Apple unveils new line of Macbook Pros Today

image found on Apple.com Macbook pro info website

Apple in its traditional sense of blowing our minds with new items really set a new bar today. As we all celebrate Steve Jobs birthday today. Apple came out with a whole new line of Macbook Pro laptops for us to choose from. The whole line of MacBook Pros (13, 15 and 17 inch) has been revamped with more power and speed for us to really blow our minds when we use them.

The 13 inch Macbook Pro now comes with a core i5 or i7 processor, which is great news for many people who were disappointed with the previous 2010 release with just options up to a 2.6 dual core processor. This in itself is great news but what is really blowing peoples minds today is the new Thunderbolt connection. When you look on the side profile of the laptop. You will noticed the typical connection ports.

But, not the Mini Diplay port option. That port now has a little Thunder bolt icon next to it. The Thunderbolt high speed connector is the Intel previously named light peak technology. This port can be used for video but also data too. Its designed to be daisy chained together. Plus, its going to offer up to 10 Gbps data transfer rate. This speed alone will drastically reduce backup times.

On top of this the company Lacie today has unveiled its first thunderbolt drive. They are the first company offering this on the market. Its rumored that the drive will offer two 250 GB SSD drives inside to help give the performance speed desired. No date has been given for when these will be available for the public.

Happy 56th Birthday Steve Jobs

On Thursday February 24th, Steve Jobs the co-founder and Chief Executive of Apple will turn 56. I think the whole Apple world will be celebrating with him and his family. I am happy to see Steve turn 56 and I am proud to say "God Bless you and your family Steve". You have given us so many amazing new wonderful things throughout the years and I wish you the best and most amazing year of your life. I believe you are a strong and amazing man that will over come any obstacles in your way.

I can say that my life has never been the same since I tried my first mac many many years ago and I feel blessed that I have been able to use Apple products in my life. Thank you Steve for all you have done and given us.

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Steve, Happy Birthday to you

Apple sends out media invites for iPad 2 event

image found on AppleInsider.com

Well folks the wait is over for the new iPad 2. Apple has sent out media invites for a special invitation only show unveiling the new iPad 2 on March 2.

It will be interesting to see what never features will be available on one of the most popular tablets of our time. I have been hearing all sorts of things from a better display to more storage capacity to now 3 different versions coming in the flavors of Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi + CDMA and Wi-Fi+GSM.

Christmas comes early from Apple to stores

image found on Appleinsider website

According to a report from Apple Insider today it looks like some stores will be getting a sealed package from Apple this week. They also have strict warnings that they are not to breach the sealed pallets.

Could this be the new shipments of MacBook Pro's.....

Verizon iPhone 4 upgrade update

Well folks i got my Verizon iPhone 4 this week and this weekend i got it setup and running. After playing with it now for a while doing all sorts of things on it including using several different kind of apps all i can say is "i love my Verizon iPhone."

Even though it was a bit of a pain with my upgrade. I can honestly say i am a happy Verizon customer now. I am now joining the ranks of the other people who have been rejoicing and happy with the new Verizon iPhone.

I am looking forward to seeing what the new iPhone 5 will be coming out with and when a Verizon CDMA version will be available. I wouldn't be to surprised if it comes out with the AT&T GSM since a recent tear down online unveiled that the new Verizon iPhone had both circuit systems built on board, both GSM and CDMA. Also, i wouldn't be surprised if a world model is available soon with a software switch over for network version too.

Something to make you laugh a bit

I got this via email the other day and i thought i'd pass along the laughs, enjoy.

WRONG EMAIL ADDRESS

This one is priceless.....A lesson to be learned from typing the wrong email address!!!!

A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier.

Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules. So, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, with his wife flying down the following day.

The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address, and without realizing his error, sent the email.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston , a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral. He was a minister who was called home to glory following a heart attack.

The widow decided to check her email expecting messages from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she screamed and fainted.

The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen which read:

To: My Loving Wife
Subject: I've Arrived
Date: April 27, 2009

I know you're surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I've just arrived and have been checked in.

I've seen that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then!!!! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.

P. S. Sure is freaking hot down here!!!!

Think Different - Japanese version

Even though its in Japanese, it still has a way of touching me when i watch and listen to it.

IBM Watson Wins on Jeopardy

The folks at IBM can be very proud of their new supercomputer child dubbed Watson. After a three day bout of playing humans on the hit TV series Jeopardy, Watson wins.

Many people might say well its a computer, it knows all the answers. Yes and no. As brilliant as Watson may be there are still many things that we as humans take for granted in our normal speaking meanings. The other day Nova had an incredible special that took viewers for a walk into the world of IBM's Supercomputer Watson project. They gave us a great look at the good bad and ugly sometimes of what the Watson crew sees and deals with on a daily basis. Its isn't all ice creams and lolly pops, there is a lot of hard work that goes into this project and it shows.

When getting Watson ready for this challenge they created a mock up Jeopardy set with a smart allec host who at every chance made cracks against Watson when he made a mistake. Watson is still a child for all intensive purposes. But, he is learning and everyday getting better. We saw on the show how Watson had all this amazing information in his memory banks. Then by using logic went through the options to figure out what the correct answer would be to the question.

But sometimes he did have problems such as with roman numerals and even simple things like the word dead. Where a person says he is dead and Watson replys how does it feel being dead today? Not understanding when a person is dead they are dead. But thats ok, he is a growing supercomputer and getting better everyday.

So even though he may have made some mistakes, i think its an awesome achievement to have him win at the game of Jeopardy. Its definitely a step in the right direction. My hat goes off to all the people at IBM who helped make this great computer possible. Also, Watson you did fantastic and i'm very proud of you. Keep up the great work.

Pres. Obama has dinner with the tech giants

Photo found on CNN.com website

This morning the White House released a photo of President Obama having dinner last night with Steve Jobs (Apple), Eric Schmidt (Google), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) plus the heads of such tech companies as Twitter, Oracle, Stanford University, Yahoo and Netflix. The dinner was at the home of John and Ann Doerr in San Francisco Bay. It was held to discuss future issues in the tech world including the options for job creations too.

It was nice to see Steve Jobs sitting next to President Obama wearing his black mock turtleneck shirt.

smaller iPhone rumors squashed by NYTimes

For the past few days we have been hearing rumors of Apple working on a new smaller iPhone. Well this morning the NYTimes reported that a smaller iPhone is not in the works. But that Apple is working on a cheaper iPhone with voice command integration.

According to reports if Apple was to create a smaller screened iPhone it would require many of the developers to re-write their apps to fit the new smaller screen size. Now that might and might not be the case. If Apple did make a smaller sized screen but, they were able to keep the proportion and screen size resolution to where it is now, developers might not need to have to re-size their apps. Then again it might be to difficult to maneuver around the device too.

The NYTimes did confirm some of the details that the Wall Street Journal was reporting earlier on Apple working on integrating voice commands for navigating the iPhone device.

There is still no word from anyone confirming the previously reported option of storing the majority of the iPhones contents in a cloud and then accessing it when required. The only big issue that will definitely come up with this option will be allocation of desired bandwidth.when people are calling up data. There has always been an issue with bandwidth but if users don't have many things like music and video on their iPhone as they do now, the bandwidth consumption will be even greater and tax the telecommunications industry even more.

So it might be cool to have everything in the cloud. But if it takes to long or isn't accessible because of bandwidth being a problem what good is having and using the device if it can't perform because the industry isn't up to par with what is required for it to function properly.

Who knows maybe Apple is also working on some new kind of packet compression utility to help compress packets of data when it sends it from the cloud to the device. Time will tell as we all eagerly await new from the mother ship.

my Verizon iPhone update

Well folks here is the update on my Verizon phone update.

I logged on the other day and tried to upgrade again!!!!!!
Guess what, still no go. So i went and called Verizon, spoke to a rep and he also said you should be able to upgrade. Well after waiting on hold for a bit, he was able to help me with my request.
I placed my order for my Verizon iPhone and got a shipping date of the 18th of this month.

From reading the early reviews it seems everyone is very happy switching from AT&T's iPhone to the Verizon phone... I am looking forward to getting it and letting you know how it works for me.

I am wondering now with people fleeing AT&T for Verizon will the network and dropped calls be different on AT&T or just business as usually. Only time will tell..

Apple Working on a New Smaller iPhone option

This weekend rumors started coming out from various sites on the net about a new, smaller, iPhone option. Its reported that this would be a cheaper solution without a contract for users. It would offer people an option to buy the iPhone for less than $200.

As more information comes out, it might not be what people think when they say iPhone. Granted it might look like a smaller version of its big brother iPhone. But, the reason why its smaller and cheaper is because it is being reported to have no memory built on board for storage of media. Everything will be on the cloud.

The device will have some memory installed but this is just for OS itself, critical system data reference, buffering media from the cloud and possibly for storage of photos or video on the device if a camera option is offered. If you want an example of this, Apple has already given us it with the Apple TV.

If these rumors are true it would explain Apples huge investments in creating data centers last year. There were some rumors of this leaking out then but they seemed to be nipped in the bud. All in all this isn't such a bad idea, especially with people loosing their phones. If a person does they don't have to worry about their data being comprimised as much. Since with the simple option of logging on to a website the end user can disable the link from the device to the cloud, making the new iPhone a nice paper weight.

This option does sound great but some questions do come to mind.

1. If we put everything in the cloud and it is streaming, have they come up with an idea of how much bandwidth will the average user require? This is an important question especially when one of the biggest problems with AT&T was users using to much bandwidth and having performance issues in the past.

2. Will it be 3G or 4G? With more and more talk of 4G will we finally see a 4G iPhone. Plus what will happen when you go from 4G to 3G? Will there be that 20 to 30 second lag in time many people have reported when it comes to switching networks?

3. What will the cost be for service on this phone? With the way some people use data on their phones it could cost them an arm and a leg getting data to and from the cloud and else where on the web.

4. Will this be available in both CDMA and GSM? The new Verizon iPhone tear down shows chips for both networks. This could be an interesting merger of the networks on one new hand held device.

5. How will privacy advocates feel about this? There is always a question of people being tracked as well as data. With implementing this the providers and Apple will know where and what is being done on the phone more and more.

All in all i think its a step in the right direction, esp with people loosing phones and being able to offer more for the consumer. Imagine putting your collection on the cloud, then when you need more space, you just pay for the allocation instead of having to buy a new device.

Something to think about..

Think Different 2008 Edition

Motivational Quote of The Day from NIGHTINGALE.COM

"The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make
ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy.
The amount of work is the same."
— Carlos Castaneda: Was an anthropologist and author

Ken Olsen, Computer Pioneer passes away

Kenneth Harry Olsen, Engineer
((1926-02-2 February 20, 1926 to February 6, 2011 (age 84))

Many people might not recognize the name but Ken Olsen was the founder and former CEO of a company called Digital Equipment Corporation or DEC. This company created one of the first digital computers that was used for commercial use.

Ken served in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946. He received his Bachelors (B.S.) and Masters degrees(M.S.) in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was known for have worked on a team that developed air defense technology and core memory while at MIT. He also directed the building of the first transistorized research computer.

In 1957 he founded Digital Equipment Corporation with an MIT colleague. In its glory days it had over 125,000 employees in over 86 countries. DEC was eventually urchased by Compaq in 1988 for $9.6 billion dollars.

During his life Ken was named the "most successful entrepreneur in the history of American business." by Fortune magazine. He also was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1990 and received the National Medal of Technology in 1993. Plus he was brought into the Computer History Museum in 1996.

For laughs.....

Someone sent me this in an email and i thought i would share it.

Enjoy the laughs... Mirko

WRONG EMAIL ADDRESS

This one is priceless.....A lesson to be learned from typing the wrong email address!!!!

A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier.

Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules. So, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, with his wife flying down the following day.

The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address, and without realizing his error, sent the email.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston , a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral. He was a minister who was called home to glory following a heart attack.

The widow decided to check her email expecting messages from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she screamed and fainted.

The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen which read:

To: My Loving Wife
Subject: I've Arrived
Date: April 27, 2009

I know you're surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I've just arrived and have been checked in.

I've seen that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then!!!! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.

P. S. Sure is freaking hot down here!!!!

Happy 183rd Birthday Jules Verne

If you have a chance folks you should stop by google.com and check out today fun interactive graphic. When you arrive on the site you will notice some portal openings showing a lively sea ahead with all sorts of goodies for us to see. Ahh but there is more. If you look to the right you will notice a lever. Give it a try and see where your travels take you.

Today graphic celebrates the great Jules Vernes 183rd Birthday. Now some people might be like ok so who is Jules Verne and is running to be as old as Methuselah? Well to answer the first question Jules Verne was a great french science fiction author. He was born on February 8, 1828 and died on March 24, 1905 at the age of 77 in Amiens, France.

Some of his best know works were "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1864), "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea" (1870) and lets not forget "Around the World in Eighty Days" (1873). What is so great about Jules was his amazing vision he had about traveling to places where man had not even begun to really explore. His imagination helped us to envision some of the most incredible sights on our journey through his story.

Jules was refereed to by H.G Wells and Hugo Gernsback as the "Father of Science Fiction".

If you haven't had a chance to read or even see some of his books made into movies, please do so. You will not be disappointed. I recommend first reading the books then going to see the movies because many times the authors words help to paint a more detailed and incredible journey then film can ever create in our minds eye..

Happy Birthday Big Guy....

Google offers $20,000 if you can hack their Chrome browser at the Pwn2Own hacking competition

For all those who will be a contestant at the Pwn2Own hacking competition scheduled on March 9-11 in Vancouver the pot got just a little bit sweeter. The contest cash award fund was at $105,000. But, thanks to Google anyone who can hack the Chrome browser will get $20,000 on top of the $15,000 they will already win.

Along with Chrome there will be other web browsers open to being hacked at the event like Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox, and Apple's Safari browser too. They will be available on two operating systems only, Microsoft Windows 7 or Mac OS X (Snow Leopard). Both OS's running in 64-bit mode.

All contestants that win will also win the laptop they are given to use at the event too. The current roundup includes the following laptops: Apple MacBook Air 13", Alienware m11x, and a Sony Vaio.

Now for someone to hack Chrome it will require "escaping the Chrome sandbox using vulnerabilities only in Google-written code -- the competitor will win $20,000 and a Google CR-49 Chrome OS netbook."

Mobile device hacking will be also available. Offering devices like iPhone 4, Blackberry Torch 9800, Dell Windows 7 Phone and Nexus S running Android.

This competition should be an interesting sight to see, especially since so many of us use mobile devices and one of the above mentioned web browsers in day to day activities in our lives.

Information Week - Google Bets $20,000 You Can't Hack Chrome

The Register - Google offers $20,000 prize in annual hack-off

Verizon iPhone upgrade or NOT

This morning like other Verizon customers i was excited to pre-order my Verizon iPhone 4. But, i noticed i still had a few months on my plan and i was told a few weeks ago from a Verizon rep (called into Verizon) that i could still qualify since i had a mi-fi plan too which was eligible now, all i needed to do was switch it to place my order.

Well guess what i tried that this morning and it didn't allow me to order my iPhone 4 upgrade. Even though i could upgrade to all their other phones. So who knows when i will be able to order my iPhone 4 since its obvious Verizon's not on the ball for its existing customers.

I did try to call in this morning to see what was going on. The first call i made ended up switching me over to a busy signal, NICE real NICE. Then i called back a few times but they seemed to be busy. Hmm i wonder why. I wonder how many other Verizon customers are also being jerked around like this.

Its nice to know that loyal customers for years with Verizon are now getting jerked around. This definitely makes me think about going over to AT&T. Even though the calls aren't perfect at least i won't be getting jerked around with a BS upgrade option that isn't available.

Oh but when i log into my account they do offer me an option to upgrade now at FULL PRICE. But, won't let me order any other way now. Nice to see they will give it to me at $700 plus price. I guess Verizon really does care about their customers, actions speak louder then words. Thank You Verizon for showing me what being with you for years gives me in being a customer.

I hope someone in the press picks this up. It would be interesting to see or hear their take on it. If this isn't an interesting story of Verizon jerking around their existing customers i don't know what is.

Verizon can ya hear me now, NOT very happy and definitely considering going to AT&T NOW.

**********************************update***************************************

Well after finally getting a Verizon rep on the phone it turns out the upgrade i was trying to do by using another units upgrade date is called a Buddy update. I will be able to make it on the 10th when the Verizon store is available in stores. So we shall see then in a week will i be able to get an upgrade or not.