Merry Christmas 2010: Atlanta (Snow!), San Francisco, and Justin Bieber

Wow. As long as it took Christmas 2010 to get here - 2010 seemed like two years instead of one year, considering all that has happened - it's almost over.

Hard to believe.

Here, in the vlog above, are some of the great times this blogger had with friends and family in Atlanta and in San Francisco.

A lot of food and drink was consumed by all.

And to end the Christmas day, it's started snowing here in Atlanta.  It's a rare happening here.  So much so that many churches are closed for Sunday.  And for churches to close in the South, you know conditions have to be bad.  

Temperatures have dropped from 55 degrees on Wednesday to below 20 as this is written: a 35 degree drop in just three days.

It makes me think twice about going to the Saints - Falcons Monday Night Football game at The Georgia Dome.  The comfort of the big screen is suddenly more desirable than the dome.

Not that I'm complaining about the snow.  What would Christmas be without it?

Well.  OK.  It would be a Christmas without snow.

Remember to take time to call friends and family this weekend. And remember that Christmas is the day of the birth of Jesus Christ, who eventually died in sacrifice for all of us.

And on that note, here's Justin Bieber wishing you a Merry Christmas:

iPhone: At New York's Penn Station, Be Careful When Using It

If you're an iPhone or smartphone owner and find yourself in New York City's Penn Station, as this blogger does frequently when visiting Manhattan, be careful if you need to use it out in the open.  Someone may try to grab it.

I ran across this tweet by Don Van Natta, Jr:

DVNJr Don Van Natta Jr.
Just had a guy try to rip my iPhone out of my hands outside Penn Station. He failed. Try to take my iPhone and you're going to get hurt.

That happened not on Christmas day, today, but on December 21st, but it's still wrong.

Apple needs to build-in voice recognition software that periodically checks in with the user. That way, if someone does steal an iPhone, and it "recognizes" that the user is someone else, the phone will just shut down.

That aside, the person who tried to take his iPhone learned a hard lesson: don't mess with an iPhone owner.

Twitter Down, Then Up, Sort Of, On Christmas Day

First, Merry Christmas! And it's that greeting, and its variations, that fills thousands, if not millions of tweets, all causing one thing: Twitter down.

Well, Twitter appears to be back up now, but not in it's exactly normal condition. For example, this blogger's Twitter account reports the number of followers, and followed, but when the links to the lists are clicked on, the words "you have no followers at this time" come up.

That's weird.

Well, while we're all waiting for Twitter to come back to full normal, check out their latest acquistion: Fluther.com.

Fluther.com is a site that uses crowdsourcing to help members find answers to questions. I just joined, and was presented with five questions I've got to deal with.

But they'll have to wait. It's Christmas! Folks are coming over. There's a lot of great food to be consumed. And I've got to watch the LA Lakers clobber the Miami Heat, then turn to the Warriors game!

Merry Christmas!

Ryan Seacrest @ryanseacrest Looks Tired At Twitter

@ryanseacrest, originally uploaded by @Twitter.

This is the photo of a man who works too much! American Idol Host and hardest working man in media, Ryan Seacrest looks like he could use a morning coffee in this photo uploaded by Twitter staff November 10th, and after Ryan's visit to Twitter Headquarters.

Wow, what did Seacrest do the night before?

ITunes Dominates Christmas Search Trends

On Christmas morning, iTunes, Apple's music and movies download success, is dominating search trends as reported on Google Trends.

1. stores open on christmas 2010
2. leapfrog.com/connect
3. www.itunes.com/download
4. itunes.com/download
5. itunes download
6. itunes store
7. www.apple.com/support/manuals/ipod
8. i tunes
9. twas the night before christmas text
10. winn dixie


As of this writing, five of the top 10 searches include the keyword "iTunes."

Wild!

NORAD Santa Tracker Has Santa Ending In Hilo, Hawaii, Not North Pole

Merry Christmas! Say, perhaps NORAD's Santa Tracker is a bit off. Well, OK, a lot off. It has Santa ending his epic sleigh ride in Hilo, Hawaii, and not The North Pole.

If you've never seen the NORAD Santa Tracker, here's my video on it, first:



There should be a video of Santa landing at The North Pole!  

Stay tuned.