Shane Life

The 160GB hard drive on my five-year-old iMac G5 died a few days ago.

I’m not sure what happened. I’d like to blame Microsoft and I actually have some justification in doing it. For some reason, it froze in the middle of a Microsoft Office automatic update and it never recovered.

I’ve tried everything I can for free. I took it to the Apple Store on the Plaza…they couldn’t even see it. I bought a SATA to USB adapter on eBay that arrived today…it didn’t work either.

So I called a data recovery specialist. They told me that if they didn’t recover anything (which they assured me rarely happens), it would still cost me a $200 attempt fee, but if they did, it would be closer to $2,300! (They give you a range and the price is based on how much they recover - minimum $500, maximum $2,700.)

As much as I’d like to recover the data, I’m not down with dropping that much money. The only absolutely heart-breaking thing that I lost was a bunch of pictures. Fortunately, I moved many of the 10,000+ in my iPhoto library (especially the almost 2,000 from our Italy trip) to my Macbook and I’m thankful for that. 

I’ll likely discover over time more of what’s missing, but what’s disheartening is that if I’d upgraded to Leopard I could have used Time Machine to automate the backups, but unfortunately I was still running Tiger.

If there’s one bright spot regarding the crash, it’s that the computer itself will still work and I can upgrade the drive to 320GB…twice the size of its predecessor. Still, it sucks.

As someone who has been a loyal Sprint user for many years, I have been really looking forward to the release of the Samsung Instinct, a phone that many are calling one of the first decent competitors to the iPhone. When the iPhone first came out, I was jealous, but it was way too expensive to even consider. Tack that onto the fact that I am a member of Sprint’s Friends and Family plan, which makes things all the more inexpensive.

I’d go as far to say that I was excited for the release of the Instinct…

Until today.

Today, my favorite company in the world released the second-generation of their industry-changing device. There are haters that don’t want to admit Apple’s greatness, but those people are kidding themselves. This is a phone that has sold 6 million units in ONE YEAR.

To put that into perspective…even though it was released mid-way through the year, the iPhone was the 2nd most popular smartphone in the U.S. (3rd globally) and outsold all Windows Mobile devices combined.

The iPhone 3G isn’t really a massive update overall. However, the fact that it is adding 3G wireless connectivity and dropping its price by half (the 8GB iPhone went from $399 to $199), combined with the best operating system a phone has ever seen…well…needless to say, I’m reconsidering whether or not I want to stick with Sprint.

So here’s what I’m proposing…those of you that helped me raise money to buy a dairy cow back in January…I’m giving you another opportunity to give.

If you donate enough money for me to buy an iPhone, I’ll give up red meat for the rest of the year.

You read that right…I’ll give up red meat through the holidays if you help me buy an iPhone.

I don’t think I officially announced this last week…I bought a MacBook. I didn’t go hardcore and get the Air…I just couldn’t justify what I would lose (optical drive, removable battery, ports) to the price and portability. The difference between the MacBook and the MacBook Air is 2 pounds. If I can’t carry that extra 2 pounds I should reconsider everything.

My laptop arrived today.

I’m so excited that I can’t even see straight. The importance of me having a laptop for work just went down considerably. Now I have a portable APPLE laptop that I LOVE.

The impressive thing about the whole situation is that I got the notification that it shipped late Friday night. It departed from Shanghai, so I didn’t expect to see it until Wednesday or later (scheduled delivery was 1/23). I tracked it all weekend (ask anyone…I have the tracking number memorized). I saw that it was in KC this morning and I thought I would at least get it by tomorrow since it might need to be sorted.

God Bless FedEx - it was sorted and out for delivery by 6 AM, delivered to my house by 10:00 this morning. That’s an impressive delivery time from China (via Anchorage), especially considering that all FedEx packages are routed through Memphis. My laptop flew overhead to Memphis before making its way to my house.

I still can’t believe that it is here already. I can’t wait to go home and hug it.

I’ve been pondering purchasing a MacBook for quite a while now. It always has seemed like a no-brainer to me: I love Macs, I love portability. The MacBook is both a Mac and portable.

I’ve put it off for a while for several reasons…

1. Not a huge need
2. I have a work laptop
3. Concern about the newer keyboards
4. My desire to have a completely full machine, regardless of its intended use
5. Money

There’s still no huge need and I still have the work laptop. However, it’s a Dell and as free as it is, my computer has more problems than any computer rightly should (as I write this, I’m considering having our IT department wipe the hard drive for the 3rd time).

After spending some time with the new keyboards, I’ve found them completely awesome. I don’t know why I would have expected anything different from Cupertino. They are very nice…responsive and extremely elegantly designed.

As far as #4 goes…I’ll be frank. I’m a total geek. I want latest and greatest stuff across the board. My original desire for this computer was something to kick around with. I want to be able to easily move around my house not using my work laptop to blog, check e-mail, write that ever-elusive novel, etc. I’ve decided that after the Macworld Expo in January that I would just take whatever they are offering at the time in my price range. Now, after looking at all the rumors, it appears that Apple may be poised to release a NAND-flash hard-drive based compact notebook. It would be light, extremely portable, but it might not have an optical drive. One of the reasons I want a new laptop is that I want to be able to easily watch movies on trips. That might pose a problem.

Then there’s the question of which version to get. Really, that question boils down to issue #5. As much as I’d like the black one, it makes a lot more sense to stick with the mid-range white one so I can still get a SuperDrive.

This decision is very trying to my patience. Now that I’ve made the decision to get one, I can’t wait to get it. Uncle Steve Jobs’ Macworld Expo keynote on January 15 cannot get here soon enough.

Do you think I should wait?

It’s back to the old grind today.

Since I used up all my vacation galavanting around Italy and France this summer with my lovely wife, I am working this week.

It should be a relatively slow week. We closed out a couple huge projects last week and I’m getting ready to ramp up some new ones for Q1.

I got some great presents for my birthday and Christmas from my whole fam. Lots of fun books and DVDs, gift cards, clothes…all good times. I’ve been wanting to get a MacBook for a while now and am now chomping at the bit since I have some money burning a hole in my pocket, but after running down to the Apple Store on the Plaza today, I’ve decided to wait until after MacWorld in January before I purchase anything…that way I’ll be in on the latest and greatest.

Did you get anything fun for Christmas?

Apple had a special event today to announce the new versions of all 3 of its somewhat popular iPod (shuffle, nano, video). Apple has almost always impressed with these events, releasing newer, better versions of the world’s most popular MP3 player.

Today, I’m not so sure.

There wasn’t much of an update to the shuffle…a color refresh and an additional (Product) RED version. Ho hum.

Then they went and updated the world’s most popular MP3-player, the iPod nano. The new nano throws away its old skinny form factor for something more squat in order to provide it with a screen large enough for video.

I’m not sure how I feel about it. The form looks strange compared to the sleekness of predecessors dating back to the iPod mini. However, they pushed up the battery life to 24 hours for audio and 5 hours for video, which is quite impressive. The fact that they added these enhancements (and increased the sizes from 2GB and 4GB to 4GB and 8GB) while managing to keep the price the same ($149 for the 4GB and $199 for the 8GB) is awesome. You can now have a video iPod for less than $200. That’s amazing.

Obviously Apple couldn’t do anything without updating the standard iPod, which they are now calling the iPod Classic. They increased the size on it and added metal enclosures as well, pushing the smaller models to 80GB for $249 and 160GB for $349. Consider this: when I got my first iPod, the original 20GB version, it cost $500. You can now get 8 times the storage for $150 LESS. And battery life is now 40 hours for audio and 7 hours for video.

And the reason for the name change? A new iPod - the iPod Touch, which is basically an iPhone without the phone capability. This is the Big One. There is now finally an iPod with a touchscreen, widescreen capability and Freaking. Wi-Fi. That’s right. This is exactly an iPhone without the phone. Very VERY cool. I would have liked to see it in larger sizes than 8GB ($299) and 16GB ($399) - videos take up lots of space, both on hard drives and on iPods. Very cool that they added a Wi-Fi version of the iTunes store so you can buy stuff on the fly now and it syncs to your computer.

There is a feature where if you are at Starbucks and you are listening to a song, you can buy it. I don’t know why he saved it for last…pretty underwhelming.

No wait…they dropped the price on the iPhone. Only one model. $200 less. 8GB for $399. Morons who bought early.

It’s a good day to be an iPod fan and just another example of why Apple should be responsible for ALL hardware design. I bet NBC is kicking themselves now.

So what do you think? Do you want one? Are you upset about a recent purchase? Sound off.

Special thanks to Engadget for their live blog of the event.

MacBook that is…

Comes in white and black and looks downright good enough to eat. Who wants to give me $1100? Actually…with the release of these, maybe I’ll be able to get an old iBook for really cheap!

*sigh*

I’m so excited.

I’m a nerd when it comes to new stuff from Apple Computers. Two weeks ago (or so…I can’t remember) was the latest Macworld keynote speech

The new Mac stuff looks totally sweet. I am most looking forward to the new release of iLife ‘06. I’m still on iLife ‘04, which I love, but I am totally looking forward to picking up iLife ‘06. The thing that I am most psyched about is the iPhoto update. I use iPhoto more than any other program in the iLife suite. One thing that is heinously missing from my current suite of iLife (but has been in subsequent releases) is subfolders for albums. My album list is ridiculously long and I like things nice and neat (although my office at home or my desktop would not suggest that).

Other interesting things:

…the new MacBook Pro…

one of these days, when I have some mad money, I’m going to pick up a laptop to kick around with. I have a feeling that in the next couple months, we’ll see just a standard “MacBook” to replace the iBook and it will have an Intel chip and be a little cheaper (although who knows for sure?). I just want something to take on trips and to Panera on a lazy Saturday morning.

…new iMacs…

This seems to be about the 4th time in the past 12 months that the iMac has been updated. I got a 20″ iMac G5 when they were the new hotness and I still feels like it is new. But it has since received:

1. a processor bump
2. an integrated iSight
3. a remote and a new program (Front Row)
4. a sweet program called Photobooth
5. another processor bump (due to the new Intel DuoCore chip)

That’s quite a bit in a year. It’s hard to keep up.

Overall, I really expected to see Apple drop their prices on their hardware considerably so that they would be able to keep up pace in the cheap cheap CHEAP (cheap) market of PCs. I think that a lot of folks out there would buy a tiny little Powerbook…err…iBook…err…MacBook if they were at least COMPETITIVE on price. But with what you can get something to kick around with on Dell’s web site…it’s hard to make that decision (without factoring in the whole “having to learn a new OS” and “I have to buy all new software” stuff).

For me, I just want a laptop for very minor stuff, so I’m not going to spend an exorbitant amount of money on it. I have a great desktop machine at home and a rockin’ new dual processor AMD64 custom build at work. I just want something for the small amount of traveling I do and, again, for just kicking around.

I wish I had the money to buy a “just kicking around” laptop, but until topFIVEdesign really takes off, I’m probably won’t. Plus, there is a lot of other stuff that I need to buy before I even CONSIDER getting a laptop. But that’s another discussion.

So Apple, in all its glory, announced some pretty exciting stuff today. Steve “The Ego” Jobs stood up at Macworld today and showed off his amazing new products. What it must be like to work in Cupertino…Apple is the innovation of cool right now.

The following 3 announcements will be landmark for the next several months in technology.

Mac Mini
Apple’s first attempt at really attacking Dell’s stranglehold on the entry-level home user market. The iMac G5 was great, but this really is slick and the pricing makes it really compelling. To get a Mac for only $500 is pretty amazing. Most people already have monitors, keyboards, etc. and this gets them the cool factor without smacking their wallet with a rubber hose.

ipod shuffle
Mac’s entry into the flash-memory-based music player market is, like the ipod, better than anything else out there right now. Small and sexy, this player also is super-competitive in price, enabling you to get a 1GB player for only $150. With an additional version at 512MB, this player will go a long way. Expect to see it soon at a Bally Total Fitness near you.

iWork
Apple finally updates its long-outdated Appleworks suite with something tangible. Featuring Keynote 2 and a new program, Pages, Apple allows you to have the most used functionality of Microsoft Office, while allowing you to only spend $80 on it instead of $400. With the same design team working on Pages as worked on Keynote, you can expect that it will be just as strong of a product.

Notice a common theme?

Price.

Apple finally has heeded the call of its critics and started to lower its prices because isn’t that really all that consumers care about anymore? These 3 products enable Joe Schmo to become a savvy home Mac user because Apple has designed programs that they think people will use and are functional and simple, yet powerful enough for all levels of users.

That is a good thing.