A Slice of My Apple

Leopard released date anounced!

2007-10-16T12:41:00.000-04:00

Today Apple has announced it will begin shipping Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" on Friday, October 26 for $129. Mac OS X 10.5 was originally slated to ship earlier in 2007, but last April the company delayed the release until October after shifting developers and resources to its high-profile iPhone. Apple has also announced it will be shipping Mac OS X 10.5 Server (a.k.a. Leopard Server) on October 26.

As with previous released of Mac OS X, Apple will not be offering upgrade pricing for Leopard—$129 is the price everyone will pay, although a $199 five-user "Family Pack" will also be available. Customers who purchased a new Mac on or after October 1, 2007 will be eligible to receive Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard for a $9.95 shipping and handling fee. Leopard Server is priced at $499 for a 10-client edition and $999 for unlimited-client edition.

"Leopard, the sixth major release of Mac OS X, is the best upgrade we've ever released," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a statement. "And everyone gets the 'Ultimate' version, packed with all the new innovative features, for just $129."

Leopard offers Mac OS X users a host of new features, including a reworked Finder with an iTunes-like interface and a 3D Dock, file organization using "Stacks," an iTunes-like Cover Flow view of files, and a new Quick Look feature that enables users to examine the contents of most common file types without launching a separate application. Leopard also features an integrated backup system (Time Machine) which lets users take their Macs "back in time" to a particular point, or just go back to get an older version of a particular file, and "Spaces," a sort of virtual desktop feature which enables users to organize windows and applications into discrete onscreen groups. Leopard also includes a final release of Apple's Boot Camp technology which enables users of Intel-based Macs to boot into Windows (note that beta versions of Boot Camp which have been available for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger technically expire when Leopard is released). Leopard also features updates to Mac OS X applications and features like Mail (with RSS support), iChat, Front Row, Dashboard, and Spotlight.

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard also comes with some controversial design choices. For one thing, Leopard drops all support for "Classic," a compatibility layer which enabled owners of PowerPC-based Macs run software designed for Mac OS 9 or even earlier versions of the Macintosh operating system. Users who depend on older Mac OS software will either not be able to upgrade to Leopard, or will face significant additional costs to migrate to Mac OS X native version of needed applications—and, in many cases, Mac OS X equivalents simply don't exist. However, owners of Apple' more-recent Intel-based Macintosh systems have never been able to run Classic anyway.

Mac OS X 10.5 requires an Mac with an Intel or PowerPC G4 or G5 processor, and at least 512 MB of RAM.

Airave 2 weeks later

2007-10-01T08:40:00.000-04:00

Now 2 weeks after purchasing the Airave I can say I am really satisfied. The device does have a few quirks, for example, if you initiate a call outside the 20 feet beacon range and walk into it while still talking the call gets disconnected but if the call is initiated within the beacon range or you have been in the beacon and walked away then it works ok. Nothing I wasn't advised when I bought it and is a minor annoyance vs the improved reception and the lack of dropped calls otherwise. I still haven't received a bill since the service was activated but I am sure it will have a significant impact on my minutes used.
As promised here is a picture of the device, it looks like a router with 4 lights on the front, Power, System, GPS and WAN.

Airave review (First impressions)

2007-09-18T21:27:00.000-04:00

After reading the news reports yesterday about the Airave indoor antenna coming to Indianapolis as a "launch market" I decided to give it a try. Being a guinea pig is not that bad sometimes. I called a few stores this morning in the Indianapolis area until found one that actually had them in stock. The manager of the store, who answered the phone when I called, knew exactly what I was talking about and was very knowledgeable about the product details. She said that the product was available only to limited areas of Indianapolis at the moment so she had to make sure that my account qualified for it. After a short wait she said that I did indeed qualified and that she would have one ready waiting for me.

When I got to the store she indeed had one ready for me. She explained that the unit has a range of up to 5,000 ft but the beacon that recognizes the phones attached to it is around 20ft. Before you can extend your effective range to 5,000 ft. you have to get within the 20 ft range so the beacon comes active. Currently when you walk into the beacon coming from the outside of the house (using the regular towers) the call gets disconnected, but she said it is a quirk that should be solved soon. Once I got mine up and running it does indeed disconnects if I walk from outside of the house and get in the beacon but once inside the house the transition to going back out is transparent.

Installation was a breeze, just plug it in and connect it to router. It took around 45min-1hr to get updated (system light was red and a lot of activity over the router)

To know if you are inside your own personal cell tower coverage you can call *99 and it will play a message that says "You are now within Airave coverage" and repeat it over and over. Also you know every time you make a call when within range because it makes a single short beep (similar to the call waiting one) as soon as the call connects, if you are not paying attention you will miss it.

Call quality is good, I placed a few calls including some to Puerto Rico to both landline and Sprint phones and although it seems to have a little delay sometimes it was not unlike other VOIP solutions I have used before. The unit only supports 1xRTT data but I have noticed that my phone stays connected to EVDO all the time and switches to the 1xRTT data service only when a call is made or received, after around 2 seconds after the call is disconnected the phone goes back to EVDO.

Another thing that impressed me is that the manager gave me her cellphone number in case I had any issues with the product installation or operation. She also said she would give me a call in a few days to see how it was going.

The experience has been great so far, I hope it makes a difference in my bill over time.

Besides getting this product today I had some very upsetting issues with my PPC-6700 and she helped me solve those as well. All in all this was the best customer service experience that I have had with Sprint in over 5 years of being a customer. I was pleasantly surprised and extremely satisfied, something you don't hear often about Sprint customer service.

I will post any updates on my experience.

iBook breaks! (and gets fixed!)

2007-07-02T10:09:00.001-04:00

Shannon's iBook G4 have been having some issues for about a month with turning off by itself having to reset the PMU or the PRAM as indicated in this Apple article to be able to turn it back on. It kept getting worst and worst until the other day the battery died and the computer would not charge the battery or turn on.

We got a replacement battery and power adapter with no luck. After doing some research I figure out that was either the DC plug in board or the mainboard. After looking at repair costs I was looking for either around $200 if it was the DC or $500 if it was the mainboard. I decided to do it myself, I went to eBay and got the DC board for around $25 shipped and did the installation myself with a little help from the guides at iFixit.com and voila is all good!

Off to the zoo!!

2007-06-30T12:54:00.000-04:00

Oh man, another Saturday morning at work. Today we had to work until 3:00pm instead of the usual 2pm with no OT pay. At 3pm I am meeting my wife and kids at the Indianapolis Zoo to meet with the in laws that are in town for the day. It will be the first time that we have been since the added the new Oceans building so we are excited. Check the info at http://www.indyzoo.com.

Seidio 3200mah Review for Treo 755p

2007-06-29T11:22:00.000-04:00

A week ago I received my Seidio 3200mah battery for the Treo 755p, here are my first impressions so far...

When I opened the package first thing I did was to verify that the back door matched color with the Treo and it does. The texture of the surface looks and feel just like the OEM door. Door locks and unlocks with the built-in button and works great. Perfect color and texture matching my blue 755p was a great first impression.

I also was very pleasantly surprised that the battery is not as thick as I thought it would be and fits perfectly in the battery compartment of the Treo. It fits perfectly in my belt pouch made by Seidio as well, it is kind of tight with the Seidio Rubberized Case for the 755p extended battery but works great. After a day of using it I even think I prefer the way it feels in the hand especially when holding it close to my ear during long conversations.

Battery life is about twice as much of the OEM battery provided by Palm on my tests over this week. It lasts about 1 1/2 day with Bluetooth on, about 2 hours talk time, push email on with Chatter and some playing and streaming.

Bottom line, this is another great product by Seidio for Treo users.

iPhone? ... Not for me

2007-06-29T09:03:00.000-04:00

Today is the release of the much anticipated iPhone. As every other Apple user I have been wondering if this is for me and as tempting as it might be the answer for me is no, at least for the 1st generation. These are my reasons:

1) I already have a smartphone (Treo 755p) with another service provider with a 2yr contract.
2) Lack of high speed internet, my Sprint service has EVDO and I would not go back to EDGE speed especially on a device that is designed to take advantage of the internet connection.
3) Not convinced that the keyboard with no tactile feedback is easy to use.

I would buy it if and when either of these 2 things happen:

1) Apple releases a phoneless version with Wifi and Bluetooth.
2) Apple releases a Sprint version of it.

Until then good luck to the Cingular people.