Tuesday Tech Talk #53

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Triple T. Excuse my absence last week, just had too many things in the hopper to get a post out. This week Apple held a press conference about the iPhone 4 so lets get right into things.

iPhone 4 bar issue

Apple held a press conference on Friday to discuss the signal and bar issue on the iPhone 4. Apple did announce the iPhone 4 has dropped more calls than the 3GS but it is less than 1 per 100 calls. They also announced that until 9/30, they are offering free bumpers for the iPhone 4 purchases and if you bought one already you get a refund. Also they are accepting iPhone 4 returns for full refund within 30 days of purchase. So if your not happy with your iPhone 4 then you have no excuses but for the most part this story is blown out of proportion.

AT&T and the free 3G MicroCells

Not only can you score a free bumper with your iPhone 4 purchase but you may also get a free 3G MicroCell tower from AT&T if your lucky enough to receive one of the golden tickets..err...I mean orange envelope with a letter stating so from the blue stripped Death Star itself.

MacBook saves late night!

So you have a popular late night talk show, your set to do a show and the set has a power outage affecting the control room and broadcast areas. What do you do? Well in Jimmy Kimmel’s case you whip out your MacBook and film the show using its webcam. Now that is genius! If it were Jay Leno or David Letterman they would just call it a day and put on a best of episode, but not Jimmy! Kudos to Kimmel for his creativity!

More thoughts on iPad

So it has been a few weeks since I have had my iPad and I continue to enjoy using it. Right now I am blogging from my MacBook but it is one of the rare times I am also using the MacBook lately. For the most part my MacBook is used to sync up my iPhone and iPad every few days but other then that it stays on my desk plugged in mostly.

Which leads me to my next point, what I would love to see in a blogging app for the iPad. I really want something that allows me to create a link simply by highlighting text and clicking a link icon to create a drop down link box that makes the text a clickable link and of course the ability to drop a photo in the blog post and resize it while writing it. That being said Mariner Software the makers of MacJournal is preparing an iPad version so hopefully my dream blogging app will be here soon enough.

The battery life is incredible on it. On average I can go 2 days without charging it with normal use. I enjoy using the NetNewsWire app for my RSS feeds and HelloTxt for posting my updates to Facebook and Twitter. HelloTxt also allows you to schedule a post much like HootSuite which at this time doesn’t offer an iPad version of its app but you can run the iPhone version on the iPad. But HelloTxt has won me over, I no longer use Ping.fm for my daily updates.

So those are my thoughts of the iPad so far and will continue to share more about going forward.

This Week’s iPhone/iPod touch/iPad apps

Navigon MobileNavigator ($49.99) - Yes, Navigon has at last got the update out for the iOS4 and with a nice price drop as well. Of course it now supports multitasking but it also has live weather updates and has a feature called CleverParking which shows you parking areas around your destination. I haven’t used it since the update since I haven’t been out of town to use it. But it is nice to take a call now or play Pandora on the iPhone without losing your directions.

Netflix (FREE) - This is the iPad version and I finally got around to using the features of it including watching the movie Moon on it. In-fact I even capture a screenshot while watching it.

Well that will do it for this edition of Triple T. See you all next week!

Tupelo Tech Talk #40

Hello all and welcome to another edition of Triple T. If you are wondering about a review on the iPad you can find that here. Here is what’s happening this week.

iPhone OS 4.0

Apple will be holding an event on Thursday to announce the release of iPhone OS 4.0. Among the rumored features is the ability for third party app multitasking. Cool, maybe this will mean I can run Pandora or Sirius/XM in the background like I can iTunes. As a reminder, the iPad runs the same OS.

iPad Initial Sales

Apple announced it sold 300,000 iPad units on Saturday. Given the base model goes for $499 that means Apple did $150 Million in sales on Saturday not including accessories for the iPad. That is one heck of a day! What recession? On top of that, users also downloaded 250,000 e-books. I think John C. Dvorak is going to owe Leo Laporte a nice bottle of wine soon.

Netflix for iPad

Also in iPad news, Netflix came out with an app to use on the iPad as well. You can browse the Netflix site and watch streaming content as well.

HP and Dell reduce investment in 10” netbooks

No doubt a response to slow growth and the introduction of the iPad. I recently checked out some netbooks just out of curiosity and to be honest I was not impressed with them. The screen seem so small that you could only run one thing at a time, might as well get an iPad if that is the case and I think a lot of other people thought the same.

MacBook series updates?

Apple Daily, a Taiwanese newspaper is speculating that Apple will release new updates to the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air product line this month. This makes a lot of sense as Apple is due for a refresh on the laptop line and it is now between the iPad release and the no doubt new iPhone release in June or July.

Well that is going to do it for this weeks Triple T., apologies for the heavy iPad news but next week should bring more of a regular format of tech news. See you next week!

Tuesday Tech Talk #32

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Triple T. Now that I have what I wanted to say about the iPad out of my system for a while, lets see what else is happening.

New Google social product announcement

I will have some follow up on the announcement by Google at 10am tomorrow (no it doesn’t say which time zone 10am refers to so I will assume it is ET).

New MacBook Pro’s coming soon?

Per a photo of a Best Buy internal ordering system. Showing current MBP status as deleted meaning no new orders can be submitted for that particular model. Using MacTracker January-February are generally the time a refresh line is announced so stay tuned for new faster MacBook Pro’s and hopefully a new MacBook as well.

1080p and 5.1 surround sound coming to Netflix Watch Instantly

Interesting tidbit here from Engadget about Netflix adding 1080p and 5.1 to their watch instantly service later this year. No date as of yet so stay tuned.

HDMI 1.4’s 3D spec publicly released

We might be a step closer to sitting around our TV’s wearing 3D shades in our living rooms and it looks like no format war either since it’s an open standard.

This Week’s iPhone/iPod touch apps

This week I thought I would focus on news specific apps.

The Wall Street Journal - Those who like to follow the latest in business news will like this handy app. It’s free and it will give you access to the free content on their site and if your an online subscriber you can enter your login info on the app to access paid content as well.

Drudge Report Classic - This free app gives you mobile access to the latest news on the Drudge Report.

ABC 7 - If your an Angelino or a former one like I am but still like to see the latest news in SoCal, then KABC 7 has their own app with the latest local news, weather, and traffic conditions. It also has video of news reports. If your not a ABC 7 fan then KCBS and KCAL also have their own app with similar features.

Well that will do it for this weeks edition of Triple T. See you all next week!

Tuesday Tech Talk #17

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Triple T. This will be a post more about today’s Apple product announcements then anything else.

New iMac’s

Two models announced today, a 21.5“ display and a 27” one, with a 1920 x 1080 display for the 21.5 and a 2560 x 1440 for the 27“ with 16:9 ratio on both for true HD experience. Also RAM expandable up to 16GB and 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor or 3.33GHz. As well as a Quad-Core version for the 27” model. All come with a 1TB HD. 21.5“ starts at $1499 and the 27” is $1699, the Quad-Core at $1999.

New MacBook

In the new unibody design but the same familiar snow white finish to it. 1.08“ thin and 4.7 lbs. Sporting a 7 hour battery life on a single charge. Also has a Multi-Touch trackpad. Comes with 2GB of RAM expandable to 4, 2.26 Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and a 250GB 5400 RPM HD with an option for 320GB or 500GB 5400 RPM HD. Same $999 price point.

New Mac mini

In the latest configuration of the Mac mini we have a 2.26, 2.53, or 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors. 2GB SO-DIMMs expandable to 4GB and 160, 320, or 500GB Serial ATA hard drive options. One Firewire 800 and five USB 2.0 ports. 2 configurations available, a 2.26 GHz with 160GB HD for $599 or a 2.53 GHz and 320GB HD for $799 and also a Mac mini server with a 2.53 and 500GB model for $999 (no optical drive).

Magic Mouse

Yes at last the Mighty Mouse is dead, no not the cartoon character but the one made by Apple. Replaced with the built from the ground up Magic Mouse which if you own a iPhone or iPod touch, will feel very familiar to you on operating it. It has a multi-touch surface to it and is included with the above mentioned new iMac’s and as a stand alone price of $69 (yes, I have bought one already for the iMac at home). It connects via Bluetooth and it is if I made me so bold one sexy design.

Engadget unboxing Photos

Want to see more? Engadget has unboxing photos of the MacBook, iMac and Magic Mouse.

Barnes & Noble announces the nook e-reader

B&N has a competitor to the Kindle now. It’s available for pre-order at $259. I’m still going to hold out for the much rumored Mac tablet and see what it will bring to the e-reader market.

Well that’s it for this week’s Triple T, sorry no time for app reviews this week. See you all next week in this same space!

Tuesday Tech Talk #14

Hey folks it’s Tuesday so time for another installment of Triple T!

AT&T MMS for iPhone

Ok so it’s finally here after more then 2 years of waiting for it on the iPhone, MMS. All I can say is I can’t wait for AT&T to add Tupelo to 3G cause the last part of sending the photo hangs for a good minute. I’m convinced this is an EDGE/2G issue more than anything else but if anyone else has 3G and notice it is hanging on the last part as well let me know. Hey AT&T, Thursday is October 1st and you said 3G in Tupelo by the end of the year, you’ve got 3 months to make good on your promise there blue Death Star. This now concludes Rob’s weekly griping about all things AT&T, remember when Comcast was the ire of my venting?

Comcast props

Let me expand on that while I’m at it. You may recall I use to have a terrible internet experience with Comcast almost to the point where I was looking at AT&T DSL plans (the horror!!). Well I am happy to say nearly 3 months since Comcast routed a new line from the pole to my house I have had zero drops on the internet now. As someone that works with DirecTV, Comcast I’m giving you 2 thumbs up and taking you off my tech enemies list, AT&T you have the top spot right now, yes even over Microsoft.

Latest Apple Tablet speculation

MacRumors has some new tidbits via iLounge about features the new tablet may feature as well as a possible late Spring release (May or June). Interesting features but if you already have an iPhone or touch it may not be of much use besides having the bigger screen it will pretty much be the iPhone OS it runs on. But check out the articles if interested.

iMac and Mac mini supplies running low...update near?

Apple has informed it’s retail outlets of constrained iMac and Mac mini shipments leading to speculation of new updated iMac and mini lines. There has been heavy speculation about iMac and MacBook but not mini updates.

Tweetie 2 near...but with a cost

Our friends at TUAW report on a new Tweetie 2 for the iPhone and iPod touch with some new features but there is a catch...this one will have a $2.99 price tag on it and even if you have version 1 your still going to have to pony up the $3 for the new version which stinks. Maybe Tweetie is taking business lessons from AT&T. Guess I will be using Twitterrific 2, at least they were honest from the start about their cost and when they made a substantial update in version 2 didn’t charge for it. Shame on you Tweetie...shame!

Well thats about it, sorry but no iPhone/touch app reviews this week. Just haven’t really tried anything new this week. See you next week though for another Tuesday Tech Talk.

Tuesday Tech Talk #5 Monday Edition

Ok I couldn’t wait until tomorrow to blog so lets get right down to it.

MacBook Pro’s

Updated across the board and the MacBook is now part of the MacBook Pro family. So if there is a Pro version does that mean the rumored netbook will be the new MacBook?

Snow LeopardMore details released today on that. Exchange support for iCal, Mail, and Address Book. Redesigned QuickTime and a ton of other stuff. Bottom line if your a Leopard user it’s only going to set you back $29 on the upgrade ($49 for family pack). Oh yeah, and it’s going to beat out Windows 7 (lame name btw) by a month!

iPhone OS 3.0

Lot of cool stuff coming out 6/17. Check more details here. Cool thing that stood out, tethering...unless your in the US with AT&T (have I mentioned how much I think AT&T sucks?)

iPhone 3G S

2 models 16 and 32 GB ($199 & $299 US) June 19th and it shoots video now with the updated 3 MP camera. Yeah it’s not digital but who cares if you see something happen that is noteworthy, you can capture it and upload it to YouTube right from your phone. Also MMS finally...unless your in the US with AT&T in which case end of August or September (have I mentioned how much I...oh...never mind). All that being said being that I have a first generation iPhone this is a worthy upgrade for me even when AT&T’s shortcomings.

Final thoughts

Apple would be better served if they ditch their exclusivity deal with the blue stripped Death Star. I have a brother-in-law that loves everything about the iPhone BUT the carrier. He is a loyal Sprint customer because of their international coverage. AT&T maybe great for domestic coverage but so is Southwest Airlines but you can’t fly on Southwest to Rome! This is America, we used to be known for a competitive marketplace. Apple would sell a gigaton more of iPhones if they had agreements with AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc. AT&T, you need to learn how to play nice in the sandbox!