How often do you  come home and see a small box you were not expecting.  It does not happen to me very often.  But this was a real surprise.  The box was from Fitbit.  Something I ordered back in May of 2008, and it just arrived in December of 2009.  I think that is like 19 months.

Back in May of 2008 I ordered this device called a Fitbit.  This was back when I was working on a project for a friend and this fitbit is very similar in concept to what he was working on, so I was curious what this little thing did.

Shortly after ordering the Fitbit I got an email saying there were delays and they were not shipping them yet.  The new date was August of 2008.  August of 2008 came and went and I completly forgot I had ordered the Fitbit. Read the rest of this entry »

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A while back I got on this micro-continuity kick and reserved a bunch of step-by-step-something domains. I have gotten a few online already but still have a few more to go. The next one I am very excited about and it is coming together now. After the end of the month when the current site I am working on is finally 100% live (25th is the official live date) and the kinks are worked out, we are going to start taping this new micro-C video series on how to install Mac OSX on PC hardware. These devices are lovingly called Hackintosh’s.

We are going to walk step by step and show you how to put Mac OSX on a Read the rest of this entry »

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As the title says, I am saying goodbye to my Drobo, the full story is below.

Bye Bye Drobo

About 2 years ago when Data Robotics first released it’s Drobo product I was one of the first to get in line to get one.  When I got the Drobo I was so excited, it came in an apple-esce style of packaging, the device is sexy and it was really easy to setup.  I even loved how easy it was to upgrade by adding drives and even had a drive fail and it worked great.  But then Read the rest of this entry »

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With the latest release of the apple operating system called Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server Apple has made a statement.  The question is what the statement means.  It could be “Watch out Microsoft, we have you in our sites and are coming after you” or “We are going to teach you a lesson”.

Lets take a look at each new release starting with Snow Leopard.

First off, this upgrade is an unprecidented $29.  $29 is really low for any operating system upgrade.  I cannot remember ever only having to pay $29 (and free shipping) for a new operating system.  That in itself is amazing but when you see what has changed it makes it almost unbelievable.

First, the new Snow Leopard is 100% 64 Bit which means it can use all of the memory you have in your machine at one time, do calculations faster and really take full advantage of the full power of the new CPU’s.  And it does this without worry about driver updates, etc unlike windows that requires you install a 64 bit version of vista and hope you can find drivers.  Snow Leopard also automatically supports older 32 bit application.  This is totally transparent to the end user.

Next, they actually shrunk the operating system (by 7 Gigabytes).  And they did not remove anything to do it.  The OS is smaller on your disk so by installing the upgrade you actually uses less space than before.  What a novel concept, rather than bloat the operating system they are keeping it clean and efficient.

In addition to shrinking the size of the operating system, they made it faster.  And it is noticably faster when opening programs.  So rather than requiring new hardware to run the operating system, this release actually speeds up your machine.  Are you listening Microsoft?  No new upgraded hardware required.

Although the big things in this release are what we just mentioned there are a few new things that have been added.  They have included a new and improved Quicktime that lets you edit directly in Quicktime, a new version of Safari that has built in video support.  They changed how expose works so that you can see just one applications windows and changed the look of large Stacks.  They added a feature called grand central dispatch that will tell you why you cannot eject that CD, DVD or disk.  Time machine is 80% faster than before.  Faster Wake Up and Shutdown.  Higher resolution i-chat, better service integration between apps, automatic printer drivers, automatic time zone settings, better and more reliable file sharing and a few more.

But there is one new feature that is amazing in itself and this is the first slap at Microsoft.  Included in this new release is Microsoft Exchange support.  And guess what…  It costs nothing, free, no dinero.  Just like back in the day when you had to buy the Netscape web browser and Microsoft gave theirs away for free.  Apple has pulled a Microsoft because you no longer have to buy office or outlook to get access to your email and calendar information on your exchange server.

Ok, from just that it looks like Apple is trying to teach Microsoft a lesson.  But let look at the new release of Snow Leopard Server.

Snow Leopard Server is built on the Snow Leopard operating system.  With this latest release Apple has taken it to the next level.  All of the features we are going to discuss come in the $499 Snow Leopard Server and there are no per user costs.  $499 gets you everything and with unlimited users.

Just like Snow Leopard, the server edition has a big performance increase.  According to Apple up to 2 times as fast as the previous version.
Lets first look at what is included in the server:

• iCal Server
• Address Book Server
• Email Server
• File Sharing
• iChat Server
• Mobile Access Server
• Wiki Server
• Web Hosting
• Client Management
• Network and VPN
• Spotlight Server
• Podcast Producer

Ok that is a long list but here is the amazing part.  This server can replace: Your Exchange Server(mail, calendar, contacts), Your Spam and Virus email program (if you have one on your exchange server), your file server (with easier and more security control), your bigfix or other client management program, your indexing server, your web server, your sharepoint server and you VPN firewall.

Plus you also get a very secure remote connection with mobile devices and there are iPhone apps for accessing all of this securely while out of the office.

If you have an Airport base the server can even configure it to be your secure gateway (firewall) to the internet.  If you do not have one, you can use any mac that has dual nics and the server will become the firewall for your entire network.

The client management in Snow Leopard Server is the best.  It can do all the regular security stuff that windows can do and actually does some of the permissions better.  It can setup remote machines to not allow updates, updates can be pushed and a machine can even be setup to boot from an image on the Snow Leopard Server so that all macs are running the same image.

That is a great option in a classroom environment, you can have a new machine image in a few minutes by either remote booting or pushing the new OS when the student is done for the day.

So let’s compare this to Microsoft Solutions for 20 users:
Windows Server $670 (no user licenses)
20 user licenses: ($33 a piece) $660
Microsoft Exchange $690 (no user licenses)
20 user licenses: ($25 a piece) $500
Spam and Anti-virus for exchange: ($26 per year per user) $520 per year

I am not sure of the costs of a program like bigfix for client management, remote control tools, sharepoint or the VPN, Firewall and remote access equipment.

So on a very basic comparison we are looking at $499 for the Apple server or $3040 for the first year for the Microsoft Equivalent.  And that was only fo 20 users.  It would be an even greater difference if we had more than 20 users.

And, the Apple server is Rock Solid, no blue screen of death or CTRL-ALT-DEL required and the administration is the Apple super easy to use and understand interface.

So now what do you think?  Is Apple putting Microsoft in their sites or just teasing them?  With the recent popularity of Apple, I think it is possible in the future Apple will be one of the leading Enterprise Operating Systems.
Just look what they have done with cell phones in just a couple short years.

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Here is a very simple app on the iPhone that is one of those things that is just ingenious.  The app is called Level and as the name says….  It is a Level.  You know one of those things that have a little air bubble that is in the center when it is level?

Start up level and turn the iPhone lengthwise or leave it standing up and you will get a level with a little bubble.  Using the built in accelerometer in the iPhone, the Application can determine what angle the iPhone is at.  It tells you the angle in degrees as well as a virtual level on the screen.

Oh, and there is more.  Set the iPhone on a flat surface facing up and you have another level.  This is a round bubble level.

So next time you are handing that new picture, no need to run to the garage and try to find that level, reach for your electronic best friend, your iPhone.

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Navigon has a really cool new GPS unit coming out.  The 7200T.  It takes navigation to the next level.  We have seen the portable GPS and you wonder, what can be done to improve on them?   They are already really good.  Well…  What if the display would show you road signs and buildings?

Yep, that is right.  Checkout the image from the Navigon web site below.

Here are some of the vitals on this new unit:

• New very cool Redesigned OS
• Traffic Updates that are free because they listen to the Clear Channel Total Traffic Network on FM
• Reality View shows you some very real looking 3d signage
• Landmark View 3D shows you realtime 3D graphics to represent buildings and more
• 4.3 Inch, 16X9 touchscreen display.
• 2GB of Flash storage
• MicroSD card support
• 64MB Ram

The new unit will be available in October and in the $450 range.

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Ok, by now we all know some of things that are not included in the iPhone that most other new phones these days include.  One of them is Voice Dialing.

The only thing I can figure is Apple is counting on the App developers to come up with things that will fill the gaps.

Well for voice dialing there is a new App in the App Store called Voice Dialer that is trying to fill the gap of voice dialing.  Unfortunately it still requires some iPhone hands on to get it to work.

Because of the developer agreement with Apple, applications are not allowed to run in the background.  So there is no way currently to detect when someone pushed the button on their bluetooth headset.  So to dial by voice you must first load the application by tapping on Voice Dialer.

Then you must touch the large button on the top part of the screen while giving the phone a command.

So how does it work?  Actually pretty well.  The first version I had would not automatically dial the number, you had to click on the number you wanted to dial.  The latest update that I have does allow you to set a timer that will automatically dial after a set number of seconds.

I can only think this is so you can verify the person it selected is the correct person.

So far I have found the matches it finds to be pretty accurate.  There is also no voice training like other voice dialers.  You can use simple commands like “call John appleseed work” or “call nickname dad mobile”.

After speaking the command you will quickly see the contact information on the screen and after the set number of seconds for auto-dial, the dialing process begins.

This is still a young app and I am excited to see where they take the app.  This is the first voice dialer app that is work writing about.

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A new security flaw was found in iPhones that have password protection turned on.  This is not a problem if you do not have password enabled, after all, it is already wide open.

This is the flaw:  When asked for a password, click on the emergency call button then double tap the home button.  If you have your home button setup to go to your favorites you will see a list of your favorites.

From the favorites screen you can click on the blue arrow and see all of the personal information for that favorite contact.

And there is more…  If you click on the email address for the contact you can compose and email, click on cancel and you are back at your email account selection screen and you can then read all of the emails in all accounts.

If in the favorite contact details screen you click on send text message then you can click cancel and you then have access to all of the text messages in your phone.

If you have the home button set to bring up the iPod application, you can click on emergency dial then double click the home button and have full access to your iPod.  No real security issue there that I can see.

The temporary quick fix for this Security Flaw is to go to settings -> General -> Home button and set it to Home.  With this setting there is no more security flaw.

So the question is, was this a “feature”.  I can see where some people would like access to the favorites in an emergency situation.  However, there should be no access allowed to the personal information and definitely no access to the actual email application.

Lets say you are out with your kids and you fall and break your leg and you need the kids to call for help.  But that password on the phone is so they cannot use the phone.  They can at least call home, spouse, etc. without the password.

It appears that the next release of the iPhone will solve this problem.  For now it can solved by changing the options.  But, more than likely you do not have the password turned on anyways so it does not matter.

There has been large concern about the security of the iPhone, should you be worried?  I don’t think so.  This is the first major security flaw so far since the release of iPhone 2.0.  If you compare that to the large number of security flaws that are found in windows mobile, they are not doing too bad.

Sorry Windows Mobile, I really like you too……

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One of the fun things that I do is review different toys… I mean electronics. This review is for the Aiptek HD 1080P camera. Before I signed up for the review, I had already purchased 2 of these camera.

I had a project where I needed to create a 3-D video. Part of making the 3-D video you need 2 cameras to record the video in stereoscopic format. The trick is the center of each lens needs to be about 2 1/5 inches apart. There are not many cameras that you can put together that closely. So I went in search of a camera I could do this with.

I found the Aiptek at Best Buy when I went looking and settled on them for the project.

Let me first say that if you are looking for a professional High Definition camera, stop reading now. There are the furtherest things from even a pro-sumer high definition camera. I picked them up at Best Buy for about $160.

The old saying “you get what you pay for” fits here. But let me just say, for $160 they are not horrible cameras. In my review process I recorded some video at a carnival of my nephews and when I edited the video just about everyone commented how clear the video was.

The cameras come with very limited build in memory for video but can take SD cards. I purchased 2 8 Gig SD cards, one for each camera.

Here is a review of the camera features:

• Record at 1080P @ 30 FPS
• Record at 720P @ 30 FPS
• Record at 720P @ 60 FPS
• Record DVD (NTSC) @ 60 FPS
• Record for the web @ 30 FPS
• Take still shots at 3, 5, or 8 Megapixels
• Night recording mode

That is a long list of features. Now the more technical side of things…. As far as the lens… There really is no lens. There is a small plastic cover that protects the sensor. The sensor is very small. It looks even smaller than the sensor that is on my iPhone.

Now one word of warning about the 60 FPS. I use Final Cut pro HD and am running the latest version. It had problems editing the 60 frames per second videos.

After I figured out the problems with 60 frames per second and started recording in HD at 30 FPS, editing was a breeze. To transfer the videos you can remove the memory card and use a card reader to remove the videos. Or you can plug up the camera to a PC with the USB and it will show up as a new drive on your computer. When connected to the USB, the battery gets charged.

There is no image stabilization in the camera and you can really tell when you are shooting in High Def if you do not have a steady hand.  I suggest using the camera mount and putting it on a tripod or monopod if you can.

There is a removable battery however, there is no batter charger sent with the camera. The USB is the method of charging. The camera also comes with cables that allow you to hook it up to a TV.

For the price, this is not a bad camera but it does not feel very sturdy and is low on the spectrum as far as quality goes.  If you are looking for a fun cheap camera that you will not be upset if it breaks, then this is not a bad camera.

But if you are looking for a long term camera or a camera to do some professional or semi-professional work then I cannot recommend this camera.

For the fun project of making 3D movies the camera worked great for me.  But it cannot be used to do any of my other projects.

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it is no secret that I am a huge Mac fan.  I am not a mac only fan.  I am a big unix fan (mainly linux and sun) and I also like Windows too.  Each operating system has it good and bad sides.  For example, I really do not like quicken or quickbooks on a Mac but I really like it on Windows.

So you like the simplicity and reliability of the Mac but do not want to have to give up your Windows programs.  Well, with the Intel based Macs you no longer have to give up your Windows applications.

One solution is to use boot camp which comes with the Mac.  The problem with boot camp is you can only have either Windows or the Mac booted up but not both.

I bet you have heard of Parallels for the Mac that lets you run Windows apps.  In this blog I am going to compare Parallels for Mac and VMWare Fusion.

Both applications create a virtual machine that allow you to install Windows inside of the Mac operating system.  This allows you to run Windows inside of a window on your Mac.  There has been some confusion around some of the marketing for Parallels.

Parallels allows you to run windows apps because it allows you to runs windows.  But unless you install windows inside of parallels you will not be able to run windows applications.

I have had people want to install the Microsoft Office programs for windows on their new Mac so they did not have to buy a new copy that was Mac compatible.  Yes you can do that but you must first install windows under Parallels or VMWare Fusion.

Both Parallels and VMWare Fusion create a virtual machine that runs inside of the Mac operating system.  They have a few other things in common:

• You can share files between the Mac and Windows
• Transfer files with drag and drop simplicity
• Multiple Virtual machines can be created and more than one can be running at one time
• Support for multiple operating systems (Windows XP and Windows Vista, Linux, etc.)
• VM Snapshots
• Support for DirectX

Each product has their own way of doing things.  Parallels for Mac has been out longer and has a few new features.  The beta version of VMWare Fusion is available now for download.

Now Parallels for Mac has been around longer than VMWare Fusion however, VMWare has been around a lot longer than Parallels.  VMWare has had VM products for many years that run on Windows and Linux servers.

I have both of these products and have tried them both and I keep gravitating back to VMWare fusion.

According to the Parallels web site they outperform VMWare fusion but from what I have personally seen, VMWare runs circles around Parallels.  Also, VMWare fusion does not crash on me.  Parallels had some stability issues.

Both companies offer a free trial download so you can try them yourself.  If you want to run your windows apps on the Mac, try them both.  I can personally recomend VMWare fusion.  That is the product I have selected as my choice.

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