I am becoming more and more convinced that selling my soul to T-Mobile for the next 24 months was a wise investment.
I just couldn’t take my dinosaur phone anymore. I thought about getting an iPhone, since I have ties to the cult of Apple, but I really wanted a phone that was designed to work with a keyboard. I also wanted to support Google’s open-source phone software platform, so I got a G1 a few days ago.
As you might expect, the G1 is rife with clever and innovative features. For example, when adding contacts, you can specify that all calls from this contact should go directly to voicemail. It groups text messages in “threads,” in simple to peruse entire conversations.
The G1’s simplicity of use is elegant. The G1 can be charged from any USB port. When you connect it to your computer, the phone appears as a folder on your desktop. You can drag media there to copy it to your phone, which comes with a 1GB storage card. (Cards with up to 16GB are available for purchase.) From there, it’s easy to set any mp3 as a ringtone and any picture as wallpaper. Whee!
Since the platform is open-source, a plethora of innovative free apps are available to enhance your cellular experience. For example, the locale app changes your phone’s behavior based on the phone’s location. With this app, you can program your phone to automatically switch to silent mode when you go to class, or change your Angelina Jolie wallpaper to something less racy while in the vicinity of your parents’ house.
Although many apps are already available, lots of ideas for future apps are floating around. For example, TUI prevention. Google already has a gmail app that screens for drunk emailing. If you have this feature enabled and you can’t answer five math questions in sixty seconds, too bad; that 3AM rant will not make it to your ex-girlfriend tonight. The G1 should offer similar protection, although I suppose it’s elitist and possibly ineffectual to correlate math ability with alcohol consumption. (Don’t drink and derive!) Perhaps the G1 could gauge sobriety in a different manner, or simply block calls to certain contacts during specified times when people are most likely to be smashed.
Another reason to support Google: they publicly stated that they oppose Proposition 8, and even donated money to the “No on 8″ campaign. According to their blog, it would have a “discriminatory effect on many of their employees.” Z0MG, teh google is run by teh gays? I’m shocked.
Unsurprisingly, Apple also contributed money to defeat Proposition 8. Their position makes sense from a branding perspective: since we gays just couldn’t live without our iPhones, it probably doesn’t make sense to alienate a large target demographic. The people who are most staunchly against gay marriage are, generally speaking, too old and techno-phobic to succumb to Apple’s strategic marketing. Yes, I am aware of the ageist nature of said generalization, but the exit poll data shows that older voters were the most likely to support Proposition 8. A quick perusal of the demographics shows some interesting trends. However, I am choosing not to analyze this data in-depth, since the validitiy of exit polls is questionable. Furthermore, people are using the demographic breakdown to promote racist sentiments. C’mon, radical queers and supporters: the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy functions by pitting marginalized groups against each other. Even if it is true that 70% of Black people voted in support of Prop. 8, gay rights activists should start looking for answers within our own movement. How does racism within queer communities contribute to marginalization of certain groups, both within and outside of our movement? What can we do to be better allies? How can we begin to dismantle the widespread perception that gay rights are a white issue?
Although I harbor occasional fantasies about having a cute lesbian wedding, I don’t actually want to get married. I think that emulating a fundamentally oppressive heterosexual institution is hardly a radical goal. Nevertheless, legalizing gay marriage would have important symbolic repercussions, such as promoting the wild notion that gays are people who deserve equal treatment under the law.
My heart goes out to the 18,000 California couples whose marriages are now up in the air. I’m somewhat glad Del Martin didn’t live to see voters in her home state endorse better conditions for farm animals, while espousing a regressive agenda on the human rights front.
09/11/2008 at 2:59 am Permalink
Well said! Exit polls don’t tell us much. What about all the early and absentee voting? Instead of blaming groups of people, let’s hold each particular person accountable for voting against equal rights.
Your new phone sounds awesome.
14/11/2008 at 1:02 am Permalink
I would expect some backwards place like Az to ban gay marriage but Cali? I always thought they were a progressive state but then they elected an action figure as Governor. Perhaps from now on we should only let San Francisco and Marin counties vote in elections and when Jello Biafra is elected in 2012 we can all have a party.
Incidentally, my phone can be hooked up to a computer and have uploaded mp3’s and .jpgs set as ringtones and wallpapers but only cost me $50 two years ago. I do like the G1 though, my sister in law has one and as cool as it is to be able to use your phone to scan a bar code and have it tell you that Tostitos are cheaper at King Soopers I really wouldn’t use it all that much.