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Today, I stood in line for my first product release. People I know have stood in lines for game consoles, opening movie releases and the like… but I never have – until today.

Yes, I waited in line for 3 and a half hours for an iPhone, and I had a great time. I met 2 ACU students, a guy in the Air Force, and another guy that used to be (we never got around to what he does now)… but we all had something in common – a love for Macs. Turns out the Air Force guy was a collector of sorts, and has one of almost every generation of Mac since the Apple II… even a 20th Anniversary Mac (extremely rare). One of the ACU students was a CompSci major, and the other a PT major considering the PT doctorate program at HSU… and we all had an interest in Macs, so we all had a lot we could talk about. In short, I had a great time.

The iPhone is a marvel of engineering. It’s construction is impeccable, and it looks fantastic. Unfortunately, I can’t really speak for it’s functionality aside from the few minutes I spent playing with one in the AT&T store (which was awesome), because I haven’t been able to “activate” mine yet. I’m trying to move my number from T-Mobile, but my first attempt to do so came back with my number being “not eligible to be transferred.” So I’m trying again. Worst case, I’ll have to get a new number, and just deal with the multitude of problems caused by that. To AT&T’s credit, as far as I can tell it’s nothing AT&T has any control over – it’s T-Mobile’s prerogative to decide if my number can be transferred… which sucks… I’ll be pretty upset if I have to change my number.

So much I could’ve written about in the last few weeks…

EDIT: I think I might have figured out the number portability thing, though it will take several hours to test. After reading through a few FCC documents about wireless number portability (since it is federally mandated), I came across this statement:

“Wireless LNP (local number portability) allows consumers to switch from one wireless carrier to another within the same general metropolitan area. It does not allow consumers to keep the same phone number when moving to a new town or city.”

It just so happens that one of the fields in activation asks where (primarily) you will be using the iPhone… of course, I put Abilene – but my T-Mobile number is a registered Dallas/Ft. Worth area number… hmm… so in about 5 hours (or in the morning), when I get the email back from AT&T (that I expect will say) that the number isn’t portable, I’ll try yet again… this time not specifying Abilene as my location… we’ll see what happens and I’ll post the results. I realize most of the 4 or 5 of you that read my blog probably won’t find any of this information useful, but maybe it will help some other poor soul Googling the Internets with a similar problem.

So I got Copper a Nylabone Nutrident “dental chew”… supposed to help keep his breath smelling decent (for a dog) and help keep his teeth clean. It has these little nubbies on one end, and looks like a bone on the other end… anyways, the packaging states that it’s edible… but then goes on to say that it’s not intended for consumption… ? It also states: “Frequently inspect your Nylabone before giving it to your dog to make sure it’s whole and intact, with no missing pieces.”

Well, I gave it to Copper for about 5 minutes, and here’s what he did to the thing (click for larger).

Ouch.

In nerd news, Apple has released 4 television advertisements for the iPhone in the last couple days. What’s interesting to note is that originally the ads had fine-print at the end that said a 2-year contract would be required… but, sometime yesterday that fine-print mysteriously disappeared from all 4 ads. Here’s hoping we’ll learn more about the pricing structure for the iPhone and its service next Monday (WWDC keynote, 11am CST), but not being locked into a 2-year contract sure would be nice.

Yeah, it’s been awhile. My bad. It hasn’t been for lack of stuff to post though, it’s just been the reluctance to sit down and get the thoughts written out.

The end of the semester was really rough for me… probably the worst semester I’ve had school-wise – though not for lack of hard work; I just couldn’t keep up with it all.

I’m a senior now. It’s weird to think about that. My last 2 semesters of Cowboy Band, my last 2 semesters of classes… this will be my last fall semester of college… ever. Well, undergraduate college at least – I’m not sure if or when I’ll take on some graduate studies, but still… it’s an eerie feeling. So many people go into this last year of college knowing (or at least having a clue of) what they’ll be doing on the flip side (grad school, job, etc.)… but I don’t. Not a clue. Part of me likes that, part of me is scared $#!%-less… but I’m sure God’s got a handle on things.

There’s been a lot of good news lately… I’ve wanted to share some of it with you, but again I was too lazy to actually do it… so here’s some high points:

• The Wachowski brothers’ live-action Speed Racer film begins filming next week in Germany, and they’ve released an image of the Mach 5 that will be used in filming.
• Facebook introduced “Applications” a few days ago, and they’ve really hit the nail on the head with this one. The openness and the flexibility of the Facebook API is amazing, and the applications that have already shown up are great, though I think it may be a little bit before we see applications that truly harness the full potential of the API.
• Apple updated the options for the Apple TV to allow for including a 160GB hard-drive, and announced integration with YouTube coming in a software update this June, though only a few thousand videos will be available at launch, with the rest to come in the fall. Reportedly, the reason for the wait is that YouTube is in the process of converting its entire library of videos from flash to H.264…
• Google’s new application called Gears will enable online applications to function in an off-line mode, asynchronously updating when you reconnect to the internet. Example: A Gears-enabled Google Reader will be able to download news stories for you to read offline, and then when you reconnect it will mark the news stories you read offline as read, without you doing anything.
• Adobe’s Apollo platform is working closely with Google to make sure that Gears integration into Apollo applications is as easy as possible.
• Google also released 2 new additions to Google Maps. The first is Street-view; in some major US cities (with many more to come), you can click on a location on the map and be presented with a 360-degree panorama street-level image of wherever you clicked. Also new (though not really released to the public yet) is Google Mapplets – little applications to layer data onto a Google map. For instance, say you want to look up movie showtimes for a movie in your area, but want to actually see on a map where the theaters are and when the showtimes are, or maybe you want to see where cheap gas is with data provided by gasbuddy.com… Google Mapplets provides a way for developers to do just that.

My trusty 12-inch PowerBook has been with me now almost 3 years, and while it’s still great for casual use, my purposes for it have changed since I started college, and I need something a bit more powerful. And, as much as I hate to admit it, I need to be able to run Windows and other alternative operating systems for my schoolwork. So, it will soon be time to upgrade… but to what?

When I purchased my PowerBook, I had visions of carrying it to class every day – but to the contrary, it’s been tethered to my desk (external monitor, external hard drive, etc.) for most of it’s life. Thus, I don’t intend on getting another portable. So that leaves 3 choices – the Mac Mini, the iMac, and the Mac Pro – but really only 2 of those are even viable, the iMac and the Mac Pro – and they are two very different machines.

But, I have very different uses for my Mac. I read news online, I browse the web, I check email, I chat online, I manage my schedule; in these respects I don’t demand much from my Mac. However, I also take a lot of pictures (a couple thousand a year) and have a need to store, catalogue, and review them with some degree of speed. I edit images and graphics in Photoshop, I edit audio and video in Final Cut Studio from time to time, and with that comes the need to process (export/compress) large files from time to time. I also tend to do some of these things at the same time, compounding the need for a faster machine. Add to this the fact that my PowerBook is based on what is now twice-replaced technology (the G4 processor in my PowerBook was superseded by the G5 in June of 2003 and then again by the switch to Intel chips last fall), and that the 12-inch PowerBook isn’t even in production any more, and my poor PowerBook starts to sound even older than it really is.

So… I’m having some difficulty deciding between the iMac and the Mac Pro… both have their strengths and weaknesses.

The 24″ iMac

Proposed Configuration

• 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
• 3GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM – 1x2GB, 1x1GB
• 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 1.5 Gbit/s Hard Drive
• NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB SDRAM
• SuperDrive 8X (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

Strengths

• Has a built-in 24″ LCD display – means I would still have a dual display setup
• Easy to transport entire computer if need-be
• Has a FireWire 800 port for faster file transfers to external devices

Weaknesses

• Overall not as powerful as the Mac Pro
• Internal drive is SATA at only 1.5 Gbit/s
• Not upgradeable

The Mac Pro

Proposed Configuration

• Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processors
• 4GB 667MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMM memory – 4x1GB
• 250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3 Gbit/s Hard Drive
• NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB (single-link DVI/dual-link DVI)
• 16x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

Strengths

• More powerful than the iMac
• Support for 3.0 Gbit/s SATA
• Ports galore
• Many upgradeable options
• 4 drive bays means almost limitless storage, and opportunities for RAID configurations
• FireWire 800 and eSATA (with adapter) for faster file transfers to external devices
• Extra 5.25-inch drive bay means potential upgrade to Blu-Ray or HD-DVD in the future

Weaknesses

• No included display means I’ll have just one display
• Not easy to transport entire computer

So… the Mac Pro is actually about two hundred dollars cheaper, but I’d have the added cost of replacing the included 250 GB hard drive with two (or more) larger Seagates… I can get them cheaper off the net than buying them installed from Apple, but in the end the iMac and the Mac Pro would cost me about the same. The iMac gives me a second screen but no upgrade path… with the Mac Pro I have many upgrade paths, but no second screen. Also, with the iMac I get an Apple Remote and Front Row capabilities by default… with the Mac Pro, I could hack Front Row to work pretty easily, and I’d have to use my phone as the remote, but…

Any of my Mac-minded readers have any ideas/input/comments?