A Week of Wacktastic Will.i.am Stuff: "Scream and Shout" and iPhone Accessories!

The holiday season is upon us, so now is the perfect opportunity for people to push their latest and greatest products to the masses for maximum consumption.

Apparently, will.i.am missed the "greatest" bit of that memo.

The rapper-turned-entrepreneur-of-some-kind dropped two brand new products this past week, and they both are pointless, hopeless, and just plain old suck.



The first was the lead single from his upcoming solo effort #willpower titled "Scream and Shout", with Britney Spears. I'm guessing she's returning the favor for his work on "Big Fat Bass" from 2011's Femme Fatale. If only this song was as good as that one. Despite a relatively small part, Britney is the only saving grace of a track that borrows the worst of "The Time (Dirty Bit)" and expands on it for an extra two minutes. It's tuneless, EDM mess without a single ounce of joy, or anything else warranting a second listen. The music video is just the same, with only interesting bits being a better-than-she's-looked-in-years Britney, and a preview of the iPhone accessories will.i.am is launching.



Speaking of, will.i.am is launching a group of camera accessories for the iPhone, that actually cost more than either a digital camera or an iPhone. The $315 product essentially turns the iPhone into a point-and-shoot, has a 14 megapixel sensor, and has a slide-out keyboard. It also happens to look shockingly ugly and garish. It's bad enough that he's making a product that nobody ever wanted, it has to be ugly and expensive too?

If this is what will.i.am has to offer for the all-important holiday season, only one question must be asked.

When is the next Black Eyed Peas reunion?

UNbelievable! Oprah Tweets Support for Microsoft Surface....from an iPad (Shade?)

During the all-important holiday season, an endorsement from Oprah Winfrey is better than a big old gift-wrapped box from Santa. You would think that Oprah endorsing a new product like the Microsoft Surface tablet would be a huge boon to the product, already struggling against tough and established competition from Apple, Google, and Amazon.

Oprah recently tweeted her love for the Surface, saying that she already purchased it for 12 people, and that it was one of her "favorite things" (aka, buy it for your loved ones).

What Oprah (or whoever may tweet for it, although I like to think its her) didn't realize was that her followers could see what program she used to tweet. That program was Twitter, for iPad.

Ooops!

It's kind of hilarious, if you think about it. Oprah praising a product using its direct competition. It's either a genuine lapse in judgement, or the delicious shade I have ever witnessed.

Hey, it's the holiday season, so let's just give her the benefit of the doubt.

FYI: The iPad was a part of Oprah's Favorite Things list when it came it too! Boop!

In Memoriam: Steve Jobs

I am currently writing this post on a MacBook Pro, one that I purchased two years ago in preparation for going to college. As I look around my classroom, the computers that are out are Macs, as are the computers in the basement of Trinity College's library.

Sitting in my bag in my room is my first generation iPad. Sitting in my coat pocket is my iPhone 4. Sitting in someone else's pocket is my iPhone 3GS, stolen from me during my Thanksgiving break last year. Of the six people sitting in the front row of my class, I know that three people have an iPhone on them, myself included. I wouldn't be surprised if all of the people in my row have one.

Steve Jobs, the founder and driving force of one of the most important companies in the world, died yesterday after a long struggle with pancreatic cancer. He was more than just Apple Inc.'s Chairman and CEO. His vision, to marry technology with humanity, revolutionized how everyone interacted with their devices. Because of him, we developed over time a genuine, vested interest in the products we purchased. While some companies and technological purists would criticize Apple for oversimplifying the technological experience, he simply made it accessible, allowing people who would never touch a computer before swiping across screens with two fingers. He essentially drove tech advancements for decades, being five steps ahead of the competition. Even today, two days after the iPhone 4S announcement, companies are still trying to catch up to the two year old iPhone 3GS.

His true legacy, what will make him a legend for centuries to come, is how he changed the course of culture. He redefined how we listened to music, watched movies, surfed the Internet, and produce documents. He didn't just oversee the creation of the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad; he understood how these products could break through the public consciousness and genuinely restructure our engagement with media.

The passing of Steve Jobs is more than just the end of an era for Apple, and even for technology. His death is the end of an era for the world, a world that was transformed significantly by his creativity and perfection.

May he rest in peace.