When I first started using Mozy last October, I truly enjoyed the service and having a backup service where you just “Set it and Forget it” . However about 4 months ago, I have begun to experience issues backing up my data and  have not been able to back-up my data ever since. I contacted Mozy support however, they were unable to help me and told me to do the same thing everytime: uninstall, reboot and re-install. I also realized that Mozy for the Mac, although it is a paid service for unlimited data for $5 per month per computer, the Mac version is still in BETA! I do not want to pay $5 per month for a beta program.

After four months of much wasted time and trying in vain to make Mozy work, I decided that it was time for me to begin to search for a replacement. The first alternative that I looked at was the very popular Carbonite. It provided the unlimited storage that I want however, it did not let me backup data off external hard drives, which for me is necessary because I keep all my video editing files and other very important data on external hard drives and I need to keep that data safe. After some more searching, I found Backblaze. Backblaze, like Mozy, has unlimited storage for $5 per month per computer and allows me to backup my external hard drives.

Don’t get me wrong, when Mozy worked, I loved using it and liked having peace of mind knowing that my data was safe. however, I don’t want to continue wasting time trying to fix a beta product that definitely has its share of bugs. I still like what Mozy is doing and if they repair their issues, I woulod consider going back to them. However, I am very happy with Backblaze and hope it does not have all the problems Mozy has.

Today, I received my upgrade disk for the new version of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard! I had heard from testers and from Apple press announcements that it is much faster than Leopard and frees up hard drive space but, it greatly exceeded my expectations! First off, the upgrade process is extremly easy, you just insert the disk in the computer and run it, no manual reboot or booting from disk! The process was completed in about 30 minutes and the improvements are apparent from first login. The operating system is much faster and snappier although OSX was never very slow. When I opened finder for the first time I found out I had cleared out 20 GB and have a lot more space available on my hard drive!

Picture from My Flickr Page

Picture from My Flickr Page

Image from My Flickr Page

Although the speed and extra hard drive space are the main reasons I bought Snow Leopard, it does have a few new features. My favorite new feature is the new and improved Expose which makes navigating through windows much easier. Also on the Zen front is Dock expose which allows you to click and hold on an Application and lets you see all the windows of that program that are open and navigate through them.  There is also a much need refresh of Quicktime making it much better, Echnage support has been added to mail, and other improvements have been made!

Picture from My Flickr Page

Pictures from My Flickr Page

To all Leopard users pay the $30 and get the upgrade the speed and the extra space are worth it, plus all the extra features make it totally worth the small price! I promise you will love it as much as I have because it is amazing and has once again one-upped Windows and released it 2 months (almost exactly) before Windows 7!

Picture from My Flickr Page

Apple has recently released the newest version of Final Cut Studio, and has made me think that you can put together an awesome video editing suite for much less than you would for a broadcast television network and all digital! Here is the solution that I have put together for video editing!

Computer: Quad Core Mac Pro

$2,599

• One 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
• 3GB (3x1GB)
• None
• 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
• None
• None
• None
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB
• One 18x SuperDrive
• None
• None
• Apple Mighty Mouse
• Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad (English) and User’s Guide

Computer Add-ons:

• Seagate 1.5 TB 7,200 RPM Hard drive $120
• Kingston 6 GB of RAM $130
• Asus 22 inch Widescreen Monitors $170*2 $340
• Maxtor 1.5 TB External Hard Drive $250
• Mini Display to DVI Adapter $30
• DVI Splitter $17

Software

Final Cut Studio $1,000

• Final Cut Pro (Video Editing)
• Color (Color Correction)
• Soundtrack (Audio Editing)
• Motion (Motion Graphics)
• Compressor (Compression)
• DVD Studio (DVD authoring)

Adobe CS4 Production Premium Suite $1,700

• After Effects (Motion Graphics)
• Premeire Pro (Video editing-not as good as Final Cut)
• Photoshop (Image Editing)
• Flash (Animation)
• Illustrator (Vector Graphics editing)
• Soundbooth (Audio Editing)
• OnLocation (Live Video Capture)
• Encore (DVD Authoring)
• Bridge (Media Management)
• Device Central (Device Management)
• Dynamic Link (Media Sharing)

Grand Total: $6,186 (Plus  applicable taxes, fees and shipping)

Instead of having a $100,000 broadcast edit suite you can have this awesome suite for les than $10,000 and has everything you need to edit video and archive with the external firewire hard drive. Although many production comapnies such as Revision3 use Macbook Pros instead of big tower computers to edit and I will be writing another blog post with a notebok version of this solution, however many of the key compenents will be similar. I also plan on writing a budget version and a full production suite version that has everthing you need for your own video production down the line. Also, this solution can be modified by reducing extra monitors, hard drives and RAM or expanded by adding more monitors, hard drives and RAM so you can make it fit your custom needs more. But, over all, this is the custom set that is built specifical for video editors!

As I mentioned in my previous article, books are too expensive and inefficient. However, Amazon has solved that problem with their Kindle ebook readers but why pay for another piece of hardware if you have a iPhone or iPod. and there is a free app for reading ebooks called Kindle and is made by Amazon as well and let’s you buy as well as read electronic books and makes reading anywhere simple.

Reading on the Kindle is so easy you just tap either side of the page to go forward or back in the book. You can even change the font size to create your optimal reading environment. You can also download books off Amazon’s mobile book store and then sync them wirelessly to your device. I have been reading iCon: The Second Coming of Steve Jobs on my iPod Touch and it is the best reading experience of my life.

I reccommend all iPhone and iPod Touch users since it is a free application and books are usually around $10 and let’s you take your books anywhere in your pocket!

Last Tuesday, Phil Shiller, Bertran Surlet, and Scott Forstall took the stage and made some major announcements of updates to Apple’s Product line. It was a big event where big announcements were made and some rumors were proven true. Let’s get into what happened last Tuesday:

New Macbook Pros

• Faster Processors
• Up To 8 Gigabytes of RAM
• SD Card Reader
• New 13 Inch Model
• Built-in Battery
• White $999 Macbook Only Remaining Macbook

Snow Leopard

• Faster Performance
• Built-In Exchange
• Safari 4 With Crash-Prevention
• Quicktime 10
• 3D Dock Rendering
• Expose in Dock
• Faster 64 Bit
• Better Multi-threading
• Upgrade $29 for Leopard Users and Family Pack for $49- Coming Out in September

iPhone 3.0

• Find my iPhone and Remote Wipe (MobileMe Subscription required $99/Year)
• Faster Safari
• Much More
• Released Wednesday June 17th
• MMS (Not in US till end of Summer 2009)
  

iPhone 3GS

• Faster Performance
• 3 Megapixel Camera with Auto focus, White balance, and exposure)
  
• Video Recording, Editing and Sharing
• Compass for Location
• Voice Control
• Longer Battery Life
• $199 for 16 GB and $299 for 32 GB
• 8 GB iPhone 3G available for $99 and 16 GB for $166
  

The time has come once again for Apple to give the Worldwide Developers Conference Keynote.  The keynote will be on  Monday June 8th and will be delivered by Phil Shiller. There has, as always, been flurries of rumors about what we will see, who will do it and when new products will be released.

New iPhone

• 32 GB Model
• Better Camera with Video Recording
• Thinner Body
• Turn-By-Turn Directions
• iPhone 3.0 Software

Snow Leopard:

• Preview of Progress
• Announcement of Release Date

Tablet:

• Not announced at WWDC

Netbook:

• Not Announced at WWDC

Steve  Jobs:

• Reports have stated he has become much healthier and is on schedule to return at the end of June
• Cameo at Keynote????

There you have it my thoughts of what will occur at WWDC this Monday. I will write a review and reaction as usual on Tuesday after the keynote.

The Mac Mini  is a small computer that is currently the least expensive Mac on the market. The reason is because the Mac Mini only comes with the computer and leaves out the keyboard, mouse and monitor which is fine if you have those laying around. However the entry price is very high at $600 and does not provide the specs that are equivolent for that price tag. Howevr, there are a few uses that the Mac Mini is perfect for.

1. Media Center

One of the simplist uses for this, is a media center where you just hook up the Mac Mini to you big screen TV and  unlock a lot of possibilities. First you can play web meda like, Podcasts on your big home theater and other digtial media like music, video and many others in the comfort of your living room. You could also get a capture care to let you use your Mac Mini as a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) to record TV and watch whenever it is convienient for you.Finally, you can surf the internet and watch video on the big screen with sites like Hulu.

2. Home Server

The Mac Mini also makes a great home server where you can store your files for either backing them up, sharing with other computers or streaming media throughout your home. All you need to do is hook it up to your home network and setup file sharing on each computer.

3. Kitchen Computer or Home Management System

Maybe you want to have a computer to browse and store recipies using software like, SousChief, where you can find recipes or to track a family schedule or what you need to pick-up at the market. The Mac Mini is perfect because you don’t need to much power and you can just set this up on a kitchen counter and you can do all this and more.

There are 3 great uses for the Mac Mini and could make it much more worthwhile and more viable. One note though, is that if you don’t want to pay full price you can try and buy it used and save some money!

You don’t need to be a major Apple Fanboy like me to know that Steve Jobs has been on medical leave since January and will not be returning until June and this has brought Mr. Jobs’ health into question and if he is going to be able to return to Apple as CEO. Mr. Jobs had pancreatic cancer in 2004 and although it was treated people, especially shareholders, have questioned if he can continue to lead Apple and if he is about to die who will take over the role of Apple CEO after him. Although Apple claims that Steve will be returning in June and resume his role but, he is 54 and not immortal so at some point in time, he will have to step down from CEO either from resigning or dying while still CEO and many people are wondering who will succeed Steve.  History lesson here, when Steve was fired in 1984, Apple declined until he returned and Apple lost it’s hold on the Personal computer market that it created. The problem was that no one had the charism or skills Steve does and   I have looked at the people I think are possibilities to take over the CEO position and weigh in who I think will be chosen although I hope this plan will not have to be put in action anytime soon.

The Contenders:

Tim Cook

Tim Cook is the obvious choice since, he is the Chief Operating Officer and while Steve is on medical leave he is Interim CEO. He is a very  well qualified business leader but, I do not think he has the charisma that gave Steve the cult following nor, the vision that has fuel Apple’s innovation.

Phil Shiller

Phil Shiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, is well know for helping Steve in his keynote demos and has worked with Steve since he ran NeXt Computer which means he may be more in tune with the Steve’s plan for Apple. The one worry I have is lack of business experience and if he could be an effective CEO and well as a visionary.

Scott  Forstall

Scott Forstall, to me would be the ideal candiate as far as being the visionary who can attract the Apple Cult following as well as keep the vision for Apple’s future alive. The only downside is that he does not have the business experience but, I think if he keeps Cook on as COO as the Business guy and he runs the vision and keeps the Apple culture alive.

Winner:

As I said he is ideal for keeping the Apple cuture alive and not only that reminds me of a younger Steve Jobs and would be good to keep the vision for Apple’s future alive and the culture that keeps the public interested in Apple.

Images Courtesy of Apple Inc. (Apple.com)

What if I told you for the next four days that you could get over $1,000 of software for only $40 and give 25% of that to charity. Well it is true! Macheist lets mac users buy some of the best shareware applciations for a limited time and only for $40! This bundle provides a lot of great apps like: KineMac, a easy to  use Mottion graphics program, Sous Chief , a great cooking application that suggests recipies based on supplies you have, iSale, a program that simplifies selling stuff on E-Bay, Picturesque, a easy image editor, World of  Goo, a great game, PhoneView, an app that lets users view the contents of their iPhone or iPod Touch, Little Snapper, A powerful screenshot utillity, Acorn, a simplified photo editor, and Wiretap Studio, a powerful audio recording utillity. Also, as MacHeist raises more money for charity they will “Unlock” more applications. When they raise a total of $400,000 they will unlock the “killer app” for me Boinx TV because it turns your computer into a video mixer without any  extra equipment. Also when even more money is raised, they will “Unlock”  Espresso, a very powerful web editor and Hit List a great productivity application.

If one application I described peaked your interest, then you should buy it, not only do you get a bunch of great applications but you also give money to charity and help people in need. I suggest that all Mac users invest the $40 and get a great collection of applications  but make sure you do it before time runs out!

As I have said many times before, the iPhone and iPod Touch has revolutionized the mobbile device not only with great features but, also because of the app store which let’s practically anyone write and application that can be distributed and or sold through the app store to the millions of users! The full developer program costs $100 to join and that gives you access to all the developer tools you need and the ability to distribute them over the apps store. If you choose to give your application out for free, then it costs you no extra money to host and distribute the application. If you charge, then Apple takes 30% of all revenue and then the developer gets to keep the other 70%.

I believe the iPhone developer program is ideal for a extra way to make some money either for someone in the workforce developing applications in their spair time or a student developing when they are not in school. If they can develop an app that people want then, they could make some good money just by better utilizing their spair time. I am not saying this is easy since you do need to learn how to program for the iPhone SDK but the good news is that Apple provides a bunch of very helpful tutorials that are able to be downloaded from the Apple developer site. If you have a good idea for an application and a decent amount of free time, consider learning how to program the iPhone it is a nice way to supplement your salery and boost your resume.