Tag / Apple

by Greg

iPhone-mania


In case you haven’t heard… Apple will be releasing what they think is the next “iPod”. (That’s not what they’re saying… they are just super excited about this device.) It’s a phone, but way more than that. If you haven’t seen the commercials, or read or heard much about it, you can visit Apple’s website for a great collection of information, photos, videos, tutorials, etc. They have upgraded it this week in anticipation of the Friday release of the new device.

We will not be getting one because 1) we don’t have five or six hundred dollars to spare, and 2) we don’t use cell phones 🙂 But MAN do they look amazing. Really, check out the site if you have not visited it yet.

I sent out a newsletter to my Apple mailing list today (you can sign up for that here), and put up a couple updates on my blog (that’s here). But most of them link back to that iPhone site. So, stop by and pay them a visit why don’t ya.

And, if you want one… you know where to find me. I’ll be happy to help.

by Greg

Shopping List

We are really not spending any extra money at the moment. We are paying bills, buying food and other necessities, investing in our house a bit, and then just GAS to visit family and such. But no extra “toys” at the moment. It’s kinda hard… but, OK. We’re dealing with it… 🙂

IF I WERE to make a little list of what we’d buy (had we the cash…) it might look something like this…

  • AppleTV (refurbished) – $249 [reg: $299]
  • Airport Base Station (802.11n!) (refurbished) – $159 [reg: $179]
  • 20″ Cinema Display (refurbished) – $499 [reg: $1299]
  • Quicktime Pro (software) – $29.95

Refurb is the way to go, since it comes with the same warranty from Apple, for less!

If anyone is interested in getting me a Father’s Day present….. now you know what to get!! 🙂 🙂

AND, if you want any Apple stuff yourself, don’t forget to ALWAYS SHOP HERE. Thanks. 🙂

(Stop by my Apple site for more info, or to contact me about getting Apple stuff…)

by Greg

Steve Jobs Keynote… Coming Up!

Steve Jobs at an Apple Keynote SpeechJust to remind…

This Monday, out in San Francisco, CA, Steve Jobs will be taking the stage once again to reveal all the fun new Apple products. It’s so funny. People pay THOUSANDS of dollars (well, I think a ticket to this event is $1595) to go see this hour or hour and a half speech, and everyone else sits at one or two websites that refresh every 60 seconds, following along as bloggers post text comments about what Jobs is saying. Hilarious.

But, that’s where I’ll be Monday at 1pm EDT! 🙂

Just wanted to let you know.

If you want a ticket, go here. If not, check out this site for live updates as the event is happening…

I predict we’ll see new displays (agreeing with a friend‘s prediction), and an update to iLife and probably iWork ’06. Not sure what computer might be updated as they just refreshed the Mac Pro, MacBook and MacBook Pro lines. We’ll see.

Even with my full weekend, I’m sure I’ll find time to be at least a little excited/curious about what we’ll see on Monday. 🙂

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. 🙂

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. 🙂

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… 🙂

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…) 😉

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. 🙂 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…) 🙂

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

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!!!” 🙂 (Which, though I’m 100% certain they did not have Skyline, got across the point that they were peoples just like us.) 🙂
  • Jen wants to make resurrection rolls. That’s awesome. 🙂
  • 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 🙂 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… 🙂
  • 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! 🙂 (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!