My Two Cents on the VP Debate

As I watched the Vice Presidential debate tonight, I couldn’t believe how flat-out disrespectful Biden behaved. He continually smirked, smiled and made all kinds of faces during Ryan’s responses. On top of that, he was constantly interrupting Ryan. By contrast, Ryan politely waited while Biden gave his responses, only butting in now and then during the “discussion” portion of questions.

Joe Biden was continually complaining about getting “equal time” to respond while constantly interrupting Paul Ryan’s responses. Another thing I found telling was during their closing statements. Biden constantly looked down or at the moderator during his while Ryan looked directly into the camera and spoke directly to the American people! Also worth noting, Paul Ryan thanked Joe Biden whereas Biden didn’t thank Ryan.

Overall, I think Paul Ryan was far more respectful and Presidential during the debate. After all is said and done, I don’t think this debate will have much effect on the poll numbers as I think those on the right and left are happy with how their candidate performed and neither candidate did or said anything to sway those in the middle either way. However, I do think Biden’s immaturity has to have left a sour taste in their mouth. I know it did in mine.

It will be interesting to see what the numbers do, but I don’t think tonight’s debate will have much effect in the end.

Google Street View Back on iOS (Sort of…)

Google added a street view option to their mobile web app version of Google maps today, thereby bringing it back to iOS devices that are running iOS 6. With the replacement of Google’s map app with Apple’s own new maps app, iOS 6 users effectively lost Google street view. But now, it’s back! Well, sort of.

I’ve tested the street view functionality of Google’s web app version of maps and my first impression is not a great one. First of all, to access street view, you need to have some address selected by searching for it. Then, once a pin is placed, the iconic “Street View Peg Man” will appear in the lower right corner. However, he doesn’t always appear, even though the street on which the address is located has street view data. I’m not sure why this is, but it is annoying.

For example, I searched the address of my place of employment, which is 1000 S 84th Street. Instead of placing a pin on the street, the “flag” for the church was selected, and the “Street View Guy” was grayed out and not clickable. Changing my search to “1001 S 84th Street” placed a pin on the street and street view man was clickable.

So, while street view is back, it’s kind of a pain to use. The good news is, word on the street is that Google is currently working on their own iOS app that should be released in the App Store by the end of the year. So, I think I’ll just keep living without street view until then.

 

iPad Mini Will Be Revealed October 17 (Probably)

Mockup of the iPad Mini next to the iPad. Image credit: 9to5Mac

Word on the street is that Apple will hold an event on October 17 to reveal the rumored iPad Mini.  According to Fortune, invitations will be mailed out to the press on October 10, indicating the event will take place on October 17, if Apple follows their past time schedules.  That would also mean a launch date of November 2.