Jim Dalrymple over at The Loop has little birdies telling him that the Mac App Store’s launch tomorrow will take place at high noon on the east coast (that’s 9 AM for west coasters).
As far as I can tell, Dalrymple is rarely wrong when it comes to Apple rumors. I’d wager he has some very well-informed sources at Apple.
This morning Apple provided a new service for users to make things easier if support and service is ever needed. The Apple Support Profile is a central hub of information for you to keep track of your past and current Apple computers and devices, their serial numbers, warranties, and records of any service performed on those products.
Another nice feature is VoicePass. If you register your phone number(s) with Apple and allow them to use the number for VoicePass, the next time you need to call Apple, they will know who you are straight away.
Also, if you choose, you can have Apple send you a text message for service updates.
All in all, Support Profile looks to be a great resource for both the user and Apple.
Press the power button. Hear the delightful ‘bong’ of the bootup chime. Smile upon seeing the Happy Mac.
One of my fondest memories from my early days of computing was getting to toy with my parents’ Mac Classic. There were few games, but I was fascinated nonetheless. Our home Mac was light years ahead of what we had at my elementary school (IBM’s running DOS). Ever since, I’ve always liked to be ahead of the curve technologically.
I have always loved that Happy Mac, and I am a bit saddened that it isn’t around in OS X anymore. Thankfully, my wife knows how much I love the Happy mac icon, and when the icon’s designer, Susan Kare, started selling prints, well, let’s just say my wife gave me the perfect Christmas gift.
I have the 8.5 x 11” print, No. 55 of 200, signed by the artist herself.
This is by far my most prized gift from Christmas, and is the perfect blend of geekery and art. Ms. Kare has many icons to choose from. Check them out.
One of my Christmas gifts was the Griffin USB Mini Cable Kit. The kit includes three small cables measuring about four inches long. Each features a standard USB plug for your computer on one end. One cable sports mini-USB for cameras, portable hard drives, etc. Another has micro-USB for devices that utilize that, such as Amazon’s Kindle. Finally, the third cable features a Dock connecter for your iPhone, iPod, or iPad.
These cables are very convenient for my laptop bag, and minimizes the clutter in my bag. Now I carry three small cables for quick connectivity, instead of three long cables that become a tangled mess. I highly recommend them. If you feel so inclined, buying the kit through this link gives me a little kickback.
I think I’ll post a few more short reviews over the next couple days of things I received as gifts for Christmas or acquired out of necessity last month.
So the other day Amazon introduced the ability to lend Kindle books. Unfortunately, you can’t (yet) do this from an actual Kindle device or app, but you must go to the area of Amazon’s site where you manage your Kindle, and do it from there.
The terms of lending, well, suck. First, the book must be eligible for lending (the publisher sets this). If it is eligible, it can only be lent out once. Ever. Also, the lending period is 14 days.
Ben Brooks makes an observation about the 14-day period, in that, it’s hard for an average person to finish a book in 14 days. (Aside: my wife is an exemption. She can read a rather large book in a couple days. I don’t know many folks that can do this, though.)
I have to echo Ben in that it takes me quite a while to finish a book. Usually between a month or two.
So, this got me thinking about the 14-day limit and the reasoning behind it. Scenario: you recommend a book to a friend, and, even though they could get a free sample from Amazon, that locks them into buying it if it is interesting. Instead, you “lend” it, and they think that is ideal because they may be able to read a whole book for free. But, 14 days is enough for them to get well into the book, but likely not finish it. By that time, they’re hooked, and end up buying the book anyway. Rinse. Repeat.
In a way, it’s sort of ingenious.
Happy New Year. I have a feeling that twenty-eleven will be a great year for technology. One of the first things being the launch of the Mac App Store in a few days. I also think we’ll see Solid State Drives become more prominent in computers, especially portables. And I am sure some things will come to be that we haven’t even imagined possible.
One of my goals this coming year is to provide you, dear readers, with more frequent content. I spent most of twenty-ten discussing mainly Apple-related topics, but the scope of this site is technology as a whole. I want to get to that point, and diversify my topics of discussion.
Here’s a to brand new year.
Another year has come to an end, but this particular year closes out not only itself, but also a decade. The past decade has been something to behold for technology, to say the least.
We have seen the culmination of the iPod, Mac OS X, the iPad, and the iconic iPhone, which was by far the largest game changer in my book. Of course, amazing technology didn’t only come out of the secret labs in Cupertino.
Broadband Internet connections went mainstream, bringing with it a richer, more vibrant World Wide Web that focused on connecting us to each other through always-on communication, photography, videos, & more. Facebook, for all of its privacy concerns, has been an amazing tool to connect, and reconnect us, to others. For me, though, the more useful tool is Twitter, which has not only connected me to many new people (cf. Facebook tends to reconnect me with people from my past), and fostered lasting friendships.
Video chat has become a crucial part of my family’s life, as we live hundreds of miles from our relatives. This has boomed in the past couple months with the advent of Apple’s FaceTime for Mac, as my wife & I can use our iPhones to see our parents, and they can in turn see us and their grandson. My son will grow up being able to see his grandparents at any given moment, and that is simply amazing.
There are so many different things to ponder about the past decade, far too many to cover here. All I know is that things are about to become even more amazing.
Happy New Year.
;)
As you prepare to unwrap shiny, happy presents, and help your family with their new toys, I just wanted to take a moment to wish you all a Happy Christmas. I hope you are all surrounded by loved ones and enjoy celebrating this wonderful occasion!
As the official Family Geek™, I often find myself performing system updates and the such for computers belonging to my various family members. Admittedly, sometimes this can be a long and frustrating process, yet other things are easy. For instance, I upgraded my parents’ MacBook to 4GB of memory earlier, an easy task; whereas later I will be upgrading my mother-in-law’s MacBook pro with the latest iLife, another easy task, and then fielding questions on the new iPhoto interface, a less than easy task.
It can be difficult to remain frustration-free with less tech-savvy family members, which is why I am thankful for a couple articles I’ve read in the past 24 hours.
First, Chris Breen gives tips of how to give of yourself, explaining various things you can do for your family’s technological needs. Second, Ben Brooks’ Giving the Gift of iOS gives tips on how to interact cordially with family while teaching them to understand their gadgets and quit being afraid of them.
If you are the Family Geek™, I highly recommend you read both articles before Christmas morning.
Camera+ has returned to the App Store this evening sporting a version number of 2.0. You may remember Camera+ for the controversy it stirred with Apple when the developers unveiled a way to reassign an iPhone’s volume buttons to act as shutter triggers when running the app. It is unknown whether Apple outright pulled the app from the App Store, or if the developers pulled it to avoid banishment or something of the like.
Nonetheless, it is back with a laundry list of improvements. What I’m liking the best so far is the removal of the silly SLR interface that used to greet you upon launch. Now the app gets you from launch to taking a picture extremely quickly. Everything else, so far, seems mostly like polish, polish, polish.
To celebrate the app’s return, it’s on sale for a whopping 99¢ right now. Owners of 1.x need not fret, 2.0 is a free update.
