Amber Mac

OK, even I am getting sick of talking about the iPhone, but, alas, it is the biggest tech news of the past few weeks.  Last night I did a quick chat on CP24/CTV in Toronto and this morning I had some more time to dive into the issue of technolust on CBC-Radio - The Current (listen here, love Dan's Love Letter to the iPhone).   

When the iPhone first came out in the US last year, I was one of those people who wanted nothing more than to get my hands on the slick little device.  After a few months, my fave tech friend Leo Laporte shipped me up an unlocked iPhone (incidentally, Leo is doing a 24-hour live iPhone marathon right now on TWiTLive.tv - get the TWiT Adobe Air app!).  I have been, sigh, using the iPhone as an iPod touch for these past six months.  I was considering picking up a Rogers iPhone plan when they were announced, but was always skeptical that the plans would be too high (which they were).

Although Rogers is now offering up a data plan at 6GB for $30 (until the end of August), I am going to pass on the iPhone.  I'm not keen on having to commit to a 3-year plan, and, quite frankly, I don't think that Rogers is offering up a great voice plan.  In other words, I am going to stick with my BlackBerry and my Bell service (so Canadian of me!).  But to all you iPhone lovers, can't wait to see your happy faces on Canadian blogs tomorrow ;).

July 10th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (14)

Hope that everyone had a wonderful Canada Day. I am working (and playing) on PEI for the next couple of weeks, so needless to say July 1st was a blast on the Ch'town waterfront. In case you haven't seen it, here's this week's episode of commandN. We're taking this holiday week off from shooting, but will be back with a shiny new episode July 14th. Enjoy!

July 2nd, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Thx to the Toronto Mozilla team for hosting Tuesday's launch party. Download Firefox 3 here.  (This video was shot/edited by Chris Dick, MGImedia.  Music by Brad Sucks.)

How would you describe Firefox 3 in 5 words or less?  Leave a comment!

June 18th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (23)

June 17th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (14)

Last night I went to a Little Geeks event to support the co-founder (and my good friend) Andy Walker, but most importantly to spread the word about how Little Geeks is giving away refurbished computers to kids-in-need throughout Toronto.  My video interview with two (little) members of the Board of Directors best explains how the organization works (thx boys!).  If you have a similar non-profit in your town, share your link here.  (Props to Chris from MGImedia for shooting/editing!).

June 13th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (8)

I was getting really, really sick of listening to my same ole playlists, so last month I went on Twitter to ask my friendly followers what tunes I should download.  Tonight, I finally had some time to buy some of these songs, so I thought I'd share the list here just in case you've also hit a musical plateau.  I haven't listened to every artist pasted below, but I plan to later tonight.  Thanks to everyone on Twitter for taking the time to recommend some of your fave hits!

Handlebars - Flobot

I Will Possess Your Heart - Death Cab for Cutie

Myriad Harbour - The New Pornographers

So Lazy - Po' Girl

The Girls - Calvin Harris

Time to Pretend - MGMT

Wedding Dress - Wil

Pork and Beans - Weezer

Paper Planes - M.I.A.

How Deep is Your Love - The Bird and the Bee

Not California - Hem

Merry Happy - Kate Nash

We are the Night - The Chemical Brothers

Dream Catch Me - Newton Faulkner

June 8th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (31)

If you live in the US, chances are you've seen the PSAs about the upcoming switch to digital broadcasting (2009).  If you're in Canada, there's a good chance you don't know too much about the switch north of the border (since it happens in Canada a couple of years later).  If you want to get all the details about the analog-to-digital television transition, check out a recent radio column I did for CBC's Spark. 

And if you were also a childhood fan of Hercules (you'll have to listen to Spark for this to make sense), here are the lyrics to the theme song and some more info about the show.  Enjoy!

June 2nd, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (14)

For all the links, visit us at commandn.tv.

May 25th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (4)

This is my last night in DC.  Aside from meeting some amazing (and outgoing!) people before and after my keynote at ACTE, the one thing that sticks in my mind is my three-hour trip Sunday night to Georgetown.

I met up at Zed's with a friend for dinner.  After great 'n messy Ethiopian eats, we wandered up a nearby residential street (let's just say we're not map people, so we were guessing the river was that way).  Within minutes, we saw a friendly furry canine and his owner.  We quickly discovered their names, Woofie and Peter (respectively).  Peter took pity on us and offered to give us a "real" tour of his adopted hometown. 

With Woofie in tow, we followed 82-year-old Peter down crickety streets and learned about his life as a newspaper man in Buffalo and Washington, DC.  He escorted us to the Potomac River, just alongside the newly-designed Swedish embassy (a visual treat).  While gazing up the river, Peter pointed out the boathouse where he used to keep his rowing scull.  Between stories, including how Peter met his wife some 50 odd years ago, random strangers greeted us to say hello (but, most likely, to pet 5-year-old Woofie). 

We continued our tour back up towards M St., and by now I'm sure everyone passing us by thought we were Peter's kids (and of course we didn't tell them any different).  We stopped briefly now and again for Peter to check the weather on his iPhone, letting us know we would have sunshine today, and to show us how easy it was to take photos with his handy little device. 

By now we had spent a good long hour with Peter, and we figured his wife would want to see him walk on through the door, so we tried to say goodbye.  Peter wouldn't have any of it.  He asked us to follow him up to his home so we could see a real Georgetown residence, including his tree-lined backyard where Woofie finally ran free off his leash.

As the sun set, we politely said goodbye to Peter and gave Woofie a hug (she drooled with delight).  The moral of the story is that it only takes a minute to turn a stranger into a friend, and this blog post is my thanks to Peter for making it so easy.

May 19th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (14)

May 17th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (10)