The almighty untethers us (day 130)

Something unusual happened today.  I learned of a current news event from Twitter before I learned it from anywhere else.  This is in part because I haven't been scanning my usual news sources and I've been at home but it's also because so many people twittered about it, in various forms.  I eventually had to pay attention.  My feeds, they are changing.

The ReadWriteWeb blog recently posted that RSS feeds were dead.  A brave and controversial thing to write.  Turns out I wasn't the only one that thought so.  There were many many comments from people that still rely on RSS feeds.  I was glad because when I first read the post I totally felt behind the times.  "But I still love my RSS feeds!", I wimpered.  It felt a little bit like coming back from sixth great summer break and finding out that my favourite game was now uncool.  The memo hadn't reached me in time for me to avoid making a fool of myself.   Thankfully RSS feeds are not dead and RWW had to capitulate.

The news that had people all atwitter is almost as exciting as my feeds changing - Google has announced the latest Android phone and it's not tied to a carrier.  It's the last part that's amazing.  That's right, you buy the phone and you can use it on any network!!!  This should not be such a gift because it should have been the norm all along, but there it is - a gift from mother Google.  I have no idea if any of this will be valid in Canada but it's only a matter of time.   This means that my previous rant may be moot in a year or two when carriers will be forced to compete for my phone's attention.  Take that Bell/Telus/Rogers.

A song for this post.