Contributors
Tags


Filed under

Orange

 

 

Battle Between iPhone 4 and Google's Android Nexus One Cracks Me Up

June 24, 2010

Confession: I don't have an iPhone. This will come as a surprise to those who know me as an Apple nerd. But something really weird happened today. Something that makes me believe in the supernatural powers of Steve Jobs and his global marketing campaign.

Today, June 24th, 2010, saw the launch of iPhone 4 in the UK. You don't need me to say a word about the religious zeal with which us Mac geeks worship at the altar of Jobsfulness. Just see this great cartoon strip. And I wouldn't dream of attempting a review of iPhone 4 when the Maestro Chief of Geek Kingdom himself Stephen Fry has done it so well, calling it "an object of rare beauty".

I had seen enough iPhones in the hands of everyone cool around me to make me want one. But earlier this year, just as I was about to place an order, two things happened. Word gets out that there's soon to be an iPhone 4, and at TED2010 Google goes and surprises us all by giving away an Android Nexus One. See my dilemma? Why get an iPhone 3G when you can get a free Nexus One. 

So over the last few weeks I have been getting used to hanging out with the green Android - looks more like Kermit the Frog to me - and having people ask me "what's that?". Even though my filmmaker friendly network Orange offer the iPhone, I have resisted switching. So far.

Today I was cycling to a meeting in the London afternoon rush hour. I was also expecting a call back from a very important producer about my TED Senior Fellowship project. We've been playing phone tag for the last 4 weeks, and I was eager not to miss his call should it come through while I'm on the bike. So instead of putting the Nexus One in my jeans pocket where I wouldn't hear or feel it vibrate while pedaling, I put it in my shirt's breast pocket close to my heart. A symbol of how I feel about my film. The gridlock had left little room for maneuver. Running late, I did what any self respecting urban cyclist does; hop onto the pavement to bypass two double decker buses spewing their fumes at me.

I land onto the pavement but hear the unmistakable sound of metal hitting stone. Skid to a halt and look behind to see my Nexus One kissing the pavement. Its face cracked up, the Android looks back at me sorrowful scars all over.  I gently stroke it clean and turn it on. It still works. Looking at the date, 24th June, I realize it's no ordinary date. 24th June has been splashed all over the web, papers and billboards. Of all the dates in the calendar on which I could have cracked up my Nexus One, why should it happen on the day Apple launches its iPhone 4? What powers are at play here? Is this a sign? Drop me a line if something terrible happened to your Google phone today.

Img_0660

Img_0687

Img_0677
Img_0702
Img_0703

Taghi Amirani

Amirani Films

@tagz23

 

 

Filed under  //   Amirani Films   Android   Apple   Nexus One   Orange   Stephen Fry   Steve Jobs   TED Senior Fellowship   TED2010   Taghi Amirani   google   iPhone4  
Posted by Taghi Amirani 

Comments [2]

 

Today Iran, UK and US, tomorrow the WORLD

March 10, 2009

Phone

 

Some random fragments of TED reflections: 3

When I visit my home country Iran, I take an old Nokia 6320i with me. It uses an Iranian SIM with my Iranian number. Reception is great in almost all corners of the country. The phone which carries my 300 or so contacts out there, is pretty basic, has some useful features including an OK camera. Of course this Nokia listens to me speaking Persian all the time and witnesses all manner of peculiar conversational gymnastics and maneuvers, that make communication between Iranians one of the most complex and multi-layered puzzles in the world. Try to decipher at your peril. You can talk to an Iranian for an hour and not receive or impart any useful information whatsoever. Or you can utter a short sentence and speak volumes with depth, meaning, poetry and emotion all wrapped in subtle and delicate nuance. It's frustrating but I love it! This Nokia is well versed in "Persian speak" and can soon negotiate its own way around the maze of linguistic challenges. It has had a pretty hard time on my last two visits researching the "Fatherland" documentary.

When in the US I use a Nokia 6030 with my American T-Mobile SIM and number. This phone is so basic and innocent I have just recently introduced it to the joys of text. It has all my US based friends and work colleagues on it and its ring-tone is the jingly ring ring, like the ones your hear in B&W movies with Bogart and Bergman. The conversations this phone listens to are often over-excited and long (me), are about arranging brunches all day, every day, take place at airports, car rental offices, railway stations, and sometimes are with PBS/Nat Geo people and cool filmmakers. These American conversations are generally "what you hear is what you get" with two exceptions: US Foreign policy* (see below), and talking to Iranians (see above). But most of my US calls normally leave me uplifted and light.  It's that American upbeat, can do, positive thing, or it's just me projecting. Either way this phone has a pretty easy time most of the time. 

When in the UK which is where I spend most of my time I'm on the Nokia 6300 on the Orange network, who have a great reputation for supporting British cinema and filmmakers. This phone is slim, elegant and easy to use. Its camera is actually quite good, taking pictures with a certain level of grain that gives the photos a textured painterly look. It has hundreds of contacts on it covering just about everyone I know, including late night pizza and curry delivery joints, friends from 20 years ago to the new dentist I called today for an appointment. This Nokia gets the English version of me, sometimes witty in a self-deprecating way, sometimes bitingly sarcastic, but usually restrained. The 6300 has heard it all; late night calls from friends with a broken heart needing a listening ear, me talking nervously in clumsy Woody Allen style to girls I've had a crush on, me ranting at the plumber for not showing up, cold calls from marketing weirdoes, me pitching ideas to BBC execs...the lot. Boy, if this Nokia could talk...

Now, we can have a whole lot of very profound and complex discussions about cultural identity, how the language we speak shapes our personality, the different masks we wear, or how we think, feel or even experience the world depends on what language we speak. But that's another blog. 

My multi phoned split identity world changed on 2nd February 2009 at the TED Fellows opening reception when the lovely Afdhel Aziz, Nokia's Senior Marketing Manager, Global Sponsorships and Partnerships, pulled a fantastic magic trick out of a gift bag: Ladies and gentlemen, he gave us the Nokia E71.

The surprise sound of the fellows' jaws dropping on the deck was deafening. Apparently this device can do just about everything short of making the tea in the morning when you wake up. And as if that wasn't enough Nokia have also unlocked it so it can work anywhere in the world.

And THERE is my chance at last.  No more 3-phone Tags. Now that I can merge all my contacts from Iran, UK, US and all over, into one single phone with unlimited contact memory; now that I can talk to any of them at anytime from anywhere from one phone, anything could happen. I applied to the TED Fellowship on the premise that if the TED community is to survive and flourish it needs someone like me bridging East and West. Making peace and love between Iran and the US first, and the West in general.

Let my new Nokia E71 be the metaphor for that bridge, let it connect people by talking via me. Let it bring peace to all mankind and women who are just as kind.

*In the dark days of Bush foreign policy in relation to Iran, whenever he said "all options are on the table", that meant we're willing to bomb the hell out of people, if they don't do as we say. Now the options on Obama's table seem to include talking to everyone. Why even just this week he said he would consider talking to the Taliban. Well, bombing the hell out of two ancient civilisations in the Middle East doesn't seem to have made them love Americans more. So talking may be an option. Afdhel, sponsorship and partnership opportunities here for Nokia?!

Now, my dear Fellow Rom, what was all that stuff about latest firmware, download this and that, etc? Are you telling me this thing is out of date before I've even unpacked it?!

 

Taghi Amirani
TED Fellow 2009

@tagz23

Filed under  //   Iran   Nokia E71   Obama   Orange   TED Fellows  
Posted by Taghi Amirani 

Comments [6]