plot to enslave the web, the Ipad. They announce this wonderful sounding plan which will let it's users get "unlimited" web surfing through AT and T without a contract, and have recently announced how they've surpassed even their expectations by selling more than 2 million Ipads in just 60 days.

Then, just days after making this announcement, their partner in evil AT and T have announced that users of their service using smartphones, and the Ipad will now have a 2Gb cap on data usage. The Dallas-based AT and T said Wednesday that it would offer two choices: a $15 data plan for 200 megabytes of data, and a $25 plan for up to 2 gigabytes, with additional charges if the user goes over the allotted amount. A vast majority of subscribers use less than 2 gigabytes, suggesting a mass migration to less expensive plans.

My question is, if AT and T had announced these caps before the launch of the Ipad, would Apple have sold so many units in just 60 days? I think not. I'm wondering how many Ipad owners out there right now who ponied up the extra moolah for a 3G Ipad are feeling like they've been fleeced!

Has Apple shot itself in the foot with it's I-phone?

Apparently, that cool new I-phone that so many people have bought up in record numbers has an ugly achille's heel that no one knew about!

The battery for the phone is 'soldered' into the unit. If your battery goes bad, unlike most cell phones, you won't be able to just go out and buy a replacement one. You'll have to send your I-phone back to Apple so they can put a battery in for you, and get this...it's going to cost you $79 and an additional $6.95 for shipping and handling. Also, it will take 3 business days before you get the phone back! But wait, don't worry, while you don't have your phone, Apple will 'give' you a loaner I-phone for only $29!

Do those numbers make your cool new phone that cost you $499 - $599 seem like a good deal. Not to mention the $60 a month service fee. It figures that something that's supposed to revoluntionize the cell phone industry would have some sort of shady gimmick designed to suck more money out of it's consumers. I can't tell you how happy I am that I can't afford an I-phone. I'll just stick with my little pre-paid T-mobile phone, thank you very much Mr. Jobs!