Trey Connell

I’ve purposely held off on making any comments or observations about the Apple iPad, but now I feel almost compelled to put a few simple notes down “on paper”.

The iPad is big enough to be a netbook but without all the features on the netbook that I currently own. And I paid $300 for my netbook.

It looks like a really big iPhone except I can’t make calls from it. Even if I could make calls I wouldn’t because no one wants to hold a netbook-sized device to their ear unless it has some sort of boom box cover graphic on it. Even then it’s dicey.

I suppose what it’s really most like is a gigantic iTouch. And I never even considered purchasing one of those – even for the briefest of moments.

So I guess, in general, I just don’t get it. I’m not sure who Apple is targeting with thie iPad. Now…give me an iPad that runs Snow Leopard, and one would be sitting on my desk right now.

From Gizmodo:

With the iTunes 8.1 update, you can now sync with the new iPod shuffle, take iTunes DJ requests from friends, rip CDs at iTunes Plus quality and use Genius with movies and TV shows.

iTunes 8.1 is now faster and more responsive. You will enjoy noticeable improvements when working with large libraries, browsing the iTunes Store, preparing to sync with iPod or iPhone, and optimizing photos for syncing.

In addition, iTunes 8.1 provides many other improvements and bug fixes, including:

• Supports syncing with iPod shuffle (3rd generation).
• Allows friends to request songs for iTunes DJ.
• Adds Genius sidebar for your Movies and TV Shows.
• Improves performance when downloading iTunes Plus songs.
• Provides AutoFill for manually managed iPods.
• Allows CDs to be imported at the same sound quality as iTunes Plus.
• Includes many accessibility improvements.
• Allows iTunes U and the iTunes Store to be disabled separately using Parental Controls.

Now, here’s the ridiculous part to me.  You can remove the DRM from your existing songs, but you have to pay 30 cents per song or 30% of the original cost of an album. That is complete crap, and I’ve griped about this before.

I’ve never purchased a CD that was only licensed for one CD player in my home or automobile. This is why I’ll continue to purchase music from other services such as the Amazon MP3 Store.

I read maclife.com and yesterday’s story titled “One Multi-Touch Screen to Rule Them All” caught my eye. I immediately began thinking I was going to see real evidence of Apple’s version of the tablet PC. After creating the iPhone and iTouch, it would seem the next logical step would be to create what mac rumor sites have been talking about for years – the MacTablet (also called the MacBook Touch).

But instead, the maclife.com story was about the awarding of the patent that Apple filed for back in 2007 for the multi-touch screen. I was sorely disappointed.

For years I’ve watched some of my friends who never converted to Mac (why???) use various PC laptops, and the tablet PC always intrigued me. I don’t understand why Apple didn’t jump on that bandwagon given all the technology, creativity, and innovation they obviously hold. They didn’t have to be the first to market with it, but at least make a mac version that we all know is going to be better.

Other laptop makers are continuing to innovate the Tablet PC approach, and now we’re seeing touchscreen laptops with even more capabilities. While these laptops are certainly not the norm, I believe they’ll catch on more and more as features and usability improve.

I love mac laptops – in fact, I just bought a brand new MacBook. And while there have been improvements in the line of mac laptops (unibody construction, glossy displays, multi-touch button-less trackpack), even I can’t point to something that makes me say “Damn!  Look at that!”.
I thought the MacBook Air was going to change all the rules when it arrived on the scene, but I quickly realized a few things:

1. The specifications aren’t anything to brag about (1.6 Ghz processor!!)
2. It has no internal superdrive so I have to buy it SEPARATELY and then keep up with it
3. It only has one USB port

And to top it off the MacBook Air costs $2499 for the “better” version.

Apple should continue to improve their MacBooks just as they have – because those make sense for most of us, and we love them. But I’d like to see some new laptop products start to make a splash and show that Apple innovation that we’ve all loved from the beginning.

Apple’s iLife 09 Hardware Up-to-Date program lets you get a copy of iLife 09 for $9.95 plus tax if you purchased a qualifying computer on or after January 6, 2009. I was able to get a copy for my new MacBook for a total of $10.77 (including tax).

You can qualify and purchase right on the Apple Store online or you can download a form to mail in to Apple.  If you think you might qualify, go there now.

I picked up a new MacBook this past weekend after my MacBook Pro bit the dust. This is absolutely the best laptop I’ve ever owned. The 13.3″ screen size is perfect because the MacBook is light and easy to roam around the house with. It also doesn’t take up as much surface space on my desk, dining room table, or anywhere else I happen to land.

The unibody aluminum construction makes this MacBook feel more solid that its predecessors, and the black frame around the display looks great with the black, backlit keyword. The larger trackpack with integrated button and all the new fancy pinch, slide, and expand capabilities is also very cool.

On a full charge the battery lasts approximately 4 hours which is 2.5 hours longer than my old MacBook Pro. Heat doesn’t seem to be as much of an issue with this MacBook – unlike my other laptop which would fry the tops of my legs if I didn’t have some kind of stand underneath it.

I chose the MacBook with the 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, and slot loading SuperDrive which retails for $1599.99. Apple also makes a 2.0 GHz version with a smaller hard drive for $1299.99.

After owning a MacBook Pro, I can highly recommend the new MacBook for its solid construction, portability, and great performance.

And to prove it, here’s how much I love my new MacBook laptop. We were sleepy. We took a nap.

I was so excited to get an email notifying me that the iPhone 2.2 Software Update was available.  My excitement quickly vanished when I read the list of new features:

Apple Mighty Mouse not so Mighty

Apple Mighty Mouse

I purchased the Apple Mighty Mouse for one reason – to get rid of the little USB dongle that I had to keep up with for my old Microsoft USB mouse.  Based on that one overriding goal, the Mighty Mouse was worth the purchase.  Bluetooth is sooo much better than wireless USB devices.  Also, I can sit in my living room with my laptop connected next to my 52 in Samsung LCD and still use my mouse and keyboard from about 12 feet away.

Unfortunately there are two things about the Mighty Mouse that bug the ever-loving hell out of me.  First, the middle button is great for scrolling but only WHEN IT WORKS.  After a while, the scroll feature stops functioning, and I have to push down real hard on the “wheel” and roll it back and forth for about 30 seconds before it will work again.  Second, right-clicking is a major pain and not easy at all.  I’m not aware of any deformities or paralysis in my right hand, and I still have a really hard time consistently right-clicking with the Mighty Mouse’s unified, one-button design.  I can never seem to get the right-click to work when I need it to, and I wind up left clicking on things – sometimes with very undesirable results.

I’m going to deal with those two negatives for now since the darn thing cost me $70, but eventually I’ll be looking for a better mouse with bluetooth.

iPhone Tethering Coming Soon

AT&T officially announced that you’ll be able to tether your iPhone to your laptop “soon”.  Tethering allows your iPhone to act as a wireless modem so you can access the Internet anywhere you have EDGE or 3G access.  I used to tether my old MotoRazr constantly back in the day, and it’s always boggled my mind as to why AT&T hasn’t offered that capability for iPhone users.

Two things I haven’t been able to find out:

1. Is AT&T going to have to bulk up its network in order to handle the demand?
2. Will there be an additional monthly fee, or will the normal “unlimited data” iPhone plan cover wireless modem usage?

Apple admitted there are issues with the new iPhone 3G concerning connectivity and released version 2.0.2 of the iPhone software this week. The update was to address the issues with connecting to a 3G network, but the description in my iTunes for the update was “Bug Fixes”. I don’t know what that really means and haven’t felt like taking the time to dig around and find out.

As I sit in my office, I have 2 bars and am connected to the 3G network. Of course, as I said in a previous post, I can talk on my iPhone in this very room with no problem at all.

Apparently the natives are getting restless. There have been widespread complaints to both Apple and AT&T with no action or acknowledgement since the iPhone 3G came out. Now an Alabama woman is suing apple for failing to live up to the “twice as fast at half the price” promise.

I’ve had my iPhone 3G for a few weeks now, and I’ve noticed something very strange. I rarely have full signal according to the bars on the phone. However, I’ve not had any problems with dropped calls or sketchy service. It’s like the phone doesn’t know how strong my signal is.

I’ve heard of others having connectivity problems and claiming the 3G connection is no faster than their old EDGE connection. Thankfully I haven’t seen that yet. I compare load times for web sites with my wife’s original iPhone, and my iPhone 3G always loads them much faster when I’m in a 3G area.

I just discovered a feature that came in the iPhone 2.0 software upgrade that might trump all other new features for me. You can now delete multiple emails at one time. This is HUGE for me as I get a lot of emails from our monitoring systems, and I also do not check email on my iPhone constantly when I’m on the go. So after two or three hours of being “offline” I may have 200 emails to go through. Being able to bulk delete everything I know I don’t need to read is fan-friggin-tastic.

So how do you take advantage of the multiple delete goodness? When you’re looking at your list of emails, tap the Edit button in the upper right. Then simply start tapping the circles next to each email you want to torch and then tap the delete button at the bottom when you’re finished. It is so much faster than sliding your finger across individual emails and tapping delete.

I decided to go with direct fulfillment in order to get my grubby hands on one of the new iPhones. The past Monday I finally got the call from my local AT&T store. My iPhone 3G had arrived!

First, it does look a bit sleeker than the old iPhone but there’s not really a big enough difference in appearance to rave about. Second, 3G is GREAT. Many of the applications can use your current location to make doing things more efficient – such as listing movie theaters near your location. There’s a really big difference in how fast you can use those applications from EDGE to 3G.

The GPS is indeed very cool although I’ve only played with it and have had no real reason to use it yet.

All in all, I’m happy with the upgrade.  There are a few features such as video chat that I wish they would have included. I was also rather disappointed there is still no copy and paste.  I mean c’mon Apple…