Apple Tablet

I love my MacBook Pro and my iPhone but if Apple really does come out with a table in 2010 how could I resist? How could anyone? Just the idea of a tablet with the interface of an iPhone has me drooling. I read an article that says it should be ready by next year sometime and for me it could not come soon enough. I already try to scroll on my laptop screen; you should see the fingerprints, not pretty! And, it doesn’t work. Go figure. So, if Steve Jobs comes out with a tablet and it has a 10-inch (more or less would be fine too) screen as reports indicate, it would be purse worthy! Depending on the cost, it could change the face of education; one device to read and page through text is a lot smaller than carrying all those textbooks around. Not to mention having the Internet in the palm of your hand. With built in 3G wireless it looks better and better all the time! I don’t want to wait! The picture at the right comes from AppleInsider and looks like a stretched out iPhone. Not sure if it will really look like that but I hope I don’t have to wait too long for it to be a reality. I can see school tech directors going for these rather than full priced computers and laptops. Can you see these taking the place of all those laptop carts in schools? This may be a bigger innovation for schools than the Apple II. A cart full would be a heck of a lot lighter to push around too!

Waiting paid off!

I was supposed to get a new computer for Christmas. But I decided to hold off until the announcements Apple made at MacWorld. Was I disappointed? Of course! At MacWorld Apple announced the MacAir. What I was hoping for was a 13 inch MacBook Pro. The computer I currently use is a 12 inch PowerBook G4. It is a workhorse even at its advanced age. And, I wanted another workhorse in a small size! In my mind the MacAir is a lightweight but it does have some features that I wanted, like the touch pad and backlit keyboard. It would be great to take to a conference or on a trip but to replace my only computer, it was not an option. Yesterday, Mac announced a couple of things. First they finally made a 13 inch MacBook. There was my 13 inch that could replace my 12inch workhorse but again, the computer did not seem as much like a workhorse as my current baby computer (did I mention that I have worn the keys off the computer) . I probably could have gotten away with one of those but then I looked at the new MacBook Pros. I was hooked. Not only does it have the backlit keyboard and the touchpad, I could get a glossy screen and a 250 gig hard drive. When my husband ordered my PowerBook G4 he made 2 upgrades to memory and it has a whopping 80 gigs which of course I have filled to the max. The only compromise I had to make was that the computer is 15 inches not 13. So, I am getting a slightly larger computer than I wanted. I ordered my computer last night and now I am sitting on pins and needles waiting for it to be delivered. Oh, one more thing, Steve Jobs, don’t announce a 13 inch MacBook Pro next month or I will cry!

MacWorld... Yeah!

Ok, so you already know I am a Mac Fan. Today is MacWorld and I have not seen Steve Jobs keynote yet… what is wrong with me? I will patiently wait for my husband to get home so we can watch it together… all together now… awh! Anyway, it won’t be a difficult wait because I found this wonderful game to play while I am waiting… it is called SteveNote Expo- the game. You have to play it. It is so much like Pac Man only better. Help Steve get all of the neat gizmos he is introducing at MacWorld before a journalist captures all of your secrets and ends the game. You even have a special power to hypnotize the journalists. It is fun and since I am not at MacWorld, it will have to do!

Yeah Leopard...

Leopard is wonderful for old PowerBooks. I have a PowerBook G4. Before installing Leopard, Safari would quit for no reason. It was so frustrating. I could never get onto my university blackboard site without the browser quitting; I would give up and use Firefox for my web browser. Not that Firefox is a bad thing.. but I like Safari. Now that I have installed Leopard on my old baby laptop (it is the 12 inch version) my computer has a new life. Yes, it is slow… but it doesn’t crash any more. Putting Leopard on your old Mac may give it a new lease on life and another year or so of life. I am hoping mine lives until the next MacBook upgrade! Go Leopard!!!

It's All About Leopard!!!

Leopard is here… my husband and I spent a romantic Friday evening at the Apple Store. Not to buy Leopard mind you… oh no, we just wanted to be part of the fun! Our family copy of the new Mac Operating System, Leopard, was actually sitting on the kitchen table while we were out partying at the Apple store with other Mac fans… waiting patiently for us to return and install it! My husband had pre-ordered the system from Apple and it was in his hands by 10:30 Friday morning! Woo-hoo!
Leopard is up and running well on our Mac desktop. It is pretty awesome. I love cover-flow with all the files on my hard drive. Way back when we had the Apple II GS we made cute character folders for our children, it is interesting to see them scrolling by… since the rest of our file folders are just boring old file folders!
Do I have Leopard on my computer yet? No. And, to tell the truth, I am not sure I am putting Leopard on my old PowerBook G4. I have just the amount of memory required to handle the new operating system and I am worried that my old slow baby laptop (it is the 12 inch Powerbook G4) won’t be able to handle the new sleek, fast, powerful Leopard! Time to get a new laptop! "-)
Anyway, it was fun to be part of the experience at the Apple Store. Of course, I also was longing for the days when Apple gave away their new operating systems for free! Yes, Apple was different in those days. My family and I would sit patiently at the Apple User's club in Kaiserslautern, Germany waiting for the disks to be passed out to members. In those days back in the mid 80's to early 90's Apple used it's registered user's clubs to distribute new updates and pass out new information... of course those also were the days when only the US military was using the Internet! The Kaiserslautern Apple Users Group met once a month (looks like they still meet). Of course now we virtually get our Mac news from Cali Lewis and Leo Laporte. Hey, the Kaiserslautern Users Group even have a podcast! We met at the Hacienda Mexican Restaurant from 1 to 3 on Sunday afternoons. The owner of the restaurant was a big Mac user and his restaurant is now an Internet Cafe as well. He runs the entire business with Macs. He was our hero.
I remember the day the sad announcement was made at the user's group that Apple would no longer be giving away new operating systems... and Friday night at the Apple store I had come full circle and again was partying and celebrating a new operating system release, not for free but still fun!
Special Thanks to Alex, from the King Of Prussia Apple Store... he told me about Apple Teach... one-on-one weekly sessions to teach all things Mac. I need to learn to use Final Cut Pro.

Cranky Apple Geek

Ok, so I listen to a podcast called Cranky Geeks. Something that came up this week… now that Safari is available for Windows is the future all Apple? I would like to think so because I love the Mac platform. I am writing this on a PowerBook G4… I know it is time to upgrade but there is no 12-inch Mac Book or PowerBook right now. But I digress. I have to say the future of Apple seems bright to me. Perhaps the move to Intel was a stroke of genus for Apple. In my opinion, all computers should be Macs and in this new world where Macs can run both platforms, why are PCs even necessary? Do it all on a Mac and find it all @your library!