A bit of business before I get down to my 52 week project. My Macbook suffered its first (and hopefully only) malfunction last week - the graphics card started playing up. So I took it into the nice people at the Apple store and they checked it out, only to find no problem. Typical it works when you don't want it too.
I returned home, and for a while, maybe a day, it worked fine then started playing up again. This time I managed to get screen-shots to show them, just in case. So I took it back showed them the issues and they said they would take it in for repair - parts and labour cost was to be £350!!! After a little gulp to myself, he then added "which of course we will waiver as you have had no problems before, looked after your mac" and "its a nice thing to do". I paused with baited breathe, did my ears deceive me!??!
Now I am a huge advocate of Apple, but really this takes customer service to a whole new level. They did indeed fix the problem by replacing the part and did it within 4 days - now THAT'S service, oh, and they smiled about it too :)
What else have I been up to in the past week? Well, we had a HUGE snowstorm, more on that later, and I had my second brain scan, which was fun. The first part of this scan involved seeing how you react emotionally to movie scenes such as Forest Gump, Dead Poets, Blair Witch and American History X amongst others. Then a series of questions needed to be completed, boring!!! But the cool thing was, seeing how you brain waves were affected by tension and relaxation (gritting your teeth or closing your eyes) - very cool!!
Only problem is you looked a little weird, this is how I think I looked, I might be wrong, there was no mirror.
On with the 52...
...as I mentioned before there had been a snowstorm. Now when I say this you may think it snowed a little? A faint frosting perchance? NO! IT REALLY SNOWED! In fact I had never seen snow like this in the UK before. But this did give me the perfect opportunity to play my WINTER card for my 52. Everywhere was covered in several inches of snow. Trains had stopped running, the country had ground to a complete stop, it was that bad!
So armed with my camera I set off the get some wintry shots.
The problem I soon found was few places were accessible. My bottom of my jeans had frozen and became like cardboard - you could quite literally knock on them. But I persevered and managed to go for a stupidly long walk along the coastline towards Peacehaven. I took several shots along the way and got what I hoped would be the winner for the week. On the way back the sun had gone down and the temperature had plummeted. So rather than walk back, I made my way for one of the few running buses. After about 40 minutes one pulled up, I jumped on frozen, the driver obviously in good spirits then refused to take my £20, saying "it wasn't allowed" and told me to get off the bus - if only Apple ran buses!?!
So I decided I would walk back after all, but it was bitter cold and my toes were numb (well I think they were, I couldn't feel them). Along came another bus and this time the driver had no issues whatsoever!? hmmm, some people! Chosen image for the week can be seen HERE Week 47 - WINTER
For years now we having been using mice to navigate around our computer screens. Typically having to replace them maybe once a year or more often in some cases. The first mice were constantly getting gunk trapped on the wheels as you then removed the ball inside to clean them.
Then came optical mice, great no more messy ball and clean scrolling, perfect. But wait, not so great as it all depended on what surface you used, as reflective surfaces or glass didnt work so well, and you were always limited by the cable, so along came the wireless mouse.
Step by step the mouse has improved but not much. Then came along Apple's Magic mouse they had cracked it, I thought. A nice touch sensitive mouse, but Apple being Apple didnt stop there, oh no!!!!
Now they have released the replacement of the mouse forever, thats right!!! BEHOLD THE MAGIC TRACKPAD. OK the name sucks, im sure they could have done better, but its genius!
The first thing Apple did in their keynote speech was put to bed the idea of releasing a Netbook;
IT WONT HAPPEN!! Thank goodness for that. However, you may or may not have heard that Apple have decided to release their iPad.
What's an iPad? I hear you ask. Well think of an iPhone or iTouch and make it bigger.
The iPad screen is 9.7" it has 10 hours of battery life and it comes with all the gadgetry you would expect to find in an iTouch and then some! I was wondering why Apple hadn't developed much for the iPhone knowing it was such a big product for them and now I see why.
I really like my iTouch, the fact I can access what I want and it's so light and portable, but to be honest to view the web with, it just doesn't cut it.
The app store has had some great apps developed which makes for fun ways to while away the hours as well as being truly useful tools too. Apple (and others) have developed some amazing looking apps and programs to run specifically on the iPad. They have redesigned everyday programs to work simply from touch, now thats incredible! You really do have it all at your fingertips.
Apple are revolutionary when it comes to technology and yet again I'm sure this will be a big hit for them and copies will be springing up all over the place.
I honestly believe this is the ultimate tablet which companies have being trying to perfect for ages, and I didn't think Apple would bother, but they have and have done a great job.
I would however wait for the next gen of iPads before rushing out to buy one, as Apple will continue to develop this and improve upon it.
However if you cant wait why not go and buy one, afterall the best part of this story is they are ONLY $499!!!! Now from Apple that is EXCITING!!!
This was passed on to me by the wonderful LOU from the blog: The quiet life.Check it out, its a wonderful, fresh read ;)
This is a blog award, where it originated from I really dont know, but it was nice to have an acknowledgment of my wee blog nonetheless(also she said some very nice things about me).
All you have to do in return is share with my readers "7 things that I love", not including people, and then nominate 4 brand new worthy recipients, simple.
Below is my list: 1) Photography is my new passion. I love capturing a moment and making it mine.
2) Thailand!!! Simply love, love, love the place. Everything about it, the people, the culture and the food!
3) I love change. Things being new, interesting and exciting; routines bore me.
4) I love music. I think the world would be a boring place without it - TV I could live without, but not music!
5) I love performing, whether it's acting, magic or just being in front of people, I actually like public speaking, YES I'm an attention seeker :)
6) I love being creative and rising to challenges, I dislike failing at anything
finally…
7) I love technology. I think it has made the world a more efficient place and opened up a lot of opportunities in all sorts of arenas. Most of all I LOVE APPLE - long live Apple (I'm NOT a PC!)
and now for the nominations... ...in no particular order: BLOG SIN JAMON - This blog is by Emma, a friend I met at Vaughan Town, who is now living and working in Spain. You can find out about her trials and tribulations here by clicking the link ALRIGHT TIT - I shall say nothing about this blog except it's your duty to go and find out for yourself - one of the most refreshing blogs there is; endorsed by Stephen Fry too ;) GINGERELLA - Great blog, simple, wonderful read and layout. ps some excellent photos on there too. THE REAL WALL - This blog is by Andy, a friend who took it upon himself to create a 'real wall' rather than a virtual one. He is one a strange mission but it IS working and growing - he also has adapted a new Facebook layout; which is kinda cool ;)
anyway there are others I could mention but why not visit them simply by clicking on the BlogList link on the right of my page.
When I first got into using computers the thing I liked was configuring it to make it mine, the Amiga allowed to you to do just that - with a little hacks here and there. Then I moved onto PC's and Microsoft, going from 3.1 to Windows 95 was a wonderful advancement - no hacking needed, friendly User Interface. Then came 98 and XP; I'l not mention Vista or Windows 7.
XP was good and very stable for the most part, but the demise of Microsoft was looming as they starting locking you into their way that they wanted you to work and operate. This gave rise to Apple and of course UNIX; the Ubuntu system is growing rapidly and very successful. I have always liked Apple, no, I cant tweak everything but I dont have to, it works, its that simple. No blue screen of death, no unknown problem, no viruses.
So the switch was very painless for me, however I continued to use my Hotmail account as I liked it and it worked. (do you notice the past tense there) IT WORKED! Now Hotmail have forced me to go via a pop3 account which I have done, now I can only check my email every 15 minutes and ALL of my email have gone?! Deleted or moved I dont know but they aint there, years of emails just dissappeared - a case for Mulder and Scully methinks. Why do they mess with things that aint broke, I never asked for improvements and I'm sure we could all do without them sometimes.
So the last part of Microsoft that was working for me, now has lost favor and it seems after a few looks on Google others are jumping ship because of the similar issues. I tried a quick work around to get Hotmail to forward my emails to another account, but Microsoft are obviously afraid of the competition as they wont let you, lame!
So now to switch to either my Gmail account or I may choose the Apple .Me account and get everything synced in one go (cloud) seems the simpliest option.
Apple have just hit 1,000,000,000 downloads for their App store!!! Most of the products they have available are free or very cheap and extremely useful, if you have an iTouch or iPhone I suggest you go see what they have.
Although they have made a few mistakes (shaking baby app?!?!, personally I think the person who made this is sick and at fault not Apple) but on the whole they are doing very well indeed.
I must say that Apple has come a really long way from it's old days. I think now almost every household has some apple product: iPod, iPhone, iTouch or a Mac (if not a varient on them). Apple stores are opening all over the globe, still none in Madrid as yet though :(
I would like the see the Apple TV moved forwarded more and have more availability of programs, but apart from that I'm more than happy with my Apple gadgets. Apple have shown a profit where most companies this year suffered and Apple are still leading the way in technology and environmental awareness - Hurrah for them!
There has been no news on Steve Job's health and when he is likely to return to the helm.
Im currently driving myself crazy trying to get my hands on an iBook. You know the ones, the white laptops that were SO infamous at making Mac standout. I have been bidding for what feels like a lifetime on ebay only to have the things snatched from my grasp on several occasions now.
As it is simply to replace my tired old heavy PC laptop and will be used mainly for work i dont want to spend a great deal, having said that I also don't want something that will need more spent on it to make it workable.
My aim is to pay around 240€ and have a spec something like this - G4 model, 12 - 14" screen, 1.33 ghz, 1 gig ram and about 60 gig HD; which I think is about standard and a good price, especially considering the iBook is no longer going to be supported by Apple.
Well on with my search - if you happen to have one you want to offload, do drop me a line... ...but dont wait too long, I wont!
The other day a friend and I were talking about flashmobbing and today I found this story and thought it only right to share! Andy keep em peeled they may be in a town near you!!!
A horde of decaying zombies invaded San Francisco's downtown Apple store on Friday evening, hunting for brains, terrifying the customers, and gnawing on iMacs. It was difficult to judge the exact number of zombies that shuffled through the city's shopping district, losing limbs, blood, and unmentionable body parts along the way, but probably at least 150 converged on Union Square.
Then they decided to visit nearby businesses, including the Apple store, Nordstrom, the Disney store, and the Westfield Mall.The event was titled "SF Zombie Mob 2007," and it was organized by the gruesome-minded folks at eatbrains.com. It's akin to a flash mob, though because the participants trek around the city after gathering, the Zombie Mob was closer in concept to the Critical Mass bicycle ride, which coincidentally was happening at the same time along the same street.
In truth, it was a pretty polite affair: only passers-by who volunteered to become zombie-fied were, and no arrests took place.It may be worth noting that the Westfield Mall and Disney security tried to bar the zombies from entering, but Apple store security did not. In fact, salespeople were jostling one another for a position where they could take the best photo of the zombies (or themselves with the zombies, or their brains being eaten by the zombies).