Call me crazy. I'm glad the ESPN Headline happened.

Credit: Jonathan Newton - WASHINGTON POST
Everyone's still seething over the ESPN headline and they have every right to be. The "C" word used in ESPN's headline was used to demean Chinese Americans as far back as the 1880s and its on par with the "N" word for the Asian community. It's a deeply painful and hurtful word to generations of Chinese Americans. But look past the anger and there is plenty of good that will come from this in the future.

For the first time an Asian American is at the center of sports and media in general. Writers like to be cutesy about their headlines or catch phrases, but many of them aren't in the know of what's acceptable or not when it comes to Asians. It's not an excuse. It's a fact.

Getting upset and saying "They should have known better!" is giving people who probably don't interact with Asian people on a daily basis, too much credit. Now they know better.

Was it unacceptable and indefensible? Absolutely. We know that and ESPN apologized immediately and reacted the right way by even addressing the issue on their TV and Radio networks and website. Kudos to them for stepping up.

Credit: Getty Images
Call me crazy, but I'm glad it happened. Now we know better.

The media is learning the new rules of whats acceptable and what's not when it comes to Asian Americans because they've never really had to factor us into the national media equation as a headline story.

Remember the "American Beats Out Kwan" headline?

There are plenty more examples with Jeremy Lin's rise of how ignorant people still are. Jason Whitlock, sent out an idiotic tweet after Linsanity exploded with a win over the Lakers. He was ridiculed, apologized, but now he knows better. (Sidenote: Fox's discipline was non-existent for Whitlock)

Former NBA Player Rex Chapman, just showed us he's still a caveman after his recent tweet, even after all the recent headlines, and he's feeling the heat.

Now he knows better.

The "C" word has now been thrusted into the spotlight by this headline, and its extremely unfortunate that it happened, but now it won't happen again.

This is how we evolve as a people and get closer to Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream. A dream that still has plenty of work for us to do.

We took a few steps back, but the impact and awareness these statements can make and the education people are getting is going to thrust us three leaps forward. Thanks to Jeremy Lin playing basketball.

We still have a long ways to go, but now WE know better.

Jeremy Lin. Amazing. Changing the world.

I haven't posted a blog for almost two years, and now I'm doing this because I want to remember where I was and what I was doing when this all happened.

Is this Jeremy Lin hype overblown? It's not, and this is even bigger than people realize. JLin is changing the world right now and breaking down all kinds of walls through basketball without overtly doing it.

He may not have faced anywhere close to the racism that black athletes did, but he's our generation's Jackie Robinson. And more importantly he's living the American Dream. Every person, no matter what color they are can relate to that. This is a Disney movie that we are watching right now, except its real life. It's amazing, and I'm so glad I'm around to see this happen.

I JUST SAW A PEEK INTO THE FUTURE: MICROSOFT KINECT

Last night we were treated to a grand show with Cirque Du Soliel to showcase the arrival of Microsoft's Project Natal, now renamed KINECT. We were transported to a world that looked like Pandora from Avatar the movie. We wore white smocks with shoulder pads and LED lights in them, which made us all feel like we were part of a cult. I was waiting for a virgin to be sacrificed by the "natives". It was a lot of show but no substance and the on-screen demos left us skeptical. I wanted to see the real deal.

Fast forward to today to Microsoft's E3 2010 Press Conference.

The technology is amazing. KINECT is more advanced then we've ever thought with the combination of it's 3d depth sensor, multiple-array microphone and motorized tilt camera all working together.

There are people that will brush off the games and say they are too casual. Those people are looking to chainsaw bodies in half. But those same people can't deny what they saw with KINECT. The technology behind those casual games made them shine and the Wii now feels two decades old.

But i don't even care about the games right now. I care about how we interface with a new platform like KINECT and Microsoft made sure we saw how this is moving us forward and changing everything in the future.

Waving your hand around to easily select icons and navigate the Xbox Live interface was sweet. But even sweeter, using your voice to navigate menus, access media with your voice, play, pause and replay videos, initiate and answer video calls, have those video calls track you when you move around the room and it was all demoed at different times by different people...and it all worked.

There were subtle things that KINECT showcased. In the "YOUR SHAPE" fitness demo it showed how accurate the cameras can detect who your are, even being able to detect and render a jacket someone was wearing and taking off. With certain multi-player games, all you had to do was jump in and the game automatically went to split screen. In the "Kinectimals" demo (virtual pet demo), when the player hid from the tiger, the camera detected that and the tiger started looking for the little girl.

Once you give developers these tools for a year, it's only going to get better.

I don't know if consumers and families will adopt this new tech like they did with the Wii. It matters to Microsoft, but it doesn't matter to me.

What we were shown was a new marriage of tech with software that we have NEVER SEEN before executed at this level. That's something worth getting excited for. And at the very least, it will have a long lasting influence on the way we interact with digital media and content in the future. KINECT goes far beyond gaming.

EPIC PRIZEFIGHT: The Nexus One vs. The iPhone 3GS

Two phones at the top of their game.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT!

My Apple iPad Impressions after a Hands-On

The Apple iPad, did it live up to the hype? How could it?

Pre-keynote everyone was excited, there were too many gadget geeks (myself included) with smiles in their eyes, including SF Mayor Gavin Newsome who sat two rows behind me.

But the air was taken out to the room quickly when it appeared we were looking at a glorified iPod Touch that can read e-books and use iWork with our fingers...

But once you get your hands on this thing its a different experience.

It feels solid, its snappy to use and exhibits none of the lag or refresh rate of an Kindle or any e-reader on the market. It's color screen is refreshingly sharp. It's starting price at $499 beat all expectations and it definitely has the Apple polish for both the hardware and software.



I may not want one right now, but I can see this being a device that I WILL WANT in the future.

And it was thanks to the demos of the New York Times and the MLB at Bat apps, that got excited me and showed me the future of the device and what will make it successful.

We know how to do email, browse the web, listen to music and play movies with Apple's touch-screen devices.

I've always said this thing has to consume media in a different way that makes us WANT to use it.

Well the NY Times demo of flipping through the paper, saving articles, changing the number of columns to read, "pinching" to increase font size, then clicking through photo galleries on the same page as the related article or watching movies related to the article in the same place all together at once.

That's what will make me purchase a device like this.

We always watch sports games on the big screen and use our laptop to follow stats. But with the MLB app, you could do that all in one screen. Stat overlays, on top of a game going on at the same time. It was like Minority Report meets ESPN.

That's what will make me purchase a device like this.



There is definitely a future for this platform, it may not fill a need for people RIGHT NOW, most people are already blowing it off. We know the Apple faithful will buy it in droves. But after using it and playing with it, its going to be ALL ABOUT THE APPS, once again.

This also feels like the first computer that we could see being used like a "household appliance". Not like a blender but anywhere around the house, in the kitchen, the living room and in the bathroom. It could very well be the first appliance computer.

I'm a gadget freak. Is this device innovative? YUP Have we seen anything like this before? NOPE Will I buy this when it launches? NOT YET, but It's a platform that shows more promise that any e-reader I have ever seen to date.

Give it a year and get back to me.

The DateCheck App is my new worst enemy!

You bounce around CES, and sometimes you find a little magic. Melissa here, busted me up, and the conversation off camera was even saucier. One of the highlights of CES 2010. Check it.

The Aria Waterwall is hypnotic!

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www.briantong.com

Guess who? Stevie Wonder

Tingles, Warm Fuzzies and Watery eyes!

John Legend at Monster's Party

Take it slow...oh...oh

You heard it here..I AM T-PAIN!

Do I REALLY get paid to do this stuff? Turn a little idea in my head and then just go wild with it with my producer Ariel and camera men, Charlie and Jim. Here's another Apple Byte staple "iPhone App of the Week", featuring the "I Am T-Pain App".

I know its been out FOREVERRRR, but this idea has been in our heads FOREVERRRR..so now that they updated it so you can sing to your own iTunes library, with the auto-tune effect JUST LIKE T-Pain. Karaoke night may NEVER be the same.

Jump to the 3:00 minute mark to see it.

Are Personal Blogs dying?

I'm the most guilty of this, but I used to use this blog as a journal, but now with the whole Twitter/Facebook thing, my blog is suffering BIG TIME.

Are personal blogs dying, or...are they already dead?

Sure I can create a post here and it forwards to my Twitter or Facebook, but it takes time to login, to create a new post, attach pics and links, blah blah blah...The only person who comments about my blog not being updated is my MOM!

How are you guys being affected?

Tyrese Gibson on the Apple Byte!

Just another victim, I mean, Tyrese happens to be at the Apple Event, so of course we had to talk to him. You might recognize some of his classic two word lines such as "BRING IT" from "Transformers" and "We HUNNNGRY" from Fast and the Furious 2. He was a good sport and yeah, there was also Apple stuff going on.