That's right, everyone's favourite computer company is Thirty tomorrow, and this unlikely to be the last post about it, however the Beeb has got a very good quiz about Apple's history. Take it now, and let me know if you beat my perfect 10 ;-)

I'm still here! There's been a lot going on recently and I've not had a chance to finish a large number of posts I'd planned to. Here's my review of the Nokia 6280. More soon!



My views on the Nokia 6280:

It's a great phone. The slide is secure - and the camera is good [shots coming soon!]. The Hot-Swappable Mini-SD card slot is a real bonus, and I'm likely to get myself another larger card soon. The call quality is something that I'm pleased with, however it took a bit of persuading the BT headset I already had to work with the phone. It's a shame iSync doesn't support the phone, however there is an app called PhoneDirector out there that works with the 6280 [and will be fully supported in a future version]. The included headphones sound alright - and it's not much hassle to get the phone to play iTunes tracks.

The Nokia 6280 and Mac OS X

What I noticed is that using the phone as a USB device makes files "read-only" however placing the Mini-SD card in a card reader solved this. When using the Finder to delete things, be aware that the files are still viewable on the phone [through a .501 Trashes folder] so if you're on Tiger use Spotlight to find this hidden folder and trash it!:-) I'm still not using the video calling, but it is something I intend to try soon! What I'd really like is for a decent Cocoa app to manage the phone through. PhoneDirector's good, but it's a RealBasic program and I also prefer Cocoa interface goodness too! A way to enable an iPhoto import upon connection of the phone through USB would be good, and iSync compatibility is desperately needed.

I am impressed with the phone - Salling Clicker works really well and the photos are good. Overall: 8/10

Wow. Today saw announcements from both Google and Sony about their Mac development. Now before you get all smart with me, and point out that Google develop for Macs they leave a lot to be desired with their Mac compatibility. A new version of GMail Notifier, which has a number of fixes [Universal Binary goodness] as well as a huge improvement over the truly dire graphics offered before. I have to say I'm impressed with the new look - previously I manually changed the images inside the app to get a decent look, but I no longer need to with the latest version.
And $ony? Well they've announced that a new HiMD player/Walkman is going to get Mac software in the summer. This really is going to be a big challenge for Sony - the Mac community has some brilliant interface design and operation functionality already with iTunes, and it's going to take a massive effort on their part to get a decent app out, make it work BETTER than iTunes, persuade us to buy a HiMD [recording people might do - it's apparently very suited to that] and then give up our iTMS purchases. If SonicStage was anything to go by, I'm not holding my breath, and will be sticking to iTunes for the forseable future. With my phone being activated tomorrow, I'll be posting a review over the weekend. :-D

This has been around the interweb for ages, but still makes me crack up - especially given the comments on Mini-Microsoft blog:

"Microsoft is depriving some village of its idiot. Send him home."

Ouch. Here it is, just for comedy value, courtesy of GoogleVideo!

In case you're wondering who TF is Steve Ballmer - he's the CEO of Microsoft. The videos behind this clip are also amusing, and can be found following the links:

"Developers, Developers"
"I LOVE THIS COMPANY"

If you were Bill Gates, would you trust this man to keep you wealthy?

Unsuprisingly, it appears there's another delay in the consumer version of the forthcoming Windows Vista. Why on earth is this filed under "Apple" then? The answer is Mac OS X Leopard - due to be released by the end of the year apparently. Vista will likely require a new system in order to run correctly, so why not market the new version of Mac OS X and the Mac system as people are looking for a new system to buy with/for Vista? Surely this marketing would make perfect sense to increase the [already growing] Mac user-base? Either way, I'll be queueing for Leopard when it does hit the shelf [although I can't decide where I'll be queueing with 2 stores in Manchester!] and my money's on another delay for Vista.

In other news, it seems that Vista is being released to Business customers in November. So are they getting all the extra security that's due in the 2007 version? Go figure...!

I despise Internet Explorer for Windows, and my site just goes to show how p*ss poor IE's rendering is in comparison with all other browsers - Firefox, Safari and more. Just take a look at this. If you're on Internet Explorer, you might get a shock! ;-)

The last few days have seen me get the chance to play on the new Intel Core Duo based Mac Mini, MacBook Pro at my local Apple Retail Store as well as getting a new mobile.

The New Macs
Mac Mini - A good new model. The Front Row inclusion makes it all the better. The Core Duo model is fast and runs things like iMovie quickly.

MacBookPro - Whilst I did try the slowest model on offer, it didn't wow me as maybe it ought to. Safari was slow to load and iMovie HD was not as fast as I'd hoped. The model I tried also ran very hot. What I was impressed with was Office for Mac running under Rosetta. The speed at which Word opened was still noticeably faster than my iBook G4, and once Universal, Office looks to be brilliant. One thing I did think was good about the MacBookPro was the MagSafe connector. I know it's a slow news day when I extol the virtues of a power connector for an Apple laptop, but this really is a very clever invention and one that from my own experiences will be useful!

Overall - I'm impressed with the new Macs, and Rosetta astounded me in all honesty! The Mini and iMac seem incredibly fast - and the iMac is almost certainly on my "To Buy" list for after MacWorld next year. The MacBookPro is probably faster than I make out - but my opinions still forming about the MacBookPro. Maybe another trip to an Apple Store can convince me?!

Mobile mania!
With my contract on O2 coming to an end, and Vodafone offering a brilliant student offer of Unlimited Free Texts and Picture Messages (within their "Fair Use Policy") I finally got hold of the elusive Nokia 6280 :-D I'm working on a review and sample photos from the 2MP camera, and will post it soon. My number's transferring over the course of this week, so no video calls or fun until then but I can use the phone without the connection for things like Salling Clicker. Sadly iSync doesn't work, and BluePhoneElite only partially works, but I do think it's a brilliant handset nonetheless.

Have been busy with a gig the last few days, so haven't had a chance to blog. More soon.

What is so amazing about MediaCentral? I've been trying it out for weeks, trying to get excited about it - and failing! That's not to say I'm not trying to get to used to it, and discover what it does - I'm just unable to use it due to certain issues.

1. My iTunes playlists are not in the same order as iTunes.
This is entirely unacceptable as far as I'm concerned. I didn't put them into a playlist just so some software could play them as it feels necessary.
2. Despite all the necessary plugins being installed [against my will mostly] WebTV doesn't work
I've installed not only the Flip4Mac plugin to play M$'s Windows Media content, but the crime that is RealPlayer - to no avail.
3. Salling Clicker cannot visibly move the selector around - you're forced to simply browse MediaCentral's menus like it's on your MOBILE!
I'm not going to start on this. Apart from to say that I'm not a fan of MediaCentral!

I'm hoping that Equinux fix these issues - I'm really excited at the prospect of FrontRow functionality on non-FrontRow installed machines. At least until I purchase my new iMac ;-) for which donations are always welcome! :-)

Just looked at the National Rail timetable, and it seems a whole load of trains that could have got my flat mates & myself to the show are, well, not there. With it now snowing, we're not risking it by train - cab it is. :-(

Following on from yesterday's episode on the cost of music, I thought I'd mention the other reason for me being rather poor until "Oliver" - Reeds. To find a decent reed, I need boxes of the little buggers, and so I ordered my fix of them -

5 Boxes of Vandoren 56 Rue Lepic
2 Boxes of Vandoren Traditional [for the Bass Clarinet]

How much did it come to? Cough.... £90... cough. Ouch......

A decent post on Music - a first!

After having done technicals last month, everyone hoped that next year's technical assessment would be put out our minds until after the end of year recital, but we were, sadly, wrong. So I ordered a whole plethora of new and exciting Studies books - which if you're interested are:

R. Jettel - Special Stuies for Clarinet
P. Jean Jean - Sixteen Modern Studies for Clarinet
A. Uhl - 48 Studies for Clarinet Book 2
P. Jean Jean - "Vade Mecum" for Clarinet

Now that's not too bad - except there's a book on back order as well. The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that there's two French books on that list, which any musician knows means bad news. So, what is this bad news? Well the cost. The two books by Monsieur Jean Jean cost £55 in total. :-o The Modern Studies book was THIRTY FIVE QUID! How can this be justified?! It's ridiculous. The bill for all the supplied music was £75 and with another book on order, that's £87/90 in total. Oh, did I forget to mention the fact that I had to buy reeds today? So that'll be another, oooh £75/80 just to keep playing and practicing. Just as well I have a student loan that can help me with all of this. And the show I'm playing in next week? The cash can't come at any better time. Roll on "Oliver"....... :-)

Looks like Microsoft is going to be trying to flog its latest version of Windows - Vista - to anyone and everyone. Shame it's going to look remarkably like Mac OS X and confuse consumers with the six different versions of the operating system....... Bet Bill's wishing he'd copied another Apple idea now..... One operating system sold to all..... Just like Mac OS X is.
M$ also seem to want a huge amount of coverage for Vista, however Apple have got OS X "Leopard" up their sleeves for the WWDC during August, and I'd bet there's gonna be a release this year - just to show that M$ has copied a nearly 2-year old OS. ;-) Until then, Apple fans have got more retail store openings, potential 30th Birthday Announcements [more Macs please Steve!], WWDC announcements [and WWDC itself if you're devloping and going!] and Apple Expo Paris [wooohooooo!]! It's going to be a great rest of the year!

Apologies for my 4 day disappearing act - it wasn't intentional, and certainly wasn't a pleasant four days. Why? One word. Flu. Ah well, I'm back now, and pretty much back to health :-D Whilst lying in bed, I heard the beep go for a new email message [well, I got more than one email message :-p but this was something relevant to the website!]. Why excitement, well there's a new version of Rapidflickr a plugin [used here] for the very excellent Rapidweaver software that manages the site's structure and all the other clever stuff. I've been playing with it, and I've got it working with LIVE UPDATES! :-o Everyone is probably thinking Whoopdeeedooo! But this is cool news. Why? Well I've set it so that my Flickr Page now shows my most "interesting" photos from my Flickr photo sets and as their interestingness [a Flickr term, not mine!] changes, so will the content on the page! Thanks to John McLaughlin, whose brilliant plugin-with-PHP-goodness makes it all possible!

I received one of the funniest forwards in a long time a few days ago about the Thames whale. Click here for the image with Lightbox goodness.

I'm a MASSIVE fan of the Ricky Gervais Show Podcast, so with the launch of the new series yesterday, I was rather excited. The Ricky Gervais show is the No. 1 Podcast in the World [from the Free 1st Series on The Guardian], and the departure towards paid-for podcasts is breaking new ground. I love the show, so I went ahead and bought the 1st episode of Series 2. My observations:

1. If I purchase a Podcast, I expect it to be placed in both my Podcast list and Purchased Music list in iTunes. I'd also like a subscribe option as it's a show I certainly love and one that I would listen to and pay for every week.
2. I don't want a "This show is presented by Audible.Com" jingle. I would rather not have the jingle at the start at all but at a bare minimum, at least in a British accent.
3. The audio quality MUST be better. Series 1 was in Stereo, but for some bizarre reason Series 2 is in mono. That sucks. Why is the free series' audio quality better than the purchased one? Weird.