When was the last time your speakers were a conversation piece when you had company over? After all, with all the money you’ve spent on coffee table books that’s probably the last thing you want people discussing. Unless of course, you were the proud owner of the Invisible Speaker
A concept from People People, the Invisible Speaker looks to marry the concepts of high-end music equipment and elegant, modern design. Sure, people already have swagged out audio set-ups, but it’s usually a product of elaborate in-wall wiring and home modification. The Invisible Speaker turns that idea on its head with a transparent design that anyone would be proud to display right smack in the middle of their living room
Additionally, the design of the Invisible Speaker is eco friendly. The small, recyclable package arrives with the major audio components and you can order the glass for the actual speaker box from a local glass repair shop. For how much this thing will probably cost, I’m not sure if I’d want to go through that hassle, but it’s still kinda dope either way…I guess.
It also arrives with a wifi antenna that can plug into any music player and is rechargeable.
No word yet on pricing or availability, which all works out because there’s no word on when I’d be able to afford something like this, much less an apartment I’d even want to hang this thing up in.
I was lurking through the internet and found a really interesting article on The Society Pages. It pointed out that Best Buy commercial that’s been airing lately, where a dude is sitting on next to this smoke show of a female passenger on a plane right as it lands. She takes out her phone to check all of her missed…eh, just see for yourself below
A sociologist/blogger by the name of David Mayeda was reflecting on this scene and had this to say:
So, as a male, if you don’t have the financial capital to possess a kick ass phone, you are a deviant male, with a low-end job (sharing a cubicle), without technical prowess (can’t stay on top of your e-mail or access the net), and bottom line, you aren’t an attractive mate.
Now, this statement is of particular interest to me. Research predicts almost 1 in 5 phones sold this year will be smartphones, and as editor-in-chief of tyd.com, I’d be willing to take bets that a fair amount of those people are members of the yuppieo Genus. However, that still leaves 80% of people buying run of the mill cell phones. And let’s be serious folks: a smartphone + data plan isn’t cheap. But the part of Mr. Mayeda’s quote that caught my attention the most were those last couple of lines.
See, I’m a bit of a geek. Technology (particularly smartphones) has always been a hobby of mine and I’ve even been blessed enough to be able to make a decent career out of fiddling with cool gadgets all day long. And believe me, I love it! I could talk about smartphones until I ran out of breath, much to the misfortune of my friends who don’t own one. But for the ones who do, I try to be handy where I can. Want advice on when to upgrade? Sure, I’ll give you my two cents. Need help setting up your e-mail? Piece of cake. Phone not working altogether? Save a trip to the store, I’ll give it a shot. But what I began to notice was that (no offense kids), a good portion of my friends own $200+ devices that are probably costing them, or their parents, $100/month in service, and have no very little idea how to use them.
HTC EVO 4G
Here’s an example that may explain better. I once gave a talk at a leadership summit back in college. The topic was getting involved on campus, and I used a smartphone as an analogy. I proposed that being the average student at our expensive University was like being the average person who owns a kick ass smartphone. Sure, a fancy diploma (or Blackberry) looks great in your hands, but most people only do a few things with it: you go to class (make phone calls/text) and you party (check e-mail or a few websites). Most of the features I listed were all things you could do with a relatively cheap, halfway-decent dumb phone, so if you’re gonna spend so much money on something, why not take the time to learn exactly what it has to offer and then take advantage of it? Well, if that Best Buy commercial is at all accurate, and having a cheap dumb phone makes you look like a schmuck, then no wonder people are spending almost $250k to booze for 4 years busting down the doors of the cell phone dealers. Yuppie dilemma much?
Yet, I wouldn’t dare conclude that just because a guy has an expensive phone means they have technical prowess any sooner than I’d assume a guy with an expensive car knew the first thing about driving. I mean, we all secretly know that the real reason guys buy nice cars is so they can try to get laid. So could there maybe be a shred of truth to this theory about the attractiveness of a tech savvy fella? Well, according to another recent survey, iPhone users get a fairer share of…action, in comparison to the owners of other phones. But I believe that survey about as much as I believe anyone reading this post on their iPhone has full bars of service. So not at all basically.
So what are we to conclude about this claim? Do ladies really dig a guy who knows his tech? We can’t be certain, but I’ll answer this question: are women knocking down MY door because they get hot thinking about how good I am at figuring out why their screens suddenly froze? HELL NO. Maybe in a perfect world, but I’d hope that in that same world I’d be getting paid millions to write this blog in a hot tub with a waterproof laptop and the Chromeo album on repeat. But who knows? But maybe the tech savvy man is today’s Mr. Fix-it. If so fellas, you better start doing your homework. There may not be Milkmen these days, but catching the guy from the Geek Squad sprinting out your back door, clothes in hand, isn’t going to feel much better.
Growing up, did you have that friend whose Dad was always the first to have the newest gadgets? Of course you did. The Dad who had his own TV room with a remote that he, purposely, was the only one with the ability to operate? The Dad who would be damned if his family wasn’t the first one with high-speed internet? Well, I decided years ago I was going to be that Dad. Tech Dad. However rather than tackling it all at once, I figured I’d learn the tech stuff now and push the whole, you know…becoming a dad, thing back a few years…or 10.
As I’ve been pursuing my Tech Dad dream, one day I thought to myself What would Tech Dad’s holy grail be? Bluetooth fanny pack? Watching the Masters in 4D? Buying a robot clone to clean the gutters and make love to not-Tech Mom when you’re too tired lazy? All brilliant, I admit (of course I admit) but not as awesome as winning Electronic House’s “Home of the Year” Award.
