New MacBook Review…well Video Review
Oct
Hey guys – yes, I am doing two posts in the same day! Well I wouldn’t consider my last post , an actual post. I made this video below with iMovie. It really is pretty cool to use, and more importantly easy to use. I’m still working out the kinks of the program. I told you things blogs were going to increase, you just didn’t believe me.
A as in Apple, B as in…
Oct
Joy
Hello folks – usually I don’t do blogs updates during the week, and I barely have enough time – but I have found the time, because today is a special day. If you guessed that I am going to change my hobby to underwater basketweaving – you’re wrong. Sorry. Today is the the day that I bought my first Apple Computer. I have official lost my mind. Growing up and playing Diablo on a Toshiba “Size of a Brick” Laptop and browsing the web in 28.8K Bps modem with WIndows are over. Well not really, I’ll use my Windows machine, but I’ve just had it with the nonsense of Vista. I don’t mind XP, and plan to keep using it with my Mac. Yes – I bought into the hype. Yes – I was one of the 14 million people the tuned into Engadget’s broadcast of the Apple Macbook release. Yes – I was one of the people who said, “Fuck Apple, I hate them”. Now today is a new day. I have traded my glasses for those thick nerdy ones. I’ve gone over the to the dark side.
The Apple Store in NYC
But in regards to more blog posts – With the new MacBook, I’ll be able to blog on the road and more often. So guess what? You’ll be able to hear me bitch about more things that you don’t care about. Speaking of which – let me tell you my story about how I bought the MacBook today. So – as some of you don’t know – I’m out in Springfield, MA on a client, staying in a hotel – living the “HIGH” life. So I had to drive to the Holyoke Mall to check out the Apple Store. So I went out there yesterday, the DAY AFTER the annoucement was made, hoping to just play around with it before I bought it. To my surprise the Apple Store was completely empty. I thought – “Maybe they are closed”, but sure enough they were not. I went to ask the Apple “Genius”, where the MacBook are located. He told me that they didn’t have any out for display, and I should back tomorrow. I was dumbfounded – here Steve Jobs told me to buy a product and I can’t even see it before I buy it during the day he said it would available? Thats bullshit. I’m sorry – If I’m going to pay 1299.99 + tax – student discount, then I should be able to play with it. So pretty pissed off – I left the mall with my friend, and I cried and I drove back to my hotel. My friend stayed over my hotel room, as we watched old episodes of American Gladiator. It was funny as a heck. Well – then we went to bed, well at least she did. I really couldn’t sleep because A) i wanted the MacBook, B) she was snoring (sorry) and C) i wanted the MacBook. So the next day I went to work knowing that I was going to touch that glass touchpad after work. Finally, the day ended – and I drove over the Apple Store. I turned the corner and saw the store. I scanned the store looking for one thing – the MacBook. And then – it appears in front of me. Like a super hot chick wearing a tight red dress, I went from 6 to midnight faster than you can say “Go”. I played around with the MacBook for about 5 minutes, and said – “I want it”. So then my great “Cloud 9″ journey took an unexpected bump. I looked around trying to find a “Specialist”. They were all busy. Now – if you been to an Apple Store, there really is no lines, you just have to look for people in the blue shirts. Now the Orange shirt people are just the helpers, which means they don’t have a clue. I asked a Orange Shirt person like 40 times, that I wanted to buy a MacBook – as she tried to look for me. I had a guy – then he left. I felt like stalkers, as I was literally standing behind Apple “Specialist” trying to get their attention. FInally I got this old guy – who was pretty chill, and I got my MacBook and left with a huge smile on my face. Before I got there – the MacBooks were selling like hot cakes. Everyone came in wanting one. I had to wait to basically test the MacBook out. I mean – walking out of the Mall with the MacBook box – I felt like a pimp in a stripclub. No one could touch me…well they all touch me, but you know what I mean. Like my friend said – “The only thing better than owning a MacBook, is having sex…alot”.
So – with that said, except more blog postings for me during the week as I have time. I know for the 3 people that check my blog (yes I gained a couple of people, 1.5 to be percise) they will be happy. Again sorry for the no pictures in this post, as I do not have Photoshop installed on this computer yet. I will let you know how the MacBook pans out. The one thing I am scared of is the touchpad. It’s amazing – but its takes some getting used to. What do you think about the new MacBooks? Sound off in the poll below:
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Worst iPhone App: Fotomatic + iPhone 2.0.1 Update
Aug
So after getting a free $15 iTunes gift card from a friend, I thought it would be a great idea to check out some of the top paid apps on the iTunes App Store. I am big fan of pictures, and since the Facebook iPhone App doesn’t allow to see all photos of a user, Fotomatic seemed like a sure thing. Boy was I wrong.
Fotomatic Sucks
I first came across Fotomatic one the App Store’s featured page, and quickly clicked on it. I was suprised by 2 things upon loading the page: 1 – the app was a huge 6.4MB (pretty big for any app on the iPhone), and that it cost $5.99. Those two signs should of drawn me away, but instead it pulled me in. One of the promising features of Fotomatic is the ability to create albums of your Facebook. Flickr, and other image sites all in one application. Once again, that would be a great feature if that actually worked well. Once I downloaded, I tried to set it up only to find that it took about 30 seconds to load facebook albums, and it loaded them IN NO SPECIFIC ORDER. So I couldn’t find anyone’s album that I wanted. It wasn’t even grouped by network, which is horrible. But I have to give credit to Fotomatic, it came back and released a new version (about a week later) which sorted the people in the facebook albums by name. BUT THIS TIME, not all people showed up! After that, going back to the facebook album display too another 30 seconds, and loading pictures on the 3G network slowed to a crawl. Basically, without a WiFi connection this application worked slower than an old grandmother walking across a busy street. The worst part is I always forget to remove it from applications within iTunes and have to remove the application manually. I rather throw my iPhone out the window then use this garbage. Save your money, and try to get NetShare, if you can.
iPhone 2.0.1 – aka BugFixer?
Around 7:35pm yesterday, I was playing around with Google Reader on iPhone when I saw a post by Gizmodo about an iPhone firmware update to 2.0.1. The install notes didn’t say anything about what would be fixed, all they said was “bug fixes” as seen by the photographic below:
iPhone 2.0.1 Setup
So after installing the firmware, which was a whopping 259MB, I had very good results. The keyboard lag when typing seemed the fixed (although after removing it from the dock and tring to do an SMS, it was laggy again), flipping through pages on the home screen seemed to improve, and the MOST IMPORTATNT fix: sync the iPhone was fixed! I’ve seen about a good 25 min decrease in the time it takes the backup the iPhone and sync it using iTunes. Of course, my iTunes still crashes daily on Vista Ulimate, but at this point I really don’t care. As long as the sync times decrease I can be a happy man. Hopfeully we will see more updates like this in the future from Apple. I do like the way they released this patch to help people with the bug fixes before the 30 day trial date ends, unlike some of it’s “iPhone Killers”.
iPhone Hassle: Syncing
Jul
The iPhone is a revoltionary device when it comes to be able to access data anytime you want, but a simple task of syncing your iPhone with Music, Video, etc sets it back almost 10 years.
Syncing the iPhone takes an average of 20 minutes due to the iPhone backing up all your data, and SENDING crash reports to Apple. Most people do not realize that it that takes a lot of time do that as well.
Last night I was syncing some Calendar items and about 11 songs, and it took well over 30 minutes. There are a couple of tips you can do to limit the time it takes to do a complete sync. First you can head over to here and to learn how disable sending error reports to Apple. You can also click the small “X” near the top of iTunes to have it cancel the “Backing up iPhone” function. This will speed up the process as well. Which ever way you choose, it will help you sync your iPhone easier and faster.
iPhone Tip: Using Calendars to Organize your Life
Jul
Most people already know that you use Calendars to control your life, but what if you don’t succum to the Microsoft powers of the universe and use Google Calendar? Sure you can view your calendar online, but what happens when you are not in service, and you want alerts? Now that becomes complicated.
Personally, I use both my Google Calendar and the iCal on the iPhone and right now, there is no direct way to sync the online “GCal” with the iCal without Jailbreaking your iPhone. The easiest way is download Google Outlook Sync which uses syncs Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. For me, I used to use Outlook, so way worked. I wish that iPhone could sync with Sunbird or just directly, but in the meantime, this will work just fine.
Once you have set the up the program, you can choose the type of method you want to sync, and then click enter. It will run in your system tray.
Once you do this, now you can sync your Calendar items with Outlook using iTunes. This way you can simple sync your Google Calendar through iTunes. Any chances you make on your Calendar will automatically be synced with iCal once you are connected to your computer.
Week Recap – My first week with the iPhone 3G
Jul
Well, it’s been a full week that I have had the iPhone 3G, and I’ve had some serious fun with it. I mean, when you think about it, its really a revolutionary device that connects you to world where you may go. For me, I never had a data plan on my previous phones, so I never knew the power of having the word (aka Google) at your fingertips.
For example. this past weekend I was at my girlfriend’s beach cottage and one of good friend began declared that my girlfriend’s sister looked like Lindsey Lohan in the movie Parent Trap. Everyone started to scratch their heads, as the movie is very old. I quickly pulled out my iPhone and did a google search for pictures of Lindsey Lohan in Parent Trap. Then I showed everyone at the table the pictures and everyone agreed.
It’s stuff like that that make the iPhone amazing. It really delivers on a level of secruity, knowing that with the iPhone you can pretty much accomlish any task. No more did I have to write down addresses and emails, as I have them now at my iPhone.
I think the best feature, by far, is the GPS. Sure, it doesn’t have turn-by-turn steps, but it provides accurate location software that can be used by other Apps just as Yelp! an Urbanspoon. According to MacRumors, the 2.1 firmware will most likely support turn-by-turn navigation, so you can return your Garmin now.
One of the features that I would like to fix is the random haning in Google Maps, and the lack of a 3G network everywhere. At my house I currently get about 2 bars of service, while in the middle of no where on the beach, I get full 3G service. It’s the small things that get me a bit iterated. Some people say that typing on the iPhone gives them headaches. My issue with typing is that somethings I go way to fast, and it doesn’t pick up what I typing and is always about 3 letters behind. Hopefully this a software issue and will be fixed soon.
Just a side note, most reviews people say that the picture quality improved from iPhone EDGE to 3G. For me, this picture to the right shows me that you don’t need to bring your digital camera to vacations anymore, you just bring your iPhone.
Westbrook Beaches in CT
Verdict for Week 1: Unbelievable investment; I really am excited I purchased it. It’s like having the answer to everything in your hand.
iPhone on a camping trip
Jul
iPhone can be a great companion to your camping trip.
If you are bored, like I am at my girlfriend’s graduation party, you can always use it to get a quick get away, that is if no one see you with it. If you can turn off your sound you might have a winning get away ticket.
Battery life of the 3G
Jul
Everyone thinks that the iPhone 3G has bad battery life but it really all depends on your usage. For me, a full charge lasts about a day.
I found that if you run wireless and bluetooth all day you ruin the battery. try turning them off when you not in range of a signal. Also try to push data automatically as that will drain your battery.
Facebook App Error
Jul
It seems that when you try to launch facebook application it will freeze and reboot the iphone. No other app has this issue at the moument.
I am not sure if they have put out a fix for this yet but it has already happened to me twice.