There are two things I do not usually talk about on this blog — cars (okay maybe there are one, two, three, four, five or more exceptions) and iPhone applications. The former because I am not quite sure everyone here would be interested in reading about anything except the technology behind the car and the latter because most iPhone apps do not have enough substance and utility to create a compelling review. Well I am breaking both of those rules today and for good reason. A few months ago I discovered a $40 iPhone app by DevToaster called Rev.
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Tagged as:
Apple,
Cars,
Hardware,
iPhone,
OBDII,
PLX,
Reviews,
Technology,
Wifi
In late 2008 I wrote about my experience using the first generation 80GB Intel X25-M SSD — my first SSD. I had to pay the early adopter tax for that SSD, so it cost me around $700. The speed boost alone justified the price to me. Fast-forward about a year and that SSD stopped working. I’m not quite sure what died — the controller or something else — but I RMA’d it with Intel and they sent me a new, second generation X25-M that week. The second generation (G2) X25-M is based on 34nm fabrication compared to the 50nm first generation. The G2 is also substantially cheaper at roughly $299 and noticeably faster due to a new controller and firmware. Intel still claims the same “up to 250MB/s” sequential read speed and “up to 70MB/s” sequential write speed but the G2 brings improved (2x for 80GB, 2.5x for 160GB version) random 4KB writes. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Apple,
Guides,
How To's,
Intel,
Laptop,
MacBookPro,
RAID,
SSD,
X25-M
It started out like any typical Friday morning. I snoozed the iPhone alarm about 5 times then got a late start to the morning and did a groggy stumble to the desk to check email before doing anything else. Unfortunately, this time my 11 month old 15-inch MacBook Pro (unibody) kernel panicked a lot, on every boot. It wouldn’t even see the Intel X25-M SSD I had in there although the drive was completely usable in two other computers. After a half-day of debugging I ended up going to the Apple store, doing a “quick drop” at the Genius Bar and buying a new 17-inch MacBook Pro so I could keep working; based on my experience that Apple repair can be slow sometimes and I didn’t want to wait a week or more before getting back to work. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Apple,
Hardware,
Laptop,
MacBook,
MacBookPro,
Reviews
You have probably heard of a company called GrandCentral a few years ago. They made big news with their September 2006 beta launch of their service allowing people to use a single phone number for all of their phones. David Ulevitch of OpenDNS was the first person I knew that began using GrandCentral full-time. He had a single number that rang his office phone and mobile phone at the same time — a real convenience [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Android,
Apple,
Gizmo,
Google,
GoogleVoice,
GrandCentral,
Internet,
iPhone,
Reviews,
Software,
VoIP
If you haven’t caught wind of Microsoft’s Laptop Hunters advertisements by now, well you’re lucky. They’re a series of (hopefully only) six ads meant to take a jab at Apple’s successful “Get A Mac” commercials. So far four of these ads are out and they are based on the premise that some person is looking for a particular computer for their needs within a certain budget. If they find what they’re looking for, Microsoft pays for the computer. True in Microsoft spirit, these commercials are all full of issues. The first ad was filled with controversy after people discovered an actress [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Apple,
Editorials,
Hardware,
Laptop,
Microsoft,
News,
Vista
Those of you that have been following this blog for a while know that I have been in a cycle of switching between Firefox and Safari as my primary browser almost regularly. I’ve even gone way of Flock back in the day. However, I have always ended up coming back to Firefox. Firefox is like an ex-girlfriend — bear with me — you know it has some flaws but it’s comfortable and lets you experiment with various add-ons. You [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Apple,
Browser,
Reviews,
Safari,
Software,
Web Dev,
WebKit
Update: Apple replaced my Air with a new Rev A. I just went to the Apple Store, told them that it had a non-US keyboard from an error on their part and asked if I could just get a replacement so I didn’t have to deal with waiting for it to get repaired again.
I am only speaking from my own past experiences of having Apple repair my Macs, but this has to stop somewhere. For the past 2 weeks (I was quoted 5-7 days) Apple has had my MacBook Air to repair a bent screen bezel and dead micro DVI port. What I got in return was a German keyboard. Thanks Apple. I didn’t know I wanted to learn German. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Apple,
Hardware,
MacBookAir,
News
