Category / Technology

by Greg

Microsoft Surface & The iPhone

Microsoft Surface
Microsoft announced last week a revolutionary “new” interface for computing. I really wanted to comment on it last week, but with a very shortened week, did not find the time to do so. A friend posted a link on his site, reminding me to comment… so, thanks Steve. ๐Ÿ™‚

This really looks phenomenal. It’s a real interface. No mouse… no keyboard. You just use your hands. You can even have multiple touch points. It’s fantastic.

And looks A LOT like the iPhone.

When the iPhone was announced (and demoed) in January, Steve Jobs said they had filed LOTS (he said a number, but I forget what it was) of patents for this phone, and that they would be enforcing them vigorously. And after seeing the Surface demo online last week… I can see now why he said that. ๐Ÿ™‚

Microsoft claims they have been working on this project for five years. I believe Apple claimed a similar time frame for the iPhone. It will be quite interesting to see what happens here… ๐Ÿ™‚

So, if you’d like to check it out… it really does look fantastic. (Link below…) I love the way you can set stuff on top of it and it automatically recognizes it as a device to read or save to! Fantastic.

Apple iPhone Ads - June 29th
In related news… Apple announced today that iPhone will be released to the public on June 29th. They also released some ads. Neat stuff.

Technology is pretty cool!

But of course… Apple’s is just a tad better. (And Microsoft is a LOT better at copying it…) ๐Ÿ˜‰

LINKS:
microsoft surface
apple iphone ads

by Greg

YouTube on AppleTV

YouTube coming to AppleTV
One more thing before I go…

Apple announced yesterday that coming this month there will be a new item on the main menu of your AppleTV. YouTube videos will be accessible right on your living room TV. ๐Ÿ™‚ Pretty cool idea. You even have access to some dynamic content like your History, Most Watched videos, Most Recent videos posted, etc. And right on your TV.

Good job Apple. Click the photo above for a demo.

by Greg

iTunes "Releases" Music

iTunes StoreiTunes has announced today the beginning of their move to DRM-free music (meaning, no copy protection… which has been really annoying to digital music purchasers for quite some time). This also means that people who don’t have iPods can purchase stuff from iTunes and just put the song right on their non-Apple MP3 player now. (I still recommend iPods though…) ๐Ÿ™‚

Read the linked article for more.

They also announced they have added Paul McCartney’s catalog (I believe DRM-free?) to the store. Another first. The Beatles have been scarce to say the least at the iTunes store. But more will be coming.

So, just wanted to let you know… click over to iTunes and have a look!
iTunes Music Store (iTunes link)

by Greg

NEStopia

NEStopia, Nintendo NES emulator for Mac OS XWhile reading an article on some Mac software releases and such, I happened upon a link to a Nintendo NES Emultaor for Mac OS X!!! I checked it out, and it was super easy to install and I found a game that will run on it that I have been wanting to find for a LONG time (Since I had it over a decade ago. Or two??)

A LOT of yesterday was spent playing Mike Tyson’s Punch Out. ๐Ÿ™‚

Now I think I have the boys hooked too. Good stuff.

So now I can play vintage (1987) video games on my Macs!!! Classic.

by Greg

Various Things

  • Kirsten joined us for reading the Bible today (usually it’s just Dad & the boys…) and in today’s story, Jesus was going to have dinner with one of the Pharisee’s named Simon. Well, we had just been talking about how we’d like to go to Wendy’s for dinner, so I said, “Maybe they went to Wendy’s!” The kids all thought that was cool, but the next line said, “So they went to his house for dinner.” I said, “Oh, I guess not Wendy’s. They went to his house. So, they probably had Skyline.” Kirstie replied, “Like us!!!” ๐Ÿ™‚ (Which, though I’m 100% certain they did not have Skyline, got across the point that they were peoples just like us.) ๐Ÿ™‚
  • Jen wants to make resurrection rolls. That’s awesome. ๐Ÿ™‚
  • The Buffalo Bills schedule comes out today (along with the rest of the NFL). It will be announced at 4pm on the NFL Network (which we DO NOT get!!!) and around the same time on the Buffalo Bills website.
  • The Buffalo Sabres have three games to go, and are 1 point behind the Detroit Red Wings for the best overall record in the NHL. Detroit only has 2 games left, so the Sabres are definitely in the driver’s seat. And with games against Boston, Washington, and Philadelphia, they stand a very good chance of winning all of those. Tonight’s game is against Boston, whome the Sabres have a 5-0-2 record against this season! Go Sabres! We could have home ice through the whole playoffs!
  • My wife loves to give gifts. Today I opened my drawers to get my clothes for the day and found an Almond Joy (one of my favorites) on top of my shirts and some travel cups for hot drinks that I enjoy on top of my socks. A fun surprise to begin the day.
  • Mac sales of late have been going at a pretty good clip. At least interest has increased. I am getting calls/emails from folks I don’t even know ๐Ÿ™‚ Pretty fun. I love hooking people up with Macs! And the bonus is, now I also get paid by Apple to do it! It’s not a lot, but it’s definitely a nice bonus! Lemme know if you need one… ๐Ÿ™‚
  • We are Bills season ticket holders once again! It’s a pretty expensive endeavor for us to go to Bills games (tack on another $50 to even $100 on game day for gas, tolls, parking, food, etc.) so a friend reminded us of the wonder of StubHub. It’s a site where you can buy (and sell!) tickets of all sorts. He’s pretty sure we can cover the cost of our tickets to a game or two we want to go to, by selling the games we don’t want to (or, can’t as it were) go to. SO… we have four seats in the Family section, 225 I believe. See ya there! ๐Ÿ™‚ (Guess we’ll find out today WHEN we’ll be going to these games!!!)
  • Jen also surprised me by getting a baby sitter and “taking me” to El Pacifico for dinner last night. It’s our new favorite place. She and I can eat for $15-20 and it’s AWESOME, authentic, Mexican food. Great stuff!
by Greg

Carpet From God, ๏ฃฟTV and Other Web Fun

Well, most of the clean up is done, and a neat-o story from today is…

I called a carpet-laying friend of ours today during a break from cleaning up and asked if he possibly had any scraps of carpet he’d be OK to part with. I told him the situation, and that we had lost all but really one of the scraps of carpet we had formerly been using. He sort of chuckled when he said, “[My partner] just called 10 minutes ago, from a job he’s doing, and asked if I knew of anyone who could use the carpet he just ripped up.” Awesome. That was a fun piece of good news.

I like good news.

Speaking of news… while I was away from my computer…

A (cool) Morphable Model of 3D Faces
AppleTV is Now Shipping
Apple Sent Out a Special Invitation