March 8th, 2008 Adam
My iPod Touch is perhaps the best Mac I’ve ever owned. It’s never crashed, it is extremely intuitive, and it does everything I expect it to. There are two things that I think the iPhone lacks, however. One is obvious: Flash. Once the iPhone gets flash, it will truly have the “real” internet. The other, though, is a much better YouTube app.
The current YouTube app doesn’t do much. You can search for videos by title, watch them, and then search for more videos by title. What do I want the YouTube app to do? I’m glad you asked.
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February 14th, 2008 Adam
No. No, it doesn’t.
But I have them nonetheless, and they look GREAT. First, a little history.
Back when Leopard was still in development stages, there was a popular thread on the MacNN forums about GUI changes in Leopard. The most argued point was the need for iTunes-style controls in Leopard. If you remember, back in Tiger, iTunes stuck out with a new design. Leopard took the iTunes design, and now it fits in perfectly. But for some reason, Apple decided to keep the glossy bubbly Aqua buttons and scrollbars, while toning down everything else. They stuck out like a sore thumb.
After Leopard arrived, there were attempts to get iTunes scrollbars working on Leopard. Some came pretty close, but noone quite got it right. The best version looked pretty good, but seemed to cause a lot of issues. Plus, it was no picnic to install.
After about two months, I was browsing MacintoshGUI.com, and I found iTunes scrollbars for Leopard. I thought that this was probably the same as the failed attempt at MacNN, and it seemed to be. It looks the same. But the big difference is the the installation is one-click easy. It logs you out and back in, and voila. iTunes scrollbars.
Download iTunes scrollbars for OS X
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January 21st, 2008 Adam
Whoa, whoa, whoa… slow down there, time. It’s been barely a month since I got a foothold on my “internet career,” and already I’m buying a MacBook to complement my [New!] iMac: something I wouldn’t have thought possible 40 days ago.
Sure, I’ve been on the internet awhile, but it was just in November at best that I began to “settle down” and become more serious about the internet. No longer is it a place for me to watch videos and check email, now it’s that and a marketplace, where I can buy, sell, write, and design and have my talents used.
All this has led me to be able to journey to the last step of my “Mac Journey” before I get to my final destination (MacBook Pro and 2o-odd inch display). I am about to purchase a MacBook to go along with my iMac. I think it will keep me happy long enough to garner the money to buy the new MacBook Pro 15″ when it comes out. Then I really don’t think I’ll be able to complain. I mean, how much better can you get, besides the Mac Pro, which I am uninterested in? I’ll never be satisfied, but hopefully with nothing better for me to have, I’ll be quelled.
Yippee!
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January 11th, 2008 Adam
I’m moving on to my 6th Mac in a few days, and while most people would think that I’ve been a Mac user for at least 10 years based upon, that, in fact, I’ve only been one for a little less than a year. It was only last year that I finally was able to get together the spare money for an old eMac. From there, I couldn’t be satisfied.
It all started when iMovie began to freeze quite a bit. After less than 3 months of the eMac, I went in search of an iMac G5, which I planned to pay for mainly by selling the eMac. When I did find a G5 (for $600) I had barely had it for 4 days when I noticed that annoying high-pitched whine that some G5s have. I couldn’t stand it. I sold the iMac, making a $200 profit.
Now using my eMac again, I searched for a MacBook. I found a great deal, this MacBook for $650. I loved it, but Icouldn’t use it as a main computer. The graphics were much too slow, and the screen was too small. If I had had the money at the time, I would have definetely kept it to supplement my next purchase, but I just couldn’t.
I was having trouble selling the MacBook, but suddenly it all came together. In a matter of four hours, I sold the MacBook for $815, another $200 profit, and bought a 17″ Intel iMac for $730. I thought that I might finally be satisfied, but this 17″ screen didn’t seem nearly as expansive as my previous 17 incher had. I bought an iMac Core Duo, a 20″ computer, and once again satiated my Mac wants. After a bit of time, I finally got a buyer for the 17″ iMac, and made a more modest $50 profit.
I was sure I’d be good to go with my 20″ iMac for a while, but the time has come again to move on. I have just sold my current iMac for $850 (coming out just about even) and bought a 20″ aluminum iMac for about $1000. I would have liked the 24″, but that is beyond my reach right now.
Maybe in another few months…
Updates: I’ve since bought yet another MacBook to add a mobile component, and scrapped it within a few days (I can’t stand having multiple sets of data on different computers.) I then bought a MacBook Pro and 23″ Apple Cinema Display.
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January 2nd, 2008 Adam
I never really did go over my thoughts on the wireless aluminum keyboard, so here goes.
This Christmas, I received an Apple Wireless Aluminum Keyboard. It wasn’t a surprise, as I had asked for it, but my decision to ask for it came with some self-bickering.
When I owned a MacBook, I found myself constantly in search of the number pad. I also felt cramped in the small space that is the keyboard. So I was less than inclined to buy the Aluminum wireless keyboard, which has the exact same key layout.
In the end, though, aesthetics won out, and I decided to ask for the keyboard just because it looked so good. I am glad I did.
For some reason, none of the issues I had on the MacBook plague me with the Aluminum keyboard. The only problem I have is the lack of forward delete, and the unwieldy nature of fn-delete. I type much faster and more accurately on the aluminum keyboard, it feels much better, and it looks much better, even with my white iMac.
If you can’t decide whether or not to get one of these, I say go ahead. Worst case scenario, you hate it, and these have great resale value!
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