Wasted Continuum

I know you all are excited. I am too. Today, Steve Jobs will take the stage at the Apple event and reveal the shiny, new MacBook line. I love Apple, but part of their marketing strategy is exactly what the car industry does. Every year they come out with a cooler looking model. Even though your recently purchased MacBook or iPod is still perfectly fine, it starts to look outdated compared to the new model.

But people, please don’t push aside your current MacBooks and gawk at the new kid in town. Your MacBook has been there for you. Every time you wanted to do some work at a coffeeshop, your MacBook was there. Every time your flight is delayed and you don’t want crack open one of those book things, your MacBook was there. Every time you go to a family function and need to pretend you have important work to avoid talking to your drunk uncle, your MacBook was there.

So please people, when the Jobs is up there showing off the new MacBooks with his cool looking slides and “BOOMS”, I want you to remember the loving laptop that’s been there for you all those time.

I’ve ranted enough. Go now and give your MacBook a hug. Better yet, take a photo of it and post it on Flickr. You can post a link of it on my photo and we’ll have a nice group MacBook hug.

Of course, if you don’t have a MacBook of any kind, you should probably order one of the new ones. I bet you they’ll look super cool and I know that you’ll love it like I love my MacBook Pro.

The Apple “Let’s Rock” event has come to an end and there were really no big surprises. The biggest thing is the newly designed iPod Nanos. It looks exactly like the photo that was leaked a few weeks ago. The iPod Touch also got a minor redesign and a big drop in price. The thing that intrigued me is that Nike+ is integrated into the Touch. That makes it slightly tempting. The biggest one is still 32GB. I still think that’s not enough for me. When they release the 64GB version, I’ll have no more excuses.

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Not even a full day later from when I ordered a new MacBook Pro does my old Sager laptop, a.k.a. JavaLappy, decides to retire early. I placed my order around midnight last night. This morning when I woke up. I found my JavaLappy rebooted and stuck on an IDE controller error screen. After multiple tries of rebooting, I called it. My notebook was dead. Most likely from a motherboard error, but this cannot be confirmed without a thorough computer autopsy. I can’t believe it couldn’t hold on until my MacBook was delivered. Luckily, I backed up everything important a couple weeks ago when I reinstalled Windows on it. This is why you should always back up! I hope Apple processes my order quickly and get it to me by Monday.

Goodbye my lovely JavaLappy. You have served me well over the years.

Yesterday, I declared to Twitter that if Apple released a new MacBook Pro, I would run out and buy one. Well, today, Apple released updated versions of both the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines. The new MacBook Pros are now loaded with the new Intel Core 2 Duo Peryn chips, backlit LED displays, multi-touch track pad (a la MacBook Air) and a few other things. You can go visit Apple’s site to see all the updates. Since the local store doesn’t have the 15″ MBP with the 200GB 7200rpm hard drive, I had to order it online. This is the configuration I ordered:

• 2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• MacBook Pro 15-inch Glossy WS
• 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM – 2x1GB
• 200GB Serial ATA @ 7200 rpm
• SuperDrive 8x DL
• Apple Remote
• BkLit Keyboard/Mac OS

I should be getting it sometime next week. Now comes the hardest part, waiting.

It’s been a long day and I’m not feeling well. I woke up with a sore throat this morning. Actually the whole week has been hectic. Projects are piling up at work. When I get off work, I have Chinese New Year stuff to do. On top of that, I’ve been trying to repair my dying laptop. I still think there’s a hardware issue and it may go soon. That would really suck cause I just spent about $900 on getting new tires for my car. I can’t afford to replace my laptop right now. It’s been bugging me a lot. It’s hard on a geek to know that his laptop is dying and there’s nothing I can do about it. The fun part is that I do get to research new laptop options now. It definitely is not in my budget right now to get one.

I went to check out the MacBook Air today for the first time. It is gorgeous. It is hands-down the most stylish laptop out on the market right now. Pair it up with a Gelaskins and you’ll have every head turning when you’re sitting in a cafe with it. I have to decide if it’s too restricted with the single USB port and 80GB hard drive. The screen is beautiful and the multi-touch track pad works really well. It’s very tempting. However, the MacBook Pro has been heavily rumored to be updated in a few weeks. I think that will probably be a better time for me to make a purchase anyway.

I also checked out the new iPod Touch with the 32GB hard drive. It’s pretty much the exact same as the old ones except with more capacity. I just wanted to check out the new apps that they added to all the iPod Touches after MacWorld. I think I’ll pull the trigger on that one as soon as they drop the price. I can work with 32GB. 16GB is just unacceptable.

Ok, I’m a few days late on this post, but my database server was down. There’s already a lot of coverage on everything that was announced at the keynote at MacWorld 2008 so I don’t need to go into details about everything. Here’s my quick take on the announcements. Continue Reading »