Recent Comments:
Acer's 11.6-inch Timeline 1810T gets ceremonious christening, Oct. 22nd launch date {Engadget}
Oct 14th 2009 6:05AM I'm typing from an 1810T right now (one of the best notebooks I've owned as of late). Still, would have liked 8 hours of battery life (I get about 4.5hrs real time) and the dual core (so it would run HD Flash today, instead of whenever Adobe gets around to optimizing Flash HD for GPUs).
But, I did pay $450 cdn dollars for it, so bob's your uncle.
PinchMedia: Most iPhone apps less than five bucks {TUAW.com}
Jul 10th 2008 8:12PM This is going to sound really anal, but as an aside, I'm getting annoyed with all the usage of the term "apps". In shortform its fine and something I'm not worried about, but it's becoming the regular term for "software application" or "software" or even "application" everywhere. Apple's the most guilty, but everyone's catching on, and well, its annoying :)
Sorry y'all (ducking the bullets).
iPhone news for Switzerland, Spain and Poland {TUAW.com}
May 8th 2008 11:27PM No offense to any Polish people, but there's just something wrong in Denmark... er, Canada, if Poland is getting the iPhone before Canada is.
There's actually something wrong with Canada and Rogers specifically that all these other countries are getting it first. It comes down to greed, and monopolies, and Rogers' complete idiocy when it comes to offering a reasonably priced connectivity plan.
Yeah, I know that it's coming 'sometime later this year', but the current word is, get ready to spend $150 or more a month if you want it officially. Just insane on the data plan.
Engadget snares next-gen iPhone pr0n {TUAW.com}
Apr 25th 2008 8:14PM Yeah, I've supplied tips to TUAW as well - probably the most notable was a three-week advance that the Airport express was being updated to N, and they had no interest. Makes me wonder about all the other tips they pass on.
Apple TV update 2.0.1 {TUAW.com}
Mar 31st 2008 8:02AM I completely agree with dswift - the 2.0 interface is very "buy buy buy" driven. At the very least, My _______ (Music, movies, whatever) and "Shared ________" should be at the top of the lists on the right column.
BUT... besides all that.
If you run a N 5ghz network at home for the Apple TV (AEBS, TC, etc), *do not run this update*. There's been dozens and dozens of reports on Apple's support forums about dropouts, forgetting the network after 5 minutes connection if that's your setup. Only a cold reboot (pulling the plug) fixes it, and again, only for five minutes.
Some are reporting that switching off Wide Networking on AEBS / TC fixes this, but not everyone.
Apple seems to have screwed the pooch on this update. Wait for 2.02, and read feedback about it for a few days before updating. I'm running TC / 5ghz / N at home, so I'm sticking with 2.0 for now.
How would you change Apple's Time Capsule? {Engadget}
Mar 29th 2008 6:56AM I own a Time Capsule 500gb model, bought it to bring
a) N, 5ghz wifi to my home
b) USB hard / driver printer support on the network
c) Time machine backups for a desktop iMac and a future macbook (once they come out with the LED backlit versions, I guess).
I've been using it for a few weeks now, and my observations:
NAS
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Sure, the main HD is HFS+ Journaled to work with Time Capsule. Sure, Windows XP computers can't easily read it (non Bonjour PCs). Not a problem though. I have a FAT32 formatted WD Passport drive, 160gb, hooked into the USB, and WinXP boxes have no problems reading or writing to that.
Heat
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It does run hot, but other than me worrying a bit about carbon footprints / electrical usage, it's not an issue, I guess it's a secondary bonus that it heats up my drafty office a bit.
Stream Music
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See NAS above. I can put music on the WD Passport, and access that music from any PC in the house. I don't see what the big fuss is about Airtunes anyway. I also have an AppleTV (which does support AirTunes), and never accessed it.
Bandwidth
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The Time Capsule is ethernet-connected to the iMac it backs up, so it's not a problem. It may be once I get a macbook though, who knows. 1 hour backups are bad though - one change I'd like to see is Apple allow the user to set the backup interval.
Mounting
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This is my main issue with the TC so far. It mounts and unmounts every freakin' hour. I'd rather it just stayed mounted. I suppose this is a power saving mode for the TC.
Pricing
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I don't agree with Ryan that this is a pricey device. Before buying, I was looking for a 5ghz N wifi router that supported both printer and USB mounting. Most I priced were more expensive than the Apple Airport Extreme base station (ie, $225-$275 vs. the AEBS $200 price). I looked at the price of various "quality" 7200rpm eSATA 500gb external drive options, and they STARt at $150, and go up with enclosure costs. Add to that I couldn't find any router / wifi NAS that supported eSATA. This made the $329 (Cdn) price for the Time Capsule very economical - all built in, plus external USB devices support. It ended up being an easy purchase decision.
Things I would change:
As mentioned above, I'd change the backup interval options (give the user some control here), change the mounting / unmounting, and to be honest, the Airport Utility needs some beefing up. I miss some of the controls I could take advantage of on my dlink router. It's missing the ability to see what dhcp connections you have, and make those "assigned" (yes you can do this, but you have to write down the MAC address so you can manually type them in), also missing a quick "reboot router" option. Apple thinks their shit don't stink, I guess. ;) Also, perhaps an external antenna option.
Other than that, the device works very well, and I'm very pleased with the purchase. Compared to the buggy AppleTV, it works great.
HP UMPC 2133 specs revealed, street date of April 7th? {Engadget}
Mar 27th 2008 8:14AM I'm a bit behind the curve on knowing the answer to this question - can you easily install Mac OSX on this (or any current gen notebook computer)? If so, this could be my "Macbook Air". It is about 75% of what I hoped the MBA would be before Steve announced it. The MBA itself is about 50% what I hoped the MBA would be ;)
FYI: change your password, edit your profile, add yourself an avatar {Engadget}
Mar 26th 2008 5:13PM ditto as with everyone else on the password problem. Works fine when leaving a comment, fubar'ed when trying to edit profile.
802.11n Airport Express is now on sale {TUAW.com}
Mar 17th 2008 5:10PM I guess that tip I sent TUAW in over two weeks ago was true then, about the refresh on the Express ;)
Good news for Canadians too - it's the first product Apple has released that has "par" pricing. Portent of things to come?
Apple launches 802.11n Airport Express right on cue {Engadget}
Mar 17th 2008 5:07PM Good news for Canadians - it's the first product in Apple's lineup that has "par" pricing with the US product. It's $99 on Apple.ca as well.
