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Archive for the ‘Computers: Laptops, desktops, and tablets’ Category

My Hackintosh

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

The one thing that surprises me about Apple is their inability to actually release what the market wants.

Take for example the iPod. While not the first or the original mp3 player, it is the one that everyone remembers. It's smooth, simple, and white. The iPod face hasn't really been changed throughout its life and most iPod devices – short of the Touch models – still look like they've evolved from that original first-generation hard drive front wheel model.

And yet not a single iPod supports FM radio yet. Nor do they support other audio formats. Or drag & drop folder support.

Almost every single media player under the sun has all of these things except the Apple iPod. If Apple had actually gone ahead and put these features into their devices, they'd have an immediate winner. No one would bother going to another brand because there'd be need to.

People would hail from the streets "Did you hear about Apple's new iPod? It does everything!" and there'd be no reason to buy anything else.

Instant & immediate market domination.

Currently, I'm writing this article and blog entry on a Mac while riding a bus on the way home.

Sort of.

I'm using my MSI Wind – a Netbook that comes out of the box with Windows XP installed on it. While white like a MacBook, it certainly isn't one. At 10 inches on the screen, it's actually a fair bit smaller than a 13.3 inch MacBook and almost half of what the MacBook Pro 15 and 17 inch models pull out with.

The MSI Wind I'm using hasn't been upgraded from its original specification and is currently sitting fine on 1 gig of memory and an 80 gigabyte hard drive. I have put in a 16GB SD card for extra solid-state storage, but that hardly affects storage so we don't need to talk about that.

What I have done however is replace one of the partitions on the original hard drive with an installation of Mac OSX… and damn, is it good.

From the start, I should mention that I've been hanging out to buy a laptop for a while because I'm one of those bastards that wants Apple to release a smaller notebook. I ultimately want a tablet model, but I'd take a smaller notebook like their older PowerBooks had.

Apple haven't exactly been forthcoming. They keep dodging my needs and telling me that I should buy a 13 inch MacBook. Why would I want to spend so much money on a 13 inch notebook? I can't carry that around easily.

So before I left to Singapore, I got one of the MSI Wind laptops, a computer I have been waiting for because it looked like the Netbook to get.

And it is.

Running both Windows XP and Mac OS is the dream of many a geek and this thing runs them quite happily. While not as fast as say a high-speed Windows PC or MacBook Pro, it doesn 't have to be.

My Hackintosh runs both XP and Mac OS, the only two operating systems I give a rat's arse about. How brilliant is that!

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Posted in Computers: Laptops, desktops, and tablets, Technology | 1 Comment »

Apple Fanboyitis

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

As we approach the launch of the third generation Apple iPhone on sale tomorrow, I feel a need to talk about something close to this technology journalist's heart: fanboyitis.

For those that don't know, fanboyitis occurs when people are so obsessed with a product or brand that they cease the ability to become objective. The part of their brain that determines and coordinates reasoning is shut off and they become defenders of the product or brand as if its being assaulted or raped and someone needs to step in as the voice of reason.

Which wouldn't be them.

 

(more…)

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Not just on CyberShack.

Monday, June 16th, 2008

Now I'm on NineMSN's Australian Women's Weekly too…

because… I can get in touch with my feminine side too, you know…

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An Open Letter To Apple

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

Dear (circle one)

I want to buy a MacBook Pro.

I'm telling you this not to garner attention for a free one (although that would be nice) but to point your attention to something… because I can't buy a MacBook Pro.

(more…)

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Random tech crap

Monday, April 7th, 2008

I haven't made a random tech crap post in a while. So I'm going to make some random-y tech comments now.

Because I can.

So if you don't like that sort of thing, stop reading. Or continue. I don't really care. I'm on my lunch break and this onigiri is quite possibly one of the worst ones I've ever had from the Wasabi Hut.

 

I'm playing C&C 3: Kane's Wrath at the moment. Initial impressions: not as good as I'd hoped. Sure, Joe Kucan is in it which means he'll be giving a great performance as Kane, but my initial impressions are leaving me with the feeling that not only is the script a huge load of "meh" but it's just an unnecessary story. Most of us assumed that in between C&C 2 and C&C 3, Kane was alive and well and… this just feels… weak.

On the plus side, it's sort of like someone made Tiberian Sun with a better engine in a less cheesy way. But on the down side, it has SecurROM… and Kaspersky wants to empty an AK-47 round at Kane's Wrath each time it loads, as a result.

 

This is the Sphere bed. It looks sexy and plush and I'm probably sure that every girl within at least a 10 kilometre radius would at least consider having sex with me 15% more than they do now (which is currently around 0.03%) if I had one of these. It's red, fluffy, and has a TV. That says it all, really.

But why the hell is it called the "Sphere". It's not exactly a "sphere" is it. When I think "sphere", first I think of that crappy movie with Dustin Hoffman in it and immediately wonder why I wasted time out of my life on that piece of shit. Then I think of a circular… well, a sphere really. It's hard to push a sphere down from what it is, isn't it?

This is not a sphere. This is some other shape that is obviously not a sphere. Karim Rashid may well be a fantastic designer — if not a designer who likes red fluff — but he needs to know that his bed is not a sphere. Geometry, people!

Yahoo wants more cash. Hmm… Microsoft taking over Yahoo for money Microsoft probably made back in the same time it took for me to write this sentence (damnit… I want some too… :( ). You know Yahoo, now that you're talking figures as opposed to playing down the interest, you're more or less telling the rest of us that you will soon be MicroYahooSoft… Yahoooooooooooooooo.

 

Gizmodo tells us that The Guardian is telling us that "95% of kids aged 18-24 are pirating music". First of all… duh. This will probably always be the case. Someone cue "Don't Copy That Floppy!" so I can get rid of my case of YouTube-itis for the day.

But while I know The Guardian didn't write this, I should probably let Gizmodo's writer know that people aged between 18 and 24 aren't kids. In fact, The Guardian calls them "youngsters". Okay, sure, they're not as old as a lot of the readers in say the 30-50 year old bracket… but 18-24 makes them adults.  

 

All that plus:
This is just mean (but I really want to pull it out on some people… hehehe… *evil grin*), Microsoft become derivative… and can you blame them?, some people really have no taste in more ways than one, and brushing teeth might soon be a game … is it a game to lose a tooth?! Is it?!

Anyway, that's my Gizmodo surfing for the day. :P  

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