YAHHH! The iPad was Announced today.
Unless you’ve been under a rock, you know that the Apple had a big announcement today. They announced their tablet device… the iPad.
Before we get to my opinions, let’s start with what we know:
- 9.7″ Screen
- 1/2 thick, 1.5 lbs
- 10 Hours of battery life with 1 month of standby
- 16 – 64 gigabytes of flash storage
- Accelerometer and Compass – (GPS?)
- Speaker and Microphone
- WiFi N, Bluetooth
- 3G optional
This device runs a modified iPhone OS. It will run most of the current iPhone apps out of the box. For most apps it will run iPhone apps in native resolution or “doubled” resolution.
They announced an “iBookstore” to purchase books for the device.
They announced a version of iWork specifically for the iPad. Each app (Numbers, Pages, Keynote) will be $9.99.
Pricing: 16GB – $499, 32GB – $599, 64GB – $699 w/o 3G (Add $130 for 3G)
No camera, no multi-tasking, no phone capabilities that we know of.
My Opinion:
OS X Leopard Screen Saver Preference Pane Hangs
I got a unibody MacBook Pro 17″ recently. I had some issues with that one and I had it replaced with a new one. (There is a lot more to this story and you can read about it on my personal blog.)
I get the replacement unibody MacBook and I do a restore from Time Machine. I had previously installed all my apps from scratch on the exact same Mac before it died. (again see other post) I log in for the first time and I do all my updates. Everything works great! Except for one thing:
Everytime I open my Screen Saver Preference pane… I get the Beach Ball and my System Preferences hangs and I must force quit!
I google and google… Finally I found a fix at the Apple Support Discussions: Screen Saver Preference Pane Lockup thanks swmbuk!
Let me lay out the Symptoms and summarize the fix: Read more
WWDC 2009 Keynote Recap
Three thumbs up for Apple!
BOOO for AT&T!
Today was the highly anticipated WWDC (apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference) keynote. Rumors have been focusing on the iPhone, but in just the first half of the keynote speech, they WOW’d us in true apple form with some interesting announcements.
Wow, I just got finished watching TWiT’s feed and commentary on the WWDC Keynote speech. WOW. A lot of very exciting things coming down the apple pipeline. I took some notes while watching/listening to the cast.
The most anticipated announcement is that the new iPhone will be available on June 19th. It is known as the 3GS. With the S for SPEED 
. Some of the new features are 3 megapixel with video and autofocus, faster speed 7.2 megabit, and a compass. WOW 32GB for $299 and 16GB for $199 and the old 3G at 8GB will be available for $99.
The following is a bullet list of what was announced.
MacBook Pro’s
- all MacBook Pro’s have been refreshed
- battery life extended
- non-replaceable battery
- 13″ Unibody MacBook now a Pro
- – Firewire added to the 13″ unibody
Quicktime New
- iMovie like editing
OSX Snow Leopard
- Available in September
- 64 Bit
- 16 Billion Gigabyte Memory ceiling
- Multi core support more efficient
- $29 upgrade $49 family pack upgrade (not confirmed, but that would rock)
- $129 Standard buy (not the upgrade)
- Exchange support in ical, mail, address book, etc (great for business users)
- Snow Leopard will be available for all intel mac
iPhone
- 50,000 apps in the app store
- 40,000,000 iPhones and iPod touches sold
- in 9 months of the app store, 1 billion apps downloaded
iPhone OS 3.0
- more than 100 new features
- cut, copy and paste
- landscape keyboard in all applications
- mms added
- AT&T will support mms later this summer LOL
- message search
- spotlight – search across the phone
- iTunes rent and purchase movies and audiobooks from iPhone
- Parental control on apps and movies etc
- Tethering USB AND Bluetooth
- – AT&T not supported yet BOOO
- support for streaming video and audio HTTP
- autofill
- HTML 5
- robust language support (over 30 languages)
- Find my iphone (??) available to mobile me…
- – it will show you on a web browser where your iphone is NICE
- – if completely lost you can erase all data on the phone
- support for peer to peer gaming over bluetooth
- hardware protocol support for external devices
- push notifications
- turn by turn using core location
- free for iPhone – $9.95 for iPod touch
- Available June 17 (devs get it today)
iPhone Hardware
- iPhone 3GS (S for Speed for the most powerful, fastest one ever)
- same design as 3G
- OpenGL|ES 2.0 support
- 7.2 megabit HSPDA
- 3 megapixel autofocus camera
- – tap to focus
- – low light sensitivity
- VIDEO
- – 30fps 640×480
- – autofocus
- voice control
- – control things like ipod (“play more songs like this”)
- digital compass
- hardware encryption
- improved battery
- Pricing: $199 16 GB and $299 32 GB plus $99 for the 8GB 3G (non-S)
- Availability: June 19th, 2009
Wow, kudos APPLE! The boo for AT&T is that the MMS and Tethering “is coming” LOL
MSI Wind still here… OSX, Crunchbang, & Windows 7
Filed under: Hardware, Projects, Software, Two Thumbs Up
SO… I did not take back the MSI Wind. My friend Jed and my wife talked me out of it. Jed’s argument was “Why?”. Then my wife said, “It’s only 350 bux”.
I decided to play with it some more and install some OS’s on it….. Read more
MSI Wind gets returned and my issues with “netbooks”
I picked up an MSI Wind yesterday. These are one of those sub $500 “netbooks”. It’s going back this morning. I just don’t think these devices are ready for my regular use. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a great little device. I can see where for some people that it will be useful.
Let me start by talking about what I want a “netbook” or a smaller form factor portable computer. My main computer is a Macbook Pro 17″ and while for the size of it, it’s fairly light and quick to turn on and set up, at times, I don’t like pulling out such a beast for quick and dirty things I want to do. I am looking for a device that I can take with me almost anywhere, be fairly non-obtrusive, and be my quick window to the net. The MSI Wind was to be this device for me, NOT!
Again, spec wise it’s fair, I would go so far to say even better than fair. However, for me, it’s missing two key elements, touch screen capabilities and at least 1280×720 (or 800) resolution. For the technology we have today, these two elements MUST be in a small form factor PC or “netbook” for me.
The MSI Wind has a decent screen with 1024×600 resolution. I thought I could deal with this. With so many laptops with 1280×800+ screen resolutions, I do not believe GUI designers have set things up to accommodate the 600 pixel high space. It gets really frustrating when you can’t hit a dialog in something you are trying to do quickly. (remember, one of the purposes of having the machine)
The second thing is touch screen. It lacks one. It should have one. All “netbooks” should have some sort of touch capability on the screen. Again, for speed and ease of use. If there are kits showing up on e-bay for touch screen kits for these devices from $50 to $150, it should not be difficult to include one in the manufacturing process.
Sure, I know I can tweak the device to work with the resolution and add a touch screen. My point is, we have the technology and the ability to make devices at low cost that we don’t have to settle for. With my myriad of life projects going on and other hobbies, I don’t have time to mess with a machine to get these things in it. I want to buy an off the shelf product and just go. (well, maybe some minor mods, like putting OSX on it LOL)
The deal breaker on the Wind and most “netbooks” for me at the moment is the screen resolution. If this thing just had 1280×720/800 minimum, I’d be all over it.
Where oh where can I get one of these: Gigabyte M912V
Picked up MSI Wind More to come
I picked up an MSI Wind today. I needed a more portable solution than my Macbook Pro 17″. (I still plan to get the unibody one when it comes out) I still plan to get a Vaio P-Series at some point, you just can’t beat the screen res and size of that thing.
I started playing around with it, am working on putting OSX on it. I was going to go the MSIWindOSX86.iso method but I like clean installs. So, I am working on methodology that allows me to do full vanilla updates etc.
If it doesn’t frustrate the hell out of me, I’ll do a write up and video on what I did
If it doesn’t work well enough, linux baby!
HowTo – Install Boxee XBMC on Apple TV
This video and write up will explain how to install Boxee and XBMC on to your Apple TV for Mac/OSX users. We may do a video at some point on how to do this from a Windows or Linux based operating system. But at this time, we are mainly Mac and will show you how to do this.
Hardware used in this HowTo:
Computer and OS: Macbook Pro 17″ running Mac OSX 10.5.6
Apple TV: 40GB with version 2.3
USB Drive: PNY 2GB Attache “High-Speed”
Plug in the USB Drive you will use into a free USB port. Read more
Sony VAIO P Series Quick Preview
Today, Trazoc and I went into a Sony Style store at Ceasar’s Palace to get a quick preview of the P series netbook from Sony. This is a straight upload of the quick video I took. (Was not sure if it was ok to shoot in the store LOL)
It was a bit larger than I expected. However, it still is a pretty insane device. I played around a bit with the “instant on” feature that brought up the PSP/PS3 like media bar, it was not “instant” but it was fast. It’s definitely running a version of Linux in this mode. When I brought up the web, it had the good ol’ x-windows X and then clearly an X version of FireFox. One other note about the media bar, the interface was not as clean aesthetically and font wise as I have come to expect from Sony products.
It seemed slightly sluggish with Vista running on it. I did not get the full specs of the one I was playing with. It did not feel like it was running with the SSD drive.
All in all, it was a nice machine. I am not sure now if I am going to RUSH out and get one, we’ll have to see what the final product is like when it’s released. It might be something worth waiting until the second generation for.
It’s thicker than a Macbook Air. Just FYI.
SONY UNVEILS WORLD’S LIGHTEST 8-INCH NOTEBOOK
WOW! This gave me a CHUBBY!
I have not been huge on this whole “netbook” craze. But, I have to admit this device looks insane!
The highlights:
- 1600 x 768, LED backlit 8-inch ultra-wide display (diagonal)
- weighs just 1.4 pounds and is small enough to slip into a jacket pocket
- built-in wireless WAN 3G Mobile Broadband, 802.11n wi-fi and Bluetooth
- real-time GPS functionality
- pricing starts at about $900
- available in February
Some of the Technical Specifications:
- Intel Processor @ 1.33 Ghz
- 2GB RAM
- 128 GB SSD
- 8″ XBRITE-ECO Display @ 1600×768
- Mobile Intel GMA500 Graphics
- 2 USB, 1 Memory Stick Duo, 1 SD
- Windows Vista Home Premium
It’s OS is Vista. Not a big fan, but for the functionality, we can forgive them if it works well. The screen resolution alone on this thing is incredible. Read more
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
We decided to see this movie on a whim and caught the late show. I did not know much about the movie except that it was about a guy who aged backwards. I did not know that it was almost 3 hours long. I probably would not have seen it when I did if I had known this. However, I must say, that it did not seem so long as I was watching it.
I enjoyed how they brought the story together from two differing time line perspectives. One where Cate Blanchett’s character is dying and is sharing the story with her daughter. The other from the perspective of Brad Pitt’s character Benjamin Button.
Overall, the story was better than I expected. It was refreshing, moving, and very enjoyable.