Visiting Times Square for New Years? Why not self handedly power that dropping ball?

As much as I’d love to, I simply won’t be in Times Square for the big ball drop into 2010. But just because I’m not there doesn’t mean I’m missing out. Some would argue that staying home (or at least indoors) is a much better experience as you get the benefit of countless camera angles, more coverage of the event, and of course a surrounding air temperature above freezing. The latter of which is a big one for me seeing as how I hate the cold.

Since most party goers will start arriving late tonight/early tomorrow for the festivities and taking into account they’ll have to remain motionless to keep their spots as close to the excitement as possible, boredom will no doubt set in. On a completely different and unrelated sidenote: Powering that giant 9,500 LED strong dropping ball takes a fair amount of juice even considering the LED, eco-friendly/hug a tree technology.

Energizer has a solution to kill two birds with one stone — enter the Smart Power Lab. Energizer is setting up a mobile pedal powered smart lab (say that ten times fast) that will give bored/cold onlookers the chance to supply energy to power the ’09/’10 ball. Simply give a few minutes of your time and have the energy created stored for later use tomorrow night. The coolest part is that their are screens showing you how much energy your currently producing as well as telling you overall how much you’ve produced.

It’s a novel concept to say the least. One which goes to show how clever advertising and customer involvement can better market a brand.

Anyone headed to the Big Apple within the next 24 hours care to share a few snapshots of the events and a few of yourself on the mobile power lab bikes?

Online iPhone purchases resume for NYC residents.

Thankfully, *del*the fraud problems*/del* whatever caused AT&T to stop online iPhone sales to NYC residents has been solved. Venturing over to AT&T’s website and clicking the appropriate boxes will once again net you an iPhone no matter your zip code — NYC residents included. Whether the “fraud problem” was actually eliminated or AT&T fixed the imminent network problems in the area isn’t known and probably never will be. At least hopeful New Yorkers can be at peace, let out a sigh of relief, and get to ordering that bulk order of 1,000 iPhone’s they were so eager to resell for cheap shiny iPhone that was gleaming in their eye.

LaptopMag

Nearly two years after the fact — AT&T CS Rep: “New York is not ready for iPhone”. iPhone not available for sale online w/ NYC zipcodes.

The ongoing spiraling in a downward direction that AT&T’s image is continually traveling is both sad and entertaining. Could it be my sadistic side finding pleasure in an enemies misfortunes? Who knows. What I do know however is that reports from Consumerist this fine Sunday evening detailing a new revelation in the AT&T/iPhone drama are quite alarming to say the least.

Go to Apple’s or AT&T’s website and try and order an iPhone with any NYC zipcode — it won’t work. Now try any other major city in the continental US — business as usual. What gives? After Consumerist reader “Stephen” stumbled upon this little folly, Consumerist writer “Laura” went ahead and gave the ‘ol ball and chain a jingle to see if she could get any more info. The conversation she had was nothing short of eye opening…

Daphne: Welcome to AT&T online Sales support. How may I assist you with placing your order today?

Laura: Hi, I was looking at the iPhone 3Gs and the system tells me that I cannot order one in my ZIP code. My zip code is 11231. (Brooklyn, NY) Is this true? Are iPhones no longer available in New York City?

Daphne: I am happy to be helping you today . Yes, this is correct the phone is not offered to you because New York is not ready for the iPhone.

Daphne: You don’t have enough towers to handle the phone.

Laura: Thank you for your help. So the phone is not available to people anywhere in the city?

Daphne: Yes this is correct Laura.

Wow, just wow. Now before I come off sounding too critical, on the surface, limiting or restricting a device causing excessive network drain and load seems like an intelligent idea. That is until you look at the bigger picture — that which includes the restricted device being one of the most highly sought after smartphones in the world. It may temporarily slow down or even halt network load growth in NYC, but it certainly won’t improve the companies ever decreasing image. If anything, I see this move bringing even more attention to AT&T’s problems.

Of course, the question of “why bother?” comes to mind since strolling into any physical Apple or AT&T store will net your a shiny new iPhone. Perhaps they’re trying to cut off all of those lazy couch potatoes that suck down the data from the confines of their homes, eschewing the network saving WiFi no? There is also the question of why AT&T is taking so damn long upgrading their network in the first place.

What do you think? Is the restricting of iPhone sales online a good move or another drop in the already overflowing bucket of shame?

Consumerist

NYC goes one step further, bans in-ear cellphone devices for cabbies.

Many states and municipalities are beginning to move forward with cellphone bans, making it illegal to use your hands and talk on the phone in the car. Hands-free devices such as bluetooth ear pieces fix this. For cabbies in NYC however, life just became a much bigger pain in the ass — the city has unanimously voted to ban in-ear cellphone devices, specifically stating: “in the immediate proximity of the driver’s ear”.

Numerous reports and studies have been conducted showing the increased risk cellphone use in the car presents. Even hands-free use has been shown to increase the risk of accidents. But does it really matter? How far will governments go with the ban hammer. Just as a cellphone conversation or texting can distract driving, so can talking deeply to a friend, fiddling with the radio, and adjusting the mirror. Will the government ban that too?

If I come across harsh, sorry, I’m merely saying it how it is — at some point, you have to stop safety proofing the world. If we ever reach a point in society where there is no way for a person to die by accidental means, we’re all going to be trapped in our houses surrounded by our own miniature force fields and plastic bubbles.

With that said, I can understand and generally accept a hands free rule for mobile talkers in the car. But banning pretty much any type of communication is stupid, short sighted, and in fact more dangerous than the ear pieces caused. Mind you, cabbies have been banned from most cellphone usage for close to a decade now. The only reason this is cropping up again is because the in-ear devices made it nearly impossible to tell if they were chatting to the passenger, themselves, or the person in their ear. Not so anymore.

What do you think? Is NYC getting too draconian in their ways? I mean, you can only ban so many things and services in life before it starts getting over reaching. In this particular case, I’d say NYC is going overboard. What’s your take?

NYC

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iPhone case Street vendors in New York show no mercy. Set up shop out front Apple stores for maximum profit.

In most circumstances I’d advise you to be extra leery and even outright avoid street vendors in large cities such as Chicago and New York. What often seem like nice and honest people are actually anything but, scamming gullible tourists and such out of their dollars in exchange for cheap crap. But every once in a while you find a diamond in the rough. Gear Diary writer Larry Greenberg found just that. It seems Larry shares a love that I myself am completely helpless to — we love phone cases. In his case (no pun intended), it’s for the iPhone while mine has since moved on to the Droid.

While a great deal of iPhone cases sold by Apple are at least a 6 on a 1-10 scale, you ultimately pay for the name and privilege of owning a small piece of the Apple name. But you don’t have to. Many do their shopping online as Apple sometimes has special deals on their online store. You can try 3rd channels both online and party brick and mortar with retailers such as Best Buy and other consumer electronics stores routinely offering their own sales and discounts. Or you can simply walk ten feet outside of an Apple store in Manhattan and find a rather organized and well kept street vendor with a boat load of cheap iPhone cases.

The vendor above was sitting outside of Apple’s new Manhattan store located on the upper-west side of the city. Apple obviously doesn’t like it because the vendor undercuts their prices by a considerable margin. The police aren’t too favorable either as it takes up space and street vendors on the whole have a rather negative image built up around them. But according to Larry, this guy was actually really nice and well kept, flaunting his street vendor badge giving him what seemed like god like powers to resist the powers of the police and Apple alike. Hey, if he’s making money and actually selling legit cases that aren’t crap, more power to him.

As Larry says: “Capitalism at it’s finest”. So true Larry, so true.

New York gangs take to the digital streets via Twitter

Twitter has reshaped communication in recent years in that it brought the extremely fast communication method of texting and opened it up to the world. Now faster than ever, ideas and thoughts can be shared with not just a few, but the whole world. What once was a small community of geeks and nerds trading 140 character or less messages back and forth has blossomed into a worldwide phenomenon with people of all ages and lifestyles picking up Twitter as an effective means to communicate. All we ever hear about is weird or funny individuals or groups making use of the micro blogging mecca, but a far scarier and sinister following is getting with the times and giving their hand at this whole digital revolution — gangs.

Emergency warnings coming to New York Xbox Live users.

If you’re in the heat of the battle within a Halo/Modern Warfare 2/GTA mission on your Xbox and are completely oblivious to any and all threats in the immediate reality surrounding you, a new mandatory warning system coming to New Yorkers will benefit you greatly. The New York Emergency Management Office will soon start issue warning messages via Xbox Live. Messages such as Tornado, flood, thunderstorm, amber alert, etc. will come through the Xbox Live channel into your humble abode alerting the 25 and younger crowd whom are increasingly spending more time away from traditional TV and radio channels that broadcast such emergency information. The move will hopefully spark other agencies and corporations to embrace this whole digital realm of things. Though I hope Microsoft doesn’t allow companies and third parties to go overboard. God forbid Xbox Live becomes overrun with commercials and merchant services. Such a thing would destroy the popular online gaming world. Thankfully I don’t think Microsoft is willing to sell that much of their soul.

So what do you think: Emergency warnings via Xbox Live — Good or bad?

Nexus404