At the moment, boffins in white coats and rimless glasses everywhere are trying to generate a new super-fuel; a fuel that will never run out and does no harm to the ozone layer and solves world poverty and AIDS in African countries and the world economic crisis and the American Presidential Election all-in-one. But, in my mind, the most important thing to look for in a new fuel is backwards compatibility so that the millions and trillions and quadrillions and pentillions and hexillions and septillions and octillions of cars in the world don’t have to go through surgery just for the new hyper/wonder/super-fuel to work. VIsta had a similar problem. When Windows made Vista, they changed some of the core features and how things work to get the “Aero” interface and other things. Though, what they didn’t realise is that a lot of large programs written for Windows rely on those old core services that you got in XP, leading to one of the main causes of people either not wanting to switch to Vista or not having a good experience after switching is that some of their beloved apps don’t work on Vista. Leading them to switch to a Mac, like my Dad. When we went into the Apple Store, Meadowhall, Sheffield, my Dad and I saw an Apple Genius to help my Dad with which Mac he wanted to buy. We decided on a MacBook and he also sold us an inCase laptop sleeve thingymabob and a 500GB Time Machine. So, a day spent well
Out.
P.S. When my Dad told the Apple Genius that he was running a machine that has Vista running on it, he said “I think you just swore at me!”
Emotion is an odd thing. I wonder who created it? Imagine what life would be like without it, too. Very tedious and disappointing and boring. Though, we wouldn’t be able to feel that if it weren’t here. Life would have no excitement, there would be no such thing as an impulse buy, meaning that lots of people would lose their jobs. But they wouldn’t be disappointed, you wouldn’t be able to feel disappointed. This means that there would be no favorite or preference. Life would be dull. The human race would break down to eating food because we would die without it, not because it was tasty; we would have children to keep the race going, instead of because you and your hypothetical partner decided kids would be a good move. Which, at the moment, I think is a bad move. Because my Mum has gone to Italy with some girlfriends to relax. Leaving me and my Dad to look after my three-year-old sister. At least on Saturday (tomorrow, the time I am writing this) I’ll be boarding the Grand Central train (an old GNER train that was sold to them when they sold out that has been painted black and has had more tables and less seats put in) from Northallerton to London Kings Cross with only one stop, at York. Down there I would hope to find a shop which sells a Ricoh GX200 (pronounced Ree-koh) as I have become emotionally attached to this camera. I love the old-fashioned looks and the stupidly large Telephoto lens. It also takes pictures in 1:1 ratio (Square) which looks great and is perfect for blogging. It is all over the internet and magazines but I can’t find a bricks and mortar shop that sells it near me, though I have come across all sorts of eTailers that are selling it online, all for the RRP of £300 or there about.
Well, you may have noticed a big change in appearance to the site. I have move all of the website over to an open source back-end called WordPress. Anywhooo, this means that I have fixed the contact page so you can now got in touch. And, I can add and edit posts online, on any OS so long as it has an internet connection and a web browser.
Success and failure often come together. I have had some succes lately. I was the 71st, 55th, 54th and 49th Most Watched Channel in the UK over the past few days! If you don’t believe me then look at the screen grab below:
But I was speaking about failure eariler. Why? Well, I have only just noticed that for the past month or so the “Contact Me” section, which has a story behind it in itself*, has been down so I haven’t been getting any messages. It’s still not workig now though so, since I don’t to leave my email address up to web fishers, contact me through YouTube.
*Just in case Mr Kelly, My English teacher is watchng / reading / telepathically one with my server, used a subordinate clause in that sentence…
As the Apple community is aware, yesterday, a whole load of new products were released and announced. A completely new MacBook, MacBook Pro and a MacBook Air with updated hardware options.
MacBook
The new MacBook has a load of new features, inside and out. The new “aloominum” shells are carrved from one solid piece of aluminum making it stronger, lighter and, more importantly, more expensive. They made a video on the making of it which I have posted on my channel on YouTube (www.youtube.com/dfoggin) and on the Apple Website. I also made a video of my thoughts on it as well so, if you would rather watch it in a video, go ahead. (UPDATE!!! Today, the 16th November, 2008, I was the 71st most viewed channel in the UK!!!!) It still has the same 13.3” display but this time it is LED backlit making it more power efficeint and easier on the eye. What powers that display has changed as well; an nVidia 9800M chip designed specifically for Apple.
MacBook Pro
In the past, all Apple portables have been separated into two categories; Consumer and Professional. And in those categories, they would have on or two notebooks, normally separated by a different screen size. I like Apple for this. They make it so simple to decide what you want and I challenge you to find a mainstream computer business that has simplified their product line as much as Apple has. The consumer and pro products have always been different, though. That changed recently and I’m not sure I like that. I way prefer to see the gap but now, you go on not whether you’re a pro or a con (no pun intended) but what size you want your screen to be. Like the MacBook, it has an LED backlit display that is, like the MacBook, powered by a new nVidia chip. But, and this isn’t just a miniscule but; this is an M&S, Hitlers deal with ruling the world but, there are two nVidia chips. One to do the processing, and the other for video RAM. Wouldn’t you want to die if you were sat next to the man that invented that at a dinner party?
MacBook Air
The new MacBook hAir is as thin as the last and looks the same, but this time you can have the option for a 128GB SSD (Solid State Drive) or a 120GB HDD (Hard Disk Drive). You can also specify a 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo but that won’t give a noticeable difference in performance.
LED Backlit 24” Cinema Display.
Apple’s Cinema Displays have always interested me. They looked like an Apple product (Very Nice) and have a great resoloution / viewing area for the size. But they we’re very expensive, got too hot and were too thick. While you can still get an old Cinema Display, you can now get an LED Backlit Display. I think Steve Jobs and his men have been looking at too many LEDs recently. They are putting them in everything. And this new Cinema Display is no exception. It looks like a 24” iMac; an iSight Camera, USB ports and such all finish this off nicely but it is very expensive (£469) and doesn’t like the old, full size DVI on my MacBook Pro and PowerBooks of old.
What’s Next
I would like to see all of the new products come down in price as they are above the price of their predecessors. I won’t be buying anything as they are 1st Gen products so there will be a load of bugs to iron out before. That and they are very expensive and I love my ol’ MacBook Pro. I would also like to see a Mac based netbook like an Eee PC or something similar with an Intel Atom processor (see a previous post named Netbooks and Windoze). I would also expect to see a 17” MacBook Pro in the new style, which is sad because more than just me likes to have the option for a matte display
If you have read any of my ranty bloggy things before, you’ll know that I start of with something mundane, not at all related to tech and link it in to either something I’m doing in the days or weeks to come or to something tech related. This post is going to be a little different though… Rather than start of with mushrooms or cheese (funny I should mention cheese as I have just tasted a sip of my brother’s Buckington’sOrganic Black Fox Cider and it did taste somewhere in between soy sauce and blue cheese… Waitrose, eh?) I’m going to come straight out and say that right now, there is an Apple Media Event going on where, hopefully, some new MacBooks and MacBook Pros will be released. I would say what there is but I’m not in 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino. No, I’m in my trusty bedroom with a MacBook Pro, writing this arcticle / post / blog / any other word you can come up with. Which brings me back to the start where I said I’m going to do this one in reverse so here I carry on. I’m at home because I came back from school. I like school. We had football today, which deserves no cheer nor boo, as all footballers aren’t worth it. Anywhooo, I have a problem with school, other than chavs, and I it is the way they teach languages. I have been on holiday a few times and the most common british holiday destination is Spain. SO why most secondary schools don’t teach spanish is a mystery. I have also been to France and Germany a time or two as well, and this is where I have my problem. I have never, ever, got into a conversation and said “Ich habe ein rot Etui.” (I have a red pencil case to the fattier lumps in the metphorical readers’ milk) Nor, while in France have I ever told the suspiciously bearded waitress that my birthday is on the 7th of Februrary and that I have a cat called Marmite. There you go Herr Acheson and Madame Hampson.
I would also like to give a hearty shout out of “Gratz!” to Charlissocoollike, not because he gained a level on WoW but because he raised £4,500 pounds for Cancer Research UK.
And the best of luck to my brother Oliver who will be dontating a Kidney tomorrow!
I love my Mac. Today, I was in a PC World, which is never a great experience at the best of times, and I looked at all of the grey plastic wannabes an thought “I have made the Right Choice”. But then, I remembered what fun I have had in the past with Windows. Yes, that’s right. You just heard me, a fully blown switcher, say that I miss Windows.To a full-on geek, it’s a bit like hearing that Michael Aspel has just died… of a cocaine overdose; you know something just isn’t right. One thing I used to love about having Windows was the troubleshooting. I used to love feeling depressed that I had downloaded a virus and that I had to mend it. There was such a satisfying sense of achievement once I had rid my ol’ beloved Packard Bell of all the baddies in my system_32 folder. Because of this, I have recently been thinking of getting a machine to run Windows, more for old times’ sake than anything else. I know that Boot Camp and VMware all exist but I don’t like running Win-doze on my Mac because it always looks like Jessica Love - Hewitts’ face with no makeup on; naked and abused.
Another aspect I miss is the experimental side of things. Don’t get me wrong, I feel way more confident doing “legal activity” on a Mac than I did / would on a PC but when the beta for a new program is Windows only I feel disheartened. You may tell me to find an alternative which I have done for a while but what if I want to try Google Chrome or Cam Space, that program that allows you to use a piece of Lego to act as a steering wheel in Racing Games e.t.c
All of this leads me to want to buy a new computer. I don’t really fancy a desktop because that would mean and monitor and noise 24/7 (I’m really bad at switching computers off). This means a notebook or an all-in-one is the way to go. However, if you look at a review for any all-in-one, it will always be in comparison to the iMac. And I don’t like second best. This leads me to a notebook. But, I already have a notebook, a great notebook. Why would I want another one? Especially on my budget, I would end up with a korean brick that was built with the heart and soul of a teaspoon. I could always get a sub-notebook though; a ‘netbook’. And, after some thought, I have narrowed it down to two; the Advent 4211 (a rebadge of the MSI Wind) and the Asus EeePC 901 (needs no introduction). I feel a showdown coming on…
There was an impressive T3 style graph but RapidWeaver didn’t like it since I wrote this in Pages first. A full version can be found here .
Overall, I think the EeePC 901 is a better choice for me. The looks are very important to me as well as the battery life and it is a lot easier to upgrade / mod / pimp. The only small matter is that I’m a few quid short. PayPal anyone?
