Mara is really into robot shirts and I have to admit I've yearned for one with the Android robot (though not enough to see if they're out there) because of the blocky cuteness.
I think it would have been cuter if it had been modeled on a human rather than a cockroach.
Cheap t-shirt + color printer + iron-on thingies = any t-shirt you want.
Today's hipster-approved* android robot is tomorrow's reviled Michelin man in ~18 months.
*I'm not necessarily characterizing you, Stanley.
3: Also not cute, though. And I'm banned from buying any more stuffed stuff, though the four-pack of Super WHY characters definitely made air travel more successful.
She doesn't actually need yet another robot shirt yet, especially since this week she suddenly started to want to wear dresses, but I keep my eyes open for them since the ones she has are her favorites.
5: I thought the Michelin man had re-tired.
I have to agree about the robot's high cuteness factor. Take that, iPhone hegemony!
If Mara wants uncute droids, just look her in the eyes and say, "These are not the droids you're looking for."
When it comes up on my phone, it always reminds me of some other robot, probably from a computer game, but I can never quite work out what it is.
There is a chance that in the end it shakes out as Android=Windows* (but from good people, not evil ones this time ...) and Apple=Apple sorta like deja vu all over again. I don't know though, maybe the barriers to entry stay low enough to keep the current market fragmentation going for a good while longer. Also, the Nokia Windows choice (which I assume is getting panned in Europe).
Also, the Nokia Windows choice (which I assume is getting panned in Europe)
Mostly, though Android isn't as big here as in the US and it's not as though Symbian itself was very well regarded for smartphones either.
2: The Turkcell mascot is definitely not as cute now that he looks more like a human and less like a bug.
12.last: Yes, they did need to do something different. I read one analyst (can't find it now) who claimed Nokia had also approached both RIM (not interested) and Google/Android (sticking point apparently was Nokia wanted to keep all the linkages to their Ovi online services). Interesting, but in the short term seeing a lot of this type of thing: "RIM sales to get big boost as Nokia shifts to Windows".
And my Android prognosticating was probably too US-centric.
Android is never going to be a singular thing; too much has been delegated to handset makers. That said, it'll probably get pretty great soon enough, and if Apple gets stale with the iPhone it could easily get better than iPhone.
The robot is kind of cute, I guess? Not my kind of robot.
The Michelin Man is awesome, not least because his real name is Bibendum and he was originally conceived as showing up his competitors via his tremendous capacity for drinking.
15.1: Yeah, it would be a different kind of thing--and I suspect quite prone to forking.
15.3: Say that unironically.
If you think 15.3 was anything less than sincere, I don't think you know Sifu very well.
quite prone to forking
It's only a matter of a tine, really.
sticking point apparently was Nokia wanted to keep all the linkages to their Ovi online services
Interesting. I mean, MS have their own app store as well. Will they be sitting side by side with Ovi on the devices? Or will MS quietly drop it, like they more or less have with Games for Windows Live?
China's forking android for their domestic smartphone market. I give them four years before they start again with vanilla.
The robot bears an unsavory resemblance to Clippy.
17: Oh, I understand that he means it "sincerely" in his own special way. My comment is actually intended to be an irrevocable insult directed at his whole way of life (mine too).
When I think "way of life" I think Braindance, Wellness, Islam, Football, Nonviolence, Wine, Incest, Waiting or Hinduism, (thanks, Google!) not "Appreciating the Michelin Man".
But "sincerely" appreciating the Michelin Man is one of the inevitable results of the 11-dimensional self-image chess of those who wander too far down the path of ironic self-distance.
I give the Michelin Man two Michelin stars. Throwing stars, thrown to deflate him.
25: Ah yes, I first learned all of that history via Unfogged.
I'm with Tweety. Bibendum is unironically awesome. Lately, they've made him softer and cuter; the early images are the best. Nunc est bibendum!
27: me too! And it's awesome.
Also: you're weird. Also also: I'm reasonably confident my life is not the terminal outcome of eleven dimensional chess.
28,29: I have no interest in your or Tweety's pathetically un-self-aware disavowals of irony.
Bibendum's companions in 28 are horrifying.
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Actually maybe sort of on topic. (via Atrios)
Bridges says she has spoken with a number of drivers who have survived run-ins with trains in other parts of the state and most say they were distracted by things like cell phones and even texting while driving.
"We had one man say, 'I saw the train but my GPS said turn left now and I turned into the train,'" she said.|>
31: The inferior tire-men of competitors, one assumes.
32: Yuck, trailing whitespace.
33: nevertheless, frightful visages.
32: The other day Thundersnow was using a GPS device to get to some previously unvisited rural location, and it guided her to a road that dead-ended at a river, at which point the little car icon on the screen apparently turned into a boat. It's cute that the robot overlords have a sense of humor.
The inferior tire-men of competitors, one assumes.
Yes, they're labelled "Pneu X" and "Pneu Y". (Pneu=tyre.)
36: Ah yeah, at first I did not notice the Y guy was labeled, and read the "x" as merely indicating a hole or patch. I'm also trying to make sense of all the paraphernalia on the table. I suppose those tubes on the losers' plates are some kind of patching or repair material.
an unhealthy aesthetic preference
It does kind of resemble Terrance and Phillip, doesn't it?
35: It's cute that the robot overlords have a sense of humor.
Not always so cute. (And are you holding out on us about your new NPR blogging gig?)
"It seems the GPS system pointed them on to an old road that ends in the reservoir, and that in the dark they were unable to brake in time, with the car taking just a couple of minutes to sink," the Red Cross said in a statement.
Actually I chose the Michelin Man in 5 to show I'm down with Cayce Pollard.
19: Interesting. I mean, MS have their own app store as well. Will they be sitting side by side with Ovi on the devices? Or will MS quietly drop it, like they more or less have with Games for Windows Live?
I suspect MS may drop it (or merge it in or something like that). They were in such a different position than Google that they were probably willing to concede just about anything to get a chance at a broader uptake. Ah, here's an article discussing some of the directions (calling it a "make-or-break" deal).
Nokia's content and application store, Ovi, would be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.Although they may just be making it up as they go along at this point.
Ovi's shutting down except for the Ovi Publish backend. Navteq is replacing MS Virtual Earth/Live Maps. Symbian is doomed. Nokia Research is going to be jobs massacred.
It's the end, baby. At least Qt gets an out via Intel. Nokia becomes an ODM for MS and provides basic mobile consulting to the MS people who've never worked with cellular radio or any kind of radio. Nokia-Siemens Networks - dunno what happens there.
It's the end of the line from Psion in '83. Fuck'em all, the long and the short and the tall.
This is of course not the opinion of, etc, etc.
Speaking of "way of life" and mobile devices. Brought to you by LA Stereotype Reinforcers Inc.
Just got my new android phone long enough now to get over the first rush of the new and to get annoyed at its limitations and slowness; that takes about a month.
Nokia sort of missed the boat, didn't it? But I do sometimes wonder how much of the hole they're in is media generated and how much is real.
I'm feeling annoyed that they didn't double-down on MeeGo, not that I know nearly enough to have an educated opinion on things.
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By the way, Morocco is really lovely so far, and camels are super goofy-looking, though more docile than I'd been led to expect. I'm kind of shocked by how shocked the moroccans I've talked to have been by Gaddafi's behavior; I guess the Tunisia and Egypt situations have made 'going quietly' seem normal.
We were stopped on the way back from the desert to Marrakech by a policeman who thought my mother had taken a picture of him, which of course would have been illegal. It took awhile for our guide (yes, yes) to persuade him that no such photo had been taken. A bit stressful, that, though as American tourists we're probably the class of persons least at risk from such things.
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The thing i hate about android is it decreases the power of the phone makers. Which means they have less leverage over hte att/big red duopoly.
46: i fail to see why pro-panoticonical directionality gradient is charming just because its in north africa
as American tourists we're probably the class of persons least at risk from such things.
I swear it happened, but I didn't save the email: as a student abroad in South America in early 2003, I was the recipient of a number of State Department emails advising of threats and general whateverness. The best one ever, as the war drums beat towards Iraq, suggested that there was no need to make it obvious that you were USian and, in fact, if you felt uncomfortable, it was okay to say you were Canadian.
I hope I've not made up this memory. It was a very stressful time.
Yeah the shame of saying you are cnadienne is hard ot get over.
I don't think Stanley could really pass for Canadienne.
I'm not really in a good position to dispute that.
i'm in a good position to impute that. if you no what i mean
47: I didn't say the police thing was charming; it was depressing and stressful. Recording cops should always be legal.
