Category Archives: Tech

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).

No more Word!

Ok, so… it’s not completely gone, so we’ll still have to deal with the bloated monstrosity that passes for a word processor until everyone (read that as ‘businesses’) comes to their senses and switches to something else.

However, M$ did just receive the smack down (again) for doing bad things in word, specifically, stealing someone else’s IP (not that that’s unusual, they just happened to get someone who noticed and wouldn’t take the hush money).

Earlier this afternoon, the verdict was handed down in M$’s appeal of the guilty verdict they were given earlier this year for stealing someone’s XML code and rolling into word.

The good news?  M$ has to pay $290 million dollars, and stop selling copies of word (2007, primarily) that contain the infringing code by January 11th .

The bad news? M$ says they’ll have fixed copies ready to hit the shelves by then… too bad.. I was hoping to watch their profits flounder if they couldn’t sell Word (or, any package containing word) for 6-8 months or so.

Oh well…maybe next time they get caught doing something wrong….

and Grats to I4i for standing up to M$ and making them pay.

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.

Format wars are over!

Well, mostly anyway.  Yesterday, Warner Brothers announced that they will be exclusively releasing their titles on Blue Ray DVD only, and abandoning the sucky ass HD-DVD platform completly.

Thier press release:

(January 4, 2008 – Burbank, CA) – In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

“Warner Bros.’ move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want,” said Meyer.  “The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger.  We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers.”

Warner Home Video will continue to release its titles in standard DVD format and Blu-ray.  After a short window following their standard DVD and Blu-ray releases, all new titles will continue to be released in HD DVD until the end of May 2008.

“Warner Bros. has produced in both high-definition formats in an effort to provide consumer choice, foster mainstream adoption and drive down hardware prices,” said Jeff Bewkes, President and Chief Executive Officer, Time Warner Inc., the parent company of Warner Bros. Entertainment.  “Today’s decision by Warner Bros. to distribute in a single format comes at the right time and is the best decision both for consumers and Time Warner.”

“A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry,” said Tsujihara.  “Consumers have clearly chosen Blu-ray, and we believe that recognizing this preference is the right step in making this great home entertainment experience accessible to the widest possible audience.  Warner Bros. has worked very closely with the Toshiba Corporation in promoting high definition media and we have enormous respect for their efforts.  We look forward to working with them on other projects in the future.”

So, if you’ve been waiting for a clear winner before buying, now you can go buy Blu Ray, and know that you’re not buying the losing platform.  This announcement puts something like 70-75% of the studios in the Blu Ray camp, leaving Paramount pretty much as the only ‘big’ studio still only in the HD DVD camp.  And I’d have to imagine that after this announcement, it won’t be long before they go Blu Ray also.

Yay!  Now, if someone would just knock a couple hundred bucks off the price tag of the average Blu Ray DVD player so I could afford it…

Safari 3

One of the items released to the public at today’s WWDC keynote, was a public beta of Safari v3.. now bringing speedy W3c compliant web browsing to the boring ass windows platform.

Beta available here.. haven’t heard a actual release date yet.   The blurb about it look good, and I’ll be giving the Mac version a workout in a bit..

Time for a Change

Looks like its time to change blogging software..

In addition to not having updated Movable Type in ages… SixApart has apparently been busy censoring the users of their LiveJournal service.

Of course they are saying they were trying to ‘protect the children’…

Sixapart..here’s a newsflash for you.. I don’t need, or WANT you to ‘protect’ my kids…I’m a parent..thats my job… Your censorship has cost you a customer.. I’m going to actively look into switching to another blogging software… probably wordpress..

(and yes..I get the irony in ‘actively’ looking for blogging software for a blog that is less then active…but I’m going to start blogging more again…for real this time)

They want me to pay????

Unbelievable!

after finding out that there is a open source solution for TiVo’s programmers being unable to find their ass with both hands… TiVo today sends me their newsletter telling me that they have released an ‘official’ version of TiVoToGo for the Mac… and.. all I have to do is BUY it from another company! (here’s the text from their newsletter)

Oh, Mac friends…

Yes, the day has finally arrived when we can share this much anticipated news with our most loyal, passionate, and oh-so-patient Mac friends: We’ve partnered with Roxio to enable TiVoToGo in Toast 8 Titanium, available TODAY!

Yes, you can now transfer your favorite TiVo recordings to your Mac, watch them in a player, burn them to DVD, and convert them for playback on iPod or PSP

Right…so.. lets see if I have this right:

1 – Over two years after first announced

2 – Not from TiVo

3 – A product I have to purchase from a different company, to use a feature included in my monthly subscription fee to TiVo. And for the low, low, price of $69.99 at that…

And geniuses over at TiVo, please do answer this.. why the hell would I want to pay another company to use a feature of your service that I’m already paying you for???? Do you think Mac Users are stupid? Or do you think your product is good enough we should pay someone else to let us use your product…

You guys are idiots if you think this is a good idea… I’ll stick with the Free and Perfectly functional Open Source product to use the feature I’m already paying you to let me use…

Free Laptops!

I was reading ArsTechnica today at work, and apparently, while I was on vacation, there was a torrid scandal in the blogosphere about Microsoft giving some bloggers early copies of Vista to review.. of course, thats mainly because they gave them fully loaded Acer Ferrari laptops as “review units”, and apparently didn’t require the units to be returned.

Continue reading Free Laptops!

TiVoToGo – Mac Edition

One of my favorite vaporware products, is Tivo’s TivoToGo for the Mac.

TiVo first introduced TivoToGo almost 2 years ago for windows. And, like many companies, they immediately announced that they were still working on the Mac version, and, it would be available “Soon”.

2 years later… nuthin, not even a crappy beta that only works once every week.. not a peep from them, any questions about it receive the “we’re still hard at work on it, it’ll be available soon.” response.

Continue reading TiVoToGo – Mac Edition

New TV

For those of you who are starting to try and decide what you want to get me for Hannukah, or Christmas… here’s something for your list. JVC has introduced a new model HDTV… here’s a short blurb on it.