Tag: Apple & All Things Mac Posts

I just read an article that basically alludes to the fact that the iPhone has been hacked. While I’m all in favour of this, there seems to be some question as to whether or not it is actually legal to do so. To that end, I’m a fairly certain it could be argued that the iPhone “lock” is a form of copy protection, in which case it would fall under the DMCA, and hence be illegal to circumvent. We’ll have to see how it all plays out, but I suspect the guys are gonna be in for a few legal headaches. — Update So, the DMCA was updated last year with the following provisions: Exemptions are allowed for 1) the educational library of a university’s media studies department, in order to watch film clips in class; 2) using computer software that requires the original disks or hardware in order to […]

Last night Jason and I stopped in briefly at the Apple store here in San Francisco, California, so that we could mess around with a new iPhone. Of course, the store was completely packed, and most people were simply there to do the exact same thing we were doing. Like most Apple stores, the one in San Francisco is currently sold out of iPhones. After waiting only a few short minutes, I picked up an iPhone and started messing around with it. Right away, I liked how small and comfortable it felt in my hand. The user interface is pretty revolutionary, and it’s really intuitive how to use it. At the bottom is a MENU button that always takes you back a level or to the front menu. If you’re using Safari or something and want to see more information, you can zoom by putting two fingers together on the […]

I’m at the airport in Las Vegas, about to put some more photos up from last night and write a blog entry. But before I do that, you gotta check out this photo.

In the last couple days, I’ve read several reports of people discovering embedded user data in the new DRM-free versions of music on iTunes. While I’m not suprised, having embedded user data within these files is essentially a form of Digital Rights Management, which at the very least points to false advertising by Apple regarding these new music files. I’m quite certain that a utility will exist shortly to strip it out, should people want to, but Apple is being very guarded about these files and exactly just how DRM-free they really are. I personally have no problem with my user data being embedded, since as long as I transfer these files between equipment I personally own, nobody will ever see that data but me. But, Apple needs to make this clearer either through their advertising campaign, or in the end-user license agreement (near the top, not the bottom).

Yesterday Apple released verison 7.2 of iTunes which finally gives users the ability to download DRM free versions of songs from iTunes. The added bonus is that you can also download 256 kbps AAC versions of the files instead of the 128 kbps AAC versions. So, before I actually go into the experience, I’d have to say I was slightly hesitant about this. When people think 128kbps, they automatically think of the old MP3s. And at 128kbps, MP3 files are fairly close to CD quality (for most people), but on my stereo at least, I can notice slight distortions. However, AAC is part of the MPEG4 standard (used in IPTV and some of the HD DVD specifications), which is a big improvement over MP3. While it varies based on the material, MP3s at 128kbps sound similar to AAC files at around 96kbps due to improvements in the underlying technology. So, […]

So last week I decided that I was going to try and break my whole staying up late, getting up late routine and actually make an effort to go to bed early and get up early. For the most part (except for getting in a bit later today, which is excusable but unfortunately not bloggable), I’ve been keeping to a routine of hitting the sack around 11, reading on my laptop until 11:30 or so, and getting up at 7am. Now, I have a queen sized bed. I’ve had one for years now I guess, ever since university. But the funny thing is, I will never ever be able to sleep like I have a queen sized bed. For the most part, I curl up in a ball and stick to my one side, even on the nights where I toss and turn. When I clean my sheets, one side […]

I’ve had an iPod now for probably at least two years. On my birthday, Des picked me up one of those iPod Minis back when they first came out. And as I sit here, on my couch, patiently waiting for it to charge enough so it will make the rainy walk to work, I thought I’d reflect a bit on the iPod. Since I usually walk wherever I go downtown, I pretty much take the iPod with me when I can. I’m sure I’m going to be part of that generation that goes prematurely deaf since I’m somehow genetically inclined to listen to my iPod on max or near-max volume all the time. In fact, if it could go louder, I’d probably bump it up a few notches. It only took me about a week before I blew the headphones that came with, and now I’m on my 3rd of […]

I thought I’m chime in with my thoughts and feelings so far now that it’s been a few days without a PC. First, I’m definitely really happy with my purchase. For the most part everything has just worked, and I haven’t had to mess with very many things so far. Sometimes I lament not having more control over cetain elements (for example, trying to figure out which WiFi connection to use in a public space isn’t exactly obvious — in Windows at least you can see signal strength and public/private all at once. I haven’t figured out how to see all that on the Mac). The windowing manager on Mac OS X is so much better than Vista. It’s really snappy, and you can program the mouse to activate certain aspects of the Windowing system just by moving it into certain corners. For example, when I move my mouse to […]

Most of you that know me have undoubtedly seem me cursing at my computer furiously this past week or punching my laptop from time to time. The reason for this sudden change in behaviour stems from my recent installation of Windows Vista. Somehow, that whole process turned a pretty decent laptop into something completely unusable. So today, while trying to edit some photos at Northern Voice, I realized that I just couldn’t go on using my laptop the way it was. Everything was really slow and most applications crashed from time to time (especially Photoshop). Since I’m about to leave on vacation, and I really need a laptop to take with me, I debated spending the first day of my vacation reinstalling XP on my laptop. Which would obviously suck, but something really needed to be done. And then, looking around at my peers in the Forest Sciences Center at […]