I’ll never look at the iPhone 17 the same again…

Most of us probably swap out our old ones for new ones every few years. No I’m not talking about spouses! Get your head out of the gutter and I’m sorry your stepmom is 5 years younger than you 🥴. New phones are always being plopped in front of us, teasing us with their screen sizes and camera lenses and chip powers. What you bought last year is already outdated and even though I love my Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (I’ve had it for a few months now), I’m sure something faster and sleeker will come along soon. The same goes for iPhones, too. Your iPhone 17 will be old by this time next year… oops, the 17 max pro double plus just dropped. Heyo.

But seriously, the 17 is fresh on the market and I’m sure it’s a good smartphone. But as far as hardware– and as the kids say, aesthetics– goes, there are a couple of things about it that I can’t bear to look at. Here’s the phone…

Looks fine, right? Multiple cameras. Standard rectangular shape. That raised plateau (where the camera lenses are) everyone is doing now. I don’t love that trend but there’s something else even worse. See if you can pick up what bothers me by watching this ad for another sneaky cool phone, the Xiaomi 17 Pro.

Did you catch it? It’s why I’ll never look at the iPhone 17 the same way again. Instead of a boring and bare plateau on the back, Xiaomi made the entire area a viewing screen. How do you like them apples, Apple??

All I can ever think now is why WOULDN’T there be a screen there? And then I look at the iPhone 17 again and it just looks like an imitation of the Xiaomi instead of the other way around. But there’s still something else… a visual part of the phone that irritates me so much. It’s this:

I cannot stand the flash and LiDAR scanner sensor on the right side of the phone. Why is there so much separation between those two features and from there, so much empty space towards the 3 camera lenses? It reminds me of the back of the Hyundai Santa Fe. Cool ride from the front but the back is hideous… it’s like the Pontiac Aztek was resurrected from the car cemetery to haunt us again. This part of the iPhone 17 is such a frustrating design choice. But even if it looked more cohesive or they grouped everything together like previous iPhone designs, the Xiaomi integration of a screen still wins and it’s not even up for debate. I mean, unless you want to comment below and we can chat on why the iPhone 17s are boring, Xiaomi 17s are not, and why the S25s beat them all.

-Out of the Wilderness

SKYRIZI Commercials – All the Weird Smiles Are Very Disturbing

There’s one thing that’s a proven, trusted, indisputable fact: SKYRIZI has the best jingle of any commercial on television. Don’t believe me? Watch the ad below and see if it doesn’t get stuck in your head for the rest of the day. But beware, there’s a disturbing amount of smiling, too. Also, I’m kinda sorry if I set you up to have the song stuck in your head all day when you have other important things to do. I’m also sorry that this commercial is going to keep you up at night.

I’ve had to call out Publix for this too: No one smiles that much. If you can, watch the SKYRIZI ad again and see if you can find anyone NOT smiling. It’s super weird and downright creepy. In fact, there’s a whole horror film franchise called Smile and that should inform us for all we need to know about smiling too much. What starts as a warm, friendly gesture turns sinister the moment a smile lingers… and lingers… and lingers. Here’s the ad reimagined as a horror movie. So basically I just changed the music and let it play.

Are you disturbed by this SKYRIZI commercial? Chime in below…

-Out of the Wilderness

The College Football #8 Ranking Curse

Last night Florida State lost in an upset to the unranked Virginia Cavaliers. With the way the college football playoffs are set up, Seminole fans shouldn’t give up yet. After all, they’re already having a better season than last year. Going in to last night’s matchup, Florida State was #8 and that particular spot in the top 10 is becoming a curse. And it might even be worse than the Dr. Pepper curse! We’re in the 5th week of college football and the #8 team has lost 3 of 5 weeks, worse than any other spot in the top 10.

week 1: (unranked) Florida State defeats (#8) Alabama

week 3: (#16) Texas A&M defeats (#8) Notre Dame

week 5: (unranked) Virginia defeats (#8) Florida State

In the new rankings, teams that could be #8 are… Texas A&M, Texas, or Indiana. Each of those teams have potentially tough opponents in their following matches which could manifest another loss for the 8th ranked team.

Texas A&M vs. MS State (currently undefeated).

Texas at Florida. (I know it’s Florida and they stink, but it’s in the swamp)

Indiana at Oregon (currently #6).

The upset alert hasn’t been switched off yet this season. This is what college football is all about, isn’t it?

-Out of the Wilderness

Kamala Harris – 107 Days, The Movie

This is just a little fun I had with the title of Kamala’s new book called “107 Days.” The book is a look into her experience running an abbreviated presidential campaign in which she took the mantle handed to her from Joe Biden (she wasn’t democratically nominated but that’s neither here nor there 🥴) to go up against the Republican candidate, Donald Trump. My mind wandered a bit and wondered what the book would be called if it were turned into a screenplay.

I have the book reserved at a local library so as soon as I read it (I’m like 43rd in line), I’ll probably write up a reaction post for it. Although I’m not sure why I’m even contemplating the idea of reading a story about how someone lost at something. It’s like the Kansas City Chiefs putting out a book about how they lost the Super Bowl. And we care because………??

-Out of the Wilderness

The Pixel 10 Ice Cream Phone Commercial – The Music and More

Eminem’s “Kill Shot” is to Machine Gun Kelly as the Google Pixel ice cream commercial is to every other phone ad. OK, only time will tell if other brands pivot like MGK did after his beef with Eminem so for now take a look at the creative spot for the Google Pixel 10 then scroll down for more…

The Song. An important piece of a commercial is what the audience hears. Sometimes it’s natural sound and other times it’s a song. In this case, it’s the perfect song to be featured as the soundtrack. From 1966, it’s “Sugar Town” by Nancy Sinatra.

I love the commercial even if the Pixel 10 technically looks a lot like every other flagship phone. In other words, it’s vanilla, too, but maybe with a few sprinkles on top. Earlier this year I swapped my flip phone for a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and it’s topping the list of best phones I’ve ever owned. It comes with a stylus, which automatically sets it apart from others. Of course, there are quite a few phones out there that are very, very far from vanilla but as far as mainstream flagship phones go, the S25 Ultra is #1. My favorite part, using the s-pen to accomplish the tasks, is what they call “drawing assist.” I can explore my own creativity and I get to draw stuff, then AI generates images based on my drawing. It’s fascinating. Here are a few recent examples.

Godzilla kicking a soccer ball.

An elephant.

A dog.

Whoa, I totally went on a tangent there, didn’t I? Back to the Pixel commercial: It’s great. Calling out other phones’ blandness while setting yours up as the (ice) cream of the crop is what every brand wants to do, and Google just set a high bar on quality and an effective message. Do you like the commercial? Comment below…

-Out of the Wilderness