You've been good to me (see: MLB Game Tracking Options), but your emails are getting ridiculous. I understand that you need to peddle your wares and update me on exciting news, but this subject is pure madness:

Watch exclusive coverage of U.S. Figure Skating Championships

Seriously? I'm sure you struck some deal that included an email on figure skating, but you're barking up the wrong tree. I've always thought MLB abuses their email list, but whoever green-lighted this should consider a frontal lobe replacement.

You're likely wondering how I can be so confident, but this NYT piece about the porn industry had this important quote:

Poor Sony and their puritanical views.

I also recommend reading the the full article, whch discusses how the porn industry is having a tough time with HD because it shows too much. "'The biggest problem is razor burn,' said Stormy Daniels, an actress, writer and director." They're right — today's times do call for the times. I consider this essential information.

For a blog with the word "design", I don't really talk about it all that much. I'm hoping to change that some. Here are two cool things I happened upon this evening.

Media Skin Cell Phone

The Media Skin phone is apparently a pretty standard cell phone for the Japanese, but it looks pretty amazing. In my mind the plastic has some texture and give to it. This is pretty. [via Gizmodo]

Cam Firth Self-Portrait

I found this on Moco Loco and I think I'll just quote them directly: "Designer Cam Frith at the University of Alberta's Industrial Design department recently created his "latest piece of self-gratification" with more than 14 000 holes of differing sizes drilled partway into a piece of red MDF. Cut using a CNC router, this fantastic self portrait fits nicely somewhere in that grey area between art and design." Head to the Moco Loco post for some more photos.

I am a Bears fan and I am happy (the Bears beat the Seahawks yesterday to move to the NFC championship). Despite my happiness, I'm getting annoyed with the sports press. I understand the Bears are far from rock solid, but they're not that bad. It's hip to think the Bears are crappy, but this seems to come after wins. The writer rarely talks about the apparently crappier team who walked away with a loss.

The article usually goes something like, "if the Bears could just play well, they'll win." Um, yes. I admit the Bears can be wildly incosistent, but they've won fourteen games this year; you think that'd be enough to convince most people.

I'm glad to get that off my chest. Can't wait for next weekend.

This was the beginning of a conversation I had with my cousin and I love that he seriously questioned if I would buy twelve iPhones. The truth is, if there were some benefit to having 12 I would consider it. This thing is amazing.

In case you haven't seen it, here's a photo. Go watch some videos at the iPhone site too, because you'll get as excited as I am, even if you're not a fanboy.

I just got through listening to the Hivelogic Podcast and remembered something I find to be a universal truth: you can't tell people what they want.

Dan Benjamin and John Gruber were chatting about what's forthcoming during tomorrow's Macworld Keynote and how the Mac Tablet will definitely not appear this year. I agree and it's because the average Mac user has no need for one. The biggest tablet users are in the medical industries (and people who run warehouses, I suppose) and these people don't use Macs. If that ever changes, you can be sure that'll change.

This is also why the Zune's social features are a non-factor. Before the Zune came out, were you thinking "Gee, I'd love to share this song with my friend who is sitting across from me, but there's no way I'll let him listen to it on my Zune." If I want someone to hear a song, I'll hand them my iPod or I'll send them a link to a free mp3. This is why Cnet found just one person in SF with the social feature on.

Using this logic, here's what I think has an excellent chance of showing up tomorrow.

True Video iPod: A year ago it wouldn't have been true, but people are now looking for a good way to watch video on the go. I'm often seeing people watching TV shows on their iPods on the subway and airplanes.

iPhone: People have cell phones. People have iPods. People only have so many pockets. It was just a matter of time before they combined the two.

iTV (duh): We knew this was coming, but it's definitely time. People are downloading video podcasts and tv shows like crazy. It's silly to watch them on your computer screen or iPod when you have a new HDTV. It's also silly to buy things twice (first from DirecTV, again from Apple).

These are two things I wouldn't be shocked to see:

Ultra-portable MacBook Pro: Business people love a tiny, powerful computer. The lack of tiny, powerful computers gave rise to the Blackberry. If Apple is missing one thing in their computer line-up, it's this. The reason I'm skeptical is that most of the business world is still on PC and graphics professionals prefer a larger screen.

Apple HDTVs: Apple has great LCD technology and people buy these things like crazy. They'd be stupid not to do it now that they're getting into the living room.

I'm sure they'll be other stuff announced (10.5, iWork, iLife), but these are the big ones I think could make it. We'll find out very soon.

Another year, another list of cities I visited. I was bit more thorough this year (asterisks stand for multiple visits):

New York, NY*
Riverwoods, IL*
Chicago, IL*
Gunisao Lake, Manitoba, CA
Palm Desert, CA
West Dover, VT
Cherry Hill, NJ*
Philadelphia, PA*
Hoboken, NJ
Los Angeles, CA
Binghampton, NY

You may also be interested in last year's list.