Tag Archives: MacBook

Why I didn’t buy an iPad

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The iPad dropped a little over a week ago, I a huge Apple fan boy resisted and did not dive in head first and buy an iPad. The reasons are simple, but not overwhelming. The first reason revolves around the fact the iPad did not provide me any key feature that I didn’t already have with other electronic devices in my possession.

Unlike the iPod I didn’t have a big need to use it as a eReader for eBooks, or iBooks, whatever Apple had decided it should be called. I am not a big reader and to be honest still find actual paper books more appealing than an electronic version.

The other thing is I own a 24 inch iMac. At the time it was the biggest screen Apple offered. I like a big screen and prefer a larger screen versus a small 10 inch screen. As @PilotPete put it on a recent episode of the Mac Geek Gab, using the iPhone or iPad is like viewing the world through a straw.

This could not be any truer. I use my iPhone when I am away from home, but prefer to do my computing via a computer. Andy Ihnatko tweeted this weekend complaining about the iPad WordPress app crashing on him, losing 2 drafts. I thought writing a blog post would be nice via the iPad, but it doesn’t feel secure enough to risk losing  hard work without actually using a text editor to create the post.

Speaking applications, it would appear that many of the iPad versions of iPhone apps need to be repurchased for the new platform. This should not come as a big shock and I don’t mind paying the developers for the applications, but paying full price seams a bit much.

The applications that I tested at the local Best Buy Demo table, were however fantastic, but as I said before I can get the same out of my iMac, MacBook or even my iPhone. Of course if I were to buy one I would want the 3G version and I would likely wait for the second or even third revision before purchasing.

Believe me I wanted a new Apple toy, but in the end I could not see a need, but to all my fellow Apple fan boys and girls I hope you’re happy with your purchases, but for me there wasn’t enough there to buy an iPad.

My Apple Life

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In his editor’s note in the March 2010 edition of Macworld, Jason Snell penned a great quote

“ The entire point of Apple’s products is that they are not interchangeable with anybody else’s. Only one company makes Macs, iPhones, and iPods, and that’s Apple.”

That statement was never more truer then after last nights experience I had trying to hack my Apple TV with Boxee. The hack ended up rendering my Apple TV useless, leading me to  a factory restore (hold down the menu button and the minus button at the same time until it reboots). In the past I loved to tinker with computer related equipment and normally the Boxee hack would have proceed, that was until I purchased my first Mac back in 2006.

You see I have swallowed the Apple Kool-Aid and like a cold glass of Grape, with a little extra sugar, its fantastic. I own a iMac, a MacBook, a iPhone, a Apple TV and several iPods. I would eventually love to own an iPad.

The geek in me loves new gadgets and over the last few years my gadgets have centered around Apple. All my Apple devices work with each other without any issues and the software is top notch. I have run 3 versions of OS X as a Mac user. I enjoy the community of MacHeads as they are simply head and shoulders above the rest.

Back In January in an attempt to get back to my tinkering ways, I purchased an HTC Droid Eris. Though I thought it was a great phone for the price it just didn’t fit my Apple lifestyle, and as Jason stated, it just wasn’t “interchangeable” with Apple. Not only that the Android community was not up to the challenge like my fellow MacHeads. So I took the phone back to Verizon Wireless and purchased an iPhone, ending my 12 plus year relationship with Big Red.

As a side note I later came across an article in the March 2010 issue of MacLife that listed the 10 steps in which you could sync your Android phone with a Mac. Yes ten steps to match the one you complete with an iPhone and iTunes. Not this is not the 10 steps upon set up but rather the ten steps each time. Setting up an iPhone takes a few steps at first but after that is is simply one step. Best of all I don’t have to tell the iPhone to mount on my Mac like an Android phone.

When it comes to my Apple products its like what Steve Job’s says “it just works.” Yes they all just work and that is alright by me. Now that may not be for everyone. At times I wish Apple would do a little more, but I don’t complain. Typically search google and find the third party app that will do what I am looking for.

I also love my OS X software that I have purchased over the years, and iTunes had been the go to app for me since I first used it on the Windows side. I still work in a Windows environment during the day and its in an operating system (XP) that is nearly 10 years old. It is safe to say it is an operating system that has gone past its recommended shelf life. Like an old gallon of milk, it needs to be thrown away. After a week at work its nice to come home and work with my Apple gadgets and delve into my Mac Life.

The Mac lifestyle has been good to me and I for one am satisfied living in my Apple Lifestyle.

Software Review: Better Touch, Making the Magic Mouse Magical

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Upon purchasing Apple’s Magic Mouse one will notice that the middle trackball is missing. Upon updating to the Magic Mouse Software, either for Leopard or Snow Leopard, one will notice there a few options to make up for the missing functionality of a standard mouse, after downloading Better Touch one has limitless options at ones finger tips.

Remember that missing middle trackball from the Apple Mouse (formally known as the Mighty Mouse, Ya I don’t know why Apple thought they could use that name either) after installing Better Touch your worries float away.

With Better Touch I use the 3 Finger Click to reveal my desktop and the the 2 Finger Swipe to get to the dashboard.   With Better Touch I am able to the same things with a Apple Mouse and more.  Better yet if you touchpad on a Mac Laptop you can apply gestures as well.  The best thing, the application is free, download here.

My Airport Connection Timed Out

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I ran into the most annoying thing I have experienced on a Mac. This past Saturday night my iMac would not connect to the router. I had been connected an hour earlier, but for some reason it would not connect.  I was getting a “connection timeout” message.

wpa-connection-timeoutSo began my troubleshooting of the problem. First I assumed there may be something wrong with the router. I unplugged both the power and phone line, but still the connection timed out. To double check I fired up the MacBook, which connected without issue.

Perplexed, I went to the utilities folder and opened up Keychain and deleted all the networks. This proved to make things worse as now my airport could not find a single network. This then turned me to search the Internet to find a solution. In doing so I found this post on the Apple discussions board. There were many ideas, but this one made progress.

Has anyone tried this fix. I don’t have access to my MBP right now to try myself.

1. Go to Finder > Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences
2. Pull SystemConfiguration folder onto the desktop
3. Restart
4. Go System Preferences > Network
5. Select “New Location” under the Location drop down menu and give it a name
6. Select “Airport” under the show drop down menu
7. Go to By default, join: and you can leave it on automatic or with preferred networks and select or add your network
8. Click “Apply Now” and all should hopefully be golden
9. If all is good, trash the folder on your desktop

After following the instructions and opening my connection I was able to connect on the iMac. So I thought success. However, I could not leave the Internet connection open due to security issues. I switched back to WPA, but it resulted in a lost connection. After an hour of frustration, I found this article. Moreover, I found the root of my problem.

I finally decided to take a look at the Mac firewall logs. You’d think that would be the first place I’d look, being a security guy. They’re kind of hidden in plain sight, a few layers deep in the Mac’s preferences dialogs. You go to the System Preferences panel, in the Security section, then the Firewall tab, then click the Advanced button, and finally click the Open Log button. If logging isn’t already turned on, you can enable it there, as well.

Sure enough, I looked in the log and found several examples of this (emphasis mine):

Feb 8 23:02:04 greg-hughess-macbook-air Firewall[39]: Deny configd data in from 192.168.0.1:67 uid = 0 proto=17
Feb 8 23:02:26: — last message repeated 2 times —

Ah hah… Apparently the firewall was refusing inbound connections initiated by the router as it tried to set up the DHCP address being requested by the laptop.

In followed the instructions, but still no success. Then it came to me, if it is the firewall and some how the com.apple.alf.plist file had become messed up, why not use Time Machine and revert back to when the file was working. SUCCESS!!!!!!!

After restoring a previous version of the com.apple.alf.plist file I was able to connect. I have no clue what I did to cause the firewall problem, but it appears the issue was a result of the Leopard firewall blocking some kind of handshake between my Airport and the Router verifying the WPA key.  Thank goodness for Time Machine.