599 replies to this topic

[[dark]]

Hehe, great stuff.

[bondrules]

I've always wanted an Ipod, but I just refuse to pay prices which IMHO are way too high for such devices. For me the 16GB Nano would be reasonable at $99, or the 32GB Ipod Touch at $150. At those prices they are still not cheap, but fair. Apple always seems to price things far from my comfort zone.

[Ambler]

Here's an ancient problem to which I've still not found the solution. I want to be able to switch between R1 and R2 DVDs on my Intel MacBook, but the Apple/Matu[censored]a nazis have made it damn difficult. Any solutions other than buying an external drive?

[Professor Dent]

Ambler, I have seen some firmware modifications out there what will make your internal DVD player region free but the modification does void your warranty &, if something goes wrong during the install, you could ruin your DVD drive. Have you tried watching your movies in the VLC player instead of the Apple DVD player? To change the default player, go to System Preferences -> CDs & DVDs -> When you insert a video DVD. If that doesn't work, I think the external drive would be your best option. Cheers.

[Ambler]

Thanks, Prof. I'm having some difficulty getting VLC to work satisfactorily, but I'll keep at it - seems it's the only option.

[B. Brown]

Does anyone around here use a Mac for HD video editing?

I purchased a new camera last week and I think it's great. But, the downfall is that when I want to edit the HD footage, my PC sounds like it's ready to cough up its motherboard. I was able to edit a 2 minute long clip, which took me roughly an hour and a half to do. I really don't want to use this PC again to edit something larger.

I've been using a Mac Pro through out college for various multimedia work, including work on Flash, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, and InDesign, and I've never been disappointed yet.

I was told that a duo-core Mac hardly handles HD footage and my best bet would be a quad-core. I don't know if this is true or not, but it's just what I've been told.

[Dan Gale]

Mr Brown
Yes, a duo core would be an answer. I have an iMac duo, 20" with it's maximum of 4gb of ram and it edits HDV perfectly. But, depending on the camera you have, you may also have the option to convert the footage to standard DV as you capture it. I know this defeats the point of shootng in HDV (it does look a little nicer as downconverted DV inspite of this) but it's an answer until you decide to get another computer.

You can edit HD with the free iMovie software that comes with it but it's not all that simple to use. Final Cut Pro is about £700! (or Final Cut Express for students is about £300).

[BlackFire]

Apple revealed today the iPhone OS 4.0 introducing Multitasking, Wallpaper, Folders and many other cool stuff... but only for 3GS and iTouch 3G owners.. iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2G will enjoy everything except multitasking.. and iPhone 2G and iTouch won't have a damn.

http://www.neowin.ne...ls-iphone-os-40

[Ambler]

Apple revealed today the iPhone OS 4.0 introducing Multitasking, Wallpaper, Folders and many other cool stuff... but only for 3GS and iTouch 3G owners.. iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2G will enjoy everything except multitasking.. and iPhone 2G and iTouch won't have a damn.

http://www.neowin.ne...ls-iphone-os-40

Finally dumped my Nokia and got a 3G on Wednesday, and whaddya know, the very next day Apple announces a new OS that won't be fully functional on the 3G. Same old story.

Ah well, it was a very good price - £200 plus just a one-year contract at £20 a month. (O2)

[Professor Dent]

I joined the ranks of the iPad owners this past weekend. Due to my being out of town, I wasn't able to open the box until I got home late yesterday (Wednesday) evening. As you would expect, it is an impressive piece of engineering. It is incredibly responsive. Zooming in on a web page or photo is significantly smoother than an iPhone or iPod Touch. Definitely needs to be seen & touched to be appreciated. I'll post some additional thoughts after I have had some time to use it more but my early observation is that the battery life is outstanding. I've used it for about 3.5 hours so far - watched a TV show, played games, surfed the internet, listened to music, plus showed it off to some people & the battery still has 71% of it's charge remaining. This is fresh out of the box so I'm using the charge it was shipped with. I'd say I will easily hit the 10 hours Apple promised plus a little extra. This photo doesn't do the screen justice but there aren't may iPad photos out there sporting the CBn home page.



The 4.0 software update has a lot of great stuff in it but my 3G won't support multitasking. Oh well, I'll be out of contract soon so an upgrade it likely in my future.

[Arbogast777]

Nice Professor Dent

When you check back in with your review I'm curious as to whether you think you could use the iPad as your primary computer and ditch whatever your using now. If I could use it and never need to turn my iMac on, I'd be much more interested...

[Righty007]

When you check back in with your review I'm curious as to whether you think you could use the iPad as your primary computer and ditch whatever your using now. If I could use it and never need to turn my iMac on, I'd be much more interested...

I'm not an iPad owner (yet) but I can tell you that in its present form, it cannot be used to replace your primary computer. Here are a few reasons:

• Its operating system is iPhone OS (not Mac OS), which uses flash memory (e.g., iPods, memory cards, USB flash drives) instead of a regular computer hard drive.
• The most memory you can get right now is 64 GB. My 2007 MacBook Pro has 120 GB and my external hard drive has 500 GB.
• It doesn't have any USB ports so forget about hooking up a printer, a CD/DVD/Blu-ray player/burner or a digital camera.
• No multitasking capability, meaning you can only use one app at a time. This feature will be added in the fall, I believe.

iPads compliment computers nicely but cannot substitute each other in the same way a netbook can. And technically, netbooks were only designed to be used for general computing and accessing the Internet. They are often marketed as "companion devices," which is exactly what an iPad is.

If you want to get rid of your iMac and replace it with a smaller device, I'd suggest getting a MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air.

[Joe Bond]

I joined the ranks of the iPad owners this past weekend. Due to my being out of town, I wasn't able to open the box until I got home late yesterday (Wednesday) evening. As you would expect, it is an impressive piece of engineering. It is incredibly responsive. Zooming in on a web page or photo is significantly smoother than an iPhone or iPod Touch. Definitely needs to be seen & touched to be appreciated. I'll post some additional thoughts after I have had some time to use it more but my early observation is that the battery life is outstanding. I've used it for about 3.5 hours so far - watched a TV show, played games, surfed the internet, listened to music, plus showed it off to some people & the battery still has 71% of it's charge remaining. This is fresh out of the box so I'm using the charge it was shipped with. I'd say I will easily hit the 10 hours Apple promised plus a little extra. This photo doesn't do the screen justice but there aren't may iPad photos out there sporting the CBn home page.



The 4.0 software update has a lot of great stuff in it but my 3G won't support multitasking. Oh well, I'll be out of contract soon so an upgrade it likely in my future.

I'm interested in getting an iPad and I was wondering Professor if there are any iPad cases you would recommend since I am not that enthused about the official Apple iPad Case.

[Righty007]

Joe Bond, the iMaxi is a good iPad case:

[Professor Dent]

I'm interested in getting an iPad and I was wondering Professor if there are any iPad cases you would recommend since I am not that enthused about the official Apple iPad Case.

I bought the Apple case & was very disappointed with it. For $40 I was expecting more than quasi-neoprene covered cardboard. That case should have been included with the iPad. I ended up choosing between two portfolio style cases. I like these because they look like a typical portfolio when they are closed plus no Apple logo on the front. The first was the Incase Convertible Book Jacket & the second was the Griffin Elan Passport. I went with the Incase because it can open to a stand that has multiple angles for viewing content. It's also easy to get the iPad in & out of while still holding it securely. There is an attached elastic strap that you can pull over the front to hold it closed & it's sturdy enough to put in a backpack. I think it is well worth the money especially if you already planned on spending $40 on the Apple case. Incase also makes the Book Jacket which is a standard portfolio style case similar to the Griffin I referenced & the cost is the same.

[Joe Bond]

I'm interested in getting an iPad and I was wondering Professor if there are any iPad cases you would recommend since I am not that enthused about the official Apple iPad Case.

I bought the Apple case & was very disappointed with it. For $40 I was expecting more than quasi-neoprene covered cardboard. That case should have been included with the iPad. I ended up choosing between two portfolio style cases. I like these because they look like a typical portfolio when they are closed plus no Apple logo on the front. The first was the Incase Convertible Book Jacket & the second was the Griffin Elan Passport. I went with the Incase because it can open to a stand that has multiple angles for viewing content. It's also easy to get the iPad in & out of while still holding it securely. There is an attached elastic strap that you can pull over the front to hold it closed & it's sturdy enough to put in a backpack. I think it is well worth the money especially if you already planned on spending $40 on the Apple case. Incase also makes the Book Jacket which is a standard portfolio style case similar to the Griffin I referenced & the cost is the same.

Nice choices but if I end up buying an iPad I would probably get the Latitude Jacket for iPad by M-Edge.

[Professor Dent]

Nice choices but if I end up buying an iPad I would probably get the Latitude Jacket for iPad by M-Edge.

That looks like a great option too. There are so many cases coming out, it's tough to keep track of them all.

[zencat]

Trivia question:

Which Bond Girl (character) said she once worked for Apple?

Answer:

Spoiler

Cindy Chalmer in Role of Honor. She also worked for IBM.

[bondrules]

I joined the party late. Just got my first Ipod a couple of weeks ago (Touch 64).

Verdict?

It's one of the best toys I've ever owned. Nothing short of its billing. I love it!!

I can now carry everywhere my complete Beatles catalog.

[bondrules]

June 7th is finally here! Hopefully OS4 will be available for downloading today. My new Ipod touch tells me its ready to rock!

[zencat]

Where's the best place to watch it? I see MacRumors is doing it this time via Twitter. http://twitter.com/macrumorslive But I prefer something that loads itself - doesn't require refreshing.

EDIT: This is what I was looking for.

http://www.engadget....from-wwdc-2010/

[Arbogast777]

Hmmmm, kinda left a little disappointed by today. The phone itself is truly beautiful but, unfortunately, we've all seen it months ago

Also, at first glance the FaceTime thing is great, but then if you think about it the only way to make it work is for both callers to be using iPhone 4 and for both to be sitting in a WiFi hotspot. In my own personal life I can't imagine too many of those video calls taking place...

[bondrules]

iOS4 available as a free d/l June 21st. Gonna get that for my Touch64. Sweet!!

[Professor Dent]

An interesting keynote. No shock on the phone design given the leak. I'm curious to see how the glass on both sides of the phone feels. Definitely more scratch resistant but maybe more fingerprint prone & possible more slippery to hold. Hopefully, the more squared off design will help with that. The Apple A4 processor should make it scream & the new battery life is very impressive compared to my 3G. Including wireless N is excellent as is the improved camera which is probably what I'm most excited about. The FaceTime feature is interesting but not a big deal for me. I could see me making whoever I'm chatting with motion sick because I won't be holding the phone steady enough. The preparing for video chatting is probably one of the reasons behind AT&T's changing of the data plans. Interesting no 64 gig model but they either probably didn't want to push the price to $399 or didn't have any room left for more flash memory given the thinner size. I'm out of contract next month I'll be in the market for a new model soon.

[Arbogast777]

Safari 5 available HERE.

[bondrules]

Some takeaways about the device:

- As we said, it's shockingly thin.
- The screen is truly outrageous -- you basically cannot see pixels on it. We're not being hyperbolic when we say it's easily the best looking mobile phone screen we've ever laid eyes on.
- The build quality is really solid. The home button feels much snappier, and on the whole it just feel like a tightly-packed device, but it's not heavy.
- The side buttons are really nice and clicky.
- iOS 4 is very familiar -- there's not a lot added to fit and finish.

http://images.macrum...te_iphone_4.jpg

Damn! With reviews like that I want one too! If not for the virtual keyboard and lack of blackberry messenger I would be even more inclined today to switch. It's freaking beautiful!

[zencat]

At the moment, I can sell my 16GB iPhone G3S to Gazelle for $226. A new 16GB iPhone 4 costs $199. I like that math!

[bondrules]

So glad my 3rd Gen Touch64 is iOS4 compatible. I won't be completely left out in the cold.

[zencat]

At the moment, I can sell my 16GB iPhone G3S to Gazelle for $226. A new 16GB iPhone 4 costs $199. I like that math!

Okay, here's the catch and the dealbreaker. To get this, I will have to sign a new 2-year contact with AT&T (the world's worst wireless service). 2 years! Oh, and AT&T have recently jacked their early termination fee to something like $389. So should the iPhone open up to other carriers in the next 2 years (which it will), and should I want to move (which I would in a second!), it will cost me the fee plus the price of the new phone and god knows what else. Could cost $700 for all I know.

Once again AT&T undercuts the Apple experience. I'll wait for the iPhone to open up. No way am I getting in deeper with AT&T.

[Jeff007]

Safari 5 available HERE.

Wow, thanks! Love the reader feature.