The Preferred Toronto Apple Reseller of MacMedics:
The Preferred iPod and iPhone repair shop in Toronto of MacMedics:
A Safe Way To Dispose Of Your eWaste – And Get A Tax Receipt Too!
My Preferred Canadian-Based ISP
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Nov
23
Tips From The Apple Core
Filed Under Advice, Fun, Tips, Views | Leave a Comment
iMacs, MacBooks, Mini’s, MacPros – all these great machines with the best feline Operating System (Leopard) around and what do most people do – write email and surf the web! Okay, not everyone. What I do hear a lot is that we all have these wonderful computers, but we tend to either under-use them or not know how to fully utilize what have in our hands.
My job, which is my delight, is help people find solutions to the things they do everyday. There are a lot of great resources out there and I will be forthcoming with more. A great place to start is with Apple’s very own and very helpful Quick Tips Podcast. When you click on this link iTunes will open and navigate to the proper place. There you will find 30 second videos that will demonstrate some of the basic and not so basic features you never knew you didn’t know (Rumsfeld anyone?). This is a great resource for beginners and old-hands alike.
What is a Podcast? Think of a Podcast like a radio program – which is what it basically is. There are thousands of audio and video podcasts being made by both Professionals and non alike and they are available to you directly from within iTunes. Just click on the Podcast selection in the left-hand source menu, choose to view the Podcast Directory and be prepared to be amazed. What’s even better – most are FREE! You can listen on demand, subscribe to ones you like, sync them to your iPod or iPhone – did I mention they’re FREE?!
Nov
22
iPhone 2.2 Update Followup
Filed Under Advice, Tips, iPhone | Leave a Comment
Just a quick note to suggest those of you thinking of updating to the latest 2.2 update of the iPhone: read the user forums before doing so. Another page listing issues is the iPhone Atlas.com. Oh yeah, Happy Birthday Dad!
Nov
21
VS
“But people who were hoping for a credible iPhone alternative fortified with BlackBerry’s strengths as a mobile tool for corporate travelers will likely find the Storm a disappointment. When it comes to touch interfaces, Apple still has no peer.” – PC World’s Yardena Arar
And no WiFi!
The Blackberry Storm will be released today (Friday) and the first hands-on quick reviews are out. They make for good and essential reading. I have already written a preliminary piece on this device based on news around the web. Those of you who are gadget hungry and have been waiting for a touch screen Blackberry may be disappointed. Also be aware that the new Storm may not be able to sync to your Mac. At the moment, Pocket Mac, whose sync software is licensed by RIM for use with the Mac OS, does not support the recently released Blackberry Bold (however, The Missing Sync does and, it appears, the Storm). RIM has promised more Mac centric apps and tools from it in the first HALF of 2009!
Editor’s Note 11-26-2008 – Read David Pogue’s NY Times Review of the Storm – the iPhone has nothing to worry about!
In Other News:
Don’t be surprised if iPhone owners wake up to a new 2.2 Firmware update. iTunes 8 was just updated this evening to version 8.0.2 in anticipation of the new firmware which will bring greater security, Google Maps street views, direct Podcast downloading (yeah!) and more to the evolving Jesus Phone. If you do update your phone, please allow iTunes to make a backup. I also suggest you backup your iCal calendar and Address Book as outlined in my downloadable guide in the How To… section of this blog.
Nov
19
The Other 90%
Filed Under Recommendations, Tech News, Views | 1 Comment
Last year I heard about an idea that really caught my attention – so much so that I participated with my support and money. That idea and now reality is One Laptop Per Child spearheaded by Nicholas Negroponte. The program aims to provide laptops for the other 90% of us – the $100 laptop. What exactly is One Laptop Per Child about? It’s about the power of education. It’s mission statement is
…to create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.
Since this is a blog about technology I can’t think of a better way to spread it’s potential than through programs of this kind. Last year the OLPC launched it’s Give One Get One special which allows a supporter to both buy one and either get one for a child here in North America or themselves and/or donate both to the enterprise and this week began that campaign again.
The price is kept down by the scale of the program and the non-profit nature of the approach. I suggest watching Nicholas Negroponte’s TED video (a little dated from 2006, but the it’s all there) and the website to get a sense of the vision.
Given the recent election of Barack Obama in the United States on the theme of change, here is a way to make a real difference in a child’s life, a community’s hope and humanity’s future generation(s):
Most of the nearly two billion children in the emerging world don’t have access to adequate education. The XO laptop is our answer to this crisis—and after nearly two years, we know it’s working. Almost everywhere the XO goes, school attendance increases dramatically as the children begin to open their minds and explore their own potential. One by one, a new generation is emerging with the power to change the world..
There are many worthy causes and good ideas vying for attention this time of year – this is my pitch for just one. Check out this link for more videos and pics and see how this incredible tool is making a difference.
“With the laptop we can say that our school is really elevated because the children are really learning more… They see themselves discovering things that they have never been doing before.” — Mrs. M., Galadima School, Abuja, Nigeria
Nov
12
Guess Who’s a Mac…
Filed Under Ah Ha!, Fun | Leave a Comment
Truly change we can believe in! The Mac has finally arrived! Will an iPhone be next? Here are 50 other facts you may not have known about the President Elect:
• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
• He was known as “O’Bomber” at high school for his skill at basketball
• His name means “one who is blessed” in Swahili
• His favourite meal is wife Michelle’s shrimp linguini
• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father
• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed
• He has read every Harry Potter book
• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali
• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can’t stand ice cream
• His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars
• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia
• He can speak Spanish
• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead
• His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea
• He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn’t
• He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia
• He can bench press an impressive 200lbs
• He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name
• His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister’s fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived
• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy
• He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books
• His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
• He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck
• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.
• His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees
• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date
• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker
• He doesn’t drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol
• He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician
• As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine
• His daughters’ ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)
• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside
• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal
• His house in Chicago has four fire places
• Daughter Malia’s godmother is Jesse Jackson’s daughter Santita
• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry
• He uses an Apple Mac laptop
• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300
• He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits
• He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes
• He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)
• His favourite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire
• He was given the code name “Renegade” by his Secret Service handlers
• He was nicknamed “Bar” by his late grandmother
• He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds
• His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso
• His speciality as a cook is chilli
• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were “street urchins”
• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life
• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government
Nov
11
A Perfect Storm?
Filed Under Tech News, Views | 2 Comments
It seems storm analogies abound these days what with the world financial situation and it’s effects on Main Street and Wall Street (as well as Joe The Plumber and Henry The Hamster). So on the heels of the recent news that Apple was number 1 among US consumers (are there any left?) in the 3rd quarter of 2008, ahead of the Motorola Razr, number 2, the now number 3 company – our very own home-grown RIM – is poised to finally release it’s own storm – the highly anticipated Blackberry Storm.
Everyone knew it was coming and it does look very impressive. The specs seem to have a lot going for it – a touch screen with a stylus (I’m not sure if that means you need a stylus or you can use a finger and/or a stylus), horizontal email typing (a hole in the iPhone filled by a few apps on the App Store), a 3.2 megapixal camera with video capture (nice) and more. The demo on Rim’s site shows a touch screen QWERTY keyboard, but it looks like one of those layouts with the dual letters on each key (now touch key) is being used in Vertical mode- I personally never liked this approach. The good news is that it has a normal key-letter separation configuration in the horizontal position.
I’m sure this will be a big seller although no price seems to have been set yet. Is this an iPhone killer? Absolutely not. Everyone is playing catch-up to the iPhone’s incredible interface and ease of use (with little success) and RIM is no exception. I’m sure the folks at Apple are well aware of what’s going on and much more is to come from the creative minds at Cupertino. The plot thickens.
Nov
3
The iPhone and The Economy
Filed Under Tips, Views, iPhone | Leave a Comment
I’ve been receiving requests to write about different topics so today’s post is going to deal with iPhone battery life and how it relates to the current economic situation (the second part was my idea).
The iPhone, if not configured properly, will suck the energy from it’s battery much the same way the economy, having been left to its own devices as in the US (think, for example, the Credit Default Swap debacle there), can suck all the wealth from the coffers. To conserve battery energy and our economy some kind of intervention is required. Apple has posted their suggestions on its website and another set of guidelines was pointed out to me on a site called CrazyGadgetGuru (aka Charles Gordon). I recommend checking out both of these links as they offer excellent tips for better battery care.
One of the more interesting points I discovered from the CrazyGadgetGuru was that lithium batteries (which are used in the iPhone and Apple’s laptops) are best conserved when kept in the middle of their capacity range. He also suggests not to top off the battery to 100% if it’s reading a high charge reading. Another tip is to avoid the 20% left warning as much as possible. His summary is as follows:
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80/20 Rule. Phone is never allowed to fall below 20% level, or charged higher than 80% of indicated capacity.
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Frequent Charging. The phone is charged frequently in the middle of the capacity range, typically from 30% to 70%.
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Phone is charged, stored, and operated as close to 60 degrees as possible
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Web surfing is done with phone resting on a cool marble slab (kidding). Lacking that, it is never stored in a pocket or with a case that has insulative properties.
By following these guidelines/interventions Mr. Gordon suggests one might expect 5 years out of the battery life (instead of the usual 2).
I have found keeping an iPhone car charger around very handy when I’m on the go as well. Apple’s suggestions of turning off the WiFi and/or 3G features to conserve battery life, although well-meaning, makes no sense to me as that defeats the main attractions of the device’s network strengths. Why would I want to primarily use my phone over the slower Edge network? If you don’t need to receive calls (eg. in a movie theatre, out for dinner, at an important event, you find yourself in a no cell zone etc…) I suggest putting the phone into Airplane mode – this will quickly turn off all the main features of the phone until you’re ready to use them again.
So, with a little oversight, user intervention and responsible care one can hope to nurture and promote both a healthy iPhone battery and a healthy economy : ) $$$$$