I have long known that Mac users and PC users speak a different language.

There’s a fundamental difference between how PC users use their machines and how Mac users do it. The biggest one being that backups and restores are absolutely no problem over here. I still have no idea how one accomplishes this under Windows without copying over massive groups of files, by hand. In fact… now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure that’s the only way to do it under Windows without spending any money on third party software and if that’s the case, that makes me really, really sad.

Apple, may I say again, that Time Machine… simply rocks.

Over a year later and I have had absolutely no problems with my Macbook. I have never had to restore anything from Time Machine, except that one time when I accidentally deleted a file. It was super easy to get it back.… [Read More]

Cheap Shoes

This morning, I realized a little late that the State of the Union Address was today. For those of you that follow me on twitter, you might have noticed my tweet somewhere around 9 am this morning that read as follows: “LOL! comment on engadget: “I’m more excited about Job’s state of the union address than Obama’s… What does that say about us?” This was promptly picked up by the Obama twitter bot. The reality is that I realized that the state of the union address was today when I read that comment on Engadget.

In reality, I could care less about the State of the Union Address. Today, my attention was fully focused on Steve Jobs.

It was the only thing that I cared about.

When Jobs walked out on that stage and started talking about all the company updates this morning, I was disappointed. I wanted him to just get on with the show.… [Read More]

Apple Releases iPad!

Well… it had to happen sooner or later. I think I have posted one of these before, but it needs an update and I have a few folks on twitter asking me the question: What are your favorite apps?

Well, here they are. These are the apps I can’t live without. Post yours in the comments! I’m always interested in looking for a new app!

1. Twittelator Pro

I used the free version of twittelator for a long time and I really haven’t found anything in terms of iPhone software that is as quick and easy to use, isn’t a slow loading space hog that’s bogged down with ads and what have you and I love that I can customize this app to look differently depending on my mood or to make it easier to read in certain room lighting. Not a single day goes by that I don’t open and use Twittelator on my iPhone.… [Read More]

My Ten Essential iPhone Apps

The morning routine in this house doesn’t get deviated from, even on weekends. This is why I was up at 6:30 am this morning. Mugen must be let out, must have breakfast and must have a play time while I read my forums and drink my coffee.

It will take me 20 or 30 minutes to write this post in between sips of coffee and finding where Mugen’s lost his wubba this time and tossing it for him, but it wears him down so he will take a short nap in his crate while I shower… and then the fun begins.

We come downstairs and make breakfast. Mugen is all over the counters, trying desperately to counter surf and he’s just about tall enough to get his paws up there now. Hubby gets very angry with this, but the trick I used with Reilly will not work here. Shake cans have no effect on Mugen because he’s not gunshy.… [Read More]

The Morning Routine

The Pre is hitting shelves at Sprint stores on June 6th.

Yes, I really did say Sprint. Sprint, with its shrinking customer network. Sprint with its crappier than Verizon customer service. Sprint, with its “cheap” calling plans. Sprint with its cellular coverage that is so poor that it’s the reason that Verizon, AT&T and T Mobile are the taking the carrier world by storm in North America. Sprint had its chance. I’m surprised they’re still in business and admit it, so are you.

Perhaps it is some kind of poetic justice, or perhaps even irony, that a company that is seeing itself fall on hard times, is aiding a once great tech giant that also finds itself awaiting its death knell. Now, that said, I don’t know that the Pre will be the end of Palm, but I don’t think it’s going to save the company either.

Let’s start with the bare bones facts.… [Read More]

Palm Pre: iPhone Killer or Dud in the Making?

A dear friend of mine, and I call him that in spite of all the arguments we’ve had lately, has been considering the idea of getting a Mac. I think part of the appeal to him is that Macbooks are lightweight, versatile and well, he’s probably heard more than a bit from me telling him to just dive in and drink the kool-aid, but we’ve run into a few problems that have caused him to drop names at me like, “Mactard” and this drives me insane, and oddly enough, he finds this amusing. I think the guy gets a kick out of seeing me get passionate about the things I love.

When I first got my mac, I was confused about some things. My macbook is the first mac I have ever owned. I’ve used a couple, but those were always in school labs because Apple donated computers to public institutions for years.… [Read More]

Life is Different in Mac Land

Shopping for a case for my iPhone 3g has been a nightmare. I really enjoyed my case for my previous gen iPhone, the Inno case by Seidio. That case had everything I wanted. It was a hard sided case with a grippy texture to it so that the phone didn’t slip out of my hands. It was felt lined on the inside, so it didn’t chew up my phone and it fit around the bezel of the phone so that it could be used without peeling up a screen protector.

I know that’s a tall order for a case, but Seidio performed the job beautifully and then they brought out the Inno II for the iPhone 3g, which I honestly don’t like as much. There’s a hole in the back of the case to expose the apple on the back of the phone, which to me just screams dust and scratch magnet, and then there’s the fact that they’ve introduced new colors and I’m not really a fan of any of them.… [Read More]

Smartphone Experts HD Skin Case

It’s not hard to notice that the local news media outlets and their outdated websites has become one of my pet peeves. I suppose I should be a bit more honest about why this is a pet peeve of mine though. You see, it really boils down to the fact that I have a satellite dish and they charge extra for access to local TV stations, and signal for the local TV stations where I live is laughable. I suppose that’s the way of things when you live on the side of a mountain, but you would think that these things would improve with time as technology advanced. Here, they don’t. I’ve lived in this town for over a decade and I have never lived in a part of town where you could get good local television signal. When I first moved here, cable didn’t offer the local stations as part of any of their packages and then, when they did add them, you had to pay extra for them.… [Read More]

The Internet Should be Platformless

Netflix announced that its silverlight plugin that allows Mac users to use the Netflix Instant Watch feature is available today, as in like.. right now. If you go to netflix from a mac, and click on “Watch now!” on any instant play title, it forwards you to a page where you can download the silverlight plugin.

However… I think I am going to wait a week and see how this one shakes out first. The early reviews from beta testers of the Silverlight plug-in were not at all positive and one guy complained that he actually had to reboot his mac. Given than I haven’t had to reboot my mac once in the last week or shut it down, I find there to be something inherently wrong with that idea… so I’ll wait.

What about the rest of you mac users out there?

Are you brave enough?… [Read More]

Netflix Silverlight Plugin for Mac is in the Wild.

I can’t blog 24 hours a day, and I saw the news late last night that Apple had pulled down the support page that I linked to yesterday, saying that the page was old and outdated and that OSX contained features which made it resilient against viruses and exploits.

Apple made several good arguments about why antivirus software wasn’t necessary and could be detrimental to performance on the mac because antivirus software tends to be fairly intensive and hogs system resources that users could be using to get things done.

It’s a fair statement, and if the design of their OS is any indication, I’d have to say that Apple is probably fairly thorough, but I believe that end users do stupid things like, just a shot in the dark here, surf porn sites. If they aren’t surfing porn sites, then they are doing things like looking for freeware software, and I have a love for the open source community and free software myself, but there are unsavory characters out there that will use that to take advantage of unsuspecting computer owners who don’t know any better.… [Read More]

Apple Pulls Down Antivirus Support Page