Gdovin.net

Two weeks ago, you might have noticed that I did not write a Friday post for that week, the reason is that I had just gotten my new Macbook Pro and was busy migrating to it from my old Dell to the Mac and was unfortuantly not able to write a post. I got the newly-updated Macbook Pro, and after using it for two weeks, think it is the best computer that I have used in my entire life.

The Macbook Pro has a gorgeous 15.4 inch screen that is both bright and glossy and make watching video or look at pictures an extremely enjoyable experience. The keyboard is extremely comfortable, and easy to use although, it does lack a home and end key which is nice for when I need to get directly to the top or bottom of a website. Another really nice feature, is that the keyboard has a LED backlight and because of that if there is not enough light then, the backlight will go on allowing you to see the keyboard and get your work done. The built-in super drive makes optical media a simple solution even though it sounds very crunchy and sounds horrible when the drive starts up. The speakers are extremely high quality and equally important they can be amplified to extremely loud volumes. One of the biggest new features is the multi-touch, which has gotten rave reviews both positive and negative over the lack of buttons. I think it works extremely well without the button and allows the users to customize their trackpad to the way they like it. Although the gestures are cool, I have not incorporated them in my daily life mainly because I don’t use the trackpad built-in to any of my laptops but, also because I have not gotten a chance to learn them all yet because there are so many and I do not see them as much of a time saver. Another thing the Macbook Pro has over the Macbook is the firewire port and an express card slot. These are important mainly to professionals who need firewire for cameras and express card to expand their computer, the average user probably is better saving money with a Macbook unless they need faster graphics, express card or Firewire. Another amazing feature is a hardware battery meter which can be used whether the computer is on or off to determine what the battery charge is, previously this was on the bottom of the laptop but, it is now in the much more convenient location on the side of the laptop.

As far computing goes, the Macbook Pro runs a 2.4 GHZ duel core processor which makes computing very fast and also has the option to be upgraded as high as 2.8 GHZ. The Macbook pro comes with 2 GB of the new, faster DDR3 RAM and has been tested to utilize as much as 6 GB of RAM. The other feature the Macbook Pro has over the Macbook is it has two graphics cards and allows the users to toggle between the two cards for the option of better graphical performance or better battery life. The switch can be made simply by selecting option and then logging out and logging back in.

Overall the Macbook Pro and the Macbook, which is really the same computer with a slightly less-powerful processor and smaller screen are both extremely elegant and powerful laptops. I only have two complaints, first is that all Mac notebooks do not have memory card readers which is something that I think every computer needs since, more and more devices use memory cards and a memory card reader is something that every computer should have. My only other complaint is that the new line of Mac laptops use a proprietary display port that require users to buy an adapter just to use a secondary monitor which is plain ridiculous for a computer at that price! Even though I veyr rarley use a secondary display I always like having the option and choice to use it.

I plan to continue coverage of my major switch expirences not only for the remainder of Apple Week but, also throughout the future of my blog.

It seems that when ever Apple so much as updates it’s products or it’s CEO, Steve Jobs, looks a little sick, they make front page news. Apple is the subject of a wide variety of rumor sites and speculation. Everything Apple does ends up being a big deal and why doesn’t Microsoft’s Product announcements or any other company get as much attention when they put out their new products. I believe that there are several reasons that this occurs and this is also why people are willing to pay more for their products.

The primary reason is that they have a “cult” leader, Steve Jobs, that makes product announcements exciting and makes them something people will remember years in the future. He also makes his keynotes by adding his unique style in it and adding humor when necessary.

The next reason Apple has the following it does and why people are willing to pay the extra money for the mac is because Apple products have become a fashion statement and is cool to have them. Apple also has the best advertising campaigns around and by making their products appear to be the best around and by putting their commercials to catchy songs as they usually do, which makes the song get stuck in the viewer’s head and has them thinking of the product all day.

Even though a lot of Apple’s products are not the first of it’s kind, Apple makes it’s products unique and make the consumers want to have the best even if it really isn’t. For example, before Apple released the iPods, MP3 players existed from many other companies but, Apple made their iPod be simple and elegant and the iPod ended up getting a 75% market share in the Mp3 player market. Same with the iPhone, there have been smartphones since the 1990’s but, when Apple released theirs they made it such a big deal that it was able to gain a 25% market share in it’s first year.

Finally, Apple computers cost more than a Dell or HP computer yet many people choose the mac why? It is because Apple’s operating system is more advanced than Windows, is more secure and provides much more simplicty. Mac OS has been a major improvement in my computing life and is probably the best computer choice I have ever made. Apple could put a product that hardly works on the market but, it will still sell because the Apple brand is so powerful.

I have decided that every once-in-a-while, I will do an entire week’s worth of blog posts about a single area of interest. I hope that these theme weeks will allow me to share everything I can about certain topics and allow all my topics to combined under the one encompassing theme. I will not be doing a single theme every week but, I will do it when I have a bunch of topics I want to put together.

I recently got a brand new Macbook Pro and this is my very first mac! I decided that because this is a big change that I would dedicate the next blog posts for this copming week to cover all sorts of Apple topics from software, to an actual review of my Macbook Pro and much more. I hope to express and share my new expirences with everyone and help others making the switch to the Mac.  I hope everyone enjoys Mac week and all the other theme weeks in the future. I will also have a special category for all the theme weeks so that you can read the whole week’s worth of articles with ease.

As I memtioned on my post on Moday, I mentioned that I will provide everyone with a list of services that allow you to get the services that Mobileme provides for $99/year for either free or much less. Another benifit of my list will be that these services do what  they are supposed to and syncronization is somewhat more reliable. So here is my list to save you money instead of getting Mobileme.

1. Web Storage- Adrive gives their users 50 GB of web storage for free! That is a big step-up from paying for 20 GB!
2. Email- Gmail, setup IMAP for all your devices, and you have mail that works just like Mobileme but is free and has more features and more storage space! (7 GB instead of 5 GB)
3. Contacts- Gmail contacts is a great contacts manager and covers the contacts  element of MobileMe
4. Calendar- Google Calendar is another great service provided by Google and if you set it up on your devices you can sync it to all your devices as well if not better than MobileMe.
5. Photo Gallery- Sharing pictures is really a no-brainer, Flickr is the defacto photo sharing site and because of that I am recommending that as a replacement of MobileMe’s photo sharing feature.
6. Website- There are a vast list of free services for making your own website for free, I reccommend Google Sites because it is great for the inexperienced web developers.

I have just listed servics that you can get for free instead of having to shell out $99 every year! I think this is a much better option for people to get Exchange-like services for everyday life.  I know that I went very pro-Google but, that is because I uses Google serivces everyday and use that for personal information and know how easy it is!

Anymore, I seldom watch my favorite television shows when they actually air on cable for the first time. This is for two reasons: first, I have recently cut back on how many shows that I watch but also,  I have began watching the shows over the internet from the network’s websites and other joint ventures like the one I am going to talk about today. As I mentioned in a prior post,  I love for buying shows off the Unbox On-Demand Video Store from Amazon, but, I also like save money watching by watching TV shows from Hulu, which is a joint-venture between several production companies. This service allows people to stream TV shows and movies for free with only brief advertisements. This is a great service,  because no one wants to pay for every single episode they want to watch in most cases just once, plus the shows can be watched anytime they want, although shows do “expire” at some point but, for the most part shows usually stay up for the whole season. Another advantage of watching shows on Hulu is you actually save time, a 30 minute show is only 23 minutes on Hulu and allows you to enjoy your shows more together instead of having four  2-minute commercial breaks breakingup the show making it more much more disjointed and harder to follow.

This is a great way to try out new shows that you might be interested in or are unable to sit down and watch because of your busy schdule. Hulu allows the viewers to pick the time that is best to watch and enjoy the show at their lesiure. Also, by watching on your own computer screen, you get a better quality image because it is usually higher resolution than a television. I believe that as more and more networks put their shows online, the new generation will begin to not pay for a cable television subscription and will instead watch as many free shows on Hulu as possible and then buy shows their either really like or cannot get on Hulu. I believe that this is the future of Television and between the shift of regular networks putting their content online and the further development of Internet-based video networks cable will cease to exist

In this highly computerized world I truly do not see the point of a person having a landline phone number. Anymore, everyone has a cellular phone that they carry around with them anywhere. Plus, if they want a phone line that they can have at  home Skype is a great option as are many voice-over-IP or VOIP solutions could be a great replacement. Not only can you access you VoIP from anywhere over the Internet but, you can also save a lot of money, Skype out, or making a call from VOIP to a regular phone number is $2.99 a month for UNLIMITED calls to the US and Canada and for Unlimited calls worldwide that is only $9.99/year. Plus to get a phone number coming in to your computer for receiving calls is $60/year. That is only $96/year and you can take that number anywhere you go and if you want to call unlimited internationally, then it is still about $180/year. That is still probably a major savings over your regular phone bill and can go anywhere!

The one disadvantage, is that you cannot make emergency service calls but, cell phones are. Plus, you are now relying that your Internet service is not down when you need to make the crucial business call. Also if you have a cell phone, then you can take your phone with you anywhere.

I believe that, landlines will evolve into VOIP and will then make the move to primary use of cell phones and then when worldwide WiFi is developed cell phones will switch to VOIP-based cell phones. I believe that these evolutions have already begun and will take full-spring in the next 5 years and then the second revision will come about in another 3-5 years depending on the availability of an omnipotent WiFi network.

The concept of “Cloud Computing” has been floating around the internet for the past few years and I have mentioned it several time and posted about it several times but, realized that I haven’t addressed what  Cloud Computing is and what changes it will make to computing in general. Cloud Computing the concept of running applications and storing data on third-party systems apposed to storing data on computers physically accessed by the user and installing applications on those machines.

The benifit of this is that if the user has multiple computers, as many do, they have to transport their data between systems nor do you have to install, update application and in some cases, pay for licenses for all their machines. This also requires that the user would have to take their machine with them when they travel or go to school or work. With cloud computing people could use their documents from anywhere with an internet connection. This also opens the capabilities of collaboration and working with people who could be across town or across the globe and work together. There are some prime examples of this one being: Google Docs and Spreadsheets another great example is Projectpath which allows people to collaborate on work from anywhere.

There are still some disadvantages to going Cloud only, first of all, you need an internet connection which means if you are in Sticksville you loose acess to all you applications and data because a worldwide wifi connection does not exist yet and until then, backup applications and copies of data is a necessity. Another problem, is that the web-based applications are not as fully developed as local applications. The reason is that  web programing languages are not as well developed as local languages and cannot have as many features as the local applications meaning that if you need some of the more advanced features of the local application equivilents then, your choice is easy to stick to the local application. However, most users do not use all the features any given application has to offer because there is almost never a need for all the features. However, with the added collaboration it is a very useful tool when working in groups.

This is not the last mention that I will not make of Cloud Computing I will post, I plan to post frequently about cloud computing because I really think that in the next few years, Cloud Computing will blossom into a mainstream use and will be widely used soon. I think that as a blogger it is my responsibility to bring these services to the attention of the public and introduce them to a whole new wave of technology.

A few months ago,  Apple had relaunched it’s .Mac service as a MobileMe and has graciously christened it “Exchange for the rest of us”. The idea is getting enterprise-like Exchange features without going through the work and expense of setting it up and managing it! I signed-up for a trial account and would like to post my thoughts about it and to help anyone considering to sign-up for this service to determine whether or not they would really want to get it. First off, I would like to say anyone who knows me well or has read my copious amounts of Apple-related blogs, knows me as a Bona Fide Apple Fanboy and this review will totally go against that  although, this is not intentional, I am writing this post to  save people from signing up for a service that they might regret spending their money on. With that said, I will go ahead and write my thoughts on Apple’s Mobile Me Service.

I would like to list the service you would get if you decide to sign-up for Mobile Me:

1. Web Storage- You get 20 GB of storage which is good for backing up files and sharing media or hosting a website. However, you can sign up for Amazon S3 account and pay just $3/Month or $0.15 per Gigabyte and you can expand that and not get cut off at 20 GB making it a much more useful service.
2. Mail- You get a 5 GB email account with the username of your choice @me.com. The exchange part of this service is that the email pushes to all your devices like your iPhone, iPod Touch, computer mail client, and webmail. I will write further on this “Push” service and it’s reliability.
3. Address Book- You also have a Push address book where you can add contacts from anywhere and it “Instantly” synchronizes with all your devices.
4. Calendar- It also synchronizes your events calendar with all your devices as well “instantly”.
5. Photo Gallery-  Share your photos online once again, you could get free flickr or if you want unlimited picture uploads, get Flickr Pro for $25/Years!
6. Iweb- A service that allows Mac users to use iWeb of the iLife Suite and publish websites with ease. Once again, using a higher quality web service like my amazing host 1and1 which is a much more professional host and allows the developer to do virtually anything with plans starting for only $3/month.

In concept, MobileMe is a great concept cloud computing solution however, the “Push” services are some what unreliable and have given early adopters issues. I also have tried to use their web applications and they are extremely slow in comparison to Google’s apps, which are FREE, and is ridiculous in my opinion to pay for web apps which I live in daily that are slow and lagging. I also think that to be a  complete web suite it needs a task list application like Remember the Milk with sync capabilities that actually works. If a service doesn’t work 99.9% of the time, then it is not worth paying the service fee. I do believe that in a few months, Apple will finally kick out all the bugs and make it a good Cloud Computing service but, I think that most of it’s services can be obtained for either free or for a smaller fee. In fact, I will write a blog post later this week on how to save the $99/Year from MobileMe and I expect a cut of the savings!  So, check Gdovin.net everyday this week to find that post. Until then, reconsider getting Mobileme it is not worth the price especially since I will be writing a post about how to get the services for much less in a few days!

Many people have fallen for Apple’s iPod Touch which is the iPhone without the phone. It gives people the option to have all the features the iPod Touch has to offer without having to get an AT&T contract or going through the process of canceling your current cell phone plan. The only thing the iphone has that the iPod Touch doesn’t is 3G Internet, phone capability, and a fully plastic case.  Personally, I had wanted to get an iPod Touch as a replacement Media player until I realized that my Nokia N800 Internet Tablet can actually do almost everything the iPod Touch does and more for less money.

The fact is the N800 isn’t a iPod Touch, it doesn’t have the sleek UI or design but it has a lot more options and  is way more open. The Nokia N800 starts around $200 and comes with a 2 GB internal memory card and 2 GBs of RAM. The N800 also has an additional SD card slot easily accessable and great for transfering files and storing media files.  Plus, application on the iPod Touch must be acquired through the official Apps Store and have to be approved by Apple before going on the market. The applications for Maemo can be acquired either through repositories and installed through there or they can be downloaded as a .deb, install, or source code file from any website and installed on your device. Of course they aren’t guaranteed to work but, you will just have to go through some trial and error testing. Then for storage you can go to Newegg, Amazon or any other retailer and buy a SD memory card and simply fill it with your media files and what ever other data you would like to have on your device. I was able to find a 16 GB SDHC card for $30 on Newegg and that combind with the cost of my N800 makes it $230 while an iPod Touch of that capacity is $299.

Also realize, that with the N800 you can do almost anything you want with your N800 as far as installing software and lets you do what you want with it. I was also considering comparing this to the iPhone but the fact is, that the N800 does not have a cell phone or 3G Internet although it does have Voice Over IP like Skype and Gizmo that lets you make calls to landlines over the Internet for a small fee.  But it still is relying on Wifi being available so it is still not able to compete. All-in-all before spending on a iPod Touch think about the N800 as an option it could do everything the iPod Touch does and can be used for almost anything you can imagine.

Apple has recieved a lot of hate for locking down their Application store to only applications they approve to run on their iPhone. This allows Apple to lock out any application that is malicious, competes with Apple’s services, breaks any laws or anything Apple just plain doesn’t like. On the other hand, the HTC Dream G1 lets anyone write an application and allows it to put on their phone.  Windows Mobile devices and Nokia’s Internet Tablet allow you to download software from any website and install it on your device and letting you do what you want with your device whether tht is just using the pre-installed apps or writing your own application and running that on your device. There are arguments in favor of both methods and Apple has been disliked for enforcing their strict policies that restrict iPhone users from installing Voice over IP applications like Skype on their iPhones.  On the other hand, people could install all sorts of weird applications on their Windows Mobile device, like I did with my Dell Axim X50 pocket PC, and have applications that don’t work or could corrupt your device breaking features or just bricking your device.  I will round-up all the advantages and disadvantages of having an open system and will then suggest what the best system is.

Advantages:

1. Install what ever you want and do what you wish with your device- At the end of the day you own that device and you really should be able to install anything, within the limitation of the laws, on that device because it is your property and bought it to use it for what you want it for.
2. Choice- If the service provider is filtering which applications can and cannot be installed on your device.  So as an example, if the Gphone would only allow Google Talk and you are a heavy skype user that would force you to either adopt a new service or just stop you from using your phone for VOIP.
3. Options- Finally, keeping your options open is always a good thing. Apple is not allowing certain categories of applications be allowed to  on their device and I really like having the option of doing almost anything on my device.

Disadvantages:

1. Malicious Applications- If you are installing applications on your devices whether it be a computer, handheld computer, or a cell phone people could try to purposly sabbotage you and write a application to break your device.
2. Unmaintained Applications- Some people might right an application with the highest quality in mind but, they are just not an accomplished enough programmer to make it work right or they just give up and leave any users stuck with a half done application. The application may just not work right or could mess up your device and by closing the system the provider can weed out the bad applications.

Solutions:

In the end opening up to any software gives the user the freedoms they really have the legal right to in buying a device. While I do agree that applications should be filtered for quality assurance reasons only  for the best interest of the consumer not the company, the best method I have come across is the method of approval for Mozilla Firefox add-ons. They way it works is anyone can develop and add-on for free and submit it. Then the community can test a pre-release version and people would have to agree specially to use an addon that is not fully developed. I think if Apple were to adopt this and let peope install what they want then, they will probly gain even more users because the users have more options on what they can use their iPhone for.

I also would like Maemo and other open platforms to adopt this because, I hate it when applications suddenly stop working or crash after an update.  Also, for saftey and  preventing acidentally installing malicious applications you should always read comments made by other users of the application to see if they have any complaints. Also, make sure that it is not some random person’s website and make sure the site seems legitimate and it not some scam to ruin your device and steal your data.