How Much Can You Rely On the iPhone’s Google Maps Combination of Skyhook Wi-Fi and Cell Tower Data For Pseudo-GPS?
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Personal, Terabyte home on 23. Jan, 2008 | View Comments
One of the (few) surprises from this month’s MacWorld was that the Google Maps application integrates location data not just from cell tower triangulation (using Google’s “My Location” technology) but also Wi-Fi visibility information, thanks to Skyhook. This combination of technologies piqued my interest, and it turns out that I was in a unique [...]
Is Apple Fibbing With Their MacBook Air Renderings?
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Terabyte home on 16. Jan, 2008 | View Comments
Yesterday evening, I began composing an article comparing my experiences a few years back with my sole computer being an ultra-thin notebook quite like the MacBook Air, but ended up at rather a different place. In compositing an image comparing my old Toshiba Portégé 3010CT with the super-thin Apple, I noticed that Apple’s illustrations [...]
1.1.3 and Twelve Things That Are Still Wrong With The iPhone
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Personal on 15. Jan, 2008 | View Comments
OK, so Steve just announced the new iPhone software, and it certainly fixes a number of my “complaints”. But as much as I love this thing (and I do love it), there are quite a few remaining problems.
What Was Fixed
Google maps – This app went a long time without much of an update, but [...]
The Drobo of My Dreams
Posted by Stephen in Terabyte home on 14. Jan, 2008 | View Comments
When I reviewed the Drobo SOHO disk array back in November, I noted that it had only to add a few features before I got really interested: NAS, EXT3, and eSATA. I also noted that only the first of these three would interest the majority of users. Well, apparently the company had the [...]
Liv Greene and McLovin12Four – My New Friends?
Posted by Stephen in Personal on 14. Jan, 2008 | View Comments
AOL seems to have invented a whole new way to annoy us all with advertisements: injected AIM buddy bots! Yes, it’s another way that social networking companies are annoying the very users they (supposedly) covet!
Last month it was McLovin12Four, a buddy bot that apparently had little to say but was a paid advertisement for the [...]
Flash! EMC’s DMX is the New New Thing Again
Posted by Stephen in Enterprise storage on 14. Jan, 2008 | View Comments
Who’d have thought that EMC’s storage teenager, the Symmetrix/DMX, still had the ability to surprise us with something new? Well, as reported just about everywhere, EMC today introduced two major new features in the DMX. But don’t get fooled – this is still traditional high-end EMC stuff, and you had better be sitting [...]
I Buy CDs, But I Don’t Listen To Them
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Personal, Terabyte home on 14. Jan, 2008 | View Comments
People are funny – they tend to stick to old habits even as new realities overtake them. The CD industry may be collapsing (apparently, young folks don’t even want free CDs!) but I keep buying them.
But I realized the other day that I don’t actually listen to CDs anymore! We’ve now digitized our [...]
Working Backwards Reveals Apple’s Macworld Plans
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Terabyte home on 11. Jan, 2008 | View Comments
As is traditionally the case, there has been some pretty wild speculation about what Apple plans to introduce at this year’s Macworld. Some insist it’s 3G iPhone time, others look for a tablet/touch computer, and everyone sees Blu-ray everywhere. But Apple upset the cart a bit this week by introducing new, faster Mac Pros and [...]
Overlooked at CES: Seagate PipelineHD Drive
Posted by Stephen in Terabyte home on 11. Jan, 2008 | View Comments
Typically, this year’s CES was big, bland, and (reportedly) bad, but one item that caught my TiVo-loving eye was the introduction of the Seagate PipelineHD hard drive. It’s a three-platter drive optimized for DVR use, like the earlier DB35 series, with quieter seeks and bearings, and an expanded thermal envelope.
The DB35 has been a huge [...]
Living in a Copyrighted World
Posted by Stephen in Computer history, Enterprise storage, Personal on 10. Jan, 2008 | View Comments
Techdirt’s I Learned It From Watching YOU, Big Content, pointed me to a Washington Post story, Hey, Isn’t That… about how the big old media companies have been repeatedly caught with their pants down, stealing content from us little guys. This got me thinking again about my own similar experiences.
See, I’ve had my work ripped [...]
