My iPod is a Touch, pretty sweet, and it sort of held me back from buying an iPhone and selling my soul to AT&T (which is a bad idea in NEPA…we have lots of valley and rolling hills that we tend to call mountains…and in those areas you are lucky if you get any service at all.)  I have a habit of buying the newest iPod when it comes out, not the case this time however.  I have had a 1st generation 2gb nano, then I got the 3rd generation square 8gb nano, and then the 4th generation 16gb nano.  I had decided that I did not want to buy an iPhone when it came out…ok I did but like I said, AT&T around here…the iPhone is no reason to switch networks.

So imagine my depression when Apple came out with the newest nano, with a camera and FM/AM transmitter which I will confess I would totally use.  And my Touch that has no camera, but there are some awesome radio apps I can use, as long as I am connected to wifi.  Along with the new nano having a camera, of course it will do video.  The prices have been dropping also.  You can get a new 16gb nano for less than $200 which is a pretty sweet deal actually seeing as how hey used to be over $200 for the 8gb.

Now if only they would do a new iPod Touch with a camera also (hey Apple, you could totally put in an FM/AM transmitter, I won’t be upset), they now have 32gb and 64gb which will probably be next on my list unless Verizon happens to get the iPhone and release a 64gb iPhone…no suggestions or anything.  Heck, even the iPod shuffle is insanely cheap, a 4gb for less than $100.  They basically look like a hot flash drive…just no USB stick.

So this last part is to Apple, Steve Jobs, whoever can make it happen.  Please make an iPod Touch with a camera (the radio honestly isn’t the kicker), I kind of feel left out without a camera/iPod/computer, just an iPod/computer…I really get annoyed when I have to walk around holding an actual camera and managing the flash and dealing with having the wrong SD card and only being able to take 1 picture.  I just want to have a phone/radio/computer/ipod/gaming system in my hands…

So hypothesis numero uno, what is it going to look like? I have seen concept images where it looks more like just the LCD ripped off of my 3 yr old Macbook (shall we call it the Macbook Touch?). Other images have it looking like a much larger Iphone or Ipod Touch. A 10″ screen is what they are boasting and that would be a little nicer on the eyes when you are watching a movies or video podcasts like I do on my Touch.

Next, what will the OS be? Will it be Snow Leopard or will it be the Iphone OS? If it is going to be something where you will be able to either dock or put on a stand, I would hope that it would be Snow Leopard, but it may be easier to just have the Iphone OS. Unless there are going to be USB ports for plugging keyboards and mouses in or wireless mouse and keyboard capabilities, then I could see something with meat and potatoes running as the OS. What will the hard drive size be? I would think that you would have to start at probably 16 gb if it’s going to be the same software as the Touch and the Iphone. If it will be running the other OS, probably at least 60 gb.

What about connectivity? Will it only be able to connect to wifi or will you be able to get a plan or maybe add it to your Iphone plan? If this tablet becomes huge and everyone is just carrying it around with them, I could definitely see 3G capabilities. Actually, scratch that, I could see 4G capabilities. If you can have a contract for a data plan with this, I see Verizon going all over this. They have been hinting that they will be getting the Iphone in time, which is just prolonging AT&T’s demise. If they can get the tablet and it becomes as big as I think it will, you will see tablets at the gym, in the coffee shops, at the park, in class rooms, everywhere.

You can tell I really have high hopes for this product, please forgive me, I am a bit of an Apple fangirl. So the dates have been flopping back and forth for the release of this amazingness in a 10 inch screen. Some have been saying by Christmas, others October, and the most recent as early as September. $800 is the price that has been flashing around, I would say $500-$700 is a good price range. All depending on the OS again and capabilities.

Either way, I am definitely gonna be asking Santa for one…

Facebook Apps – if you are like me than you have no idea how you got into even playing with these apps… I normally only use Facebook for keeping in touch with college friends. However, I see these as a new way to stagger through my work day.  Some of these apps are meant to just take your mind off of what you were currently doing and waste a little bit of time.  Others are so addictive that you just find yourself now checking your Facebook for updates with these apps and freak out because your co-worker or some friend you haven’t seen in 3 years just beat your Chain Rxn score by 32 million…and you need to sit in an imaginary bubble for just 10 minutes while you try and beat this gloriously high score…I’ve been there already.

1) Farm Town and Farmville (they are both basically the same): Pretty self explanatory, you plant seeds and trees and watch them grow. Then you harvest and sell them for money. The more you plant and harvest, the more experience you receive and then higher your level will be. You can also get animals and fences, buildings, the list goes on. You can also send plants and animals to your friends for their farms. The only down side I have yet to see is you either check your farm too late and have to delete the withered left overs or wait 3 days for your corn/wheat to grow, some plants take 4 hours and some take 3 days.

2) Chain Rxn: This is a super-massive addictive game, no lie. The object of the game is to click anywhere on the screen to start a chain reaction of balls as they bump into the other balls that have explodedfrom the initial ball. The longer the chain goes, the higher the score for each ball that bumps into another exploded ball. I have nothing bad to say about this except that it is the new crack, it’s that addictive.

3) Mafia Wars: I cannot really review this only because I have never played it, though I am going to review it now because it was the first app that made me cringe at using any other app. I used to have about 40+ new updates about my friends’ Mafia and always got invites to join the crew. I am sure that within the next few months, I will probably give up and join. I am a lemming…

4) Bejeweled Blitz: Come on, my generation and even those who may be a little bit older certainly remember the game Bejeweled. I would play that game like it was then end of the world, if I even turned my head away, the Earth would face certain horrifying death. Yeah, I know, I had issues. Either way, Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook is basically Bejeweled 2 with a 1 minute time frame, thats pretty much it. I adamantly tried to burst all of your bubbles there to save you the annoyance, because that is what happened to me.

Hopefully, this little tidbit of highly important information will either have you interested in playing with some of these Facebook apps (there are a TON more out there.)  If you do happen to get into most of the apps I mentioned…send me something for my farm…please…

Microsoft Office 2010

By now, most of us have heard bits and pieces about what Microsoft is planning to do with their next iteration of Office, 2010, including extending the ribbon interface to Outlook and any other program that were without and the collaboration enhancements allowing multiple users to not only edit a document together, but even display PowerPoint presentations in a remote web browse.

However, some interesting news came out earlier about a completely new method of access and use of (most of) the software suite – nearly full featured online versions accessible on any of the major web browsers.  This isn’t a particularly revolutionary move, which is not uncommon when it comes to Microsoft, with Google Docs being so well developed for the past few years, but there is the potential for Microsoft to make a major splash with this release… and did I mention it will be free?

Microsoft has launched an Office 2010 introduction site with videos demonstrating some of the key features, changes and improvements that will be coming with Office 2010, including a video specifically dedicated to the upcoming web based features.

With the Office online services, Microsoft is putting collaboration first.  Documents will be both accessible and sharable through their SharePoint service which will allow groups to share access to a single document, each users’ changed being clearly identified in the sidebar.  The current plan for the Office online lineup is to provide Word, PowerPoint, Excel and One Note with nearly all of the functionality that you would have access to on a normal Office install.  Of course, Microsoft is sure to make the point that you “would never want to lose the full feature set” of a purchased install, but the online versions maintain the ribbon interface and seem powerful enough.

In the video detailing the web interfaces, Microsoft provided a demo of Excel 2010’s web interface.  The dev was able to sort and filter her content as well as use the full formula functionality of the full product.  It seems to me that only the most extreme users would be able to find a major functionality of the online version of these application that was left out.

This announcement would seem to be a direct challenge to the already popular Google Docs which has been providing an almost identical service for the past few year at the same cost.  Anyone who has used Google Docs, though, knows that while it is fully capable of getting the job done, it’s not always the easiest or most efficient.  Google’s recent announcement of their Chrome Operating System (Google Chrome OS) relied heavily on their idea of creating an operating system that was able to integrate web applications as a replacement for actually installing programs in order to be light-weight and netbook friendly.

By announcing a free version of Office that is able to run on any web browser somewhat distills my excitement for Chrome OS due to the fact that Windows 7 is already very “light-weight and netbook friendly” when configured properly, and the ability to run Office without needing to

a) install software to fill the generally small hard driveor tax the underpowered processor

or

b) forcing users to spend a few hundred dollars on basic productivity software (that may cost more than the netbook itself)

As it stands, we still don’t know the full story and there isn’t any version publicly available for the general public to use, so there will still be plenty more to come about what we can expect from Microsoft’s online adventures.  Personally, I can’t wait to see what Microsoft comes up with and how much impact it will actually make.  I’m always in support of heading toward “the cloud!”

I am going to say this first, I am not the most technically advanced person in the world.  Especially when it comes to my Macbook.  I have had this laptop for nearly 3 years now and I am just learning most of the shortcuts and how to use it to its fullest.  I really wanted to learn more and putting the newest Windows OS on my life line was a huge step.  The only reason I really wanted it on the laptop was because I wanted to play PC games and use Office.  This was my biggest and scariest experiment to date, installing Windows 7 on it.  I did face a couple of potholes on the way, Boot Camp Assistant was not my friend, but that was my own fault, too many files to partition. I had to burn two dvds because the first one did not work.  But when it was time for the macbook to preform, I was not let down.  This is why I love my 3 year old macbook.

First off, follow the system requirements it gives you, I only have 1 gb of ram and to date that has been plenty.  I have an 80 gb hard drive but I also have a 320gb external.  As long as you have more than 10 gb of space on your laptop and don’t plan on adding tons more to it, you should be all set.  If you cringed at the idea of having less than 3 gb of space left on your laptop, external is the way to go.

That being said, follow my lead.  Go to the Windows 7 download site, download your copy and make sure to write your serial down.  Then burn the iso to a dvd, its easier with the Mac then a windows machine.  After you have that done, I suggest trying out a free trial of VMWare Fusion.  It was a toss up between Boot Camp and VMWare, but when Boot Camp Assistant decided that it could not partition my hard drive, VMWare was the way to go.  I got the trial of VMWare Fusion and then inserted my Windows 7 cd and about an hour later, I was running Windows and Mac, smooth like butter.  I put the image on my laptop hard drive at first but then I moved it over to my external.  Once I opened the image on my external, it just asked if I had moved or copied it, select moved and it makes the changes.

It was a pretty interesting experience, but with VMWare Fusion, it is MUCH better than dual boot.  You can also use Parallels, which I have used before, but Fusion was much easier to use.

]]> http://www.muchgeek.com/blog/2009/07/the-easiest-way-to-install-windows-7-on-your-macbook/feed/ 0 http://www.muchgeek.com/blog/2009/07/google-takes-to-the-streets-announces-chrome-operating-system-an-os-for-the-web-world/ http://www.muchgeek.com/blog/2009/07/google-takes-to-the-streets-announces-chrome-operating-system-an-os-for-the-web-world/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:32:15 +0000 MG_Chris http://www.muchgeek.com/blog/?p=413 Google has just announced on their blog that they are currently developing their next phase of internet domination by moving into the PC operating system market.  Chrome OS, which Google claims will be shipping on devices in 2010 will be an open-source light-weight operating system designed for users who spend more and more of their computing life on the web.  For some time now, Google has been making a push to take the workload of computing off of the machine and into the cloud by launching services such as Google Docs, Apps and Mail.  With their announcement of a new light-weight OS, it seems that they are furthering their push to get users to become more cloud centric.

“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web.”

It would seem that Google’s intentions are pretty clearly spelled out.  They want to put out an OS that users can boot into quickly and reach out to the internet/web/cloud near instantly to get done whatever work they need.  Personally, I am excited at the prospect of a new challenger in the old OS ring, especially a new one that isn’t set firmly into habits based around a pre-webcentric world and feel that coming from Google, it may actually have a chance.

Media coverage jumps on political scandals, especially when sex is involved. Public interest is so focused on the emotional feed of what we identify as celebrities. It’s natural then for popular interest to leech onto powerful emotional secrets of our entrusted elected officials. I think privacy matters when it comes to public affairs. Former governors Spitzer(D-NY) and Sanford (R-SC) blow up in news feed as medication to the mass that we as a people are far from perfect. The question on my mind: who are any of us to judge? Former governor Blagojevich (D-IL) also got tons of media coverage in his bribery attempts. Drawing a line between the two is arbitrary as sex, money, and drugs are so closely related. Politicians also feel obligated to step down from office when shit hits the fan. It can be difficult to recover from political tensions that weigh down strong enough to cut legal ties. Affairs are definitely a troublesome matter, but this becomes a private matter. The public can definitely push to manage personal emotions better rather than dive into the realm of officials. Remember that our emotional ties with political figures runs as a ballot cast. There are better stories to tell in this world such as stories about individuals who achieve positively. Integrity runs high which might make a resignation feel appropriate, but our judicial system allows for courts to decide guilty or innocent. A marital affair is the emotional burden of a family unit. The national media can stay far away from coverage, and let the state, family, and individuals heal on their own terms. There are psychologists to help with emotional wounds. Individuals serving in group function move much farther than outsiders latching onto the emotions of others.

The New York State capitol is chaotic right now. Republicans and democrats act in huddle as Governor Patterson casts blame on the two groups. It can also be added that Patterson has the lowest approval rating of any New York State governor since the establishment of these same ratings. I understand that it’s often times difficult to reach agreement, but I think a better method of political micromanagement will bring about a compromise. If politicians and the public tune into higher understanding of emotional psychology, both as individuals and in group function, forward progress can again be made. When we reach into ourselves instead of others, the greatest depths of energy are reached. Leave it to libertarian belief to sell Albany what’s good. New York is a great state and amazing things happen here. I just think Spitzer staying in office after his personal scandal is better for the current State of New York and its residents than Patterson’s current blame game.

We can all forget about it and move on. We all have history. The courts can decide if a politician is unfit to serve to benefit the greater good. A resignation in my opinion is a cry for attention. We are human, and we make mistakes. We can serve ourselves better for higher function if we all keep cool and chill out. A social leech sucks the life out from any party. We can govern ourselves, but popular belief in western culture chooses to latch on to others for emotional energy and money. This may be what separates socialist-liberals from neo-conservatives. It’s going to take more energy to heal our own psychological wounds than we can get from comfort in a shallow bay.

Hopefully we’ll have an invite, if we do – expect an in depth feature run down to follow shortly.

ATTENTION WEB SURFER: WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!?!

Is basically the message I was greeted with after restoring a Firefox session following a version update for a few of my saved tabs on sites I visit regularly.  It seems that with its most recent version, Firefox has teamed up with Google in an effort to protect presumably unscrupulous users from accidentally stumbling upon sites that they seem to think will maliciously install software on your system (or, at least, try to).  Seeing a few of my tabs load with a “NO” icon instead of what I would normally expect was quite a shock as these sites it had flagged are not any that I’ve ever considered particularly malicious.  (I’ve been accessing them with no issues for some time now, though my continued use of Adblock Plus and No Script may be the reason for my lack of suspicious activity).

My initial thought was that a random addon would be the cause of this alert, but upon clicking the “Why was this site blocked?” button, I was surprised to see the real answer

It seems that Firefox has now teamed up with, or at least incorporated, Google’s web-safety team which maintains an up-to-date database of potentially harmful websites.  The brief bit of information provided on this screen alone spells out the basics of their operation.  The first line of information that is interesting indicates that as Google has been crawling the site, it has detected 4 pages (out of 202) that tried to install (known?) malicious software on the users machine without, in any way, asking permission.   It then continues to break down which software the site tried to install, where it was hosted and if the site had been propagating malware to other sites.

Since I have never encountered any issues with this site, and it was a relatively small percentage of the pages on the site which attempted to infect users, it would seem that a certain advertisement in a cycling group is the offender.  Again, my blocking of scripts and ads may be why I’ve never encountered any issues, but that is irrelevant to the larger picture at hand.  If, when presented with the initial warning page, you chose the option to “Ignore this warning” which they conveniently make hard to read and demeaningly worded, you are allowed to access the page… but not without one last reminder that you MIGHT be messing up, and if you get infected – it’s not their fault.

I can appreciate the intent behind what Firefox and Google are doing here, in fact, I find the information Google can collect about websites while crawling them to be fascinating!  However.. I’m not very fond of the fact that they implemented and activated this feature by default with no input from or notification to the user.  Also, when looking at the behavior at hand, one can’t help but begin to question what kind of activity may be going on behind the scenes between Firefox and Google.  It would seem that Firefox would have to scan the URL of each site we access and compare it against Google’s database of known dangerous sites to determine that the site has potential to be an “Attack Site.”  I’m sure we would all like to think that this is done anonymously, and that Google isn’t tracking our browsing habits to enhance their inline advertising or for some other purpose, but it is a hard pill to swallow that this is, in fact, the case.

If you consider yourself to be a relatively safe web surfer who has no fear of internet dangers (or if you are paranoid about data mining) they do allow it to be easily disabled.  From the Tools menu, select “Options” and on the “Security” tab, uncheck the box labeled “Tell me if the site I’m visiting is a suspected attack site.”

In the future, let’s hope Firefox will present changes like this is a more noticeable fashion, presenting a popup alert the fist time Firefox is loaded after the setting is enabled; or, better yet, allowing us to chose for ourselves whether we feel the need to have our hands held as we traverse the internet.

A rumor that has been floating around for probably more than a year, but has started to gain more hype, is the possibility that Apple may come out with a new iPhone with Verizon.

Stop right there.  If any of you felt your heart race after hearing of the rumor or just reading this now for the first time, welcome friends!  In an age where we want everything at the touch of a finger, the iPhone is a very handy gadget.  Most smartphones are for that matter.  (Of course the iPhone apps are one of the reasons that Apple had no real competitor other than Blackberry.)

The iPhone, even in some of our generation’s dimmest times, was still increasing sales.  With the App Store, the iPhone can be transformed into anything you want it to be really.  Being someone who is fairly attached to her laptop, I will sometimes drag it out just to check on some news or tweet or play a game.  This isn’t a pain at all, but thinking about just doing it on the iPhone, I begrudge other people’s iPhone joy.  It seems to be the perfect mini-laptop when taking a laptop out just isn’t as practical as it used to be.  In a world where netbooks are selling like mad and laptops are selling much more than desktops, the iPhone fits in well.

If in fact Verizon and Apple do come to an accord for an iPhone, this should make for a take over in the smartphone industry.  One of the key reasons that most people do not have an iPhone is AT&T.  I live in an area where the best service is Verizon and AT&T is subpar, well most other carriers are too.  Because of this, I refuse to move over to AT&T just for an iPhone, though I constantly wish I could deal with the service and just get the iPhone.

From past endeavors, Apple will rarely annouce anything quite as big as a Verizon iPhone in a huge time advance.  Because of this, I doubt that we will hear much about a contract between Verizon and Apple at WWDC which is days away kicking off on June 8th.  If anything, I would expect the iPhone to be on Verizon’s bill in 2010, most likely Fall.  The reason for this is because they did annouce that they had no intentions of changing their partnership with AT&T.

It is no secret that if Apple were to open to other carriers, they would more than double their iPhone sales at present.  Verizon is a very stable network with great reception nearly everywhere I have been with a Verizon phone, even Maine and the boondocks of Pennsylvania and New York.  However, there is a downside for Apple to go with Verizon according to research analysts Craig Moffett and Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research.  Verizon would certainly highten iPhone sales but AT&T would probably lower the subsidy per phone from $450 to $350 or even $250 and that would make us Verizon iPhone cheerleaders pay more for the iPhone with Verizon, unless they lowered the margins on each phone.

Either way, it makes me excited just thinking about using an iPhone with perfect reception at my house where AT&T has yet to expand service near.  Until then, I will be patiently awaiting the grand news.