Apr
20
Four years ago, I bought my first Mac, a 20″ iMac G5 which I named Zeus. It’s a great machine, but I’ve decided to sell it. As I talked about before, I bought a Macbook last January, which I named Hera (Zeus’ wife). In the last few months, I’ve noticed that Hera is so much more powerful than Zeus. With the rise in online Flash video, I’ve noticed Zeus stutter and be slow, but Hera has always been able to run it just fine. I decided it was time to put Zeus out to pasture and begin using Hera full time.
Now, Zeus’ slowness wasn’t the only reason. Whenever I travel, I bring Hera with me, which has meant using her (yes, I call it ‘her’) exclusively for weeks at a time when I’ve gone to Florida or New York or even to my parents’ place in London. In that time, using Hera exclusively has been wonderful. She’s fast and light and easy to carry. Her keyboard is wonderful, unlike the old-style one that came with Zeus.
I’m also moving to my parents’ place for a few months. Networking at their house has always been tough. I’m convinced the place acts as a Faraday Cage, so 802.11g wifi was very spotty in most places (Cell signal is also a problem). A few months ago they bought an Apple Airport Extreme, covering the house in 802.11n WiFi, which has much greater range. It’s a great fit for their house, and Hera works just fine on it. However, Zeus is too old to use it; he only can do 802.11g. The house used to have Cat5 cable running to the bedrooms, but they had it removed when they renovated their kitchen. The only place to put Zeus would be next to the router, in my mother’s office, which she likes to keep slightly neater than a pigsty. As much as I love my mother, I wouldn’t be able to work there. Without an internet connection, Zeus would be pretty useless.
So, the time came to get rid of Zeus and use Hera full time.
Jan
28
As I alluded to in my last post, I bought a MacBook last week. “But”, I hear you say, “don’t you already HAVE a perfectly good computer?” And of course, the answer is “Yes,” but I had several reasons for getting a new one.
First and foremost, I’m a student, and as such have several hours of class each week. Most of those classes require me to take extensive notes for at least an hour. Since I’ve been using a computer for 15 years (since I was 6, I believe), I’m a fairly fast typist. I also have terrible handwriting, and write (relatively) slowly. So the laptop helps me take better notes faster than when I’m writing.
Jan
25
iPod Battery
Tagged apple | ipod | iPod Juice | review
I got my 5G iPod about 2 years ago, and use it extensively. All day at work in the summer, days when I’m waiting on campus for hours on end, etc. However, it really started to annoy me as the battery began to only last a few hours, sometimes less. Sadly, that’s how things go with Lithium Ion batteries; they begin to lose their capacity after about 500 charges.
So I looked around the internet and found iPod Juice, who sell iPod batteries and provide instructions on how to change the battery yourself. I got the kit a few days ago and got around to doing the surgery 2 nights ago, as my battery failed once more. The surgery was a success, it was pretty easy to do and didn’t take that long.
After the surgery and charging the iPod, I took it to school with me yesterday. I ended up not going home between my classes and spent 6 hours on campus listening to my iPod. It worked phenominally and barely broke a sweat. Basically, the iPod Juice battery was easy to install and worked awesomely. Thumbs up from me!
Jan
19
On Macworld and the Cloud
Tagged apple
Macworld was this past week. It really kicked off with Steve Jobs’ keynote on Tuesday. If you haven’t heard yet, he announced some cool things. First and foremost (and what basically every news outlet is talking about) is the Macbook Air.
Basically, it’s the world’s thinnest notebook. It’s so small it can fit nicely in a Manilla folder, the kind you use to send Inter-Office mail. How do they do that? Well, most obviously missing is any type of optical (read: DVD/CD) drive. You can, however, buy an external USB drive for it. You also have the option of “borrowing” the DVD drive from another computer on your home network, which it would then use over the WiFi. Yes, it has to be WiFi, because this thing doesn’t have Ethernet or a modem or anything. The only wired option is to get a USB attachment that takes up the 1 USB slot. So, basically, really thin, reasonably powerful, no CD drive and just one USB port.
And That’s OK. I actually think it’s a great idea. The iMac (way back in 1998) shipped without a floppy drive, and people thought it was insane. That was how data was transfered between computers back then. But now, I don’t think there’s a laptop out there with a floppy drive and they’re becoming increasingly rare on desktops. Apple saw that the floppy was on the way out before most (all?) other companies, and I think they see it again. Think about this honestly: when was the last time you used your DVD drive? I can’t actually remember when I last used mine. It’s not very often. Most of the time I use my 4GB thumb drive to move data back and forth, and it’s more often than not much more than I need. With Internet speeds getting faster and faster and people getting more of their media over the wire (or through the air), there’s going to be less and less use for a CD drive.
The New York Times had an article a few weeks ago about people storing and working on data in the cloud, bringing such technology into the mind of people like my father, who is not at all tech savvy (he hates the Universal remote we got him and prefers to use 2 separate ones). If my father thinks something technological is a good idea, there’s a good chance it will catch on in the future.
Merlin Mann has some great thoughts on how Apple intends to move forward in this space. If Apple hadn’t started on this path already, they’d be stupid not to take his plan, flesh it out a bit and announce it at next year’s MacWorld. They’ve pushed themselves into prime position to dominate the ubiquitous storage/media realm. Young people today are buying macs in greater numbers, and they’ll be customers for life when they grow up. There are 4 million iPhones out there (in just 6 months), a number that’s going to keep rising. Those are tiny little network-connected computers that Apple could hook into people’s data stores and allow them to store and access all their files.
They’ve already made the move into ubiquitous content delivery by allowing you to buy movies on the Apple TV without even needing a computer (though you do need an internet connection). With just a few tweaks (like a free starter pack and expanded data storage for more money), Apple could make .Mac into a must-have accessory for all Mac and iPhone/iPod Touch owners. It would put them in the position of being a leader in the coming online storage revolution, just as they led the digital music revolution with the iPod. This may all be in their long term plan, which could explain why they dropped the “Computer” from their corporate name last year. Either way, I think it’s going to be an interesting year for Apple.
Jan
7
On The SlingCatcher, MacWorld And The Strike
Tagged apple | CES | slingcatcher | TV
A year later, Sling announces the SlingCatcher. Again. I don’t think they announced anything that wasn’t announced last year. It will still play virtually any format you can imagine, like Divx, Xvid, mov, avi and others, and should retail for $250. They say it’s coming in Q2, but they said the same thing last year. As for how it works, Engadget says:
Unfortunately for us, the unit was extremely pre-release, meaning the menus felt sluggish, the device crashed a couple of times, and it generally felt like there was a lack of polish.
Look how pretty it is, though. (Image from Engadget)
With the MacWorld San Francisco Keynote just around the corner (January 15th), the semi-annual Keynote Bingo card has come out. It looks to me like there are some pretty good chances at a bingo happening this year.
The Writers’ Guild of America strike claimed its first award show casualty, with the Golden Globes telecast being scrapped.
Speaking of the writers, Colbert and Stewart return to the air, sans writers. I’m curious to see what they do.