iPod shuffle gen 2

So i got the iPod shuffle, and it is awesome. If nothing else then the design and size of the device, it is truly neat. Yeah it plays music just fine, and syncs with iTunes fine and all that. This device is small.

There is nothing really to say about it from a performance and functionality test standpoint, but from a design stand point there is too much to say. You can operate the clip easily, it doesn’t want to shoot out of your hand and you aren’t pressing buttons while using it. The only thing that bugs me is the lack of a physical hold switch, you have to hold down the play/pause button.

That is minor though. I personally really like it. Very cool.

Post Xmas

So what did I get for xmas?

Santa brought me an iPod shuffle and an iPod video (80gb). Very nice indeed, I am busy catching up on work now, and playing with them both, as well as some new software for converting videos. I will post something about them later this week.

Hope you all had a good xmas.

Xmas shopping online

Well I just finished my first year of online xmas shopping. I set out this year to do all of my shopping online, so that I would not have to step into a store, ever. Well I almost succeeded, but alas I had to go to the mall last night. I bought 95% of all my gifts online this year, it was great.

The last few presents I got in the store was only because I did not think to buy them in time so that shipping would make it by Christmas.

How did you all do?

Quick Camera Tip

So my girlfriends camera used to take forever to take a picture. You would press the button and then a couple of seconds or two later it would take the picture. Very annoying and led to many people not ready any more for the picture and some blurry photos. I thought it was the camera, until I realized it was actually the user.

What happened is that the shutter button was not being pressed down half way to allow for focusing prior to taking the shot. It only takes a second or less to focus, and then a full press takes the picture. This may sound stupid or you may know it. But the reason this is better is because the picture happens when you are ready, not when the camera is ready.

The last thing I found to speed up the process was a change in batteries. From standard alkaline to the Ultra Digital type that they make now, this really helped also. Hopefully it helps some of you.

APC UPS put to the test.

Well my power went out on Thursday night, and though I updated my UPS post I though I would share how it went with my APC UPS back up on Thursday as the power went out. It went well.

Ok so maybe I should elaborate. I was able to save everything eject external hard drives and shut down the computer, with plenty of time left to spare. The auto shutdown was problematic though, I have the USB cable plugged into my USB hub, which turned off when the power went out. Sooo, had to plug the UPS directly into the Mac Pro, but after that no problems.

iPhone Stigma

As we all know by now the iPhone was released, but not by Apple. Here is my problem with it, the name. Yeah it is a great name, who cares about the phone. But from a marketing perspective I have to look at it two ways.

First by using the iPhone name we are going to get huge recognition and attention to our product, thus helping sales. In addition it is a rather straight forward name for their product. Rather than delving more into all this goodness about the name lets move on.

Back to the world of power…

Well since I live in the Pacific Northwest, I lost power due to last week’s windstorm. Just today I regained power after not having it for roughly 3 days. Overall could have been worse. I made due with out it and was actually ver busy. During that period I got behind on many posts.

I don’t have time to write them tonight, but here is what to expect this week:

Brief review of the Qtek 8500 Windows mobile smartphone

A look at Photoshop CS3 on my Mac Pro and Powerbook G4

How the APC battery backup saved my @$$

Status on my quest to buy all my X-mas gifts online

And more…including some gadget tips…

Wi-Fi Health concerns.

We have all heard people express concerns over the negative affects that Cell Phones, Microwaves, Power Lines, and now WiFi could have on us Humans. Wired has an article up today about Wi-Fi and the health concerns that revolve around it.

The conclusion that they seemed to draw was that there is evidence but not proof, and that the general feeling from the scientific community is that it is safe. I really don’t care, it is really helpful for me so I am going to keep using it.

BUT it got me to thinking…

iCal misery update

I have found the source of the problem, and remedy it for the most part. My problems were stemming from a suite of programs from the SOHO series of the Chronosnet Software. I don’t know why, but my computer kept trying to sync with these programs and caused all sorts of problems. I have deleted the apps, and all other files I could find associated with them, and all iCal related files.

After reinstalling iCal it seems to be stable. A sync with my Treo brought back the data and it seems to be up and running again. If is olds itself together for a couple more days I will restart the .Mac syncing. WHEW

iCal misery.

Lately I have been having a lot of problems with iCal. Specifically with iCal syncing with .Mac and my Treo via Missing Sync. The problem? Calendar data is not transfered, and iCal is crashing, after only being open for 5 minutes. This is a big problem. Luckily I have back ups and I am going to attempt to reset everything tonight.

Has anyone else had this problem? iCal is also creating mystery calendars at will, with no name and no data.

I will update this when I find a solution.