The Tech Juice

iPhone 3G: Confessions From a Line Go'er

2008-07-16T12:46:00.003-04:00

The line up stretched around the block. I had arrived just after 5 AM, and was approximately 70th in line. According the to other iPhone fanatics in line with me, the store had approximately 100 units available. 20 of them were 16 GB models, while the remaining 80 were 8 GB models. This describes one of my first real frustrations with the whole release. I would almost definitely leave this place without a 16 GB model.

At around 9:30 AM, I had come to accept this fact. I had decided that I would still purchase the 8 GB, and simply swap out music / video as necessary. It would be a bit of a change, as my previous iPod held 30 GB of media. But what the hell right? I've already been waiting nearly 5 hours, and I might as well make the purchase I came to make.

It was at about this point that I was approximately 30th in line (Yes, I continued to count down until I was 2nd in line). The Rogers store located at Dundas and Younge St, across from the Eaton's center, had a relatively smooth operation going. It had taken approximately an hour and a half to go through the first 40 customers. This is a pretty good timeline, considering each user had to choose a plan, activate, and be read a disclaimer of sorts that basically explained how you have sold your soul to Rogers, Apple, and your pretty new iPhone.

It was at about this time as well, that we started to notice no more customers were coming out of the store. If anyone reading this has ever stood in a line of this style before, you can imagine the rumors flying wildly through the line. Kind of like that old telephone game your teacher made you play in Kindergarten.

At approximately 10 AM, people were starting to get really irritated. One customer had been released from the Rogers store, and he explained that Apple's iTunes activation server was down. This caused panic, anger, and a general irritated vibe by the crowd in line.

I stood in line, trying to remain optimistic for the next 6 hours. At around 3:30 pm, a Rogers store manager came out to tell us that they were going to take our names and call us when we could come and activate the iPhone. He said he didn't know when this would be, but it could be Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. At this point I was second in line. It was taking approximately an hour for each customer to get activated, so I figured it would take me another 2 - 3 hours at max.

About 10 minutes after I spoke with the manager and explained I was not leaving, a Rogers representative came out and got me to come in and activate my new phone. I am extremely grateful that I did not give up and leave when the manager asked us originally. If I had, who knows what kind of nonsense would have ensued.

I forgot to mention that if you read the Rogers press release, they mention "customers attending launch day events at these Rogers Plus stores will be treated to a free early bird breakfast". I think they need to be taught what a breakfast consists of. They gave us one granola bar, and brought around some (extremely tiny) plastic cups of orange and apple juice.

Come on Rogers, granola bars? Perhaps if the press release said "Rogers will be giving out a small insignificant portion of food for people that will be waiting in line upwards of 12 hours." I would not have been so disappointed.

Overall the entire event was ridiculous. The initial flow of the release was pretty good, as I said before, but once the problems started kicking in things went all to hell.

Some advice for Rogers if this ever happens again:

Inform the customers of the situation - We had to wait for approximately 2 hours after the servers went down to hear it from Rogers directly. By this time it was worldwide and everyone was reading about it on their laptops and first gen iPhones.
Deliver on your promises - If you are going to promise breakfast, give out a damn breakfast. I don't exactly know what I expected of the breakfast, but the last thing I expected was to be given a portion of food that may satisfy a child's hunger for under an hour.
Train your reps - I'm sure they did this, but every rep I spoke with seemed to make up facts about the iPhone, a feature on it, or how an aspect of the billing worked.
Prioritize - If you have 9 employees doing activations for a hundred or more people, don't waste that resource on some asshole who pushed security out of the way to return some kind of cable modem.

Overall, the experience was not worth the product. Having said that, after sitting in line for 5 or 6 hours before the servers went down, it is hard to convince yourself that it is time to leave. Those hours would have been completely and utterly wasted.

Fortunately, I got my device, activated it in the store, used it to find out where the hell my work was from the Rogers store, and waddled my way there.

I'll be posting my review of the iPhone, and some of the applications for it later this week.

If anyone else has any stories from their line up, or anything they would like to share. Please let us know in the comments. It will be fun to compare.

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Technorati Tags: iphone, 3g, iphone 3g, rogers iphone, iphone launch, apple, mac

Choose Your TinyURL

2008-07-07T09:07:00.003-04:00

So TinyURL went down this morning, and came back up with a pretty cool new feature. It allows you to choose your own tinyurl! Now, for those of you who don't know what TinyURL is, let me explain.

TinyURL takes a long URL and shortens it for you. It generates an html page that simply redirects the traffic to the url of your choice. If you do not feel like choosing words for your tinyurl, you can simply let it generate random numbers and letters.

An example of this is http://tinyurl.com/TheTechJuice. Obviously in this case it is much longer than the original, but you can see the use for it.

Try it out and perhaps you can even rickroll your friends!

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Technorati Tags: tinyurl, web, internet, url encryption, encryption, security

Ruined iPhone - Canadian Customers are NOT Happy

2008-07-06T20:05:00.003-04:00

I just wanted to write a quick post to help spread some awareness to anyone located in Canada who is upset with the iPhone data plans. You can visit ruinediphone.com and sign the petition. Many Canadians are pretty pissed off, pardon my French, about the new iPhone data plans. Unfortunately, we are still forced to keep tabs on our bandwidth usage, and according to ruinediphone.com, our data rates are worse than some third world countries.

This is perhaps why over 42,500 people have signed the petition as of this writing. All we can do is keep passing this around the Internet and hope that Rogers hears our plea. The iPhone should have unlimited data. That is what it was designed for. That is why it has a full rich HTML browser and an HTML mail application.

If Bell and Telus can both offer unlimited data plans, why the hell can't Rogers? I realize that they are providing a heavily subsidized piece of equipment to us at a reasonable price, but they are banking on the fact that people will go over their limits. It's almost a sneaky way of doing business if you ask me.

I am personally considering delaying my iPhone purchase due to the price of the data plan. Unfortunately it's something I've been waiting on for quite a while, so not getting one is really going to annoy me.

Hopefully Rogers wises up and figures out that their plans suck.

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments.

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Technorati Tags: iphone, ruinediphone.com, rogers, canadian data rates, canadian iphone, iphone 3g

Reset OS X Password Without a CD

2008-06-30T13:45:00.002-04:00

Many people are purchasing used Macbooks and are finding that the Administrator account is locked. Generally speaking, they would think that they needed to reformat and completely reinstall the operating system.

Luckily, I came across a this post over at theappleblog.com. It explains how to do the reset in simple, step by step instructions.

How to Reset Your OS X Password Without a CD

Reboot
Hold down the apple key + s after you hear the noise your mac makes at you every time it boots.
You should get to a text prompt; enter in the following terminal commands to create a new Administrator account.

"mount -uw/"
"rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone"
"shutdown -h now"

After the reboot has finished up, you should have a new administrator account available for use. You can login as the new administrator and abolish the previous entry in the preferences pane.

[source: theappleblog.com]

Have you tried this out? Let me know in the comments how it went.

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Technorati Tags: os x, reset password, mac, macbook, apple, tips, tricks, technology

Hotspotr - Find Free WiFi in Your Area

2008-06-30T12:28:00.002-04:00

So, you're sitting at home and suddenly Rogers breaks into your internet session to tell you that you are close to exceeding your monthly allotted gigabytage. Obviously if you don't live in Canada it is unlikely that this travesty will happen to you. However, the idea of a monthly salary of bandwidth is not a new one, and it is likely that this impacts you with your local ISP.

Fortunately, there is a free tool available to help you with this matter. While it does nothing to help you with your dilemma at home, you can now find free WiFi hotspots in your area using Hotspotr. Like I said, this doesn't directly negate any downloading you do at home, but you if you can manage to traverse into the outside world and squander up the courage to sit down in a cafe of some kind (or perhaps outside of it, so you don't have to purchase a coffee), this has the potential to help your cause.

Having said that, please do buy a coffee. These things cost people money. If you are going to use the service, the least you could do is buy a coffee every now and again. Finding free wifi hotspots has never been easier, and I used this tool specifically to find a cafe near my work that I can visit and work on The Tech Juice during my downtime at work. It is called Cafe 260, and if you are in the area in Toronto I'd recommend you check it out. It has a friendly group of staff and some delicious treats and tasty beverages.

Do you do any of your work in cafes or other free internet hotspots? Let us know in the comments!

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Technorati Tags: websites, wifi, hotspots, free wifi, hotspotr, internet, web, web 2.0, cafe, internet cafe

ICANN Votes to Relax Web Naming Conventions

2008-06-29T15:13:00.002-04:00

Recently, ICANN voted to relax the web naming conventions. The top-level domain names that we have all become accustomed to over the years are expected to be pushed aside. These are the familiar domains that we have come to know like the back of our hand. Domains such as .com, .net, .ca, or .us are still going to be in use, however the additional customization will be welcomed by many web administrators, developers, and bloggers alike.

The change still has some work to be done, and is not 100% final as of this writing, but with the unanimous decision on Thursday, it looks like it will be voted through.

Essentially, the change to the web naming conventions allows companies or individuals to purchase top-level domains equivalent to .com or .net, but with a chosen word, set of numbers, or a mixture of both. For instance, if I wanted to create a personal website, I now have the option available of purchasing www.sean.kelly for my personal site.

Obviously, this is a pretty big change to the way we browse the internet. Generally speaking, we are all extremely used to the .com set up. Now, we will have to work to remember what the suffix of the domain is. I think this might bring more business to online bookmarking or social bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us.

What do you think of ICANN's decision on Thursday? Let me know in the comments.

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Technorati Tags: internet, icann, web, naming conventions, www, world wide web

Official iPhone 3G Voice and Data Plans from Rogers Canada

2008-06-27T15:36:00.002-04:00

There has been a ton of speculation as to what the pricing plans for the next generation of iPhone would be in Canada. The iPhone will come with 4 different voice and data plan packages, ranging from $60 - $115, with the minimum data on the plan being 400 MB going up to a maximum of 2 GB.

The voice plans are very similar to what you would see on other mobile phones in Canada. They start at 150 weekday minutes, with free evening and weekends and progress on to 800 weekday minutes with free evenings and weekends.

Additional airtime is tiered based on usage, at 35 cents per minute, 25 cents per minute, and then 15 cents per minute. Additionally, data usage beyond the monthly allowed limit is 50 cents per MB for the first 60 MB, and then 3 cents per MB thereafter.

It seems our high Canadian hopes of getting an unlimited data plan from Rogers for our iPhone has fallen quite short. Fortunately, it is a step forward in the data plan world (and by world I mean Canada).

You can check out the official page for the rates here.

What do you guys think of the rates? Let me know in the comments!

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Technorati Tags: iphone, phone, mobile phone, web, internet, rogers, Canada, iphone 3g, wireless, news

Should you get Paid to use Your Blackberry?

2008-06-25T17:09:00.002-04:00

CNBC wrote an article that spiked some interest in me recently. It was regarding Blackberry's and other similar devices being used to keep employees 'in the loop' after business hours, and whether or not these employees should be compensated.

Personally, I am all for compensation, as long as it is appropriate. Checking your Blackberry a couple of times a night, and totaling 5 minutes of your time should obviously not be considered working from home. On the other hand, it brings up an interesting concept of whether or not you are expected to respond to emails that directly involve your communication or require approval / advice of some kind on your part.

Is it generally expected that you are available until 9 pm every night? 24/7 even? Then yes, you should be compensated. Many companies choose a route that is more of an indirect compensation method consisting of special benefits such as longer vacation time, a better cube / office, and other indirect, 'off the books' style of compensation. These employees are expected to respond to emails, as well as be available for calls.

Unfortunately, I don't believe very many companies follow a more direct compensation route. With the release of more technologically advanced devices such as the iPhone, however, companies who adopt such products may have no choice but to directly pay their employees for this kind of accessibility.

This is definitely a serious topic among working professionals. Many could see an increase of pay for what would be considered 'on-call' hours. This could be as much as 10% - 15% of their yearly salary.

What do you think of Blackberry compensation? Let me know in the comments.

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Technorati Tags: phone, blackberry, mobile phones, business, corporations

An Introduction: Apple's MobileMe

2008-06-25T12:53:00.002-04:00

With the release of Apple's new 3g iPhone, the Canadian pricing plans leaked, and the general hype behind the whole product in general, I thought it might be beneficial to explain to everyone a new service that is being launched by Apple in the coming weeks.

This service is called MobileMe.

Essentially, what this boils down to, is a service similar to what enterprises use (Microsoft Exchange Server) in order to keep their mail, contacts, notes, and other information synchronized between multiple devices and computers. MobileMe provides this service to the everyday home user with multiple devices.

In order to explain a little bit more clearly, an example is in order.

Let's say for instance, that I am out with my fiance at a restaurant. We are having a fantastic time and we want to make sure we never forget the restaurant, and it's contact information. I generally won't have my laptop with me (unless I am just asking for an argument) at a restaurant, but I almost definitely will have my iPhone. I simply enter the contact information for this specific restaurant on my iPhone, and within seconds this information is pushed to my Macbook and my home PC. Now, if I am at home working on any one of my computers, I can pull this information up at a glance.

This is just a small example of what MobileMe offers. Obviously there are more pressing uses for this system, and more important reasons to have it. Fortunately, my only objective here is to explain what the service does.

Another part of the service that is worth mentioning, is the inclusion of an iDrive. Your iDrive is essentially a network drive that allows you to connect to it from anywhere in the world and download/upload files. For instance, let's say you had a document that you wanted to have available on your iPhone for mobile use. You simply upload it to a folder that you create on your iDrive, and it is ready to be accessed, taken off the iDrive, changed, re-uploaded, and so on.

Details on MobileMe

MobileMe is available on two different plans, with upgrades available. The lowest price is $99 for a year of membership. This includes 20 GB of online storage, with a 200 GB bandwidth cap (per month).

As far as I can tell, the bandwidth cap applies to the push of information to all of your devices. So for instance, if you make an update on your Macbook, the information is sent to what apple calls the 'cloud'. The cloud then sends the data down to your Windows machine, as well as your iPhone. What this results in is a transfer of the information on 3 separate occasions. Having said that, I believe 200 GB of transfer space is a fantastic amount. You would have to do a ridiculous amount of emailing, updating contacts, and various other activities to come close to this. If you were constantly transferring music, movies, and other such giant files you could end up passing this limit, but even at that, this is unlikely.

If you have multiple devices, and you are obsessed with keeping data synchronized across them, I would definitely take a serious look at MobileMe.

Let me know what you think in the comments!

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Technorati Tags: iphone, mobileme, apple, mac, macbook, windows, synchronization, calendar

WLMTips.com - A Shoutout

2008-06-24T12:32:00.002-04:00

The guys over at wlmtips.com require some praise and approval for their efforts on their website. It is only young (much like The Tech Juice) but it manages to have substantial content available for a blog that is such a young age. I encourage everyone to go check it out if they like the content here at The Tech Juice.

The most useful post (that I have come across, anyway) is regarding using Internet Explorer on Linux. Being a web developer often requires testing of your web applications, web sites, etc., on various platforms. It is important that you are able to view the page in as many different ways as possible, to ensure the highest level of compatibility among users.

Using Internet Explorer in Linux allows me to accomplish this task. These guys have put together a great article, and they are worthy of some praise in their efforts to create a website with original content, good layout, and convincing technical knowledge.

I have included a link to wlmtips in my sidebar, and I encourage all of my readers to check them out. I'm sure if you find anything I write useful, you will definitely find information to your liking on this site.

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Technorati Tags: Linux, Windows, Mac, Internet Explorer in Linux

iPhone Canadian Rogers Data Pricing Plans Leaked

2008-06-20T14:32:00.003-04:00

We have seen the iPhone data plans leaked for Canadian users. It appears that an internal memo has been put out to the internet, and was posted by a member of the ehmac forum community.

I hope that this is the correct information, because it is about time Rogers gets an unlimited data plan. Spread the word around, and help get these Canadian users the information they have been looking for.

If anyone has any more information about this or other iPhone aspects, let us know in the comments. We want to hear it!

Rogers and Apple today announced that the iPhone 3G will be available in Canada on July 11. iPhone 3G combines three products into one small, lightweight device: a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and it puts the Internet in your pocket with the best e-mail, web browsing, search and maps applications ever on a mobile phone.

The new version of the iPhone harnesses the power of Rogers's broad and powerful 3G mobile broadband network, which offers 3G mobile phones download speeds of up to 1.4 Mbps.

Key Device Features:
Operates on Wi-Fi, EDGE, and 3G networks
New enterprise e-mail capability with support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync
New iPhone software development kit (SDK) to support new innovative applications

New Activation Process and Return Policy:
The iPhone 3G will be activated at point of sale when the device is purchased, in store. The Fido grace period will change from 15 days to 30 days and will require the device to be returned to place of purchase before service is cancelled. The 30-day Rogers grace period will remain unchanged with the exception of no limits being imposed for voice or data usage.

Pricing and Plans
Device Pricing:
$199 8GB and $299 16GB for new activations and qualified upgrades with existing 2 or 3-year agreements.

Data Plans and Pricing:
The iPhone 3G will be activated on existing Rogers and Fido voice rate plans, but new data plans have been created for the 3G device.

All iPhone 3G customers are required to have one of the new data plans and qualifying voice plan.
Customers intending to use the iPhone 3G for access to corporate e-mail, business applications, or access to corporate intranet are required to activate with Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone.
SUP service discounts for both voice and data plans will apply to iPhone 3G.
RAC service discounts for voice and data will apply to iPhone 3G, when on a qualifying data plan.
Ambassadors will not get a discount on device purchase for iPhone 3G.
Data Pricing will be as follows:

Consumer Data Plan (must be added to qualified voice plan):
$30 - Unlimited Data (E-mail/Web), includes Visual Voicemail when subscribed to any voicemail service.

Enterprise Data Plan (must be added to qualified voice plan):
$45 – Unlimited Data with personal and corporate e-mail, web, includes Visual Voicemail when subscribed to any voicemail service.

Upgrade Eligibility and Qualified Upgrade Pricing
Upgrade eligibility will be determined based on standard upgrade eligibility rules. Customers must be upgrade eligible to receive the qualified upgrade pricing. However, not all customers will be qualified upgrades. Rogers has not determined the price of the 3G device for non-qualified upgrades.

All customers will be required to sign a 3-year agreement. There will not be a "no commitment" price or a 2-year agreement for the iPhone 3G.

Activation Process
The new 3G device will be activated in store in Rogers, Fido and Apple stores. Customers must accept Rogers and Apple terms of service, sign a 3-year agreement, and select the data plan for the iPhone 3G before leaving the store. A short tether process to unbrick the 3G device will be performed in all Rogers and Fido stores (tether cords will be provided). Apple stores will also perform this tether process, however in the event that a customer's device is not tethered in the Apple store, their device will be inoperable until they get home and tether through iTunes. Prepaid will not be allowed on the iPhone 3G device.

RAC tools, including TOE and Salescentral have been modified to allow agents to enter customer's information, select rate plans and data plans, device price (if applicable) and output a document that will allow store reps to quickly access the customer's information and save time for data entry in the activation process.

Compensation
Because the 3G device will only be activated in store, compensation for the 3G device will be BAU. RAC reps will receive compensation for upgrades and new activations with a 3-year agreement.

Purchase Limit
The device purchase limit will be three (3) per customer for iPhone 3G in Rogers and Fido stores.

Direct Fulfillment
The DFU tool will be available at launch at RAC for iPhone 3Gs. Customers will be required to pay for the device when the order is placed and the phone will be shipped to the store in the customer's name for pickup.

Return Policy
The return policy for Fido iPhone 3G is changing from 15 days to 30 days for both Apple and Fido stores. The 30-day Rogers grace period will remain unchanged with the exception of no limits being imposed for voice or data usage.

To cancel service within the first 30 days, the customer must return their equipment to the place of purchase (no exceptions).
If the customer cancels service after 30 days, they will be charged the ECF and DECF. The customer is not required to return the device to cancel after 30 days.

Merchandising/Marketing
3G demos will be pulled from stock when they arrive following launch process for display devices.
Video loop content will be pushed to stores when it is available.
The following merchandising elements will be in stores for launch:

Rate brochure and display rate card
22 x 28 poster
Window banner

Training
Device training, including features and functionality, will be available via Library and Fidoversity by 6/30.
Training for all representatives will begin no later than 7/1.
Launch preparedness training, including last minute details, will be conducted the week of launch (if needed) by team leaders.
Communications/Library
All iPhone-related communications, inclusive of training announcements, will be posted to Library. Search on keyword "iPhone 3G" to locate.

Launch Plans
Support logistics for launch day will be available:

Letters will be sent to all landlords under VP/GM signature for advance notice of store hours, crowds expected, possible parking issues, etc.
Security will be provided for locations requesting armed police or unarmed, uniformed guards.
Manager checklists will be provided to support managers to set expectations and help them be prepared to complete all required actions.
Documents will be posted on TGP to let managers know when to expect delivery of launch support materials.
Job descriptions for key launch day functions will be provided for: Back Office Manager, Crowd Manager, Greeter, Product Demonstrator, and Security Support.

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Firefox 3 Download Counter

2008-06-17T16:12:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to post a quick update to let you guys know how Mozilla was doing with their previous goal. It seems they have set up a way to monitor the amount of downloads that they have received, and you can visit this page to check it out in real time.

I for one, am very interested to see how they do. As of this writing, they have almost passed the one million mark, at over 8,000 downloads per minute!

If you haven't downloaded your copy yet, head on over to their download page to get it now!

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Technorati Tags: firefox 3, firefox, software, world record, guiness, download, internet, web browser, web, windows, os x, linux

Get Firefox 3 Now! Help set the World Record

2008-06-17T13:08:00.002-04:00

Firefox 3 is being released today. It is Mozilla's aim to break the world record of the most software downloads done in a 24 hour period. I wanted to push this out to all of you Firefox users out there, in hopes that you would help Mozilla take on this daunting task.

Some of the noteworthy features of Firefox 3 are the smart location bar, that follows history like no location bar before it. For instance, every time I visit my Bell Canada website, I am almost always checking my account balance so I can pay it off. With Location bar, once I start typing "www." it already knows that I probably want to go to my bank account, so I can make the payment.

Firefox 3 also boasts an improvement on browsing speed. According to Mozilla, Firefox 3 is seven times faster than Internet Explorer, and four times faster than Firefox 2.

Download Firefox 3 from here. This will ensure your download gets counted towards the record.

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Technorati Tags: firefox 3, firefox, software, world record, guiness, download, internet, web browser, web, windows, os x, linux

Analogy - Cool Screen Saver (OS X and Windows)

2008-06-15T21:34:00.002-04:00

In my adventures across this amazing thing that I believe is called the world wide web, I came upon a wonderful little screen saver for OS X and Windows. It is called Analogy, and I don't quite know what it is about this screen saver, but it just tickles me in a way I've never been tickled by a screen saver before.

Essentially what Analogy does, is keep the convenience of a digital clock display, by showing the hours, minutes, and seconds in a number format, while staying true to the classic analog display of more traditional, "hand style" clocks. The result is an easy to read at a glance clock.

While this probably won't be anything special for most people, I tend to lose track of the time when I'm at my computer; but it's worse when I'm not. I don't have ready access to a watch when I'm bumming around in my PJ's now do I? Sure I have digital clocks in the Kitchen, but I should not have to walk that 6 ft in order to determine how far past my bed time it is.

Analogy is great for people like myself, and I recommend you download it and give it a try.

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Technorati Tags: screen saver, os x, windows xp, monitor, screensaver, Analogy

Firefox 3 Release Candidate 3 Released

2008-06-11T21:38:00.004-04:00

Only a week since Firefox 3 RC 2 was released, Mozilla has already released Firefox 3 RC 3. I can only imagine that they are getting very close to finishing this fantastic browser, and I can't wait until they do.

For those of you who don't know, Firefox 3 is hands down the best internet browser out there. This might sound like personal opinion, but I would wager a large sum of money on the fact that Firefox 3 is faster, safer, more reliable, and more standards compliant then all of the browsers out there today.

If you don't believe me, head on over to Mozilla's download page, and give the software a whirl for yourself. You won't be disappointed.

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Technorati Tags: internet, web browser, internet browser, firefox 3, open source, web,

The iPhone Wanders in to Canada

2008-06-11T21:08:00.005-04:00

So, the iPhone 3G 2.0 is shipping out to Canada. Are you going to be one of the early adopters? Or are you going to wait a little while? Perhaps for a hardware upgrade?

Obviously, one could argue that using the 3G technology is going to be a significant upgrade to the iPhone. So much so, in fact, that some current iPhone users are talking of ditching their model to get the new one. 3G wireless data transfer rates are up to 2.8 times faster than the EDGE connection that the iPhone 1.0 uses. I'm not sure whether or not that would justify me ditching a year old device for a $200 bandwidth speed upgrade.

I realize a lot of you are located in America, and obviously the iPhone release is a little bit less exciting. Fortunately, for us Canadians, we excite easily. Much like a wild bunny, scared of it's own shadow.

I will be heading out to the Apple store in Toronto on July 11th to pick up my iPhone, and I plan on bringing a camera so I can let you guys know just how ridiculous it is going to be down there. From what I am told, they are not releasing the iPhone to consumers until 6 PM. This is a perfect time for me - it gives me a couple of hours after work to get there and get in line.

The question still stands.

Are you going to be one of the early adopters? This extends out to the American crowd as well. Considering the technology has not been released yet, and there is no way of knowing if even half of Apple's promises have truth to them, our neighbours to the south can test drive this device with us.

Do you already have an iPhone? Are you getting an iPhone 3G? Do you despise the iPhone and all it stands for? Let's try to stir up some controversy in the comments.

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Technorati Tags: hardware, iPhone, mobile phones, cellphones, apple

Tidal TV Beta Launches

2008-06-11T19:12:00.003-04:00

Have you ever dreamed about being able to watch television on your computer? I'm talking about real television; not some kind of chopped up episode of Heroes that you found on a Google search.

Those dreams are going to become a reality. Tidal TV has launched the beta version of its website.

Tidal TV is an industry sponsored web TV site that has a whole bunch of channels on it. Just head on over and check it out. It is definitely worth a look.

The quality of the video is really what matters though. You can have hundreds of channels on a garbage quality stream and have a worthless site on your hands. Fortunately, the quality of Tidal TV is great. Switching from the smaller view pane to a larger one is effortless and the picture doesn't seem to degrade all that much.

Like I said, if this kind of video site is of any interest to you, go check it out. You can thank me later.

Note: I wanted to make a note to say that after reading through my writing, this may sound like a sponsored post. It is not. Tidal TV is that good.

Update: Tidal TV does not currently work in Canada. This is terrible news. I did not realize this before because I checked it out from a computer that goes through an American proxy server. Sorry for all you Canadians out there; I'm with you my brothers and sisters.

What do you guys think of Tidal TV? Let me know in the comments.

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Technorati Tags: internet, video, online, web, website, television, tv, tidal tv

How to Upgrade Your Macbook

2008-06-09T15:05:00.003-04:00

Those of you out there in the wonderful world wide web that own Apple Macbook's may just be in for a fantastic little treat today. Recently, I upgraded my Macbook and I thought it would be of some value to document the process so other people could learn from my mistakes. I took some notes during the whole ordeal and after all was said and done I had a much better laptop, all in all.

A Little Backstory

Last year, I purchased a Macbook. This fancy little machine was the answer to my prayers. It quickly became 2007's most significant purchase, excluding my fiance's wedding ring. Before I purchased the Macbook, however, I had some thinking to do.

I considered the options available, and ended up choosing the right Macbook for my needs at the time. It was around this time that I wrote my guide to buying your new Macbook or Macbook Pro. That article is a little bit out dated now, but it provides some of the reasoning behind my purchase.

I bought the cheapest Macbook available. I could not justify spending an extra three or four hundred dollars to get a DVD burner, an extra bit of RAM, and an insignificant amount of hard drive space. Apple seems to gouge the hell out of hardware prices. It was then and there that I decided I would upgrade a bit later when the time was right, instead of forking out the cash immediately.

Specs Before Upgrading my Macbook

Macbook (13.3") Core 2 Duo @ 2.0 GHz
80 GB Hard Drive
1 GB RAM

Specs After Upgrading my Macbook

Macbook (13.3") Core 2 Duo @ 2.0 GHz
250 GB Western Digital Scorpio 5400 RPM 8 MB Cache (~$135)
4 GB Crucial RAM Kit DDR2 @ 667 MHz ($100)

These parts were all ordered from NCIX, the only company that I order from online. They have always had great customer service to go hand in hand with their great pricing. I recommend you give them a look if you buy computer parts on any kind of regular basis.

How to Upgrade Your Macbook

The first and most important step is to make sure you have your data backed up. This can be accomplished several different ways, but I opted to simply copy my internal 80 GB drive to the 250 GB drive before installing it. This way, when I install the drive and start my computer, it recognizes everything and I don't have to worry about losing anything.

Step 1
Put the new hard drive into some kind of USB or firewire enclosure that will allow you to access it from your Macbook. I used a Vantec Nexstar SATA 2.5/3.5 inch Hard Drive Docking Station, which did the trick quite well.

Step 2
Download Carbon Copy Cloner. This software is amazing for creating a bootable backup of your Macbook. It took just under one hour to back up approximately 50 GB. You create a bootable backup onto the new drive, so that when you put it in your Macbook, you will still have all of your data.

Step 3
Format the new drive to Mac OS Extended (Non Journaled). If you do not do this, the storage device probably will not show up in your Carbon Copy Cloner application.

Step 4
Do the backup. At this point, it's about as simple as choosing "bootable backup" and hitting backup now. If you have any trouble just let me know in the comments and I will see if I can help. I don't claim to be an expert, but I will do what I can.

Step 5
Replace the hardware. Obviously the trickiest of the steps. Make sure you have a Torx bit around to take the encasement off of the hard drive. I did not have one and was forced to use a wrench. I don't recommend this however, as it does not leave the prettiest looking equipment.

Step 6
Party!

Note: There are some important asides I wanted to make about this installation process. The first of which is that you should follow Apples PDF. You can locate it here. This pdf does not explain every single aspect in detail, but it should show you enough of the basics to get a good understanding of what it is you are doing.

The RAM on the Macbook is extremely tricky to insert. You must push evenly on both sides, with stronger force than you would probably deem necessary, in order to make the RAM seat correctly. Use this guide to learn how to install the memory specifically.

The hard drive is very easy going. You take off the L-bracket, pull the hard drive out using the tab, and then slide it back in when you are done. Be careful not to do this upside down, as I spent about twenty minutes trying to put the hard drive in the wrong way.

I believe that is it! You should be ready to go with your upgraded Macbook. If you have any questions, comments, etc. make sore to leave them here for me.

Note: Following the advice on this site is done at your discretion. I caution you to look to other resources before attempting these installs. If you do not feel comfortable with the install, I'd suggest finding someone to help you who knows a little bit more about these things.

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Technorati Tags: mac, upgrade, hardware, os x, macbook, apple, ram, hard drive,

[photo: discoweasel]

Gimp - Free Open Source Image Editing

2008-06-08T18:41:00.002-04:00

As everyone who reads this blog knows, I am a huge advocate of open source software. Not only because it is free, but because it helps to solidify the end product that is being delivered. The many developers that work on these open source community projects have differing backgrounds, experience, etc. This allows for a diverse environment that caters to speedier development, better overall testing and troubleshooting, and a ton of different perspectives on design and implementation of features.

One of the most popular open source applications out there is Gimp. Gimp, essentially, is an open source alternative to Photoshop. From my experience, Gimp does basically everything that Photoshop does.

If you are looking for a powerful, robust photo and image editing tool, check out Gimp. Your wallet will thank you.

If anybody has any comments on their experience with Gimp, Photoshop, or any other image editing software let me know in the comments.

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Technorati Tags: software, windows xp, os x, photoshop, gimp, image editing, photography