First post from ipod
August 16th, 2008Just testing the posting from my iPod using the wordpress app.
Delicious Library - Increasingly Irrelevant
January 18th, 2008How long have people been waiting for Delicious Library 2? A long damn time. It was delayed. Delayed. Then delayed some more. Then it was Leopard only. Then Leopard was delayed. Then Leopard was released. Now it’s 3 months later and Delicious Library 2 still isn’t out.
But they’ve won an Apple Design Award. I find that interesting, considering it’s not even a product yet. It’s vaporware as far as I’m concerned. Until it’s out in the wild, it’s nothing.
The “new” features they are touting with DL2 have existed in the Pedias for a while. I made the switch a few months back when it was obvious DL2 wasn’t going to ship on time, if ever.
- Let’s see, it’s code new barcode scanning. Yippee. So do the Pedias.
- It has the ability to store items as files. The Pedias have had that for a while.
- HTML export. What? Really? Finally. It’s about time they caught up with the year 2000. The Pedias have this, and it’s simple to customize.
- It has .Mac integration. Great, for the 6 people who actually use both .Mac and DL2.
- Um, that’s about it
So, really, what’s “new” in DL2? Nothing! Nothing because it’s still not released. And nothing because the “new” features have existed in a competing product for quite some time. DL2 might be more lickable, but it’s less functional…and you still can’t buy it anyway.
Macworld - my thoughts
January 15th, 2008I always look forward to Macworld. It’s an exciting time for Apple fans like myself. New, innovative technologies always are introduced. This year’s Macworld, however, was disappointing. Let me run down why.
- Movie rentals
- We expected these, and his Steveness delivered. Unfortunately it’s almost as bad as everything else out there. What we got was a mix of pricing, $2.99, $3.99, and $4.99. That’s for catalog, new release, and HD movies. That’s very disappointing. The beauty of iTunes is that it’s 99 cents for every song (that is until they introduced the DRM-free stuff.)
- There is a 24-hour watch limitation. That sucks too. We already have that horrible limitation with the Microsoft DRMs out there. What’s the purpose of a 24-hour limitation? Let’s say I have an Apple TV, my laptop, and an iPod. I want the option to watch on each, which I will have. But there is no guarantee I will be able to watch within a 24-hour artificial window. I am regularly on the road for work and sometimes it’s just not possible.
- New iPod touch software
- It’s $20! WTF? Since when did Apple start charging for these types of upgrades? It should be free for iPod Touch early adopters. The only reasonbly significant addition is Mail. That’s really for of an omission from the first release than a “new” feature for the second. Come on, Apple, do the right thing. Reward your loyal early adopters with software that should have been in the first release.
- Time Capsule
- This is cool. I like it. My only question is, can I use my current Airport Extreme base station with my own external drive and finally have it work with Time Machine? Is there a software update that makes this possible?
- Apple’s page for Which Wireless Are You? seems to indicate I can’t use my current base station with Time Machine. If that’s the case, then screw you, Apple. You promised it would work in Leopard and had it in release candidates.
- MacBook Air
- This is maybe the biggest “oh well” of the lot. It’s thin, sure. But it’s too big. Yes, too big.
- Thin is nice, but 13.3″ still makes it “huge” compared to what it could be.
- Why no SSD standard? I realize there is a cost associated with SSD, but Dell sells a notebook with a 32GB SSD for $1600. Apple could do the same.
- Why not do something truly innovative and use a small SSD combined with some NAND flash for storage? That would have driven costs down. Limit the SSD to, say, 8GB, and utilize the NAND for storage as in iPods.
- Battery life is a HUGE disappointment. 5 hours? Big deal! I get that on my 15.4″ MacBook Pro
- Let me get this straight, less battery, slower CPU, slower HDD, ugly and fat bezel. Fantastic. I see no tremendous advantage. The new touchpad is cool, but not that cool. Thin is cool, but not without everything else. I need more power, I need smaller, I need solid state. Without that, it’s just another MacBook without an optical.
- Apple TV
- This, I liked. Simply a free software upgrade with some much missed features. Frankly, these were features that should have been in the first version. And it’s free. You hear that, Apple? Free. Not like the iPod Touch missing features which cost $20.
- Price drop. Not only is the update free, the cost of the product went down. Sounds good to me! Sign me up!
Overall, not too happy or excited with this Macworld. I expected movie rentals to be innovative. They aren’t. I expected the Macbook Air to be innovative. It’s not. I didn’t expect Apple to charge for a simple software upgrade of missing features. They did.
Amusement of the Moment - Magician, what’s that move called?
January 7th, 2008I was watching the World Magic Awards because I am a sucker for magic. Rick Thomas, a quite talented though ridiculously over-dramatic magician, pulled out this little move:
Mactel, finally
January 7th, 2008I forgot to post this (probably because I’ve been kind of absent lately). I recently got myself an Intel Mac. How long has it been? A 15″ MacBook Pro to be exact. LED backlit. 2GB of RAM. Running Leopard.
I got it the week Leopard was released. I was simply waiting for the new OS to buy.
Mini-Review:
I love it! It get fantastic battery life (4-5 hours). It’s got loads of processing power. It’s Intel so I run WINE on it and can run a lot of Windows programs pretty darn well. I run Internet Explorer to access my company’s web-client. It runs an ActiveX control and it works nearly flawlessly.
Amusement of the Moment - Save on Gas!
December 11th, 2007
Say it ain’t so!!!!
November 16th, 2007Historic Whiskey Could Go Down Drain
Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel’s whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license.
