Can you hear me now? Good.

Apparently I had it all wrong.

I thought the thing to do at the Western Wall in Jerusalem was to write your prayers on little pieces of paper so you could stuff them in the cracks.

I guess you can phone it in too.

They call it a used bar of soap. I prefer Chiclet.

Now that Apple has currently cornered the market on cool high tech phones, the Japanese are aiming in a different, stylishly colorful direction:


Check out the Au Infobars over at Core77.

Surprisingly sexy. Surprisingly similar to those pieces of gum kids try to sell you on the street in Mexico. Not-so-surprisingly only available in Japan.

You're not integral to the project. You're the pretender.

Here's two completely divergent musical directions for you to peruse today:

1) Foo Fighters, "The Pretender"

It's been a few weeks, and I'm still pretty stoked about the Foo Fighters new single The Pretender. It's a perfect blast-yourself-awake-in-the-morning-driving-to-work song. Turn the volume up and give it a whirl:



Now that you've been rocked out, let's shift gears.

2) Pet Shop Boys, "Integral (Perfect Immaculate mix)"

As part the Pet Shop Boys upcoming Disco 4 collection, they've gone and remixed a great song from their last album and given it a fresh new video. Watch closely. There's more to it than meets the eye:


(UPDATED: The original link I posted was a more basic version. You can still find it HERE. If that link doesn't work, check out the Popjustice link below.)

For the surprising subliminal explanation of what you just saw head over to PopJustice. It's a brilliant concept that cleverly plays into song's message. This is what we call cutting edge interactive technology.

Of course, my iphone doesn't quite have the bells and whistles to play along. Considering what I recently ruminated HERE, not being so integral may be better anyways.

The song, however, sounds and looks fantastic.

Hello, Mr. Yakamoto! Welcome back to the Gap! How'd those assorted tank tops work out for you?

Remember Minority Report, the Tom Cruise blockbuster set in a future with neat virtual touch screen computers and Gap stores that tailor their sales pitch with a scan of the eyes?

I couldn't help but be reminded of that eerie vision of the future this week after Apple announced their deal with Starbucks to sell us music in their stores.

At face value, this is a really great idea.

How many times have you been somewhere, heard a song and then said to yourself, "This is really cool! I should get this!" Only, of course, to forget about it while figuring out that what you REALLY crave is an iced vanilla latte. With this deal, it's instant gratification: You click while in line, and by the time you have your drink in hand, you have a new song playing on your earphones.

The creepy part about this, though, is that if the technology is there to push music to you by noticing your iphone in the store, it's not that far a stretch to picture the day that the coffee giant's computer recognizes your particular iPhone and the clerk gets a message on the register suggesting she upsell you on a venti iced vanilla latte.

This has long been the holy grail of cell phone companies: Pushing advertising targeted to individual phones. Picture walking by a store and suddenly getting a text message offering you a digital coupon for 20% off your purchase. It's an advertising gold mine -- if you can get it to work effectively.

Other countries, such as Japan, have long tied everyday commerce to the cell phone. Apple's announcement this week is huge in that they've basically beaten the cell phone companies to the punch here in the United States. By hitching a ride on the wi-fi bandwagon, they are also leapfrogging the cell phone companies worldwide. Heck, the fancier new iPods will even do it!

While most things in this connected world of ours can be tracked, at which point do we willingly open the door too far and lose any sense of privacy? Apple is only the first to roll this out so ambitiously. They won't be the last.

Maybe Minority Report had it wrong. It's not what's in our eyes. It's the addictive touchscreen computers we put in our very own pockets. The iced vanilla lattes are just the sugar coating.

How to take your shirt off instantly (with instruction)

Do you ever find yourself fumbling to take your shirt off in a rush?

Sprint's got your back.

They've come up with a clever list of how-to guides for that, amongst other random things.

Check out Waitless.Org for further instruction.

(I'm not really sure how these make me want a cellphone, but hey, it's leagues ahead of that guy teleporting in front of a yellow presentation easel.)