Tips From Tony Blog

They’ve finally updated the less-expensive model, and just before the holidays:

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Apple Updates MacBook Line.

Apple has updated the MacBook line of notebook computers. New features include Intel Core 2 Duo processors at 2.0GHz or 2.2GHz,  an 800MHz frontside bus,  Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 graphics,  4MB of shared L2 cache,  support for up to 4GB of main memory, and a larger 250GB CTO hard drive option. MacBook is now lighter (5.0 lbs) with a new keyboard layout, and it supports one high-powered USB port.

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I find this to be very interesting, because this newest upgrade makes the low-end laptops nearly perfectly equivalent to the more-expensive current MacBook Pro’s.  This is a VERY attractive upgrade, for the same cost as the older laptops.

I’m predicting that the new, high-end MacBook Pro’s will be out shortly, if only to justify their extra cost.  It had better be a major upgrade, in order to cost so much more, frankly - These new MacBooks are looking better and better as I look through the specs. The only, only significant current difference that I can find between the two price-ranges is that the MacBook Pro supports 30-inch external displays, versus “only” up to 24″ monitors on the MacBook.  That’s NOT worth an extra $1,200!

In the meantime, if you’ve been waiting on my advice before buying a new laptop, then your time has come. I’d be plumb grateful if you’d use my personal link when shopping for your new Macs.  It keeps me in Apple’s good graces, and it makes me smile!

Make SURE that you specify the largest internal hard drive that your budget affords when you order your Mac.  There’s no cost penalty for doing so (versus other sources for hard drives), and I’ve seen a lot of people fill up their internal hard drives almost immediately.  This causes drive directory damage that I have to fix, shortly thereafter.

Also, don’t skimp - Since all new Macs are shipping with Leopard, get a large external hard drive, too.  Get the biggest one that you can afford.  Yeah, yeah, yeah - I know that I’m harping waaay too much on backups using Leopard’s new Time Machine function (be sure to watch the video demo), but try to understand my biases:I’VE been the guy on the other end of hundreds and hundreds of panicked support-calls, with folks begging me tearfully to help them get their precious data back.  Now, with Leopard and an external hard drive, you have the possibility of NEVER LOSING ANY MORE DATA FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.  Now, isn’t that worth spending the extra bucks, cheapskate?

I’d make less money from fixing horrifying tragedies, but I’d be a lot less stressed, too.  After nearly 27 years in the biz, my nerves are SHOT, baby!  I want happy, joyful calls, if given a choice.

I swore in a previous post that I would wait, order an iPhone online, and avoid the long line at the local Fashion Valley Apple Store. Well, THAT resolve didn’t last. I now have THREE of the eight-gig models… One for me, and two for a favored client. It only took me a few minutes of waiting (with around two hundred other folks) before I was able to buy the first two iPhones. Then, I went home, came back, walked right in and bought another one. The Apple employees were charming, ultra-friendly and a constant source of pleasure. I didn’t expect to see them erupting from the store just before opening time, hooting, hollering and slapping palms with jubilant customers.
There’s very little new that I can add that hasn’t been said and said and said, over and over. I love the iPhone. I have no objection to the keyboard, at least for basic usage. My short-subject nature documentaries and Tom and Jerry cartoons play flawlessly. In fact, it’s mesmerizing to watch a full show from start to finish. I’m doing it too much, though - I’m getting a crick in my neck!
My iPhone wish list is not so important - I would love to use a folding Bluetooth keyboard with it for longer posts, such as blog entries. I like the onscreen keyboard, but it’s still a pain to edit something complicated, such as today’s entry.
Being me, of course, I had to do something that nobody else gives a hoot about. I emailed myself (from the Mac to the iPhone), sending an MS Word copy of “Our Lady of Chernobyl” by Greg Egan. Why? Because I wanted to evaluate the iPhone as an electronic book. I like the idea of reading, even though I do it so rarely. On my previous phone (the Treo 650) I always kept a minimum of 200 (and sometimes as many as 1,500) electronic books. It actually works very, very well - It’s much clearer than a regular dead-tree-technology book, and it doesn’t flicker like an old picture-tube display, so I don’t expect tired eyes fom reading on the iPhone.
I’m sure that I’ll have plenty more to say eventually, but I can easily say that the iPhone is a breakthrough device that will change the rest of the portable phones on the market - ALL of them. Once a customer has experienced having all of the world’s online knowledge available in their hands, 24 hours a day, anywhere at all, using a phone in the old ways will seem repugnant.
I forget where I saw it, but somebody said that this iPhone is the worst one that will ever exist. No matter what, they will get faster, more capacious, friendlier and less expensive. So will all of their competitors, and it’s all to the good.

The next step up the evolutionary ladder, of course, is the little StickerPod that goes just behind your ear, allowing you to gain access to the planet’s accrued information just by thinking of it. Steve Jobs and his crew are probably already working on it. I think I’d better patent that idea, fast!

Dateline Macworld Expo 2007

I don’t have a unifying theme for this posting, so I’ll just ramble (in a really endearing way) for a bit:

The iPhone

I’m finding it difficult to express how the upcoming Apple iPhone has avalanched over everyone’s consciousness here. It’s clearly a big hit with the early-adopter nerd crowd. From what I’m hearing, it’s all that anybody’s talking about in Las Vegas at the CES convention. Lots of people in Nevada are wondering if they are attending the wrong convention!

This photo doesn’t begin to show how many people are jammed around the Apple pavilion. The seats are full of nerdy oldsters, and they are surrounded by hundreds of avid people who don’t move a muscle (or blink much) during the entire presentation. It’s a standing-room-only show, over and over, all day long.

The AppleTV Box

I griped about the lack of support for geeky file-formats yesterday, but I’ve relented a bit since then. Who knows? Maybe Apple’s two supported file-formats for high-definition video will force the rest of the world to stop coming out with exotic video-clips that require a dedicated techie to enjoy. I really don’t relish finding player-programs that constantly need to be upgraded in order to support some new, alien video format. It’s time to settle down and go with the simplest answers. Thanks, Apple!

I Think That I May Have Instigated A Fight

I went up to one of the guys from Apple’s Aperture Team and asked him whether they had inspected the new Photoshop CS3 beta yet. He told me that nobody had said anything about it to him, so I pointed him to the Lynda.com booth about 200 feet away and told him that they featured some free Quicktime tutorials that clearly demonstrated how Adobe Bridge (that comes free with Photoshop CS3 beta) is a direct rip-off of ALL of Apple’s Aperture interface design and features. He got a hard glint in his eyes and thanked me very fervently.

I suspect that Apple’s team is going to be very angry at Adobe for designing software (included with Photoshop) that is designed to kill off Apple’s pro-photographer business! If scuffling breaks out while I’m here (or a naked knife-fight), I’ll video-capture it for you on my Treo 650. Yes, my next phone will be an iPhone.

Warm, Tender, Affectionate Thoughts about Microsoft

I admit it - I’m a complete pig for being pampered. I’ve been tramping around the Moscone Convention Center for the last few days, lugging my computer bag and getting back-aches. One of the high points of my day is to arrive at the Microsoft Blogger’s Lounge. I sign in, sink into a big, comfy chair, hook up to a nice, fast Ethernet cable and grab a soda. MmmMMmmmm… Nerd Paradise.

I’ve been writing these messages from the Lounge, and it’s so much better than sitting on the sidewalk outside the Apple Store, getting pigeon-poop on my butt while I leech the free Airport signal after the store is closed. I can afford to pay ten dollars a day to get Internet access at my hotel, but I object on moral grounds.

To me, it’s sort of like being charged for water, or electricity, or sewage pipes (or air) in the modern age. The Internet is CRUCIAL in the new century, and being charged for it (when the competition doesn’t) is just plain dumb. No hotels without free internet from now on!

What’s In My Plastic Bag

Everything that I’m buying during this trip is a Business Expense, but I’m still being very frugal in my choices. My wildly-profligate days are over. So - What items have I found that I’m willing to spend money upon?

- I couldn’t resist the Expo Discount Price for Micromat’s Techtool ProToGo software, which simplifies the process of creating digital “doctor’s bags”, in the form of those little keychain drives that contain all of the best diagnostic-tools for a computer consultant’s needs, along with a bootable copy of the operating-system.

I can whip out my keys, plug in a thumb-drive, re-start while holding down the Option key on the Mac’s keyboard, and start up my favorite diagnostic programs that will help me to fix the Mac’s problems. It’s a heck of a lot faster than booting from a CD - around 1/3 the wait. I have better things to do with my youth and beauty than wait eighteen minutes for Disk Warrior to boot frm a clunky old CD!

- I bought three MacAlly IceCams - They were cheap, and they will allow more of my family-members to video-chat with the rest of us. You can’t get iSight webcams from Apple any more, and the used-iSight market is pretty expensive for what you get.

So, I bought three webcams that will work (adequately) with older Macs, and this will shove a few family-members further along the path to long-distance web-chatting pleasures. I love my family, and want to see them more often.

- I bought a few MacWorld 2007 shirts. Two of them say “Mac Daddy” on them, and the third one is a nice “bowling-shirt” design.

What I WISH Was In My Plastic Bag

- I’m quite attracted to the NEC Multeos flat-screen LCD monitors. I’m planning to sell my 1961 Imperial Crown Convertible on eBay starting March 1, 2007, and I have only ONE “frivolous” purchase in mind after I sell the car and several tons (no exaggeration) of parts. I want a big-screen display for the living-room.

I’m limited to a certain physical size for the display - It has to fit between the hammered-copper sconces on the wall of our 1918 Craftsman-style bungalow’s living-room. Also, it shouldn’t be an eyesore design that will clash with our “turn-of-the-century front parlor” decor. Whatever monitor I eventually get, I’m tempted to construct a frame out of quarter-sawn oak that will make the monitor appear to be an antique from 1918!

So, I stopped by the NEC booth and threw some unusual questions at the reps standing around. All of my nerdly concerns were handled nicely… My main interest was in how Mac-friendly the plug-in connectors were. No matter how pretty a display may be, if it doesn’t just plug in and work right away, EVERY SINGLE TIME, I can’t be bothered. Right now, the Mac-friendly NEC’s are at the top of my wish-list.

If you are about to buy a big-screen monitor for any purpose, it must, must MUST support “1080P” resolution. If it doesn’t clearly say so, walk on by. Only the newest monitors can handle such enormous resolution, but you WILL want it someday, so don’t be a cheapskate.

It’s now common and easy to hook the newest, “Digital” generation of guitars to your Mac and use them with Garageband. Cheap USB-equipped models are now commonly found at Target. (You can listen to a sample, here).

Higher-quality USB-equipped guitars and basses cost around $1,095 plus $200 for the USB upgrade. I predict that the upgrade price will drop as time goes by.

If you have an extra $4,000-$8,000 lying around, Gibson has finally started shipping its new (Ethernet-based) digital guitar at the beginning of December 2006, after around four years of promising, but not delivering. They have a high-end, classy website explaining why it was worth the wait.

I suspect that the Gibson ultra-guitars will be natively Mac-compatible at some point (at the moment, the software that ships with them is for Windows-only), given the fact that so many professional musicians use Mac laptops onstage.

The problem with recording guitars on Garageband is that it’s a purely analog sort of experience - You CAN add spacey effects if you have the right adapters to connect your Mac to your older, non-digital guitar. It’s nice, but barely one step beyond pure analog.

To go one step further than that, why not play a guitar and have Garageband transform your playing into the sound of a xylophone, tuned bongo drums or thousands of other instruments under your direct control? All that you need is a special translator-box (and $395).

Well, not quite, but pretty darned convincing to MY eyes, nonetheless…

I’ve been able to experiment with all sorts of High-Definition (HD) video files, and I’ve had access to plenty of recent hardware to test them on. DVD images are horrid compared to HD video… I need to cover my DVD’s with plastic sheets because I keep wanting to spit on them! :-> HD movies are actually sharper than what you originally saw in the movie-theater, the first time around. CinemaScope is pretty close, though.

I have found that the 24″ iMac (particularly when gussied-up with the high-end graphics and larger hard drive) is IDEAL for watching HD video:

- The hardware can keep up, even with the largest file-formats. No stuttering or screen-hashing. Just glorious imagery and sound.

- The 24″ screen is plenty tall enough for even the largest HD movies. George Lucas uses the “1080p“-sized digital format when he projects those extra-cost, luxury versions of his Star Wars films (and there is only ONE theater in San Diego County that can project them). The 24″ iMac can easily display the same format, and it still has 120 extra pixels of height (count ‘em) left over!

Here’s a nice screen-shot, to pique your interest. It looks best if you look at it in Safari.  Now, imagine an entire movie, just as crisp and clear in every frame, during every second of the movie.

Starting yesterday, you can even order your 24″ iMac with a 750-gigabyte hard drive. Trust me, you might need it, once high-definition media becomes common. A high-resolution documentary such as Microcosmos takes up 7 gigabytes, and the entire, three-movie, non-extended “1080i” (BIG) version of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy takes up 76 gigabytes!

So… If you don’t have a new iMac, then what other Mac hardware can handle the biggest HD Video?

MacBook Pro’s, Mac Pro’s or possibly G5 towers (with a 23-inch or 30-inch monitor hooked up externally). Nothing else can keep up with the massive flow of data. In a year or so, ALL new Macs will have sufficient graphics horsepower, and the price of flat-panel screens will drop even lower. Pretty soon, we’ll all be luxuriating in High-Definition video!

As time goes by, more and more airlines are providing “Empower” outlets at each seat for travelers who want to avoid draining their laptops’ batteries on ultra-long flights. A stack of DVD’s and some sound-canceling headphones can make those long, long flights a lot more tolerable!

If you have a Powerbook or a white iBook, you can get an airline adapter nice and cheap…

As of today, the final piece of the “Traveling with a MacBook or MacBook Pro Laptop” puzzle has arrived:

Apple’s new “Magsafe Airline Power Adapter” has been annoyingly late in arriving for many of my world-traveling clients. Apple owns the patent on the magnetic power-plug on the newer MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops, so there has been a decided lack of cool, third-party power adapters for frequent travelers. These laptops first shipped in FEBRUARY 2006, for goodness’ sake!

Being a new, modern and hyper-powerful computer, the MacBook Pro is a power-greedy device, which is why the 85-watt power adapter that came with it is so big and heavy. The airlines are only providing 75 watts per seat, (as I vaguely recall), so the new adapter will only power the laptop, and will NOT charge the battery as long the laptop is operating.

You’re still better-off than somebody who buys a high-end Windows laptop, though - A few recent Sony Vaio laptops can draw 135 watts!

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By the way - If you order one of these adapters using the link given above, and type “AAO71743″ in the “Enter Agent Code:” area on the final “Verify your order” page, then I’ll get extra Bonus Points from Apple, and you’ll earn my endless gratitude!

I’ve been hearing about a new, super-big iMac coming out, but nobody said anything about a 24-inch model!

That’s one big, honkin’ screen, and it just so happens to be clearly viewable from any angle, comes with a remote control, has MUCH better graphics hardware than the smaller models, and easily supports full, 1080p High-Definition video. It doesn’t get any better than that, unless we start seeing some 42-inch iMacs sometime soon… One of those would fit RIGHT BETWEEN the two antique hammered-copper sconces that came with my 1918 Craftsman-Style Bungalow.

Multi-media center, anybody?

Nowadays, there are TV-tuners for the Mac that are very well-reviewed. However, there are no real standards for accessing live TV signals using Apple’s existing hardware and built-in Front Row software. I’m hoping that the Apple’s big “It’s Showtime!” event in San Francisco in six days will add more pieces to the TV-signal puzzle.

If they do, then your new 24″ iMac would definitely prefer to have the optional 500-gigabyte internal hard drive inside, to store your favorite shows just like a Tivo…