End of an Era

This Sunday, October 2nd, will mark the end of an era. That night, American media icon, Andy Rooney, will give his last regular two-minute commentary for the CBS show "60 Minutes." According Gail Shister's article "Andy Rooney to End Regular '60 Minutes' Appearances," which appeared on Sept. 27 on mediabistro.com, Rooney, the currently 92-year old New York native, started working for CBS in 1949 and began his "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" essay segments in 1978. Since 1978, he has had 1,096 essay segments run, and some of his most popular ones include "An Essay on Doors," "An Essay on Hotels," and "An Essay on Women." 

Besides his work on "60 Minutes," Andy Rooney has been a television writer, newspaper columnist, and author of 16 books. Rooney's work has been acclaimed by both audiences and prestigious organizations: he has been the recipient of 4 Emmy awards, 3 Writers Guild awards, the Peabody award, and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists's Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement award. Rooney's weekly essays will be greatly missed by CBS employees and audiences, and no replacement has been announced for the time slot yet. It is said that Mr. Rooney does plan on keeping his CBS office, where he will apparently work on his writing and perhaps occasional segments. Rooney has been known to bring record ratings to the "60 Minutes" show, and Sunday night's farewell will most likely prove to be no different.


Below is a video of Andy Rooney's first "60 Minutes" commentary (July 2, 1978).

And here's one from July 2011.

New BlackBerry Curve 9360

         With all the recent hype about the soon-to-be-released iPhone 5, BlackBerry company Research in Motion (RIM) needed to find a way to not get left back in the dust; it is doing just that with its news BlackBerry Curve 9360. According to a Sept. 21st article by Chris Burns titled "BlackBerry Curve 9360 with BlackBerry 7 announced for T-Mobile," this model will boast the latest Blackberry OS and "Webkit browser."

In addition to traditionally loved Blackberry standards, impressive features of the Curve 9360 include a 2.4-inch screen, a 5-megapixel camera, and a newly designed QWERTY keyboard that is supposed to make typing more streamlined. There will also be a stronger emphasis on running applications ("apps"), including Foursquare, in addition to the newest version of BBM, BlackBerry's form of instant messaging.

The Curve 9360 will come in two colors: black and merlot. The black will be released on September 28, 2011, and the merlot will be released on October 12, 2011. T-Mobile customers won't have to pay a fortune for the new phone - if they start a new 2-year contract, it will only cost them $79.99 to purchase the device (much cheaper than the iPhone).

Netflix Nosedives

       Netflix has come to be known as one of the most popular ways for people to access movies, but recent events have proven that this may not last forever if the company does not offer the better deals its customers want. The company's stock price plummeted 18% Thursday due to an announcement that online and DVD subscriptions would be separated, therefore increasing prices for users who want both services unlimited. As explained by an article titled "Netflix Releases Revised Subscriber Estimate, Stock Takes A Nosedive" by Matt Burns on AOL's TechCrunch website, the company predicts a loss of 1 million subscribers, and other steep user losses in each category, due to this price increase. Today's loss (19%) basically reversed the stock's gains over the past year. Although Netflix believes it made the right decision, the company's directors will have to work hard in the future to make up for its losses by enticing new users in innovative and creative ways. 

Smartphones Revolutionize the Fitness Industry (Again)

Whether you want to track how many calories you burn in a day or learn how to do trendy exercises such as yoga or zumba, it seems there are countless smartphone apps out there to help you. Now, as explained in a Reuters article by Natasha Baker entitled "New iPhone app offers rewards for exercising," which appeared on the Chicago Tribune website on August 31st, a newly released iPhone app called Nexercise is taking things a step further - by offering its users rewards for achieving their fitness goals. 

The app - which was developed by Benjamin Young and Gregory Coleman - is free, and it gives users incentive to work out by awarding them points for different exercise activities tracked through the iPhone's sensors. Bonus points can be received for habits that studies show encourage the continuation of exercise, such as working out with a friend. Accumulated points can then be redeemed for discounted or free items, or they can be spent on entries into contests for prizes ranging from Sephora beauty items to GNC vitamins. These items are made available to Nexercise through a deal with an advertising company called Kiip. In the contests, since the value of the prize correlates to the amount of points needed to be spent to enter, people are given the motivation to exercise more frequently and for longer periods of time. 

Nexercise is an exciting release because not only does it track exercise like already existing apps by Nike and other companies, but by using more advanced aspects of technology, it gives users the chance to earn something for their dedication - and in today's tough economy, the words "free" or "discount" are music to just about everyone's ears. For this reason, Nexercise may change the way the world looks at exercise forever.