Apple freshens up iMac

Jul 28, 2010 by Dan Taylor    3 Comments    Posted under: Technology

As a proud owner of a 27” iMac, I’m both excited and bummed to see the new iMac updates. Excited, as they’ve met the very few, “Really? Why ISN’T there an SDD inside this thing?,” requests that I’ve had, and bummed because…well, I don’t have one.

Whenever I acquire new gear, I generally have the same rule of thumb, find the top of the line item, and then back it off one or two. The same applied to my iMac 27. I don’t have the 2TB drive, and I don’t have the maxed 16 GB of RAM, but rather 1TB and 8GB. Therefor, whenever new updates like this come out, I’m not completely behind the curve.

Starting at $1,199, the new iMac line features Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 options, with dual core speeds up to 3.6 GHz and quad core doing 2.93 GHz. Add to that blisteringly fast processing power an ATI Radeon HD 5750 graphics card, and daaaang skippy, that’s one nice all-in-one you’ve got there.

But processors and graphics cards aren’t the only shiny new toys for iMac. In addition, Apple has beefed up their SD card reader to now include SDXC format, sure to please any digital photog or those using cutting edge high capacity storage cards.

And speaking of storage, and it looks like I missed it by one generation, Apple has finally added an SSD HDD option to the iMac lineup. iMac 27 customers will have the option to include a 256 GB solid state drive in either the primary or secondary role. With data transfer speeds of up to 215 MB/second, can you say “primary drive startup and program launch in the blink of an eye” ? Yeah. Me too. ?

And what would a product line update be without a little fun. Completely unnecessary, but falling under the, yes, I want one category, Apple now has an oversized touchpad (similar to those found in the MacBook line) for desktop users. Dubbed The Magic Trackpad, it houses the same technology as Apple’s notebook pointing device, and offers the same intuitive gestures as it’s smaller cousin.

Specifications from the low-end 21.5” 3.06 GHz i3 – $1,199:

• 21.5-inch 1920 x 1080 LED-backlit display;
• 3.06 GHz Intel Core i3 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache;
• 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 16GB;
• ATI Radeon HD 4670 discrete graphics with 256MB GDDR3 SDRAM;
• 500GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• slot-load 8x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
• Mini DisplayPort for audio and video output (adapters sold separately);
• AirPort Extreme® 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• iSight® video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet;
• four USB 2.0 ports;
• one SDXC SD card slot;
• one FireWire® 800 port;

And on the other end of the spectrum, the 27” 3.6 GHz i5 – $1,999

• 27-inch 2560 x 1440 LED-backlit display;
• 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 processor with 8MB shared L3 cache;
• 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 16GB;
• ATI Radeon HD 5750 discrete graphics with 1GB GDDR5;
• 1TB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
• Mini DisplayPort for audio and video input and output (adapters sold separately);
• AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• iSight video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet;
• four USB 2.0 ports;
• one FireWire 800 port;
• one SDXC SD card slot;

“We took the world’s best all-in-one and made it even better,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With the latest processors, high-performance graphics and signature aluminum and glass design, customers are going to love the latest iMac.”

Again, the only thing I’m really missing is the SSD option, which I’m happy to see Apple now offering.  These new iMacs are sure to make a welcome addition to any desk, and hey…Apple, if you’re listening – Retrofit an SSD option to previous iMac generation owners?

Play N Trade giving away $6000 in “Christmas in July” prizes

Jun 25, 2010 by Dan Taylor    1 Comment     Posted under: Games, Technology

Christmas in July. Who doesn’t love a little mid summer gaming goodness? But playing the same old games on the same old gear only goes so far. Thanks to video games retailer Play N Trade your summer could shape up to be an EPIC win.

In their “Christmas in July” giveaway, Play N Trade is giving 16 lucky winners a randomly selected video game. However, it’s not just Play N Trade that’s in with the goods. There’s a $4,400 Origin Genesis PC up for grabs. If you’re not familiar with Origin, think back a few years to Alienware pre-Dell phase. Remember how sweet those machines were? Well the team at Origin IS the original Alienware team.

Logitech has jumped on board as well with 3 gaming bundles including a G15 gaming keyboard, G500 gaming mouse, and the G35 surround sound headset worth $300 each. Last, but certainly not least, 2 winners will receive a Logitech G13 advanced game board, retail value $80.

The available titles that Play N Trade will be giving away:

• PS3 UFC 2010
• NDS Book Worm
• PC Borderlands
• PC Dragon Age Awakening
• PC Shrek Forever After
• PC Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway
• PC Assassin’s Creed
• PC FarCry 2
• PC Rainbow Six Vegas 2
• PC Code of Honor 2
• PC Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer
• PC Art of Murder: FBI Confidential
• PC Chronicles of Mystery
• PC Zuma’s Revenge
• PC Plants vs Zombies
• PC Escape Rosecliff Island

“The Christmas in July giveaway is something we are very pleased to offer,” says Play N Trade CEO, Larry Plotnick. “After experiencing increased sales growth and unprecedented support from gamers nationwide during the past few years, we think it’s only natural for us to reciprocate with an exciting giveaway.”

The contest runs through July 27, 2010 and is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. Additionally, Play N Trade will be running in store discounts on various games and peripherals throughout the month of July.

The Play N Trade “Christmas in July” giveaway is being held in cooperation from popular gaming site Avault.com, and includes sponsorship of The Avault Podcast, Stevie FTW and The Evil Ed Podcast, as well as a number of other prominent video game media properties.

To enter The Play N Trade “Christmas in July” giveaway, head on over to avault.com/christmas, give ‘em your deets, and say your prayers until July 28th. And no worries, they’re not there to collect your email address. As per the Terms and Conditions:

The operating company does not maintain any mailing lists, will not send you unsolicited emails, and takes reasonable measures to keep the information disclosed secure.

Wow … better than EA or Sony.

iPad app coming to a Catholic altar near you soon

Jun 21, 2010 by Dan Taylor    1 Comment     Posted under: Technology

Reverend Paolo Padrini has a particularly difficult job. He’s a consultant to an organization that still believes men who love god can’t love women. His job is to consult the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications. In other words – God’s Facebook page admins.

All jokes aside, Padrini does score points for pulling an archaic organization kicking and screaming into the 21st century. He’s developed an iPad application that will allow priests to dispense with the Roman missal, and conduct mass directly from an iPad. The official Vatican approved application is slated for release in July, and will be available in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Latin.

This, however, isn’t Padrini’s first Vatican themed app, as two years ago he was the driving force behind iBreviary, an app that brought the book of daily prayers used by priests to iPhones around the world. According to Padrini, the application has been downloaded over 200,000 times.

The new iPad focused app will not simply be an upscaling of iBreviary, but rather the complete missal – i.e. the Priest’s script. The initial offering will be text only, but future upgrades are already planned and include audio commentaries and suggested homily themes.

The 36 year old Padrini hails from Northern Italy and expects that priests who travel a great deal will find this newest offering indispensable. He noted that he recently celebrated a mass in a small parish where the missal was, “a small book, a bit dirty, old.”

“If I had had my iPad with me, it would’ve been better than this old, tiny book,” says Padrini.

Since receiving his first iPope Pod in 2006, Emperor Palpatine Pope Benedict XVI has sought to reach out to a younger generation through tools they readily consume: technology. Based on the success of the iBreviary application (being a priest, and Italian probably didn’t hurt), Padrini was recruited by the Vatican to oversee their pope2u.net youth outreach program in the new media realm.

Padrini stresses that this app, just like that of iBreviary is of his own initiative, and not officially endorsed by the Vatican.

That would be far too progressive.

Rode NT1-A Microphone

Jun 6, 2010 by Dan Taylor    25 Comments    Posted under: Music, Technology, Video

Building on the Audio Technica AT2020 and AKG P220 entry level studio condenser microphone reviews, this time up we’re taking a look at the Rode NT1-A. Priced just over $200 ($229 – B&H, Adorama, etc.), the Rode NT1-A delivers a high end sheen that I’ve not yet experienced with the previous two microphones, while at the same time, keeping it’s signal to noise ratio remarkably low. The Rode NT1-A is roughly the same size as the AT2020 and P220, and features a large 1-inch gold plated capsule. And just like the other two, the Rode NT1-A is a condenser with a tight cardioid pattern.

As is standard with most of today’s condenser microphones, frequency range is from 20hz – 20khz. Now here’s where things start to get interesting. According to Rode, the Signal-to-Noise ratio is 88 db. Which is quite odd, as the AKG has an S/N ratio of 78db and the AT2020 74db. However, when viewing the bar graphs inside my recording software, the Rode NT1-A had the closest to ‘flat’ of all three of the mics. In other words, on paper, it may not be the quietest, but when put to the eyes and ears, you can’t hear a thing (which, in this case, is good). The Rode NT1-A features no pad or roll-off switches, but achieves a maximum SPL of 137 db SPL, giving it the lowest range of the three microphones.

And while both the Audio Technica AT2020 and AKG Perception 220 feel like solid, if almost heavy, microphones, the Rode NT1-A goes the completely opposite route. Upon first unboxing of this microphone, I almost dropped it, as I was expecting something much heavier. It has the look and sound of a vintage tube mic, but definitely not the same feel. Likewise, the AKG comes with a solid (if only heavy plastic and foam padding) case, that makes just about anyone feel like a pro. Rode, while they do include a spider mount and pop-filter, there’s no case anywhere to be seen. Not even a decent, padded pouch (i.e. the Shure SM58 bank bag). At the end of the day, Rode gives you a fancy dust cover with a draw string. Fair enough, I don’t expect to be doing any ‘on-location’ work with this microphone, but a case would have gone a long way to making me fall 100% in love with this mic.

Overall conclusion

The Rode NT1-A is an outstanding mic for studio, voiceover and podcast work. It’s high on tone quality and vintage sound, while being light on the wallet, especially for what it is. It is the most expensive of the three microphones I’ve tested thus far, but when put head to head with the AKG Perception 220, you’re really going to have to dig in with a set of closed-ear headphones to really hear the difference. Conversely, if you’re using the Rode NT1-A solely as a spoken word/voiceover/podcast microphone, it’s outstanding. Of the three, the AKG seems most suited to functioning as an amped instrument’s recording microphone, as it has the highest SPL, while at the same time, requiring the most amount of incoming volume. The Rode does stand head and shoulders above the other two in the sensitivity department though. The AT2020 and P220 are very capable of picking up sounds in the desired sonic pattern, but both require the speaker to sometimes ‘swallow’ the mic to get an upfront feel, whereas the Rode presents this feeling naturally.

Rode NT1-A specifications:

• Power – P48 (48V), P24 (24V) phantom supply
• Acoustic Principle – Pressure gradient
• Directional Pattern – Cardioid
• Frequency range – 20 Hz – 20 kHz
• Output impedance – 100?
• Signal noise ratio – >88 dB SPL (A – weighted per IEC651)
• Equivalent noise – 5 dB SPL (A – weighted per IEC651)
• Maximum SPL – 137dB SPL (@ 1kHz, 1% THD into 1K? load)
• Maximum output voltage – +13.7dBu (@ 1kHz, 1% THD into 1K? load)
• Sensitivity – -32 dB re 1 Volt/Pascal (25 mV @ 94 dB SPL) +/- 2 dB @ 1kHz
• Weight – 326gm
• Dimensions – 190mmH x 50mmW x 50mmD

Uncompressed .wav files:

Spoken Word:
Rode NT1-A Spoken Word Uncompressed

Singing:
Rode NT1-A Singing Uncompressed

Guitar:
Rode NT1-A Guitar Uncompressed

I make no claims about my singing voice and paltry guitar skills.

First Impressions: iPad user survey results

May 21, 2010 by Dan Taylor    11 Comments    Posted under: Technology

Apple’s iPad has clearly struck a chord with both hardcore desktop owners, mobile laptop owners for life, and even a few previous netbook owners. Early reports indicated that the market demand for the iPad was far greater than that of the iPhone, ultimately leading to Apple selling their millionth iPad within the first month. Now that iPad users have had some time to get familiar with their shiny new toy, what have they got to say about it?

ChangeWave Research recently completed two new surveys, one associated with the above mentioned iPad desire, and the second, a user’s ‘first impressions’ survey. The first impressions survey polled 153 new iPad owners asking them questions regarding overall satisfaction, likes and dislikes, and how they’re using it.

Overall Satisfaction

Well it seems as though Cupertino has hit this one out of the park. 74 percent of all new iPad owners are “Very Satisfied” with their device. They believe that the iPad is delivering in it’s promise, with only 1 percent indicated in the “Somewhat Satisfied” and “Somewhat Unsatisfied” categories. 8 percent of those surveyed responded with “Don’t Know/NA”, which leaves “Somewhat Satisfied” garnering 17 percent of the vote.

Oddly enough, when ChangeWave conducted the (approximately) same survey surrounding the iPhone launch, the numbers were practically identical.

Likes/Dislikes

Again, it looks like Apple has nailed the form factor with the iPad, as 21 percent of survey participants indicated that the Screen Size and Quality was their favorite aspect of the iPad. Ease of Use took second spot with 15 percent, Size and Weight third, with 12 percent, and Portability scoring dead last with 10 percent of the vote.

Some owner responses include:

• “Large bright screen and easy, familiar iPhone interface.”
• “The user experience is like nothing I have ever experienced on a computer.”
• “…a social device and highly portable. We keep it in our living room and family room – and people just pick it up to surf the web, trade info, look at photos, etc.”

On the other side of the coin, yes, even the (seemingly) almighty iPad does have some drawbacks. 11 percent of owners are displeased with the lack of Adobe Flash. 9 percent are concerned about Keeping the Screen Clean/Poor Visibility, with the same percentage reporting their dislike primarily due to internet connectivity issues. Rounding out the do-not-wants are Lack of Apps and Too Heavy, both carrying 7 percent of the vote.

While these dislikes are certainly to be taken into consideration, the ChangeWave survey did not find any “Smoking Gun”, i.e. a repeated dislike that would cause concern.

Wha’chu doing?

Obviously, this section is bound to produce the widest variety of responses. To combat this, ChangeWave presented those surveyed with 16 possible iPad uses, and asked them to choose up to 5 uses in decreasing frequency.

As expected, Surfing the Internet takes the top spot, with 83 percent indicating it as their top choice. And what goes well with internet surfing? Checking the emails, of course. 71 percent of iPad owners indicated this as their top activity. From here, specific usage begins to vary, with using Apps from the Apple App Store scored 56 percent and watching videos 48 percent.

Reading

Now here’s where things get rather interesting. 33 percent of iPad owners chose “Reading eBooks,” and 28 percent “Reading Magazines/Newspapers/Periodicals”. Now, when’s the last time you saw two analogue (rooted) forms of entertainment show up that highly on a digital media survey? For all the talk of newspapers and books going the way of the dinosaur, Random House and The New York Times really ought to send Apple a thank you note. When compared to pre-iPad launch, readership of Newspapers and Magazines in the eReader format has jumped leaps and bounds.

The full ChangeWave iPad report contains a host of other insights including:

• Key iPad Features Likely Buyers are Most Excited About
• Timeframe for Future Consumer Purchases
• New Owner Likes and Dislikes
• How Owners are Using their iPads – Including 8 Most Common Uses
• Features Still Missing from the iPad
• Potential for iPad Cannibalizing Other Apple Products
• Impact of Apple iPad on the eReader Market
• Types of Content Being Consumed on e-Readers
• A Comparison: Apple iPad Owner Content Consumption vs. All Other e-Reader Owners
• e-Reader Market Demand Going Forward
• Future e-Reader Market Share – Apple iPad vs. Amazon Kindle vs. Sony Reader vs. Barnes & Noble Nook

Facebook and YouTube receive the most Business traffic

Apr 19, 2010 by Dan Taylor    1 Comment     Posted under: Social Media, Technology

Every week I hear from Marketing and PR folks that their ‘official’ company policy blocks access to Facebook, YouTube, and a host of other social networking-esque sites. While the concept boggles my mind, as to date, I’ve been hard pressed to find solid numbers to present to upper management, making the case for this epic fail.

Thanks to a new report issued by Network Box, management might have to block out a few hours this week to review/rethink this policy. The Network Box report indicates that more business traffic lands on Facebook that any other website.

The report analyzed over 13 billion URLs used by businesses in Q1 2010, and found that 6.8 percent of all business internet traffic ended up at Facebook, indicating a 1 percent growth from Q4 2009. In terms of bandwidth pull, video sharing Goliath YouTube garnered 10 percent of all corporate bandwidth, a 2 percent jump from Q4 2009.

250 IT managers were surveyed, no data was provided as to their geography or professional sector, about their biggest security concerns in the year ahead. 43 percent reported “employees using applications on social networks” as their biggest headache.

In a separate question, 36 percent of those surveyed indicated that they were concerned about malware passed via networks such as LinkedIn or Twitter, as employees are likely to trust links sent by those they’re connected to on the aforementioned platforms.

It’s been my experience that there’s often a great disconnect between the IT department, the HR staff, and the Marketing and Sales folks. While I certainly don’t critique the IT professionals from wanting to keep their systems free and clear of troubles (it’s their job, after all), I do believe that many companies could benefit from a “know the internetz” series of regular in-house trainings. I.e., how to spot a phish, how to check a shortened URL, etc. Remember, it’s not guns that kill people, it’s people that kill people.

In today’s rapidly changing face of business, cutting off your marketing and sales engagement, is exactly like that age old adage, Cutting off your nose to spite your face. Or more clearly, by restricting access, are employers, thus, restricting innovation?

With a little bit of personal internet security training, I’d imagine that those IT managers might find themselves with a few more problems; balancing server load do to the landslide of inbound company interest – thanks to social media engagement, for example.

Additional stats from the Network Box report:

The top five websites visited by businesses in Q1 2010 were:

1. Facebook – 6.8 per cent of all traffic
2. Google – 3.4 per cent of all traffic
3. Yimg (Yahoo!’s image server) – 2.8 per cent of all traffic
4. Yahoo! – 2.4 per cent of all traffic
5. Doubleclick – 1.7 per cent of all traffic.

The top five websites using the most bandwidth in Q1 2010 were:

1. YouTube – 10 per cent of all bandwidth used
2. Facebook – 4.5 per cent of all bandwidth used
3. Windows Update – 3.3 per cent of all bandwidth used
4. Yimg (Yahoo!’s image server) – 2.7 per cent of all bandwidth used
5. Google – 2.5 per cent of all bandwidth used.

Bonus thought: With the inclusion of Google’s Buzz, are IT professionals planning on restricting access to Google as well?  Score for Bing?

HTML5 puts Google Gears offline permanently

Apr 15, 2010 by Dan Taylor    4 Comments    Posted under: Technology

With all the hoopla surrounding Monday’s announcement of a new and improved version of Google Docs, there’s one little phrase at the bottom of the announcement that may have passed by the average office worker: Gears is going offline. For good.

Google Gears is/was a plugin that allowed users to access their Google Docs sans internet connection, i.e. an ‘offline’ mode. Starting May 3rd, this option will no longer be available to Google Docs users, with functionality being “temporarily removed” … at least according to the official blog announcement. The same announcement does however, cite that Gears support will still be available for Gmail and Google Calendar.

So what gives? Why is Google taking the toys away? Well, the plain and simple answer is: HTML5. If you’ve not already familiarized yourself with HTML5, now would be the time, as these changes are likely to effect you. HTML5 is the next version of the markup language used to code the web (in one form or another). Note the phrase here: to code the web. Looking at Google Gears, we see the suffix: plugin. What we have here is a web standard vs. a plugin. Which one do you think is more attractive to developers?

By utilizing a new web standard, Google is freeing itself from the compatibility problems that can often arise when using plugins. For example, Apple’s Snow Leopard OS and Safari 4 introduced some new features that effectively squashed the ability to use Gears on newer Macs. Internet Explorer users were never able to view spreadsheets offline, and ‘other’ browser users either had zero Gears functionality, or had to jump through a ring of fire to obtain even minimal functionality.

Likewise, by switching to an HTML5 standard, Google is preemptively removing itself from the current shitstorm surrounding Apple’s decision not to allow the Adobe Flash plugin. In other words, they’ve found a clever, and competent, workaround to Apple’s sometimes draconian control of what makes it, and what doesn’t make it to their platform(s). With the inclusion of a new web standard, all Google has to do is conform Docs to this standard, et voilà, a cloud based document creation tool that will work in both off and online modes … internet connected or not.

While Google is remaining tight lipped on when exactly the HTML5 implementation will go live, they are hosting a webinar on 4/20 to further outline details of the ‘new’ Google Docs and all it’s functionality.

Why we should thank, and hate, Pirates

Mar 22, 2010 by Dan Taylor    2 Comments    Posted under: Music, News, Technology

The Crime

Matthew Chow, a member of the infamous “Rabid Neurosis”, or RNS as they were better known, has been found ‘not guilty’ by a jury of his peers. Chow was on trial for the charge of ‘conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement’. In other words…Digital Piracy Yarrrrrr!

According to the federal indictment, authorities claimed that RNS was the world’s largest music piracy ring. Between [at least]1999 and 2007, Chow and co-conspirators illegally uploaded thousands of copyright-protected music files, which were provided by music industry insiders. In 1996, RNS released their first file, Metallica’s Ride the Lightning (Yes, this WAS one of the bugs up Lars Ulrich’s ass), and finished their 11 year run with Fall Out Boy’s Infinity on High. The group’s most notable claim-to-piracy-fame was the early leak of Eminem’s Encore album.

Federal authorities charged Chow with one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years, and a $250,000 fine. Moreover, Chow could have been ordered to pay restitution to the RIAA, the only named victim in the crime.

“I am relieved by the jury’s verdict and I am grateful to my attorney for his hard work,” says Chow. Houston attorney Terry W. Yates, who represented Matthew Chow comments, “We encountered some extremely complex factual and legal issues in this case. The jury was very attentive during the trial. Their verdict was just.”

In total, six members of RNS were charged with offenses. Patrick L. Saunders was charged on Aug. 14th, 2009, and plead guilty. James A. Dockery was charged on Sept. 8th, 2009. Adil R. Cassim, Bennie Glover, Matthew D. Chow, and Edward L. Mohan were all charged on Sept. 9th, 2009. Only Chow and Cassim were found not guilty. The remaining four pled guilty to copyright infringement charges, three of which turned state’s evidence and testified for the government in the Houston trial.

Lessons learned

Sooooo…what can we learn from this? There’s a number of things (both right and wrong) going on in this mess. I often wonder Karlheinz Brandenburg had any idea how his work might effect the lives, carriers, criminal records, of thousands and thousands of individuals. My thoughts on piracy are this: Find me a computer in this world that doesn’t have at least one pirated line of code on it, and I’ll find you a box to ship it in, because it’s gotta be factory fresh.

I’m not saying that I support music or software piracy, but rather – accept that they are here, and rapidly becoming, if not already, ingrained in our daily lives. I think we all know by now that Musicians aren’t making any money from record sales. The upside to this new economy is that Musicians are making money the old fashioned way, by going out on the road, playing shows, and earning it.  In fact, there are a number of bands that have already embraced this philosophy, and have given away their music (think Coldplay, Radiohead, NIN), and let’s not forget about The Grateful Dead and Phish, who for years, have allowed legal taping and trading of their live performances.

Likewise, the video game industry has been (and will perhaps always be) fraught with disc pirates. The solution? One small company in Korea decided to start giving games away, and charging one small piece at a time. The result? Microtransactions and social gaming as we know them today.

The positive way to look at the entire RIAA and copyright laws, etc. is that yes, it’s going to happen. However, that doesn’t mean that innovation and competition can not drive a better mousetrap. In a way, we all owe pirates a debt of gratitude. In another way, I blame them for the $75 ticket price, and $0.99 for a digital sword.

Pirates. Yarrrrrrr!