Apple unveils latest product where I learn yoga!
***Warning***
There is yoga geek speak in this post. If you don't do yoga, I apologize in advance for the terminology. Just slog through it to get to the juicy stuff!
I went to my Swaroopa yoga class last night. Right off the bat I knew something was different. I could hear an unknown female voice coming from the studio. When I got in the room, I realized our instructor, Cayla, had a new iPhone 4Stm and was showing it off to one of my classmates. The voice was Siri, a human interface built into the phone. It was pretty cool, but not why I came to class, so I began to set up for yoga.
I got my pads, blankets, and blocks and built my stack. Normally, I grab an eye pillow and Kleenextm before I lay down to begin shavasana, but this time I forgot. Cayla is always asking if someone needs anything before class starts, so I asked for an eye pillow. I was already relaxed, laying with my eyes closed when she handed me the tissue, which I laid across my eyes. I heard, distantly (since I was beginning to reach a meditative state), a box opening and plastic wrapping being scrunched, and the next thing I new, Cayla had placed something odd across my eyes.
I knew it wasn't a standard eye pillow. When she laid it on me, it was a little rigid, but then it kinda moved and shaped itself to my face. It became really soft!
Right about then, Cayla tells me that Terri, the studio owner, had gotten hold of some new product for the studio that was being tested for the first time IN OUR CLASS! Terri had somehow convinced Appletm to use her studio for the testing of their newest product,
The iPillowtm*!!
Oh. My. God. Thank you, Steve Jobs!!
This thing is state-of-the-art yoga stuff! It senses when it has encountered a human face and the hardware transmografies the device into a pliable, satin-encased bean bag! Not only that, but the software releases a wonderful lavender/peppermint aroma that seduced me into relaxing even more.
It was so great that when Cayla told us to move out of shavasana and into the first pose, I didn't hear her. She had to physically shake me a little to bring me out of my deep meditative state!
Wow!
I went through the rest of the class like I was in a trance. I couldn't wait to set up and go into final shavasana!
This morning, in the hospital, while they were giving me intravenous fluids (I got dehydrated laying there for the 12 hours it took for them to wake me the second time), I found out that we were a beta site for the iPillowtm (how cool it THAT??) and that it won't be released until January 2012. It will come in a variety of radiant colors (I think Apple'stm engineerstm must work overtime to create wavelengthstm of light that humanstm have never seen before), and they will add a new aroma that they are still working the bugs out of. They told me that the aroma will have it's own product name,
iChamomile(c) **
(pronounced "eye-chi-mom-illee", sorta like iChichuahua {tm Desi Arnaz, I think}).
I can't wait for it to finally come out! They told me they would provide me with several almost-free ($59 - 25% off list!) iPillowstm just before the official release to make up for the half day or so of my life I lost in the hospital. VERY cool! I can give them out to my closest friends and family, and we can all share adjoining private rooms at St. Joe's up on Pill Hill!!!
I'm told my insurance will cover the costs.
_______________________________
* - I was going to embed a photo of the device, but it's still in development and Apple won't let me. Sorry!
** - this term is licensed by Apple from Chris Jonestm, currently residing in San Francisco with his lovely and intelligent wife, my daughter. They were able to buy a nice little home (5000 sq ft) on top of a hill overlooking the city with the proceeds of the license agreement. 'Way to go, Chris!
This blog is written by Sid Plait, owner of Plait Solutions, LLC, a technology consulting company operating in the North Atlanta area in Georgia (tm the United States of America (tm every Native American tribe), working with homeowners and micro businesses to make sure they have the right technology and that it functions properly so that they can go about their lives and businesses as efficiently as possible. (This paragraph is true.)
Posted by Sid Plait at 10/20/2011 1:57 PM 
Categories: Technology, All, Whatever, Science, Apple, Miscellaneous, Good News!, OMG!, Onion Rings
Tags: Apple Apple computers yoga Atlanta North Atlanta iPillow(tm) humor chamomille Steve Jobs
Categories: Technology, All, Whatever, Science, Apple, Miscellaneous, Good News!, OMG!, Onion Rings
Tags: Apple Apple computers yoga Atlanta North Atlanta iPillow(tm) humor chamomille Steve Jobs
I'm surprised that you're into yoga, Sid! Until now, I had always thought that yoga practitioners were just women sitting cross-legged (lotus position) on the floor and humming monotonously.
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So, Ivan, what is your point? What's wrong with being in a room filled with women "sitting cross-legged on the floor and humming" for two hours? Well??
Actually, I started doing yoga several years ago because I was tired of dealing with hips that hurt all the time and I felt I could use the quietness aspects of the training.
I could and I do.
Besides that, how did you like the post? I had a fun time writing it.
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What Fun! It's amazing where the mind wanders!
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Sid, you had me going there for a minute. I wouldn't put anything past the folks at Apple(tm). Besides this being a funny story, you make a good point about the way Apple, and others after their example, is putting bothersome, and maybe even harmful products out there and calling them "beta." Nice post.
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"i" am amazed that this simple yoga prop has brought you to new dimensions in your "i"magination. Bravo! Namaste
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Why not!? The yoga terms went over my head, but then again so did the Apple references. Not sure what's real and what's imaginary here! Fun reading though, and maybe Apple's R&D should pick up on this one.
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