Category Archives ⇒ Entertainment

Israeli Couple Names Baby After Facebook "Like" Button

· Brandon Hann

I was trying to come up with a better headline, but seriously, there’s no other way to put it. That’s right people, it has happened. Facebook has integrated with our lives more than anyone would have ever expected. Instead of just maybe creating a Facebook page for your baby to show off their new life to the world, you had to go and name your baby, Like.

I can’t even write it without laughing! Names have been passed down for thousands of years for various reasons including special meanings, symbolic purposes, the joining of two profound descriptive words or just simple creativity on the part of the parents, but this one takes the cake. Not so much because of the word Like, but because of their reasoning.

People have been named after saints, martyrs, prophets, gods, cities, countries and occupations. An example of an occupational name would be George which comes from the Greek, georgos which means .husbandman, farmer’. Now, for the first time in history, we have someone being named after an Internet phenomenon. In my opinion, I think they should have just named the kid, Facebook or better yet, Bookface. Can you imagine the childhood this kid is going to have?

After reading a bit more about this story, it seems that someone has already named their kid Facebook, so I stand in awe with the rest of the world trying to figure out what’s happening out there?! Somebody please tell me. Also, if you name your baby Like as opposed to Love, that says volumes about your feelings toward your children.

By the way, after announcing the name on Facebook, the proud father received 40 ‘likes’.

Las Vegas Casino Opens and Closes in Less Than 8 Hours

· Brandon Hann

Don’t you just love implied headlines?! If you were thinking that you would hear about some lavish Vegas mega resort being opened and then closing soon after, you’d be wrong, but that doesn’t make this story any less true. In fact, Las Vegas did just see another one of its gambling halls demise into the blowing sands of the desert, but which one? There was no name, there was no alcohol and there wasn’t even a building.

At its height, the casino brought in $3 from two patrons and paid out zero in returns. Its most historic hour was probably around 11am when the $2 bet was placed at a video poker machine. Tensions ran high as the cards were dealt and after the hand was lost, the outlook seemed promising for this little outfit. One could even speculate that this casino would rage on for many more hours, but alas, the doors officially closed at 2pm, citing low revenues.

Las Vegas Tent Casino

It appears that Marriott International bought a 14.4 acre plot of land just off Las Vegas Boulevard back in 2006 for $225 million with plans to build some sort of “real” casino or resort. After the recession hit, all plans were put on hold. This plot of land is currently zoned for unrestricted gaming and Marriott doesn’t plan on losing this zoning any time soon. County law states that as long as active gaming takes place on the land for at least one full shift every 18 months, the zoning designation will not expire.

What to do? What to do? That’s right…put up a temporary casino!

Although in past years, this temporary casino has been held in trailers, thus earning its nickname the Trailer Station, this year’s was held in a tent—a cold, dark one at that. Apparently when Walter Jones opened the casino at 6am, the electrician responsible for the lighting and heat hadn’t even showed up. Rather than deal with the crisp morning air, Jones decided to wait it out in his car.

Once the casino got swingin’, Jones and his bosses were actually hoping that nobody played so the paperwork would be minimal. There’s no telling how much it actually cost Marriott to hire United Coin to setup the tent, but it’s a sure bet that they’ll be back in 18 months to keep things in check.

Las Vegas is in a serious slump with the nation’s highest unemployment rates and home foreclosures. It’s amazing to think that anyone would want to start construction on a new casino or mega resort given the lack of business. I guess that’s why this little plot of land will probably remain just that for 10 or more years. It’s going to be interesting to see what Vegas even looks like in 10 years.

Apple Versus Netflix: The Digital Entertainment War

· Brandon Hann

I just talked about this yesterday and it looks like the rumors are already gaining momentum. The debate about whether Apple would try to take on Netflix in their ability to serve up digital content to the masses has the community jumping. The evidence? A huge, brand new data center built by Apple in North Carolina is on the verge of going operational.

This data center is said to rival those of other media companies like Google and Microsoft. Even better, Apple is already planning to build another one! All this information points to Apple’s desire and ability to be the leader of digital entertainment distribution.

iTunes has been widely successful since it first launched in 2001 and it has been the leader in digital music sales for years. However, it’s always lacked in the television and film arena. For television, it’s a no-brainer—competing with cable and broadcast networks who deliver instant programming 24/7 on hundreds of channels is no small feat. However in the film industry, we have been renting movies since 1985 when Blockbuster first opened and then in 1999, Netflix revolutionized this process by bringing movies to your door. Netflix revolutionized this process again by offering most of these same movies in live streaming.Netflix

Apple has the Apple TV and the iTunes store which allows for the “purchase” of movies and even tv shows (mostly those that have made it to DVD collections), but so far, they can’t touch Netflix. In fact, only recently has Apple began streaming their movies through the new Apple TV opting to cut out the ability to download and store movies on the device itself. This major change could very well be the stepping stone Apple needed in their quest to dominate your living room.

Pros and Cons

In Netflix’s corner:
Pros

  • Ability to have physical DVD and Blu-ray discs sent directly to your door
  • Live streaming of thousands of titles (and more coming each day)
  • Multi-device support (Blu-ray players, free phone apps, TVs, etc.)
  • Relatively cheap
  • New pricing plans for streaming service only (no in-home discs)

Cons

  • Not all movies are available via streaming
  • In-home disc count limited to 4 max at one time
  • TV shows limited to those only available on DVD

In Apple’s corner (Potentially):
Pros

  • Live streaming of thousands of titles
  • Possibly cheap? We’ll have to wait and see.
  • Multi-device support?

Cons

  • Might have to buy Apple TV to stream
  • No in-home discs

It’s hard to develop a pros and cons list with a product/service that doesn’t exist yet, but in terms of pure speculation, Netflix slightly leads the pack. The main reason for this is because they have a huge head start. Not only do they have hundreds of thousands of physical media for rental, but they are gaining massive traction with adding new streaming content. Netflix also has their software available on almost every connected device these days. Just about any Blu-ray player and TV comes with the ability to stream movies from your account. Knowing Apple, that alone might be the sole competitive difference. Apple is not known to be too kind when it comes to sharing software.

My two cents

Apple does have the advantage when it comes to customer base. They have millions of users already linked to iTunes via their credit cards, so adding an additional service charge to bring movies into the picture will likely not be a major hurdle for most consumers. Only time will tell of course and for me, it’s dependent on just how well Apple delivers that content. The deciding factor will come down to three things: 1. Title availability, 2. Network speed and 3. Where I’ll be able to watch this content.

iPad Poised to Take Out Radio and Other Media

· Brandon Hann

A new survey from Google shows that more and more people are opting to use their tablet devices, with most of them being iPads, over traditional media streams like listening to the radio or watching broadcast tv. This is happening just now?! I can’t remember the last time I listened to the radio!

The survey points out that more than half of the people questioned said they use their iPad more than listening to the radio and just about 25% of them use an iPad more than a computer. Finally, a third of these individuals stated they use iPad more than they watch tv. Because the iPad is so versatile, people can now use one device to access the Internet, watch videos, stream movies and tv shows, read newspapers and magazines, listen to music and play games. Of course cable and satellite providers have made honest attempts at keeping you on your television by offering on-demand content, DVR services, music channels, downloadable content, HD content, 3D content, free movies, etc., but without a tv capable of handling some of these things, you’re kind of up a creek.

Apple TV

Apple TV
Since the iPad is an Apple product, I doubt Steve Jobs cares that one of his own products is cannibalizing another market, but I know he figures he might as well have a piece of that pie too. Before he retires, Steve Jobs plans to “revolutionize” the living room. The Apple TV has been an interesting, yet vastly overlooked product since its inception. Originally called iTV (how original), the Apple TV began shipping in 2007 and has seen one major upgrade in 2010. However, nobody is really talking about it.

Is it possible that not everything Apple touches turns to gold? In light of this new survey, one could wonder what the future of Apple TV will be. If you actually take the time to look at the device, it really is pretty cool. You can stream purchases of videos, movies and music right from your iTunes account, access Netflix, NBA tv, YouTube and display slideshows from Flickr photo albums.

However, it would seem that this device is doomed. With the realization that iPads are here to stay, along with other competing products, Steve Jobs is likely to bring the cloud experience to your living room. By connecting all of your devices together, you’ll be able to do anything and everything on just about anything and everything in your home. I can see the commercial now:

  • Man is at work with 2 minutes left to go, watching a Netflix movie on his Macbook.
  • Man leaves work and continues same movie on iPhone while riding the subway home (I know there’s no cell service on subways, but work with me here!)
  • Man walks in the door, turns on tv and continues streaming same movie.
  • Man grabs iPad because he has to go to the bathroom and doesn’t want to pause the movie.
  • Man’s iPad battery dies, he gets upset and breaks iPad.
  • Man gets even more upset, breaks Macbook and tv.
  • Wife says she’s leaving because husband is to “connected” to technology.
  • Man is sad and lonely because Apple Care won’t cover physical damage.

On a serious note, if anyone makes that script into a YouTube video, I want credit!

My two cents

Of course the above example is a huge exaggeration, but the questions are pretty clear. Do we really need all this stuff? Do we really want everything to be so connected that we become so dependent on them? What I would like to see is a way for consumers to pay much smaller fees for tv service. If Apple plans to cloud up the living room with more on-demand tv choices like those you can get from Hulu, then I hope the cable companies respond by allowing customers to only pay for channels they wish to receive. At the rate all this is going, I’m sure it won’t be much longer before network television simply allows you to subscribe to your favorite shows rather than paying to have the whole channel.

My New Blog Site

· Brandon Hann

This is my super short Friday post!

Due to the popularity of Ledfrog.com, I’ve started going back into my super old blog posts to remember what kinds of things I used to write about and I was surprised at some of the stuff I found! Initially, the plan for this site wasn’t completely laid out and as a result, the site became a collection of informational articles mixed with personal-life ramblings that most people wouldn’t care to know about.

Now that traffic has increased dramatically on Ledfrog.com, it made sense to narrow the focus down a bit, which meant I needed to remove all of the unrelated items.

Brandon.me

I sure am making great use of the DOTme domain space! This is the second one I own and I find that when dealing with personal blogs or websites, it really sums everything quite nicely. On this new site, you can expect the same quality you’re used to here, but much different content. Whereas Ledfrog.com is all about unbiased opinions, reviews and news about various topics, Brandon.me (formerly Ledfrog.me) is all about what I have going on in my life that I feel like sharing with the world.

I make no promises that the content will be exciting or that it will bring any value to your life, but that’s ok because a personal blog is supposed to be fun and slightly entertaining! I also make no promises as to the frequency of my updates. I find that rigid deadlines and content controls are not made for personal blogs. It should be good enough to just wake up one morning with an urge to write about something and then do it.

Social Networking

I decided not to create second Twitter or Facebook accounts at this time, so you’ll still see posts from all of my sites under my current accounts. The reason for this simply comes down to time. I don’t pretend to be some famous Internet celebrity nor do I think I’m so cool that everyone should follow me, so the fact remains—I don’t wish to spend time separating every little detail of each site on to multiple networking sites.

If you want to stay connected to me and all my sites, all you have to do is become my Facebook friend, follow me on Twitter and if you use RSS readers, subscribe to Ledfrog.com and Brandon.me.

I hope everyone enjoys the new site! Have a fun a safe weekend. I’ll be back promptly at 9am on Monday morning!

$19 One-way Flights to Las Vegas from jetBlue

· Brandon Hann

Because I’m setup as a TrueBlue member through jetBlue, I am constantly getting emails regarding cheap flights, hotels, travel destinations and a million others telling me why I need to go on vacation right this minute. And when I say constantly, I mean multiple times a day! Normally, I just disregard these messages as mere junk, but I got one today that caught my eye.

Viva Las Vegas

Brian Sousa and I used to frequent this town quite often and I love going back to visit family and friends that have moved out there. There’s that and the craps table I suppose. Anyway, when I saw that I could fly to Vegas for only $19, I was seriously considering going for two reasons: one, I’ve never flown to Vegas and two, it’s cheap.

Boy, this is marketing at its best! Earlier this morning, I was working on current computer projects and planning my weekend when this email dropped in my mailbox. Now all of a sudden, I felt compelled to fly to Vegas. I guess it’s similar to when those savvy shoppers find a coupon for items at the grocery store, so they buy the goods because they can save money even though they don’t need the products! Logic tells us that if they didn’t buy the item (they don’t need) in the first place, they’d save even more money.

Nevertheless, they reeled me in. Let’s move on to the point of my post.

The little asterisk (*)

It’s the little evil ‘star’ that tells us something is amiss. This jetBlue ad was no different. Right next to the big $19 price tag sat the ubiquitous symbol of pain. Naturally, I expected this…I mean, did I really think I was flying to Vegas (and back home) for $19? Of course not. Let’s explore:

jetBlue Offers $19 Vegas Flights
jetBlue Offers $19 Vegas Flights

The first thing to note is that nowhere on here does it say what the $19 is for. I actually had to walk through the shopping cart process at jetblue.com to find out that this price was for one-way. I’m not a frequent traveler, so maybe I should know that these ads always state one-way fares, but would the average person know this?

Secondly, it does clearly (albeit in small text) state that there are fees and restrictions. I scrolled down to the bottom of the email and found the regular stuff, valid on on certain dates, excludes Fridays and Sundays, cancellation fees, etc. The most interesting part were the fees. Normally, one could expect and even accept these fees as the cost of “doing business”, but come on!!

The hidden fees breakdown

Here’s the full terms as listed at the bottom of my email.

jetBlue $19 Vegas Flight Restrictions
jetBlue $19 Vegas Flight Restrictions
  • $19.00 – Base fare price – This is the original starting price.
  • $15.00 – “Fare” price – This fee is not defined more than just being a fee tied to all fares per the terms.
  • $9.00 – Passenger facility charge – This fee is charged for your use of the airports you depart from and arrive at.
  • $5.00 – 9/11 security charge – This one covers all the latest security technology after 9/11 including full body scanning.
  • $3.70 – Domestic segment charge – A ‘segment’ is defined as the takeoff and landing portion of your flight.
  • 7.5% – U.S. excise tax (already included in the $19) – The government requires all airlines collect this fee and it must be included in all published pricing.
  • TOTAL: $51.70 one way

The end results

If you’d like to fly back home, you can go ahead and double that charge. After all was said and done, I am able to fly to Las Vegas, NV from Long Beach, CA for a low price of only $103.40 even though I was offered the price of $38. What’s worse is I also have to fly on their terms which includes many flight restrictions and blackout dates. Of course I’m saving money because this price could easily cost 2 or 3 times more without the “special deal”, but my point was to show how fast hidden fees can add up.

I’m thinking, wouldn’t it have been a better ad for jetBlue to just say, “Fly to Vegas for $100 round trip! Straight up. No fees.”?

I never even talked about checking a second bag for $30 or the cost to cancel the flight for $100!! Or how about parking your car at the airport for about $10 per day?! And the rental cost of a car when you get there? Don’t forget the hotel, the drinks, the club admission fee (if you’re a guy), the dates with girls, the gambling, etc., etc., etc.

When the weekend is over, you’ll be having flashbacks of The Hangover while wondering where all your money went! If you still want to have the flashbacks, but not the costs of flying and renting a car, just drive to Vegas. It will cost a lot less in gas money, plus you can go and come back whenever you want. Sorry to all those that live more than 300 miles from Vegas.

Air fare fees and information found on SmartTravel.com.

Overpriced concerts, ticket scalpers and fee after fee after fee

· Brandon Hann

I read an article today about Bob Dylan. What struck me more than the fact that he’s actually touring is the way he plans to sell tickets to his next show in San Francisco. But before I get into that, let’s go over the process (and cost) of going to a big-name concert these days. (If you just want to know what Bob Dylan did, skip ahead.)

Naturally, for an act as big as Lady Gaga, Metallica or (hate to say) Justin Bieber, you probably wouldn’t bat an eye after shelling out $70+ for a basic seat somewhere in the back of the building or arena. Of course, if you want to get much closer, you’re probably looking at the $200-300+ range and if you want to sit so close that you can actually touch Justin’s bowl-of-a-haircut, you’re looking in the $700-1000 range. Have these artists become so popular that the prices keep going up or is there something else at play? That question is hard to answer because there are so many factors involved. You have to consider the popularity of the artist, the location where they’re playing and their touring frequency. One fact that can determine your purchase price is who/where are you buying your tickets from.

Purchasing Concert Tickets

Let’s explore a current event. I went to Ticketmaster.com and searched for one ticket in the best available section for the Lady Gaga concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. By the way, it’s August 24th and the concert is on March 28th, 2011–that’s still 7 months away! The fact that I can’t get a better seat than this right now proves the next argument I’m about to make. Anyway, here’s my ticket:

From this, you can clearly see that I have a mid-level seat and a low-level row. This actually puts me in a fairly good seat as far as the view is concerned. But let’s look at the price. We have a ticket face value of $181.50 and a convenience charge of $19.65. I haven’t even selected how I want it delivered to me and I’m already out $201.15. Speaking of delivery, I wonder if I can just print it on my computer for free…

I guess not. Believe it or not, I can have a printed ticket mailed to my house via standard United States mail at no charge, but to PRINT the ticket on my OWN printer using my OWN ink and paper, it costs me $2.50! For this example, I won’t count the expedited shipping charges because these prices come from the shippers and have no bearing on the cost of the ticket unless you’re impatient and you want them faster. But I will mention that if you wanted to pick the tickets up at any local Ticketmaster location, it will cost you $3.00.

Let’s recap. Aside from choosing faster shipping, you have three basic options:

  1. Use TicketFast: NOW — Print your tickets in the “convenience” of your own home. The cost: $2.50
  2. Pick it up at a Ticketmaster location — Any Ticketmaster outlet can print your ticket on demand and hand it to you. The cost: $3.00
  3. Have it mailed to your house — Ticketmaster will print your ticket on demand, put it in an envelope, stamp it and mail it to your house. The cost: FREE

Is it just me or does all that sound a little backward?! Wouldn’t it be more convenient to be able to print your ticket for free using your own supplies? And why does Ticketmaster feel they need to charge $3.00 to say hi and hand a ticket to someone at a ticket counter? (Actually I’m told that if you want them to say hi, it’s another 25 cents.) And why do they not charge to print and mail a ticket via the Post Office?

Anyway, moving on. I haven’t bought my ticket yet and I still have to consider a few more (optional) costs. Let’s take a look:

If I choose to, I can buy an exclusive t-shirt for $30 and parking in one of two Staples Center lots at $25 or $20–that is if I don’t want to try and find a cheaper (and likely less secure) parking lot further away from the building. Since this article is simply based on ticket prices alone, we’ll skip past these charges and continue to the purchase page.

Even though I included parking on the shopping cart, you can still get the overall idea of total cost. The last fee to be added is an order processing fee for: $5.90. What is this for?! I thought the earlier convenience charge of $19.65 would cover the entire ordering process?? Nonetheless, it’s a fee that can’t be avoided.

Our total for one Lady Gaga concert that will probably last 2-3 hours on a Monday night is:

Grand Total: $209.55

Remember, this is for just one ticket without parking, no souvenirs and no alcohol! And don’t get me wrong–I’m not inferring that Lady Gaga isn’t worth it (I wouldn’t know as I’ve never been to her concert.)–I’m just making a point here!

I just wanted to throw this in here because it can potentially add to your overall cost. It’s ticket insurance and it’ll let you recover your purchase price if you can’t attend the concert for whatever reason–all for the low cost of $7 per ticket. Take a look at the terms:

The Aftermarket

There is a huge aftermarket for concert/event tickets on sites like StubHub, TicketsNow.com, TickCo.com, TicketsWizard.com and many more. Just go to any one of these sites and you’ll see the difference in prices!

This is where the real mark-ups begin! As a quick example, I went to StubHub and looked for a ticket in the same section as my ticket and would you believe it? The concert is 7 months away and still not sold out, yet they are already selling same-section tickets for $237. As you can imagine, these prices will only go up the closer the concert date comes.

The only real advantage with these aftermarket sites is that you can generally pick your own seats whereas with Ticketmaster, you are stuck with what you get.

Ethical Dilemma

Buying something for one price and selling it for another when demand is higher is not illegal and is generally considered a good business decision. But what about companies that buy up very large amounts of tickets just to sell them at a 50%+ markup? Do you think it’s fair that you don’t even have a fighting chance to get a ticket at face value?

Personally, I think buying tickets online is a great convenience and certainly worth the “fees” to not have to stand in a line for hours to buy a ticket at the door, but I am completely against ticket hoarders much like I’m also against domain hoarders. These people make it almost impossible to get tickets because they buy so many so fast. Plus, the venues, the artists, Ticketmaster and everyone else involved don’t want unsold tickets, so they will sell them to anyone with money.

Alternatives

Every artist could do what Bob Dylan is doing and that is not allow any concert tickets to be purchased before the event. He decided that tickets for his next concert in San Francisco will only be available if you stand in line starting midday and purchase your ticket at the door. In addition, fans can only buy one ticket each which means your friends are standing in line with you. Oh and I almost forgot to mention, ticket sales are cash only!

By doing this, Bob Dylan is single-handedly eliminating the over-inflated ticket prices found online, the ticket resellers on eBay (people who buy out-of-state event tickets just for resell), the “convenience” charges from Ticketmaster, the handling and order processing charges and the printing charges. Good job, Bob!!

Of course doing it this way will most certainly cause many more problems–having that many people in lines all day holding cash, but I think it’s the only fair thing to do to ensure everyone has a fighting chance. Obviously this doesn’t stop people from scalping them, but because the tickets don’t go on sale until the day of the event, there will be no time for proper marketing and inflation.

If every artist did this, maybe the tickets wouldn’t be so high and regular people can actually afford to go to high profile events. If it continues going down this road, eventually we’ll be accepting higher and higher ticket prices and before we know it, we’ll all be financing our next concert.

Funny Yahoo! Answers posts

· Brandon Hann

I was browsing through Yahoo! Answers today and I found this funny Question/Answer post and thought I’d share. I think I’ll be posting more whenever I see them.

Feb. 16, 2010

The Question: Hi I want to order a build a bear online and was wondering if it comes with a reciept for the credits or comes with anything to get credits with. also does it come with a certificate?Has anyone had any problems with ordering online??
NOTE: For those that don’t know, Build-A-Bear is a shop that allows you to ‘build’ custom stuffed animals and dress them up how you want.

The Answer: well wen i bought mine i had to pay 50 quid extra for postage an it came wid a bomb inside and killed ma little brother
Source(s):
happyland.

Feb. 18, 2010

The Question: What do i do?????? please read on!!!?
i currently have windows live messenger and one of my contacts pictures is not show!!! what do i do???

please help xxxxx

The Answer: call 911, any contact that is missing a picture is also missing in real life.

We're making music with our cars now

· Brandon Hann

I found this video on a friend’s blog and I just had to repost. Sometimes I’m just amazed at some of the stuff the Internet brings us. I always ask myself when I watch things like this if people have always been doing creative things like this before sites like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc. If not, then can hold the Internet responsible for extended our creativity and if so, is all this stuff really talent or just creative ways to waste time? I can’t really say for sure because I’ve been on the Internet for many years and I can say that I haven’t become more creative!

In any case, the people who came up with and made this video surely impressed me. Check it out:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFybwg4wadI

Conan O'Brien

· Brandon Hann

My favorite late night show was always Late Night with Conan O’Brien. The reason for this was simple: here was a guy hosting a show that didn’t seem to follow the normal trends of late night tv. He wasn’t bound by the constraints of network big-whigs and pressure from sponsors. He was on late enough to be able to turn that into a joke itself. This would turn into a level of humility we have never seen before.

I always feared the results of moving Conan to the Tonight Show because his brand of comedy was not that fitting for the 11:35 time slot. The show was good, but not great. Right off the bat you could see how things changed. Before, he seemed more like a free spirit and now just simply a puppet of NBC. It only made sense that the song Will Ferrell played for Conan on his last show was ‘Freebird’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

On a side note, it was interesting to see Niel Young on the show while a Skynyrd song was being played! If you don’t see the connection, it’s the lyrics from Sweet Home Alabama:

Well I heard mister Young sing about her
Well, I heard ole Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow

Anyway, it’s sad to see Conan leave, but I’m sure in seven months (when he’s able to appear on tv again), he’ll have a really great show and we all know his fans will follow him wherever he goes.