iPod

I Do Listen To People, Just Not Right Away

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One thing Gus suggested to me over a year ago was to read the book Getting Things Done. It is a personal productivity book. I am not one of those people into personal enhancement by reading, or going to a seminar, etc. The thought of improving my organization and allowing me to get stuff done at work quicker was appealing. So after much delay, I bought the audio book version of Getting Things Done. I am listening to it on my iPod.

It is too early to tell if I will get anything out of this book. My hopes are high that I can improve my personal organization. I always pride myself on being organized, but I am also always open for improvements. I am only 1/3 through the book. I already redesigned how I keep my email inbox, and have about 20 new items of “stuff” that I wrote down that need attention. More as it progresses…

Travel Essentials

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As I said the other day, I don’t travel anywhere near as much as I used to. Just because I don’t go out of the office that much doesn’t mean that when I do I want to be any less connected. I did a quick overnight trip Monday-Tuesday. I (bored on the train) now write about what I relied on during the trek.

While in transit nothing says keeping in contact with the world like a Blackberry. When you can’t or don’t want to bring out a laptop it is essential. I hate it for everything else, including the stupid direct connect. I find that if I want to hold a conversation I might as well call the person than have a 20 minute conversation on DC. For email nothing beats the Blackberry, yet.

My powerbook was the laptop of choice this trip. My thinkpad is acting funky, and I don’t want to wipe it since I am getting a new one next week. So the powerbook stepped in and performed flawlessly (so far). I used it to watch some tv shows I recorded last week. Checked mail, did work, blogged, etc. All over Wifi!

Without the iPod I would not be sane. It makes train trips, and quiet hotel rooms that much more tolerable. It also is a great portable hard drive to store said TV shows that I watched on my powerbook. I say YES to plug and play!

My Treo is great (always carry it), but this trip it was used as it normally is. Still great, and a must for travel. What I used instead was Extension Mobility on Cisco Call Manager. It is the ability to log into any CCM phone and your extension moves with you. That coupled with the Cisco WIFI cordless phone make working in a different office just like I was in NYC, even when I was running around between 2 floors.

My new Omega X-33 watch was also a must this trip. I use my watch as an alarm wherever I go. I took my timex (broken band and all) along just in case the Omega didn’t do its job. It worked fine. I almost fell out of bed with the loudness of the alarm this morning. First impressions is this watch and I hopefully will have a long friendship!

Lastly I loved my Broadvoice VOIP phone, & Skype. I didn’t use broadvoice this trip, but I used its voice mail. I got all my VM emailed to me so I stayed in touch with everyone. I would never have checked my NYC VM without it. Skype is great since I can use it on my powerbook with my Sony Ericsson HBH-65 bluetooth headset from anywhere I have an internet connection. For this trip it was free calls from the hotel. I didn’t even need my cell phone for it. If I had broadvoice soft-phone I wouldn’t even need skype.

I have talked (praised) most of these items before, but when you use them all together you have a very smooth travel experience. I will most likely be using most if not all of this gear on my next extended trip. Now if only Amtrak could accommodate a nice ON TIME trip and travel would be painless.

The train is approaching Penn now. About an hour and 15 minutes late. So I will wrap this up so I can put the powerbook away. More mobile reviews when I use the stuff and have time to write about them! This post was written on Tuesday afternoon 5-17-05…

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Travel Day

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I don’t have many of them any more, but today was a travel day (sort of). I used to consider a “travel day” a day where most of what I did was travel from one place to another. Now that I don’t travel as much (and am much happier for it) I don’t have as many as I used to. Dam, the last time I was on a plane was September. Most of my travel is train travel now a days.

I am at the hotel now. I got hear relatively early. Normally when I stay here (my companies other office) I am usually at work late. Today was different. I needed to be here for 2 days while work went on during normal business hours. That means I got to keep normal hours, well sort of.

I learned that getting to the hotel at 6PM means dinner at 7, 7:30. After checking mail, making calls, etc, I am bored and it is only 8:30. So I sit here on the bed with my ipod listening to toons, while I write on my powerbook. I will try to goto bed early, but I don’t know if that will happen.

I had the surf and turf at the hotel restaurant again tonight. I had it the last time I was up with Jayson. it was good, and only $3 more than the normal steak I get. I had a drink and felt nice and relaxed. I didn’t have more, since it was really early and I didn’t want to be tired and out of it the rest of the night. that was just in case I decide to be productive later.

No Cell Phones On The Subway

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i decided that I don’t want cell phones to work on the subway. I live off of my phone. I like having it working everywhere, but I came to a dangerous conclusion recently. Other people are not considerate. The dumb-ass who plays with his ring tones, plays games with the sound on, etc. will not have any problems having a loud conversation the entire 20 minutes that I am on the train. That would be 10 times worse than me not getting a call. Being underground with (lets face it sometimes some people with no etiquette) people who can use a phone would be bad. it is the same reason why I don’t want cell phones to work on airplanes. I think the idea is great, but I don’t trust other people to use the “privilege” properly. It is bad enough that I go onto Amtrak or the LIRR and have to sit next to chatty kathy.

My two cents from a technology enthusiast. I can stick to my ipod and reading the news while on the subway!

Apple Ranked Top Brand!

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Apple has been voted the most influential brand according to Cnet News.com. Take that Microsoft! Where are you in the top 5? See even only having less than 5% of the personal computers in world hasn’t stopped Apple from having the most influential brand in the world. Go iPod!

Now the question is what will Apple do besides the iPod and music players?

Mac Mini Sounds Great, Just Get Over It

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I have been reading reviews questioning the Mac Mini. I just read this review and it says the same thing allot of people have been saying “the mini is not as cheap as you thing for what you get”. I have one thing to say to all these people, “get over it”. Yes it is not the most cost effective system out there. PC’s will ALWAYs be cheaper. I for one would NEVER buy a bottom of the line Dell or Gateway, but I did buy a bottom of the line (sort of, since I got the $599 model) Mac. Why, because the bottom of the line Dell, gateway or HP’s are crap. I won’t go into specific’s, but I am a m a Systems Engineer. I have worked with both Dell and HP entry level desktops. There is a reason why they are are entry level. I would never recommend them for a friend to buy. The Mac Mini on the other hand was on the market for 2 hours before I put an order in for one. Why? Generally Mac’s are quality gear. Is it the cheapest computer you can get? No of course not. is it the cheapest Mac out there? Yes by far.

I like many people already have a mouse, keyboard and extra monitor. That equals no extra cost for me. I also have a KVM so I don’t even need the extra mouse, keyboard or monitor, but I will use them. So as Steve Jobs said it is a good second computer. I don’t need the super power of a G5 tower, nor do I need the 17″ monitor that comes with the entry level iMac.

Oh and the review I referenced before said basically if you want a super small desktop you can do that with a PC. The Mini is not unique (or that is what I read into it). They are correct. Unfortunately Dell, HP, Gateway & IBM don’t sell a super small desktop. Know how I know that? I tried to do a project at work with the smallest desktop I could find from a major manufacturer. do you know what we ended up with? A semi small HP desktop that weighed in at a whopping 15lbs, vs the mini’s 3 lbs or so. Joe schmo user won’t go out and buy a no name box. I for one would not recommend a super small desktop from bob’s computing. I quoted out a small form factor box with very decent specs back in September. it cost over $900.

Why do reviewers have to Apple bash? Can anyone admit that YES Apple has a good product. it is not for everyone, but for the target audience they went after it is a good product. Lets face it, someone who wants a $300 PC won’t be getting a Mac. This Mac is for people who have a pc and want to give the Mac platform a test drive, or for Mac owners who want a cheap (relitivly) second box. Why does everything this company does have to be bashed by some people. If they cured cancer people would give them shit about it.

I am not even someone who likes everything Apple says or sells. I wouldn’t touch the stuff until OS 10.2 came out. I still have brand new PC at home, and a PC laptop along with a few desktops at work, but I was and still am open to the fact that the Mac does some (not everything) things better than a PC.

If you are going to bash a new Apple product, go ahead and bash the Shuffle. I got nothing to defend that with. I will stick with my 40 gig iPod! Thanks anyway.

This post wasn’t supposed to be a “go apple” rant, but I have read like 5 or 6 reviews that said the same thing about the mini. Why hasn’t a major brand done what apple has done with a super small nice looking desktop PC? The cube came out in what 2001. Where is the name brand competition to the cube or the mini? Really, where. I would have bought it back in November when I got my PC. Oh wait, it doesn’t exist. That is why I couldn’t buy it. Dell does not innovate, they make things cheaper than everyone else. That is why I have been known to buy Dell at work, but for myself no thanks. HP at least innovates, but they are still not as ahead of the curve as Apple is.

Lastly yes the Mini is not as cheap as $499 or $599. If you buy ram, bluetooth or Wifi it adds cost. But it is still much cheaper than the next viable mac that I would get. It is still 3lbs and 2″ thick by 6.5″ wide. Like I said, no one else can give me the same thing, so I will stick with the Mini.

The Waiting Is Over, Now More Waiting!

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The waiting is over. The rumors are in fact true. Apple has released a small (cheap) desktop that does not require you to buy an all in one model. The Mac mini is actually real. Rumors were flying for over a month, but they are in fact true. I for one am very happy. I went the iMac route only to sell it because I don’t want to be locked into an all in one unit. I won’t upgrade my monitor so often, but I will upgrade my desktop. I also don’t use my Mac for super power user functions, so a $1500 tower is out. The Mac Mini is perfect for me. Inexpensive small desktop computer. I may get rid of my Powerbook and just get 2 Mini’s. One for work and one for home. What I will probably do is just leave the powerbook at work.

I was one of the crazy ones. I went online and ordered mine already. it took an hour since the apple site was really slow, but I got my order confirmation already. I am told it will arrive on the 22 of this month, but you never know with hardware vendors. My hardware vendor who I usually buy stuff from gets me great deals if I buy for personal use, but he could not guarantee the delivery date. I ended up getting the faster processor model with the extra hard drive space. I will upgrade the ram with 3rd party memory. With shipping and the extra ram I am talking about $800 for the total package. Not bad since the entry level iMac is like $1299 but it comes with a 17″ monitor and I already have a 20″. I want flexibility. This will give it to me. I am very excited. Apple finally listened to what people (me) wanted. I hope they sell like hot cakes. As for their flash music player, I will pass. I am very happy with my 40 gig iPod.

Sunday Movies

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Today I met up with Jayson and Gretchen and we hung out. We went to Soho so Gretchen could hit a shop. I hit the Apple store, and got a skin for my iPod. Blue colored if you are wondering. We then ate dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen while we were killing time before the movies. We went to see Ocean’s 12. It was good, but I think the first one was better. It was good entertainment though. It was cool in NY today so I had on the Pea Coat and the nice warm neoprene police gloves.

Before the movies I had some time to work on my TV / computer setup. I got my All In Wonder card to properly pump video to my TV. In order for it to look right I have to turn down the resolution to 800×600. When I do I can watch recorded shows from my computer onto the TV. With the ATI Remote Wonder I can also change the channels and fast forward, etc without going to my computer.

The “Official” Cut Over To My New Computer

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I have been spending less time on my move to a new desktop (see past posts), but I am almost done. I think I am past the point of no return. Or shall I say I am now officially working off of that computer. What fine line did I cross to let me say that? Not sure. I am doing almost nothing on that computer yet. I think what did it was moving off 90% of what was on my firewire drive (plugged into my powerbook) over to the new computers drive. The final straw was importing my MP3 collection into iTunes for windows on the new computer. All 28gigs are now working on the desktop. Fear not, I can still listen to all that music on my Powerbook. I just shared out the itunes on my desktop. Now I can listen wirelessly anywhere in my apartment.

Like I said I am still using the Powerbook as my primary machine, but everything is now a network share off of the new desktop. I am also using the desktop as the DVR I originally planned.

I am also reformatting my iPod as we speak. I am setting it up so it will sync with my PC. I have never used the iPod with a PC so lets hope it is as easy as with my Mac? With it formated for a PC (FAT32), I can use it as an external hard drive and shuttle data back and forth between work and home. I can also use it to plug into a Mac or a PC. The limitation I had with it in Mac formatted mode is that I needed to plug it into only Mac’s. It was a pain to do that.

Once the iPod cut over is completed I will need to continue to install all the needed applications on my desktop. Now that most of the data copying is over, I can focus on configuring the machine more. New computers are time intensive to setup:(

Well the format of the iPod to FAT32 went ok. I am now installing my music again using my PC copy of the files. it looks like it is taking longer than on my Mac. Not sure what is up with that.

PodCasting???

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I am feeling like crap today. That means I don’t have strength to do much more than sit around on my laptop and browse the web. Several blog’s that I read have been mentioning PodCasting. This link describes it best. I just downloaded iPodderX Podcast Client.

Since I don’t listen to audio books (yet), and I haven’t listened to the radio regularly in years I am not sure if this is for me. I am going to check it out though. Most suggestions from the blogs I read are usually pretty good. I will let you know if I like it. Or you might not care either way, and that is cool also..