Posted by j@ere.my on Oct 14, 2008 in
Computers,
Rants Tuesday, October 14, 2008, 10 AM PST - Apple unveils a new lineup of mobile goodness to the world, available online immediately. The news of redesigned MacBooks and MacBook Pros is exciting, but I’m still underwhelmed by the much-awaited unveiling.
Here’s a few things that I wish Apple had considered:
- A smaller MacBook Air. That’s smaller, not lighter. Maybe a 10″ or 11″ widescreen would be absolutely perfect for me, even if the weight stayed the same. I’m sure I’m not the only one craving a smaller Apple laptop. Many questions have been asked about the possibility of a tablet, which tends to go hand-in-hand with the smaller form factor, but this is a feature I am much less concerned about, and certainly wouldn’t influence a decision for me to buy it.
- Firewire on the MacBook. It may be uncommon for devices other than camcorders, but Firewire is definitely a much safer bet than USB for many purposes. Though I don’t find myself using Firewire alot these days, the opportunities still arise, and when they do, I’m always glad that the connection can be made with something other than USB. For video editing, I’m not sure how users will cope. OK, so you don’t normally buy a MacBook for video editing, but iMovie is included. How does Apple expect users to capture from their cameras without Firewire?
- Option of matte screen. This isn’t a huge deal for me, but as I work opposite a window everyday, I do appreciate the non-reflective finish of my office MacBook Pro and Cinema Display. It’d be nice to have this choice.
- The old MacBook (white plastic) is still in the lineup at a slightly reduced price. This just seems weird. I would have rather seen a lower spec for the white MacBook and a larger drop in price, down to the 800 range.
Those are the major concerns I have. I find myself leaning towards one of the new aluminum MacBooks as my next computer upgrade, which I plan to hold off on, until the jury comes back on how they do.
Posted by j@ere.my on May 21, 2008 in
Computers,
Rants So I’ve tripped over my power cord on more than one occasion, and yes, just maybe the MagSafe plug has prevented my laptop from taking flight.
I’m not so sure it’s been really helpful to me, though. In my past experience giving your laptop a little airtime once in a while isn’t usually fatal. Sure, it scares the buh-geezes out of you or the person who’s laptop you borrowed to check your Gmail account, but usually the little wonder comes out relatively unscathed.
Now, a bit past a year of having my MacBook, the power cord is shot. I’m kinda grumpy about it. Why does Apple keep making power cords with ridiculously crappy strain reliefs. Maybe the magnet in the plug is still just a bit too strong to make it truly MagSafe. Though it saves your computer, clearly the resistance on the cord is enough to kill it in time. BLAH.
Anyway. I have a mind to reinforce my next powercord with mounds of electrical tape. Not sure if I’ll do it, but it’s a thought.
I guess I can be glad mine didn’t completely melt and spark as some Internet reports reveal.
Anybody else have trouble with their MagSafe’s? Or am I the only one?
what happens when you have a great idea and somebody else comes up with the same idea at approximately the same time? frustrating..
so today, in an ironic feat of web-searchification, while working on my very own foto:blip, i discovered a lovely little app that does nearly the same thing as foto:blip. note, nearly.
clearly i’ve been beaten to the punch in providing a way to use photos instead of words to share the play by play of your life.
so what to do now? beat them with sticks!
the key differentiation that i see right now is that TwitPic (what a silly name) is a bolt-on application. it connects with the Twitter API and (sortof) extends the functionality of Twitter. not a bad idea at all. Twitter has a large and growing userbase. but, i believe that what is really needed to take the next step with microbloggery is to have a completely new application which is built from the ground up to work with images. while two Twitter add-on clients support TwitPic, allowing the posted photo to be viewed directly in the client, other venues such as the Twitter web site and the all-important Twitter Facebook application merely show a link to your photo posted via TwitPic. degrades nicely for those clients, but how will it bode for the visually-inclined user? not so well.
foto:blip has, from the very beginning, been designed to use photos as the users’ primary means of communication. to emphasize that point, photo captions are limited to a short 50 characters. we want users to communicate with their images. to do this, it is a necessity that every viewer can see the posted images alongside the caption.
i’ll be having a closer look at TwitPic shortly as I continue working on foto:blip. perhaps it will inspire me even more.
Posted by j@ere.my on Apr 26, 2008 in
Computers,
Social Networking,
Twitter,
Web Apps i’m about 80 percent done my new social site, foto:blip.
the concept is pretty simple. we live in a visual world, not a textual one. though words can describe many things, a picture still captures so much more.
tools like twitter are cool. it allows you to update from a variety of places, most commonly the web site, a facebook application and from a registered mobile device. it’s really cool to be able to share your day as it happens with your followers and see what your friends are doing with their days.
it’s time to take the next step. foto:blip merges the quick-posting ease of use of applications like twitter with the increased level of communication that can take place with a photograph.
some of the features include:
- built in flash-powered foto:booth. you don’t even need to save a photo to your computer first, simply take a picture with your webcam and upload it immediately, all from within your browser window
- mobile uploads. using your cell phone provider’s sms to e-mail gateway or e-mail account, you can send messages with picture attachments that will be posted to your account when received
- no-login-required access to your foto:blip profile
- rss feeds for foto:blip profiles
- more coming..
stay tuned for launch information.
Posted by j@ere.my on Feb 22, 2008 in
PHP One of the blogs I follow is run by a developer at EllisLabs, which makes the ExpressionEngine CMS as well as a popular lightweight framework, Codeigniter.
In a recent blog entry, Derek Allard reports that he created his own new spinoff framework, which is faster and more lightweight than Codeigniter.
Oh the drama.
http://www.derekallard.com/blog/post/igniter-zen-i-rails-my-new-php-framework/
Posted by j@ere.my on Jan 15, 2008 in
Computers,
Personal Anyone who knows Jeremy knows that he has had a desire to own an ultraportable laptop for a long time.
Since he switched to Macintosh, he has been unable to fulfill his desire.
Today, January 15, 2008, Apple has released the MacBook Air. Today, Apple has made Jeremy’s dream possible.
Please help Jeremy live out his dream of owning an ultraportable Macintosh laptop.
Posted by j@ere.my on May 5, 2007 in
Computers i failed to mention that my original iBook clamshell restoration project went quite well. i now have two working original iBooks. the tangerine one is my favorite, and is going to be accompanying me just about everywhere i go. i really do love it.
the restoration took quite a bit of work. i had two semi-working tangerine units, and basically had to take the two things apart almost completely. some of the surgery included a transplant of the optical drive and the display. i also cleaned up the final product a bit and made sure all of the outer plastics were looking sharp. it really is a sexy machine, albeit a little chunky at nearly 7 pounds. i was also pleased to find out that the replacement battery i purchased lasts nearly 5 hours on a charge. simply amazing.
soon i’ll be posting pictures of my new babies.. i’m sure you can’t wait.
