Peon's Place

In a recent writeup, Anthony Davis was named the #2 Rookie in an Ideal Situation, with the San Francisco 49ers.

Don’t mess with Mike Singletary. Just ask Vernon Davis, the former sure-bet draft prospect that had bust written all over him before getting verbally undressed by his new coach. Davis bought into Singletary’s program and rebounded in a huge way, bettering his previous career high in receptions by 26 (up to 78), yards by 456 (up to 965), and touchdowns by nine (up to 13). Given an ultimatum – the Singletary Way or the highway – Davis chose the path to NFL stardom.

Mike Singletary is a culture unto himself, and he’s molded his 49ers team in his image. This is one of the brightest young teams in the league, and they play hard, they play physically, and they’re going to win a lot of games in the very near future.

Singletary’s presence, and the culture he’s quickly established in San Francisco, was really driven home when the team made Anthony Davis, Mike Iupati and Taylor Mays its first three draft picks this past April. Iupati is a road-grading guard that will start immediately and will have an instant impact on the team’s rushing attack. Mays is the most uniquely gifted and physical defensive back to emerge in quite some time, and at a bare minimum adds explosive hitting to a defense that could use more physicality.

But that culture means the most when talking about Davis, the No. 11 overall pick out of Rutgers. No one questions Davis’ talents, as many scouts believed that Davis was the most gifted offensive lineman available this past year. Despite serious questions about his maturity (he’s only 21 years old) and work ethic, he was still the third lineman off the board. He’s in a fantastic situation. Singletary is the perfect coach to get the most out of Davis between Sundays. The rookie enters an offense that made serious strides during the 2009 season behind quarterback Alex Smith.

There is a lot of talent offensively in San Fran, but better line play – and more consistency from Smith – are required. Davis will get a chance to start right away. Under Singletary, he’ll have an opportunity to develop alongside some of the league’s best young skill players (Davis and Michael Crabtree come to mind). Things are looking up in San Francisco, and this young tackle could really solidify a promising young team’s offensive fortunes.

View this cute text-to-speech video about how good the new iPhone 4 is. I got a kick out of it, my coworker got a kick out of it, and I’m about to listen to it again.

There’s some pretty hilarious quotes. See how ignorant some Apple-lovers can be!

Enjoy!~

As per Steve Jobs, there is nothing wrong with the reception on the iPhone 4. You’re just holding the phone wrong. All of us, who have had iPhones for several years, have been holding them wrong this whole time. It all makes sense now!

Depending on how you hold your iPhone 4 during calls you may or may not notice your reception drop. Some haven’t seen it at all, but many users have definitely experienced it while browsing, emailing or using apps. Some think it has a bit to do with your initial reception and people in stronger coverage areas are affected less. But they’re also pretty sure — and Apple confirms it — that touching the antenna does affect things — whether or not it has the final result of killing calls or speed of data connection.

Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone.With our past devices, the antenna performance when the phone was held in a certain way didn’t seem to be an issue or stand out in particular. But with the iPhone 4 we’re definitely seeing an effect, particularly when using data or tapping away on our on-screen keyboards.

This is all becoming clearer and clearer! Apple has explained that the iPhone 4 reception issues end when people just plain stop holding their devices the wrong way. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band.This explanation does fit with the user reportsthat have been sent, but the solution isn’t exactly comfortable. It’s awkward to avoid touching the antenna points on the iPhone — especially because the glass on the phone’s back and front is extremely slippery. The bottom portion of the phone just seems like a natural place to hold the iPhone 4 in order to avoid dropping the gadget. The additional problem is that when you hold a phone for data usage — browsing or apps or email — you’re going to almost have to touch the bottom and sides at the same time. Especially in landscape mode. This is a major problem for smartphones.

There are solutions to this, however. Using a case for the phone, which you should do anyhow, will help you in not making contact with the antennae bands. Fortunately you will only have to shell out about another $30 for such a case, for a problem that Apple should have initially addressed.

Some folks report that they’ve successfully rid themselves of reception issues by wrapping a rubber band or wristband around their iPhones. It’s not exactly a great solution as you have to cut holes into the band in order to access the charging port or volume-toggle—not to mention that all your buttons are constantly pressed down. It’s a cheap solution though and simple enough to use in a pinch. Just be careful that you don’t accidentally fling your iPhone across your room like some did while trying to test this solution.

Alternatively, the easiest way is just to not hold the phone at all. If all else fails, you can just plain avoid touching your iPhone. Use a rubber band to attach it to your head, leave it speaker phone, use a headset, use the included earbuds, or learn to levitate it. It’s an awful solution, but it’s there as a very last resort.

Say goodbye to your pricey cable TV! Between Hulu and Netflix, I really see no reason to keep Cable/Satellite TV around any longer.

Announced earlier today after months of speculation, Hulu Plus has finally become official. For $9.99 per month, subscribers will be able to watch their favorite shows — including those from seasons past — on a multitude of internet-connected devices.

Mobile devices are a go, with iOS devices including the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, and iPod touch (3rd generation) being the main attraction at this point in time. The best part as far as mobile is concerned is that streaming will work on both Wi-Fi and 3G networks. Several internet-connected HDTVs and Blu-ray players from Samsung already have support for the streaming service, and later on in the year, both Sony and Vizio will introduce support in some of their sets ad Blu-ray players. The PlayStation 3 will support the service “soon”, while the Xbox 360 will play nice come 2011.

Hulu Plus will officially launch is July, but if you’re lucky you might just be able snag a preview invite.