Talking Your Tech: Arsenio Hall

ByABC News
June 17, 2012, 6:49 PM

LOS ANGELES -- Fresh off a win as the 2012 winner of NBC's Celebrity Apprentice, Arsenio Hall met up with USA TODAY at a photo studio here. The comedian and former talk show host entered the room holding a dead Apple iPhone and a cable, looking to plug in and recharge before starting the interview.

Hall says he's "in talks" with several production companies, including CBS Television Distribution, about doing a new TV talk show; Friday he'll be a guest host of ABC's The View. Hall is a Twitter "fanatic," who worries he may have gone off the deep end recently by texting his son at home instead of knocking on the door.

iPhone issues

"The iPhone is better than an orgasm … with one flaw. That phone has to be able to take me through the day without me having to walk into a room and say … 'I got to get some juice.' It's the greatest phone on the planet. I wouldn't trade it. I keep a BlackBerry, though, because my iPhone, on a good day, is not going to last past 2 p.m.

Comedy and tech

"If you're a comic now, along with talking about men not wanting to stop for directions, you also have to discuss the girl who tweets on a … date. You can discuss things like that, people touch each other and say, 'Oh, you're just like that.' "

What really bugs him

Captcha. "I'll never understand why twice a week I have to look at blurry images of letters and numbers and type them into a box (for security reasons on websites). Because a criminal or bad guy can type them into a box, too. I hate those things."

Siri vs. the real thing

"I can live with Siri (Apple's personal digital assistant for the iPhone) but not a human assistant. The human assistant will say, 'There's a boot on my wheel, and I'm going to be late.' But Siri never calls and says she will be late."

Twitter fanatacism

"I'm a Twitter fanatic … a Facebook fanatic, except the Twitter thing I take full control of. I fell in love with Twitter, and my publicist (whispering) handles Facebook for me. I have no time for Facebook after I'm finished with Twitter. I delete every 10 tweets and then send one. In my mind, I send hundreds of tweets a day. But I usually get out two to 10 tweets."

Survival

"How did we survive without the things we have now? I remember a time when I wasn't so attached to my phone. I remember when I didn't have a phone. How does it go from that to this? I mean, it's all day long. It's an appendage that never leaves my hand. It's horrible. I feel bad sometimes about technology. But it's the only way to deal."