Dissapointed in O2
But what is really annoying to me is that by not providing any reasonable upgrade path, in my case O2 are potentially loosing money. Let me explain. If I was to upgrade to the new iPhone I would most likely be expected to pay a fee for the new phone, let's say the £185/£88 and also take out a new 18/24 month contract. However I would then immediatley donate my current iPhone 3G to my dear wife and take out an additional 18/24 month contract so that she can use the old phone. However based on the current upgrade options (or should I say lack of?) I am not likely to upgrade, and may also consider jailbreaking my current phone in 8 months time and saying goodbye to O2 . Instead O2 could have had £185/£88 from me, another 18/24 months of £35 and a second (totally new customer) 18/24 month contract of £30/35 per month without even having to issue a new phone to my wife, the new customer. I may even have handed back my T-Mobile mobile broadband and moved to O2 for and extra £15 per month to use the 'thether' function on the new iPhone.If you have any thoughts/feeings regarding upgrading please let me know.
Read More...
Book: Macintosh...The Naked Truth
Two books in one week
(four days to be exact) that must be a personal
record! It's been a few years since Scott Kelby wrote
and published this book and some of it is a little
dated now. That said the book is still a great read
for any Mac fans out there. The book explains the
truth around being a Mac user in a PC centric world.
Being a mac user now myself after switching a number
of years ago I can really appreciate the amusing
stories told in this book. I've even experienced some
of the situations first hand. It's really interesting
to read now and see just how things have changed with
Apple and the Macintosh since the book was published.
In my view this is a great and very entertaining book
especially if like me you have realised what its all
about being a Mac user. You can get your own copy of
the bok by clicking on one of the following links.
Click
here to find Macintosh...The Naked Truth on
amazon.co.uk.
Book: iWoz
I've had Steve Wozniak's
autobiography on the bookshelf since it was released
late in 2006 but have just got around to reading it.
Once started though I couldn't put it down and
finished it in just a few days. If you know me you
will know this is fast going for a book as I'm
generally a slow reader. I like to read every word
and take them all in.
The book is great and takes you back to Steve's
childhood and how he got interested in electronics
and then later computers. The book goes into Woz's
obsession with creating circuits with as few
components as possible, which proved to be one of the
many reasons why the first personal computer,
designed and built by Steve was so successful. The
book goes on describing how Apple Computers was born
and became an overnight success. Importantly and
interestingly, Steve rights a number of truths which
prior the publishing of this book were documented in
every book, movie, web site relating to the history
of Apple.
Finally Woz explains what took place after he left
Apple, starting his own company developing universal
remote controls, organising festivals and how he
started teaching. In my opinion this book is a must
read for anyone interested in the history of the home
computer and/or Apple computers. You can get your own
copy of iWoz by clicking
here.
You can find me on iTunes
Yes I'm now listed in the Podcast Section on iTunes. Click here to Launch iTunes and take a look at my page. Please post me some reviews! Oh and if you haven't already subscribed then you can do so from within iTunes. All my videos are will play on your Video iPod.
New Ipod
My latest addition to my iPod collection arrived today, the new iPod Shuffle. Can you believe how small it is. As a whole I'm generally pleased with my purchase, however I do have one problem with the new Shuffle. Unfortunately it doesn't facilitate the same connector standard on all my other iPods meaning I can't share a cable and therefore requiring a non-existent free USB port. Looks like I'm going to have to do some unplugging and swapping around of cables each time I want to update tracks or charge.
12" Powerbook
Book: How the Mac was made
Someone on one of the Podcasts I've been listening to lately mentioned a book written by the creator of folklore.org, Andy Hertzfeld. Revolution In The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made tells the story of the early days at Apple. For many years now Andy as been collecting and publishing on folklore.org numerous anecdotes about the development of Apple's original computer, and the people who created it. As well as from Andy himself these great 'stories' come from characters such as Steve jobs, Steve Wozniak, Burrell Smith, Bud Tribble, Jef Raskin and many more of the amazing people who worked at Apple in the early years. Brought together in this book all these amazing snippets are used to plot the history and tell the story, from the people who were there when it happened, of how the Mac was made. I'm only about half way through so far but am finding it a great book, and recommend it to anyone interested in the Apple or history of technology. Click on the picture of the cover art for more details.
30th Birthday
That's right today, April
Fools Day, is Apple's 30th Birthday. Started in 1976
by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak Apple as fought
through rough times to continue to bring us, in my
view, the best Personal Computer to date.
Congratulations!!
I was hoping that there would be some announcement of
some great new product, like a full screen iPod
Video, or new Intel iBook, but it's now looking like
we are going to have to wait until later in the year.
The other rumor roaming the blogs which I was also
hoping was true was that Apple would announce major
discounts for today only when buying a new Apple
product from any of their stores. My car keys and
credit card were on stand by for a quick trip to our
local Apple Store in
Meadowhall for new laptop :).
Hello Again
As I've moved to a new Intel mac, and Apple have still not released universal binaries for their video editing tools you are not going to see any new video posts still for a while. I've got a couple of projects started on FCE and have made the decision to wait rather than trying to recreate what I've started and finish in iMovie. I've still got hundreds of photographs though I can continue sorting and posting, so please start visiting again on a regular basis. And if you haven't already please subscribe.
Video Ipod
I've been hanging my nose over one of these since they were released, just a week or so after I'd purchased my nano. Then today we visited Meadowhall in Sheffield and guess what? There is now an Apple Store there so I was convinced to purchase the Video iPod. It is great and hopefully will help me use my time better. I can now watch those many Video Podcasts I subscribe to whilst on my lunch break at work, whilst traveling and just about anywhere. having only played around with it for a few minutes so far I'm very impressed with the quality and just how watch-able the small screen is. My only concern is that all the video podcasts I subscribe to use codecs which are compatible and will play back ok on the video ipod.
Intel Mac
Apple announced the intel path last year and now it's reality. Apple have just announced the new MacBook Pro. Up to 4 times quicker than the current G4 PowerBooks the new Apple laptop is powered by an Intel dual-core processor. Like the latest iMacs the MacBook Pro also comes complete with built in iSight. Costing from £1429 inc VAT here in the UK, it starts shipping in February providing you place your order now. Looks like I need to start saving.
MAC Expo 2005 (London)
Having only spent the morning at the Expo we decided to check out London's Apple Store. I was very impressed and spent most of the afternoon there. I purchased a case for my ipod nano and an iSight.