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Category Archives For Apple

iPhone

I’ve been flattered, over the past week, to have several people ask me whether I would be buying or whether I had bought an iPhone — flattered that people thought I might possibly have the financial wherewithal or budgetary flexibility to buy one. However, with our recent house purchase, all the usual monthly bills, and the continuous challenge of supporting a family of three on one income, it simply hasn’t been a possibility.

Sure, I’d love to have one. If Apple is listening, here are some things that would make me more likely to buy one:

In the meantime, however, I’ve come up with what I think you’ll find is an elegant workaround. It has many of the features of the iPhone: it has some of the features you’d expect from an iPhone: high quality audio playback, cell phone and contact manager functionality, web browsing, and a digital camera. It even has some features you won’t get in the iPhone: 20 GB of storage space, a five-megapixel camera with 4x optical zoom and flash, and the ability to run on the Sprint network.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the MyPhone.


By Peter | 07.02.2007 | 09:48 PM | Permalink | Categories: Apple, Techie | 5 Comments

Prepare yourself for a shock

So, over the last few months you’ve all heard about Peter’s new technological acquisitions. He has been very happy with his new toys and has been spending time tweaking them to his liking.

“What about you, Bec?” You might ask. “What have you gotten lately?”

Well, I have indeed made a few techy purchases of my own. The first is a pretty little piece of metal called the 30gig Video iPod. See it here:

30g iPod

I am pretty enamored with it. It is shiny and little and has a color screen. Not only does it play music, but I can watch videos and look at pictures on it! Doesn’t get better than that!

I was also a little concerned about my picture taking abilities once the baby comes along. Peter’s camera is great, but it is hardly the kind of camera you pull out at a moment’s notice to take a snapshot of little BabyWood schmering squash all over the table… So we went looking for a “point and shoot” digital camera. Here’s what we found:

Canon A530

[edit] It is a Cannon Powershot A530. It has a few little issues: the flash recycle time is kind of slow, the screen is a little grainy… but it works for my purposes and was definately in my price range (ie. cheap).

I’m still figuring out how to take good pictures with it, but I’m planning on reading the manual and practicing. Never fear. I’m glad to have an easy to use camera and look forward to capturing many many precious moments ;-)

Don’t think for a moment, though, that I’ve completely jumped to the geeky side… Peter was trying to convince me to get a new cell phone tonight…I told him that I was still plenty happy with the phone I have. Yes. The one he bought in 2000 and gave me when he grew tired of it. I like its size, shape, etc. and it still works like a charm. Why fix what isn’t broken?


By Rebecca | 04.20.2006 | 07:09 PM | Permalink | Categories: Apple, Geekiness, Techie | 7 Comments

mini Computer, Max capability

To follow up on a comment Angela had left on my original post about the mini, here’s a run-down on the capabilities of the Mac mini, in no particular order:

The Tower

So that’s a little blurb on what’s cool about the mini. I’m really enjoying it, and I’m excited about the creative possibilities it holds. It’s so much easier to put together movies and edit photos when you have a blazingly fast computer to work with.


By Peter | 04.10.2006 | 08:14 PM | Permalink | Categories: Apple | 1 Comment

Drama King

Just to clarify a bit from my last post, I’d say that my interpretation of the situation was rather over-dramatized. In the grand scheme of things, it really was no big deal. The computer was completely usable with the IR receiver broken, we didn’t lose any data, and though I lost a bit of pride, I’ve mostly gained it back since successfully completing the repair. There was no household crisis, Becky didn’t yell at me for breaking the computer, it was pretty much 100% me being very hard on myself.

Thank you all for your concern. :-)

Oh, and Mr. Anonymous, I would be more inclined to approve your mean-spirited comment if you would leave a valid email address. Then again, maybe not.


By Peter | 04.10.2006 | 07:43 PM | Permalink | Categories: Apple, Married Life | 1 Comment

A Humbling Learning Experience

I recently blogged about the new Mac mini Core Duo that we purchased on Saturday, March 18. Well, up until now, I haven’t really given you the whole truth. I wanted to wait until the story had ended in a way that I found satisfactory before I told the whole thing. Kind of selfish of me, I know, but hey… it’s our blog and we’ll write how we want to. Anyway, it’s pretty embarassing and humbling, but I need to get it out there for everyone to hear:

I broke our brand new Mac. Continue reading…


By Peter | 04.08.2006 | 03:06 PM | Permalink | Categories: Apple | 10 Comments

Our New Baby

No, not that baby. This one:

New Baby

(You can see all of the photos here.)

We purchased a Mac mini Core Duo on Saturday at the Rockingham Park Apple Store in Salem, NH (no sales tax!). We were originally thinking of getting the new iMac, but we opted to get the mini for several reasons:

We bought just the base model (512 megs RAM, 80 gb hard disk) at the Apple Store, so that we could buy less-expensive add-ons elsewhere. You can definitely feel the pinch with only 512 megs of RAM. When running several applications at the same time, for example iPhoto, Safari, Adium, and Mail, there is a bit of lag when switching back and forth, because the system has to take one application out of RAM and write it to disk, while reading another application off of disk and into RAM (also known as swapping). That should be solved, however, when the 2 GB RAM upgrade arrives from OWC later this week. More RAM means less swapping and less waiting when switching applications.

Beyond the lag when switching applications, performance is quite impressive. Most of the typical tasks like email, instant messaging, and web browsing aren’t dramatically faster than they were on the G4/450. It’s in the multimedia applications that the mini really shines. I haven’t had much chance to use iMovie, but iPhoto is extremely impressive… the speed is just amazing. I’m really looking forward to playing around with iLife ‘06.

We’re also getting a miniStack v2 with a 320 gb, 7200 RPM hard drive, which will give us plenty of storage space, not to mention a faster disk than the mini’s included 5400 RPM model. It also provides some extra USB ports and extra FireWire ports (handy, since the mini only has a single FireWire port).

I’m pretty excited about this purchase, because it’s the fastest Mac we’ve ever owned. I started with a Mac clone in 1997, running with a 180 MHz PowerPC 604e processor. Then I bought a PowerBook G3 400 MHz in 2001, just after the first PowerBook G4’s were introduced. Most recently, we purchased a PowerMac G4 450 MHz to replace the Mac clone. Jumping up to a Dual Core 1.66 GHz is a huge step.


By Peter | 03.20.2006 | 10:10 PM | Permalink | Categories: Apple | 7 Comments

Apple Store Derby Street

The Facade

The Facade

On Saturday, I attended the opening of the seventh Apple Store in the Greater Boston area. The first six were Northshore (our “home” store), CambridgeSide, Chestnut Hill, Rockingham Park, South Shore, and Burlington. Saturday’s grand opening was the Derby Street Apple Store, at the Derby Street Shoppes in Hingham, MA.

The Derby Street Shoppes is a ‘lifestyle center’, a new and growing breed of shopping establishment. This is an arrangement with various stores of the type you’d find in a mall, only the store fronts are outside. I call it an overgrown strip mall. In any case, the Apple Store is located in between The Children’s Place and Burton’s Grill. It’s an average size Apple Store, with all of the features one would expect - lots of Apple and third party hardware and software, plenty of things to play with, and technical help at the Genius Bar.

I arrived at about 8:30 a.m., and at that point nobody was in line. A bunch of people were waiting around in their cars - a wise move, considering how cold it was. At about 9 a.m., the management came out and set up the velvet ropes. After that, people started getting in line. I ended up being about #20 in line after taking some photos. Once I was in line, I shot some more photos from my spot, and shot some video as well.

Since I’ve already been to many other Apple Stores, I wasn’t entralled as much by the store and its contents, but rather by the grand opening event, and all of the hoopla and crowds surrounding it. To that effect, you can check out my photo gallery of the event, as well as a movie that I shot with our new camcorder and edited in iMovie.

Enjoy!

Update

Here’s some other coverage from around the Interweb.


By Peter | 02.19.2006 | 01:50 PM | Permalink | Categories: Apple | 5 Comments

Front Row

Apple’s latest iMac G5 comes with a piece of software called Front Row. This software is a pretty interface to the various types of media on your computer - movies, music, photos, and DVDs. The iMac G5 comes with the software pre-installed, and also includes a wireless remote so that you can control your Mac from the couch. But those of us who don’t have the new iMac can’t take advantage of this feature. Or can we?

Enter Front Row Enabler, a bit of software hackery that will allow users of Macs other than the latest iMac G5 to use Front Row. I downloaded it and installed it today on my Sawtooth PowerMac G4/450 (quite an old machine), and it actually works really well! Of course, I don’t have a remote, so I have to be sitting at the computer to use it. But it’s still pretty cool. Who says you can’t teach an old Mac new tricks?


By Peter | 11.26.2005 | 12:04 PM | Permalink | Categories: Apple | No Comments

Line Sitters

Howdy all from the floor of the Burlington Mall. Peter and I are sitting patiently in line for the opening of the Burlington Apple Store. According to a preliminary count we are 34th and 35th in line. All of the usual suspects are here…The young guys next to us who are watching the Simpsons on their iBook, the twenty-somethings with their earbuds plugged in, the dads and moms with thier excited kids…AND the elderly mall walkers who, on each go round, question us as to why we’re in line…and what we’ll win for being here :)

Perhaps this is the time to refer you back to my essay Why Steve Jobs is a Hottie. Enjoy.

We should also note that as of today we have been to the Apple Stores in BOTH BurlingTON (Ma) and BurlinGAME (Ca).

I guess that’s all the news for now…

Update From Peter at 5:30 p.m.

We have pictures!

The store was pretty nice, with a slightly larger and newer layout than some of the other Mass Apple Stores. This store has “The Studio”, a bar area in the back which seems to be a replacement for the Theater I’ve seen in other stores. It’s basically a place where you can go to get help with creative projects… movies, graphics, music, etc. They have a bunch of PowerBooks setup, and they do periodic workshops on different topics. The store was very crowded, and lots of people seemed to be making purchases. iPods, iMacs, and PowerBooks seemed to be brisk sellers.


By Rebecca | 11.05.2005 | 09:01 AM | Permalink | Categories: Apple | 1 Comment

Exciting Store Openings!

The Boston area has two very exciting store openings coming up!

First, we have the Apple Store Burlington Mall opening on Saturday, November 5 at 10 a.m.. Becky and I will be waiting in line early in the morning for the grand opening. The first 1,000 people through the door get free t-shirts! We probably won’t have much reason to visit the Burlington location on a regular basis, since the Northshore location is just minutes away from our house. But it will be cool to attend the opening day festivities. For an example of what those festivities might entail, check out the photos from the Chestnut Hill opening day event.

Next, we have the IKEA Stoughton opening on Wednesday, November 9 at 10 a.m. This will be the first IKEA in Massachusetts! Up until now, the closest one was in New Haven, CT. Sadly, we both have to work on the day of the grand opening, but we do plan on taking a trip out there sometime soon to check it out!


By Peter | 11.03.2005 | 08:59 PM | Permalink | Categories: Apple, Life Near Boston | 2 Comments

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