Steve Jobs iPod Event 9/1/2010

Well I watched the Apple iPod update tonight and I have to say I was very disappointed. Not that I like Apple products that much to begin with. But first the good stuff.

The iPods, they looked better than the last one like they always do, but there is nothing new about them except that nano version with the touch screen. The screen on a small device is cool but I have had a few iPod nanos and they were nice to just put in your pocket and play stuff, adding a touch screen makes it more complex and doesn’t make it any better. Adding recording video to the iPod Touch is cool and I wouldn’t mind one since it’s not an iPhone, but I would rather spend my money on an Android small tablet like one of the 7 inch ones that are coming out.

iTunes update not much to say but o look they changed the icon since they never sold CDs there they thought to take that out. Must have been one of those great ideas Steve had. And other than the cover where the name of the album was is something that Windows Media Player had for a long time great idea stolen again. Almost forgot this but they added Twitter into iTunes but you can’t do anything but use it in iTunes another rip-off.

Finally they rebuilt the Apple TV to be well a Roku device with some of the extra stuff and they make more money off of the stuff you rent. Ok well they do have a very few differences, such as YouTube, and playing stuff from your device but that’s not that cool unless you have been keeping up on getting the new Apple devices. This is one of those things you even look at and say “wow that looks and sounds just like a Roku and I have had mine for over 2 years!”

So to sum up the Apple stuff for this month so we can stop talking about it. New iPods, little changes in iTunes, and a rip-off of the Ruko and it will be out soon all ready for the holidays! You can just tell how excited I am.

Second Hit and Run FAIL

And Finally Snowboard Trick WIN

More to come some other time just though to share some of these.

Well after over two weeks of using WordPress I think I like it. The number of posts has increased from one every few months to a one to two a week. I don’t blame the software too much, it seems like it is easier to post to a WordPress blog/website than it was for me to post to my Drupal site. The true test is in two to three months from now am I still posting as much.

A few things that I have found that I like is the web admin posting interface, it’s easy to make good looking posts and nice to write in. But the post that I am doing now is being done in Microsoft Word 2007. Just though I would try it out and see if it was easy to make a post and take advantage of the spell check and grammar checking so that I don’t mess that stuff up too much.

One main thing that I like about WordPress is the ability to update plug-ins and themes. If I see one I just tell it to auto update and it’s done in seconds. Also when I want to add something I just stay on my admin page use the Add New under Plug-ins and I am installing the thing I want relay fast. Changing settings works out quite nice also, most are AJAX and after a quick Save, I am seeing it on the site. The mobile theme plug-in works great also; it lets me have a fast nice way to display my site on my Nexus One/Android and iPhones.

This means I will stay for a while it seems with WordPress and kick it around and see what else it can do. It is used by lots of big names because of how powerful it is and what you can customize. Off I go into more blog posts and updates to come, hopefully I well get a podcast going also, just need my voice to come back from this cold.

Update: Word was good to write in, but adding tags and categories didn’t work so I just sent it to the blog as a draft and finished that stuff in the admin editor.

Samsung EX2220X

Well I got my new monitor I ordered the other day in. I have been using it for a few weeks now and its so nice to have such a big screen. I have wanted a bigger screen, but it’s hard for me to spend money on new computer stuff when I know I need to keep my bills and other things paid. But I knew we had the money and it was somewhat hard for me to read the text for my online college classes because they made it so you can resize the window and increase the font size. I first started looking at LG screens, but I couldn’t find one that I liked and was the size I was looking for. I also wasn’t looking at what Amazon.com had at first just trying to see what there was. I order stuff though Amazon Prime since I paid for that so I get free shipping on almost everything I want to buy online. I was ordering quite a few things that we needed and I wanted so it was cheaper to get the Prime account then pay for shipping, plus it’s 2-day. So I finely looked at the Samsung screens, I thought they would be good partly because most stores use Samsung for their displays and they are on and running almost 24/7. This screen had good specs and didn’t have the large ugly bezel (think that’s right) so if I got a second one it would match up nice and be easy to look at. Here is a rundown of the features:

• 21.5″ 16:9 Widescreen
• 5ms Response Time
• 1,920 x 1,080 Full HD
• LED Back-light
• Connector 15pin D-SUB + DVI-D
• Not too pricey!

This is a relay nice screen, and it’s nice to have the extra desktop space, and have two windows side by side doing with in one reading on the other. The color is also good and the picture is sharp and clean. It looks way better than even the screen on my laptop that I was liking so much that it was where my keyboard was, now its been put to the side more. If I had the extra money to burn and didn’t want to upgrade my computer more than have a second screen I would love to run two of these side by side and have lots of room to spread out. Someday I’ll get that setup going, but for now this is a great improvement.

See larger image Samsung EX2220X 21.5-Inch 1920 x 1080 5ms 16.7M High Performance Widescreen LCD Monitor with LED Backlight (Electronics) List Price: $199.99 USD New From: $174.99 In Stock Used from: $169.99 In Stock

Nexus One Car Dock

Well that kind of sucks, Google has discontinued the Nexus One Android smart phone, and they also stopped selling the Accessories. They are now out of phones and the only way to get them now it be a developer and they are sold though a third party. And I though I should get an extra Car Dock and a Desktop Dock, but it was unclear at first on how to get them.

So now the only way to get accessories for the Nexus One is though the HTC web store. The price is also higher witch is what sucks even more, and they don’t sell extra battery that I also wanted to get one. Here is a brake down of the price increase.

Nexus One Desktop Dock

• Nexus One Desktop Dock
  • Original: $45
  • Now: $59.99
• Nexus One Car Phone Holder
  • Original: $55
  • Now $59.99
• Nexus One Spare Battery
  • Original: $25
  • Now: Unavailable (Can find them from 3rd party websites)

So if you are looking for these go to the HTC.com store and get them, right now as I’m ordering mine they are on backorder.

Direct Link Here To The Nexus One Accessories

Update 8/28/2010: Looks like they are going to backorder my order again! I keep getting emails saying its still backordered, and its kind of ticking me off because they are the only ones who sell this stuff new now. You would think they would be able to get this out sooner since they are making them.

Update 9/8/2010: They just keep pushing out my order, from what I am seeing now its up to 9/11/2010 to ship. These guys need to get there act together if they are relay going to be shipping this stuff. Wonder if I call the Google support number for the N1 and they can give any help?

This is a post that brought me a lot of traffic to my website, and most of it went to Brazil. If you are looking for the Tweet its at this link, http://twitter.com/webluke/statuses/8788990206 I think it was some time when Twitter was down or something.

Also if you want you can follow me on twitter I’m @webluke

Here is a list of something I like about the camera:

• Great high quality pictures.
• Came with a good image stabilizing lens.
• Shoots 1080 video.
• Rechargeable battery pack.
• The focus on a person is relay nice. It has the person in focus and the back ground a little fuzzy.
• There are lots of things I have yet to understand.

Wile I don’t know how to use all of the things the camera can do I am looking forward to figuring them out as I play with it. I’ll get a few pictures I have taken up some time soon.

See larger image Canon EOS Rebel T1i 15.1 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3-Inch LCD and EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens (Electronics) List Price: Price Not Listed New From: Check Amazon For Pricing In Stock Used from: $610.00 In Stock

Also I just don’t have the time to keep the site files updated and the auto update stuff in WordPress makes it so easy to do. I was looking at Blogger but it seems like I would have so much more control with this. Lots of the posts are missing at this point but I will be importing the slowly as I get time. There isn’t any easy way to do it, the best way I have found is used BlogDesk. I load a post from the old site, then un-check that site and check the new one then set the categories and publish. This keeps the date posted and lots of other stuff.

Any pictures in posts probably will not show up for now. As I use the new setup more all the stuff will be looking better. I also hope this will motivate me to post a few times a week. I may even end up posting my thoughts for the day about what ever tech stuff I see or hear about.

I’m trying to post more but I say this all the time but just need to do it.