Video gaming and gadgets, movies and more. If I can geek out about it, I can write about it here.
Almost four years ago to the day, I asked for a modular phone.
In the years since, I’ve learned that I would never want to use an Android device, but still, the idea of a modular phone? It almost happened.
(And yes, I’m aware that there are other phones with modularity, though none were as close to my original vision as Project Ara seemingly would have been. The in-development PuzzlePhone, though? It looks beautiful!)
Featured image: © Google
Almost four years ago, I made a change that so very many of us have: I exchanged my “dumb” phone for a newfangled smartphone — a then already out of date iPhone 4, to be specific.
Early on, I was impressed with just how many free apps were available in the App Store, and I rather quickly had filled up most of my phone’s storage with ad-supported free versions of premium apps or “freemium” apps which offered some features but required an in-app purchase to unlock the entire thing.
This, as you can imagine, grew to be a nuisance.
Eventually, I gave in and bought several apps for a few dollars apiece; the fates of these apps varied. Some I used or played for a while before abandoning them, while some I still use or keep installed today, such as the excellent The Night Sky. I don’t feel guilty about these purchases in the least, especially when you consider how much the iPhone costs, whether outright or on contract.
You don’t buy a Kindle just to enjoy the dictionary and manual that come pre-installed on the device. You shouldn’t buy an iPhone to enjoy only free apps, either. You’re cheating yourself, all because we’ve become conditioned to feeling that $5 is a lot to spend on an app. It’s okay to pay for good products.
It’s okay to pay for good products, but I’m still cheap, especially because I’m now at the point where I have the apps that I know I need or want. Everything beyond that is bonus and novelty, and I want to share two great ways for enjoying premium apps without spending a cent.
Perhaps not quite as important as knowing how to remain secure against a raptor attack, here are some humorous tips on how to survive an alien attack, courtesy the folks of HowItShouldHaveEnded.com and based on some of the great alien feature films to come out of Hollywood:
The likelihood of any of us ever having the opportunity to meet a truly alien, or extraterrestrial, species is… well, it’s an unlikelihood more than anything. I’d love for it to occur, for humanity to realize finally that we really aren’t alone in this universe.
Will the aliens be peaceful? Of course, we hope that they are. But I’m a white male — I know all too well that there are a great many white males who will see the aliens as an “other” that must be distrusted at best and which must be wiped out so that we can enjoy their technology at worst.
It’s also possible that the aliens will be so far evolved that they’ll look at us the same way we do primates in a zoo — a novelty to maybe gawk at… or perhaps an obstacle on their quest for resources.
Or maybe they show up in our solar system, harvest our sun, and humanity dies on a frozen Earth, completely oblivious as to why our sun went dark.
What do you think? What sort of contingency plans should we as a society have in place for meeting intelligent life that is truly beyond? Or on a more personal level, are there any things we could do among our own families and communities to not look as though we’re either too unworthy to contact or too insignificant to preserve? Share your ideas below, or get creative with your ideas at the forum!