I found this YouTube video from Huckabee’s Fox News show and its his commentary on customer service. I’ve said similiar things in my blog before on customer service.
Category:
Apple
In the process of installing the Windows 7 beta, I have come across a few things that don’t quite work well out of the box on my MacBook Pro. Here are some notes from my experiences that may help someone else:
- Partitioned the drive using Boot Camp Assistant. Install takes up about 9GB, so you’ll want at least a 20GB partition. I chose 32GB.
- I had to burn the ISO to a physical disk to get it to install – couldn’t figure out how to use the ISO to install Windows 7 into the Boot Camp partition.
I had much better luck today getting a installation key and copy of the Windows 7 Beta from Microsoft. I have just installed it in a BootCamp partition on my MacBook Pro and so far, I’m impressed. I decided to put it into BootCamp to get real performance metrics since VMware Fusion would have a certain amount of overhead. And as a BootCamp partition, I should be able to run it as a VM in either Parallels Desktop or Fusion.
So far, I have to say, I’m impressed. The OS is responsive and quick. The boot time was impressive and so far, it looks to be a huge improvement over Vista, even in its beta form. Everything that I have seen so far is in line with what I’ve been reading. Some are already giving it the real what-for by using it as their day to day OS and its working well. It runs on par with Windows XP and has all the enhanced functionality of Vista.
You can usually count on Macworld Expo to see the latest updates for iLife on a yearly basis. Â I’m not sure exactly what we’ll do next year, given this was the last year Apple will participate in the Expo, but this year didn’t disappoint. Â iLife ’09 was introduced and demoed during the keynote and the refresh adds some great features to the product line. Â Specifically, the iPhoto and iMovie upgrades are the most compelling of the suite. Â
Ok, file this under the means-nothing-to-anyone-but-me department, but the cool thing from the Macworld Keynote yesterday for me came during the iPhoto ’09 preview. Â While demoing the Geotagging features of iPhoto, Phil Schiller showed the “Places” interface and showed off how it works. Â It is basically a framed in version of Google Maps which has pins (like on the iPhone) to represent places where your photos have been taken. Â Well the lucky pin chosen to show during the demo happened to be good ‘ole Myrtle Beach. Â Â When they zoomed in to the location, I was like – hey, that looks familiar and then they zoomed into the label and sure enough, there’s our stretch of shoreline. Â Yes, it only lasted for 10 seconds, but still, I thought it was cool. Â For a little resort town on the East coast, who better than Apple to give us a little shout out in front of millions of viewers… Â Now, if we could just translate the shout-out into an official Apple Store… Please Apple, please….
HP is introduced a refresh to its MediaSmart home servers line.  The software refresh included features such as iTunes streaming support and the ability to use the MediaSmart as a Time Machine backup destination.  The two new models, the MediaSmart ext485 and the ext487, are both based on Microsoft Windows Home Server, but the ability for a Mac user to use these as their backup and media repository is very compelling reason to consider them, but it doesn’t come without downsides.  For one, you still need a Windows PC to configure and setup the MediaSmart.  In addition, the iTunes functionality basically just takes the files present on the MediaSmart and shares them out on the local network for access.  It doesn’t go as far as integrating into iTunews to provide any sort of check in or sync between the two. Â
Per the reports I’ve read, HP will begin taking orders for the new systems in January. Â For additional details, head over to TUAW.
9to5mac has a post that speculates that Apple is working on a Home Media server.  I certainly hope so.  This is the biggest issue to the multi-Mac household, like mine.  We have three Macs in my house and the biggest issue we have is sharing our music  and moreso video between our computers.  We purchase all of our media under the same iTunes account and so each of our Macs are authorized to play, but keeping them in sync is the biggest issue.  If only we had one large repository for all our photos, music and videos… Â
I’m sure I’m not the only Mac user who feels this way. Â It doesn’t need to be an enterprise quality server, but something to allow my Apple TV to retrieve content and a place for my individual Macs to keep a SINGLE copy of every item we purchase. Â A library, if you will, where each of my Macs can check out the content. Â Its also something that needs built in backup of some kind for itself, so I’m not sure I buy the whole Time Capsule on steriods theory from 9to5mac, but still that wouldn’t be a bad idea. Â
I’ve even gone as far as offering this suggestion via the online form in Apple’s website once or twice, so I’m hoping the rumor is true. Â And if its true, I hope we are all surprised with an announcement at MacWorld, though I doubt it will be then. Â For that matter, I hope we’re surprised in the same was as when the iPhone debuted and not in the way we were when the Apple TV debuted, though I’ll admit, I bought both…
Ok, its been months… I’m kind of bummed. Â I signed up for the Quicken Financial Life for Mac beta program back in February of 2008, shortly after AppleInsider’s first coverage of the product. Â While I’ve waited patiently and while I’ve signed up on the their beta signup for several time over the months that followed, Intuit has been completely mute about the beta. Â As a matter fact, they carefully hid the signup form for months and only within the last three have they really released any information about the product on their website. Â All the while, I’m wondering what about that beta signup? Â
On top of this, their last release – Quicken for Mac 2007 – hasn’t been aging gracefully. Â My biggest heartburn is the lack of import or transport for my years of data held in the grasp of Microsoft Money. Â I simply can’t find an alternative that meets my needs, and so I am desperately hoping that the ground-up rewrite of Quicken will do that… Â I’m not a serious number cruncher when it comes to my personal finance, but I want a couple things: Â 1) the ability to carry over all my prior transactions AND their categories and 2) the ability for the software to automatically download my transactions from my banks or credit card companies. Â
All the while that our Office programs have been growing more compatible with interchangable file formats, our money management software has us locked into their proprietary grips. Â Sure, there are QIF and other interchangable file formats, but we all know that the bulk of our data won’t move using those file formats. Â And, call me lazy, but I don’t want to go and re-do all the work that I have completed for years and years of transactions just to move into a new program. Â So, alas, I find no good MAC alternative for money management and I continue to use Microsoft Money in Windows in VMware Fusion on my Mac… Â Â
I have also examined the online alternatives, including Quicken’s free online tools, Yodlee, Mint and others. Â But those tie me down to my internet connection. Â I have more than once balanced my checkbook while whizzing down the highway……………. no, my wife was driving, not me, just for clarity sake. Â Anyways, enough rambling. Â I just wish I could find the solution… Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
One of the perks at my full-time employeer is the ability to do an employee computer purchase during the year. With just 15% down, the company will finance the rest of a computer and payroll deduct the remaining amount from your paycheck. In addition, they usually get pretty decent discount because of quantity with the various vendors.
After the offer of the computer purchase plan was made last year, several of us contacted our internal HR person who coordinates this and asked that she try and add Apple computers to the plan. Thanks to her hard work, we were able to get a Mac this year on the plan. I don’t think the response has been huge and I think my order was the first processed and to arrive, but there is a lot of interest.
Within my department, there is a fairly good following for Macs. I know we have two converts who are purchasing their first Mac this year through the employee plan. There are two more that are seriously considering it.
Yesterday, my MacBook Pro arrived and I got the call from our supply department to come and pick it up. I took it back in the help desk and it was like Christmas for all of us. Everyone got to look and watch me unwrap the power up the laptop for the first time. I have it at work again today… I just couldn’t bring myself to leave it at home. Poor thing doesn’t need to be left all alone!
But seriously, I’m liking it a lot. I ordered the base model MacBook Pro but customized it with 4GB of RAM. The dual video cards are a very cool concept and the ability to switch between them is great to conserve battery life. I, of course, switched to the performance setting instead so I’m running on the NVidia 9600M GT card right now and loving life. I really need to move my Photoshop and some other apps over to this laptop and seriously give the graphics card a workout.
Oh, and I’m sure its been noted elsewhere, but this MacBook Pro shipped with OS X version 10.5.5, which I don’t think has been released to the wild yet via software update. I though that was a little interesting.
Apple has just announced redesigned MacBooks and MacBook Pros at an event held in Cupertino. Â This is the first resdesign in almost 5 years for the MacBook Pros. Â The Pros have kept essentially the same design as its Powerbook predecessor and there have only been incremental improvements (such as adding integrated iSight cameras). Â The new hardware also uses the same manufacturing process as the MacBook Air. Â Apple went into great detail showcasing this process during the event. Â Jonathan Ive was brought to the stage to talk about the new process. Â Apple also showcased its environmental report card with the new laptops.
So what are we getting in the new hardware? Â For starts, out with the integrated Intel graphics and in with new NVidia 9400M chipsets. Â Â For the Pros, you get two GPU’s to choose from – one for economy (battery life) and one for performance.
I had been waiting patiently for the redesign before buying a new MacBook Pro. I have had the same sad Powerbook for over 4 years now and its about time to get something newer…
Note: I started this draft in October and it never got published… since that time, I have ordered my MacBook Pro and it has arrived… I’m loving that too!
