Category: Life

I recently read an article Apple introducing the “Apple patents anti-sexting application for mobiles” and it got me wondering if this posed as an invasion of privacy. There are two sides to thsi anti-sexting application. It’s good in the sense that parents are able to monitor their younger children the types of language they are receiving or sending out when they are using SMS.  This protects younger children from being exposed to inappropriate words, sayings, ideas and so on. The anti-sexting application also provides parents with a sense of safety, knowing that their child or children will not develope the wrong mindset and become badly influenced by their social crowd. On the other hand, I personally feel like this is a type of invasion of privacy. Sooner or later everyone in this world (all children) will be exposed in some way or another to inappropriate languages and ideas that exists in the world. I understand that it is still better to postpone this exposure for children but the app for mobile phones is not ideal. Not only is this an invasion of privacy, but it probably won’t be as affective as parents have hoped. Children can simply delete the app from their mobile devices and even if they don’t, there are millions of other ways nowadays to communicate that doesn’t involve sending out a SMS text. There are apps in the app world such as “Whatsapp, Kik Messenger, Ping chat” which all provide the same functions as SMS except that they all run through Wi Fi or 3G network, which means that the messages being sent through these apps cannot be monitored. The messages do not go through a system which can set a control on what is being sent. Therefore, despite concerned parents attempts to better control the environment their children are being exposed to everyday, there is no possible way to control what their children will be exposed to through their mobile devices.

I have been for about one year now an Apple Iphone user. I started out with the 3g and moved my way up to the 3gs. Now I have always been a fan of Apple products and always rooted for Apple whenever the topic of “which is better? Apple or Blackberry” came up. The last four months of my Apple experience have been horrendous and I am not happy to say this, but Apple in my perspective has fallen from the tree and rotted into the ground. I say this because for the in the last four months I have been through 3 different Iphone 3gs and 1 repair session. So that is a total of 5 official visits to the store and many minutes wasted on the phone on hold to try and book an appointment to meet a genius (what Apple calls their tech people). Let me break down to you the series of events that has lead me to write this blog:

1. I received my 3gs in August and was very happy
2. I used it for about 1 week and the LCD light wouldn’t turn on and the battery stopped charging (this was particularly awful because when the battery stopped charging was when I was in Kelowna – therefore, no access to an Apple store)
3. I traded in my non lit not able to charge Iphone for a brand new one since I was still under warranty and was happy and off I went again
4. A month later, sometime in September I noticed on the screen of my Iphone there were streaks but underneath as if the screen was coming off
5. I went into Apple to have it checked out, and surely the screen glue was coming off and they had to replace the screen for me
6. I went off once again with my Iphone which now had a new screen and no more streaks underneath the screen
7. Two months later, the sound on my Iphone died. Whenever someone called I couldn’t hear what the person was saying because the sound was so faint but they could hear me perfectly.
8. I once again took my phone in and the geniuses tried to fix it but nothing worked so they gave me another Iphone since I was still under warranty
9. Exactly two days later, I woke up on this particularly nice Sunday (today to be exact) and I decided to check my mail. As I was browsing through my mail my Iphone all of a sudden decided to automatically shut down and freeze on me.
10. At this point, I am very angry and frustrated and try and restore my phone by myself to save my time of driving down the jam packed no.3 rd, fighting for a parking spot and into the ever so crowded Richmond Centre. But of course, the restoring did not work.
11. Once again, I’m inside an Apple store, huge clutters of people with their beady eyes in an awe state eyeing all the Apple products on display as if it were the greatest inventions ever created on Earth.
12. Fortunately the guy that helped me this time happened to help me two days ago and the moment he saw my phone he knew right away it was a software problem.

Now I could say I am just very unlucky with Iphones but seriously 3 phones and 1 repair in 4 months? That is a little drastic don’t you agree? Despite having products that prove to be extremely unreliable and easily malfunctioned, I do have one good thing to say about Apple – Their customer service inside the store is excellent (or maybe they just really wanted to reduce traffic within the store so they performed at an exceptionally fast and efficient pace).

As can be seen, I am not impressed with Apple products at the moment and I am deeply upset and because I am now an unhappy customer I will not remain loyal to the brand and definitely not be an advocate for the brand. I think I will switch to a Blackberry soon but definitely no more Apple products for me!

As I went grocery shopping today with my mom we realized how foolish people are for falling for tricks merchants use. We were at the fruit aisle and my mom saw a sign that said “Today Only! 20% off” for pears and the original price listed under  the sale sign read “2 for $2.50″. At first I advised my mom to get it, since the sale seemed extremely generous but after my mom pointed out something to me, I retracted my statement. She told me that two days ago when she came to the same shop, same aisle the pears were priced as follows…..”1.00 each”. I felt like such a fool! The merchants made it seem like they were giving customers a great deal when in reality the prices stayed exactly the same!! I was so shocked and amazed at the same time. It made me wonder if anything I’ve bought on sale had actually ever been in reality  a “saving.” It’s so brilliant for the merchants to do what they did, because I completely fell for it as a consumer. After this experience, I’m going to be more careful next time I make a purchase that’s for sure!!

Have you ever tried to access a website and inconveniently a pop up ad stops you in your path? Isn’t it extremely annoying? I know it’s not a big deal because they can all be easily exited with a simple click of a button but when you have to go through this on a regular basis it becomes annoying and frustrating. Clearly these ads are meant to catch one’s attention but it’s not necessarily a good impression they give to their audience. Even if the advertisement can relate to the consumer, he or she may still choose not to click on the ad because the consumers’ temporal state has already been affected. From personal experience, my attitude has always been a negative one and this can give the company a bad image. I really wish that these companies would stop advertising and marketing through pop up ads as they are very ineffective and extremely aggravating. It is true that these companies are being remembered and are leaving impressions with their customers but it is not necessarily a good one.

Definition of Core

[kawr, kohr] Show IPA noun, verb, cored, cor·ing.

So I stumbled upon my friend Ashley Collin’s blog and found it super entertaining so I thought I would share it with the rest of you out there just in case you miss her blog this week.  She had blogged about a condom commercial she found on Youtube. I completely agree with her on that any topic revolving around sex are usually uncomfortable, disapproving and inappropriate and may offend audiences. Durex has clearly identify this as a weakness for their products and has cleverly come up with a marketing commercial that is eye catching, more appropriate for viewers and that provides a comic relief. Ashley mentioned most condom commercials are hot and steamy, I would like to add confusing and indirect into that category. Condom companies tries not be so direct about what they selling in order to avoid offending any potential viewers and I’ve found it to be very ineffective because by the end of the commercial the viewer is left confused and uncertain about what the company is trying to pitch to them. Durex took a different approach and simply had their product (condoms) in view throughout the whole commercial but disguised it in a way that only older audiences (young adults – which happens to be their target market) may understand its context. I personally believe it’s a great commercial and it completely caught my attention because it was so different from the usual ones I have seen before. I can definately see how Durex’s marketing team consists of very creative people and hope to see more commercials as creative and attractive as theirs.

The Youtube video is worth watching, it is really cute and entertaining!

I realize that his topic may be brought up and talked about a lot but I strongly feel that it is a topic that can be looked at more.

In our society today, the way ads and commericals portray both women and men are extremely disrespectful and demeaning. Our exposure to all the media around us has implanted in our minds this image of ‘what a beautiful women’ should appear like or ‘what a real man’ should look like. There are several ads out there that exploit both genders as you can see below. My questions are: Is this what we preceive all men and women should look like? Why is it that majority of men in society not appear as they do in the Calvin Klein ads then? If ordinary men do not replicate the models in Calvin Klein’s ads does that mean they are inferior? Are women supposed to be a size zero in order to be categorized as beautiful or pretty?

Although most people may not take great offence to these ads. I personally feel that they are subconsciously hurting us. Women wonder “if they are too fat to be liked” and men feel emasculated by not meeting the society’s standards of ‘a man.’ I don’t believe men have to be strong, buff or extremely fit to be attractive and manly. I don’t believe women have to be thin, tall, lean to be pretty. Why can’t there just be ads with “normal people” portrayed in it? How much percent of our population even looks like “the ideal man or woman”? We shouldn’t have to feel bad about ourselves just because some advertising company decided to project their views on what a woman or man should look like. We should be happy to be who we are in every aspect. This is why I believe Dove has been so successful in getting support for their campaign. They promote “real beauty” and being comfortable in your own skin. I recently came across a blogger and her opinions on the Dove campaign.

http://theworldofads.wordpress.com/2007/03/22/doves-campaign-for-real-beauty/

I completely agree with her on how Dove has been successful in reaching out to their target groups because they promote the real aspect of beauty. They don’t hire people that fits into the sterotype of “The perfect women” but rather base all their ads and commercials on everyday average people like you and I. The ad doesn’t suggest what women should LOOK LIKE to be beautiful but rather delivers the message that everyone is beautiful and unique in their own way and that we should all be proud of we are. The message I get from Dove is so much more positive than the ones I get from everyday ads I see in magazines or on television. It’s a tough adjustment for our society and it’s even harder for everyone to change their way of thinking. It may take hundreds of years before we can all come to a realization that we are all different and beautiful in our own ways and that there are many defintions of beauty, not just one. Maybe, just maybe I’ll live to see that day.