Apple iPad and Me.

To preface this, I will disclose that I have been an Apple customer since 1986.  I have personally owned a Mac since I turned 18 in 1996.  I currently have 4 Macintosh computers (PowerMac G5(server), MacbookPro (mine), Macbook Air (Rachel’s), 12” Powerbook (Not even running right now), 3 ipods (2G Shuffle, 3G Nano, 1G Touch), and an AppleTV.  And believe it or not, not one of these devices was purchased new.  Most were refurbished, and a few were used.  I am not a fanboy, and actually have disliked many of Apple’s decisions over the past few years. (No real display port on a laptop?? Why do I have to carry adapters to make any presentation at all???? Only two friggin’ USB ports??).  Anyways……

 

Let’s talk a bit about my usage.  I am not a heavy lifting computer user any more, at least at home.  I check email, surf the web, use Web 2.0 (twitter, blogs, facebook, ect), and do finances and calendar sharing.  Sometimes I do presentations, and papers for work, or the Fraternity at home on my Mac, but it’s just not an everyday occurrence.  I don’t have a single Macintosh game.  I do have a game I play in Windows with Bootcamp, but not very often.  Lately, I have been doing most of the email reading, blog reading, and Web 2.0 stuff on my 1^st Generation iPod Touch.  This has been great, as I am not spending as much time downstairs on my computer, and am more connected to my family.  But I still have to go to my laptop to do most of my web surfing.  Before I bought the Macbookpro in January 2008, I had been hoping for a 12” tablet, or new 12” laptop.  Alas it didn’t come to pass, so I got the MacbookPro.

 

Yesterday, Apple announced a device called the iPad.  It is basically a 10” iPod Touch.  Many people have panned it as it can’t multitask, nor does it run OSX, just a scaled version of the iPhone OS.  What I see, is possibility.  Is this the device I wanted in January 2008?  No.  Are my computing needs the same as they were in 2008?  Not even close.  I see the iPad as exactly what Apple designed it for.  A device to sit between devices.  I have my laptop to do the heavy lifting, and as a home base as such.  I can still take it with me if I need it.  But I see the iPad as a perfect replacement for my iPod Touch.  Perfect?  Yes, as it can run everything I have on my Touch now, plus it has the potential to be so much more.  What about Multitasking?  I haven’t used it in 10+ years as a Palm user, why would I need it now.  The Touch doesn’t have multitasking, but I get email, Facebook, twitter and other notifications when I am using other programs. Can someone explain to me what you really want multi-tasking for???  Please, people have had this discussion for years between PocketPC and Palm, and I could never figure out what multitasking brought to the table.  I used to read ebooks on the iPod Touch, but it was killing my eyes, and I switched to a Dedicated ebook reader (Sony PRS-505).  Reading on that is great, except it has all of the same issues as a book, mainly, I have to have a light on.  I look forward to hearing how the reading experience is on the iPad, and how you load books that you already own, or make yourself.  If that works out, I can combine quite a few devices into one.  Yes it will be larger, but it is a version of what I have wanted for over 4 years, and I can’t wait to see what develops.

 

The only thing this brings to light is that I would lose my music player.  I could temporarily use the 3G nano, but I guess this is basically pushing me towards getting an iphone (which other things have already been doing anyways).  Hopefully the mystical Verizon iPhone will materialize around when my contract runs out in 2011.

 

What are your thoughts on the new iPad?

 

Found on the Interwebs today

A burglar broke into a house one night. He shined his flashlight around, looking for valuables when a voice in the dark said,

 

'Jesus knows you’re here.'

 

He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off, and froze.

 

When he heard nothing more, after a bit, he shook his head and continued.

 

Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard

 

‘Jesus is watching you.'

 

Freaked out, he shined his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice.

 

Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot.

 

‘Did you say that?'  He hissed at the parrot.

 

'Yep', the parrot confessed, and then squawked, 'I'm just trying to warn you that he is watching you.'

 

The burglar relaxed.  'Warn me, huh?  Who in the world are you?'

 

‘Moses,’ replied the bird.

 

'Moses?' the burglar laughed. 'What kind of people would name a bird Moses?'

 

'The kind of people that would name a Rottweiler Jesus.'

 

 

 

Don't hold your breath.

An historic night last night. A non-democrat has been elected from Mass. After being "represented" by a Kennedy and a Kerry, for years, they have elected a new person. But what about Obamacare? After all the rhetoric, after all the fear-mongoring, do you think the Democrats will listen to the people and stop the healthcare bill now? The Democrats said that if Brown was elected it would put the bill in jeopardy. Maybe "We the People" want it in jeopardy, want it stopped, but I bet they won't believe that. To them, it wasn't the people that voted in Brown, it was the right-wing conspiracy. So, I wouldn't hold your breath on Obamacare going away.

This November is looking like it could be fun. Find out if your Congressman/Senator is any good. If not, lets find someone to run in his or her place.

Lets throw the worthless bums out.

Solutions Wanted

Problem number 1:

Some of you may know, and some may not, but I have used a Palm OS device since 1998 to keep track of information. Palm has discontinued their OS and have upgraded to another. Rachel and I recently upgraded to Palm Centro's (The last PalmOS phone to be made), when our contracts with Verizon ran out. Basically our plan was to keep what we knew for another contract, and then hopefully a new solution would present itself to us. This is working out, but the one problem we have always had is rearing its ugly head again. We can't share calendars.

As I said, I have been using a palm since 1998. I have calendar entries running back to at least 2001 in my calendar, and when I have changed jobs, I transfered over these entries from Outlook calendar to outlook calendar using my Palm PDA/Phone.

Rachel and I have a G5 tower at home that is our media/print server, and i would love it if I could put a monitor from it into the kitchen that showed a calendar on it (plus other stuff). I am having trouble figuring out the solution.

Here is the senario, I have info on my Outlook calendar/ipod touch/palm that are all synced (and in Color coded categories). Rachel has info on her phone that is currently not synced anywhere. I want to merge all of this onto the G5 Server at home so that we can share information. I must also be able to have my work schedule at work. It would be nice if Rachel could add stuff to her phone, then sync, and then I would be able to see changes.

Now, to throw stuff into the mix, I wouldn't be adverse to getting myself a new ipod touch and re-gifting mine to Rachel to facilitate this too. If there is a google calendar solution in here, that would be ok.

Problem 2
I am slowly moving all my info from my Palm to my ipod touch. With the Palm OS basically dieing and my phone being quite buggy, I just don't know if I can wait for the full two years. I used to carry two devices and don't have a problem doing it again.

I have already moved the following over: Fuel log, weight management, photos, Ebook reader, Bible, Calculator, news reader and games. There are a few items that I do on both devices, depending on what I have in hand at the time, but I have the following to move over: notes, password safe, alarm clock and Quicken.

I haven't found usable solutions to move my notes, or a solution to move mobile management of Quicken to the iphone. I would prefer to stay with Quicken, but if I can move to a solution that allows me to enter data mobilly and then sync to a desktop program, I am open as long as it can import my 10+ years of quicken data.

As far as an alarm clock, I have a first gen touch, so it doesn't have a speaker, so i don't know if I can move that over. Plus I have an amazing program on my palm that currently handles that duty, Palmary Clock.

I am evaluating password safes. Anyone have one they like on the ipod? I currently use YAPS

I currently do use the calendar and contacts on both the palm and the ipod, as they both sync with outlook, so they stay up to date. The palm calendar is heads and shoulders better than the ipod/iphone calendar, usability as well as functionality, so I still use the palm as my major data entry point, but have been drifting towards using outlook recently.

The Great Appliance Switchout of '09 & Network move

Some of you know, some don't, but Rachel and I have purchased a new home in Cincinnati. We still have the Minster House, but are hoping to sell it soon. The appliances that came with our new house are nice, but not as nice as the ones that we are used to in Minster. So we decided that we wanted to switch the appliances between the two houses. This is even harder than it sounds because I also have the washer from my mother at the apartment, and she has my washer in Waynesfield, so we needed to switch these out too. After planning how to transport everything and trying to find help, I decided to just go ahead and do it the weekend of September 11-13. Thankfully, my brother called me on the 9th and told me that if I couldn't find anyone to help that he would.

Thursday night (9/10), after work, Rachel and I drove to Kenwood to look at a microwave she had found on craigslist. This is to replace the Minster Microwave, and actually is a better model than we have there. The only problem is that after I bought it and got it to the car, I noticed that it looked a little yellow. Turns out it is not white, but Bisk colored. Oh well. After nice dinner at IHOP, we head back to the apartment and I mowed the lawn. Then I decided to pull the washer out of the basement. Now this washer is pretty light, but I still had some fun. This washer is a top loading industrial type. When I pulled it away from the wall, the upper cabinet came off the lower frame. What the heck!!. It turns out the whole upper cabinet is attached to the lower frame by two screws in the back. After I found the screws on the floor where they had vibrated out, I was able to put the washer back together. Then I used a dolly and got it up the stairs and into the trailer. Boy am I glad that I decided to do this on Thursday and not on Friday.

Friday night (9/11) after work, I headed to the apartment, wished Rachel and the boys a good trip to my parents, loaded up the trailer, the dog, my tools and the microwave in the Rover and drove to the house, where I proceeded to unhook the stove and unhook the dishwasher and cart them out to the trailer. Left the hose attached to the garbage disposal, as I thought it would be easier to just swap the hoses. Then I bought gas in the Land Rover, Milage 94998.8. I then drove to Minster by way of 127, instead of 75, as I didn't want to chance all the construction with all of the appliances in the truck and trailer. I called my brother, who was at my parents, that I was about an hour away. He had already left, so he got to sit at Minster and wait for me for a while. I finally got to Minster, and BJ and I got the stove, dishwasher and microwave into the house and then loaded Dad's Table saw in the trailer with the washer. We then left his truck at the Minster house and drove the Rover to my parents.

Saturday Morning (9/12), BJ and I got an early start and got the saw out of the trailer and put away, then swapped the washers. All I can say is that "Forearm Forklifts" rock. It was so much easier to move stuff with them then with the dolly. After that, we drove back to Minster and got the trailer switched to BJ's truck and then loaded up the stove and dishwasher into the trailer. Then we swapped the microwaves, and put that in my Rover. Shoot, the hoses on the dishwashers are not compatable. Took the hose off for the stainless dishwasher and put that in the truck. I ran to the hardware store and got a pipe to hook up the range correctly. Then we got my flatbed trailer out and after taking doors off the fridge, putting them back on, and taking one back off, got it out of the house and onto the trailer. After putting it back together and strapping it down really well, we got back on the road, BJ pulling the covered trailer and I pulling the flatbed with the fridge. We again took 127 down to our new house. There we put the appliances into the kitchen, and folded up the flatbed and put it into the garage. Then we took the white fridge completely apart (doors off, and shelves out), and put it into the covered trailer. BJ then left for a date (thanks Joni for understanding about him being really, really, really late), and I headed to the apartment to get some more clothes and drop the dog off with Rachel. I then drove up to Minster by I-75. Then the real fun began. I brought the Fridge into the house BY MYSELF :). I only dropped it once ;). After that, I put the doors back on and got the shelves back in it, and then I went to bed. I was a bit tired and quite sore.

Sunday morning (9/13), I was up at 7:30 and got the dishwasher installed, then I got the two circuits that got missed when the electric panel was replaced installed. Then I got the hard pipe exhaust for the dryer out of the basement, and then plugged in the fridge and hooked up the water to it. I then loaded up my yard tools, ladder and other items from the Minster house and drove down to the new house. I unloaded the trailer, and then drove over to the apartment to see the boys and Rachel. Then we loaded the boys up in Rachel's car and she took off for the house, and I loaded the trailer up with stuff from the Apartment garage, and then loaded the Rover up with the network and server equipment. Got over to the house and started by removing the microwave. Hmm, that is hard wired and I don't have the material I need to install the new one. I guess I won't be hooking up the appliances tonight, because the local hardware store closes at 5. Ok, on to the network. Hmm, we have a dialtone in the garage, but the wires were bad coming into the house, so I ran a new line from the garage into the basement. Then I set up the networking equipment. Wired up the house phone lines so they work now. Then I ran two cat5 lines to the living room for the Roku box and the AppleTV. They didn't work the first time. After 4 plugs, I found that I was putting the plugs on upside down (stupid drawing is wrong on the back of the crimper packaging :(). Got that done, then set up the server, and we have internet at the new house. I then drove home and took some empty boxes with me for Rachel to use to pack the kitchen and the living room. Milage on the truck was 95526.2. 527 miles, plus moving/installing appliances, and cables in basically 48 hours. Oh what fun :).

We have friends coming tonight (9/14), and I am hoping to move the living room and hopefully our bed over to the new house. Then we will just start sleeping there. If we don't start sleeping there tonight, then tomorrow night for sure.

Our landlord wants to start showing the apartment to people. I keep telling her it is a wreck as we are packing, but she doesn't want to listen. My goal is to have everything moved out of there by Sunday the 20th. :). If you want to help us move, please let me know.