Daniel Choi

Who benefits from Native Gmail App for IOS

2011-11-17T12:38:53+09:00

This is what we all have been waiting for, the Native Gmail app for IOS. So who actually benefits from this App? Apple and Users

Problem with Mail on IOS

When iPhone first came out, there were many ways to save battery life. One of many which still applies is the fetching rate of new data. If you are using Exchange and use Push, you will notice significant difference from Fetching the data Hourly. So why is native App better? it uses true PUSH technology which will only transmit when push server pushes the new data/notification, this should be much efficient than the Mail app.

History of Mobile Sync(email,contacts,calendar)

When Mobile Me first came out, I was willing to pay $100/year to keep all my contact list and address book synced. While Mobile Me was having many issues, Google announced Mobile Sync which allows Gmail users to use as Exchange account on IOS. During this period many people who uses both Gmail and MobileMe, moved to Exchange to sync their data on iPhone.

iCloud

When iCloud came out, I was skeptical because I had no reason to use it, Gmail with Exchange got the job done. iCould has other sync features that looked promising but it’s main feature was email, contact and calendar. If I wanted to use iCloud, I would use Gmail on iPhone’s native mail app and have iCloud sync contacts and calendars. The more account I had syncing, meant faster battery usage, so it was off.

Gmail App for IOS

Gmail Apps uses push notification, this means quick delivery and no wasting battery checking periodically. It is not the same push notification as exchange server’s push. I was few lucky ones who downloaded the first release before Google yanked it from the App store. It felt somewhat slow on 3GS but I loved the feature where I could search the whole Gmail, which wasn’t possible on Exchange nor IOS’s native Mail app. The only downside is that I can’t have multiple accounts. With Gmail App taking care of email, I had no reason to use Exchange on Gmail account.

This meant I could use iCloud to sync contact and calendar. Efficiency is the key here.

Conclusion

It’s been less than a day since Gmail App reappeared on App store, so I will have to feel the battery difference(Push on the first release they yanked didn’t work). With Apple allowing iCloud’s storage to App developers, iCloud will be more than email, contact and calendar sync for multiple IOS device users.

Groupon is going down

2011-11-01T07:25:19+09:00

I can write an essay on this topic, but I will keep it simple.

End-Users

This is great for customers, we get stuff for cheap. The more Groupon like sites there are, the more money we save. The only down side is, the Web is getting flooded with group purchasing and not all of them are good deal.

Businesses

Group purchasing is double edge sword. Here are couple things to think about if you are thinking about using Groupon to sell your products.

Investores

STAY AWAY

Groupon tried to go IPO but couldn’t due to messy issues. Recently CEO even created video asking investors to invest, I saw desperation in this eyes. Group purchasing is not an investment worthy business. It is only a online version of Costco. So why is Costco worth investing(not that I would) and not Group purchasing sites? It has very low barrier to entry. Anybody can create a website like groupon, go around stores to get a deal and start.

Groupon’s finance also proves how simple their business is. Their revenue has been going up strong, but their net profit did’t follow the trend. Their revenue went up because they hired lots of sales people to go around and make deals with product/service providers.

The biggest problem with Groupon is, not every business can benefit from Groupon, and yet they make empty promises. I hate sales man who will do anything to make a sale. Businesses who used Groupon’s services have mix opinions. And as you can guess, there are lots of unhappy businesses.

Currently, only way for investors to get their money return is to go IPO. Even if they go IPO, I am guessing the group purchasing bubble will pop in a year or two.

Conclusion

I like putting money where my mouth is, if I can bet against Groupon, I would. I am not saying all Group purchasing is bad, but Groupn’s case is the perfect bad example. If you are online business, you need to set the barrier to entry high and differentiate from others. Next time I will write, how I would do group purchasing if I am starting one.

Stop Venmo SMS notification

2011-10-31T10:07:05+09:00

Venmo’s notification system

Just like any social based services, Venmo wants you to know what your friends are doing so it will entice you to be part of it. Do I really need to know if my friend Paul paid Chris $10 for a lunch? Not really. Since there are lots of people who don’t want to mess around with settings, they turned on the most notifications(spam) as default.

SPAM

Even after I turn off all the notifications manually, it will still send me a SMS message whenever a new friend(from contact list or facebook friend, dunno where they are getting the list), joins Venmo. I really don’t care about privacy much, but I do care about SPAM. I double checked the notification settings on the app and on the web, but I still get that message. Thankfully not many friends are joining Venmo frequently, but it pisses me off. I checked with couple of my friends, and they were in same situations.

Solution

It was really obvious, but I don’t use SMS much so I didn’t know. My friend suggested texting back “stop” to the SMS I get whenever a friend joins Venmo. It worked!

Venmo: You will no longer receive SMS from Venmo. Reply “Resume” to resume SMS. Have a great day!

What should change

Just like what Facebook has done recently, Venmo also notifies about a payment my friends made to his/her friends, even though I don’t know that person. I know this is their Marketing strategy, but do I really need to know what my friends are doing with their money? Unlike Facebook, this is real money we are talking about, I think people should have some privacy. Those notifications should be turned off by default, not optionally. I hope Venmo makes the right decisions down the road.

I like Venmo

2011-10-29T11:19:03+09:00

What is Venmo?

Venmo is a mobile/web App that allows me to send payment using credit card and bank accounts. Unlike Paypal or other complicated services, you can get it setup within a minutes. People can send money using an email or a phone number. You can hold your balance on your account and take it out to your bank account whenever you want.

I like it as a customer

I have been using Venmo for couple weeks. I love it because I dine out everyday and splitting bill is pain in the a$$ since nobody carries around cash. It is an easy way to payback someone from your credit card or bank account without hassle. Since the sign up process is easy and quick, you can also tell your friend to download the app and receive the payment right away. The most important thing is, the receiving end doesn’t have to put in credit card info nor Bank account info until they want to add the fund or withdraw the $$$.

the Catch

If you know how credit card companies make money, you would be wondering who is paying for the credit card commission, the payer or the payee. The answer is neither. I don’t know what deals Venmo has with Visa, AMEX and MasterCard, but I am assuming they are using VC fundings to cover that cost.

Business perspective

This is brilliant Sales strategy for Venmo.

Anybody who starts using this app will probably start in small amounts. People will have no problem funding the payment through Credit Cards at first. When users get good amount of money in the account, they will probably link in their Bank account to withdraw the funds. Once a user have a bank account setup, they can lower the credit card limit and encourage the users to user bank account.

Linked Bank account means less money holding

Imagine 10,000 people using Venmo having $25 each on their Venmo balance. They haven’t linked their bank account so they can only hold on to it or use it to pay someone else. That is $250,000 cash sitting on Venmo’s bank account. If users have bank account setup, with a push of a button, they can empty the Venmo balance to their bank account. I am sure interest from this money holding is tiny part of their total profit, but it something to think about.

So… how are you going to make money Venmo?

Paypal allows free money transfer between users but gets commission from merchant sale. Venmo currently encourage stores to open up regular Venmo account and accept money as if it was receiving from a friend, which means no commission. There are couple very interesting ways to generate profit, but here are some obvious ones they will probably have to use if they want to keep alive.

Enforce minimum withdrawal amount
Separate free and premium accounts by limiting the max transfer
Get commission from the merchants (highly likely)
Get good credit card transaction free rates from Visa, MasterCards and AMEX

Future??

I love when startup companies challenges 800-pound gorilla like Paypal. Currently, Venmo has two advantages over Paypal which is working very well towards their advantage.

ease of setup
no credit card transaction fee

Waiving credit card transaction fee could be a good way of attracting customers at first, but won’t last long. They should integrate other features like Bump or bill splitting applications.

mongo bson bson_ext 1.4.1 missing

2011-10-28T21:54:39+09:00

If you are a Ruby deveoper using MongoDB and recently ran “Bundle” from empty Gemsets, you probably got and error complaining mongo, bson, bson_ext 1.4.1 was missing. Read the link below. Mongo, Bson, Bson_ext 1.4.1 yanked due critical bugs

Why we need to Google!

Today, I wasted many hours trying to figure out this problem. I just got new Macbook Air 13 inch and have been setting up my development environment. When I ran bundle, I got and error saying mongo 1.4.1 was missing.

First thing that came into my mind was to look at rubygems.org for mongo 1.4.1. The lasted version I saw up there was 1.3.1, so I went into Gem lock file to see which gem had dependency of 1.4.1. I couldn’t find it so I decided to go different route.

Second thing I thought about was MongoDB itself. One of the missing error was about bson_ext 1.4.1. I remembered that MongoDb required bson_ext to run effeiciently(forgot the actual notification message it gave). I checked to see if MongoDB mistakenly requiring 1.4.1 when there isn’t 1.4.1.

After many hours of re-installing ruby and RVM, I started to google for specific error. All of sudden I hit the right combinations of keywords and got Mongo, Bson, Bson_ext 1.4.1 yanked due critical bugs. I usually google stuff because I am not an expert. This time, I thought I knew enough and tried to figure out the problem myself.

Verizon Blocking SIP ports {updated}

2011-04-18T00:00:00+09:00

Background

Do you remember the days when AT&T didn’t allow Skype calls over 3G? We all complained and got our wishes. About a year ago, Verizon got into bed with Skype so all Skype calls to US will use Verizon minutes. Verizon is notorious for screwing customers to maximize their benefits. I just switched from AT&T iPhone 4 to Verizon iPhone 4 to find out that Verizon is being and A&& as usual.

They are somehow(probably checking the ports or analyzing packets) blocking SIP connections on their network.

What is SIP?

For those of people who doesn’t know, SIP is a protocol for VOIP. SIP allows users to make and receive calls over Internet Protocol. Think of it as Skype, but with lot’s of flexibility and openness. You can do everything Skype can do with SIP. For SIP there are many service providers(provides phone numbers, allow incoming calls, and making calls outbound), Softphones (Softwares that allows SIP connection to make/receive calls) and SIP Phones (physical phones that allows SIP connections, much like the Cisco phone you see at offices).

Why use SIP?

You can make cheap international calls(good quality) and get local phone numbers from other countries(so your customers/friends don’t have to pay international calling fee). What are some other features available? Basically, any features Skype and Google Voice offers, you can replicate it with SIP. For making calls and receiving you don’t need much, service provider can offer everything. If you want to do some routing, call-forwarding, and other advanced features, you would need to run your own servers, such as Asterisk.

The Story

I got fed up with AT&T signal so I decided to give Verizon Thunderbolt a try. Since Verizon announced the end of 1 year contract, I had to get it while it lasted. I installed SIPSimple(SIP softphone for Android) and tried making calls. On WIFI, I can make crisp clear calls. When I tried making calls on 3G/4G network, I would get disconnected 1 second into the call. I thought it was the software, so I tried couple different SIP Softphones. They all got disconnected 1~5 seconds into the call.

One of the reason I picked Thunderbolt over Verizon iPhone was Android’s openness which allows SIP to be integrated into basic phone features. On Gingerbread SIP will be part of OS. On Android I can call anyone as if I am dialing normally, and pick if I want to use Verizon’s cellular or SIP for outbound calls. iPhone doesn’t allow app developers to touch their basic phone functionality.

At first I still thought it was Android’s problem, so I exchanged Thunderbolt for iPhone 4(Verizon). I installed Media5 (softphone for iPhone) and tried making test calls. I was able to make calls but I would be disconnected randomly between 20~50 seconds. Again, WIFI calls were flawless. At this time I knew it was the network and decided to give final test. Using VPN.

VPN is the solution

VPN encrypts all the data from my device to the VPN service provider. So Verizon doesn’t know what kind of internet activity I am doing at my side. I knew this would work, but I just wanted to double confirm. I signed up for a VPN service which allows L2TP protocol and replicated my test. Ten Minutes into my test calls, I wasn’t disconnected. One caveat is, the VPN software(both iOS and Android has it integrated natively) needs to have “Send All Traffic”(iPhone has this feature, but Android doesn’t). Android tries to send un-encrypted SIP data to Verizon rather than using VPN tunnel, so VPN couldn’t solve the problem on Android.

Closing

I am not an Android user so I won’t probably look for a way to enable “Send All Traffic over VPN”, but if you know how, share wit with me/world. If you need a quick VPN service, check out VPNVIP.

Updated(October 25,2011): now it works!

Recently I have been able to use SIP on Verizon’s 3G network without getting disconnected. With bandwidth cap and monitoring, it looks like Verizon is giving little freedom to customers at a cost.

Can you use your iPhone 4 sim with iPad 2?

2011-03-14T00:00:00+09:00

Short answer: YES
After swapping the micro-sim card on iPad 2, you just need to change APN setting. iOS APN Changer

Real answer:
It will work for now, but AT&T might punish you for doing this.

Right after I got back home from purchasing iPad 2 3G(AT&T) version, the first thing I did was to pop out my micro-sim card from iPhone 4 and used it on the iPad. After changing APN setting, I was able to access 3G data on my iPad.

Why would I do this?

AT&T no longer offers $30 unlimited data plan on iPad. Currently, only way to get unlimited data on your iPad is to purchase the sim card from iPad 1 users who kept their $30 unlimited data plan active, or use your iPhone’s unlimited data plan minus voice(if you kept your old iPhone contract). The first option looks the easier but those sim cards go for $400+ on eBay. Since I still have the unlimited data plan on my iPhone, I decided to use it on my iPad 2.

So what is the problem?

Every GSM device has it’s unique device number. Since those numbers have patterns, AT&T can track which device a sim card is trying to access their data/voice network.

After putting back the sim card into iPhone, I got a text message and an email from AT&T notifying me of swapping the sim cards between iPhone and iPad. The email states, “your data service may not work properly on either device” so I should pick the right data plan for iPad.

When they say “may not work properly”, it means they will purposely disable it.

This is BS. The whole point of using GSM and SIM technology is to be able to swap SIM cards and make it just work. If you go to other countries, you can just buy SIM card and use it on any devices(unlocked) as you like. The funny thing is, I am using both devices that are sold by AT&T. There is nothing wrong in-terms of technology and the network. They just want to make more money.

My conclusion

My initial plan was to
+ use the iPhone 4 SIM on iPad 2
+ add a line to family plan with 200MB data and use it on Android/iPhone
+ Jailbreak iPad 2 and use it as a hotspot
If I use this setup, I would have to pay $25 more each month. The good thing about this setup is that iPad’s battery is much bigger than iPhone, so I won’t have dead iPhone in the middle of a day from using MyWi.

Due to the threatening letter from AT&T, I decided to get separate iPad Data plan for now. When I need to use data heavily on iPad, I will either tether from my iPhone or swap the SIM for that instance. I am going to see what happens to other people, and make final decision.

Fate of Macbook Air Rev A

2010-11-27T00:00:00+09:00

It is no secret that 1st generation of Macbook Air had a hinge problem. I purchased it when it first came out and made a good use for it until last month. The hinge started to wabble a year after the purchase, and finally the hinge broke. LCD and everything was working in perfect condition, so I sold the laptop for parts on eBay for $355.

My friends always remind me not to buy first gen/rev Apple product. I know that from previous experiences.

Powerbook 15 inch with Heat issue
Macbook Pro 15 inch with Heat issue
Macbook Air with Heat issue + hinge problem

I have to admit, Apple has been doing very well in terms of hardware recently(excluding iPhone antenna problem). I guess this is the price I pay for being an Early Adapter.

Jawbone Jambox Review

2010-11-23T00:00:00+09:00

I am a big fan of Jawbone. I have used the first & second generation of Jawbone and the Prime. When I heard about Jambox, I had to try it out.

Size – Very portable

From looking at the pictures and their video, it is really hard to imagine how big/small that thing is. I was expecting it to be the size of a brick. When I got to the Apple store, I was amazed how small it was. It is small enough to fit in any bag, and possibly inside a pocket of a pants(male, assuming not wearing skinny jean) Their idea was to market the product with iPhone and iPad in mind, so this made perfect sense.

Battery – Not bad

Unlike regular electronics, speakers only need juice when they are actually generating sound waves. Also this product is using bluetooth technology which is efficient at battery consumption.(although their range is short) I don’t listen to music at high volumes, but loud enough to actually feel the music. I played the music from my iPhone to Jambox all afternoon and evening. When I woke up the next day(music was off, but I left Jambox switch on), it still had enough juice to play the morning.

Design – Close to perfect

Design of Jambox is exactly what you would expect from Jawbone maker, sexy and trendy. Although I only had the opportunity to play with Black Jambox, diamond shape speaker grill converted ordinary black box to luxury looking speaker. I liked the rubber/silicon button on the top but I didn’t like the material itself. It is a matted rubber/silicon which is good for grip, but attracts dust particles. Soon after I wiped it with damped clothe, it attracted dust particles right away.(If you aren’t picky like me you won’t mind)

Quality of Sound – …

Although I am not an audiophile, I do take quality of sound seriously. I don’t know if I can consider this law of physics, but I know that size of speaker is proportional to volume of sound. For the size of speaker and it’s functionality (bluetooth, portability and battery powered), I think the sound is amazing. I had my doubts, but when I first cracked the volume up, I was surprised how powerful it was. Usually when a volume is cranked on small speakers, they loose their clarity and the sound starts to break up. Somehow Jambox managed to keep the sound quality, while generating high volume. I think this will produce decent sound for up to 400 sq feet sized room.

Price – Expensive

When I compare Jambox to regular AC powered PC speakers, this would be $40~ quality speaker w/o subwoofer. For it’s functionality and quality I think ~$140 seems to be more reasonable.

Conclusion

I own nice JBL sound system for music and Bose surround system for movies. For portable sound, I own Bowers Wilkins P5 headphones, AKG K701 headphones and couple Etymotic earphones. As you can see, I take sound quality seriously so I can’t imagine myself listening to Jambox at home. However, when I am outdoors I would definitely appreciate this product.

I highly recommend this product for people who play iPhone and/or iPad games. I tend to hold my iPhone so that I am usually covering the iPhone speaker with my palm. Since this will play all the sounds from games/music/youtube/netflix you won’t have to bother with blocking the sound with your hand.

How to fix iPhone 4 Reception, fragile glass and rest of the problems

2010-06-26T00:00:00+09:00

Return the damn phone if you don’t like it. You got 14 days to do so(in California).

If you still like the phone knowing that it has some issues, $hut up and deal with it.

Why Apple's tablet won't be using Mac OS X

2009-12-31T00:00:00+09:00

This is all Hypothetical assumption if a tablet comes out. There are couple reasons why Apple’s tablet will be using iPhone’s OS rather than Mac OS X.

Pricing

Ever since Macbook Pro 13 inch was released, the product differentiation between Macbook and Macbook Pro has been unclear. Apple knows that the tablet’s pricing is going to be a big factor. Anything priced above Macbook will lose the battle against already flooded market of netbooks. Pricing range of 600~800 seems fair value for just the product without any subsidization from cell phone companies. Will Apple make money from the device itself? No.

Just like how PS3 is priced, Apple will/need to make profit from some other places, like selling Apps. If the Tablet uses Mac OS X, selling hardware and a OS would be the only profit. If the tablet uses iPhone Apps, Apple will be able to collect commission from all the App store purchases.

App Store

App Store probably has more Apps than all the Application made for Mac OS X until now. Apple is currently domination with this new approach of centralized App repository. Why waste all the possibility when apple can make extra $$$ from App store commission revenue. I have always wished I would be able to run the iPhone Apps on my Mac. Apple won’t allow running iPhone Apps on OS X due to file access and easily abusable illegal App sharing. Only way would be making the tablet a Big brother of iPod Touch.

Battery Power

No matter how efficient a laptop battery has become, fancy new hardwares are eating up more power at the same rate. iPhone OS is much more efficient in battery life in standby compared to Macbook’s Sleep function. An iPhone in Airplane mode without any push/periodic check can last more than 3 weeks with a full charge. Assuming 10inch screen, that would be about 9 times the current screen real-estate. This means bigger battery. Getting rid of USB and display ports can definitely add more room for the battery too.

My Prediction of the Tablet

It is going to be a big brother of iPod Touch
It will come with 3G data plan(hopefully Verizon), this will allow Apple to subsidize the pricing.
Online Game market will be big on this device. Think of MMORP(ex.WOW) to go.
Interactive social networking.
It will be the "Cloud Device" Using iWork in the Cloud, and more

My Must have features

Bluetooth Keyboard capability(without this, game market will be crippled)
Front facing Camera(taking a picture with 10inch tablet will be foolish but video chat would be nice)

iPhone's 3G signal comparison USA vs Korea

2009-12-21T00:00:00+09:00

To be exact, it should be AT&T vs. SHOW(a.k.a. KT).

I am currently in Korea, visiting my families for the holiday. At first, I rented a Samsung cell phone from the airport, but I just couldn’t be satisfied with it – ever since I switched to iPhone, I can’t touch any other cell phone. As a last resolution, I convinced my father, who is an iPhone application developer, to get me an iPhone; I told him it was a wise investment as he can use the phone for development purposes even after I depart to the States.

Until the introduction of 3G in Korea, Korean cell phone network was only using the CDMA. As such, iPhone users must use the 3G network for all calls and data, even though iPhone supports both GSM and 3G network. In short, if an iPhone user turns off the 3G option from the iPhone, h/she gets absolutely no signal in Korea.

At first, I was extremely worried about using the 3G network ONLY. In the Bay area, there are many locations where you just don’t get any 3G signals. So, if I drive with my 3G setting on, iPhone will automatically and endlessly switch between GSM and 3G network. Moreover, I have also realized that using the 3G setting minimizes the battery consumption. To my surprise, however, my iPhone experience in Korea was remarkable.

The 3G network signal in Korea is just PERFECT. Korea has small cell towers everywhere – including the supermarket, underground parking garage, subway, and etc. Therefore, I get a full bar anywhere, except when I am inside the elevator.

In summary, the battery life is much better than what I expected, even compared to my experience with the AT&T. In general, if the iPhone users is in a bad signal or dead zone, their cell phones work extra harder to receive/send signals and drain the battery as a result. It looks like having a full coverage really helps to save the battery life. Even though I had the 3G setting and the push notification simultaneously, my iPhone lasted 24 hours straight in Korea, as opposed to 8 hours in the States.

Korea is small compare to USA and Seoul, its capital, ranks the highest in population city is high density population density among the OECD countries. This makes it easy and necessary for carriers to implement newer and better technology. So far, I am extremely satisfied with the iPhone coverage in Korea.

Google to Acquire AdMob

2009-11-09T00:00:00+09:00

It is very interesting to see a small company being swallowed by a giant. When a market leader like Google does it, it is a big news. While having a morning coffee and keeping up with the world, I just found out that google got AdMob.

As an iPhone app developer, AdMob has always been one of my option for making money. It follows my logic of Google, “make it free to the end users, get paid by people who want to take advantage.” It makes perfect sense, but I don’t think google made the right decisions. I guess buying YouTube has not taught them any lesson.

When I see a column of google ads on my 24 inch monitor, I could careless. When I see an ads pop-up on the bottom of youtube, I get annoyed. When I see an ad pop-up from tiny iPhone screen, I get pissed off. I would rather buy the apps than have random ads pop-up.

CNN recently released an app for iphone. They are charging $2 for the application and have pop-up ads in their app. I know that $2 won’t even cover the 1% of development fee they spent, but also having ads on top of that is just ridiculous. If you guys provide quality apps, people don’t mind paying monthly subscription.

We smartphone users pay extra for privileged extra features, most of us don’t mind paying couple extra. I know AdMob provides other services than ads, but looking from ads point of view, this is what I think.

Switching from Mac Pro to Mac Mini

2009-10-29T00:00:00+09:00

Yes, I am downgrading from the ultimate Mac Pro to tiny Mac Mini. I purchased the 8 core Mac Pro more than a year ago and it has served me well. It has two graphic cards, 10GB of RAM, RAID card with 4 x 500GB as RAID10 and a SSD for boot drive. Although there can be some improvements, it is basically every audio/video/graphic designer’s dream machine. Since I am none of the above, I thought it was overkill for me. With recent Mac Mini’s revision,adding dual screen capability and performance improvements, I decided to give it a try for two weeks.

Daily Usage (dual 24 inch Monitor)

Comparing the raw power of a Mini to Pro is not a fair comparison, so I will compare them in daily usage scenario. Any given time of a day I have, these applications open on all of my Macs.

Safari
Quicksilver
iStat Pro
Skype
Adium
NetNewsWire
CSSEdit
Coda
iTunes
Server Admin
Remote Desktop Connection
iCal
OmniFocus
TextMate
DropBox

It’s not much compared to some other people, but it’s not a short list. Even with the Mini, it has never used up more than 50% of RAM and 40% of the CPU with 50 degrees in celsius. When I am watching HD video in full screen, Mini uses up 70% of Ram and 90% of CPU with 65 degrees in celsius. It is small but it can definitely do the job.

Power

Since I operate many server and Minis in the DataCenter, I always keep my eyes on the power consumptions. On the previous post, I have added some numbers showing the power usage on different Minis. Mini scored 14 watt when idle and 34 when watching Hulu HD. Mac Pro uses more than 160 watt when idle and 200 watt when watching Hulu HD. That is lot’s of cost saving for my daily use. The only downside of using Mini is that I would need to turn on the heater to keep my room warm. FYI. During the college days, I used to run stress tests on my desktops to keep my room warm.

Data Safety

Being a storage engineer, I keep all my data redundant with extra backup. When I used my Mac Pro, I had all my data stored and time machine targeted in RAID 10 which can handle up to two disk failures at the same time. On top of that, I have external hard drive plugged every month to make monthly backup. (Ever since my external died on me while I was reinstalling OS on my only machine, I am really paranoid about data redundancy.

Currently, my Mini is making all the frequent backup to slow performing Time Capsule. I just don’t trust my Time Capsule, so I make DVD backup every month and same to the external hard drive. I always prefer RAID 10 over any kind of storing method but I have to stick to what I got for now.

For regularly accessed documents and developing codes, I got my own Snow Leopard server with AFP access and for the non essentials, DropBox.

Defending my Decision

Mac Pro used to be my dream machine during the days I had the first generation Intel Mini and the Macbook Pro REV.A. After owning it for awhile I realized its too much for normal users. People in the Audio/Graphic/Video industry will never make the decision I made but for me, this is it. I may get 27 inch iMac because my neck hurts using dual monitors, but that is because of the screen real estate not due to the performance. I love Mac Mini.

Small Flaw in the new Mac Mini Server Packaging

2009-10-23T00:00:00+09:00

Mac Mini has been widely known for it’s ability as a good Media Center. It makes sense to have a mini-DVI to DVI adapter, but for server usage, the story is different. Anybody who handle servers or spend lots of time at a data center regularly(like me) would agree VGA is more data center friendly. For those of who doesn’t know why, Monitors in the data centers are usually all VGA, since almost all the servers use VGA. All versions of Mac Mini comes with a Mini-DVI to DVI Adapter. But it doesn’t have extra four holes above and below the horizontal pin. From previous Mac, I have bunch of DVI to VGA adapters. Unfortunately they all have four extra pins sticking out, so they are no use. Apple should be packaging Mini-DVI to VGA with Mac Mini Server!!