Don’t Expect Much From the “New iPhone” – Apple has to ‘Play it Safe’

Now that I’m less than a week away from, excluding any unforeseen product shortages, adopting a Palm Pre as my primary mobile device, my peers keep prodding me with questions.  Many of my tech friends haven’t really been following the Pre and WebOS that closely.  Actually, it’s surprising how many haven’t been following it.  Even Leo Laporte (whom I consider to be kinda close to the cutting edge when talking about tech) is only now starting to pay attention to the Pre.  And he seems to be doing it in a very apologetic way.  (‘You know what, I think I’m gonna check out the Palm Pre…’).  The truth is that he’s probably following the Pre because he has to – as a tech correspondent, he has to stay on top of what the current focus is, and right now that’s the Pre.

Having read message boards and talked to other tech fans, what is most surprising to me are the number of people who are anxiously anticipating the announcement of the next iteration of the iPhone.  Okay, so it’s not that surprising – any Apple announcement these days (and particularly one where Steve Jobs might take the stage – and it’s about a 75% lock that it will happen in my book) will get tech journalists pens moving.  But this time around, I’m much more interested in the other stuff that Apple might talk about.  For people who know their tech, there should be almost no excitement for the iPhone this go round.  And there are a few reasons for it.

About two plus months ago, I was buzzing around my office at work.  Apple had announced that they would be previewing some of the features of the forthcoming iPhone OS 3.0.  While I thought the Pre was intriguing, innovative and sorta tempting, I have a tremendous amount of confidence in the folks at the Apple Campus at Cupertino.  I knew (or, at least, I thought I knew) that whatever they announced would make me forget about the multi-tasking, cloud synching, synergetic phone that Palm revealed two months earlier.  Upon reflection, had I been able to take a trip up to the ‘wisdom mountain’ and really clear my head, I would have seen the obvious. 

The Man in Black – Johnny Cash

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there’s a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he’s a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you’d think He’s talking straight to you and me.

Well, we’re doin’ mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightning cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought ‘a be a man in black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mourning for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believing that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believing that we all were on their side.

Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,
And things need changing everywhere you go,
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.

Oh, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything’s o.k.,
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
‘Till things are brighter, I’m the man in black.

Thoughts on Grey’s Finale (Season 5)

It would be easy to roll up my sleeves and pontificate about all of the reasons why I feel this season of Grey’s Anatomy was disappointing.  (And had I started writing the minute after the credits rolled, that’s precisely what I would have done).  But reflecting on the show (for all of, let’s see….two hours), my thoughts turn to T.R. Knight’s character, George O’Malley.

When people think of Grey’s, the character that they usually reflect upon is Meredith.  After all, the show bears her name and she narrates most of the episodes.  But in a strange way, I always saw the show through George’s eyes.  During the early episodes when Grey’s was just this show that came on after Desperate Housewives, I kinda looked at George and laughed.  He was every nerdy, ‘wish-i-could-hang-with-the-cool-kids’ dude I ever knew.  And while he was annoying, he was also the character that seemed to be the most humbled by the opportunity that was set before him.

As the show moved on, out of all of the characters on the show, I saw him as the character who evolved and matured the most.  One of the things that I loved about the show was the relationship that he and Isaiah Washington had as student and teacher.  It was one of mutual respect and it was wonderfully written.  (Which was part of the reason that I was so crushed to find out that in reality their relationship was less than cordial, the true reasons behind which we may never fully know.)  But even without ‘Burke’, George found a way always give us something interesting to chew on.  The guilt that he carried and emitted without words during the season where he cheated on Callie.  The pain of explaining his father’s sickness to his family, playing the ‘bad news-bringing doctor’ role in a way that he probably never figured he’d have to do.

By now it’s pretty clear to anyone that watched the finale that George was the victim of an accident and that T.R. Knight is no longer on the show.  I don’t profess to understand the complexities of running an award-winning primetime drama.  And I feel that for all of the good moments Grey’s writers have given us, we should all give them the benefit of the doubt when they make the decision that for whatever off-screen reasons that they need to somewhat abruptly end a character’s term on the program.  I just feel like there had to be a way…hell, there had to be a hundred ways… to give this character, whom you’ve invested so much time and energy and show-hours helping us to get to know… a proper good-bye.

Yes, I know by now that the theme of this entire season is that “life is precious” and that it should be cherished every minute that you breathe.  I get that.  But a tragic, quick death is one that is befitting a character who isn’t a staple of your program.  I don’t read TMZ and I don’t have a subscription to Us Weekly, but just like everyone else, I heard that both T.R. Knight and Katherine Heigl were leaving the show.  And it’s really none of my business why either the actors or the writers felt that they needed to part ways.  But if the Grey’s writers are fans of the show as much as they claim to be and are really concerned about what the fans want, then there had to have been a better way to “kill these characters off”.

I never really liked “Alex and Izzie” even though it kept being forced down our throats.  The funny thing to me about Alex and Izzie’s relationship this go ‘round was that the relationship that Izzie had with George made Alex (and thus the relationship) seem even more shallow than it did to being with.  Perhaps George and Izzie weren’t right for each other, but when they were together, for a moment you (or should I say, “I”) felt like love between two friends was possible.  Regardless of why they split (and yeah, I thought they were better as pals) it made Karev look more and more like a neanderthal.  After all, it was George – who wasn’t even with Izzie – who noticed that she wasn’t feeling well before anyone else did.