Dc213 : "Getting the most out of your Ipod Touch".
Nov 28This Docu-Cast features and extended article on getting the very best out of your Ipod Touch. From entertainment centre, to mobile Lifeblogging device, From old school Pda to Internet tricorder and more. We talk apps, tips, tricks and ways to use your gear you hadn’t thought of until now.
Shownotes
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New beginnings : My new Macbook Pro
Nov 26My my ! Its been a few days since I had the chance to write a little, but life is getting in the way of all the stuff I would like to do. Long days at work and home renovation are 2 time consuming things to have on ones plate. As we lay down new flooring in the several rooms, moving stuff around feels like playing tetris with your own furniture. But inbetween working, painting, sanding, flooring and shlepping i’ll try to get out a little scribble.
Reason for WANTING to type up a little article is because of the brand spanking new Mac that is sitting right in front of me. Every few years ( or at the end of every year to be honest ) we browse through the house and look at what tech-stuff is ready to be sold off. Hanging on to gadgets I don’t use has never been my thing. I have a sacred “three month rule” that says : If a gadget or gizmo is lying around for more then three months unused : sell it. With out Macs that is of course a different story. Both the laptops and the desktops get used daily , but still : they age. And because of this , we need to sell them off in time before they drop too much in value. One of the macs that came into this zone is my 15.4 inch Dual Core macbook Pro. It was the second 15.4 inch Macbook Pro i’ve ever owned and the first to carry the unibody form factor. And over the last 2 years I have enjoyed using it very much. Due to its size it has not ‘traveled’ a lot. The large screen and high price point make it a laptop that is a little too ‘precious’ to throw into just any backpack. But it made a wonderful mobile powerhouse for me during its usage.
My plans to get a new Mac got sped up when I found a folder of the local MediaMarket ( Kinda like a Best Buy in the US ) that had a special on Macbook Pro’s. If you traded in ANY old laptop or desktop you got 100 euro’s of the price of the macbook AND 50 euro’s worth of Appstore credit. I found a buyer for my Mac the same day ( I have a waiting list of friends who are always interested in top-notch second hands from the Knightcastle) and hoppa .. time for a new mac.
So after endless debating on Google+ and with my father in law (an Intel expert) about wether to get the I7 or the I5, I decided to go with the 2.4 Gighz, I5 , 13.3 inch Macbook Pro. Why ? Several reasons.
Form factor. As I said : 15.4 inch is just too big to carry around. I had been relying on our older 13 inch Macbook air for my “mobile blogging operations” but it is lacking when it comes to storage space and muscle power. Combining both in this new Macbook air seemed logical.
Processor : There is not a lot of difference between the 2.4 gighz I5 and the 2.8 gighz I7 when it comes down to “average use”. I’m not gonna multithread 400 processes and the times i’ll be encoding HD videomaterial on this baby are limited. So I will leave the I7 option open until I go for a new Imac. The 200 euro’s saved will be spent differently by upgrading the RAM from 4 tot 8 gigabyte. Kingston High Value DDR3 1333 Mhz 4 GIG Ramsticks are 36 euro’s a pop so i’ll pop over to germany next week to pick those up. (never buy a ram upgrade from Apple : There is no such thing as ‘apple ram’ , any ram will do as long as you swap out ALL the modules).
Harddrive : This is a little bit of a bummer on my new Macbook pro. The reason Apple decided to go with the 5400 Rpm drive is beyond me. With my previous macbook pro I decided to go for a 7200 RPM drive replacement when I got it. At the moment i’m tempted to do the same BUT there is also the option of OWC Data Doubler from Macsales.com. The idea is simple : Open up your mac, remove the optical drive. Replace it with an adapter that holds a 128 gig SSD Drive. Make that drive your system drive, make your OTHER (original) drive your data drive and Hoopla : Macbook air speeds with macbook Pro storage. The kit costs around 229 dollars and i’m seriously considering it.
I’m pretty pleased with the mac right now, ( I call it ‘Whoooo ! ) but I know that after the upgrades i’ll probably call it “Whoo-Haa'” for the incrimental increase in awesomeness. After I de-lionised the interface (switching off all the Lion swipes and gestures) it felt pretty good to work with. And for this price point I would not recommend anybody to get a PC. 1199 is a lot of money, but with this Macbook Pro its probably your best bang for the buck.
Links : OWC Data Doubler.
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KWTV Live .. Live
Nov 20Knightwise.com will be broadcasting live today ( Nov 20th ) from the Macbeurs (Mac Expo) in Genk (Belgium ) from 10.45 to 11.45 am (GMT +1 ). You can watch the livestream and participate in the chatroom by clicking on the link below.
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KWTV LIVE is LIVE in GENK tomorrow.
Nov 19So, If you ever wanted to see a KWTV Live show recording “in the flesh” and you are from the Benelux area ? Why not come down to the MACBEURS in Genk (Limburg-Flanders-Belgium) on Sunday the 20th of November. The event is held inside the renovated colemine site of Genk called C-mine. So if not for the podcast OR the Mac stuff ,come down for the sights.. and bring a camera.
Topic off the day will be : Android vs IOS where we will be interviewing 2 experts about the mobile phone ecospheres, the hardware and of course why THEY thing THEIR OS is the best. We will also be taking questions from the audience and having a good time !
You can join us there or follow the event ONLINE. (we will also be airing the feed from the chatroom at the event). If you are coming down , make sure to sign up on FACEBOOK.
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Over-connected : When your world shrinks to a tight fit.
Nov 16It is somehow fitting to sit down in he middle of a medieval square in the city of Carcassonne, to write this little piece. Ancient walls of stone surround this fortified village that has seen countless ebbs and flows of war and piece. Plastered on the window of the little cafe where we are the obligatory patrons, in exchange for good but expensive coffee, is the universal WIFI sticker. Its white and grey contrast forming a beacon for all those road warriors parched in the dessert of dis-connectivity. “Come here and quench your raging thirst for information” it seems to call out. I ponder to toggle my “Wifi Settings” to on, but choose not to. I am, as a matter of fact, still on holiday. Holiday (or Vacation) depending on what part of the Anglosphere you sprout from, means being “ away” from you normal routine of life, exchanging it for a temporary relief by alteration of activities, location or both. In my case it is both. Work is left behind and so are the roaming fields of Flanders. After a 11 hour drive we end up in a place we can only refer to as our “second home”. The city of Carcassonne. But even its succeeding circles of reinforcements are no match for the progress of technology.
For a flick of a switch is all I need to make to instantly open up the floodgates of connectivity. All i need to do is “hook up” to the open access point and the entire concept of a vacation can be taken away from me. “I am a citizen of the world” I frequently announce as I recount tales and adventures from the world of cyberspace. I travel without moving and span the globe at the click of a mouse. But that also means .. that the opposite is true. Where I can connect to the world from anywhere .. the world can also connect to me. For a the flick of a switch I am teleported back towards my “everyday life” ( Not actually a location nor a true state of mind ) and the physical and geographical reality that comprises my “vacation” will cease to exist. Connections, emails, communications, messages, thoughts, impressions, queries and troubles … all of them will come flooding back and there is nothing that can stop the evaporation of the ‘sea of tranquility’ that is my state of mind.
Connectivity shrinks your planet down to a mouse click. And that is an awesome feeling. It gives you the power to span the planet with a single wrap of the keyboard .. Ubiquitous connectivity takes away your place to hide. No matter where on the planet you are, your communications and digital interactions are right there with you. Both a blessing and a curse. For if we are always connected we change only the scenery around us as we travel. In the end we are still sitting behind our computer, plugged into the net. Only when we stare up from the screen, we see that the wallpaper called reality .. has changed.
So when I’m on holiday .. I switch off. Sure, I miss my “information drip”. As I stand before a statue or want to know the number of inhabitants in Andorra , my dopamine craving will have to wait a little as “instant information” is not available. But on the other hand .. I can always ask somebody .. Sometimes they even know the answer.
So we have crossed the apex of my personal connectivity. We have gone beyond the threshold of what I can have vs what I really want. For what I really want right now, is to step down from the over-connected platform of my everyday life and enjoy the stone walls of the ancient city. Enjoy talking to my beloved wife, uninterrupted by the next wave of tweets , DM’s, emails and instant messages. For once , the information and communication junkie wants to be deaf, mute and ignorant .. just to be in the know of the beautiful thing around him .. Called reality