i play all . com

over the years, i’ve learned not to jump on the “new” bandwagon and wait at least a month before upgrading to a new product, software or gadget.
so i’m not in a rush, especially seeing hillarious videos like this one (NSFW 150k+ views).

but, to give apple credit, 2011 MB Air has fixed my 2 annoyances with previous Air: lid up the keyboard & removed pointless “eject” button (thus moving music play keys, where they are suppose to be). so i was excited to test 2011, especially that my in-laws got it & there was no risk of having to go back to Leopard Snow, etc.
apple failed terribly on not putting back the infared for the remotes (yeah, “get apple tv” – $100 – “philosophy” – but you can’t really send power point presentations to apple tv via airPlay, can you?). and to add salt to the wound, they have removed FrontRow app (although there’s a hack for that).

so … i’m writing this on my 2010 Air & will keep it ’till  x-mass,  if not longer … why?

2011 Air, or Mac OS X Lion – i should say – doesn’t feel like a finished product!

- firefox dmg file couldn’t mount. my very first impression wasn’t good: download firefox, mount dmg, move to applications & … “can’t open” (WFT? did i just upgrade to windows?). had to re-download twice, delete files & restart the system to get it to work …. brand new, $1400 laptop!
- after using the Air for few hours, system preference crashed! really apple???
- when downgrading the resolution to lower 1152×720 – can’t see bottom menu in iphoto. yeah, minor bug, but contrary to apple’s belief old folks can’t see ant size fonts at native – 1440×900 resolution. i’ve gotten used to upscaled, not so good looking 1152xx720 resolution. but not to have iPhoto scale down accordingly?
- mail app – can’t increase font sizes. the option is there … but doesn’t do anything … yep, restarted. nada. again, very frustrating for old people, who can’t see ant size fonts on the screen!
- video “anatomy of mac” is still leopard on the support site. support section of apple’s website doesn’t seem to be aware of Lion’s existence … yet (but i guess it’s more efficient for the co. to have old folks come to the store to take lesson … maybe up sell them on some crap they don’t need)
- drop box folder – doesn’t work out of the box … until you enable sharing on it …
- gestures – not implemented on applications like firefox. now this is probably firefox’s fault, but still when making a fundamental OS changes like: stuff scrolls up, instead of down (thank god there’s an easy way to disable that). or making 3 finger left/right swipes, switch os “pages”, instead of website’ visited pages …. should give devs a bit of notice? have a discussion to make sure those “revolutionary” videos, correspond with the actual product experience?
[no apple, safari is not the greatest browser out there ... it actually sux. e.g. have you heard of a standard cmd-K shortcut to search? cmd-1,2 to switch between tabs?]
ohh & if you want to understand why 2-finger left/right swipe is a disaster. try to explain to a 70 year old a difference between: 1 finger swipe, 2 finger swipe & 3 fingers … the difference between going left, right, up (the middle one, might be up by then )
- totally agree with the guy from the video above on, Launchpad doesn’t feel like part of the OS: can’t select multiple apps & move them, can’t manage them via finder. & the name “Launchpad” – again my old folks have no idea that means “application” …
- AirDrop … doesn’t work with older macs. how dumb is that?
- dashboard – while you can probably remap “Launchpad” (f4) key back to dashboard … dashboard itself is kinda lost in the “mission control” (another dumb name) … but, ok – that’s a minor annoyance at most.

good?

huh … 2011 MacBook Air, looks nice … but pretty much the same as 2010 (yes, now with a lid up keyboard). did not notice greater battery life. speed … maybe 5-10% faster (but honestly didn’t spend enough time with it).

ok, so i do like the instant integration of yahoo (don’t think that’s automatic with gmail) – when you sing-in the first time, it asks you to plug in the user/password into mail app, it works for contacts & iChat too. nice.

interestingly features, i’ve looked forward to: autocorrect, versions, mail, airDrop … now seem cosmetic conveniences i can live without on Snow Leopard.

so overall, can’t say i’m compelled to upgrade, actually.

overall – Lion OS X feels sloppy.

what’s going on apple? not making enough money? jobs left & attention to detail – we’ve got to love so much about your products – went out of the window with him?
no, i’m not an apple hating a**hole, but i do expect near perfection for a laptop that’s $1400!

but i still love apple

why? no choice, frankly. & i’m brutally reminded of windows in the 90s … by having to wait (3 hours & counting) to migrate my in-law’s PC to mac:
1) upgrade my in-laws’ win XP to SP3
2) so i can install apple’s migration assistant (bit lazy of apple to require SP3 …)
3) so i can migrate … mear 3gb worth of data
will keep you posted, how that goes

[update: sp3 upgrade failed 3 times, then kinda went through, then apple's migration assistant refused to install even after win said SP3. 4 hours later, i've decided to take a USB stick, copy all content of "my documents" & successfully dropped it on the mac ... all of which took, 15 min]

my brief love affair with google+ got stuck on the 3rd date (i mean day :

like:
- simple sharing rules concept – aka circles

… shockingly that’s all. it’s funny how many hoops we are willing to jump through, because we got fed up by,  a free,  yet very unpredictable social network, called FB
[my FB peeves: sucky twitter integration, api that breaks weekly, reason why i loved fb to begin with: auto posts of all of my social tools: youtube, pix, music, blogs, etc - have anyone noticed how they don't automatically show up in your feed any longer???]

not ready: (but back to google+ … “the hope”)
- no twitter / fb integration.
had to rethink this one … w/ improved sharing rules, all posts will have to come out of + now (instead from twitter, until now), but … even though  i “found” this twittermail solution, it cuts posts off, after 43rd character …
- no simple google contacts -> google+ import. nor fb, nor twitter
(dragging your first friend into the circle seems cool. dragging 100 of them seems like too much work)
- can’t adjust sharing settings after initial post (so when one of my buddies starts cursing, etc … now all of the world can see)
- can’t delete other’s replies to my posts???
- can’t edit post’s (link) description
- can’t delete/edit a contact added on + (i actually edited that contact on g contacts & now i have 2 separate contacts on +)
- spam – yep, in “incoming” i’ve received an invite from “cheap flights” already (i polish, but still)

conclusion:

google, i love you, but … i was looking for a better social network alternative, to make my life easier. i’m going to wait, until you become a cougar … then we can resume our date (i hope).

after paying off my mortgage, 2 days later my back account was raped by another monthly payment withdraw  from the scummiest bank on earth, called chase.

i called & was informed that i need to provide them with proof, which i did.
called again 3 days later and was informed that the refund check was indeed mailed to me, except they have mailed it to … you guessed it … my mailing address, for the property i just sold …

i requested cancellation of the check to be mailed to the new address. was told 3 business days

now a week later, i’ve received a call that my check could not be sent, due to some dumb policy that when you change the mailing address it can’t be sent for another month.
i ripped the rep a new a-whole, asked for a supervisor and of course miraculously the rules were bent.

except it will take yet another 3 business days … we are approaching a month of chase stealing money from me & holding on to it.

all i can do is share this story with you, so you don’t make the same mistake and do any kind of business with this corrupted, beaurocratic, shady and greedy corporation. (RT & Facebook “like” is appreciated)

ps: in case you were wondering, i did not chose to take a mortgage with chase. i was misfortunate to have them purchase my mortgage from WAMU.

signed: the little guy

I must admit, even though I’ve owned an iPad 1 for almost a year, I too got excited on the news of the “new” one.  Ohh, it’s skinnier? Lighter? TWO times faster? … Has cameras?!

Decided to give a local best buy a try at 3:30pm on a Friday. And what do you know – I was the 10th person out of 11 units available at that location (what a “social” experience BTW – standing in line for i product, bonding with other dummies).

(they finally took them out of hiding, looks like around 10 … there’s hope)

Joy! Right? Well, I really wanted the black one and was upset I didn’t put my old one on eBay before the announcement (apple dropped the price by $100 and another $50 if you get refurbished iPad 1). But heck, I was “lucky”, especially after hearing crazy stories of people camping out for 3 days in the rain to get one or $900 offers for the first SPOT in line (idiots).

The excitement fades after 1/2 hour.

You get  butterflies whenever you open your first apple product … viral marketing machine of that co. is just mind boggling.

But after I synced my bookmarks, few apps and started playing with this “new”, “amazing” and can’t forget “magical” device … I had a hard time finding “the it“:

• Magnetic Cover … the video blue me away, but after doing it myself twice … the “trick” gets old and you felt a bit cheated, especially at $80 for a piece of “leather” – that doesn’t even cover the back … and the alignment is … close, but not perfect (especially when you turn it around to the back)
• “Skinnier then iPhone 4″ … well, when you actually stack up against old iPad … not much difference. they actually feel very … same.
• Lighter … we are talking about 11 sheets of paper “difference”. Not noticeable either.

I do have to say, that it feels sturdier

• Cameras … Ok this feature seemed like a big one, but if you already have an iPhone … you’ll realize you don’t actually need it, except for those Skype calls. And walking around, while trying to film with an iPad … just feels awkward. Finally, when you try to edit those “films” with iMovie … you realize how crappy the resolution is. iPhone 3GS ish at best and VGA web cam up front.
  (yet, you still can’t edit photos with native photo app)
• Faster … Again, I was sooo excited for this improvement. Only … to not really notice much difference after browsing the web, running few apps and playing Angry Birds (not a graphics intensive game, I know) for few hours. Yes, it feels … maybe 8% faster, things are a bit snappier, the tabs on safari sometimes don’t reload (finally! … but after few hours, they do it again).

Overall, ipad 2 is a minor improvement at best.

I actually went back to my iPad 1 and continued playing with it for the rest of the evening (so I wouldn’t put any marks on iPad 2 and can still sell it). iPad 1 was my friend again, didn’t feel old, didn’t “lack” cameras or extra juice. Immediately realized, what I really “need” is to sell my old iPad and use the $200 difference (it would take to get new one) … And get - iPad 1, 32gb … 3G, refurbished from apple (same price as new, iPad 2 wifi). Now, that’s a good “deal”! (& yes, apple wins either way)

Summary

got to “love” apple. This release is not for existing iPad owners. It’s for those suckers that have been salivating every time they saw a TV ad or heard a friend talk about it, but considered android or the fact that ipad is too damn expensive (just like iPhone 2 vs 3G).
I mean, you most likely already have an iPhone/android,  computer (or few) and once you do buy it – you’ll find yourself only using iPad to: read books, check web and maybe email and watch movies when you travel. It’s an expensive toy, not a life or death necessity.
In today’s times, when you actually notice recession, maybe even unemployed like me – you have no business complaining about anything being too slow or not heaving enough features.

I still have respect for apple. Being able to make a grown, ass techie stand in line and feel special for a privilege of being stripped of 640 dollars – you got me again, apple

For the past couple of days, i’ve noticed that my twitter status updates are not getting automatically published to facebook any longer. Seems others are experiencing same problems:

[update 3/11 - a month passed by & ... what do you know my twitter updates started posting on FB on their own - fixed ... for now]

you’ve got to love facebook and their secret changes, that cause stuff to stop working, without any announcements.  it’s dumb, especially after recent twitter by FB buy out rumors. but we all know fb doesn’t really care about us – its’ users – last.fm updates haven’t worked in months.

yet another reason, why we need a new, open facebook, that will work as fb should: connect all of our social (flickr, pandora, last.fm, etc) activities on one page.

Solutions? Haven’t found a fix so far. Tried to re-connect via:

- http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/ – no luck
(which humorously doesn’t work if you have an auto httpS enabled)

Anyone?

[update 2/24] starting to have a feeling, that my particular twitter account might have been blocked, due to pirate bay posts …

all 15 spots to drink coffee now – on google map – from Time Out Chicago article. alternatives to starbucks in Chicago

http://www.batchgeo.com/map/2374bbf37af15d796f873c0d05b49678

let’s see if i receive a response from Steve on this one. although his vision is probably DVD-less, we most likely will be stuck with that technology for another decade.

Full text below:

Hi Steve, I’m an Apple fan for over 5 years: iPod, various macs, iPhone, iPad. I am especially enjoying the latest Apple TV / AirPlay technology. But I have an idea that completes your Air / wireless revolution:

To place a DVD-R drive on a time capsule. That way all members of that wifi network can have Airs, no need for external drive and only play / use / record DVDs when they need them, wirelessly via … time capsule. No more need to have an older mac, pc or plug-in external drive. Truly, wireless experience.

Of course to complete the picture, it would be cool for Apple TV, iPad to also be able to play DVDs from such time capsule device, wirelessly via AirPlay.

ps: one more request – please improve AirPlay / home sharing. Especially make AirPlay iTunes independent. Currently if a user forgets to turn iTunes app, content on that mac is not visible to Apple TV (also if an error message pops up on iTunes, Apple TV stops seeing content on that mac).

If you happen to like my idea, I’m a web project manager who’s looking for a job or … a lifetime supply of apple goodies would be greatly appreciated

Thanks.