pres.umptuo.us

The official release of the Apple iPhone has been confirmed for June 29th. Apple has put out three TV ads that will be running to help promote the new phone.

I have to admit, even these TV ads are making me want one. Despite the fact that I have a cellphone that must be three years old and doesn’t have a camera (yes, it’s that old), I’m still very happy with the phone because it does everything I need it to do. But the interface of the iPhone looks so intuitive and fun to use, plus my iPod is dead and I could certainly go for a new one. There’s a 99% chance I won’t be getting this iPhone on launch, but I could definitely see myself with a pared-down version in the future.

This is where things get tricky though, because as much as I want Apple to succeed with the iPhone, I remain rather skeptical about just how well it will do. I don’t doubt any of its functionality or pure awesomeness, but rather the fact that it seems like it’s aimed at the treo/sidekick market, especially with its $500 starting price.

I don’t know many people who are willing to abandon their contracts and hop onto a two-year contract with AT&T all for a shiny new phone. Don’t start calling me an iPhone hater though, just an iPhone skeptic. Besides, my investment is riding on consumers defying my logic and snatching those bad boys up.

A couple of fun things I wanted to discuss.

Google launched Google Voice Local Search. I gave it a test run just to see how well it works, and the voice recognition is pretty sweet. I haven’t tested it extensively to see if it can narrow down a coffee shop in a zip code or anything like that, since so far it only asks for city and state. It’s got potential, though.

Farecast is a cool new airfare site that will tell you when to buy tickets. Technically they’re not really new, but I believe when they launched they only supported a few airports, and now it’s over 75. I haven’t had to fly anywhere myself, but it seems like a good site to keep around.

Apple announced their Mac Pro computer now comes with two four-core processors, making it an eight core machine. I affectionately refer to it as “The Ocho.”

I’ve begun season three of BSG, and it is awesome. Unfortunately, since the season’s already over, I’m aware of two spoilers that happen during this season and I’m kinda sad/angry. Now I just want to hurry through this season and get it over with before I’m spoiled any more.

My views on consumerism and the value of money have changed so much that I didn’t even bother blogging when the Apple iPhone was released. Things like gadgets and cars that I used to drool over no longer matter to me as much as they used to. Granted I’ve still had many discussions with friends about the iPhone and its impact on the cell phone industry, but it’s not a product I’m going to be owning myself for at least a couple of years.

My point is that a lot of my interests are no longer all that blogworthy, and the rising popularity of community link sites such as Digg and Reddit have rendered a lot of my quickies redundant. So let’s see what’s been going on in my interesting life.

My roommate bought a munchkin cat and he’s both cute and annoying at the same time. Annoying cause he loves biting feet and apparently when I fight with the cat it looks like a big kid trying to discipline another kid. It’s not my fault that he likes drinking my herb tea and getting his head stuck in my chair and unrolling the toilet paper.

I’ve been on track with my reading resolution. So far this year I’ve read:

• Gould’s Book of Fish
• Being Dead
• Life of Pi
• The Things They Carried

I’m currently reading “Fortress of Solitude,” although it’s a heftier book, so we’ll see if I can stay on track and still finish two books this month. No one asked for reviews, but I’ll give ‘em anyway. Gould’s Book of Fish: eh. Being Dead: eh. Life of Pi: Alright. The Things They Carried: Highly recommended.

300 comes out in theaters this Friday. It’s the first movie I’ve been really interested in for a long while. I’ve got tickets for the Friday Imax viewing, and it’ll be all the better for the sweet CG renders. I’ll be disappointed if I don’t come out of the theater shouting “SPARTA!”

After sampling Supreme Commander and Command & Conquer 3, neither of them can stack up against Company of Heroes in the RTS realm. Granted I’ve heard multiplayer is a vastly different experience for both games, but from the single-player demos I tried, they didn’t even come close. Both games had essentially the same strategy of building up a giant force and then sending them out to crush the other side. CoH has the constant back-and-forth of holding key territory and choosing the right upgrade at the right time. I’d like to hear what the really good CoH players think of Supreme Commander and C&C3.

My health benefits kicked in as soon as I started my new (old) job, and a regular check-up for me was in order. I can’t say I was too surprised to hear my cholesterol is a little high, although a bit scary for sure. I’ve been on a “lazy” diet ever since, consisting mostly of Subway and Souplantation and lots of fruit every day. I still indulge myself every once in a while, but always in moderation. I go back to the doctor’s in about a week to see how my month-long diet has been helping.

I started watching Battlestar Galactica. The first season was a bit slow but still interesting, but then they ended it on an amazing cliffhanger. The first episodes of season 2 were just amazing with the story development and several main characters in peril, and of course season 2 ended with another great cliffhanger. Now I need to download season 3 and try to catch up with the regular network airings.

Dwight: Do you ever watch Battlestar Galactica?
Guy: No.
Dwight: No? Then you are an idiot.

I got my MacBook back. It took well under the 24 hours they said it would take, so props for that. Unfortunately, I don’t know of a good way to test if the problem has been fixed, and I’m too lazy to look for one, so I shall take them for their word.

There was some sticky black gunk on my Maclop which I easily cleaned off, but still. Damn dirty Apple geniuses. And they removed my origami solution for the squishy trackpad!

This morning my Macbook began to randomly shutdown on me. I had heard of this problem before, but didn’t think I was affected considering it’s been four months since I first purchased my Macbook.

A quick search on the internets revealed the problem to be related to the heatsink, and that Apple is well aware of the problem and how to fix it. I sign up for an appointment at the Genius Bar online, and head over to get it fixed.

Ironically, I sat down before my scheduled appointment and made sure the shutdowns were still happening. At first it shuts down just like before, but afterwards it runs just fine. I explain my problem to the tech at the store though and he completely understood. Didn’t even ask me to show him, just said it would take 24 hours and the heatsink would be replaced. Sweet.

So there goes my good track record with the Macbook. I’m assuming this heatsink fix will work though, and would actually recommend all Macbook owners to get this replacement done, regardless of whether you have the problem or not. I’ll update tomorrow on whether the problem is fixed or not.

Me and seven of my friends got jaywalking tickets in Old Town Pasadena, at that weird intersection right in front of Buca de Beppo where there’s that big sign saying “Do not cross here.” Instead of paying a bail fee of $114, they should give us the option of attending walking school, with the curriculum consisting of “Walk only where the government allows you to walk.”

My friends made me dance like a fool and get my ass spanked at Hooters for my birthday. Then they all gave me a DS Lite and I was kinda sad cause friends are awesome and they shouldn’t have. I still haven’t seen any photos or videos from the night, so I imagine they’re editing them together to make a “greatest hits” compilation which will probably make its debut in Youtube.

I’m finally getting around to finishing the Firefly DVD Set. Such great TV, and yet watching the show only causes great anger at Fox for canceling it. Bastards.

No super wide-screen video iPod like I was hoping. The new Nanos look just like the old minis now with their aluminum casing and look rather blah compared to the first gen Nanos. New shuffle design is pretty sweet though. For anyone who’s interested, Apple’s selling refurbished first-gen 2GB Nanos for $99.

The Nintendo Wii has a release date of November 19 and a price of $249. I want.

With the announcement of Apple’s “Showtime” event on September 12th, followed with the release of the 24″ iMac and upgraded Mac Mini last week, rumors flying about what sort of announcement could be so big to warrant the iMac being dropped so unceremoniously. Consider this the “what the hell is Apple announcing on Tuesday” thread.

My guess:

• Upgraded iPod nanos with increased size and metal enclosure
• iTunes movie store with movies at (hopefully) $5 a pop
• Some media center thingy for playing your iTunes purchases
• New video iPod

Let’s not forget Nintendo’s Wii presentation on the 14th, which will hopefully announce the price of the Wii and release date. Hooray for gadget week.

I hate buying first-generation products because they’re bound to be full of kinks and bugs. Regardless of the prestige of the company or their track record of reliability, there’s always problems because of rushed schedules to meet deadlines.

But I had to get the new Apple MacBook. Probably more “want” than “had”, but you know how consumerism works. I read everything I could about the MacBook and lurked the Apple forums to see what problems the it had, which included a whine, a moo, and a sizzle. That kind of sounds like the process a cow goes through to become my delicious steak.

I went with the 2.0 Ghz White model, cause only suckers pay for black paint, although I admit the black one looks sweet. So far I’m really liking it, much more than I liked my PowerBook. The 13.3″ screen is the perfect size for a laptop, and the machine is pretty damn quick for just general chatting/surfing/writing purposes. I haven’t tried any games on it, although Quinn and Lemonade Stand work just fine =P

I readily recommend to everyone who’s looking for a laptop to get the MacBook. With the ability now to dual-boot into Windows (which I’ve yet to do myself), and being competitively priced with comparable PC models, I really wouldn’t see a reason not to get one. Although I highly suggest waiting for the second generation to come out, and maybe then they’ll have fixed all the kinks. Plus this thing runs ridiculously hot. I don’t care what anyone says, 80 degrees celsius is not “normal”.

To help pay for my MacBook (which, by the way, I call a MacLop, cause it sounds cooler), I remembered that the Coinstar machines will take change and dispense as an Amazon gift certificate with no fees at all. So I took the accumulated buckets of coins in my room and was surprised to find I had $307.46 in change. The breakdown:

2 dollars
429 quarters
1583 dimes
782 nickels
81 pennies

The funny part is while I was dumping coins into the machine, a girl was next to me making copies. When she finished she placed a leftover nickel on the Coinstar machine for me and just smiled.

• Apple Sponsors In The Piston Cup Circuit.

  Monday June 12, 2006

My iPod’s battery died on me while I was listening to Huey Lewis. If I was an Engineer, I’d put in some precautions to make sure that never happened.

	
onPowerDown () {
	if (artist == "Huey Lewis") {
		battery.drain(toTheLastDrop);
	}
	else {
		shutOff();
	}
}
	

After much deliberation, I’ve decided to sell my (very lightly) used PowerBook and trade up to the new MacBook.

At first I thought it might be to my advantage to keep a slow machine, because then it might force me to use it for only writing (which it hasn’t). But at a cost of only $300-400, I could upgrade to a new machine that is far better than my current one.

So the auction is listed on eBay and ends this Sunday, and I’m just here shamelessly trying to promote the auction. If anyone’s interested in just outright buying it, I’m open to offers.

I’m also selling this wonderful Cryptex I won through the Da Vinci Code Quest on Google. It’s actually a nice piece and of much higher quality than I expected, but not something I imagine myself wanting in the future, so I figure I might as well sell it now while the market’s high. Again, if anyone’s interested just drop me a line.

And thus ends my shameless promotion. Next time I’ll be posting my Amazon wishlist on here and promising topless photos for anyone who buys me something on my list =P

• MacBook. I can’t believe they’re asking $200 more for the black.

  Tuesday May 16, 2006

• Apple - Boot Camp. Apple is officially supporting a dual install of Windows XP on Intel Macs. It’s all over now.

  Wednesday April 5, 2006

• Powazek: Just a Thought: SXSW to MPAA: STFU. There’s only so much control one can have…

  Thursday March 16, 2006

• Mac Setup and more.

  Friday January 20, 2006

• Apple MacBook Pro. Stupid name, but who cares. Droooooool.

  Tuesday January 10, 2006

Google announced last week that it would begin selling videos from Google Video, starting with stuff from CBS and the NBA and a crapload of other sources.

Today it was brought to my attention that Google Video is also allowing their videos to be downloaded, and with the option to download in a format ready for the video iPod. They’ve already got a huge archive of “Top Gear” and “Fifth Gear” episodes, along with the classic internet fads we’ve all seen before. This is really tempting me to keep the video iPod I got as a Christmas gift instead of holding off until later like I originally planned.

Macworld is happening later today, so we’ll see if Apple has some sort of retaliation against Google’s intrusion into their market, along with all the other new stuff they always reveal. New iBook? Updated iPod shuffle? This is where I’ll be at 9am. Hopefully it’ll save me the trouble of refreshing the gadget blogs every 15 seconds like I did last time when the nano was announced.

After two days (It’s only been two?) of indecision, I’ve staved off the lure of the iPod nano and won out against the temptation of an impulse buy. I let my logic and rational thought do its talking, and realized there’s no real point in me getting a nano at this time. My 15 gig iPod still works just fine, and it’d be best to just wait it out and get a nano later on when it gets updated. With more storage space. And colors. And coolness.

And so instead I donated to the Red Cross Hurrican Relief. Not a whole $250, mind you, but a generous amount for me. Normally I’m someone who doesn’t believe in donating, and would much rather have preferred to do something that actually counted, like loaded up supplies or helped pass out food to the survivors, but this will have to do for now.

I might not have the newest, hottest fad, but at least my conscience feels a lot better.

Step two of my plan to make the world a better place.

Well I’ve been obsessing over the iPod nano all day, I might as well write something about it along with all the other Apple news today.

Continue reading “Nanonanonano…”

Oh Apple, why can’t you just make a regular mouse? The 360-degree scrollwheel I like (although the contact point seems a bit tiny), but what’s with all this touch sensitive stuff? People need feedback when they click. And the giant top of the mouse being one big button doesn’t and never did work.

The first thing people do when they get a Mac is throw away the mouse and buy themselves a better one. Give up on your unusable single-click mouse, Apple.

As my coworker says, next down the line is going to be an Apple keyboard missing the “P” and “R” keys, cause you just don’t need them. Want to type a “P”? Hold down option and press “L”.