Tag: Apple

[Wednesday Watercooler] ‘Murrica, Fuck Yeah.

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In true and typical Amanda fashion – there’s been too many things whirring in my head and not enough hours in the day to properly pen and extrapolate on current events; but man, oh man, do they ever need to be covered.  First things first for any of my So.Cal followers – who managed to snag some pics of last nights epic, cotton candy sunset?!  I made a special trip to the roof and stayed until the clouds picked up hints of magenta and lavender; absolutely stunning!

For today, I’d love to focus on news about the good o’ Red White & Blue, ‘Murrica;
It’s like news of the weird, but better – because it’s all about US(A).

NBA Finals: Bringing The Heat

I don’t talk about it much – and most likely, it has heaps and heaps to do with the fact that I live in LA – but I’m a huge Miami Heat / Dwayne Wade fan.  That said, I’ve been losing my voice lately trying to kick their asses into high gear against the Spurs in the finals ( Sidenote: If I have to see Tim Duncan go up for another ten layups I might have to strangle a coach or something…) so it’s nice to have a little somethin’ somethin’ to liven the mood.  Take this video from Jimmy Kimmel Live where he got some of my favorite former and current ballers and makes them read mean tweets about themselves =)

See You Later, Alligator.

Things all over the states have been heating up lately, but nothing quite like what’s happened in Florida.  Over the weekend, a band of merry men went trapesing through the Little Econ State Forest in Florida in search of some magic mushrooms.  Unfortunately, it sounds like they ran into a few hiccups – firstly, there’s a little bitty thing called the law.  Officers stopped the group for the removal of plant life – which itself is reason enough for jail time – but during their search, the officers also discovered a two foot long alligator in their possession.  They received a misdemeanor for the destruction of plant life, possession of an alligator and violations of probation; in a while, crocodiles!

Science, Politics and Psychoactive Drugs: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

It’s crazy to think of the advancements we could have made for PTSD, generalized anxiety disorder, mental illnesses – and, in general, science itself -if politics hadn’t gotten in the way of science and the empirical method.  The validity of the professors argument is only furthered by his exit from from the council.  To quote the article,

“Professor Nutt, who was dismissed from the Home Office’s advisory council on drugs in 2009 after clashing with ministers, said that UN conventions on drugs in the 1960s and 1970s have delayed the development of “innovative treatments” for PTSD and depression by 30 years and also set back research into areas of neuroscience such as consciousness.”

An Apple A Day Keeps the Geeks at Bay

The guys over at Apple are back at it and in a big way. Earlier this week, Apple released specs for their new Mac Pro at their World Wide Developer Conference, better known to geeks far and wide as WWDC, up in San Francisco.  This is the first new desktop in years coming from the gurus at Mac and us technophiles should definitely stop and take notice.  Not only is this the first Mac Pro with a flash based hard drive, but this model has duel AMD graphics cards, RAM that’s quick as a bunny, and 2.5x faster flash memory.  Bottom line: my birthday is in six months, who’s getting it for me?

One last rant….

Prism: The Irony and The Agony

If you’re reading this, then you should be more than aware of a current government initiative called PRISM. For their purposes, PRISM is a code word for a program the NSA is using to collect and aggregate data from across nine major internet companies to “combat terrorism“.  The companies are as follows: Facebook, AOL, Apple, YouTube, Skype, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and PalTalk – not to mention, numerous wireless carriers like Verizon; and they’re collecting information on you, right now, as we speak.  And what’s worse, these companies are now denying its existence.

The irony to me is what a prism actually is: a glass or transparent object.  Because this, this is anything but.

From the perspective of a Data Analyst, I can tell you right now that if you’re minding your own business the government isn’t much minding yours at all.  However, that’snot the real issue – the problem is the assumed deception of the American populous in order to collect an extremely large amount of metadata.

It’s not just my generation that’s up in arms – it’s the majority of the American public.  If it wasn’t for the whistleblower – Edward Snowden -we wouldn’t be privy to any of this information.  You can judge for yourself whether he’s a traitor or a hero – but I take the position of the later. He’s currently dipping and dodging all over, and attempting to seek asylym from the United States where he’s been deemed a traitor by our government. Then there’s Larry Klayman, a former Justice Department prosecutor, is filing a $20 Billion Dollar class action lawsuit that focuses on any complicit companies or officials as well as the above nine companies in question.

The fact of the matter is  we’ve been aware for a long time that the government is fond of phone taps, collecting both instant messages and text messages; and thanks to my mother I’ve been very aware of my internet footprint.  Once something goes online – it can’t exactly be deleted. For my generation – the e-generation, this posses a huge issue as most of us are already wary of the role the government plays in both our personal and technological lives.  Unlike our parents, we’ve more or less grown up with and grown into the internet – and now, all of a sudden, it feels like a lifelong friend has been turned against our best interests.

Tech Tuesday: Apple’s Big Unveiling

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I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but I’m a born and raised Apple junkie that only deviates into the world of the PC for work. I’m currently the owner of a gorgeous 27″ iMac, a first generation iPad and a lovely little iPod shuffle that I call ‘Shuffleufagus’; despite being hounded on by about 60% of my friend group, I’m proud to say that I have not (and will not) cave and purchase an iPhone because I’m head over heals for my Droid.  I have gaming systems, I have cable, I have internet – I basically have the entire e-gamut covered, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a genuine interest in what those Apple Guru’s will come up with next.

ImageIn attempts to remain competitive across the breadth of the mobile market, today Apple introduced it’s first tablet – set to hit stores on November 2nd.  The iPad Mini comes in around 8 inches and costs a pretty penny – a 16GB mini without a cellular plan comes out to $329 and with one comes out to $459.  It’s weighs roughly .7lbs and is crazily less than 8mm thin.  Conversely, the iPad 2 comes to $399 and the brand new iPad with Retina Display comes in at $499 – both devices are roughly 10 inches tall.  There’s a considerable amount of flack that Apple is receiving – and many are wondering how they can remain competitive in a market where there are euivalent products at a much lower price.  The Amazon Kindle Fire HD, for example, is a seven inch tablet that comes in either a16GB or 32GB version depending on your preference, and respectively costs $199 or $249 – significantly less than the retail of the new iPad Mini.

Fortunately for the Apple camp, there were a few other unveiling today that made the nerd inside me go SQUEE!  A 13 inch Macbook Pro with Retina Display, a MacMini and a new generation of iMac. The new iMacs are being rolled out in two different sizes with 27 and 21.5 inch screens, respectively. I have to say – I’m head over heals for retina display anything; I was playing around on my dad’s new Macbook Pro over the weekend and I kind of fell in love with it.  The design is sleek, sexy and slim – it’s light weight and gorgeous, just the way a laptop should be!

The main selling point of their new laptop and desktop computers is the idea of a ‘Fusion Drive‘ – granted, I didn’t know what one was until the conference, but after doing some digging I think I figured it out. A fusion drive basically the marriage of a solid state drive (SSD) and a magnetic drive (HDD), eventually giving your computer the quickness of having a flash drive and the storage space of a magnetic drive. As I understand it, applications in high rotation will sit on your flash drive so they can be used with ease, but the rest of your files will sit on the magnetic drive to be accessed at your leisure.  The hybrid drive is in no way a new idea, but the Fusion Drive is an example of Apple branding at work. Now, I’m not about to run out and snag myself some new Apple swag – but if a Retina Display laptop happened to wind up under my Christmas tree this year I wouldn’t be at all upset about it…

Tech Tuesday: An App a Day keeps the Doctor Away

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I’ve always been an Android lover; in fact, I can’t recall ever wanting an iPhone….granted, I’ve also had Verizon Wireless for my entire life so I didn’t exactly have the option of getting an iPhone when it came out…but, I digress.   I’ve watched the Android market evolve and expand over the past few years, and I’m almost in love with what I’ve seen.  The OS has gotten sleeker, potentially even sexier – if you could call an OS sexy, that is. Though the phones have gotten larger in height x length dimension, they’ve also become thinner, lighter and with better quality resolution on the display.  Not to toot the horn for the HTC Rezound, but beepbeep: it boasts the first HD screen for a carried branded phone in the United States.  How you like them apples, Apple?

Now,  originally – one of the great things about the Android phones is the fact that unlike the iPhone – it contains(-ed) Adobe Flash.  I have to phrase it that way because Adobe has decided to discontinue its use after this November, and has started with devices that have already upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich 4.1  One of the draws of having Flash was that you could view any web page in its full entirety.  But who needs fully supported web browsing when there are so many fantastic  applications for the Droid?!

Sometimes, it can feel overwhelming figuring out which ones you should download. Not to mention, how to handle re-downloading applications after upgrading to a new device. Well, first things first -in the Google Play Store you have the option to view every single application you’ve ever downloaded on your phone.  Simply go to the Play Store, toggle the Menu button (the middle left button on the bottom of your phone) to access the pop-up menu and you’ll have an option at the top called “My Apps“.  Click through and swipe your finger from right to left to see “All Applications.”

The pink oval represents an application that was downloaded in the past, paid for even, yet not reinstalled when I upgraded my phone.  The blue oval is an application that’s currently on my Droid.

Now – onto the fun part, the applications. Some of these are pretty straight forward, especially ones for social media and some deserve a little bit of an explanation. The great thing about the Google Play store, is once your Google account is linked to your phone you can actually pick your applications out online in a more hunt and peck friendly atmosphere, and then send them to download on your phone.  It’s pure genius.

Hit the jump for my should have applications, and anything that is in italic or bold is a “must-have” – enjoy!

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Tech Tuesdays: Comparing Apples to Ice Cream

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Technology and I go way, way back.

From a young age, I was immersed in and surrounded by some of the newest, geekiest tech toys available. My mom would lean towards function over form while my dad was a fan of having the latest and greatest of everything – from new Movie formats, an upgraded OS, the latest in cordless Home Phone and cell phone technology.

I grew up on the Mac II, playing around with MineSweeper, Creative Writer, KidPix, Pipe Dreams and Lemmings when most kids were playing with dolls.At the age of 7, my dad brought home our first – and only – Laser Disc player. In middle school, I was lucky enough to get an iMac. I got my first mp3 player soon after and essentially played hotpotato with various iPods into my college life.  When the iMac was scrapped for parts, I inherited a Mac Sawtooth G4 and after that the shiny new iMac that I have today but I couldn’t fully escape the grasp of the PC.  In college, I honed in on my love of numbers, data and code and eventually switched my major to Statistical Science.  My new coursework relied heavily on applications that were PC only, so eventually I became proficient in both operating systems.

I got my first cell phone before I got my first car; it was an ugly brick of a phone but it did the trick.  It maybe had a game on it, six obnoxious stock ringtones and limited, if any, texting capabilities.  When I was 17 I upgraded to a smaller brick – and slowly, but surely I started climbing that magical cell phone ladder.  In college, I upgraded to an LG Flip Phone that changed color on the front panel; it might not seem so cool now, but back then it was the business. I had a Chocolate until it fell apart on me, literally. I thought about getting an iPhone but I have to be honest – at the time it seemed like a glorified, overpriced iPhone and I wanted nothing to do with it. So when HTC started rolling out Android phones, I was thrilled.  I started with an Incredible, then the Incredible 2 and finally – my precious Rezound. One of the best things about this model is the sleek GUI and design interface.

A few days ago, the Ice Cream Sandwich update was pushed through to my phone; I was stoked! It was honestly like having a brand new phone to play around with.  Here are some of the changes that I noticed, and a helpful little trick.

 The best aspect of the Ice Cream update is the locked dock at the bottom of the screen.  Before the update, I had my favorite applications on the lock menu and the rest posted all over the home screen for easy reference. The new dock not only lets you keep those precious applications at your fingertips, but you can choose between having one or many in one location by simply dragging and dropping one over the other.

Trick: To take screen shots on older HTC models, you either had do download and pay for a 3rd party application or go through the painstaking task of rooting your Droid.  One of the things I absolutely about the Rezound is being able to take screen shots on the fly.  If you didn’t know you had this feature and wanted to test it out, follow these super simple steps:

  1. Go to the main screen of the Rezound
  2. Press gently on the Power Button, holding it halfway down
  3. Tap the Home Icon

Your screen should immediately flash to white and a text box saying “Screenshot saved to Camera shots” will pop up on the bottom of the screen.

Tip:

Toggling this button may seem like a good idea:

I’ll save battery life! My applications will boot faster! WRONG.

I’ve had issues with previous phones and what happened seemed like a horrible flashback: every time I closed out of an application the HTC Menu would reboot.  Being the proud owner of now several HTC phones, I thought I was starting an infinite Boot Loop.

Thank goodness I wasn’t, but I got scared for a second! I’d much rather use this Advanced Task Killer application and save myself the heart attacks.