9 things. 「九つ」 » Technology

An Apple a day.

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:50:13 +0000

Well it finally arrived, it was waiting for me when I got home yesturday. I have been playing around with all the features and apps, the first thing I will mention is how amazed I am with the Battery life. It displayed 5 and some hours left once it was fully charged, because of various things (I was not using it constantly without breaks) I still had nearly 4 hours left on the battery about 3-4 hours later, one thing in particular helped with this, it has a feature that auto dimms the display depending on how much ambient light is in the room, so in a dark room the display isn’t so bright that it hurts your eyes, a nice little feature.

Features is one thing the Macbook is not short on. There are a few things that will take a little getting used to as with anything new, but I don’t think I will be getting another windows powered anything anytime soon, I think I can say I have been converted to Apple. As my friend mentions here in his review of the Macbook, there are many reasons to get a Macbook as your next laptop.

The Technical Specification are as follows for the model I bought:

Main specifications

2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB on-chip shared L2 cache running 1:1 with processor speed
1066MHz frontside bus
2GB (two 1GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; two SO-DIMM slots support up to 4GB
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory³
160GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard disk drive⁴
Weight 4.5 pounds
thickness when closed 0.95″

Network & Connectivity:

Built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi wireless networking (based on IEEE 802.11n draft specification); IEEE 802.11a/b/g compatible
Built-in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45 connector)
MagSafe power port
Gigabit Ethernet port
Two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps)
Mini DisplayPort
Audio line in
Audio line out
Kensington lock slot

The build quality is by far better than even the most expensive windows powered laptops, not much else to say about the build really, it is one of those things you have to see for yourself and compare with other laptops to realise what a difference in quality there is.

Overall I am very impressed with the macbook, yes i know, i’ve only had a couple of days, but like everything else it only takes a couple of days for you to know if you have wasted your money or spent it wisely. Happy to say this was money well spent, the screen is so much better than my old acer laptop which before now I thought was a very good screen, everything is so much clearer and brighter on this oled display, even the nifty little magnetic coupling on the charger cable, so it will pull out easily and not damage the wire or power plug if cought on anything when you get up for example.

Incase you want the wallpaper from the picture, you can download here.

G2 Magic

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 02:56:59 +0000

After the success of the first Google Phone the G1 Dream, it hasn’t taken them long to get the next one out, and as you would expect, a fair few changes have been made, the G1 Dream was released by T-Mobile but, the now named “Magic G2″ is to be released by Vodafone, the specifications of the Magic G2 are:

Processor:
Qualcomm® MSM7201a™, 528 MHz

Operating System:
Android

Memory:
ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 192 MB

Dimensions: 113 x 55 x 13.65 mm ( 4.45 x 2.17 x 0.54 inches)
Weight: 118.5 grams ( 4.18 ounces) with battery
Display: 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320×480 HVGA resolution

Network: HSDPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz, Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
(Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent.)

Device Control Trackball with Enter button

GPS: Internal GPS antenna

Connectivity:
Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)

Camera:
3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus

Audio supported: AAC, AAC+, AMR-NB, MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC-LC, MIDI, OGG
Video supported: MP4, 3GP

Battery: Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
Capacity: 1340 mAh

Talk time:
Up to 400 minutes for WCDMA
Up to 450 minutes for GSM

Standby time:
Up to 660 hours for WCDMA
Up to 420 hours for GSM
(The above are subject to network and phone usage.)

Additional Features:
Expansion Slot microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
G-sensor
Digital Compass

My honest opinion is that this new G2 is by far better looking than T-Mobile’s G1, I am considering getting this phone when it comes out (hopefully) in April. I have never really been a fan of getting a phone on contract for various reasons, mainly, all the phones that come out are basically the same crap in a different case, the only two that stand out are the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android Phones, I didn’t bother with the iPhone as I had just recently got a new phone, but depending on the monthly charges and seeing what kind of deal I can get I may just treat myself and get the Magic G2.

Decision Time

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:52:14 +0000

Well, after taking the best part of 6 months to put thoughts and a constant slur of “I need to get my MacBook ordered” into actions, I have finally ordered my new Aluminium Apple MacBook. It took a little helpfull persuasion from a friend to help me finally put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. The little persuasion offered was when I met my friend down at the closest retailer, we went in, looked around, he flashed his plastic at a man and walked out with a new MacBook. I wasn’t having any of that, so when we got back I jumped on the Apple Store and got my lovely new MacBook ordered.

No doubt he will be doing a little post and review of his new toy very soon over on his blog, My yaruki. So in the meantime for me, I am just waiting for mine to be delivered, once here, I will be leaving my impressions and a little review on here.