A friend of mine has a Compaq (now owned by HP) notebook and it stopped working the other day. Her husband was taking a look at it today and I stopped by and also took a look at it. It would not load Windows, it would get to the lovely pulsing glowing windows logo and then stop. We tried to launch the recovery console to no avail. I decided rather than waste time I would just give them a call and see if they had some magical way to fix it over the phone. I of course am kidding about the magical part. I knew it was either the hard drive or the hard drive. I spoke to Vijay, who was obviously in another country reading from a script on a screen in front of him. I have learned from previous experience that you just need to go with it and pretend you don’t know what’s going on. After 45 minutes of troubleshooting we decided that it was the hard drive after running their diagnostic that is cleverly hidden behind the F2 key. After giving him the failure number and the serial number (for the 4th time) I was then transferred to a supervisor that sounded strangely similar to Vijay. I didn’t catch the supervisors name but I did have to give him the serial number yet again and confirm the address and phone number for the 3rd time. He then asked me for a credit card so they would be able to charge me if I didn’t return the broken hard drive. Why would I want to keep the broken hard drive when they send me a pre-paid box to send it back to them? I suppose there are dishonest people that don’t return them, still not understanding why.

After my hour and fifteen minute torture session with HP customer support I can honestly say that I am more happy than ever that I own a MacBook Pro. Just one more reason more and more people buy Macs. If there is something wrong with my Mac I go to the Apple website and schedule an appointment with a Genius at my local Apple Store and they fix the computer. I am a fanboy and proud of it!

I’m sure that Apple will continue to innovate and stay years ahead of the competition for a long time to come. I look forward to seeing what the company comes up with next and how they will shape the future of technology. It definitely won’t be the same without Steve. I will miss his charismatic keynotes and press conferences. In the end there are many great innovators in our time but I for one am betting that Steve Jobs goes down as one of the most influential and important people of this century.

After playing with the new OS for over 2 weeks I must say that I really like it. The interface is very much iOS like with all of it’s multitouch gestures and full screen Apps. I think that this is a good thing, although it does take a little getting used to especially if you don’t have an iPad or iPhone. The biggest issue I had was the newly implemented natural scrolling. As all of you that have used computers for many years know you would pull your finger towards you to scroll up and push away to scroll down. In Lion it’s reversed, which after a few days makes sense, but it did take a while to re-train my brain even though I use an iPad all the time. I do love all of the multitouch gestures, swipe with three fingers up to see all of your running Apps, swipe with three fingers left or right to move between open full screen Apps, pinch with three fingers to see the new App Launcher (very iOS like) and in Safari you swipe left and right with two fingers to go forward and back pages. You can also swipe left and right with two fingers to change months in the iCal App. The one thing I don’t get is why swiping with two fingers in iTunes while you are in the store doesn’t take you back and forward.

There are a few issues that I have noticed, Safari seems to crash on occasion. I have found that it does it a lot when I am reading RSS feeds. For some strange reason my auto screen dimming is set really low when the Mac first starts up, I have to go into settings and adjust it. When the Mac wakes from sleep though it seems to be fine. Some programs don’t work at all in Lion. One big one is Quicken, which I don’t have any issues with because I use iBank. So far those are the major ones. If i notice any more I’ll let you know.

For the most part I love the update, it’s creates a much more cohesive synergy between all of Apple’s product categories and makes using the Mac easier for newbies and fun again for us old timers. Do I think you should upgrade… yes, but only after you check to make sure that all of your most used Apps have all been updated to at least work with Lion if not use all of the new features like full screen. Also keep in mind that the multitouch gestures only work on new MacBooks with the glass no button trackpad and the Magic Trackpad. Oh, again, don’t forget to make your backup copy of that download before you install!

Without a doubt my favorite feature in iOS 5 is the new notifications system. I hated the uber annoying blue pop-up windows that you had to dismiss before you could continue on with what you were doing. If you happened to get a few text messages you would have to clear each one, which was mind numbing if you happened to be on a call when they came in, clearing each one before you could end the call! The new notifications in iOS 5 are great. You can customize each Apps notification individually, choosing whether you want notifications on at all, how many notifications to show, if it shows in the lock screen, the kind of alert you want (none, banner or annoying window) and whether or not it shows a badge on the icon on your home screen. When a new alert comes in if your phone is locked the screen turns on and the appropriate noise sounds and you get an icon with the notification next to it. You can then swipe across, from icon to the right, and be taken directly to whatever it was. If you are doing something on the phone and an alert comes in you get a small bar at the top of the screen showing the notification. You can tap on it and be taken to it or if it goes away you can pull down from the top of the screen and see it in the list. You also get to see location aware current weather and a stock ticker that scrolls across. For me it make the entire beta experience worth it!

The Twitter integration in iOS is pretty great. You can post a picture from you camera roll, share a link from safari, share you current location from Maps, or share a link to a YouTube video straight to Twitter. I noticed also that it uses Twitter’s new photo service. I find that I tweet a lot more now that it’s so easy to do.

Some of the quirks that I’ve noticed are the battery life is cut in half. This is usually the case with a first beta but I can’t get through the day now without charging the phone around 2:00pm. Playlists in the Music App are not in alphabetical order and if you are like me and have tons of playlists it can be trying to find what you are looking for. I also have two Mac email accounts listed in Mail now. I think that happened once before with a beta of iOS 3. Some Apps that no longer work are the 2Do App by Guided Ways (one of my favorite Apps on my phone, it does still work on the iPad with iOS 5), the CitiBank App, CapitalOne App and Starbucks Stores App (Mobile Card App works). Seeing as this is beta software App developers may not have fixes in place until the final release. Again, keep in mind that all of these bugs will be worked out before the general release to the public sometime in the fall.

I haven’t really played around with the Photos App using the editing yet, but I’ll go over that in a future post. So there you have it! There are some great things to look forward to when Apple releases this update hopefully in early September!

First there was OS X Lion. We got a preview of it last year and got a taste of some of the new features that we can expect to see when it’s finally released in July through the Mac App Store for only $29! I would like to note that is an amazing price for a completely new OS. There are over 250 new features of which they covered 10. I am looking forward to seeing how their melding of iOS and OS X works out. I have an iPhone and iPad and love using them. I also purchased a Magic TrackPad and haven’t used a mouse since, I think because I got so use to the touch interface on my iOS devices. The Multitouch Gestures, Full Screen Apps, Launchpad, Resume, Auto Save and Mail all take their cues from iOS and I think it will make anyone that really wasn’t interested in a Mac take a second look. Versions is like a TimeMachine for individual documents making it easy to go back to a previous version. Mission Control looks to make an overview of your system effortless and organized, making it easier to get to anything on your Mac. AirDrop will make sharing files on a network super easy. Anyone will be able to use it that is on the same network and everything will go right into the person’s downloads folder. I’m sure there will be other amazing things that will be in OS X Lion when it finally arrives and I can’t wait to get to use it and share my experiences.

Next up we had iOS 5. It will again be a free upgrade for anyone that has an iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, iPad 2 and iPod Touch 3rd & 4th generation. They mentioned that it has over 200 new features, again they covered 10. The one I am most looking forward to is the revamped notifications. Notifications in iOS 4 are obtrusive and annoying. If you get a few in a row you need to dismiss each one before you can do anything not to mention that if you are doing something you are interrupted by the window and have to dismiss it before you can continue. The new notifications are a welcome change and it’s great because developers don’t have to do anything to use them, they automatically take over from the push notifications now in place. iMessage looks to be a cool BBM addition to the Message App. When you go to send a message to someone iMessage will automatically check to see if the person has an iOS 5 device and use that instead of sending a text messaging through you wireless carrier. You will also get read receipts and be able to see when someone is typing back to you. NewsStand looks to be a cool way to keep track of all of your Magazine and Newspaper subscriptions in one place. It also will automatically download new content in the background so it’s ready for you when you open up the latest issue of the NY Times. I use 2do for my task list. I think that a todo App is long overdue in iOS and am glad to see Reminders is part of iOS 5. It’s a nice simple todo list and as a bonus it’s location aware so when you put in a reminder to pick up milk, it will alert you when you are near the store so you don’t forget. The twitter intergration in iOS 5 is pretty neat to. I check twitter at least 10 times a day and post often. It will be nice to be able to do it from within the core Apps. The Camera App is updated too with the long asked for volume up picture taking button. There is also a camera button on the lock screen that takes you right into the Camera App for those spur of the moment photo-ops. It also includes a host of other feature that may make you ditch the SLR altogether. Pictures has been revamped with some nice simple editing features like red-eye reduction, cropping and for the brave auto enhance. Safari will finally get tabbed browsing which is better than the thumbnail tabbed browsing it has now. You will also be able to enjoy the reader feature that is in the desktop version. There is also a “Instapaper” feature for reading content later. A huge feature is the new PC free setup. There are plenty of people out there that buy an iPad or iPhone and don’t have a PC to sync it to. With iOS 5 you can activate and set up the device right out of the box with no need for a sync with good old iTunes. AirPlay Mirroring is also going to be great. I am always annoyed that there is no Hulu App on Apple TV and that the iOS Apps they have aren’t AirPlay enabled. Now I’ll be able to look at anything on my iPad on the TV! They have also implemented the MultiTouch gestures for iPad that you can currently enable in the iOS 4.3 release through the developer site. Pinch with four fingers and you are back at the home screen, swipe with four to move between open Apps, swipe up with four to reveal the multitasking bar. I have been using them for a while now and I hardly ever use the home button anymore. Updates are also present for the Calendar and Mail Apps with some neat new features. I can’t wait to get my hands on this version of iOS!

Finally they announced iCloud. Their revamped and expanded MobileMe successor. There will be a ton of new features available when OS X Lion and iOS 5 are released this fall. For now you can play with the iTunes centric features that were released in beta on Tuesday. When you purchase a song in iTunes now you can set up your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Mac to automatically add the new song to the device. If you purchase a song in iTunes on your Mac iCloud will automatically add it to your iOS device without syncing with the computer. The same goes for purchasing it on your iOS device, it will add it to iTunes the next time you launch iTunes on the desktop. It also works with Apps that you purchase. I have been using it without any issues and it works seamlessly and well! In the fall you will be able to pay $24.99 a year for the iTunes Match service that will scan your hard drive and make any CD that you have imported available on the iCloud for transfer to any one of your iDevices.

So there is my little recap of Apple’s WWDC announcements. As soon as I have time to get iOS 5 installed I’ll be back with a hands on review of all of the goodies that are included. Till next time!

It all started out on launch day with my friend Brian waiting in line at the Apple Store in the Walt Whitman mall. He got there at 9:30am with his two chairs (one for me to hold my place in line) and hunkered down for the wait ’till 5:00pm. I do have to say that Apple makes it as pleasant an experience as they can. Free Starbucks, chips, snacks, water and the employees coming and socializing with the crowd make it go quick. I met up with him at 3:30 and took my place, we were 18th and 19th. The Apple Store employees came out about 4:45 yelling and clapping, they went all the way to the end of the line and back. There seemed to be about 60 of them. At precisely 5:00pm they each individually came out and got one of us and took us into the store. They introduced themselves and asked what model we wanted and if you needed any additional accessories. They weren’t pushy about anything and we were both out of the store by 5:10.

As soon as we got back to the house I plugged mine into my MacBook Pro and began the process of restoring it from my previous iPad backup. It took about 45 minutes, but I have a lot of stuff on my iPad. When it was finished I couldn’t wait to use it. Then the horror of the fact that I had no screen protector on it, just the grey smart cover (I get the whole minimal look Apple goes for but I like to keep my stuff looking like new for as long as possible). I took a deep breath and plowed ahead.

I immediately noticed the speed difference. Apps launch faster, Safari loads web pages much faster and page swipes in magazines or iBooks are much more fluid and quick. You also notice the difference in thickness, the iPad 2 feels much thinner. It looks a little smaller. The fact that the glass front goes to the edge makes it appear smaller that the original iPad. We tried FaceTime and it works just like the iPhone although they could have put a better camera on the front seeing as the screen is so much bigger the picture doesn’t look clear. The rear camera could be better too. While it shoots great video it’s still pictures could be a lot better. The battery life is great, I got the promised 10 hours. I also noticed that speaker seems louder that the previous model, something others have said remained the same.

Overall I think the iPad 2 is a great upgrade. I find I use it much more that my first iPad and I used that one a lot. Some of my favorite Apps are Zite, a clever “Magazine”, The Early Edition, a great news aggregator, and 2do, a fantastic ToDo App that syncs with MobileMe and in turn my iPhone. I find that I use my iPad 2 far more than my laptop now and I am also writing this on my iPad 2 using the virtual keyboard which I happen to really like.

I love the Smart Cover but feel I need a cover for the back. I have purchased a Skinit that covers most of the back but still let’s me use the Smart Cover. I also got a screen protector from them and it is not good quality at all. It bubbles up around the camera and home button as well as along the sides. I contacted Skinit and they are sending me a new one. Hopefully that one won’t do the same thing.

I’m looking forward to seeing what case manufacturers come up with, anyone will tell you that I am addicted to cases. I have about 10 for my iPhone. My favorite is the Apple Bumper only because I have a clear protector on the back of my iPhone as well as a screen protector on the front.

I hope you enjoyed my brief review and if you have one that you love it as much as I love mine!

Since I am posting this today  I figured I would mention the nook Color. What was Barnes and Noble thinking with this? It is not an eReader, it is a 7 inch stripped down Android tablet. The whole purpose of an eReader is to mimic the feel of paper hence eInk. An LCD display goes against everything that the eReader industry has been forcing down consumers throats for past 3 years. I understand that magazines will benefit from the color screen but thats one of the main things I use my iPad for. I purchased my nook because I wanted the paper experience. If I was content with reading on an LCD the screen the iPad is far superior, it does more. I can read books from every store, get magazines, browse the web or download and App to do virtually anything else I can think of. I understand that the nook Color is priced well below the iPad at $249 and they are going to have Apps for it too but really why would I want a stripped down tablet? Maybe it’s just me but I think they completely missed the mark with this product. I love the eInk reading experience, if I want a magazine like experience I’ll stick with my iPad and it’s 9.7 inch screen.

If I would have bought them from Amazon or Barnes and Noble there is an app for both available on the iPad. If I would have done what I did way back when I had a Palm and bought them from fictionwise there is eReader software for the iPhone and hopefully soon for the iPad (I actually just discovered that the Stanza application for the iPad allows you to read DRM’d books from Fictionwise, the parent company of eReader!). I purchased them on the Sony Reader because I really liked reading on the device better than my iPhone’s tiny screen (for reading books that is!). I had read the entire Southern Vampire Series on my iPhone and I was longing for some more screen real estate. What to do now?

The books from the Sony Reader Store are in ePub format and so are the ones from the Apple iBook Store. Unfortunately they are incompatible with each other. This is very frustrating. I understand that they want to you to be loyal to one eReader but locking purchases to one device makes me want to shop elsewhere. Remember when CD’s played in any CD player, not just a Sony or Panasonic one. I get the digital rights management but let’s have a standard people!

I used to be a huge Sony fan, every electronics item that I had was from Sony. After using a iPod and iTunes I gave up on digital players from Sony. Does anyone remember the awful desktop software they used to come with? Connect I think it was called. Connect to a bad experience was what it was! My point is that if I purchase something from one place it’s mine and I should be able to do with it as I please in regards to where and on what I want to use it. Until the eBook frontier has learned something from the music industry people are going to be more likely to stick with paper that eBooks.