Shin
Mar
08

What’s in a name; the new iPad

You know journalism has hit rock bottom when there’s a whole slew of news posts around the web either complaining about the new iPad not being called the iPad 3 or iPad HD or saying the fact that it’s called the iPad and nothing else signals the end of Apple or the downfall at least.
Here’s a news flash you idiots; turn over your iPad 2, what’s it say?
That’s right, iPad. Not iPad 2.
Now look at your iPad 2 box, what’s it say? Why surprise, it says iPad, not iPad 2.
So basically nothing’s changed and Apple has for the third time released a model of the iPad which once again is simply called iPad and be referred to for conversation’s sake as the iPad 3.
Seriously, people…

Feb
27

VLC 2 vs. MPlayer OSX Extended

VLC 2 has been released for the Mac and it works wonderful. Up until now Mplayer OSX Extended was my preferred player considering as we still watch quite a bit of anime and the old VLC had a habit of choking on some of the more exotic formats used in the encoding of those. Plus Mplayer rendered the subtitles better.
Now it seems the other way around and I’m back on VLC.
I noticed the following oddity as well, in VLC the title is rendered perfectly but in Mplayer it’s cut off which I don’t quite understand as it’s animated and I assumed therefor hardcoded. Even weirder because the rest of the video renders the same in both players without cutoffs in either.

Mplayer OSX Extended


VLC

Feb
27

Rebuilding the iPhoto library

More of a note to self seeing as my iPhoto library is already close to 60GB and just keeps growing, if you ever get any glitches with your iPhoto library due to database corruption, thumbnails going wonky or what not; start iPhoto while keeping the Command & Option keys pressed launches the screen shown above with plenty of repair and recovery options.
A further explanation of all the options can be found here.

Feb
17

Mountain Lion sneak peek


Out of nowhere Apple has posted a sneak peek at the next version of their operating system, dubbed Mountain Lion.
For those who have been following the development over the years there aren’t any real surprises, it’s just a very well orchestrated part of the whole master plan. I love iCloud and this is very much bringing all the pieces of the puzzle together in a way only Apple can. iCloud isn’t some hard drive in the sky, it’s an invisible (mostly) and yet integral part of the whole Mac experience. So now the Mac gets Messages, Reminders, Notes & Game Center apps working just the way they do on your iPhone and iPad and syncing through the cloud. A notification center that looks yummy and means I can do away with Growl. AirPlay Mirroring for those of us with big screen tv’s to watch our movies and stuff on.
One announcement that made me chuckle is Gatekeeper. I didn’t see that one coming but it’s a stroke of genius. How to permanently shut up all the idiots who think any day now OSX will get hacked and flooded with viruses? Simple, give the OS a setting that only AppStore approved software can be installed and run, no matter where you downloaded it from. 1-0 for Apple.

So yeah, looking forward to it, no word yet on pricing but I’m guessing another $29.95 release. Or they could give it away for free being the new overlords of the world. Oh, and Mountain Lion is coming this summer. Keep blurring the line Apple.

Speaking of which, I so hope Apple would start their own cel network. They’d pwn.

Feb
16

Steve Jobs video overdose

Someone’s trying to make the ultimate collection of Steve Jobs videos on the web. So far so good.
And better to hear it straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth than read it in a biography that may or may not miss the mark.
Interesting video site btw, nice look and feel to it.

Feb
12

How to avoid sounding dumb when you write about Apple

Word.

Feb
09

iPad wallpapers

Here’s a bunch of iPad wallpapers before Apple comes out with a new Retina model and makes me all depressed.

Feb
05

The iPad is a PC

Nice topic, the iPad isn’t just a PC, it’s the ultimate personal computer.
The fact that some people still argue that it’s not a pc boggles the mind, well my mind anyway. Of course it’s a personal computer. Hell so’s my iPhone. Can it replace my desktop computer? No, not yet anyway, and I doubt it will anytime soon. That doesn’t make it less of a pc though.

Jan
26

Apple’s new quarterly earnings in perspective

Very interesting read on TUAW about Apple’s earnings report, it puts the plain figures in a very interesting perspective.

During the last quarter, iPhone sales reportedly exceeded sales of all Android handsets, from all vendors, combined.
Apple earned almost $34 billion in revenue from iPhone and iPad sales — in three months. Google’s revenue for 2011 — all of Google, for the entire year — was $37 billion.

The iPad by itself, in one quarter, brought in more revenue than 230 out of the Fortune 500 companies earn in an entire year.

The iPhone by itself, in three months, brought in more revenue than McDonald’s made in all of 2010.

Work in progress... not home!
Trying to get all/most of the new code working before I start on the eyecandy.