This week, Apple quietly refreshed the Mac Mini line. I use a Mac Mini that I bought in 2007. I absolutely love my computer! The new one released this week looks better than ever.
The new Mini is now encased in aluminum, matching the design of the iMac. It has access to the computer memory underneath the machine. The power supply is now inside the machine, unlike older models which carry a power brick. An HDMI port is now included! The new computer also sports a faster processor, graphics card, and more.
I like what I see. I’d love to have one!
I love Twitter and want to see the service grow in the future. Twitter began as a simple service that over the years has ballooned into a major Internet destination. Its original intent was pure and simple: 140-character posts that were meant to be short and to the point.
I think that Twitter needs to increase the character limit from 140 characters to something higher. I’ve personally think that a better limit would fall around 200 characters. That would be a 60 character increase from the original service. I think that would be sufficient to make the service all that it can be.
Too often I see users post a single thought in two separate tweets due to the character restriction of today. The limit feels even tighter when one uses Internet links and hash-tags for trending topics. Entire industries have been created to cope with the strict character limit imposed by Twitter. The countless number of URL shorteners are just one example.
Sure, the beauty of Twitter is in its limited simplicity. I do appreciate that. However, I often find myself posting the same thought to Facebook and Twitter simultaneously. When I do so, I usually have to severely crop my original post to fit within Twitter’s limitations. The result of the final text is quite often a dimmer representation of what I was trying to say in the first place.
So come on, Twitter, give us all a little more space to say what we want to say.
If you are an iPhone user today in the United States, then you are by default on AT&T. Therefore, every iPhone user should download the AT&T myWireless Mobile app. You can not only use the app to monitor your voice and data usage, but also view and pay your bill with your phone. You can also change your plan and features from right within the app.
Newsweek published a terrific article this week titled “I Don’t: The Case Against Marriage.” It’s an interesting read.
Today at the Apple 2010 Worldwide Developers Conference, Steve Jobs took the stage to unveil the new iPhone 4. I followed the announcement closely. I’m quite impressed with the new phone! Steve said that the new phone has 100 improvements over the current 3GS model.
Countless tech blogs are buzzing with this news today, so I have no need to go into detail about the new features. You can read those details elsewhere. I will say that the iPhone 4 OS (now called iOS) is going to be released for free to all users on June 21st. As a 3GS user, I’ll surely benefit from the new operating system upgrade. That said, I’m not sure if I’m all that crazy about the new name “iOS.”
I’ve provided a few links to a some tech blogs for news about the new iPhone 4. These links will age quickly, as more will be written in time.
Many years ago, I went to the grand opening of an electronics store in town, and they had a pile of $17 Bluetooth earpieces. I bought one. It was a Plantronics 220. I used it on and off with my old Motorola Razr phone. The cheap Plantronics earpiece was a truly horrible. It would constantly pop and hiss when I used it. People I spoke with on the phone would often complain about the sound. Most times, to get a decent signal, I’d have to put my phone on the same side of my body as the earpiece. Walking away from the phone was not an option. The range was awful.
For my birthday, my dad gave me a Jawbone earpiece to use with my iPhone. I have the Jawbone ICON Hero. It is totally awesome! It has fantastic range, clarity, features, and battery life. Background noise is filtered out with their military-grade noise filtering technology. I’m able to talk on the phone and keep my windows down while driving. It also speaks caller ID and battery life information in my ear. My experience with it has been outstanding. If you’re in the market, I highly recommend one.
HTML5 is still being developed as the next major revision of the HTML markup language. You can test your web browser how well it already supports HTML5. Visit html5test.com and put your browser to the test. There are 160 elements that are tested on the site. I put all of my Mac browsers to the test: Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. Chrome scored the highest by far.
In addition to my Mac, I also tested Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP. Its score was absolutely abysmal. If I were a Windows user, I’d never use Internet Explorer, regardless of the version installed.
I’ve listed my results below.
- Mozilla Firefox 3.6.3 – Score 101
- Apple Safari 4.0.5 – Score 113
- Google Chrome 5.0 – Score 142
- Internet Explorer 8.0 – Score 19
This week, AT&T announced that it was eliminating unlimited 3G data usage plans. Existing iPhone users who currently pay $30 monthly for unlimited 3G will be able to continue to do so. New users who sign up before June 7, 2010 will also be grandfathered into the unlimited plan.
After June 7, AT&T 3G subscribers will no longer have an unlimited option. A new $15 plan with 200 MB will be available, along with a $25 plan that caps out at 2 GB monthly. The 2 GB plan has a $10 charge for each additional GB that exceeds the plan.
The sudden change appears to be linked to the June 7th Apple WWDC announcement of the upcoming 4th generation iPhone. Some in the tech industry have been up in arms about the sudden change. Others have taken a more measured response. They have been citing how the other wireless carriers are also placing bandwidth caps of their own. I believe that in the end, none of the major carriers will offer an unlimited wireless data plan.
I’ll state my opinion on AT&T’s announcement: I personally do not care.
I don’t use very much 3G data, and I could actually benefit from the cheaper $15 plan that is half the cost of the $30 unlimited plan that I pay for today. In order to be certain, I checked my monthly data usage on AT&T’s website tonight. It turns out that the most wireless data I have used in a single month is 133 MB. That is all!
I’m obviously not a heavy user. I rarely stream video over 3G, or do other data-intensive tasks. AT&T says that 98% of their users use less than 2 GB of data per month. That works for me! I couldn’t consume 2 GB on my phone if I tried.
All of the above said, I concede that iPad 3G owners will certainly be the most likely to feel the pinch of the new bandwidth restrictions. I wrote this article with the iPhone user in mind.
As you may already know, Twitter bought the company behind the popular Tweetie and Tweetie2 clients. They wanted to have a single official Twitter client to be built on the existing features of Tweetie2. The fruits of their labor were finally realized this week, when Tweetie2 was removed from the App Store and replaced with Twitter 3.0.
The best thing about the new app is that it is now completely free, unlike the apps of the past. There are a few new bells and whistles in the new app, but overall, I haven’t found it to be all that different than Tweetie2. The app icon is prettier, but that isn’t much to write home about. Retweeting and other actions have been simplified in the new version, but I’ve found most of the changes to be quite subtle.
My only complaint is that users are still stuck with black text on a white background. The original Tweetie had an option to change the background color to black. Personally, I liked reading in that way. That option disappeared in Tweetie2, and at the time I went as far as to write the company and tell them I missed the feature. I received a reply from the company! They had said that a large number of users had written asking for that very feature to make a return. They said that it would be brought back in version 2.2, citing that they had too many important changes to make in 2.1. Now that Tweetie was bought by Twitter, that plan must have been scrapped. There is no option in version 3.0 to change the background color. Umph!
Despite that relatively minor complaint, it is still my belief that Tweetie/Twitter 3.0 is still the best Twitter client for the iPhone. I can only hope that they finally update the aging Mac desktop Twitter client, which is still stuck on version 1.2.6. Hurry up, guys!
I have to say that I have never cared for television shows that are centered around the setting of a hospital. I admit that at times these shows can be very moving, however, I generally find them to be depressing.
There have been countless hospital dramas on TV over the years. Think: St. Elsewhere, ER, House, General Hospital, Scrubs, Chicago Hope, Grey’s Anatomy, and others. Scrubs, with its particular brand of humor, is the only such show that I have been able to tolerate over the years.
I simply find that having a television signal beamed into your home that portrays someone in a hospital bed, muttering their final words, to be depressing to say the least. Let’s face it, nobody likes being at the hospital, whether you are a patient, or a visitor. A hospital is a place with a distinctly negative vibe.
The notion of willingly piping such emotional drama into your home seems ridiculous to me. I personally don’t care to watch the unfolding drama of a sick person in a bed. I don’t want to see it. It’s a downer. I’m not willing to subscribe to shows that are downers by default, period!
I bought my iPhone three months ago in mid-February. Upon purchase, I immediately bought an expensive Zagg screen cover for it, in addition to a protective shell case from Otter Box. While I thought the Zagg screen cover was highly priced at $20, I felt it was worth the value to protect my most precious toy.
I have since gone through periods of love and hate with the screen cover. After some time, when used in conjunction with my Otter Box case, the screen protector began to show air bubbles at the top and bottom edges. This problem has grown more frequent in recent weeks.
A month or two ago, Apple decided to stop carrying such screen protectors in their official Apple store. They apparently don’t want to promote the idea that you need to protect this device at all. Since that time, I’ve read many opposing viewpoints online on this issue, and I’ve never been able to reach a decisive conclusion.
A week ago, I finally grew tired of the reoccurring air bubbles in my screen cover, and ripped it off. Now I’m using it bare. I have to say that it feels much slicker and more responsive without the screen cover on top of the glass. I’m going to continue to use it this way. I put my phone in my pocket, and never put any change or keys in the same pocket. I’m very protective of my phone, and I don’t think I need a screen cover to keep it safe. Plus the screen simply looks more shiny and clear! Ditch your screen covers.
My favorite video podcast is a show called Diggnation. Diggnation is a weekly show hosted by Digg.com founder Kevin Rose and his sidekick Alex Albrecht. The two have been making the show for five years now. Although they started in 2005, I became a fan far more recently, having found out about the show sometime last year in 2009.
Kevin and Alex are usually sitting on a couch, downing beers, and talking about anything that comes to mind. Within the show, they choose various stories submitted to Digg.com and discuss them. Their banter is quite addicting. I haven’t missed a show since I first started watching it. It is hilarious.
Occasionally, Diggnation is hosted live with a studio audience. They have done shows in many places, including New York City, Austin, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and even Tokyo. I’m happy to hear they are going to try to do more live shows. I wish they would come to Raleigh, NC. I would most certainly attend!
The show is pretty geeky. If that appeals to you, you’re sure to enjoy Diggnation. Check it out their website, or their YouTube channel.
