This guide will show you, in great detail, how to install both openiboot and Android on a 1st Generation iPod Touch. The video is below, it is best to watch this in full screen to see the fine details of the commands. The following files are required:

• uberamd_idroid_v1.zip
• iPod Touch 1G Firmware 3.1.2
• Blackra1n (click the Apple image)
• Mac OS X Snow Leopard (untested on Leopard but it will likely work)
• iPod Touch 1G
• About an hour of time

To prep, extract the uberamd_idroid_v1.zip file to your hard drive (I extracted mine in my Downloads folder). Also understand how the “cd” command works in terminal. If you watch the video closely, it all makes sense. Note that to quickly auto-complete a line in terminal, press the tab key. For example instead of typing the full filename “cache.img” you can type “ca” then press tab and it will auto-complete the name.

Enjoy the video!

You can also view this video on youtube (it is a 3 part series).

The intertubes have been swarming with discussion about Apple’s latest product; the iPad. While there is no doubt a lot of people talking about the iPad in a positive way, it is impossible to deny that there is an overwhelming negative attitude towards Apple’s latest creation. The question is whether or not iPad is deserving of the negative barrage it is getting.

Lets take a sample of some comments people have made about the iPad:

Engadget

…how many more ”definitive” posts/editorials do we need to see to further explain how crappy this thing is. i think we got it

Ok, so people are mad that engadget is covering the iPad because they think the device is “crappy”? Engadget covers all device releases, yet the audience of the site (which is anti-Apple to begin with) get pissed about the coverage. You would think engadget is somehow forcing these people to read their site.

The iPad is basically a giant iPod touch. In my opinion, it is missing a lot of essential components/features that deter me from purchasing one myself. For instance: The iPad has no multitasking, no cameras, a touch keyboard, no hdmi out, no flash, lots of adapters, and it ‘s not widescreen. Just a few things that make me say… no thanks.

Then they are upset that the iPad has no camera, physical keyboard, hdmi out, flash, and not widescreen. Well lets think about this, it is a tablet computer. I do understand the multitasking and camera comment so I will ignore those. But physical keyboard? This is a tablet device, it is not a tablet PC. It is designed for your hands, but you can get a keyboard if you really want one. While this person did make some good observations there was still some pretty far off complaining and critiquing of the device. It is not a tablet PC, and it was never touted as one, thus no attached keyboard.

I’m sorry engadget but this is the last I’m ever visiting your site. Your coverage of a medicore product is completely overboard. If you decide to give the HP slate this much coverage when it comes out let me know and I’ll be back, until then, peace out.

Calling an unreleased product mediocre and saying if they cover the HP Slate in the same way they will come back is just childish. This user makes no attempt to hide their total bias. If Engadget covers a PC device they will be happy, but covering an Apple device is not ok. A typical comment from the Engadget commenting crowd.

Yea. HP Slate better be awesome coverage. And the Courier. That’s a slick piece of tech. If you go this bananas over a giant iPhone, I’d better see an entire server dedicate to those.

Same for this comment, covering something Apple makes isn’t alright, but the same coverage for a PC based device is more than ok. Bias galore. Anyone who has watched the keynote in its entirety knows that the iPad is much more than a giant iPod. All you need to do is watch the iWork section of the keynote to understand that.

But fear not, in the flak of negativity there are still people with some good reasoning:

Constant negativity gets old pretty quickly. As someone who enjoys constructive debate and is looking to get some apps developed, I’d like to see everyone take a step back and a deep breath.

None of the more prolific commenters have given Apple the benefit of the doubt on multi-tasking. Really, is that a feature that would make it into a .X release? And is there any reason to assume that the A4 can’t perform similar to whatever’s in the Pre Plus with its demonstrated 50 apps at once ability?

Then there’s the bitching about the bezel, when other devices in the same form factor have pretty much the same thing going on. A thin bezel is great for anything that doesn’t require a firm, one-handed grip; I don’t want to continually move my hand to read content that is obscured by my thumb.

No full OS. Umm, until a full OS can be made that is designed from the ground-up to be touch-friendly, and doesn’t take forever to boot up on tablet/slate hardware, I’ll happily live without the extras.

With 8 out of 10 comments here shredding the iPad, it’s all become sort of a blur, so I can’t come up with anything else off the top of my head. But, I hope you see my point that for the vast majority of the negative commentary, it’s been nothing but the same knee-jerk reactions posted over and over again.

And if, as you say, these represent the voices of the “power users” who beta test the devices, then how is Apple going to get anything of use out of coming here? Virtually every person who has criticized the iPad in the comments has done so without any actual time using the device, and have sworn to never purchase it and experience it for themselves. I fail to see how this qualifies as beta testing.

This is a rare comment from the Engadget community, and I’m sure this user will get buried for a comment like this. The fact is that there is a strong vocal internet trend right now that involves bashing the iPad, and it isn’t just limited to Engadget comments. Heck, Gizmodo wrote an entire article on “8 things that suck about the iPad” which simply rehashed the same old crap: thick bezel, no multitasking, no keyboard.. blah blah blah.

And Digg.com is always a good place to go for non-bias Apple commenting… right? Ha, no, not at all. Digg is another site that is filled with Apple hate. Top comments include:

I’m really digging the internet backlash. All that hate towards NBC is being channeled now towards Apple. The fact that they’re arrogant enough to suggest that this rivals a netbook in any way is only going to lead to further scrutiny.

Suck it, Apple.

Oh? I haven’t talked to anyone who can say they love their $299 netbook. Maybe when you get in the 11″ $500 price range people start to enjoy their netbooks a little more, but anyone who has the most common type of netbook would probably gladly trade it in for an iPad. As someone who has owned 3 netbooks let me tell you, the experience with them is terrible.

No multitasking in a NEW device that is meant to be a replacement for laptops? Pandora shuts down just because you left Pandora to do something else? Nice going, Apple. You should have waited till version 2 was ready to release.

Woah, wait, what? A replacement for laptops? Steve specifically said during his keynote that this device is designed to fit between a smartphone and laptop, not replace either one! Another case of someone commenting when they never even watched the keynote. This is further reinforced when you realize that this is one of the top promoted comments for the story on Digg, meaning that over a 500 other people agreed with this observation enough to promote this users comment. Wow.

Then we have the Microsoft fanboy chiming in:

If Microsoft releases the Courier, it will destroy the iPad.

Just like the Zune did to the iPod and the ZuneHD did to the iPod Touch… right? Sigh.

Netbook Comparisons

A lot of critics on the web use the argument “why not just get a Netbook, it has more features and its cheaper.” It is important to realize the differences between a netbook and the iPad, as they are two completely different types of devices. The iPad is thin, has a 10 hour battery, and offers a form factor and OS that is very friendly for short-use situations, like waiting for a bus. A netbook is thicker, has a shorter battery, longer startup and shutdown time, and a full OS which can perform more tasks but in a longer period of time to do application startup/shutdown times and the fact that the full blown programs have more features and are intended to be used on full laptops and desktops.

Also, netbooks generally have cramped keyboards and tiny trackpads which makes navigating and interacting with the device more of a chore than a pleasure. The iPad turns the entire display into a trackpad of sorts, and allows for simple navigation and interaction with objects, like websites. If you have ever browsed the web on a netbook you probably have experienced the underwhelming feeling you get when constantly scrolling to view content. The mobile Safari browser allows you to see much more of a page, and you can easily zoom in and out of the content you wish to focus on, a feature you can’t easily do in Firefox on a netbook without lots of scrolling. It is an entirely different yet efficient way to browse the web. I am to the point where I would rather browse the web on my Nexus One or iPhone than my netbook because pinch-to-zoom is a lot easier than using those tiny trackpads and widescreens.

As Steve Jobs said:

“Netbooks aren’t better tat anything. They’re not better than a laptop at anything, they’re just cheaper. They’re just cheap laptops.”

Yet we still have critics saying:

$629 with 3G/Wifi? THAT’S INSANE.

I’ve got a Lenovo $300 netbook with Windows XP, FLASH, JAVA and a KEYBOARD !

Let me start by saying your netbook doesn’t have 3G on it (so why did you bother comparing it to the 3G/Wifi iPad?). And thats fine, you can enjoy the heck out of your tiny netbook all you want. A netbook is still a small computer with a small screen made from cheap components. If that makes you happy, so be it. Many people are turned off by netbooks because of how small they are, how underpowered they are for the software that runs on them, and the overall less-than-stellar hardware they are made from.

The Bezel from HELL

Based on reactions found on the web you would think this was the first device to ever have a bezel.

Here’s two of the Many things that piss me off. #1 bezel – it’s NOT neccesary. Are you telling me apple cannot come up with a software solution so the system would know your just holding the edge of the screen?

Oh really? The iPhone multitouch technology already blows away all of the competition (including the Nexus One) and yet this user wants software to tell whether they are pressing or just holding the screen edge. Seriously? How annoying would it be trying to browse the web but having part of the screen blocked by your thumb? That sounds pretty annoying to me. The bezel is there because this device is intended to be held with one hand and interacted with using your other hand!

Lets understand why the bezel is necessary by using an example. Look at the picture below, and focus on the area I highlighted in green. That green area is the most important area of interaction when deleting email. On the left side you will notice that there are red check boxes, clicking the email flags the check box red and marks the email for deletion.

Now imagine having your thumb covering those red check boxes. You would need to set the device down, or find a way to palm the back of it to allow you to uncover those deletion ticks (which are currently being covered by your left thumb). That is a hassle. Having a bezel to hold onto eliminates the need to juggle the device so you can perform tasks that require interaction with the edges of the device.

Lets just look at one more example. See how the removal of the bezel would move your hand right up to the edge of the words when reading an eBook? People with larger hands could easily have their view of the pages effected by holding the device this close to the actual text. Not to mention the device reads this as input which could cause a shift of the hand to result in a page turn.

No flash?! Do not want!

With the Ipad’s omission of flash, it becomes pointless as it will not be able to deliver you content that 98% of websites use.

98%? Oh? I can pull numbers out of my ass too. 110% of this users comment was bullshit. See, its that easy! Me being snarky aside, this is yet another prime example of a user being overly critical in an attempt to make a product seem worse than it really is. I don’t know about you, but aside from advertisements (which I block using AdBlock anyway) I interact with maybe two flash based websites on a weekly basis, and that is including YouTube which does have an application on the iPad to stream YouTube videos. So where are all of these flash websites hiding? I read reddit, digg, endgadget, and the rest of those popular sites, so tell me where are these popular flash-based sites? Which sites are so reliant on flash that it is required to view the content? Ok ok I hear cries of “Hulu”, so lets ignore video streaming sites. Anyone? Anyone? Exactly. Most of the sites out there do NOT rely on flash to view the content. FFS.

It doesn’t run a “full” OS!

Yes, it does. Sure it doesn’t run OS X, but that is not a bad thing. Why? Because thats not the point of this device!

The iPad is supposed to be a device that is between your iPhone (smartphone) and your MacBook (laptop) for web browsing, email, photos, games, and reading. It is not a laptop replacement. It is not a phone replacement. It is easier to use than a smartphone, but less feature-packed than a laptop. It is a easily portable device with a long battery and great capabilities.

Tweetie for Mac is certainly one of the best Twitter applications available, however it is lacking in one area: hiding the dock icon. Tweetie uses a Dock and menubar icon which is abnormal for many applications, usually they just use one or the other. Fear not, hiding the Dock icon and keeping the menubar icon is just a few quick steps away.

1. Quit Tweetie if you have it running
2. Go to your Applications folder using Finder
3. Right click on the Tweetie application and select “Show Package Contents”
4. Double click the Contents folder to go into it
5. Double click on the Info.plist file to open it in TextEdit
6. Under the <dict> tag add the following lines:
   <key>LSUIElement</key>
<string>1</string>
7. Save, quit TextEdit, launch Tweetie again, and enjoy!

Here is a sample of what the top of your Info.plist file should look like with the edited lines:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>LSUIElement</key>
<string>1</string>
<key>CFBundleDevelopmentRegion</key>
<string>English</string>


Some common issues:

Q: Oh no, I can’t authenticate and my tweets aren’t showing up anymore?!
A: Fear not, open tweetie up, Press “Command + ,” to open preferences, navigate to Accounts, remove your user account and add it again. Problem solved. Strange bug, I know.

Q: Um… the Menubar icon is gone as well as the dock icon!
A: Try replacing LSUIElement with NSUIElement in your info.plist file.

Q: But something else went wrong…
A: Hit me up on twitter then @uberamd and I will help you.

I believe in buying Apple refurbished systems at apple.com because of the hundreds of $ in savings, however my last 2 experiences (and only 2 experiences) have been less than wonderful.

I got a MacBook Air for work in May of 2009, refurbished, and out of box the display was ghosting terribly. I got that fixed after 3 days with a Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP). Then bluetooth wasn’t working, so I once again needed to bring the Air to the AASP for repairs and was without my system for longer. It is likely that bluetooth didn’t work since day 1, but I hadn’t tried it until this point. Finally after two fixes, the out-of-box issues were resolved, issues that should have never happened in the first place.

Now fast forward to a week ago. I ordered and received a refurbished 17″ MacBook Pro from Apple with a sweet discount from my Apple rep. It seemed fine for 2 days until I installed SMCFanControl and iStat Pro and realized the left fan was stuck at 0 RPM. Crap. Temps were normal but a stuck fan is still no good. I ran Apple Hardware Diagnostics and sure enough it immediately reported an error.

Well wtf. Two refurbished systems, both have out-of-box problems, and I am stuck bringing the laptop in for repairs right after getting it. This is unacceptable and my faith in Apple to deliver on the refurbished front is dwindling. I need a laptop for school and the fact that I need to take it in for days worth of repairs immediately after purchase puts a real snag in my schooling. A little annoyed, I sent an email to Apple (sjobs) outlining the issue I was having and stating that I was only sending this email to “bring to your [Apple] attention the possible flaws in the refurbishment and recertification processes.”

Well 2 hours later I got a call from Ryan at Apple Executive Offices apologizing about the issue. I thought that was above and beyond as I wasn’t even expecting a reply. Then he told me Apple would replace my broken, refurbished system with a upgraded model (2.6GHz to 2.8GHz, 320GB HD to 500GB HD, refurbished to new) free of charge and ship it out next business day.

This was a very pleasant surprise as I wasn’t expecting a reply from Apple and ended up getting a new system because of my troubles. It is bad that Apple has a spotty refurbishment process but they made it right in the end. This is why I buy Apple. Customer Support is top notch.

Apple shipped the system next day air from China, meaning I got it 2 days later (1 day to the US, 1 day to me). Everything worked perfectly, and it came in a real box compared to the refurbished system I had that came in a generic box. It was brand new, and I got basically a $700+ upgrade free of charge. Yeah it was a hassle that the system didn’t work right out of the box, but Apple made good on the problem and in the end I am more than satisfied with how the issue was handled.

Thank you Apple.

I was emptying the Trash on my MacBook Pro this morning and saw something strange. The file count reached 0 when there was still 50% left on the progress bar. Then, the number started going negative. Snow Leopard was deleting negative files on my computer. Lets hope it didn’t add random stuff or delete random files! I’m sure it didn’t, but still. Negative file deletion? Thats new.

The Good

I purchased my 40GB Apple TV a about a year ago and thought it was a nice looking, functional device. It allowed me to play the movies and TV shows I ‘obtained’ online on my TV with what I considered at the time to be a mostly painless process. The device itself looks great. It is small, quiet, and actually looks like it belongs in your living room unlike those homebrew PC’s people usually hook up to their TV. It connects to your TV via HDMI or component cables, and has built in wireless and 10/100 ethernet for transferring/streaming content. The OS running on it is polished, intuitive, and does the job well.

The Apple TV has some great out-of-the-box features going for it. You can download podcasts directly from the Apple TV or stream the podcasts you have on your computer. You can also sync or stream your music and put your pictures on it for a screensaver or slide show. You can sync or stream any content in your iTunes library on this device provided it is in the correct format. Also, you can download TV shows and rent/download movies in standard quality or in HD for a fee. This allows you to either download and keep the content forever from the comfort of your couch for around $15, or just rent the content for about $2-4. The content you rent is automatically removed from your device after 24 hours. I rented and watched the movie “Sex Drive” in HD when some friends were over, the quality was great. We didn’t want to go out and get a movie, so this was a perfect, convenient solution (however I had to foot the bill as it charges your iTunes account). It is a joy to use if this stuff is what you want to do.

The Bad

However it isn’t all bunnies and rainbows. First of all this device only plays MPEG4 video, meaning if you want to play the XviD/DivX video you ‘obtained’ online, it needs to be converted first using a program like Roxio Toast, handbrake, or one of the other handful of solutions to convert the video to Apple TV format. This is fine, but it is very VERY time consuming depending on the speed of your system. Using my 2.4GHz Core2Duo MacBook Pro I still thought it took forever to convert content. I guess I understand why the device cannot play DivX/XviD movies, after all most legitimately obtained content does not use those codec’s, and Apple is also trying to get you to use their Store. But still, come on Apple.

The Solution

So what does any technical person do when Apple releases a product that limits a desired behavior they want? They hack it (I’m looking at you iPod Touch/iPhone), why should the Apple TV be any different? Apple was kind enough to place a USB port on the back of this thing which makes modifying the software VERY easy. I will not explain how to do this due to legality reasons, but feel free to google it (*cough*click here*cough*). But basically what you do is download the program on your computer then put in a USB thumb drive and it will create a bootable drive that you stick in the Apple TV which will automatically modify it and add a bunch of cool features.

What kind of features does this add you may ask? Well it allows you to install a web browser for example (which I found quite pointless really, but thats just me), video codecs to allow the playing of nearly all video formats, SFTP access, SSH access, the ability to mount network shares and play the content, and much more. When it works, it works well. I was able to bang through all 6 seasons of The Sopranos in no time flat thanks to my ability to stream them in their current DivX format directly from my Mac mini. This is what the Apple TV should be able to do out of the box, it is overly tied to iTunes and MPEG4 content. Ugh.

However like any 3rd party hack solution, this one is not without its faults. Apple TV software updates break functionality and require you to rehack the device each time. Thats understandable and the dev’s thought of this by implementing a block that prevents system updates (optional). Second, its buggy. Like really buggy. For example mounting network shares is a tedious hit-or-miss task. Sometimes it works, other times it falls flat on its face with errors. When it works, its great. When it fails, it fails hard. But again, that is to be expected by anything 3rd party.

To avoid dealing with mounting network shares you can transfer content directly to the Apple TV hard drive via SFTP but that is SLOOOOWWW. You need to wait for the entire movie to transfer before watching it, and who wants to do that?

The PlayStation 3

Enter the PlayStation 3. We all know its a gaming device, but it also makes a great media extender. The PS3 can natively do things that the Apple TV should be able to do out of the box. What, you ask? Play nearly all kinds of media files without the need to convert the content first. It’s that simple. The PS3 can play my DivX video without needing me to run it through handbrake, Roxio, etc. It just plays it. It just works. Wait, isn’t that the slogan Apple uses? The Apple TV doesn’t just work. It tries, but it falls short for anyone but strict iTunes customers.

Oh and whats with the remote? Its awful. The PS3 blu-ray remote blows the Apple remote and the Remote iPhone app out of the water. Apple, offer us a $20 remote that doesn’t completely suck. Please?

The XBox 360 is also capable of the things the PS3 can handle but since the 360 sounds like a jet (very loud fans), its not as well suited for the family living room.

The Potential

The Apple TV has potential. Its smaller than the 360 and PS3, its silent (no fans), it looks good so your significant other won’t complain that you have another technology item in the living room, and its decently priced. But even with all of these things going for it, devices like the PS3 and 360, which are gaming machines first and media extenders second manage to blow the Apple TV out of the water at its own game: playing media. Because the Apple TV is so picky about what it is willing to play all of the joy is sucked out of using the device. I would rather fire up my PS3 and watch a few episodes of The Sopranos, or Seinfeld instead of having to convert the media to a different format or fiddle with mounting network shares using the clunky Apple remote.

If the Apple TV could simply handle more video codec’s, I would be willing to recommend it to everyone I know. In its current state, I just cannot do that. The device is far to much of a hassle for anyone besides a strict iTunes only customer, and is simply too restrictive.

The Verdict

Enough said.

I recorded a two nearly identical videos using my 3G S and my jailbroken 3G. I did this to provide a sample of video quality across the two devices.

Here is the cycorder video (link to my me.com gallery)

Here is the 3G S video (link to my me.com gallery)

Some immediate differences are video size. The 3G Cycorder videos are 384 x 288 pixels while the 3G S videos are 640 x 480. The file sizes are roughly identical, with only a 2MB difference between the two. The bit rate is slightly higher on the 3G S video as well.

3G S still from video:

3G still from video:

Overall the quality on both videos is pretty good. I wasn’t really wowed by ether one but cycorder has improved quite a bit and holds its own for those not wanting to buy the 3G S.

Thank god I am a Mac user. Why? Read.

So I was given a computer to fix by a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a zoo keeper’s personal bee keeper’s gardener, or something like that. Anyway, the reasons cited for needing repair included running slow, and possibly a virus had worked its way into the users well-secured system.

So I got the system, fired it up, and instantly noticed there was no AV software running. Secure? Ha. Heck, there was no anti-spyware software either, a defrag had never been done and updates hadn’t been installed since Service Pack 3. It was still using IE6, and when I fired IE 6 up, I was in for a surprise.

Feel free to take a peek at the larger image. Their IE was a toolbar heaven. It almost seems like the user just googled the word Toolbar and click every hit that came up. I mean come on, how am I supposed to work with someone like this? To top it off, they said they LIKED the toolbars. What did I do? I gave them the system back and said “I usually just fix Mac’s, try the Geek Squad.” Seriously, I cannot bother trying to ‘fix’ a system that has never had AV software on it, doesn’t have updates installed, and has more tools than the Digg offices… er… toolbars.

It is situations like this that make me thank myself more and more for switching to Mac. So many PC users are just dumb like this. Mac has ‘them’ too, but far less.

This is a never ending debate. Which is better, Mac or PC? Which is better, OS X or Windows? The answer is: both. It all boils down to personal experiences. Care to guess what side of the fence I am on? I will give you a hint: Mac/OS X. I will give you an outline of why I have decided this to help paint a picture of where I am today.

Ah, the younger years

I started off a PC guy I suppose. I was born in 1988, and the first computer I can remember was my dad’s Samsung 386 laptop. It had a monochrome screen, no hard drive, a 3.5″ floppy drive, and ran Commander Keen like a charm. I just recently disposed of that system. From when I was 10 to my early teen years, it made a great machine to test my BASIC (GW-BASIC, QBASIC) programs I was writing.

My first desktop system was a Packard Bell. 15″ CRT display @ 1024×768, 75MHz Pentium, 8MB integrated memory, and a 800MB hard drive running Windows 95. I did a lot of my computer learning on this system which included tinkering with hardware, learning to install programs, using Office 95, and doing programming with GW-BASIC and QBASIC. My next few computers were also PC’s, a Compaq Desktop (450MHz Windows 95), and a HP Desktop (667MHz, Windows ME). By 9th grade I was building computers every year or so. They were obviously PC’s as you don’t build Macs.

Between then and 2006 I owned a few more systems like a few iBooks (only owned for a few months), custom built PC’s, and a Compaq v2000 laptop.

Fast forward to 2006

I graduated high school in 2006, and was getting ready to go to college. My major was Computer Science and I wanted a laptop. I went on Dell.com, priced out and ordered a Inspiron E1505 laptop. Specs: 1.6GHz Centrino Duo, 80GB HD, 256MB GeForce Go7XXX, 1GB RAM, 15″ Screen @ 1280×800, DVD Burner, and a 3 year warranty. Cost: $1700. I got the system, and was happy with it.

By second semester (2007) it was already having issues. First, a hard drive died. Dell came and replaced that for me. Then the display went out. Dell came and replaced that. Then my speakers went out. Dell came and replaced that. By then I was just sick of this system. It was in great shape, and all issues were fixed. I started the search for a buyer. By mid way through my Sophomore year I found a buyer (after much searching). I got $650 for it, and that included a iPaq PDA ($125 value) so really I got ~$525 for the laptop. Great… I lost $1175 on that deal. PC’s have wonderful resale value don’t they? /end_sarcasm

I then purchased a white Macbook (2.2GHz C2D, 3GB RAM, 120GB HD, DVD-Burner) with OS X Tiger on it. I loved it right away. I was enjoying OS X from the beginning. OS X Leopard was released, and I paid $70 to get the retail discs. I then started to love OS X even more, it was great. The Macbook gave me no frills and worked wonderfully.

More… MORE POWER!

I reached a point where I wanted some more power. I already had a powerful desktop, but my plan was to sell my desktop and just have a laptop that can ‘do it all’. So, I sold my Macbook for around $950. I paid $1150 for it, so I lost $200 total. Not bad! I then went off to go buy a Macbook Pro. It ran me $1750, tax free. Specs: 2.4GHz Core2Duo, 2GB RAM, 200GB HD, DVD-Burner, 15″ Display @ 1440×900. I have upgraded the RAM to 4GB, and the hard drive from 200GB to 500GB.

Am I happy with this system? Absolutely. It has everything I wanted from a laptop, and more. What do I like about it? Well first, OS X. It is a great OS, and I prefer it over Windows any day. Second, the hardware is no-frills. Nothing has died on it yet, no warranty work has had to be done yet. It looks great (Aluminum is a nice look for a laptop), the backlit keyboard is very nice, the large trackpad is a breeze to use, and its a sturdy, thin machine. Also the display is gorgeous, pumping out 1440×900, and it is super bright. My Dell was plastic, thick, the screen became loose after 6 months (I’m sure you have all seen laptops with loose screens), and gave me issues. They cost the same price, but hands down I prefer the Macbook Pro.

OS X has a lot to do with it

The operating system plays a major role in my love of Mac’s. It looks a lot more modern in comparison to Windows XP, it runs a lot better than Windows Vista and XP, the file structure has some resemblance of Linux (I do like Linux). Finder beats Explorer hands down for me, and the Dock is a lot more convenient in comparison to the Start menu.\

Application installation is in most cases a lot easier than on Windows. Just having to drag an application anywhere to install it is simple. Want to uninstall? Drag to the trash can. Sick of how Windows application menu’s are always different, and can at times be cumbersome? OS X has the menu bar in the same place, always. OS X applications are consistent, and I like that.

My job indirectly taught me to dislike Windows PC’s

For about the last year I have worked for my colleges Technology Department. My job responsibilities involve server administration (1 windows server, 5 linux servers), web development, database management, application development, and system maintenance when needed (other people usually cover this). I cannot even count how many PC’s we have serviced in the year since I have worked there. The number is upsetting. Countless cases of viruses (more recently, the Anti-Virus 2009 virus), hardware failures, OS crashes, and more. We have had to warranty an absolutely insane amount of defective PC hardware, and I have reinstalled Windows XP so many times I can do it with my eyes closed by now.

But our Mac’s are ticking like clocks. We got some Macbook Pro’s for select faculty members, and they are loving them. We use a PowerMac G5 as one of our servers, and it runs better than all our other servers (Debian for PPC is on it). We have a G4 Mac Mini that works great, and recently I got a old Power Mac G3 from work (purchased in 1999) that still has 100% functioning parts. Heck, I use it as my primary desktop at home now.

And yet some of the PC’s we have had for only a few months have faulty hardware. What makes this worse is many of our systems are Gateways, and if you have been following tech news you know that Gateway went bust. So, we have tons of systems with warranties that we are unable to even claim. Cool huh?

I really enjoy OS X applications

OS X has a great set of applications I use every day. I wont talk much about them but I will list my favorite apps:

• Safari – web browser
• Coda – editor
• XCode – programming IDE
• NetBeans – programming IDE
• Eclipse – programming IDE
• Microsoft Word 2008
• iChat
• Aperture – photo editing
• iPhoto
• Mail
• Photoshop
• Terminal
• Handbrake – video conversion
• iTunes

There are more, but those are what I use on a daily/weekly basis off the top of my head.

So I have my Mac, and I am happy

I have my Mac, and I am happy. Whenever a faculty member needs their USB drive scanned for viruses, they come to me so I can use my Mac to do it. I have had the same Leopard install since I got the laptop, and I haven’t had to reinstall yet (like I would with Windows XP). If I need Windows for something, I just fire-up Bootcamp, Virtual Box, or VMWare-Fusion. It works great. It does what I need it to do, and it does so in a way that satisfies my computing needs.

I tried to paint a picture of why Mac’s are best for me, and why I decided on them after years as a PC guy. Basically it boils down to a few major factors:

• Leopard suits my needs better than Windows
• Comparable hardware costs for better quality systems
• Great set of applications that serve me every day, most are free
• More aesthetically pleasing than PC hardware

A while back I wrote a review of the iPhone 2G (EDGE/Original) shortly after I decided to sell it. The timing of my review fell shortly after the App Store was released, even though I had it jailbroken and had many apps on it before the APP Store. My main reasons for selling it included its buggy App install, cumbersome text input via the touch screen, and no backgrounding. And I was happy with my MotoQ (Windows Mobile) device for a while, but grew out of it.

So, around christmas time I decided to get yet another iPhone. This time I got the 3G phone. The major draws of this was first the 3G speeds (even though where I attend college they only have EDGE, but will be getting 3G soon), GPS integration, and expansion of the App store. Am I happy now? Yeah, I am happier than I was with my original phone but still not 100% happy. What will make me love this phone completely? 3.0, however I will touch on that later.

Bigger App Store = Better App Store
The app store now has more applications than it did when I got rid of my 2G iPhone. The growth of the store was a major deciding factor in the purchase of a 3G iPhone. The social applications are by far my favorite, including Facebook, tweetie (twitter), Twitxr, Palringo (Instant Messaging), Colloquy (IRC), WordPress, etc. I feel that is really where the iPhone shines, as it makes it very easy to connect with other people no matter where you are.

Plus, there is a seemingly endless supply of games, and other time killers available for free or a low cost, something that is not matched on any other device.

Now that you don’t have it, you miss it
I ran into this feeling after I sold my 2G. Once I got rid of my iPhone, I started to miss it. Sounds dumb to say I took a phone for granted, but I did. The iPhone was a bigger part of my daily routine than I gave it credit for. I used it for web browsing a lot, getting directions, and chatting. Yeah, the MotoQ could do all those things, but the interface was a lot more ‘out dated’ looking than the iPhone counterparts. The tight integration the iPhone has with its apps (mainly Mail, Maps, Safari) makes the experience a lot better than having to install Google Maps java app on the MotoQ. Now that I have a 3G iPhone, I once again am able to do the things I missed from my 2G, and a lot more, plus I have a new level of appreciation for the device.

No backgrounding? The iPhone isn’t for me then!
I love staying signed into AIM. I enjoy allowing anyone to send me messages at any time, and the fact that the iPhone couldn’t background was (what I thought) a killing point for me. I didn’t understand the reasoning behind not allowing it, and that annoyed me. Fast-forward to my 3G iPhone. I jailbroke it, and installed a ‘hacked’ application that allowed me to background applications, and I thought it would be sweet. Was it? No. Absolutely not, unless you love charging your phone mid-day. Backgrounding = battery killer.

iPhone OS v3.0 – A cure to my final complaints
I am a member of the iPhone developer program, so I was able to get my eager hands on the beta of the 3.0 OS. I have it installed on my 3G, and love it. However, because I am bound by an NDA, I will not discuss anything that was not said by Apple publicly.

Backgrounding
Apple decided to address backgrounding by finally integrating push notification. They still do not allow backgrounding of apps (which they claim kills battery, and I can confirm that), however they are allowing applications to get notifications pushed to them from a server which is a close second to backgrounding. With this, you can still get an AIM message while the app isn’t running for example. I am very excited for this.

Landscape SMS with Messages app
Apple is going to allow you to text message, write notes, and use all other Apple apps in landscape mode. This means you can turn your phone on its side and get the longer keyboard, which makes texting easier (for me anyway). This is a major, MAJOR plus for me as when my phone was jailbroken I was using iRealSMS to text which did a similar thing.

MMS integrated with Messages
3.0 will allow you to finally send MMS (aka Picture Mail) to people. This is a major plus for me as well. While in the past I would just email pictures, this is a better solution.

Copy and paste
Finally, the 3.0 will allow you to copy and paste. I have never used this on any phone, but now that the feature is there I am sure it will be used.

There are plenty of other reasons I am looking forward to 3.0, but these are the main things.

So yeah….
If you can’t tell, I am very pleased with my iPhone 3G, and am loving the phone once again. While the beta I have on my iPhone of 3.0 has its problems, it looks absolutely promising. Apple keeps pushing the iPhone in a better direction, and the phone continues to evolve into a more exciting product. I highly recommend this phone to anyone in the market trying to find a new device, and with the release time of Summer 2009 for 3.0, now is a fine time to buy the phone.