Cinebistro

Well, for Halloween, a friend of mine decided to dedicate the back of his costume (he was a large notepad) to a petition for bringing back Red’s Richmond.  As all of my normal readers know, there has been a huge lapse since the last post.  Well, I couldn’t let a good petition go to waste.  Henceforth, Red’s Richmond is back (at least until I get bored with it or way too busy again).

Any major changes in my life since my last post?  Well let’s see.  I got a dog, a girlfriend, and a couple promotions at work.  Perhaps you can see why my amount of time to post went down dramatically.  Honestly work has been the only thing that has slowed me down on posts and now that things are slowly getting back into a groove, I think you’ll see some more regular updates.

What does this have to do with Cinebistro?  Oh, absolutely nothing.  Excuse me for acting like maybe you care about my life.  I’m not sure what I was thinking.

A couple weeks ago I received an email from a friend saying that we should all get tickets to Cinebistro for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows midnight premiere.  Clearly I was planning on seeing this movie as the Harry Potter saga has been a cultural phenomenon for several different generations of people over the past few years.  However, I was a bit confused by what this “Cinebistro” was that she was talking about.

I consulted with the “all-knowing,” a.k.a. Google, and quickly determined that Cinebistro was one of those theaters I had heard about that actually serves dinner and drinks during the movie.  Now the last time I heard rumors like this is was of Bowtie Cinema’s Movieland over on Boulevard.  Now, don’t get me wrong, Movieland is by far my favorite traditional theater in the Richmond area, but I was under the impression that I would be able to consume alcoholic beverages with my friends as I enjoyed the movie.  Wrong wrong wrong.  So to say that I was a bit apprehensive of this “Cinebistro” would have been an understatement.

Regardless of if I could drink and eat at the theater, I went ahead and bought tickets.  It was during the purchasing process that I realized that this movie theater was indeed something different.  After several confirmation and customer information pages, the website asked me to choose my seats.  CHOOSE MY SEATS?!  How does this work?  Are you telling me that I don’t have to get there super early to fight for a decent seat?  Are you telling me that I have the piece of mind to be able to walk into the theater and know that THAT seat right there, A5, is MY seat?  Brilliant.  Why hasn’t this phenomenon occurred in other theaters yet?

After my excitement died down and I remembered I only had a limited amount of time to complete this transaction, I was suddenly a bit concerned again.  I wanted to sit next to my friends who had already purchased tickets, however, they had chosen front row seats.  Now there are some great times to get front row seats which include professional sports events, Broadway plays, and concerts.  Watching a movie is not one of these times.  I bit the bullet and grabbed two seats next to each other and emailed my friends to let them know I was going.

So last night magically arrived way quicker than I thought that it was going to and I was suddenly excited again.  My next dilemma was determining where the heck this place was at.  The address on their website very generically listed the addressed for Stony Point Fashion Park.  Thanks.  Good thing that’s not a mall with a bunch of stores.  Otherwise I’d have completely no idea where it would be.  Even then, I go to Stony Point fairly often and I didn’t recall seeing this place in the mall so I was questioning if it was even there or if it was on a nearby road.  Finally I found some information that said that it’s near Dillard’s and to park accordingly.  That explained a lot.  Who goes to Stony Point to go to Dillard’s?

We arrived around 11:15 p.m. and used their snazzy little machine to print out our tickets (note for the future, you do not need your confirmation email).  To your right, when you walk in, there is a bar and dining area.  My friends were already there so we walked over to the bar to join them before they started seating for the show.  After a few brief moments they started seating.  Instead of rushing over to the line to be seated, we stood there and chatted for a minute since we knew that our seats were reserved.  What a great feeling!

As we walked into the theater they checked tickets and seated much like a concert or play.  After being led to our seats, our waiter was there to explain how everything works as far as ordering, when we get our food, etc.  I took a brief glance at the menu, but, as I am prone to do, had already checked it out online beforehand and knew what I wanted.  Prices were semi-reasonable for some things and absurd for others.  Popcorn at seven dollars?  Sure that’s robbery but that’s pretty close to par for the course at any theater.  Cheese steak and fries for fifteen dollars?  A bit expensive for the caliber of the food, but still, not awful.  Four dollars for a bottle of water?  At home I drink tap water.  However, I’ll admit that when I do buy water I am a bit of a water snob and typically reach for the Fiji.  This was Acqua Panna which was excellent also.  Four dollars wasn’t awful there.  However, six dollars for a bottle Guiness?  Okay…  This wouldn’t have bothered me so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that their pitchers of domestics were around twelve to fifteen dollars.  So you say, just get the pitcher?  Apparently our outdated ABC laws will not allow the theater to sell pitchers at a midnight showing because all alcohol must be cleared out by 1:30 a.m. and ABC doesn’t deem that two people can finish a pitcher in 90 minutes.  To steal a line from Andre on The League, “Child please!”

Previews started and the food came.  My cheese steak was adequate.  It certainly wasn’t anything to get excited about.  In the future, I will most likely only get desert and drinks here and eat at a real restaurant before I come.  The concept is very cool though and some of their other entrees may have been delicious.  Who knows.  I wouldn’t discount it.

My experience as a whole was great though.  The wait staff was more than attentive (at least to me, my friends had some issues getting their popcorn).  The seats were over-sized leather seats and were ridiculously comfortable.  The viewing angle from the front row was better than expected.  I would still recommend sitting two or three rows back.  Will I go again?  Absolutely.  However, I will most likely reserve this place for movies that I know that I WANT to see and not movies that I am going to just to see how they are.  I will still be headed to Movieland on Boulevard on Tuesday nights for their great six dollar deal when it comes to those.

Go check this place out!  I’d love to hear your comments on it!

Sine

Well, it’s about time that I wrote something up about one of my favorite places in Richmond.  Located at 1327 E. Cary Street in Shockoe Slip, Sine is one of Richmond’s premiere Summer time hang outs.  Not just your run of the mill Irish pub look-a-like, parts of the interior were actually made in Ireland and transported across the pond to historic Richmond.  Don’t be fooled by your initial desire to call this place “sign.”"  It is pronounced “Shin-ay.”

Now I know a lot of people who go here all the time for the bar at night, and make no mistake, it’s quite the great place to enjoy a few stiff Irish whiskeys on a hot Richmond evening, but I want you to know that their food here is also great.  They easily have the second best fish & chips in Richmond.  First place in this category is reserved for Penny Lane Pub.  However I enjoy pretty much everything on their menu.

Then there’s the nightlife of Sine.  The place really offers the perfect environment to have a great time with your friends.  The place is very spacious and offers just the right “spot” for anyone.  There are tables spread throughout the restaurant as well as smaller tables near the lengthy bar.  If you need to get out of the craziness for a bit, take a step out back and have a couple drinks on the covered porch or take a few more steps into the sun of the patio area.

As far as alcohol goes, this places screams my name.  They have all the best beers on tap and ready to go such as Smithwicks, Murphy’s, Sam Adams, Killians and of course the staple Guinness.  Good huh?  Hold on, it gets great!  They also have a good list of small batch bourbons and single malt scotches if you care to take your drinking up a notch.  However, the more refined of us will be seen sipping on their list of Irish Whiskies.  While they don’t have the same selection as McCormack’s in the Fan, for the downtown area, this is great!

So if you’ve never been to Sine, you haven’t been for a while, or you’re a regular there, next time you are “thinking about drinking,” slap on your green and head to Sine and drink like you’re Irish!

Foursquare

So over the past couple months I’ve started using the phenomenon known as Foursquare.  I think this was originally due to boredom if nothing else, but slowly all of my friends have been joining this technology wave.  I think that it’s a really cool idea for being able to keep track of where your friends are if you have so many that it’s a difficult task.  I typically know where mine are if they are anywhere nearby, but hey, maybe one day I’ll go to check in and see someone next door that I didn’t know was there.

What I really like about Foursquare is that it encourages users to go out and try new places.  It’s always great to have a little adventure.  I mean we all get stuck in our ruts of going to the same places to eat and/or drink.  With Foursquare, sometimes you just want to go somewhere new to get the points bonus.  It’s not like the points actually DO anything, but nowadays if you tell someone you’ll give them useless points to do something, they are ALL about some useless points!

I also think that the mayorship idea is a cool concept, especially the businesses that award their mayors bonuses.  Starbucks does this and I’ve ran into a handful of places in Richmond that also offer benefits to their mayors.  It’s a great way to reward loyal customers.  They are frequenting the establishment as well as inadvertently advertising it to all of their Foursquare friends.

If there was one thing I would add to Foursquare though, it’s that I wish there were more badges and challenges for all cities and not just the larger cities like D.C. and New York.  I certainly don’t have all the badges yet or anything, but I have noticed it getting harder and harder to get anything new and it’s due to lack of availability.

Overall, it’s a cool concept.  I think the ideas for this kind of application started back with Loopt and other friend tracking networks.  They were useful, but Foursquare made it fun.

Hacked!

I’ve been using the internet since Prodigy was around.  Yes, that makes me a nerd.  Yes, that shows my age a bit.  However, not once in the entirety of my internet history have I ever been hacked.  This morning, that changed.

Walking out of the restroom at work, I receive a call from a friend.  I don’t take calls at work on my personal phone so I let it go to voicemail and figured I’d respond at lunch.  I then receive a text message.  Your gmail has been hacked.   What?  Clearly this cannot be correct.  I rush back into the office and sit down at my conglomeration of LCD monitors (I swear if it ever turns up that LCD puts off some sort of radiation that causes cancer, I’m so done for).

I immediately switch to my open mail account and change my password.  I then go to the Sent Mail folder to survey how much damage has actually been done.  Only one email message.  Phew.  Wait, there is no one in the To field.  Oh crap.  That’s my entire address book in the BCC field.  Lovely.

I then receive an onslaught of text messages from concerned friends making me aware that my account has been hacked.  This seems only fair.  I spammed them, they spam me.  Really though, I do appreciate the concern guys.

So, as Q so eloquently pointed out, your account only gets hacked for one of two reasons.  Either you have a crappy password or you entered your information into a website that you probably shouldn’t have been at anyway.  My password is like Fort Knox strong so take a guess at what had to have happened.

I pride myself on being pretty good at catching phishing attempts and not putting my real information into any site that may lead to this sort of event occurring however I apparently slipped up.  I have made fun of people forever for getting hacked.  I’d say things like, “If you are just smart about what you do on the internet, you’ll never get hacked.”  My apologies to those people and to my friends who received a bunch of broken english advertising some crappy website today.

Such a lovely way to start a Wednesday morning.

Knight and Day

I spent about 30 minutes trying to come up with a non-offensive title to this review and just couldn’t do it.  There’s one that just jumps out and I refuse to use it.  Regardless, the same night that we were at the movies watching The A-Team was the same night that Knight and Day opened at midnight.  Both Q and I had been very excited from the previews to see this movie because well, it looked fun and wayyyy over the top.

It was neither.  Well, maybe that isn’t completely true.  It was definitely over the top.  So far over the top that it was over the top of being over the top.  You definitely get the sense that they were trying way too hard.  And for what?  This was yet another movie that if you saw the previews, you saw enough of the movie.  I cannot think of another scene that wasn’t in previews that was any good at all.

The chemistry between Cruise and Diaz was also lacking.  Like they are supposed to at least somewhat be infatuated with each other at some points and there’s nothing.  They feel more like brother and sister throughout the movie.

The action scenes…or lack thereof, we’re also not that great.  I love how every time they get into a crazy inescapable position, the movie goes black and then suddenly they are out of harm’s way.  It’s not that I really care that much about the story at this point, but the potential for awesome action scenes was there and they just completely skipped it.  I didn’t even find the movie funny.

Bottom line, D movie.  I’m not sure I would even Netflix it.  This atrocity somehow got a midnight release too.  That’s how bad we’re hurting this summer for movies.

The A stands for Awesome!

Sometimes I think I trick myself at the movies.  Sometimes I will go and see something that I think will just be okay.  Let’s call it a C movie for the sake of argument.  I then go into the movie theater, sit down, and watch a solid B movie.  However, since I was expecting a C movie, this B movie feels like an A movie.  I THOUGHT I did this last week when I went and saw The A-Team.

Reviews hadn’t been too kind to the movie.  However that’s becoming all too common.  So let me say this before you run out and see this movie and then go “Red….what was so spectacular about that movie?”  Nothing.  But it had something going for it that only one other movie this Summer had going for it.  It was FUN!

I laughed, gasped and just utterly had a great time watching this movie.  I thought that maybe I had been blinded by lack of entertainment for the day and that anything would have been great.  To my surprise, Q also greatly enjoyed the movie!  Maybe I’m not crazy after all.

So, don’t go in expecting any crazy surprising plot twists or amazing acting, but if you’re looking to have a good time, this movie is definitely for you!!!

The Takeover, The Breaks Over

Yes I just referenced a Fall Out Boy song title.  You don’t like it?  Good to know.  I’ll take that into consideration.  Please post things that you do like that way I can start a nice big list of things that I don’t give a crap about.

This is the continuation of my catch up posts from my Extended Stay America errr…my long break from blog posts.  Sometimes I just type and crazy shit comes out.

So we had planned several things for last weekend.  We had planned to go catch the final Richmond Raiders game of the regular season on Friday night.  We are season ticket holders.  Front row.  25-yard line.  In arena football, that’s an amazing seat.  We were then going to snag a ride from our favorite panda (soon to be Panda, Ph.D.) and head up to D.C. for the weekend and catch a second round of the infamous Beer, Bourbon and BBQ festival.  Even after being hungover like hell from our ridiculous Thursday night exploits, I was still excited for the weekend.

Plans get disrupted sometimes.  Sometimes they are forces out of your control.  Sometimes they are due to mistakes.  Sometimes they are due to bad planning.  Sometimes, all of that clenches a fist and strikes you in the back of your balls like Ali on a punching bag.  Lovely imagery huh?  We had planned to buy tickets at the door for the festival.  Then I decided to use this wonderful new tool call the Internet to look up prices and whatnot only to find that EVERY SINGLE TICKET for the festival had been sold.  Well.  That’s unfortunate.  Still going to D.C. for fun.  Let’s go to this Raiders game. Oh wait.  Q mistakenly put down the wrong date into his pocket supercomputer and the game is actually on Saturday.  Screw it all, let’s go get some food and just go to D.C.  Man those weekend plans changed on a whim huh?

We went to Comfort for dinner.  We had been wanting to go there for a while after hearing good things.  Let me say this now before we go any further.  If it’s near lunch or dinner time and you’re reading this, go to Comfort for whatever meal you are preparing for.  The place was great.  The food was fantastic.  The menu and beer selection was also stellar.  My only gripe was the long wait for a table, but you get that on Fridays around 7.

We hopped in the car and headed to D.C. with our friendly neighborhood Panda.  I refer to that entire area as D.C. but more precisely we were headed to Alexandria.  Now I lived in A-town for roughly 3 months before I just couldn’t stand the area anymore, broke my lease and got the hell out of there.  That being said, I am roughly familiar with the area.  We met friends up at Light Horse in Old Town.  I had never been to this bar however I am told that it’s a different crowd every time you go.  It was certainly a different crowd that evening.  The DJ was spinning Top 40 and people of all ages were grinding all over each other on the dance floor.  After some amazing people watching we retreated back to the game room area where we could hear each other and caught up for a bit before last call.  I watched Q get molested by some crazy drunk broad who thought it was hysterical to poke him.  This was right after she made out with the bartender for a drink.  Ah, Alexandria how I have missed you.

I stayed at our friend Teen’s place on the couch and I will say that she provided a wonderful blanket that made sleep not only more enjoyable but I think it actually sucked some of the booze out of me and prevented a hangover.  On a side note, if that did happen, you may want to wash that blanket.  Even better than the blanket however was waking up to mimosas and this:

That’s french toast french bread with fruit on top.  Not like I needed to say this again, but Teen is a wonderful chef.  If it wasn’t for Teen and Panda my meals while traveling wouldn’t be anywhere near as spectacular as they are.  Ladies you are a credit to your gender.  I don’t care what anyone says about gender roles and breaking the mold and whatnot, women will always be better cooks than us.

Delicious food and tasty mimosas aside, Q and I dropped off the group who was smart enough to buy Beer, Bourbon and BBQ festival tickets early out at National Harbor and we proceed to The Bier Garten Haus out on H street to watch some football.  Yes, I called it football.  As much as I embrace what us Americans call football to the point where it’s my favorite sport, I have to say that, much like the metric system, this is a naming convention that the Europeans got correct.  It just makes more sense.

Three of these wonderful glasses later and an impromptu shot of Jameson from a bartender who supposedly was in Richmond the weekend prior but couldn’t name anything she did (we call that a successful weekend around here), we packed up and went looking for some food.  I don’t even recall watching that much football.

A quick stop at Panera Bread and we were off to pick up our drunken comrades from the festival.  Teen, Panda and Shark (this new nickname shall be explained later) jumped in and we headed to this awesome Italian place called … … … well, let’s just say I would have remembered the name if they had server alcohol.  After grabbing a mini-keg of Heineken and some Boon’s farm we sat around and drank in Shark’s hot box.  His air conditioning had broken over the week and if you recall any part of last weekend, I am sure you recall how friggin’ hot it was.  We got the hell out of there and headed back to Old Town.  It was a fairly quick outing there but it definitely comes with a story.

Two things.  First, I never assumed I would write a paragraph that contained both the words sharking and Fiona Apple in the body.  Second, I’m often wrong.

Our friend, hereby known in these chronicles as Shark mysteriously went from black to red in a matter of minutes.  I suspect roofies.  In this time he went to the restroom and came back to report that he saw a cute guy in there that looked like Fiona Apple.  Concerned, I ask more.  That was a mistake.  He described some dude with long flowing red hair (his words, not mine) that was “a beautiful man.”  When your straight guy friends start describing other guys like this, it’s a fairly good indication that they are on their way to a drunken stupor beyond any drunken stupor.  The next thing I know he’s asking us if we know what sharking is.  This was not a term that I personally was not familiar with however I am intimately familiar with it now.  Apparently, a guy runs up and lifts a girl’s dress up over her head and laughs.  Guess who came up with this phenomenon?  Those crazy Japanese.  After much encouragement from Q, Shark repeatedly tried to demonstrate how this was done on our friends at the bar.  He was not successful however.

We got back late on Sunday after spending the day shopping in both Old Town and Pentagon City Mall.  I’ve needed to rest and catch up all week.  It’s Wednesday and that still hasn’t happened.  I’ll rest when I’m dead.

Well overdue

Wow.  What a busy couple of weeks it has been for me both socially and professionally.  My apologies to my readers for the length between updates there.  I promise to make it up to you today!

So what have I been getting into since my birthday?

I had a very fun and successful birthday party which ended very late that evening.  In the past I’ve celebrated with a huge party on the rooftop of Havana 59 but due to an overly large bar tab last year I decided to play it a little more low key this year.  Regardless, we still ended up on the roof of Havana 59 after starting the night out at The Tobacco Company happy hour.  There really just is something special about Havana 59 that makes it feel like you’re not in Richmond at all.

I also ran into one of my favorite bloggers and alumni while I was taking in the 105% humidity on the roof and hopefully berated him into more frequent updates.  He had taken a bit of a hiatus but it looks like he is back up and running again.  Check it out here!

Fast forward to Tuesday and kickball.  Well, we lost our second game.  We sort of hung in there until a particularly bad inning where we pretty much just got destroyed by a team hitting the gap very very very well.  I had my Coors Light in a coozy and enjoyed myself so….whatever.  I’ll probably never have that professional kickball career I’ve always dreamed about.  Perhaps whenever they finish that silly World Cup stuff we can get Donovan and Dempsey to join up with us.

Thursday night, for whatever reason, I got into my head that my roommate and I needed to go out.  So we did and this is how it started…

Now kids, this isn’t my first rodeo with this crazy bull.  However, I can say that it always ends about the same.  For those who cannot tell from the picture, that’s a 1/2 gallon of beer.  Really not a huge deal unless you are STARTING your night with that.  Caliente…oh Caliente…  We moved on to Secco Wine Bar from there.  This was my second visit to this new Carytown establishment and I have to say that it’s one of my favorite places to hang out now.  After a few glasses we moved on in the direction of home but somehow got intercepted by Cafe Diem.  I chatted with some older fellow from the Northern Neck for a while about who knows what (I was drunk at this point if you haven’t pieced that together) and then 7-11′d and stumbled home.  I woke up on the couch sometime in the early morning confused and wondering why my perfectly good bed did not get used.  Apparently we watched some television that night.  More likely, they watched some television and I watched black circles spin on the inside of my eyelids.

So the most interesting part of all of this to me was that the roommate, who I will now be referring to as Q even though 95% of the people who are reading this at the moment already know who that is, apparently was woken up at 3 a.m. on the other couch (it’s important to note that I utilized a bold font on the word other here) to me screaming in my sleep.  Yes.  Screaming.  To my knowledge, I’ve never done this.  I’d love to know why I was screaming but that’s probably not in the cards.

Successful few days there folks.  I think…

The Birthday Post

Before anyone asks the obligatory question, no, I do not feel any older.  I haven’t any year that this “birthday” phenomenon has occurred which so far seems to be every year.  Yet logically I do know that I am getting older one day at a time.  It’s going to all hit at once I bet.  I’m going to be doing my morning run one morning and stop mid stride and just say to myself “No, self, that’s enough, I’m old and tired.”  Until that day comes though, I have no plans on slowing down!

I’ve heard people say that they forgot about their birthday or something like that.  I’ve been busy enough at work to understand how that could occur.  However, I can guarantee that person did not have Facebook and a smart phone.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love you guys and I thank you for all the birthday wishes, but my phone hasn’t stopped vibrating all day.  Ahhhhhh technology.  But seriously thanks for everything.  If you’re reading this you’re more than welcome to join us downtown this Saturday for my birthday celebration.  I believe we’re starting at Tobacco Company for happy hour at 8 and moving on hitting Sine, Cha-Chas, Havana, Bank, etc.  Text someone to find us or just check Foursquare.

So what am I doing on my actual birthday?  Well, I’ve got the first game for River City Sports Kickball tonight at 6:30 p.m. on Field 7 at Gillies Creek followed by PASSION PIT at the National!!!!!!!  I’m a little excited to see Passion Pit if you can’t tell.  The ticket was a great present from The Roommate.  If you’ve never heard of Passion Pit and actually enjoy music and not just what the radio tells you to listen to then I suggest checking them out on iTunes.  They are different but extremely catchy and great music to just chill and listen to.  If you’re not getting me a birthday present, check them out and I’ll excuse you.

The iPhone 4G

Anyone who knows me knows that I love my iPhone.  I’ve had an iPhone since the ridiculously overpriced first edition one came out a few years back.  When it came out it was a revolutionary device and I still think to some degree it still is now.  However, the new breed of phones running Google’s Android OS are catching up very quickly to the iPhone.  What does this mean though?  Google will eventually catch up with Apple in terms of technology and market share.  They aren’t that far behind in technology at the moment but lag fairly far behind in market share.  The new lines of Android phones will start to push that line however.  This scenario always occurs to any pioneer company.  When you blaze a new path it’s much easier for the next guy to catch up to you.

But then what happens when both companies sit atop of their new portable device thrones?  It will all come down to who continues to innovate and who follows the other.  Apple right now has a huge advantage just as they did in the days of mp3 players becoming so commonplace.  People already have their product.  Once you get a product into a consumer’s hands and they become comfortable with it, it takes a lot more to pry it out of their hands than just a slightly better product.  To win this race, Google will have to seriously eclipse the capabilities of the iPhone.  You know Verizon is pulling for them since the Apple/AT&T partnership actually made AT&T a competitor against Verizon Wireless.

Let’s look back at history for a second.  MP3 players were on the rise.  There were seemingly a thousand different models from a thousand different companies.  Some took a brief lead (I had a RIO volt for example) but it wasn’t until the iPod that anyone grabbed a considerable market share.  Once Apple had it, they never let go.  A few companies did try and compete with Apple in this market, including Microsoft.  The problem was Microsoft came around too late.  The Zune was a better piece of equipment than the iPod.  However, the iPod’s simplicity as well as the fact that consumers were already using it and were used to the controls ensured Apple’s victory here.

Will this same phenomenon occur in the mobile device area with the iPhone?  Time will tell.  I think Google has a better chance at grabbing some of that market share back than Microsoft did.  Google is more innovative and still has a name most people don’t scowl about when saying it.

All of that being said, I wanted to write this blog to discuss the new iPhone 4G and it’s new features.  Even as I type, Steve is on stage telling the world all about it.

iBooks:  This has been released on the iPad already and I have to be honest, I’m not that excited about this at all.  I’ve had the Kindle application for iPhone since it came out and I honestly cannot stand reading on a screen that small.  That being said, the new iPhone display promises to make things a lot sharper so perhaps I’ll give it a try.  I’d prefer an iPad for reading books any day.

Netflix: On a quite contradictory note, I’m super excited about this.  Ironic that I think the screen is too small to read but not to watch full length movies and shows huh?  It’s one of the things I don’t take as much advantage of on my iPhone as a lot of others do and that’s mostly because I just don’t sync movies.  The only one I have on the phone is Zombieland.  With this I’ll have movies at my disposal all the time!!

Specs: Also a point of excitement though I am quite the nerd at times so that should be no surprise.  They used the processor that Apple developed for the iPad in the new iPhone.  I think I am more excited about this because I know that it will be even better than the specs suggest.  That’s the one thing I enjoy about Apple’s closed systems is that they work so well together.  Also the new screen apparently looks amazing.

Front-facing Camera: Yes!  Also probably another nerd-alert but this is cool.  A lot of people are immediately thinking…”great I can take pics of myself and see it as I do it.  Wahoo?”  No.  No.  No.  This is the first step towards two things I want to see.  Mobile Video Conferencing and Video Voice Mail.  I don’t think I need to say anymore.

New Camera:  5 megapixels.  Flash.  Thank God.  Though it would have been nice to see Apple jump ahead of the competition instead of catch up with them with the camera.  They have been lagging behind here since the first iPhone.  This will be the only Flash we are getting by the way.

iMovie: Movie editing on a phone?  You’re kidding right?  Now I have no idea how much I will use this but given that the iPhone now supports full 720p video capture…possibly more than I think.  This application sounds nearly identical to the full version iMovie available on OSX.

Email: There are changes that I have been wanting forever.  Threading.  For those who may not grasp that concept immediately, it’s basically like your regular GMail.  Conversations in the same email (replies, forwards, etc.) will appear as one email.  Finally.  New folder system also.  They’ve been criticized quite a bit about this but I never had a problem.  Lastly, multiple exchange accounts.  Not a big deal for your average user but some of us who work for more than one company with an exchange server are now very happy people.

iAds:  We need to talk about it.  Everyone thinks that this is awful and we should be appalled it’s even going on the iPhone.  Wrong.  We are going to get ads in our applications one way or another.  I’d prefer Apple handle it so it’s less intrusive and more elegant.  Thanks.

Multi-tasking: I can run Pandora and do other things on my phone.  Need I say more?

Facetime: Notably I wrote the quip about video conferencing before this bit of information was released.  I am ecstatic about this.  It’s mobile video conferencing.  The only issue at the moment is that it is only available when both users are on wi-fi.  I understand why but I want more.  Regardless, this is one step closer to changing the way we communicate yet again.  The concept of communicating via video and audio has taken one huge step forward.  We’ve been able to do it from webcams for years but that’s not really convenient is it?

After seeing all of this new information, am I excited?  Absolutely.  Do I think this was the revolutionary leap forward that Apple needed to make to stay ahead of Google?  Nope.  Not at all.  As amazing as video calls can and will be, Google will be right behind them.  I can nearly guarantee it.  However, in my opinion, Apple still does have the lead in an integrated solution that “just works.”