Hardware

Another iMac

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So I should never talk about technology and say one thing and then a few months later totally change my tune. I know, I am bad. I say that after ranting about the all in one computer form factor. I had a love hate relationship with my 24″ iMac. I was happy and sad to see it go. I like laptop’s much better. I really do. Of course that doesn’t explain why today I went out and bought a 27″ iMac. And not just a regular 27″ iMac, I got the Quad Core i5 model. I figured the even more money for the i7 was overkill. Well the i7 was overkill or I didn’t want to wait for the special order for that. I will just keep telling myself that it was overkill.

So why after being mad at the all in ones, would I go and get another one? Well that is an interesting story. In December I finally after 2 years of pondering it, I went out and bought a 30″ LCD monitor. See my reasons for not getting one sooner in my “Monitor Upgrades & Monitor Arm Number 2” post, so I wont have to go back into that again. After all that I wanted the dam iMac again because even though the 30″ display was fantastic, it wasn’t fantastic with my Macbook Pro. The image was just crap. The stupid Apple Dual Link DVI to Display Port adapter that everyone bashes does suck as bad as everyone says. I don’t know why. And it isn’t all the time. I used the same adapter on my Mac Mini and it seemed to work better. The monitor worked fantastic on a non mac machine, but guess what all I have are Mac’s.

So why did I change my mind? Figuring out what my tax return would be on Thursday was what started my thoughts. Originally I wanted a Mac Pro. I figured I would splurge and plug it into my fancy new monitor. Then I saw the cost of the single processor model. Holly crap that is expensive. The similar quad core iMac was like $500 cheaper. I then thought about out how much i could get for reselling my 30″ monitor and the iMac is half paid for, plus i am getting a slightly smaller screen and almost as powerful a system. Lets face it I don’t “need” a Mac Pro, I wanted it to drive the monitor I had. In the end this was a cheaper and smarter decision. My desk is also thankful for the extra room.

In the short term I am still going to hold onto the Macbook Pro because I do use it out of the house, but that is also soon to go the way of ebay once I get an iPad or something else small.

Now I can’t promise that in 6 months I wont be fed up with the all in one again. But for now I think it was a smart move. To show how much I think this was a good idea, I can say I even bought the Apple Care for this thing. I almost never do that since I usually only keep a computer for a year!

Next thing I need to do is figure out how to get the VESA mount on this new computer so I can use my monitor arm again. Thanks again Apple for making a standard like VESA so hard to setup. If the reviews of this mount are any indication I am going to be not happy when I try to mount it.

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Freetalk Wireless

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Last week I ordered a Skype Freetalk Wireless headset. It arrived today. Pairing was really easy, and the headset fit well. I am worried that after using it a lot it will feel a bit tight. I like (and don’t like) that the charging is done from the dongle to the headset. I will see if that becomes an issue. I used it for one call today but wont really give it a true test until I am at work on Tuesday.

I have been looking for a good headset to use with my laptop when not at my desk at home. I hope this one works out, since my desk drawers at home are becoming a graveyard for wired and bluetooth headsets alike that haven’t cut it. Seriously I think I have at least 2 wired skype headsets that suck and I don’t use, and about 4 bluetooth headsets. I use 2 of those but not as much as I like and never with the computers since I have quirky issues.

Freeagent Go By Seagate

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For the past 6-8 months I have been setting aside money every month to purchase one portable hard drive. I am doing it for back reasons mainly, but I also had other storage needs so I figured I would budget some money each month. In the beginning I was able to get a 320gb drive for the money I put aside. After a few months I was able to get 500gb drives for the same price.

I had been getting mainly Western Digital My Passport Portable drives. They are fine overall. I did try one Iomega, and a Toshiba in December since I got a deal on a 640gb drive I used for my annual backup. This month I tried out the Seagate Freeagent Go drive. I also bought two docks they sell. Let me tell you so far I am very happy. The dock idea is brilliant. I have seen these drives for a while but when I originally wanted a dock I couldn’t get one. Now they are readily available so I bought a 500gb Seagate. Shuttling it around is a snap. I think I am going to switch to Seagate’s for a while as long as they keep selling portable drives that fit the dock systems.

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A New Netbook

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I bought a new netbook to replace my sold HP Mini 1000. I got an Acer 11.9″ model. It is in a nice blue color. It is “technically” not even a netbook since it is runing a real Core Solo processor. This new one comes pre-installed with Windows 7. I am still not a huge fan of the screen size but it is better than the HP. I like this netbook, but the more i use any netbook makes me think I really wont be happy with any screen under 13″. Does that mean I will be getting a Macbook Air in my future? Maybe, I have been thinking about it for over a year. The price is all that is stopping me. I really want a tablet though, so I shall see what comes out next year.

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Bad RCN

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As predicted RCN was unable to come out to repair my cable modem after the blizzard. I don’t fault them for that. It was nasty out. What I do fault them for is the 3 phone calls to them checking on the service call and being told first that yes they would show up in the window the originally told me. Then the second person told me things are running slow due to weather and they would check with dispatch and get back to me. They never did. The 3rd person was good and was checked and said no one was working on repairs today and they would schedule a call for tomorrow. They were baffled by the other peoples comments. They claim that someone would look into the incident. I hold no hopes that the will actually do that. I am just happy they claim that someone will be out around lunch time tomorrow to fix my modem.

The Mifi isn’t the fastest thing int he world but I can browse the web and check main just fine on it. It gets a bit slow when using the VPN for work.

Technical Difficulties

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My luck wasn’t going very well this weekend. I got home and started settling in and suddenly my cable modem died on me. That was the final straw on my decision to get a MiFi. Before being stranded in the Bahamas I was pondering the wireless broadband device the Novatel MiFi. After the day in the Bahamas airport I really wanted one even though I knew that it wouldn’t have worked in the Bahamas. When the cable went out I decided to head out to Manhattan before it started snowing to pick up one of the nifty devices. I didn’t want to spend an unknown amount of days in a blizzard without internet. I am brave, but not that brave.

Thankfully the store was empty and I was in and out in 20 minutes. Let me tell you the Mifi is really easy to setup and it works exactly as advertised. RCN claims they will be out tomorrow morning to look at my Modem but I tend to doubt it since it is still snowing.

The New Monitor

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Friday my new HP 30″ monitor arrived. It is pretty huge! I am glad I thought it through and ordered the quick release mounting bracket or else I don’t know how I would have screwed in that monitor on the LCD arm. Removing the base and putting on the mounting brackets were relatively simple. Getting the monitor onto the arm took 2 try’s since I had trouble visualizing how it connected. In the end I needed more time working on the cable management than I did on mounting the LCD.

So far the Mini DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI adapter from Apple is working ok. I can see some slight “shaking” of windows near the edges, but only of certain colors. I barely notice it so I am not worried about that. What I don’t like is every so often when I wake the display from sleep it displays garbage squiggly lines on the display and I have to unplug the adapter and plug it back in. When I do that everything resets back to normal. Thankfully it has only happened a two or three times in two days. I may just have the monitor stay awake all the time but goto screen saver. I know that isn’t the best thing to do but I will give it some time to figure out what my plans are. I am just thankful that so far (knock on wood) the entire setup is working. I want to take photos of the entire setup after I clean up all the clutter, but that is for another day!

The Android Experiment

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A few weeks ago I purchased a used T-Mobile G1 on eBay. It was party to see check out the Android OS, as well as check out T-Mobile service near where I live and work.

Firstly the G1 I got was a bit more beat up than I would have liked, but for the price I paid I kinda knew what I was getting into. I found it harder than I originally expected to separate my experience with the Android OS with my feelings about the G1 hardware. I was not a fan of the G1 at all. It was big, heavy, and I could not stand the curved bottom of the phone, nor could I really use the keyboard because of that uncomfortable bulge at the bottom of the phone.

The Android OS on the other hand was OK. I looked for equivalent applications to what I typically use on my iPhone. I didn’t do a complete search but looked for the top 5-10 apps that I use every day. I was able to find apps that performed the same functions. That was the good news. The bad news was that several of them were just not as polished as the iPhone equivalent. Maybe I am biased, but the iPhone apps just seem more polished than the Andriod counterparts. There were a few exceptions, but in general I wasn’t too impressed with the Andriod apps. On the up side I was happy with some of the types of applications that I couldn’t get on my iPhone. I loved the call blocking app especially since the T-Mobile number I got seemed to have a lot of people calling it. I also loved the Google Voice integration. For me as a Google Voice user it was perfect. I didn’t even tell anyone I got a new #. I just routed calls to the G1 and then used Google Voice to make outbound calls. For me that was the best part of the Android OS. I really miss that functionality on the iPhone.

The second part of my experiment was how is the T-Mobile service. The short answer is it is just as poor as AT&T is where I use it most. I don’t get any reliable signal inside my apartment with T-Mobile. By my window I get 3-4 bars but inside I only get 1-2 if any. Without a signal booster the service is useless in my apartment. If the Android phones supported T-Mobile’s Wifi calling like some of the Blackberry’s do that wouldn’t be an issue, but right now it is a major show stopper. At work in mid town I got slightly better results. I sometimes got decent signal at my desk, but other times it was spotty. Not consistent enough for me.

The bottom line is as tempting as T-Mobile’s no contract plans are, the service where I spend 75% of my work week (home and work) I had spotty service. That means if I want to stick with a GSM carrier I am stuck with AT&T. As much as I refuse to use Verizion I might need to consider. I may end up getting a Verizon Mifi anyway so that might be the trade off that keeps me with my iPhone an AT&T but more on that later.

I will keep my T-Mobile SIM until after my vacation but I don’t see myself keeping it long term. As for the G1, I am going away at the end of the week so I wont have time to sell it before I go, but it will go up on eBay before Christmas. If a AT&T compatible 3G (85mhz & 1800mhz) Android phone comes out I may give it a try again but until then I am sticking with the iPhone. Like I tell anyone when they ask if i like it, the iPhone is the best phone I ever had, but I would love to be able to get rid of it!

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Monitor Upgrades & Monitor Arm Number 2

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While I am happy with my new LCD Monitor arm purchase, I wasn't done with just that. The mounting of my Dell 23" LCD was the first part of a larger project I have had. For almost 2 years I have wanted to upgrade my main system setup with a bigger monitor. I first went the all in one computer route and got a 24" iMac in March. Even after I put all my problems with the iMac behind me (in the end it was working perfectly) I decided the all in one route wasn't what I wanted. So here I am at the same place I was almost 2 years ago. I want a bigger display. First my Mac laptop (Black 13" Macbook at the time) didn't support the 30" monitor.

Then the 13" aluminum Macbook came out and it did support the 30" display. Problem was the cable to make it work wasn't out. Then I waited since everyone said the 30" Apple display was getting refreshed (it didn't).

Then I went with the iMac. Well I just sold the iMac and am back to a laptop being my main machine. I am now running a 13" Macbook Pro. It can power a 30" LCD. At first I looked at 25" and 27" options. The 27" panels I saw didn't do very high resolution for 27". They only had 1920×1200 resolution. Not much better than the 23 & 24" panels I have used. I didn't want to go with the 30" since they were really pricey and every one of them had trade off's. I finally saw the HP 3065 had good reviews with two minor issues. One was that it was DVI only. That was almost a show stopper for me but I ended up not caring since HDMI and Display port might be getting big, but I figure there will still be adapters to DVI for the next few years (heck VGA is still around so I have good odds). The other was lack of adjustment of the display other than color but I don't typically do much adjusting beyond that. The price was expensive but much cheaper than the Dell or Apple alternatives so I went ahead and ordered one.

The reason for the quick action was because I had always said if the first monitor arm I got worked out I would get a second one. My desk is setup in an L configuration and I have two display setups, basically a work and personal setup. With my work setup finished I told myself I would finally decide on what to do with my personal setup. My major reservation has been the questionable reviews of the Mini Display Port to Dual Link DVI adapter Apple sells. Most but thankfully not all reviews say that the adapter is crap and makes thinks look like crap. The 1.02 firmware release of the adapter is supposed to be better but it is still a crap shoot. I didn't want to roll the dice but I finally broke down and am having faith the setup will work.

In order to hold such a large monitor I had to get a different monitor arm. This time I went with the Ergotron MX Desk Mount LCD Arm. Their sales people emailed me back pretty quick to answer my questions about weight and size panels so I went with the MX for the larger display. I am hoping that setup works out as well as the LX model I setup yesterday.

My new kit (monitor, arm, cables, etc) arrive later this week. I am hopeful it sets up without issues. When that is done I think my desk upgrades will be done. In the end I will have spent a ton of money, but as my dad says you can't take it with you and I do use everything for work. Working from home 2-3 days a week got me to think about having the best organized setup I could think of. Well that is how I rationalize it anyway. Photo's and a full breakdown of all the upgrades when everything is in place.

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Monitor Arm

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After pondering about buying one for months I finally broke down and bought an LCD monitor arm. Instead of buying one from the company that makes my desk I opted for a different model that seemed a lot better and much cheaper. Sorry Anthro, your desks may rock but I went with an Ergotron LX Desk Mount LCD Arm. I read a good review and picked one up on Amazon for $150 cheaper than I was going to pay with the solution from Anthro.

The arm was super easy to setup. Gotta love C Clamps. It took a few minutes to get the 100 x 100 VESA mount adapter on and the monitor mounted by myself but I had a bunch of practice at work so it wasn’t as bad as mounting the 19″ ones I had at work last month. Overall I am very happy with my purchase and the way the setup came out. It was well worth the money.

Monitor Arm Monitor Arm

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