Another Year, Another iPhone – 3GS

What a difference a year makes.  No lines this year, no 8 hour wait and insane anticipation, no Smart Water handouts or bizarre conversations with strangers, no free popsicles to beat the heat.  Instead, the Apple faithful, but faithfully lazy, stayed at home and watched and waited with baited breath to see if the power combo of Apple, AT&T, UPS and Fedex could all work in tandem to get thousands and thousands of phones into their preorder customers’ hands all on the same day, Friday 6/19.   Many promises were made, and from the looks of it, the majority of them were kept.  Amusingly enough, forum-goers were spun into a tizzy by the www.flightaware.com website, anxiously tracking every flight that may or may not have been carrying their precious cargo.  I was not immune to the hype, I had flightaware and UPS both loaded and ready to refresh on my MBA, hoping for some sign of an early (or at least on-time) delivery.  It all came down to the wire, with UPS holding delivery in Kentucky, and not until 8am PST the morning of delivery did the update tell me a flight from KY to LAX had flown out in the 4am timeframe.  Talk about cutting it close!

But in the end it was kind of anti-climatic.  The termite guy had just left my home, and I was brushing my teeth and washing my face around 10am.  Thankfully I had left the pre-signed approval to leave the box safely taped to the front door, because I had no idea the UPS guy had shown up; I was expecting a day of waiting.  It was only when I opened up the MBA to check email, and refreshed the UPS site, when I noticed it had already been delivered!  Hungrily I opened the door and saw the pre-sign sheet was gone, and quickly opened the plastic drawer we leave outside for packages.  Inside was the tiniest of boxes, so small it seemed insignificant.  But inside I knew was another year of iPhone heaven.

It took a couple hours to get synced up and activated, but again, none of the craziness of years past.  There was some delay in AT&T activation, but it cleared up soon enough.  And then, ultimately, the turn on…. honestly it was kind of a non-event.  It booted up to the main screen and looked exactly like I had left my previous phone.  This was even with the complete overhaul to iPhone 3.0 OS.  On the surface it really looked like absolutely nothing had changed, save for a couple icons and one of my Apps being pushed to another page.  Harumph.

I realized at this point that the truth is, this year’s “upgrade” was even more “under-the-hood” than last year’s.  Last year brought the triumphant App Store into our lives, and that in many ways overshadowed masked the relatively few changes to the hardware.  Now of course I knew this the case since the phone was announced, but the gadget guy in me was likely still hoping for something to wow over, when the reality is that the best phone on the planet had simply evolved internally – and that was about it.

This is not to degrade the obvious increase in power of the new device, which has been compared to the evolution from the 486 processor to the Pentium (a big deal for us old PC guys).  It’s noticeable almost immediately, from turn on to opening Apps, from using email to snapping photos (and video!).  For someone who has spent big bucks buying the latest video card or processor to get something like 30-40% better performance improvements, a jump in hardware like this is absolutely incredible.  Of course, the one major hardware addition/change (the video camera) is extremely welcome, but the fact is most us know that Apple blocked a potential App that allowed the old still camera to take video through software.  Granted this is “real” video and is probably a substantial improvement in quality, but it’s still more of a feature that was “missing” from the original releases, rather than a stunning new one.  As a counter example, I would have loved to see a front-facing cam for iChat, which I presume is slated for future releases (as well as future improvement in the networks’ capabilities to handle live video chat).

The one thing I can say is incredibly impressive in my first day of usage is the battery life, which thus far feels significantly enhanced.  I’ve had a lot of activity so far, much more so than normal since I’m still in “testing mode”, and the battery looks to be at half still.  I guess it makes sense that if you do all the same activities twice as efficient, even if you consume 50% more power per activity, in the long run you will come out on top.  The doubling of available RAM also seems to have drastically improved performance, though it has rendered the “Free Memory” App in desperate need of an upgrade.

So it may sound like I’m a bit underwhelmed, and the fact is that the “experience” – relative to the drama of years past – was really underwhelming.  But that in itself could be considered a major accomplishment – a virtually seamless upgrade to truly next generation internal hardware, all from the comfort of my home.  If I hadn’t been home sick, I could have worked and the upgrade would have had virtually no impact on my regular day, the phone would have been waiting for me when I got home.

An awesome piece of hardware has evolved yet again, refined its ability to perform tasks faster and more efficiently, giving the end user an improved experience with what was already a great interface.  The look and feel have really remained more or less unchanged, as clearly it’s one of those cases where you are hard pressed to tamper with (near) perfection.

So where does Apple go from here?  They can continue to improve the internal hardware, with faster chips and speeds ad infinitum.  They will need to add multi-tasking capability whether it is needed or not, if only to shut Palm up.  But is that going to be enough to secure their domination in the market?  Or are they going to need yet another next generation leapfrog to showcase their superiority in hardware design?  I have no idea, but I’d have to say the iPhone interface, along with the revolutionary App Store and all the talented developers, is peaking toward perfection.  Sure, refinements can always be found, and speed and memory capacity can continue to be bumped, but for the most part, it’s a complete design as I can’t see the shape/size/weight undergoing major changes, aside from further optimization.  Perhaps then it’s finally time for Apple to unveil their Next Big Thing, hopefully the iPad Touch (or whatever you want to call it) that bridges the space between the phone and the laptop.  Come on Steve, we’re ready for you!

Macbook Air Apparent

What a difference a year makes!  Or, I guess in this case, it’s been only 9 months since the original release of Apple’s ultraportable Macbook Air (MBA).  Still marketed as the one of the thinnest notebooks around, Apple has upped the ante with its second generation version through some subtle (and also not so subtle) improvements. 

As noted in some of my previous entries, I’ve been perfectly happy with my MBA rev 1, and have often been impressed with its capabilities.  In particular I’d been excited to see just how well it worked as a low to mid-level gaming machine, able to handle a number of older games like Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 handily, but also being playable for relatively newer games like Sins of A Solar Empire and Hellgate London (running Windows XP in Bootcamp).  There were just a couple of things I would have really liked to make my overall experience better.  First off was a larger hard drive.  Of the 80GB I started with, I partitioned about 20GB for Windows, which itself took a huge chunk of space.  The result being I could only maintain a couple of larger games installed on the XP side, which was a bit disappointing.  As I experimented more with games, I couldn’t help but wish for just a slight boost to the graphics power.  I had installed Warhammer Online and was impressed to be able to get it running, but it was very choppy even at the lowest settings.  When I heard the rumors about new Macbooks coming with possible improvements to the Air, I couldn’t help but hope for a boost in the graphics department and maybe the processor. 

In all honesty, I had told myself that if they jumped from the X3100 to the X4500 graphics, I would likely make an upgrade.  The thought was that the boost would be just enough to make WAR playable (the X4500 is listed as being supported on WAR’s official site and claims were it was 200% faster than the X3100).  I was fretting over whether I’d want to spend the money for a new version so soon, but it felt like the MBA was so close to satisfying my gaming needs that I wouldn’t be able to resist. 

When the announcement was finally made about the move to the nVidia 9400m chipset, I was completely blown away.  Roughly FOUR times the performance of the original unit (or double the X4500), plus 50% more hard drive space, faster memory and a slightly improved (45nm) processor; it essentially became a no-brainer for me.  Forum-goers were asking, is this new version “way” better – as a gamer I had to reply hell yeah!

I had my pre-order in for the standard unit by the afternoon they were announced.  The first couple of weeks, I wasn’t feeling particularly antsy, the anticipation clearly wasn’t quite the same as the original release.  But as the days started getting closer to November and the projected ship date of Nov. 5th, I started getting more and more restless.  When websites started posting first shipments and in store sightings, I kind of just lost it.  My pre-order had not moved and it was driving me crazy.  How much longer was I going to have to wait?  On Friday (Oct 31), the early reviews were in and the performance improvements sounded amazing, particularly with the SSD/1.86GHz version.  The overall Xbench result of around 48-50 for the original model had jumped to 137 for the new high-end model, a resounding >250% performance improvement!!!

I called my local store and when they said they had the new model in stock, I was out the door before I could think twice.  I just couldn’t wait for my standard model to ship (I know, I am horrible about things like that), and coughed up the extra cash (ahem, credit) to get the SSD model.  I’m not convinced the SSD and faster processor are worth the incredible $700 premium, but after playing around with the unit over the weekend, I must say I am very impressed yet again with what feels like a marvel of modern engineering.

Now, of course, price and size standards have changed dramatically over the past 6 months in particular with the introduction of the Asus EEE and subsequent netbook releases.  Intel’s Atom processor looks to be leading the way to a new generation of low cost, ultraportable computers with surprisingly robust features.  Price points on these are incredible, in the $500 range or less, and it’s hard to argue with the bang for the buck.  Weights and sizes are comparable or even smaller than the MBA, with larger hard drives in some cases, so the competition has really changed in a very short amount of time.  While Apple is seemingly ignoring the impending competition, it’s hard for consumers and gadget freaks alike to not take notice.  The baseline MBA remains over 4 times the cost of a well-specced netbook like the Acer Aspire One (1.6GHz, 160GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, XP Home).  Whether an MBA is truly worth 4 times the amount is obviously in the eye of the beholder.

But I digress – so what exactly are we crazed fans paying for?  For the moment, the MBA still stands alone in its own category in terms of blending high end performance with ultra-portable packaging.  The thinness and light weight (yet still sturdy and solid construction) still stand above its redesigned Macbook cousins, something hard to convey without having picked up both.  An additional 1.5 pounds doesn’t sound like much, but pick one up and I guarantee you’ll feel the difference.  The gorgeous LED screen also remains a strong selling point.  Performance-wise, not much has been compromised compared to the standard MB, aside from a slightly slower processor.  Compared to the non-Apple crowd, it’s a difficult discussion because most everything in its weight class doesn’t have the graphics processing power.  The reality is, aside from a couple of wannabe designs, nothing quite matches up.  The MBA is hard to classify and thus difficult to assess from a price standpoint.  Clearly, feature for feature it feels like you are paying far too much in comparison to various other models.  But once you try to find something exactly comparable, you realize there is nothing that quite matches up, and that’s ultimately why you are paying the premium.

Moving on, how about a few benchmarks?  I ran Xbench on the new model and had a composite score almost identical to what was posted in early reviews: just under 137.  I checked my boot-up times and, just as had been posted in video form, it took 25 seconds to boot into MAC OS X.  Very nice!  After installing Windows XP through Bootcamp, I clocked boot time at a respectable 45 seconds.  I re-ran 3DMark06 after an intial score of 500 scared me silly.  After turning off the power mizer settings, I got a more respectable score around 1460.  I was expecting better (closer to the 2000 score the standard MB has been advertising), so there may still be some driver or other issue to look at.  I re-ran the benchmark at a lower resolution (1024×768) and achieved about 10% better results (1600).

Benchmarks aside, the big personal goal for the upgrade was to have a portable, playable version of Warhammer Online.  From two initial play sessions, things are looking very good.  At full resolution (1280×800), I’ve played in both “Fastest Framerate” and “Balanced” mode and the game seems to hold up fine.  Framerates look to average out in th 20-30fps range.  There’s some occasional sputtering and stuttering, but this is true even on my desktop system, so it’s not that big a concern.  There are often network and other factors that make judging an MMORPG performance more difficult than a standard game.  The biggest test which I am very happy to report on was that playability was maintained even in a full “scenario” mode.  For those not familiar, this is basically a fast-paced, 12 on 12 competitive match with all live players, played in a dedicated zone.  While graphics are not necessarily the issue here, network concerns with many other players, special effects and control responsiveness are all a huge part of the game experience.  One keypress not responding can often cause you and/or your whole team to lose.  Results were very good, particularly in terms of responsiveness.  I had no issues playing the match about as “normal” as I might imagine on any laptop.  There was some additional choking each time I reloaded after dying, but it would quickly correct itself.  All in all, I cannot complain.  I have yet to do anything special to optimize the game performance, and it’s already playing fine in my mind. 

On top of WAR, I have a lot more gaming I’d like to test and not enough time to do it.  I’ve already installed 3 virtually brand new games: King’s Bounty, Sacred 2 and Fallout 3.  KB I played through a tutorial session and it looked great (settings I believe in medium detail).  The turn-based combat gameplay (similar to Heroes of Might and Magic) was excellent and perfect for this kind of system.  Sacred 2, a Diablo-like action RPG, had some stuttering issues at first with the mouse, but became completely playable after some adjustments to the graphics settings.  I still need to play around with that one.  Similarly, Fallout 3, a full 3D single player RPG based on the Oblivion engine, seemed a bit stuttery on low settings, but I haven’t had a chance to delve deeper.

So, first impressions are clearly good to great.  An already solid design that was close to meeting all my expectations in its original form, just took another extremely solid leap for the better.  It maintains all of the benefits I already loved about the MBA in terms of portability and flexibility, and now it’s a proven, capable, legitimate portable gaming machine (for the newest of games) on top of that.  Yes, it’s pricey, but in terms of engineering goodness, Apple has done it again.

The Search for the “Perfect” Gaming Portable Laptop

It’s been a long time since I’ve actively searched for a full fledged laptop for multiple purposes.  The Macbook Air has really held up so strongly this past year I really haven’t had the need for much of anything else.  Of course there were a few times when I would have liked it to be a bit more powerful to handle new games, or have a better video output and/or an optical drive, but for the most part it really takes care of everything I need from the portable standpoint.  In terms of the search, though, I found it astounding this time around just how many options there were out there, and the price ranges from around $500 to $5000 with everything in between.  Custom units, built units, different sizes and shapes, processors, graphics, there’s so much more to consider in today’s notebook market.  So where did this start?

Recently when Warhammer Online (WAR) released, I went through one of my “desktop upgrade urge” phases.  It really wasn’t necessary but I just wanted to make one innocent upgrade to the latest and greatest WD Velociraptor hard drive.  Simple enough, right?  I’ve added and removed hard drives for over 20 years now, and it has only been easier with the new SATA interface.  Sadly, through a series of unfortunate events, I started having problem after problem, not just with the game but with the computer itself.  Without going into the gory gory details, I ended up replacing not one, not two, but THREE sets of motherboards and CPUs and essentially putting together 3 new/old Windows machines over the course of a week or two – all in order to find a stable machine to play WAR on.  Don’t ask, the details disturb me so much that I want to blank them out of my memory.  

In any event, it occured to me during this period that given my nature and bad luck with electronics destruction, I should always have a suitable gaming laptop as my ultimate backup in case all the desktops were to fail.  Why a laptop, you ask, when apparently I put together multiple backup desktops?  Well, essentially it seems I need something that I physically *cannot* upgrade so that I can’t inadvertently destroy it in the process.  My laptop purchases over the years have been fairly robust – in fact I believe even the giant brick from 5 or 6 (?) years ago still runs fine.  The last semi-gaming laptop I bought about 3 years ago (Acer) is still in good shape, and can handle the majority of older games.  It has an ATI X700 Mobility graphics chip which at the time was very decent, but now is bordering on the edge of obsolete.  For someone who doesn’t typically take good care of his stuff, I’ve found my laptops have held on through time much better/longer than any other electronics item.

At the same time this was all happening, I read quite a few reviews on the recently released Gateway P-7811FX gaming laptop, which you can purchase at Best Buy.  The price/featureset for this laptop are virtually unbeatable at the moment, particularly when on sale for $1249 as it was recently.  Even at the original price point of $1499 this unit is practically a steal in terms of specifications.  It has pretty much all the features you could ask for and price comparisons I made with other vendors were literally double the cost for similar specifications.  A good (2.26GHz) Intel processor, 4GB RAM, 7200rpm 200GB hard drive, ESATA and HDMI ports, 1066MHz bus speed, and the icing on the cake, a Geforce 9800M GTS graphics processor.   With a 3DMark06 score in the 10000 range, this puts it on par with many desktop gaming systems.  Try to put this set of features together on HP, Sony, Dell, or Alienware, and it’s almost shocking what you’ll find, or what you won’t be able to find.  Many of the big names don’t have the option for the higher end gaming video GPUs; the gaming boutiques that do generally cost a whole lot more.  As an example, a similarly specced unit from Vigor Gaming priced out at $2491.  By the way, Notebookcheck has a great chart on relative performance comparing various mobile GPUs.

So I had my head set on making the purchase at Best Buy, and I went to take a look.  I found the unit on display and started playing around with it.  It definitely seemed fast but unfortunately there were no significant game demos to try, so I ran Fate for a couple minutes, which looked really good.  (Note to Best Buy: why not show these units off with some real games running?)  The only problem?  The thing just looked and felt HUGE.  It’s got a great looking 17″ screen, so if you’re looking for a true desktop replacement, this may be the best buy ever (no pun intended), at least in the short term.  On top of the overall size, it just felt kind of unwieldy all around, for lack of a better expression.  I loved the featureset and price point, but I wanted something that I still might potentially travel with, or at the very least be willing to lug from upstairs to downstairs on occasion.  The Gateway just didn’t seem the way to go.

So, I thought, well why not just look for the same features in a smaller package size?  Surely Gateway itself would offer something of that nature.  Nope, nada, try again.  Shockingly I went all over the internet and could not find something comparable but smaller in the same price range.  A lot of vendors are going slick and stylish but are lacking in the graphics department.  I flirted with the idea of the Macbook Pro, but the model at that point was running an 8600M GT, and the price point was similarly close to double that of the Gateway, not to mention I knew new models were coming out.  (Note: I’m now glad I didn’t wait for the new models, as it would have been well over $2200 with inferior graphics capability and no option for Blu-Ray.)  One of the other things I really wanted was a built in Blu-Ray drive so that I could wacth movies on the laptop and/or hook it up to my TV.

After going through a bunch of different options (including my old standbys like Cyberpower and iBuypower), I had pretty much decided I would go with a Sager laptop.  I’d had very good success with my first custom gaming laptop many many years ago, and there was a vendor called PCTorque which I really liked.  I liked that I could customize it any way I wanted and it would still be in a relatively smaller form factor.  So, I priced it out exactly as I wanted – but this time adding in the feature of a Blu-Ray drive – which ended up being right around $2000 configured similarly to the Gateway but with the added Blu-Ray drive.

Another day or 2 passed, and I was ready to place my order for the Sager, when I happend upon the Asus G50V series.  I hadn’t noticed these before, but the more I read in reviews (particularly user reviews), the more I realized this looked like a good deal (relatively speaking) with a solid build and design.  Custom is great, but I also like a pre-built design for a laptop, with the assumption engineers have gone over all the options and made specific design choices and tradeoffs for good reasons.  This one sports a 2.53GHz Intel  processor, 9700M GT graphics, 4GB RAM, with ESATA and HDMI ports as well.  While the graphics processor is weaker than the Sager and Gateway, it was just one step down and the reviews seemed to indicate it was well thought out and put together.  The A2 model includes a Blu-Ray drive and 400GB of hard drive (7200rpm) space for a $1900 base price.  The Sager similarly equipped would cost me a few hundred more, but would likely be a very good computer as well.

So thus far I’m fairly pleased with the decision.  I’ve only done very limited testing, but it certainly runs Warhammer Online fine.  The next big test will be to connect the HDMI port up to my HDTV and see how that pans out.

There and Back Again… The Making of an Apple Fanboy

A long, long time ago in a suburb far, far in LA, a young lad was introduced without much fanfare to his first Apple Personal Computer.  Well…. sort of.  A friend of my dad’s had come back from Taiwan and purchased an Apple ][ clone, which my friends eventually dubbed the “Orange”.  I’m not sure if it was a gift or what, but eventually I took over the unit, completely mesmerized by the glowing green CRT and the magical worlds it introduced me to.  I do recall we started off extremely old school, I still remember hooking the unit up to the TV and using an old tape recorder to load in software.  Wow, those were the days.  Eventually I was introduced to my first computer role playing game (CRPG) – Ultima – and have been hooked on the genre ever since.  I was completely obsessed with Ultima and Wizardry those early years, and the Orange became my home away from home as it took me further into the computer gaming format as a hobby.

Some years passed and I eventually moved on to college, at which point the IBM PC/Microsoft era was beginning to take hold in the PC market, most noticeably in the gaming department.  Because of that, I also shifted away from Apple and labelled myself as a “PC Gamer” exclusively.  My primary home computer has been a PC since the early 286 platform and good old MS-DOS, and has remained so to this day.  Interestingly, while in grad school my research group was largely using Macs (just a coincidence I guess).  While programming and “complex” computational software was running on mainframes at the time, we did the majority of documentation and presentations on an old Mac Plus, and eventually on some Power Macs.  Because of this, most of my data and graphs were on a Mac, and I ended up writing my entire doctoral dissertation on an old Macintosh IIci (completed in 1998)!  Somewhere during this period, I also briefly fiddled with an Apple Newton, which I thought was just the coolest thing on the planet at the time, but never got much real use out of.  I think I still have it sitting in the closet or garage somewhere.  So oddly enough, even though I functioned as a PC Gamer “snob” of sorts (I was known to often pan the Apple line for its expensive prices and lack of new/good games), I was always surrounded by and acutely aware of the Apple platform.  From time to time, I would flirt with the idea of trying a Mac at home but nothing would make me take the plunge, the closest thing being that cool looking Borg Cube contraption.  A lot of my friends and colleagues in college were avid Apple fans, but I held fast that until they had the top tier games playable, I’d always be a PC man.

Then around 2001, a strange looking little white device called the iPod was released into the world, and this, I believe, marked the beginning of the end for me.  Well, maybe more appropriately the beginning of the beginning.  I resisted it strongly at first, not really understanding or knowing what it was all about and finding the price to entry just a bit too much for my taste.  Finally, though, I gave in to the hype and my instincts, having spent a number of years collecting expensive gadgets that I didn’t use much, and purchased one of the classic units.  (Ironically I just fished that original iPod out the other day and stole its case to help protect my iPhone 3G, who’d a thunk it?)  As soon as I got started with the iPod, I was hooked.  The interface, the sound quality, the look and feel of the device, it was just absolutely perfect, and at the time there really didn’t seem to be anything like it in existence.  Coupled with the capability of transferring one’s entire CD library (I still have hundreds of CDs sitting in boxes) to the format using iTunes and having portable access to all of the songs, this was a major leap for a music fan like myself. 

And so it began, with each subsequent release, Apple hooked me further.  First it was the nano, which I convinced myself would be perfect for exercising/jogging.  I even got the special Nike shoes/nano combination.  This I admit only got limited use for a few months, but that was more out of my physical laziness and not about the technology.  Next up was the video iPod, how could I resist?  The only thing I loved more than music was music videos!  The screen, though tiny at the time, was just so crisp and perfect.  The advent of the iTunes store only helped to further the frenzy for which I “needed” the new technology.  This is/was the beauty of the Apple hookline, somehow it became more of an inexplicable obsession than simply a desire.  My video iPod I had inscribed with my name and the following line: Apple Owns Me.  At this point in time, I really had no idea just how far that statement would go.  It was meant to be ironic, or funny, or sad, depending on your viewpoint, but realistically I felt like I was pretty much satisfied from the entertainment device standpoint.

Then just when I thought I was “safe”, along came 2007.  When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone in January, I was more angry and stunned than anything else.  I refused to watch the keynote or read the hype.  Why?  Because I had just purchased a new smartphone from Verizon (at the time I didn’t keep up on Apple release news/timing) and was locked in to a new 2 year contract, but Apple announced it was going solely with AT&T.  I bitterly convinced myself that I didn’t care, because my phone had all the functions (and more) that the iPhone claimed to have, and more.  But the truth was at the time, I would have paid top dollar for just a larger/wide screen version of the video iPod; even the touchscreen was icing on the cake.  So I spent the next few months in rabid denial, seemingly content with my smartphone and separate iPods.  Then one day out of boredom I decided to hit the Apple store and actually watch the keynote.  I don’t remember what the impetus was, maybe seeing a commercial or something I had read online.  Once I watched Steve Jobs’ presentation, I was once again hooked.  The accelerometer, the seamless integration of functions, the beautiful screen, the touch interface, it was just too much for my gadget crazy brain to fathom not possessing.  When he did the rotation and started playing a scene from The Office, it was all over but the crying.  In fact I may have shed a tear that evening knowing how much longer I had to wait, and how much money I’d have to spend to buy the iPhone and dump my existing contract.

So, as described in detail in this blog, I did the whole big “iDay” thing in June, and finally got my beloved iPhone.  I won’t repeat what’s already been discussed previously, suffice to say in spite of some ups and downs, I was pretty happy all in all with the purchase.  Soon after, Apple announced a new revamped line of iMacs, and at this point the so-called “halo” effect finally nabbed me.  I was having trouble with some sync issues with the iPhone on my PC, so I finally decided to make an excursion into the Mac world and have all my media (photos, videos, etc) run through the iMac as a central hub.  Even the look and the feel of the iMac seemed designed to compliment the iPhone, the perfect desktop companion.  I loved the ease of use of OS X and especially features like iPhoto and iWeb.  I had a new, nice looking web page up, literally in minutes.  Eventually I collected all my masses of digital pictures from all the sources and backups I could find and for the first time, organized them all painlessly using iPhoto.  Given how lazy I am in general with these types of things, it was a big deal, and only a fun, easy to use interface could have sucked me into doing this.

Earlier this year, I was drawn in yet again by the Macbook Air.  Sigh.  Helpless to the marketing effect of seeing a full powered notebook computer pulled out of a manila envelope, I immediately pre-ordered and waited with baited breath for it to arrive.  Even realizing I was being manipulated, I couldn’t help myself.  It turned out well, giving me yet another wonderful piece of hardware, so light it’s almost impossible to describe.  I now do the majority of my finances, personal email and surfing solely on the MBA.  More amazingly, I was easily able to install Windows XP2 in a dual boot configuration and run some fairly challenging PC games on the Air.  On a plane trip a few weeks ago it almost felt like no added weight to my backpack.  I watched as other people brought out big chunky laptops and almost felt guilty about how light the MBA is.  I’d often wondered if there was a “perfect” weight point for a portable PC, and this has to be pretty close; weighty enough so it doesn’t feel cheap or like it will blow away, but light enough to be held on one’s fingerstips and literally as light as (or lighter than) a paper notebook.  Also, at this time I had purchased the Time Capsule as the backup companion piece for the MBA.  I later found that it was much more useful, and I’m now using it as a central file hub for my PC and Macs, as well as for wireless N throughout the house. 

But the “total conversion” doesn’t end there.  Another product I had dismissed during its original release was the Apple TV.  It was back when I was at the peak of my fandom, so I was actively trying to convince myself to like it.  But at the time I couldn’t find any viable reason to purchase it.  Finally this year with “Take 2″ and the introduction of the rental market via an iTunes interface, I took the plunge and brought it into my main entertainment system.  It’s turned out great, as much as I intended to use it for rentals of movies I didn’t want to buy, I seem to use it the most for watching music videos, surfing You Tube and listening to music.  Just another classic example of an Apple product surprising me with usability in ways I might not have expected or imagined.

The final straw in the conversion process?  Recently I opened an eTrade account and for the first time put myself in the stock market by purchasing a few shares of Apple stock.  This was a big leap for me, and while I don’t actually have a lot of money invested, it felt good to be investing in something I really believe in, and in some ways actually feels like I’m investing in myself.  OK, so the stock hasn’t been faring too well since, but I am keeping the faith.

The iPhone 3G is the latest in my Apple Fanboy checklist, and I’ve been loving it and the new App Store addition to iTunes.  In all honesty it feels like a stepping stone en route to even bigger and better things.  Next gen iPhone with video conferencing?  iPad Mac with full touch screen interface?  Who knows what’s next.  While I haven’t made a 100% move away from the PC, I do believe I’m getting close.  I’ve been eyeing the new iMacs with nVidia graphics as well as the Mac Pro.  Knowing now that I can easily dual boot for gaming, there’s less and less reason to not go 100% Mac, even in the gaming world.  Cutting edge video card performance is still the limiting factor, but realistically there are so few games coming out that make use of the cutting edge, there’s almost no point these days.

People still complain about the pricing from Apple and how it creates a barrier relative to what you can purchase from other companies offering devices with similar (or perhaps more) functionality at a lower price.  To this, I say, yes, all that is true.  However, I would also say it’s not always so simple to look at it as a flat dollar cost.  There are tons of gadgets and cool gizmos released all the time; many of these are feature rich, and often less costly than the Apple equivalent.  The question to ask, though, is just how much use and enjoyment one would get from them.  All I can offer is that from a relative standpoint, I have always received more “bang for the buck” from my Apple purchases in terms of usage, and as mentioned, most of them have surpassed my original expectations.  I have a closet full of gadgets that were retired after a short usage period, but from Apple?  Every device is in regular rotation (and many that have been upgraded have been passed down to someone else), and each plays a significant and varied role in my “e-life.”  The devices are friendly and inviting, so much so that it’s not a matter of forcing myself to find uses for something I’ve bought, but instead the products have made something previously difficult (or perhaps just annoying enough to become a deterrent), much easier to do now.   Somehow the precise combination of presentation, interface and sheer usability create something larger than the core functions or specifications.

So there it is, a long (and admittedly expensive) journey covering roughly 25 years of gadgets and gizmos, the insidious yet inevitable creation of an avid Apple Fanboy.  While I don’t actually consider myself a complete fanatic, I will (obviously) admit to being a strong devotee.  As long as they keep cranking out wonderful products that challenge and break conventional technological barriers and modes of thought, I will be there with bells on.

Windows Vista Mojave Experiment

I’ve discussed pros and cons of Vista a lot in many forums, so I thought this worth discussing.

http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/

I am by no means a Vista fanboy, not even close, and I actually wonder about the type of people they found to do this experiment, but it certainly does give you pause to think.  Just how easy it is for word of mouth to affect, and in some ways, INFECT, our consciousness these days, particularly with the internet. They aren’t joking when they use the word “viral” advertising.  Now I suppose just be spreading this link I’m playing a part in the same game, but such is life.  

This effect, particularly in the gaming community, I see it all the time. Someone says something bad about a game, the next guy agrees and jumps on it, and before you know it the game has been crucified as worst game of the year (yes I’m talking about Hellgate London in particular, but other games as well to a lesser extent).  Often times the originator of the first “review” never even played the game, or maybe hated the genre to begin with.  Anyway, I’ve always been of the opinion that people need to give things a fair shake and make up their own mind. You can always jump on the bandwagon and bash it later 

As for Vista, I never had the issues people complained about.  There were a couple of minor annoyances such as when it asked for permission for everything, but I figured out how to turn that off soon enough.  The latest computer I purchased came with that “feature” thankfully disabled.  In terms of compatibility, only a couple of minor programs and drivers had issues early on, but that was all soon fixed once vendors had ample time to upgrade.  In terms of stability, the OS has been as stable as XP SP2 ever was, if not more so.  I do get some quirky behavior every now and again (the computer refuses to shut all the way down), but aside from that it’s been fine.  I know other folk have had similar experiences.

And yet somehow the masses in general have been convinced Vista is a disaster.  The Mojave thing is probably an exaggeration, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it weren’t too far from reality in a lot of places.  Given my Apple fandom (big blog update coming soon!), you’d think I should commend them for finding ways to constantly undermine PC/Microsoft.  While I do think it’s been an amusing journey to watch unfold, I also think it’s been way overblown, and people who buy into it without actually thinking for themselves should probably take a few moments and make sure they know they aren’t just brainlessly following the herd.

WordPress for iPhone

This is just a quick simple test to check the new App for WordPress on the iPhone. Just getting a sense of what it would be like to try to blog directly from the phone. I’m amazed again at how many errors the correction continues to catch. Often forget just how good this keyboard is.

iPhone 3G First Impressions

So after “3G Release iFriday”, I finally made it through the line after EIGHT hours!!  I have never waited in a line for that long for anything, the closest experience of course being last year’s original iPhone line.  It was one of those things where you were already so deep into it, you couldn’t just leave midway through.  I won’t bore with the gory details, but it wasn’t as great an experience as last year.  It didn’t help that a co-worker told me he picked one up Friday night after waiting only 2 hours, lol.  Of course I knew in my head this would be the case, I was just a bit worried Apple would do something weird with stock and it would be selling out everywhere.  Still, it was one of those things you don’t soon forget, and I again met an interesting bunch of folk in line and was treated to a barrage of Apple employees supplying Smart water, coffee, and this time a popsicle to boot!

So of course everyone knows about the crappy release timing by Apple with the 2.0 software update needed to do authentication.  I guess the servers died or were slammed too hard or whatever, I’m not sure there was an official story.  Regardless, MMORPGers like myself shouldn’t have been too surprised; it seems like no one is ever able to estimate the popularity of their own products.  Either that or they figure one day of server issues is worth the cost knowing it will calm down in a day or 2.

Moving on to the new unit itself:

First thought was it felt lighter.  I didn’t think I’d notice the difference but it was fairly evident.  Not that I’d ever had an issue with the weight but certainly a nice touch.

3G speed.  I tested a “real world” situation with 3G on.  My 3yo nephew loves to see WALL-E and other assorted movie photos like Spiderman and Iron Man, so I usually use IMDB to bring them up.  Last week I had a few excruciating waits to bring up the pictures he likes and my nieces and I would make fun of the Edge network speeds.  So I tested the exact same links in 3G and it was incredibly faster.  It was clearly not just twice the speed, it was a huge difference.  More importantly the “feeling” was much more like the information was at your fingertips, the way it “should” be.

GPS.  Very understated in the design.  You don’t have some button “GPS” to turn on or whatever and I rarely see much about specs.  I did test it briefly on a drive out and it seemed remarkably accurate, within a car length or 2 I could see the blip on google maps shift as I approached the corner of a street.  I was very impressed and hopeful the news is true about the turn by turn software that is supposedly being readied.  A few days later, I got lost while driving back to the airport on a business trip.  Turns out the freeway I was on was designed in a circle, which I had never seen before.  In any case, I whipped out the Google Maps and GPS showed me I had diverged onto the wrong part of the circle.  I was running late and panicked a bit, but seeing my blip on the map finally moving in the right direction eased my mind.  I saw the dot approaching a river and up ahead a bridge appeared.  Nice!  Turn by turn directions would have been nicer, but hopefully that will come in time.

Sound quality.  I haven’t noticed the drastic improvement I read about in reviews, but I haven’t made many phone calls yet or listened to music much.  The built in speakers definitely seemed better on the one song I tested.  My original phone would have trouble when I maxxed the volume out but this one doesn’t seem to have the same issue.  Still not loud enough though, IMHO.  After a week or so of usage, I still haven’t noticed a huge difference in overall sound quality.  Calls seem to have more clarity, but I would attribute that to being on 3G, not necessarily some improvement in the sound hardware.  But maybe that’s what they meant all along.

Battery life.  My new theory is Apple really did not replace/change the battery at all.  I’m guessing their new chip is just more efficient in Edge mode and thus they can claim some better life standards for 2G use.  I ended up having to charge the phone again after about 4ish hours of use.  But this was a lot of turn on and off, playing with programs, wireless surfing and apps store downloading.  Ultimately my opinion is you just have to use the device and not worry about it from a spec point of view.  I know that sounds lame, but I obsessed over the battery on my original iPhone for months.  Eventually I just reached a normal usage pattern that had me charging approx. once a week with occasional charging during syncing.  I suspect with 3G and all the awesome new apps this is going to change dramatically, probably 2 or 3 times what I used to.  This is not a criticism of the battery, but a reality check given the new usability of the device.  Which leads me to…

App Store Apps.  OMG!  Over 900 already, it’s just insane.  I spent most of my time with the phone in the Apps store, and even after only 1 day, already spent way too much money.  So many games to try out!  And tons of utilities (filemagnet was great to import a pdf version of my work presentation), fun time wasters (the light saber is incredibly fun), etc.  There are some crappy ones for sure, but a lot of really really cool stuff.  It’s really taken the iPhone to the next level, making it very hard to describe right now.  You think about how good the software already is on day one of release and just imagine what levels programmers will be able to take it to down the line.  They’re going to need a new name for the device because “iPhone” is almost misleading at this point.  iMobileMac?  I dunno, but I continue to be impressed with what people have come up with.  Some big ones I’m anticipating: Slingbox, GPS navigation and video recording, all of which are supposedly in the works.  Would love to see some form of new RPG or roguelike but I haven’t seen much on that yet (aside from the old school JRPG Vay), though Bioware and others have expressed interest.  You figure with a built in userbase close to 10 million (counting iPod Touch, I’m just guessing the numbers) and growing, software developers, particularly gaming companies, would be crazy to ignore it as a major platform.  I just can’t get enough of these, I’m constantly checking the Apps store to see if something new has come out.  Some other highly recommended apps: Sketches, Pangaea VR, Aurora Feint, Aqua Forest to name a few.  And a few personal favorites which may not be as popular: 300 Bowl, Fire Words and Top 3 Solitaire.

Oh yeah, it’s still an iPod.  Almost lost amidst the new features and Apps and faster speed, this unit is still the best damn portable entertainment device you can shake a stick at.  I had almost forgotten how much I loved the baseline iPod features until I was sitting in a plane for 5 hours listening to a bunch of music and watching 3 classic episodes of The Office. 

MIA?  I was a bit disappointed to hear no new camera or video or second/front camera were being added, nor had MMS or cut/paste been addressed.  My guess is the next version will tackle the camera improvements.  As to the long requested MMS and cut/paste, I have no idea what the issue is.  Plenty of ways to get around the former, but the latter would seem to be an obvious software upgrade that should have been implemented in some form long ago.

In spite of the above, simply put, an amazing piece of technology just took a huge step to the next level. 

Hello world!

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Even cooler plane!

This was taken at the air force museum in Ohio. Dont pay attention to this boring text, I am testing Shozu.

Cool plane!