I was watching Apple’s latest Mac TV ad and just like previous ones in the series, these ads make me somewhat pity the PC guy and I side with him. The Mac guy seems too snobbish and somewhat inconsiderate. Does anyone else get the same feeling? I think Apple made a poor choice of PC and Mac characters… and I seriously think it’s about time they stop these annoying ads!

Here is an example of the ads I’m talking about:

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Anyone who followed my former blog flotsam/jetsam probably knows that I had proudly jumped on the Zune bandwagon. I’d never really been all that into the iPod, and Microsoft’s answer to the bells-and-whistles seemed to offer everything I could ever want. But then the darnedest thing happened – the November release date came and went and we Canadians were left out in the cold! For anyone following Microsoft’s recent wheelings and dealings with the entertainment industry this should come as no shock — after all, the reason 360 owners can’t download movies and TV shows outside of the US is because the big M is all about taking baby steps when it comes to securing distribution rights. A similar situation when it comes to music distribution (through Microsoft’s own Zune Marketplace) was almost an inevitability. It’s a shame, too. We may not be as big of a market as the US, but we certainly are quick to adapt new technology (we were all on broadband when most Americans didn’t even know what that meant.)

So why do I bring this up? A lot of us were expecting a Canadian release date to pop up during CES and it just didn’t happen. As I was hunting the internet for anything Zune-related today, I stumbled across an interesting little tidbit that’s both very Canadian and very Zune related. As regular readers of this blog must know, both Boo and I are proud owners of the Wii. When it’s name was first announced, everyone had a bit of a chuckle. Well it turns out that if you’re French Canadian, you can have a very similar chuckle about the Zune. From Gizmo Cafe Blog;

“Microsoft did a lot of market research before naming Zune including throughout French Canada. “Zoune” is a little used slang expression of the Quebecois kiddie vernacular used to describe the organ through which one urinates, either male or female. The pronunciation is almost identical. Apparently the word is inoffensive to the French as it is the equivalent to using the word pee-pee in English. Apparently Microsoft market research uncovered the transgression in advance but decided to say piss on it and use Zune anyway. You’ll have to excuse the snickering coming from the eastern province when Zune is finally released in the land that rules hockey.”

It’s out! Apple announced the eagerly anticipated iPhone today and just looking at its photos makes me drool. iPhone will be released in June. The 8GB version will cost $599 US so expect it to cost $699 here. The 4GB version will cost $499 US and it will probably cost $599 here. These prices include a 2 year contract with cingular (US). I’m not sure who will be Canada’s provider? Rogers? Telus? Any ideas?

More photos of the iPhone here

Skinny Jeans tucked into Boots

One visit to Queen’s U will convince you that skinny jeans tucked into boots are the latest fashion craze. Expect this trend to last for a couple of more years.

or should I call them sandals? Sure they look ugly, but they were one of 2006’s hottest trends.

Stripes

Unfortunately they’re back.. invasion of the zebras

Mini-skirt with leggings

Lately people have been wearing nylons or leggings under their skirts. The nylons/leggings don’t reach their feet but just below the knee. This is one of last year’s winners and I expect this trend to carry on for a couple of more years.

Jogging pants with one leg rolled up and the other one down

… so you only see one sock. Looks so freaking ugly but some guys think it’s cool.

‘Popped’ collars

This can look very attractive if worn correctly. The collar doesn’t have to go all the way to the top and you can settle with a less dramatic “pop”. This is suitable for both females and males and looks best with a Lacoste Polo shirt.

This time of year the web is hit with a plethora of “best of” lists reflecting on all of the ups and downs of the last year. Quite frankly, it can be a little overwhelming — and I find that it gets pretty old pretty quick. There’s only so many times I can be offended that somebody left Rocky Balboa off their Top 10 Films of 2006 list. That being said, I’ve stumbled across a site that’s re-invigorated my love of year in review retrospectives.

Time Magazine has just released its annual 25 Top 10 Lists for 2006. As you can imagine, 25 different lists cover just about every walk of life you can imagine — Sport’s Moments, Kid’s Books, Fashion Trends — they’re all there. My favourites? Top 10 Web Sites, Video Games and Underreported News Stories — but if you know anything about me, I suppose these choices really come as no surprise. I’m just impressed with anyone who has the wherewithal to put Table Tennis on their video games list.

This post isn’t about Canada and it isn’t about deals, but it is a great little story that I think everyone can enjoy. Earlier this year a user on the photo sharing site Flickr purchased a suitcase at a yard sale and it turned out that that suitcase was full of black and white family photographs dating from the 1930’s-1950’s, presumably from the Washington DC area. So what did this user do with all of these pictures? Posted them on Flickr of course!

Hop on over to the Flickr photoset “suitcase snapshots” for a fantastic look at family life from a time gone by.

As another year comes to a close, one question remains – where am I going to go to party? I had been under the impression that most major cities held free events on New Year’s, but after some lengthy searches on the internet this morning I’ve discovered that that’s simply not the case. If you live in Southern Ontario though, we’ve got two annual events that are always a ton of fun this time of year. I’ve been to both, so I can vouch for the fun factor personally.

Toronto РNathan Phillips Square. Free Admission. Featuring performances by Hedley, George, Keshia Chant̩ and Measha Brueggergosman. Also Featuring: Ed the Sock. More info..

Niagara Falls – Queen Victoria Park. Free Admission. Featuring performances by Foreigner, Colin James and Justin Hines. More info..

Living 20 minutes from Niagara Falls and being a HUGE fan of kitschy 80’s rock, I’m rather ashamed that I won’t be making it out there tonight to see Foreigner. I was looking forward to the delicious irony of watching them perform “Cold As Ice” in unseasonably warm winter weather. Sigh… C’est la vie.

If you know of any free event in your area, please, post a comment here. Your fellow SmartCanucks will thank you. 🙂

I had some free time this afternoon and was feeling just a tad patriotic, so I decided to hop on wikipedia and discover some of the groovier things invented by our fellow Canadians. What follows are five of the more surprising things I had come across, complete with wikiquotes and links to the original articles. How many did you know were Canadian?

1. Five-Pin Bowling – Five-pin bowling is a bowling variant which is only played in Canada, where many bowling alleys offer it, either alone or in combination with ten-pin bowling. It was devised in the early twentieth century to offer bowlers the chance to play a game during a half-hour lunch break. This goal was achieved by using smaller balls which travel faster than ten-pin balls and which can be thrown in rapid succession. Five-pin bowling was invented in 1909 by Thomas F. Ryan in Toronto, Ontario.

2. Bloody Caesar – …was invented by bartender Walter Chell at the Owl’s Nest Bar in the Westin Hotel in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1969, to accompany the opening of a new restaurant, “Marco’s”. In its original form, it contained tomato juice and mashed clams; Clamato had only just been released (with the assistance of Chell) by the American Mott’s company that very year, and was not yet widely known or available.

3. The Zipper – was invented in St. Catharines, Ontario by Gideon Sundback, a Swedish-born immigrant to Canada who was in 1913 the top designer at Universal Fastener Company. He made his first “Hookless fastener” in 1913, and designed the complex machinery needed to manufacture it. The patent was issued in 1917 as a “separable fastener.” The B. F. Goodrich Company coined the name Zipper in 1923 for the line of rubber overshoes that it made using the fastener. The name slowly came to be associated with the fastener itself, and eventually acquired generic status.

4. Robertson Screwdriver – A Robertson screwdriver is a type of screwdriver with a square-shaped tip…The drivers are famous for holding onto screws (you can start driving a screw horizontally into the wall, and leave the screwdriver in the screw while you have lunch)…Today Robertson screws are almost unknown in the United Kingdom, scarce in the United States, where they are used mainly in theatrical set construction and account for 10% of screws sold, while being very common in Canada where 85% of the screws sold use the Robertson head.

5. The Electric Stove – Thomas Ahearn invented the electric cooking range in 1892 and installed one in the Windsor Hotel in Montreal. The electric stove was showcased at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, where an electrified model kitchen was shown. But like the gas stove, the electrical stove had a slow start, partly due to the unstable technology, and partly because first cities and town needed to be electrified. By the 1930s, the technology had matured and the electrical stove started to slowly replace the gas stove, especially in domestic kitchens.

My wife and I were watching the old boob tube the other night and were delighted to see one of our favourite ads pop on. I’m sure you’ve all seen it, but just in case you haven’t (or if it’s been as long since you’ve seen it as it was for us) let me bring you what we consider the greatest Canadian ad of all time – The North American House Hippo.

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For more info on Concerned Children’s Advertisers, visit their website here.

Let’s face facts – you dropped the ball. It’s Christmas Eve, and you still have shopping to do. Pretty soon those stores are going to be closed, and you’re going to be up the creek without a paddle. Or are you? Whether you like it or not, there’s one place left. It may smack of desperation, but it’s better than showing up empty-handed (though only slightly so). It’s the gas station.

Winterized Washer Fluid is always a great gift – it says “Stay safe this winter! People care about you! But obviously not me, because I bought you washer fluid.” There’s lots of options here – lottery tickets, Pringles, The Toronto Sun. What’s not to love?

Well tommorow’s Christmas Day, and I can only hope our last minute shopping ideas have provided you with some of the gifts you needed, or at least given you a few laughs. I hope you’ll all enjoy the rest of your holidays, and I’ll see you all on the other side of Happy Ho ho Day! 🙂

[We’re in the last week before Christmas, and everyday until that very last minute we here at SmartCanucks will be bringing you some great but obscure gift ideas for that special someone]

Nothing says I love you like “Ch-ch-ch-Chia!” Chia-Pets, the Clapper, the Ove Glove – anything bought to you by Joseph Enterprises is a worthwhile gift. This close to Christmas, ordering online probably won’t do you a lot of good unless you’re willing to put an IOU in a Christmas card. Luckily you can find most of these products at your local Home Hardware. And seriously, if you can show me someone who wouldn’t smile when unwrapping a ChiaPet, I’ll wear that damned Princess Leia dog costume.

Every great product ever imagined is available online at Joseph Enterprises.

I’ve never really been all that into sports, but as a kid I would’ve sold my soul for a subscription to Sports Illustrated just so I could get my hands on one of these. The Sports Illustrated Sneakerphone is the ultimate in kitsch for anyone who grew up in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Nothing says cool like calling your Grandma on a shoe. And now it’s available without a subscription! You can pick one of these bad boys up at your favourite Canadian electronics liquidator, XS Cargo for only $9.99. If you don’t have an XS Cargo in your neighbourhood, you can also get this on their website.

The Sports Illustrated Sneakerphone is available at XS Cargo.

[We’re in the last week before Christmas, and everyday until that very last minute we here at SmartCanucks will be bringing you some great but obscure gift ideas for that special someone]

You mustn’t forget Fido at Christmas! And what better way to thank him for year-long loyalty than to dress him in drag and let him loose on unsuspecting sci-fi conventioneers? If you happen to know a a Star Wars fan with a lovable pooch at home, you can’t beat a gift like this – especially for only $15.95 USD.

Besides – getting your dog bone shaped cookies and Kong Dong’s is so 1976. What better way to step boldly into 1977 than with an outift that screams “Help me Obi-Woof Kenobi, you’re my only hope!”
Pricess Leia Dog Costume available at CostumeCraze.

[We’re in the last week before Christmas, and everyday until that very last minute we here at SmartCanucks will be bringing you some great but obscure gift ideas for that special someone]

You’ll never find anyone who doesn’t like Tetris. It just won’t happen. Go ahead and try – I’ll wait.

See? Tetris is universally loved.

…and so is food! That’s why Tetris fridge magnets may in fact be the single greatest idea since the invention of rubber pants. At 278 rubels a set, these are clearly the real deal. That’s around $11 CDN for those of you who don’t memorize the daily foreign currency exchange charts every morning.

Tetris Fridge Magnets are available from Art Lebedev Studio.