Apparently I am REQUIRED to weigh in on the latest and greatest piece of hardware that comes from our retail overlords, Apple. So says the almighty Steve Jobs. All praise Steve Jobs!

I have been consciously waffling on posting about the iPad for over a month. For those of you who know me, I am neither a champion of Apple nor Microsoft. I am not really a full on Linux geek, either. I am comfortable on all platforms. I have obtained (not bought, but not stolen) an iPod touch and enjoy using it, for the most part. I say all this to assure you that the following is not fueled by any specific love or hate for the overall Apple products.

I am a computer and technology Geek. I give all platforms equal chance.

This being said, I do not want an iPad.

Wait. What? But you must ant an iPad. You have an iPod and you like gadgets. Get an iPad. You’ll like it!

That’s right. No iPad for me, please. And now I’ll tell you why:

It’s an iPod touch made bigger.

With so much hype surrounding the iPad, one may first think that this must be a wonderful, revolutionary device, but it isn’t. There have been pads before and there will be better pads to come. Some may be coming sooner than you think. Apple themselves have already made one “pad” called the Newton. So what makes the iPad so newsworthy? It accomplishes everything that the iPod touch does in a bigger package!

Huh?

That’s right, it is just a big iPod touch. It does have more screen real-estate and applications can be made that are only available on the iPad, but when it comes down to it, the only thing that would be better in any way on an iPad than an iPod would be watching movies or consuming other visual content. Even this has it’s trade-off, namely having to hold the device at the proper angle to comfortably consume this content. Okay, so people that want to drop $500 (well actually up to $1200) to watch a movie or surf the web on the toilet, reclining on the couch, or reclining in the easy chair would be happy. After all, why watch a movie on a TV when you can enjoy it having to hold a 1.5 pound screen in your lap?

I DO see where the iPad COULD be useful. It is an intuitive device, so someone who is technology inept could work well on it.

[Yes, I am saying that the iPad could be a "Laptop for Dummies" device. If you don't agree, tell me why!]

So far, this is stuff that has been spewed endlessly by others and I’ve just been reiterating already tired material.

Well here is where I go into why I personally am becoming frustrated with where Apple has gone with their technology. I have a number of media items (songs, pictures and movies) housed on my media PC  that just won’t fit on my 16 GB iPod. In fact, unless my iPod (or an iPad) had approximately 300 GB of storage, I wouldn’t be able to hold the media that I would want to be available to a device like the iPad. I happily live with a storage limitation on my iPod due to it’s size and the fact that movies are just not all that great to watch on it. The iPad however, opens up the more comfortable large media consumption that the iPod just couldn’t deliver. And here lies the real problem in the iPad: the only way to get the full capacity of the iPad is to use remote files. This wouldn’t even BE a problem if it weren’t for the fact that the only way to use remote files on the iPad was through streaming services. Why can’t the iPod or iPad sync wirelessly with a FULL library? I have a LOT of media files. It would be very difficult to have to pull up iTunes (or even another media manager), select the file I want moved over, and then hook up the device and sync it. That’s not even considering the fact that it HAS to be in a certain format. If I could remotely browse my library (while I was on the same Wi-Fi network) and pull a desired file on demand, I would want it. I would want an iPad so bad that I would be doing some very degrading things right now to get one. Sure, I want expandability. Sure, I would LIKE a camera. But for what this device is, it lacks a very core functionality that it could easily have that would truely make it the revolutionary device that it is being touted to be.

There are a lot of Android tablets coming out VERY soon and I am pretty sure that networking and file browsing will be a basic function in these devices, allowing for exactly what I’m looking for. Not only will these devices offer more functionality in a basic way, they will be expandable. Will they overtake the iPad, unfortunately they will probably be looked on as too “complex” by the technophobic masses to be as widely accepted as the heavily mass-marketed iPad. Woe is the world.

Someone please make a device that truly embodies portable media consumption. I beg you!

-Mike

I wished upon a star until it landed on runway 9.

I have been hearing about the Powermat quite a bit here lately. It is basically a charging station for three devices that charges the devices through inductance. That in itself is cool. The problem that I have is that everyone is propagating thier marketing slogan of “wireless” charging. Firstly, there is the power adapter for the mat itself that must plug in between the mat and the outlet. Okay, so you have POTENTIALLY gone down from three wires to one. That’s GREAT! Seriously, I’m not even being sarcastic here. A device management system that reduces the spaghetti piles around my house might be worth it. But it doesn’t eliminate cables. Hell, the AC adapter for it has to go all the way to where the device must be set down.

That brings me to point two: they make it sound as if it makes charging it so much more convenient. Look, if I could use my iPod while it charged and not be bothered by a tethered cord, this thing would be worth its weight in gold. But I can’t. If anything, this device would inconvenience me MORE. Right now I am typing this rant on my iPod while in bed next to my sleeping wife. It’s damned convenient, I would say. If my battery were to get low, I plug in my bedside AC adapter and continue on my merry way. I couldn’t do that with the Powermat. Well, I could if I wanted to hunch over the bedside table. I could also listen to music. But the point is that it would be an inconvenience when I do most of my charging. And another inconvenience is that additional case or adapter I would need to use it.

And now we come to the final point: the adapter necessary for the Powermat to work. Devices are not yet built with inductance coils already in place to charge them (with the notable exception of a pricey Dell laptop). You are getting rid of three long cables for a kit of inductance coil dongles. I understand that these come in a nifty case, though. That’s good, because I didn’t want to have anything bulky in the way or small enough to lose. Now I have both and that nulls each other out, right? Alternatively, you could pay them MORE money for special cases for COMMON devices so you don’t have to keep up with the dongles (at least not the ones they offer a case for).

Oddly enough, these are only issues I have with how it is being sold. I actually DO want one as it WOULD reduce some cable issues for cell phones and cameras. I wouldn’t want it as an iPhone or iPod accessory, but that is because I use my iPod heavily. Those who put theirs down for the night to charge could consider it, though.

Well, I feel so much better to have shared this little frustration with you.

Have fun!
-Mike

Data Recovery & Computer Forensics Blog.

If you are here, you may be of the geek persuasion. At least that is what the authors here are. Being that as it is, I thought the site linked above to be of the highest quality in informative yet geeky fare. If the admin of that site reads this post, kudos to you for making what many would consider a dry subject interesting enough to be read and yet still informative enough to hold the attention of a professional in the same field.

I have added this blog to MY favorites and fully intend to keep reading.

A few days ago, I set up my new(ish) Dell Inspirion 1525 to triple boot Windows Vista Home Premium (the pre-installed OS), Windows XP SP3, and Kubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex, a flavor of Linux). Warning: If you are already confused, you may wish to gloss over this post. It may be fairly geek driven.

Being a computer repair wizard in my spare time, I figured it would be good for me to garner some experience on the Vista platform even though I don’t particularly care for it. I enjoy playing around with Linux and Ubuntu flavors just make that transition even easier. I still need XP for compatibility issues on contract work, though. I figure,”Hey! I’ve been multi-booting for several years now. This should be cake to set up.” Well I was wrong. Microsoft has taken something that should be an easy task and tried to make it impossible. Of course I should have expected that. Why wouldn’t I? Because I figure people would actually think before they do things. I’m an optimist. It kills me.

If you’ve ever wanted to set up a multi-boot system: AVOID MICROSOFT AT ALL COSTS!

Note that I hate all caps, but this is the only way for me to show how much I mean that last little part.

Microsoft has no intention of letting anyone boot multiple operating systems, even if it is multiple of their own. I was able to easily re-size the Vista partition and add in Linux. It uses it’s own boot-strap and GRUB boot menu that doesn’t interfere with ntldr. Vista and XP, however, have two DIFFERENT ntldr files that cannot coexist on the same partition though. “Why does this matter?”, you may ask. Well, as I found out over two days of partitioning and installing, even though you create two separate primary installations for your operating systems to inhabit in their hermatic bliss, whatever Windows operating system is not on the first primary partition does not install its version of ntldr on its own partition. Like a fool, it assumes that it is going to be the ONLY possible OS installed and writes it’s ntldr file to the first partition (erasing one that already happens to be there). Oh, but this is an easy fix, right? Yeah, but it is not something that is obvious or really discussed anywhere easy to find out in the cold recesses of cyberspace. The Vista disk has a nice feature that will automatically replace the “corrupt” ntldr file, you just need to remember to open the command line utility from the same disk and copy the XP ntldr over to its own partition first. Then there is still the issue of the boot menu once you get the boot loader file issue sorted out. This is what all the forums already discuss. Never mind the fact that you need a boot loader before the menu can boot to a partition. If you are actually using this post as a guide, I recommend EasyBCD from NeoSmart Technologies. It is free and it worked exactly as I needed.You could try to let the Vista boot disk automatically, but I don’t see you getting anywhere with THAT. Do you?

Of course if you are going to install ANY flavor of Linux, just let GRUB do that dirty work. Worst case scenario there is that you have to use a GRUB editor that is easily found with your package manager to modify your GRUB settings. Just make sure you install your Microsoft stuff FIRST. The Vista disk seemed incompetent at removing third party boot loaders, but the XP disk will easily screw with your GRUB files. If you are not an advanced computer user, I do not recommend getting frustrated on attempting this at all. Just call in some help and ask for lots of pointers along the way!

From Gizmodo.com.

Physical Media: World’s Largest Record Collection is Worth $50 Million; No One Wants it for $3 Million

Paul Mawhinney ownes a record collection of 3 MILLION albums and 600,000 CDs. This collection has been appraised at $50 million in value. He is offering it for sale on his website for a mere $3 million and he is having trouble selling it. It is unbelievable that such a collection were not wanted by a bevy of persons wishing to preserve such an awesome collection. If I had the means, I would surely jump at this opportunity. As Gizmodo says:

In a time when you can access pretty much whatever music you want online, hard copies of albums are declining in value, both monetary and sentimentally. But to see such a mindblowing collection as this sitting in a basement, unwanted, is really heartbreaking. This is historic, no matter that we live in the iPod era or not, and it belongs in a museum.

This definitely belongs in a museum! I beg of everyone to spread the word on this. If the interest is out there, the people could even come together to donate this to a worthy institution that would not only be ecstatic to receive such a collection and have the resources to preserve it as well. Candidates would include music hall of fames or universities where music or arts are a prime concern.