Category Archives: Apple

The Trouble with Waiting

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While I’m a little bummed out that only TWO people commented on my call for donations to purchase a heifer, I’m still going to put my $50 towards the share of one. The benevolent Chimp has done the same. (Many thanks, monkey man.)

On to more pressing things…

Ever since I’ve been considering getting a MacBook, then deciding to wait until after MacWorld, I’ve been in situations where I’ve been wanting to use it. Today is a perfect example.

I’ve got several speaking engagements coming up (tomorrow in Bonner Springs, January 20 in Lee’s Summit, February 17 in Holton, KS) and I would love to be sitting in my living room, typing away on my new MacBook. But alas, I’m limited to the big clunky standard-work-issue Dell. Booooooooo.

Still, I’m anxious to see what Uncle Steve and his army of MacMen come up with on January 15. Even if it is merely a price decrease to the existing line, I’m cool with that. They say patience is a virtue…I guess I’m not very virtuous in that manner.

I’m staying red meat-free (it was tough last night considering I was tempted by an Original Boston Cheesesteak), but I’ll stay that way and continue to take donations toward the purchase of a heifer. Go to this post to read the background and donate.

To Buy or Not to Buy?

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I’ve been pondering purchasing a MacBook for quite a while now. It always has seemed like a no-brainer to me: I love Macs, I love portability. The MacBook is both a Mac and portable.

MacBook, image courtesy of Apple

I’ve put it off for a while for several reasons…

  1. Not a huge need
  2. I have a work laptop
  3. Concern about the newer keyboards
  4. My desire to have a completely full machine, regardless of its intended use
  5. Money

There’s still no huge need and I still have the work laptop. However, it’s a Dell and as free as it is, my computer has more problems than any computer rightly should (as I write this, I’m considering having our IT department wipe the hard drive for the 3rd time).

After spending some time with the new keyboards, I’ve found them completely awesome. I don’t know why I would have expected anything different from Cupertino. They are very nice…responsive and extremely elegantly designed.

As far as #4 goes…I’ll be frank. I’m a total geek. I want latest and greatest stuff across the board. My original desire for this computer was something to kick around with. I want to be able to easily move around my house not using my work laptop to blog, check e-mail, write that ever-elusive novel, etc. I’ve decided that after the Macworld Expo in January that I would just take whatever they are offering at the time in my price range. Now, after looking at all the rumors, it appears that Apple may be poised to release a NAND-flash hard-drive based compact notebook. It would be light, extremely portable, but it might not have an optical drive. One of the reasons I want a new laptop is that I want to be able to easily watch movies on trips. That might pose a problem.

Then there’s the question of which version to get. Really, that question boils down to issue #5. As much as I’d like the black one, it makes a lot more sense to stick with the mid-range white one so I can still get a SuperDrive.

This decision is very trying to my patience. Now that I’ve made the decision to get one, I can’t wait to get it. Uncle Steve Jobs’ Macworld Expo keynote on January 15 cannot get here soon enough.

Do you think I should wait?

Apple Special Event

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Apple had a special event today to announce the new versions of all 3 of its somewhat popular iPod (shuffle, nano, video). Apple has almost always impressed with these events, releasing newer, better versions of the world’s most popular MP3 player.

Today, I’m not so sure.

There wasn’t much of an update to the shuffle…a color refresh and an additional (Product) RED version. Ho hum.

Then they went and updated the world’s most popular MP3-player, the iPod nano. The new nano throws away its old skinny form factor for something more squat in order to provide it with a screen large enough for video.

the new Apple ipod nano

I’m not sure how I feel about it. The form looks strange compared to the sleekness of predecessors dating back to the iPod mini. However, they pushed up the battery life to 24 hours for audio and 5 hours for video, which is quite impressive. The fact that they added these enhancements (and increased the sizes from 2GB and 4GB to 4GB and 8GB) while managing to keep the price the same ($149 for the 4GB and $199 for the 8GB) is awesome. You can now have a video iPod for less than $200. That’s amazing.

Obviously Apple couldn’t do anything without updating the standard iPod, which they are now calling the iPod Classic. They increased the size on it and added metal enclosures as well, pushing the smaller models to 80GB for $249 and 160GB for $349. Consider this: when I got my first iPod, the original 20GB version, it cost $500. You can now get 8 times the storage for $150 LESS. And battery life is now 40 hours for audio and 7 hours for video.

And the reason for the name change? A new iPod – the iPod Touch, which is basically an iPhone without the phone capability. This is the Big One. There is now finally an iPod with a touchscreen, widescreen capability and Freaking. Wi-Fi. That’s right. This is exactly an iPhone without the phone. Very VERY cool. I would have liked to see it in larger sizes than 8GB ($299) and 16GB ($399) – videos take up lots of space, both on hard drives and on iPods. Very cool that they added a Wi-Fi version of the iTunes store so you can buy stuff on the fly now and it syncs to your computer.

iPod Touch and iPhone

There is a feature where if you are at Starbucks and you are listening to a song, you can buy it. I don’t know why he saved it for last…pretty underwhelming.

No wait…they dropped the price on the iPhone. Only one model. $200 less. 8GB for $399. Morons who bought early.

It’s a good day to be an iPod fan and just another example of why Apple should be responsible for ALL hardware design. I bet NBC is kicking themselves now.

So what do you think? Do you want one? Are you upset about a recent purchase? Sound off.

Special thanks to Engadget for their live blog of the event.

Book

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MacBook that is…

macbook

Comes in white and black and looks downright good enough to eat. Who wants to give me $1100? Actually…with the release of these, maybe I’ll be able to get an old iBook for really cheap!

*sigh*

Awesome New Mac Stuff

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I’m so excited.

I’m a nerd when it comes to new stuff from Apple Computers. Two weeks ago (or so…I can’t remember) was the latest Macworld keynote speech

The new Mac stuff looks totally sweet. I am most looking forward to the new release of iLife ’06. I’m still on iLife ’04, which I love, but I am totally looking forward to picking up iLife ’06. The thing that I am most psyched about is the iPhoto update. I use iPhoto more than any other program in the iLife suite. One thing that is heinously missing from my current suite of iLife (but has been in subsequent releases) is subfolders for albums. My album list is ridiculously long and I like things nice and neat (although my office at home or my desktop would not suggest that).

Other interesting things:

…the new MacBook Pro…

one of these days, when I have some mad money, I’m going to pick up a laptop to kick around with. I have a feeling that in the next couple months, we’ll see just a standard “MacBook” to replace the iBook and it will have an Intel chip and be a little cheaper (although who knows for sure?). I just want something to take on trips and to Panera on a lazy Saturday morning.

…new iMacs…

This seems to be about the 4th time in the past 12 months that the iMac has been updated. I got a 20″ iMac G5 when they were the new hotness and I still feels like it is new. But it has since received:

  1. a processor bump
  2. an integrated iSight
  3. a remote and a new program (Front Row)
  4. a sweet program called Photobooth
  5. another processor bump (due to the new Intel DuoCore chip)

That’s quite a bit in a year. It’s hard to keep up.

Overall, I really expected to see Apple drop their prices on their hardware considerably so that they would be able to keep up pace in the cheap cheap CHEAP (cheap) market of PCs. I think that a lot of folks out there would buy a tiny little Powerbook…err…iBook…err…MacBook if they were at least COMPETITIVE on price. But with what you can get something to kick around with on Dell’s web site…it’s hard to make that decision (without factoring in the whole “having to learn a new OS” and “I have to buy all new software” stuff).

For me, I just want a laptop for very minor stuff, so I’m not going to spend an exorbitant amount of money on it. I have a great desktop machine at home and a rockin’ new dual processor AMD64 custom build at work. I just want something for the small amount of traveling I do and, again, for just kicking around.

I wish I had the money to buy a “just kicking around” laptop, but until topFIVEdesign really takes off, I’m probably won’t. Plus, there is a lot of other stuff that I need to buy before I even CONSIDER getting a laptop. But that’s another discussion.

WITFV11/12: Music and my iPod

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I want to give thanks today (and yesterday) for music. Music is an important part of who I am. I don’t know what I would do without it.

From the time I was very small, I’ve always loved music. I’m pretty sure that I inherited this from my parents, even if I didn’t inherit the taste in music that they would have liked me to at the time. But now, I think that they like to know what I’m listening to because my tastes have certainly changed and matured over the last 28 years. Not only that, but I have a strong appreciation for where the music of today has evolved from and over time, I’ve come to appreciate the work of early musical pioneers.

I’ve extolled the virtues of Apple’s products before, but I don’t know if there’s anything that has helped me to realize my adoration for music quite like my iPod. I can carry almost all of my music with me on my 20GB 1st generation iPod brick OR I can use complex algorithms to fill my ipod shuffle randomly and just see what comes up. Sometimes I really like that randomness. It’s like I have my own radio station that only plays the songs that I like, but doesn’t discriminate styles like a normal radio station would.

You see, I want a soundtrack to my life. Woudn’t it be totally cool to have a soundtrack that played in your head and helped to indicate when you should be happy, sad, melancholy, scared, etc.? I would love that.

Soundtracks are important, particularly in movies. Sometimes, they can have a dramatic effect on whether I really like a movie or not. And when I love a movie, there’s a high likelihood that I’ll buy the soundtrack too, just to re-live those moments captured on film. One of the most poignant I can remember in recent years is from the movie Almost Famous when Billy Crudup’s character gets back on the bus with his band and Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” comes over the bus radio. It serves as a cleansing reminder to those on the bus that life is too short to hold on to grudges or to harbor ill will. Such a great scene.

What’s so great about music is that it can serve so many purposes. Not only can it entertain on its own, but it can further enhance an existing situation if the music fits the moment. That’s what music is to me. It’s a seasoning that further enhances the flavor of life.

And for that seasoning, I’m thankful.

WITFV7: My Computer

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Volume 7

Today, I’m thankful for my computer. I have this beautiful 20″ iMac sitting in front of me right now. It’s such a terrific computer with a gorgeous display and it RUNS MAC OS X.

It was a Christmas present to me last year and I absolutely love it. I would like to build a better desk for it, but that is down the road, when I have some spare time to figure everything out since I have a strangely shaped room.

There’s a couple of things that I love about this computer:

  1. Its beautiful form factor. I don’t know if there has been a slimmer, more attractive computer.
  2. It runs Mac OS X. I know I mentioned this before, but this is a wonderful thing.
  3. The Bluetooth option. I don’t have the internal Bluetooth, but I have a USB Bluetooth key, which allows me to use this very nice wireless keyboard and mouse. What’s genius about them is that I was able to haul my computer to a mini-showcase for Alli last weekend and run a slideshow of all her work on my screen on our table. It looked very nice and super professional, almost like a TV.
  4. The nice big screen. Brilliant colors. 20″ widescreen. You gotta love it.

Now, don’t get me wrong. If somebody got me a companion iBook laptop to go with it, I wouldn’t kick that computer out of bed for eating crackers, but it would most certainly be my traveling companion (emphasis on companion…I wouldn’t even get MS Office for it…I’d just rock iWork on it). This gorgeous machine in front of me will be my primary computer for a long time.

(Unless of course I get into music or movie production or something insane like that where I might need to get one of those slick new Quad G5′s.)

So thanks, Apple (and more importantly Mom and Dad). I really love my computer.

New iPods

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Apple continues to innovate. We thought that today was just going to be the announcement of the new iTunes-capable Motorola phone that everyone KNEW was coming out. Instead, they also announced the abandonment of the ipod mini line and replaced it with the ipod nano, a 2GB and 4GB version of the big ipod, only without the size. The new ipod nano is only 1.5 oz.

You read that right. 1.5 OUNCES.

Very cool stuff. Brian beat me to the punch when publishing this, but I thought about it right when it came out.