Acquire, Manage, Listen

so by now, most of you in the know have heard the news.

yup, as expected, Apple has a new music service. It is, as advertised, "Downloads Done Right". I am all for it, since I am mostly against music pirates. Don't get me wrong, I love mix CD's and finding new music like everyone else, but I ain't for stealing music. I am glad that there is a service where we can selectively choose our songs individually and not have to shell out the price of a new CD. I dig that. Kinda like I dig eMusic, which I've been a subscriber of for about 4 years now.

I'm a bit curious about the new AAC format, which is the format that the music files will be provided in. It is supposedly "virtually indistinguishable from the original uncompressed audio source".

And damn them for coming out with the cool new iPod a mere few months after I got mine. Rrrg.

smoove computin'

I guess I need to get a little up close and personal to improve my Ti's Wi-Fi performance... This thread on arstechnica tells us to massage the battery compartment.

Should I take it out to dinner first?

(via boingboing)

iSkeptical

Wired News talks about an up-and-coming third-party mac manufacturer today. Is this a project doomed for the circular file?

I was one of the many saddened by the shutdown of the mac clone-licensing six years ago. It was a bummer, with cool companies like PowerComputing in the running. I fondly remember the above campaign... who doesn't? ;)

The iBox is really lovely looking. It's flat like a pizza box, has all the amenities (firewire, airport, USB, gigabit ethernet), and the kicker... it's upgradable. Consumers demand a machine like this, and it looks to start at 250-350 US$. BTOs between 650-2000 US$.

Sounds too good to be true! But alas, it just might be that.

As cool as the iBox sounds, I have serious doubts that Apple will back it up. Their notorious reputation for monopoly overshadows all. Or maybe it's just Steve's reputation.

tablet mac

it's about damn time...

The unnamed tablet system -- featuring an 8.4" backlit TFT-display and built-in Airport Extreme -- will be marketed as a 'Home Portable' and will be targeted towards a specific demographic of users who want the portability of laptop but who do not require the power or diversity of Apple's current portable offerings.

This is pretty durned exciting, we (and I mean mac users, hee) have been waiting for this for a long time. I want a more powerful tablet mac, though... this one seems like it will be the iBook of tablet computers. I think a more powerful prosumer model will sell better than a typical consumer model. I wonder if this will make the Newton geeks re-surface. I assume that this tablet will utilize the Inkwell technology... it's the natural next step.

On another note, I wonder what quirky name this little project will get? Anyone know the code name(s) for it?

(via Lockergnome)

apple gore

What's next? Black turtlenecks and veganism for Mr. Gore?

surfin' safari

Die hard users of Chimera complained that Safari lacked the tabbed browsing feature that so enhanced their lives.

Wait no longer, my mac friends!

Safari to get tabbed browsing
(found on ThinkSecret via blogzilla)

In beta 62 of Safari, which has yet to be posted for download, tabbed browsing can be activated via the hidden debug menu. Once turned on, pressing Command-T opens a new tab. In Safari, tabs are lined up in their own bar below the toolbar, much like the bookmarks bar. When the bookmarks bar is shown, the tabs are presented below it.

toys for toys

I'm gettin' a 20GB iPod tomorrow. w00t!

Gotta love the craigslist community. I found this unused iPod for a good price. I've sold my laserdisc collection (and even the busted player!), found an external frame backpack for bex, and I'm still looking for offers on my old Rio 600 MP3 player and Visor Platinum. Anyone interested? I gotta go through the rest of my junk and sell it now... I've been putting it off for too long, and the junk has just been piling up. I'm sure many of you can sympathize with that. How many of you have a "potential eBay item" backlog?

I'm distracted by the thought of 20 gigs of portable audio goodness... I can't wait to pile my entire library onto the iPod, and then some.

I love the smell of Titanium in the morning

...and I thought that a little ding in my Ti's clamshell was devastating.

From MacFixIt:

As it turns out, she baked the PowerBook in the oven for 20 minutes. I kid you not. She said it with a straight face, and I could hardly keep from laughing. She wasn't joking. The thing was baked.

Turns out that the darned thing still works... damaged, but it boots!

Pictures to be found here.

(via MeFi)

double argh

There's now a dimple in the outer shell my Powerbook's display.

I'm clumsy. Either that, or the Apple gods are not shining on me this week.

I wonder if I can find another excuse to send this baby into AppleCare Service again, so they could maybe fix this...?

geekfest

Tell me why I just waited in line to make a blog post from the internet café at MacWorld SF?

Pure geek factor, I suppose. I coulda been *really* geeky and brought my wireless-enabled laptop with, but I was being too practical. Hah.

So things here are pretty good. I checked out the new Powerbooks first thing, and almost burned my hand. Those things run pretty dang hot. I really like the mini-me version, and I'll be heavily considering it over the next few months.

It' pretty warm down here on the Expo floor. Weeee. I need a drink.

I have yet to find fellow bloggers or MacNN'ers...

More to come later... I'm gonna go to a c|net radio listener appreciation party later tonight in attempt to hook up with the lockergnome crew.

one more small thing...

My first generation Titanium Powerbook has seen its days. It has served me well.

But I hold a deep, dark(?) secret. I have been wishing an iBook for a long time... only because it was compact and sturdy, but I was not willing to sacrifce my G4 for a G3. Woe was me. I have had to handle my Ti very carefully, be sure no one breathed heavily on it, and basically treated it like it was my first born child.

Ah, but with the announcement of the drool-worthy new PowerBooks, I am in a funk no longer. I'm really tempted by the 12" BTO with a SuperDrive.

Ah, Titanium. You have served me well. Now it's time for your younger, more powerful sibling to take the throne.

I *just* paid off my Apple Loan from the Ti, too. The loud sucking sound that is Apple taking my money away shall continue. I think I'm gonna sell the Ti (which, I will add, has a year of AppleCare left on it)... if you're interested, do let me know.

Am I such a geek to get all giddy at the sight of Steve digging that baby out earlier today?

Answer: Yes.

bitten by the apple

Grr. How annoying is this? They're taunting me, I tell you! I professed my weakness for shiny new things with buttons, and what does Apple go and do?

They have a special sales event on the 29th... which, as you may have read the other day, is Buy Nothing Day, of course.

Yes, it's tempting, but I made the vow. And I'm sticking to it.

Damn you retail devils.

and I was like... hnuh?

Had enough Switch ads? I found a really good one today... and it's an official ad!

Could Momoko Kikuchi be the Japanese Ellen Feiss?

I'm kinda excited. I can understand some of what she's saying... ^_^

do a good turn daily

... so says the Girl Scout motto. This is a story of my good turn today.

I had some free time this afternoon, so I browsed a coupla Thrift Shops (whoo hoo! A set of art pencils for thirty-five cents!) and drove around the neighborhood. I passed CompUSA once, thought for a second about browsing around in there, but didn't stop.

15 minutes later, I was back.

I was curious to see if The Sims Online was available yet, since I had lost track of it completely. So I found my excuse to go in.

Nope, no Sims Online yet (I know, it's not being developed for Mac, grr. But there is a Windoze machine in this house just for gaming, heh). So I wandered into the small Mac section to see how it was doing.

CompUSA is notorious for not encouraging Mac sales. Their salespeople cringe when customers ask for Mac hardware, software or accessories. You'd think you had just asked them to pull their toenails out or something. Scott Kelby writes about this in his book Macintosh: The Naked Truth. He also suggests ways for us Mac Evangelists to improve the situation. One of these ways is to visit your local CompUSA store regularly and tidy up the Mac section.

Only a die-hard would do that. I guess I'm a die-hard now.

I went around to all the stations... I think there were 3 iBooks, 5 iMacs, 2 G4s and 1 Ti... and I cleaned up all of their desktops, filled up the docks (they were empty, save the trash and the finder icons), and did a general tidying of the area. It was really sad... all the hard drives were named gobbledy gook like "sadfg" or "../.,;". The desktops were chaotic. Open windows everywhere! A nightmare for this minimalist Mac user! It made a difference... even though I didn't physically do much, the section looked clean and consistent from mac to mac. I grinned to myself and walked out of the door, without buying anything, after about 15 minutes.

Who knows if this service will accomplish anything... will someone buy a Mac just because I made them look good? I have no idea. If it helps influence one person's decision to buy a mac, that's good enough for me. Someone has to care, and it ain't gonna be the workers at CompUSA.

So I did my good turn... and a geeky one at that. Maybe tomorrow I'll save the world or find a cure for the common cold.

Nah.

it's alive!

I got the ol' trusty Powerbook back today... AppleCare had it for about a week! They had claimed that they couldn't duplicate my problem, so they had to keep her for observation. Sounds awfully serious, donnit?

Well, she showed up with nary a scuffmark, and a new clamshell display. W00t! I think I no longer have an stuck pixels in my LCD. No mention of what the problem actually was, though. *shrug*

So far, so good. Cross your fingers that the problems are over.

Back to work now... I'm back to full capacity, which means I have no more excuses for late work. ^_^;;

Sad Mac

No, I didn't get the dreaded Sad Mac icon, but I do have a sad mac today. My Titanium PowerBook G4/400, to be exact.

Read some of the grisly details (and some relevant discussion) on this thread on the MacNN Forums from a little while back. Here's the screenshot of what the Ti eventually regresses into... it is only now a mere few minutes before this happens these days. Is it possible that trying to install Jaguar fried my VRAM? Say it isn't so! :(

Anyone out there have any idea what could be going on? This is messed up, man.

Well, I don't have that AppleCare for nuthin'... gotta use it now!

But sleep first, would be good.

he will be assimilated

The power of the Jaguar continues to tempt all geeks.

On the most recent episode of TSS, they featured a House Call at Wil's home in SoCal. The spot was silly, but it was the phone interview that made me grin.

He recently got an iBook running Jaguar, and is loving it. Do I smell a switch commercial in the works?

Go Team!

resistance is futile

I gave in.

I upgraded my now-defunct iTools account to a .Mac account. And yes, I did wait until the last minute of the last day for an upgrade.

Funny that the half-off offer ends today, a federal holiday. Federal holiday means banks are closed. Closed banks mean that the deposit I made on Saturday has not gone through. Deposit that hasn't gone through means not enough moolah on the check card to upgrade.

I had to do it the old fashioned way. I called the 800 number, and was able to do a electronic check. Score!

Watch me pull the same crap next year, when I shall debate whether to pay $99 a year instead... oy.

hai, so desu...

Interested in learning some Japanese? I'm taking a class this quarter, and DANG, is it challenging. I've had to look for some outside help. Luckily, there's plenty of it on the ol' Inter-Neat.

Mad props to Single Brain Cell Software for creating such simple but cool learning software for Japanese language students that runs in OS X.

There's a Hiragana & Katakana app (the most indispensable one for me!), Vocab, and Kanji. Awesome.

180 to switch

The sorta-highly anticipated Tony Hawk Apple "Switch" ad is now up.

You can also read his written testimonial. A quote about his iPod:
"I've got the 10 gig, and I've got it engraved. It says, "Boom, boom, bling, bling." Boom, Boom is a tour that we're doing, and Bling, Bling is just bling, bling. It's a hip hop thing."
Haha.

Although Hawk is not technically a switcher (he's been a mac user for a long time), this ad does appeal to a really large audience. The music they use in these ads aren't really complimentary to the skating footage, heh.

Check out the other new ads too. Kelly Slater (pro surfer) and DJ Q-Bert... as well as the "everday people" Gianni Jacklone (this ad in particular is pretty funny) and Richard Ziskin. As annoying as this ad campaign has become to some, it's proven pretty successful for Apple, with "thousands" of switchers since the campaign began.

MT & iCal

This is mostly for my own reference, to remember to keep an eye on development for this MT blog to iCal implementation.

This looks to be pretty cool, but I'm not ready to use it just yet. I'm curious to see how many Jaguar users will actually use and embrace the app.

Link to developer for this implementation is at disobey.com.

gettin' jag-gy wid it

I am officially Jaguar-ed. So far, so good. I will recommend to you folks out there who have not installed it yet, to use the Archive and Install option... it's a new install option that archives everything from your previous system (assuming you are running OS 10.x already)... very handy.

Also, refer to this sidebar from the current MacWorld mag Migrate to Jaguar with a Clean Install. There's more info at this link than in the printed mag.

I've spent almost the whole afternoon tinkering with this OS. Me likey.

Now... to .Mac... or not to .Mac?

it's so fuzzy

I found my copy of Jaguar at the door when I got home today. Glee!

I need a big chunk of time to spend with my computers to get this mutha installed... can't do it tonight, cos that's not enough time. Can't do it tomorrow, cos I'll be at Seybold. Oh, the agony.

jagwire

So the massive OS 10.2 Jaguar event that took place at 10:20pm tonight at the Apple Store was a bust. For us, at least. The crowd was too massive... I didn't think it would be this bad at all. We figured that it was 800+ people there. Crazy. Kevin figured out that we prolly wouldn't get even close to the store by midnight, so we took off and had apple pie instead. Hey, that's good enough, huh? I'm buying my copy of 10.2 online. So I had no need to really stick around.

Besides, I didn't want to wait all that time for just a Jaguar mousepad and temporary tattoo. Heh.

the crowd was much bigger than anticipated. this is only part of it.	see Kevin down there?
Mall security was out in full force. Heh.	We got apple pie instead.

like new

The PowerBook came back again this morning. It seems in perfect condition. Thank gawd.

This time around, they replaced...
P12, INVERTER
P12 DISPLAY CLAMSHELL SAMSUNG

I'm glad I got AppleCare... I'd be SOL without it. If you don't have it, GET IT.

whistling in the dark

Well, I just got my PowerBook back this morning. The speakers work beautifully, and the keyboard seems to be not so sticky anymore.

But the backlight seems to not work anymore. Ha! after a few minutes of use, the backlight goes out, and I can see the desktop images of the screen. I hafta restart to see the light again.

Ah well, I'm actually not angry... and it's not too big of a deal to send it back in. If all goes well, I'll have it back by Monday. Again.

in a flash

Dude. AppleCare rocks.

(click for larger image)

I sent my PowerBook in for repair yesterday, and it's gonna arrive back tomorrow. They've fixed two issues that have been bothering me for months (though I was too lazy to send it in till now)... my internal speakers had no sound output, and I had a wiggy keyboard that input random characters when certain keys were pressed. They even asked me if I had any cosmetic imperfections that I wanted them to repair. Cool, cool, cool.

Everytime I deal with AppleCare support, they are so incredibly friendly, and I actually have conversations with the Customer Service reps.

I love being a Mac user.

IE PSA

OS X users: IE 5.2 is here. It's sorta minor, but the Quartz text smoothing is yummy. Remember to upgrade to Mac OS 10.1.5 first, if you haven't done so!

Thanks to eric for reminding me.

The Luxo iMac

Say Hello to iMac, again. It's so cute, I want to pinch its processor. I've already dubbed it the "Luxo iMac" because it looks like Pixar's Luxo Jr. :)

As with most new Apple product releases, it's sooo cool, I want one, but don't need one, it's too much money. Buy me one. ;) Bummed that I couldn't be at MacWorld SF this year, but hey, there's always next time... and it'll be bigger and better every time.

For those of you who want the Time Cover Story, look HERE ("TIME.com - Apple's New Core").