EPIC FAIL: Apple Increases WD's Bottom Line with weak Apple TV 2 Offering

I had high hopes when Steve Jobs said
"We listened to our customers."

I should have known then that the snake oil was
being opened to spread over my eyes.

Apple announced yesterday at their September 1st event
many new things : a new version of iTunes,
a preview of IOS 4.1 and 4.2 for the iPhone.
But there were only two things I wanted to see:
New iPods and ( hopefully) an Apple TV that works
much, much better than the original.

Well, I didn't hold my breath on the iPod
( The Ipod Classic 160GB is and looks like for me
my last iPod purchase ever, as no one seems to
believe that people want a large capacity
iPod Touch. Go figure), but I had high hopes
for an Apple TV.

I bought one when they first came out
( well, to tell the truth after the first revision
of the 1.0 version, as I always buy my Apple products
refurbished. If you don't know why, read about it here.)
2 years ago, and returned it within 2 days.
Because it only took me one day to see how
limiting the device was to my environment.

All of the content ( and I have a lot of content)
would have to be re-converted to .m4v format for the Apple TV.
And all that content would have to be synced to the Apple TV to play.
And my Apple TV had limited storage. You get the idea.
It was a worthless device to me.

Fast Forward to Now:

the Western Digital HD Media Player is
everything an all-in-one media playing device should be:
1. It's not linmited to strictly "iTunes friendly formats",
able to handle DIVX, XVID, MKV, and OGG. 2. It's expandable,
you can either just stream media from a dedicated server
in your house, or you can hook up any size USB drive x 2
to the device to give it local storage. And it outputs in
1080i to your tv.

The one drawback of the device is that it's menu interface,
while not the worst, isn't as elegant as Front Row on the
Mac. And it's footprint on the living room entertainment
center is, with two USB drives, the length of a decent DVD player.

So I was really hoping that Apple would get the new
Apple TV 2 right this time, and as Steve Jobs read off
the list of customer concerns, he seemed to hint that
he was going to address some of my concerns.

Nope, Nope, and again nope. The new Apple TV 2 still
doesn't handle anything that isn't "iTunes friendly".
They stripped out the storage, & cut the resolution
to 720p. The only good thing about the device is they
lowered the price to be competitive to the WD HD Live,
which as I check on Amazon.com this morning, has
been lowered to within $1 less than the Apple TV 2.

Someone at Apple didn't pay attention or has their own agenda.
I don't know which is worse.

Don't get me wrong. Apple will still get my money
for a new iMac sometime soon. But the product
I REALLY, REALLY wanted to buy, well...that money
will go to Western Digital ( via amazon.com).

Monday's Song of the Day

Monday's Song of the Day

Song of the day:
"Shut it Down" by Pitbull and Akon:


Get it here from Amazon.com

Holiday 2009: My Top 5 Favorite Things for a Mac User

As the 2009 Holiday shopping season approaches, I'd thought I'd just
share some of my top 5 favorite things to buy for accessories
for a Mac User. These items are the type of items which,
you may not necessarily think of first hand ( certainly not
over say a shiny new iPod or a new iMac), but your Mac
Using friend/S.O./partner will appreciate the thoughtfulness
the same:

1. Sonnet's FW 400 to FW 800 Adapter.

as we move further and further away from FW 400 and embrace fully
FW 800, older devices such as external HDS,
old Click Wheel iPods, and Digital Camcorders still work and don't
need to be replaced, just given one of
these babies to make them fully functional to todays newer Macs.

2. Griffin iMic.

If you ever need to record audio into your mac, for whatever reason,
using a microphone, a portable tape recorder,
a portable compact disc player/recorder, or even a VCR (?),
this device will come in handy.
Its sole job is to do just that: get Sound into your Mac,
and it does it extremely well.

3. Griffin EarJams.

I hate the iPod headphones. THere I said it. :-) But these little earpiece covers from Griffin make them
more bearable to use. Just pop them on, and they help the headphones stay in your ear ( my biggest pet peeve)
and make the sound coming from them, well, sound better.
Getting harder and harder to find, but well worth it when you do.

4. Retractable iPod/iPhone Sync Cable.

If your like me, you carry a lot of stuff, and some of that tends to be cables.
And between work and home, my iPod's battery gets worn down alot.
Sometimes I need a quick recharge, and I have a computer to hook
it up to. Out comes this little handy dandy cable, which retracted is
about as long as a pack of gum.
I plug up the iPod using it, charge up its battery,
& the drive home isn't so dull anymore. :-)

5. iSnug Ipod Carrying Case.

Last one, this little handy portable case is used NOT for just my iPod,
but to carry all the little devices listed above in one
convenient carrying case,
that is about the size of a paperback book.
That way, I have quick access to all I need in this case
( i also include a retractable FW 400 cable
in there as well), and I'm ready for anything I need to do in a day's work.

All of these wonderful items can easily be found through Amazon.com.

Monday's Song of the Day

Song of the day:
"Fast Car" by Queen Latifah featuring Missy Elliot.
Get it here from Amazon.com

Monday's Song of the Day

Baby Bash ft. Pitbull: Outta Control

Song of the Day

Mr. 305, aka Pitbull from Miami, and his hit song "Calle Ocho".
Get it from Amazon.com, by clicking the preview link below.

APPLE KEYNOTE: Compromised

I’m sure by now I’m not the only one who feels that exact same way. At Macworld, Apple really didn’t have much to show
off, really didn’t have much to deliver, so they gave us a few
things to say it was worth the price of admission.

A Unibody 17inch Mac Book Pro that is at the fastest a
laptop can be (2.93ghz Intel Core 2 Duo), but that has
hands down the worst idea of Battery replacement ever
(ie. YOU CAN’T!) ; a ho-hum iLife update that leaves iWeb users
in the cold ( why didn’t you listen to us iWeb users Apple?);
An even more lackluster iWork ’09 update ( hint Apple,
sell it off to Adobe and let them incorporate it as a CS Lite Suite)
and Apple’s bending over to give a little to the Record Labels
to get variable pricing structure in iTunes Music Store.
( which I haven’t used in months thanks to Amazon.)

I hope the next Apple Only Invite Event is spectacular,
otherwise this is strong signs of Apple being affected
by the downturn economy.