Category Archives: Apple

iTether!

The wi-fi only version of the iPad has convinced me to look into jail breaking my iPhone, so that I can tether the two and use the data plan I’m already paying ATT for. I know the app I need on the iPhone is MyWi from the rockyourphone app store, now I just need to find jail breaking software that works on iPhone 3.1.3 OS, since most that I’ve seen say they don’t work on anything above 3.1.2

iPad? iLove!

Ok, so it’s a cheesy title, but the sentiment is true. I reserved my iPad the day Apple started taking preorders/reserves. I joined the crowd of people lined up outside my closest Apple store Saturday morning, and within an hour I was on my way home with the latest bit of Appley goodness.

So far, it’s everything it was hyped up to be. I’m a bit disappointed in the pricing and selection in the bookstore. I know the selection will improve as time goes on though. I was hoping the books themselves would be a significant savings over the “physical” version, instead it seems to be only a few bucks cheaper. Apparently, the book publishers follow the RIAA business model of not adjusting pricing to reflect the reduced costs involved with digital distribution.

There was a decent selection of apps available on day 1, and all my existing iPhone apps appear to be working properly. I do hope Apple separates the App store out a bit more to make it easier to find iPad apps, although since it looks like Apple is hoping devs will just write universal versions of their apps that may not happen.

I’m submitting this via the iPad wordpress app, and so far it seems pretty slick, so kudos to the WP app guys for getting a updated version out on day 1, and taking advantage of the iPad’s screen (by the way videos look great on here).

64-Bit adblocking goodness

Since upgrading to Snow Leopard, I’ve had to use firefox as my main web browser and it’s performance has been getting worse and worse as each version comes out (too much feature bloat I think).

However, it had a functioning adblock addon, which the 64-Bit version of Safari did not have.  Yes, you could still use Safari AdBlock, but it required running Safari in 32 bit mode, which negated most of the speed improvements and other enhancements in the 64 bit version.  I’ve been watching the developer’s page for an official update to 64 bit goodness for the plugin, to no avail.

Yesterday, I found this set of instructions on google code, which details how to use a branch build of Safari Ad Block, and SIMBL to get 64 bit ad blocking goodness back.

Tried it this morning, and it works!  Time to go back to the fast browser as my default again!

Snow Leopard

Snow Leopard was officially released yesterday.  I took half a day off from work to try and get an opportunity to play with it.

Initial impressions:

64 Bit Safari… is Fast!  But, the adblock extension for Safari isn’t 64 bit, so to use it, I’ve got to run Safari in 32 bit mode, where, it’s still fast..but not as fast.

No 64 Bit Firefox yet either =(

I like the “new” menus that are triggered from items in the Dock, very cool.  Overall, it seems much ‘snappier’ and is well worth the upgrade price (hey, it’s $29 bucks, you can’t go wrong… well.. unless you have a PPC based Mac, those are unsupported.. SL is x86 only).

I realize this is kinda short, but I haven’t had a whole lotta time to play with everything yet.  I did an erase and install, so I’m still in the process of reinstalling all my Applications.

Note to WoW players, SL and ATI 4850/4870 cards are having some issues.. Here’s Blizzard’s thread on it.

Drool Worthy

So, anyone wanna give me enough money to buy anything I can fit into, ohhh…say, a standard ‘inter office mail’ sized envelope?

In case you missed it, at Macworld yesterday, Apple released the new Macbook Air… it is super super thin… less then an inch at its thickest point (.8 of an inch, to be exact).. fits inside an envelope, and has decent specs for the size of the unit.

If anyone is feeling generous… I’ve got an ancient iBook that can used replacing 😉

2,000,000 Leopards on the loose!

Friday, October 26th at 6:00pm, Apple unleashed Leopard (OS X 10.5) on us…after about two years of development.

Since then, they have announced that they have shipped (either as sales or via Maintenance Agreements) 2,000,000 copies.. thats a lot of kitty kats on the loose.

I ran to my local Apple store, and grabbed my copy on release night.. then came running home to install it.

Completly ignoring all the ‘witch doctor’ advice that you receive from various Mac forums (stupid stuff like “never do the default upgrade”, repair permissions multiple times, disconnect peripherals, etc.. etc..) I booted from the install DVD and clicked the Upgrade button.. about 50 minutes later.. I was rebooting into all the Leopardy goodness I could handle.

First thing I noticed.. Apple decided to change my desktop background.  While I actually like the space shot background they chose for me.. I’m still not thinking they should go around changing backgrounds on people all willy nilly.

Desktop icons are much improved..Apple makes an effort to give the icon a much better representation of the item (text documents, show their formatting (paragraphs, etc) in the icon.. and if you squint real hard, you can even make out the text in some).

New icons are passed around (folders, System Preferences, and some others), and it looks pretty shiny.. I like the new dock’s appearance on the bottom, and think it looks worse on the sides.

Overall so far, I’m very impressed.. definitely worth the upgrade cost.  Ars Technica does their normally thorough review on it.

Apple Media Event Announcements

The Apple store is still down as I write this, so no buying any of the new goodies yet..but, here’s what was announced today:

New iMacs, only available in 20 or 24″ screen sizes, new, thinner aluminum enclosure..the keyboard that has been floating around for a while (individual keys, looks kinda like a Macbook keyboard blown up to desktop size) is real.  Price points from $1199-$1799 for stock configurations.

Specs are:  Up to 2.4Ghz Core 2 Extreme processor, up to 4 Gigs of RAM, up to 1 Terabyte of Storage.. all have got FireWire 400/800 and some USB 2 ports..

Mac Mini was stealth upgraded today.. since the store is down, can’t tell you what changed (mentioned in the Q&A at the end of the event)

iLife was updated to ’08 today.. new iMovie that started out as another app and inherited the iMovie name (no, really.. thats what Steve said).

iWork got Numbers added to it, and updates for Pages and Keynote..as indicated by the name, Numbers is a spreadsheet app.

.Mac got some much needed love, one bit of which was updated to 10Gigs of disk space, instead of just 1.

Everything is available now (well, now being whenever the Apple Store comes up).

Mac Event

I’m very disappointed with the Apple rumor community this weekend!  There is an Apple Event that is Mac related Tuesday morning.. and there is CRAP! for pre-release rumors/speculation..  Everyone (including myself) agrees the iMac will be updated, most likely with a new form factor… but there are no good rumors out there as to what the specs are, what it will look like, etc.. hell.. even the fakes are not very good this time around!

Blizzard Rocks!

Sure, they manage to consistently screw up the most popular MMORPG out there, they let the amount of whining on their forums dictate what changes they make, and they’re about to nerf Warlocks into a unviable PvP class… but thats OK! because in the same patch that they put their heads up their butts and use a stat that mitigates critical hits, to mitigate non-critical damage to nerf Damage Over Time effects (bye-bye Warlock PvP as Affliction!) they put this lovely little change in:

Mac Movie Capture: the Mac client can now capture in-game video to QuickTime movie files using a configurable choice of codec (H.264, Motion JPEG, or Pixlet), resolution, and frame rate. Two new entries have been added to the Key Bindings dialog for start/stop recording and for cancellation of a recording. For more detailed configuration options please see the Mac Options panel in game. Mac OS X 10.4.9 and QuickTime 7.1.6 or better are required. Not all machines have enough performance to smoothly capture video at high frame rates; end user experimentation will be required to find appropriate settings for each system. 

Yup..first they added a Mac only in-game remote control  for iTunes, now, they’re adding a Mac only in-game video recorder!

So…like any good Mac user.. I created a character on the test server, installed the test version of WoW.. and went to work..

Its broke… kinda… any attempt to do a recording at full screen resolution only lasted about 2 seconds..I didn’t play around too much to see how high it could go.. I picked one kinda in the middle, and ran around for a few minutes…

Test Video (about 33 Megs) .

Someone else made one, and uploaded it to YouTube.. so its been hit with the crap quality bat from them…but it still looks pretty good.

Wonder how many Windoze using WoW players will be switching to the Mac, so they can not have to run a third party app to record any more…