"apple" Category Archives (129 entries)
Things related to Apple (computers, iPods, iTunes, OS X, Macintosh, etc.)My "D" key doesn't work :(
So my "D" was a little crooked on my MacBook the other day so I pressed it down and it snapped back into place and has been fine. Today when I opened the lid the key just feel off and I can't get it to snap back on.
I can type on the missing part. It's just annoying and I'm afraid I'll lose the key before I can get it back on.
While I love my white plastic MacBook it just hasn't held up as well as my old plastic iBook. I used to beat that old iBook up and never had any problems. In addition to the "D" key I've got a few cracks around the seam that I have no idea when/where they came from.
PLEASE Leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Monday at 11:04 AM on August 25, 2008.
Related categories: apple, portable
Another MobileMe Credit! 60 more days free!
So in addition to the 30 Day MobileMe credit from a month ago, they are giving another 60 days of free MobileMe credit.
My problems have not been too bad during this transition (I don't use their mail) so I'm getting 90 days total!! Plus they've doubled my space (back during the transition) which makes it 20 times the storage what it was a year ago.
Posted by Gary on Tuesday at 2:57 PM on August 19, 2008.
Related categories: apple
MacBook Rumors seem to be rising...
There seem to be lots more rumors on new MacBook refreshes lately and with their free iTouch (or Nano) promo (students, teachers or staff), I really want to buy now before the promo ends on September 15. I'd prefer they've added GPS to the iTouch but that's just not happening yet. I'd more excited about an iTouch with the new Apps store :)
Posted by Gary on Wednesday at 3:10 PM on July 23, 2008.
Related categories: apple, portable
MobileMe 30 day credit !
While a lot of people seem to complain about the .Mac / MobileMe service I've always had pretty good success. The biggest thing I use it for is iDisk so that all my laptop files get automagically backed up to the server, I can then access those same files from the web and have the get mirrored to one of my other Macs. It does the same for the my bookmarks and mail settings (and it'll do the same for contacts and calendar, but I haven't been using my mac for that). They are removing the web access to the bookmarks, I only occasionally used this, but I don't understand why they took this away (it was an already written feature so why remove it); I'm especially annoyed since I renewed for a year and then they took the feature away.
For the same cost they just increased storage from 10 GB to 20GB so that's a bonus. They're still more expensive than most storage on-line but the connivence is what makes it worth it. It's also slow if you just decide to sync up gigs and gigs of data, but it'll get there eventually and it resumes seamlessly (usually) the next time I connect.
I did have some MobileMe problems during the transition and the iPhone 2.0 launch (I don't have an iPhone) but they all resolved themselves. As a result for those problems and the ones others had they are offering a free MobileMe MobileMe30-day credit extension to your account (you were a .Mac member whose account was active as of July 9, 2008 or you are a new MobileMe member who created your account on or before July 15, 2008 at 7:00 PM PDT).
Read or leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Wednesday at 1:59 PM on July 16, 2008.
Related categories: apple
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: Gary Said...
Shopping!
Mom is at Harrod's.
I'm in heaven! At the Flagship Apple Store on Regents street in London.
It's a huge store. A little bigger than in Chicago! Gotta go shop!
Later - Turns out we have live music too! Jessica Hoop and Lissie, I'll be checking them out on-line later...
PLEASE Leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)
Posted by Gary on Tuesday at 8:44 AM on June 3, 2008.
Related categories: London 2008, apple
Getting a New MacBook / MacBook Pro Laptop
So after the MacBook Air not being what I had hoped for, I had been hoping for a 13.3 inch MacBook Pro and while the Air is small, I wanted something not so stripped down. Since then, I'd been trying to decide between a 13.3 MacBook and a 15 inch MacBook Pro (size vs. power, I'm used to the tiny 12 inch PowerBook), I thought I'd let fate decide for me and get the next one that they upgraded. Unfortunately, last week they did an upgrade on them both on the same, letting fate avoid making the choice for me.
This week I was at a conference and was at the Apple Booth and was playing with the 17 inch MacBook Pro and asked if they had a 15 inch to look at and then I realized I was using the 15 inch model. It just seemed so large and bulky to me. I think I'm going to have to go with the 13.3 MacBook, I think it's only about a half pound less in weight, but it's a bit smaller. I'm not even sure how I'd fit the 15 inch on the back of an airplane or train seat tray.
Of course, the day after I order it, they'll release a 13.3 inch MacBook Pro...
Later: I went with the 2.4 GHz White MacBook (I couldn't possibly justify the Black one for $110 more, that doesn't even make sense!), with the 250 GB HD and lots o' RAM. The biggest downside to not getting the Pro is that the glossy screen was the only option (and the non-backlit keyboard).
Read or leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Saturday at 11:12 AM on March 8, 2008.
Related categories: apple, portable
Thanks for the 2 comments/trackbacks from: gavi: Angela
I was Wondering About Apple's Weekly Releases...
Apple has released or upgraded/refreshed something new every Tuesday since MacWorld. This week there was nothing. The stranger thing is that I didn't hear much (anything?) about it. I did recall him saying something at the keynote like '50 more weeks to go' and it was just odd at the way it sounded, so when they kept rolling things out I thought that was pretty great and maybe it was a weekly thing.
But I see that Leo Laporte just mentioned an Apple Event tomorrow, so maybe there will be something announced there...
After Google-ing around, I'm guessing it's just the SDK kit for the iPhone / iTouch. Although if it's not an actual product, it's still not following the pattern.
LATER REVEALED: I haven't watched the Steve Jobs presentation yet. But it looks like it's the SDK that was expected, it's $99, I'm not sure if that was expected and it's free (see comments). Also they have a way to be in the "Enterprise beta" program, but I don't know if I'd want my enterprise testing new software if it's not finalized yet. But the "remote wipe" sounds like a great option if you've got secure data. The "Exchange Sync" looks nice that'll convince a few BlackBerry users to jump; is it coincidence that Google released an Exchange / Outlook to Google Calendar Sync yesterday?
Posted by Gary on Wednesday at 10:09 PM on March 5, 2008.
Related categories: apple
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: Dave2
AppleTV Take2 - Review
So I just downloaded the AppleTV update called Take 2 (or is it Take2?). I wasn't thrilled with the changes that I saw in the preview because I thought the interface was pretty great. But I'll agree that some changes for the new interface was necessary.
Since you now can shop the whole iTunes store via the AppleTV something to surf around a larger library was necessary. They new sections fill up the cover art at a more than acceptable speed (my cable modem is 6000 down and 384 up) and it flowed pretty nicely. But a lot of the old interface is still around for the sub menus and it they really clash with each other. But I like the shopping on-line option, I'll try it later just so I can see how well it works. I would have purchased last night's Kyle XY episode but it wasn't ready for download yet for some reason...
The amount of movies and music and TV is just a little overwhelming. There's just so many options and you can scroll in so many directions! And all the album art just looks fantastic in large high quality images!!! They need a all you can watch or listen to with the music videos, pay a flat rate and go cRaZy for a few hours.
The podcasts are interesting, You can browse very nicely and you can view/stream but if the site is slow, you're gonna wait a while for that hi-def video. You can select download and it'll be there later for you. It's strange that you can favorite a podcast, not to be confused with subscribing, but you can't actually subscribe; this would be inconvenient if you don't actually have a computer.
The new Flickr photo viewing works great, but I wish there was a way to view the descriptions or titles of the photos. And I wish there was a way to look at thumbnails; for example a person has 500 photos in a folder and there isn't a way to jump around it just goes to slideshow mode. This never bothered me with my photos, but when looking at someone else's it jumped right out at me....
Overall, it's a great update in that it adds some great functionality. The new interface will grow on me (it's not like I wouldn't recommend it to someone). I just feel it's missing some normal Apple consistency in the Human Interface Guidelines area...
I'm still missing a way to build a video playlist (or a video shuffle). I've got hours of video podcasts and I don't have a way to string them together as my own private TV channel. I hadn't heard about it or this release but it just seems like a natural outgrowth of the music playlist and/or shuffle.
The update took a while and had to reboot more than a few times installing all the features but seems like it worked just fine. I expect they'll be a update soon to fix a few minor things, like the TV Genre of "Cops and Robberts".
PLEASE Leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Tuesday at 10:27 PM on February 12, 2008.
Related categories: apple, movies, music, television
Apple Movie Rentals Extended
This is great, it looks like Apple has semi-extended movie rental time limits. I say "semi" because once the 24 hour time limit passes you cannot go back to the beginning of the rental, but you can resume where you left off.
This makes me very happy because I've thought the 24 hour was just too short. My thought from a few weeks ago was "Maybe they can do something to cripple it, maybe after 24 hours any viewed portion is not viewable any more". It seems (at least on an iPod) that you can't leave and do something else and still have it resume when you come back ("delete" or "resume" are your choices) your iPod is "stuck" on that screen. Maybe they'll do it a little different on AppleTV or iTunes...?
I think the new AppleTV software was supposed to roll out last week so it should be appearing soon.
Read or leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Sunday at 6:04 PM on February 3, 2008.
Related categories: apple, movies
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: David
Apple MacBook Air - Mini-review
So I went to the Apple Store today to take a peek at the MacBook Air. Honestly, I had pretty low expectations so I thought I'd get my socks knocked off, but it was just okay. It's more beautiful than my 12 inch PowerBook, but just by a small margin. It's light and thin seems pretty durable, and has the beautiful LED display (but a bit of glare). But I thought I'd leave and say "I have to have one", but it didn't happen. If I had the extra bucks to spend it on I'd certainly get one, but I think I'd still need a more powerful laptop.
Pluses: 3 lbs., 13.3 inch low power LED display, small, new track-pad, backlit keyboard. Please note, some of these are huge pluses.
Minuses: External DVD drive (which I could live with), special MagSafe power adaptor, slow hard drive, lacking ports, 80 GB, maximum HD, no option for a spare battery and (of course) the price. Note that while it's a metal MacBook it has a shared memory video card like a MacBook, not a MacBook Pro.
The solid-state 64 GB drive is a plus, but the $1000 price tag is certainly a minus...
If I had a 17 inch PowerBook, the MacBook Air would make a great addition as a "day" computer, when I don't need the power or DVD drive and didn't want the 6.8 pounds to lug around. If I could only have one machine I'd probably take a loaded MacBook 13.3 inch (5 pounds). If I could "create" an ultimate machine it would be a 12 (or 13.3) inch MacBook Pro; I could even live with an external DVD drive it it could lower the size and weight...
This kind of fits with my initial thoughts when I first saw the announcement of the MacBook Air, it's not what I was hoping for. If you haven't seen it, this is the MacBook Air ad.
Posted by Gary on Saturday at 3:47 PM on February 2, 2008.
Related categories: apple, portable
Thanks for the 6 comments/trackbacks from: e:leaf: Gary LaPointe: KenC: Gary LaPointe: Ruhayat: Gary LaPointe
Apple TV Takes Over The World
My Apple TV has been one of my favorite technology purchases and I never expected that I'd like it that much. Actually, I'd been interested in it but it took a visit to Best Buy, after happy hour, for me to finally commit to the 40 GB version. I took it back a few days later but only because I knew I needed the 160 GB version, bigger is better after all...
Apple TV is pretty much an 'iPod for your television' and iPods are pretty much the standard to beat for portable media players (at least the standard for handheld audio players) so these should be selling much better. I've always been impressed with my Apple TV and had been surprised they hadn't really caught on more than they have. The Apple TV interface is excellent, it's as good as the TiVo (except it doesn't record), you can buy videos (and music) on your computer to load it up, but that is a little inconvenient for some people. You can convert videos for it, but that's not for the average user. I knew it was close to what people want but it wasn't exactly there yet.
A few weeks ago at MacWorld they announced movie rentals for the Apple TV. $2.99 for old movies, $3.99 for new ones and $1 more for HD quality. Plus, you can buy music (and music videos) on-line and view/subscribe to podcasts (for free). They changed the interface, I personally think it's a little more complicated, but since you need to be able to browse an infinite number of music and movies I can understand it (and maybe I'll like it too). This new interface is free to original Apple TV owners and should show up in a few weeks (I keep checking).
I heard all this when they announced it and I've been mulling it around in my head, but I finally just watched that part of the keynote from MacWorld (on my Apple TV, of course) and now I really think this is getting even closer to being the media box for your TV.
One of the biggest shortcomings of this (and all digital video rental systems out there) is that you only have 24 hours from start to finish. It's just not long enough, if I start it at 8 tonight, I need the ability to finish it tomorrow at 8 or 9 in the evening. Because of that, I think 30 hours is the minimum I need to seriously consider this as a way to watch movies (at least for me). As you increase the time to 36, 48 or even 72 hours it makes this a much better option, especially for the impulse buy. I know "they" don't want bunches of other people to borrow it and view it so they longer the time, the higher the chance of this. Maybe they can do something to cripple it, maybe after 24 hours any viewed portion is not viewable any more, that's slightly complicated but it makes it a little more fair and might make the movie companies a little happier, IMHO...
But TiVo has had these features for a while now: music and photo streaming from your computer for years now, podcasts (very limited menu selection) for a few years too and recently they've added movie / TV rentals from Amazon Unbox (but you wait hours for it to download). I wonder if there are more TiVos than Apple TVs out there??
I'm confused about a few things:
Things I'm not confused about, but I'm wondering:
Complaints about the Apple TV:
Also, they announced a price drop of $70 for the Apple TV.
Posted by Gary on Saturday at 9:25 PM on January 26, 2008.
Related categories: apple, movies, music, technology, television
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: Gary Said...
Introducing the Apple MacBook Air
So I like the new MacBook Air. But while it's smaller and lighter than all the current MacBooks, and it's one-third lighter than the 12 inch PowerBook, you give up a bit. You can't have a spare battery, as a matter of fact you can't even change the battery yourself. The hard drive space is limited, an (iPod?) 80GB hard drive that runs at 4200 RPM, or a pricey 64GB flash drive. It does have the cool new multi-touch-pad and the built-in camera. No internal DVD drive, mono-speaker, only one USB port and a few other things I'm sure I'm not thinking of. If you haven't seen it, go watch the ad....
It's got these minuses (but it's been a looonnnggg time since they refreshed a 12 inch PowerBook and and I'm definitely having "Air Envy") I think if they take apart, slap it in a regular (or slightly smaller than regular) case with a changeable battery and a real hard drive (and maybe DVD drive) they've got what everyone has been waiting for.
I really thought I was going to want to snatch one up but it's just not what I was expecting (and I've seen others say the same. Maybe if I actually see one, but I think until they do my (fictional) upgrades, I might just wait until the next refresh. I'm guessing the MacBook 13 inch will have the new multi-touch pad and LED screen. I can get an awful lot of power for the same price (if I buy my memory somewhere else).
Here's an idea for something even smaller (no DVD though). Make ma a MacBook but chop the screen in half to the size of the keyboard and somehow have the trackpad slide out! It's really be a "wide-screen" but it'd be tall enough for normal use.
I really miss my old Apple Duo (or was it a PowerBook Duo?)....
Read or leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Tuesday at 10:42 PM on January 15, 2008.
Related categories: apple, portable
Thanks for the 2 comments/trackbacks from: Dave2: Gary Said...
myTunes Widgets
So Apple and iTunes added these myTunes "widgets" you can add to your web site or MySpace page or whatever. This isn't new news (2 months old?), it's just that I never got around to trying them. Here's the thing, the options are limited, they don't show the album artwork unless you click on something and it's not very configurable. You have to activate it on-line through the iTunes store, so someone can't just track your music history by adding a widget with your ID in on to a web site and then create the widget. That's nice from a privacy stand point, although I'm generally not too picky about my privacy.
On the whole lack of configuration: it's got a few options 3 sizes and a few color options, but still limited. One thing that bugs me is that the "My iTunes Favorites" widget it lists people that I've bought just one song, that's not a "favorite", heck it could be only one song because I hated them! Actually most cases seem to be from a compilation album, (possibly) a free song, or I bought a song for my Mom or something, either way I should be able to set a minimum limit before they list it (or something like that). Maybe it would be more reflective if I've spent more money on albums (and less on songs).
It seems a little slow for just moving text around too. I don't think I'll be using it (other than in this post for a sample).
And it someone clicks on my widget and buys a song from iTunes, I think I should get a few pennies credit at the iTunes store from them :)
PLEASE Leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Monday at 6:10 PM on October 1, 2007.
Related categories: apple, music
Amazon MP3 store - 89 cent songs!
So Amazon opened the Amazon MP3 store which has been getting some good reviews and (most importantly) it semi-integrates by pushing your purchases into your iTunes which is great for automatic syncing with your iPod. They've had tracks for download for ages, but this is their big jump into the market (you do need their downloader for this).
I actually spotting it yesterday when searching for some music but I didn't realize the format change of my search results indicated a whole new service. I did notice that the tracks were only 89 cents though!
Keep in might for 89 cents they are a dime less than the iTunes music store for regular tracks but since there is no encryption (DRM) and it's encoded at a higher quality (even than Apple I believe) these are 40 cents less than Apple's $1.29 a song. That's about 1/3 less if you've been getting the DRM-free higher quality songs (and that's what I've been getting lately). And they are MP3s, so they play on just about anything (but higher quality does mean larger songs). Buying whole albums will generally discount the price.
There are exceptions to the 89 cent price for the individual songs, but I can't figure out the rules to tell you. And like the iTunes store I believe there are tracks that can't be purchased separately from the album, I thought I saw that yesterday but I can't find an example of that today.
And to be fair to Apple, their DRM free $1.29 songs are generally much cheaper if you buy the whole album (the 14 track One Cell in the Sea - by A Fine Frenzy is only $7.99 (which I think is the same as the iTunes DRM version) which is the same price as the Amazon mp3 store, except Amazon doesn't appear to give you the booklet.
So the end result, IMHO, it'll never beat the seamlessness of the iTunes Music Store but but with it's downloader (which does give you a free song), Amazon mp3 might be a good alternative or at least a second place to check when shopping for songs. If you're not an iPod user it's probably a great place to consider for your mp3 shopping (I think the downloader will push the tracks to other players but since I don't have any I"m not certain). The downloader does work pretty good, I did try it. It would be nice if it were smart enough to add it to an "Amazon Playlist".
I fully expect to see them selling movies, television, music videos, audio books or distributing podcasts via the same mechanism in the future....
Read or leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Wednesday at 3:37 PM on September 26, 2007.
Related categories: apple, money, music, portable, web sites
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: kilax
Apple Store
So my Mom went to get me a Gift Card from the Apple Store and she was talking about her experience there. I'll paraphrase -
I had never been to an Apple Store, it's kind of a strange store. It was 10:30 am on a weekday and they were packed, there weren't any cash registers and it was just kind of odd. The store was very small but there were a lot of staff and they were all busy. It was a different shopping experience.It was just an interesting experience listening to her talk about it, trying to comprehend the Mac fascination of the Mac users. I kinda wished I had talked her into getting a MacBook, I just wasn't sure if she'd use it and wasn't sure if it was worth the extra expense (in case she didn't use it). Now I know that it would have been...
PLEASE Leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)
Posted by Gary on Wednesday at 2:07 PM on September 12, 2007.
Related categories: apple
New iPods!!!!
So Apple redid the iPod line-up yesterday:
You can use the WiFi free at Starbucks, but I'm not sure if that's for surfing or just buying music. You can also see a "now Playing" list at Starbucks and easily purchase any of the last ten songs. If it'd update my podcasts via WiFi or if the had a 160 GB iTouch I'd really be tempted...
Please note - Some of the features and items aren't ready yet, but I think all are supposed to be by the end of the month.
Posted by Gary on Thursday at 12:28 PM on September 6, 2007.
Related categories: apple, music
Great time in Chicago
Once I got into Chicago yesterday everything went completely smooth. I got food, I got checked into my hotel immediately, showered and managed to hook up with Kevin and Dave and we went over to that Apple Store to check out some eye candy (iCandy, get it?!?) and wandered around a bit before meeting up with the bigger group later. I had a blast with all of them and I'll expand on that later, but I'm checking out of the hotel and I thought ager my other problem post the last few days I'd mention that all is well.
And today I feel a whole lot better than I thought I would after all the Long Island Iced Teas, so that's a bonus too...
Posted by Gary on Sunday at 1:17 PM on August 26, 2007.
Related categories: apple, blogging, general
Thanks for the 2 comments/trackbacks from: Mrs RW: Robin
.Mac Just got WAY bigger !
I've mentioned Apple's .Mac service before and I really like it. Apple has expanded their .Mac on-line backup/syncing to 10GB (from 1 GB). Apple has always been behind the curve in how much storage space for the cost ($99 a year) but they've made up for it. With the increased storage it really makes the family plan more practical and affordable too.
If you have a Macintosh, you'll love this (especially if you have a laptop or more than one Mac). It's a remote backup / synchronization / file sharing / training / web publishing software service rolled all-in-one! The biggest feature to me is that if you use your iDisk for all your documents, the next time you connect to the internet it seamlessly synchronizes this document to the server & all your other Macs and you can access the files from any web browser on any platform (it also keeps a copy of all your documents on your hard drive so you can see them if you aren't on-line). It also synchronizes your bookmarks, e-mail, calendar, contacts data/settings across all your Macs. So if I drop my laptop (or have it stolen), I don't lose any of my data (as long I've been on the internet recently).
With the extra storage I can save all my purchased iTunes to to my .Mac Music folder and it'll be on all my computers and I don't need to make a copy until I have a DVD's worth of music. The same goes for my photos, I'm always worried about losing my irreplaceable photos.
For regular documents, you'll never notice that it's biggest downside, it's slow. But if you drag a bunch of huge files in there it'll take a while, but since it's seamless you'll probably never notice, if it doesn't have enough time, it'll just continue the next time you're on the 'net!
To get more info you have to read my earlier post (I'm already repeating myself from that one).
Posted by Gary on Sunday at 4:50 PM on August 19, 2007.
Related categories: apple, portable
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: Gary Said...
300 Page iPhone Billl
So Justine from TastyBlogSnack.com got her detailed phone bill from AT&T for her new iPhone. They have detailed billing and she had about 30,000 text messages last month. It cost them $7.12 to mail her the bill in a box.
Insane that her bill is that long, but it's also insane that iJustine does a 1,000 messages a day! Of course she has the unlimited plan!
I've never imbedded from "revver" before, in case it doesn't work here's the YouTube link and here's her original post about it. I heard her talking about it on MacBreak Weekly #53 with Leo LaPorte today (but I had no idea she was SO cute)...
Read or leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Wednesday at 8:45 PM on August 15, 2007.
Related categories: apple, web sites
Thanks for the 2 comments/trackbacks from: Revver blog: Leon
The Future of Television
So the future of television is certainly changing. The networks haven't completely caught on yet, but they will. In a day when users can download higher quality video than they currently receive, get shows from parts of the world that aren't available and have the advantage of having no ads and are free (please note this means stolen). We can also buy many of these videos from the iTunes store or Amazon UnBox for $1.99 an episode (iTunes has some at 99 cents for an episode and sometimes get that cheap if you subscribe for season). I know "legal" is not what people think when they hear the word BitTorrent, but BitTorrent.com even sells shows legally these days.
If I could subscribe to a lot of the shows I enjoy for 99 cents an episode and have them automatically download to my AppleTV, TiVo, iPod or other device I'd never have anything more than basic cable. I'm sure this goes for a lot of people. Everything needed (except the mentality) to do this currently exists. The networks and producers of these shows need to somehow start embracing this model before it gets even easier for people to get (steal) these shows for free.
Or charge me significantly less and let me trade the produces some statistical information about myself and let them insert in advertising relevant to me. Give me geeky ads, movie and TV show previews that I like, music that I like. Advertise events and concerts that are taking place where I live. I don't need diaper ads, tampons, bad credit information, refinancing, ads for cars that cost $50,000+, ways to give up smoking. With the right information instead of advertising a new bed which I may have just purchased, they can advertise new pillows or new sheets (and mark in their files to start giving me new bed advertisements in another 5 years) that I might actually purchase.
Even better, let me give "them" lots of information about me, which I'll update a few times a month with information about what I've purchased or I'm shopping for (who in my life has a birthday coming up) or where I'm traveling to. And they can actually pay me to watch television! I'm not looking for a lot of money but just something to make it worth giving them info (besides, think of how much you'd save on cable if it was free!). Maybe some hotel discount coupons when I mention a vacation, or a coupon for Best Buy when they know I'm looking for a new video camera.
Posted by Gary on Monday at 5:50 PM on July 23, 2007.
Related categories: apple, computers, technology, television
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: Gary Said...
AppleTV is Awesome!!!
My AppleTV is awesome! An "iPod for your TV" is a accurate description. I ran the software update (painless!) and it gave me YouTube videos and fixed "enhanced podcasts".
It mirrors one of your computer's iTunes just like an iPod does (and allows you exceptions) and will stream from any other computers running iTunes (platform independent) and I don't think there is a limit. I can't believe how fast it pulls hi-res movie previews from Apple down to the unit, it's very very fast. It's actually much faster than pulling down YouTube videos (many which are low-res).
It really streams full-scren video from other computers really efficiently. Very rarely does it need a moment to catch up. It has no problem with steaming audio. It almost makes no sense to download podcasts, I bet you could stream them live if you had a way to just get the RSS feeds onto the AppleTV.
With "enhanced podcasts" it now properly advances the embedded images to follow along with the audio. The problem is that it just shows them to the side like the album artwork, some images are much larger so it really cheats you by scaling them down. Since you don't use the up/down keys on the remote during this process "up" would be a great way to enlarge the images.
I have the same image size concern when viewing slideshows with the "Ken Burns effect", sometimes I want to view the whole image. Once again this would be another great use for the up button. The down button could be used for viewing filenames, date, time and other info about the images. Actually, this would be a good use for the down button while viewing videos or audio.
A few more features (like on the TiVo) like weather, movie listings and maybe Flickr photo viewing and it'd be even better...
What I don't like is that it only lets you sync with one computer. I'd like to sync music with one, videos with another and podcasts with another (not so sure if I care about the latter).
What I need:
1) A way to automatically convert videos and stick them into iTunes for me (so when I drop/download a file to a folder, it starts processing for me). I could probably do this via Mac or Windows....
2) A way to play other file formats on the AppleTV, such as AVI and DiVX files. I think I can hack it to do that but I'm not sure if I want to take it apart yet.
Read or leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Sunday at 4:51 PM on July 22, 2007.
Related categories: apple, reviews, technology, television
Thanks for the 2 comments/trackbacks from: Bob: Gary Said...
Mmmmm.... AppleTV !
So I've been very interested in the AppleTV and never got around to trying it. But I was feeling pretty happy after happy hour yeast and Best Buy has a good return policy so I'm now the proud owner of an AppleTV (40GB). It's very cool. Very easy to install. Very easy to configure. Pure yummy Apple perfection. And there is no way I'm going to return it!
Two user-interface suggestions:
1) They need a better distinction between the computer you sync with and the computers you stream from. This needs to be better in the AppleTV and in iTunes.
2) The top menu item says AppleTV and it looks like it's a title and not a menu item (it actually takes you back to the main menu) and it's confusing. I've read about this but I forgot about it...
3) Put in a DVD player and a video/s-video port. (This doesn't count since it's not an interface issue).
3b) Safari would be cool too! This would just be for .Mac members so it would interface with your bookmarks!
If you think you'd like one of these, then run and go get one, it's way cool.
Posted by Gary on Saturday at 4:26 PM on July 21, 2007.
Related categories: apple, technology, television
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: Gary Said...
Will it Blend? - iPhone
The title really says it all. But you have to see it to believe it!
And when you're done watching it, you can bid on it and other extras (it's up to $1,100 for some weird reason).
Posted by Gary on Sunday at 6:54 PM on July 15, 2007.
Related categories: apple, handheld, portable, technology
Thanks for the 2 comments/trackbacks from: kilax: Guilty Secret
Google Desktop released for Apple Macintosh
So they released Google Desktop for Macintosh, they mentioned this at the Google Blog and the Google Mac Blog (did you know they had a Mac Blog?). It's the main Google application for desktops and since they're supporting Macs with this, what's next (they just started offering free virus protection for Windows from Norton)? I will be trying it especially since I've disliked the new search (Spotlight) in Mac OS X for a while now. I'll try it when I get home, I'm on the go and don't like to install things when I'm on cell phone dial up (EVDO).
PLEASE Leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Wednesday at 2:06 PM on April 4, 2007.
Related categories: apple
Complete My Album - New iTunes Feature
It's about time! Now you can go back and buy the rest of an iTunes album at a discount if you previously bought one song. Just go to the iTunes Music Store and in the upper right choose “Complete My Album”.
This is great mainly for several reasons: If you bought one song off an album that had 12 songs on it (for $9.99) you can now get the other 11 for $9.00 instead of having to buy the whole album (it looks like it's full credit). Also, if you bought one song off an album and some of the songs were “album only” purchases you now have the option to get rest since you're actually buying the whole album. For a 10 song album, it really doesn't make a difference. Not all artists are doing this and you only have six months to get your missing albums, but it's a nice option if you regretted not getting it in the first place. FYI, they did grandfather in all the old albums you bought more than six months ago (so you can still get the missing ones).
I'm not sure if this will help if you bought a pre-release single since I haven't bought that many. I'm pretty sure a few of the songs on the list are ones I've (purchased) for free, but I could be mistaken. And I know there are a few that I didn't purchase off the album they are showing, I must have bought off some other album or special purchase mix that iTunes offered (iTunes Originals or something).
PLEASE Leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Thursday at 10:47 PM on March 29, 2007.
Related categories: apple, money, music
Senator proposes law to ban crossing the street while listening to iPod
This is insane!
State senator's bill would make it illegal to cross the street tuned into portable electronic devices such as MP3 players and BlackBerrys.For one, you can have these devices with headsets off (and not actually outputting audio) and not distracting you. And the other is that Deaf people cross the street all the time without hearing traffic. While they do have more practice if they're talking to someone (signing and watching the other person) they're definitely distracted and this bill. (Have you ever ridden in a car with deaf people signing to each other? How about while they're signing to the people in the next car over?!?) And I'm not sure if this covers if you're texting or just using audio? What if you're reading the paper or a book? Or reading a billboard ad on the side of a bus?
Either way, I just want the gov't to start supplying someone to hold my hand while I cross the street. That's what we really need, right? It's certainly what they're leading up to...
PLEASE Leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Friday at 2:41 PM on February 9, 2007.
Related categories: apple, handheld, portable
iLike Music (especially FREE music)
So I keep forgetting to mentioned that I found iLike, it's kind of a music social networking site.
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My iLike page is at http://ilike.com/user/garylapointe
They just keep adding new features that they're pretty god a keeping you up-to-date on the iLike Blog. And they've got a widget for your web page (which I'm hoping is showing up on your screen as you read this) and it'll even let you play my recently played songs as you read this post!
What I don't like about it is it calculates favorites based on the songs in iTunes on your hard drive and not what's on your iPod (even if this was some manual option I had to select I could deal with it). I've got a 60 GB iPod, I don't have that much room on my laptop to carry around all my music on it all the time (besides I've probably got it with me on my iPod). So really what it thinks is my favorite is what I've bought from the iTunes store that's on my laptop and played the most (on the laptop or the iPod). So Conjure One is what it lists as my absolute favorite and while I like them a lot they wouldn't be listed as my favorite. And when I was playing a lot of Christmas music (which I also had on my laptop) it push that up on my favorite list (I see Kenny G is still high in my rankings because of Christmas.
Posted by Gary on Sunday at 3:29 PM on February 4, 2007.
Related categories: apple, money, music, web sites
So I bought an iPhone!
No not that iPhone. The iPhone that's been out for a while, the one that Linksys/Cisco owns the trademark to (but debating that is not the purpose of this thread). It's a regular old looking phone, kinda cellphone-ish, it's cordless and you can carry it around the house and it connects wirelessly to your Windows PC and can make and receive Skype calls. Your Skype friend's list shows up in the display and you can dial from there. I thought it was pretty cool and it was on the odd clearance rack at Target (the UPC on the box didn't scan and the had an extra price tag on it, like they received it by accident but needed to tag it to get rid of it) it was a great deal! It's even got a spot for me to plug in a headset!
I like Skype, it's a great idea and even though I only intermittently use it, it always seems to work for me. You can call other computers for free from your computer to and from anywhere in the world (this includes conference calls and video calls). You can call land lines in the US or Canada for just pennies a minute with no monthly fees (or unlimited for $30 a year) from anywhere in the world. Calling other countries cost a bit more depending on the location. Getting a number where people can call you at your computer (no matter what computer you are at, anywhere in the world) is about $60 a year. So going on vacation, it doesn't matter where you are just load up Skype and connect to the net and people can call you! Get several skype numbers, one that's close to Grandma and one that's close to the kids in college and you're just a local call away for each of them.
Then phone's charging and so I haven't even used it yet. But I can't wait to try!
FYI, they do make some other models of the iPhone that don't require a computer, they just need WiFi to work. I see that as a minor problem in some places since you need a web browser to activate the Wifi (Panera, McDonald's, Border's, etc.). And they're a lot more expensive. When they get smaller and cheaper, or better yet when they come built into my cell phone...
Posted by Gary on Thursday at 9:03 PM on February 1, 2007.
Related categories: apple, handheld, portable, technology
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: Gary Said...
The iPhone
So I haven't said much about the iPhone since it was announce but what's to say it looks awesome!!! It's a widescreen video iPod with an internet browser, e-mail and it makes phone calls. The downside (IMHO) is it's only on Cingular and I don't think the network the iPhone is using is as fast as the EVDO speed networks.
The negative I've seen some reviewers mention is that it only accepts music from the iTunes music store. Which isn't true, it only accepts protected music from the iTunes music store. And it's important to remember all other players don't allow music from the iTunes music store, I see that as a problem. You can buy from some (smaller) music sites and put your CDs on it. FYI, the iTunes music store sells 58 songs a second (5 million a day) that makes them the fourth largest retailer of music (Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target are above them) then just pulled ahead of Amazon. The iTunes and iPod experience makes it so pleasant to use I don't think most people care if you can only use one store to buy (protected) music from...
On a side note there are rumors that Apple is making a huge advertising announcement during the SuperBowl. The rumor is that they are going to start carrying the Beatles CDs, I just don't see that is a major announcement, but we'll see. It's interesting since Apple Records (the Beatle's label) has sued Apple more than a few times for infringing on thei