Confessions of an Ecchi Mac-geek

You know what? I feel kind of lame for starting a Mac-related blog, since there are enough sites out there that post tons of Mac links and have commentary. I really want to talk about Aperture, but it’s not even available to buy, so all I can go off of is the Apple website and all the spiffy movies. Well, let’s just say that this was the must-have product from the last of Steve’s announcements. I love the use of metaphor. I’m definitely seeing if I can buy a copy as soon as it comes out (system requirements be damned!). Here is to hoping they offer an EDU discount.

-Tom

So, to be perfectly honest, I was not all that excited about FrontRow. Then I saw these reports of FrontRow being hacked to work on other Macs. My curiosity got the better of me, so I downloaded the hacked version and installed it to see what all the hype is about.

I must say, I kinda like it. Not even “kinda”… I like it a lot. Too bad the DVD player does not work under this hacked version, but I could see it being a good way for me to play my movies and music and all that jazz. Speaking of Jazz, he was one of my favorite Transformers…

… sorry, tangent.

-Tom

I’m playing around with the site’s theme… I need to work out color scheme and resizing the image and all that crap for consistency. Also, right now, the image will not rotate… I’ll stick to the blue image for now. Anyway, I’ll sort things out, then this site will look pretty!

-Tom

So I got to play with an iPod nano today… It’s like sex in my hand. One thing that always bothered me about the 3rd Gen iPods (and it’s descendants) and the iPod mini was the fact that they were a departure from the design of the original iPod. I purchased my mini mainly for the uber-battery life, and truth be told it was not a bad design. The 3rd Gen looked very similar to the original iPod, but it was missing something… it was too round. The iPod nano maintains the rounded metal bottom, but the polycarbonate top-shell is primarily flat, with a little rounding to make it less aggressive, more clean. Its a “classic” look, but has all of the features of the newer iPods, and it’s so small. Oh yeah, and black is sexy. I love it.

-Tom

One thing that saw little mention when the new iPods, phone, and iTunes were released, was the mention of a special edition Harry Potter iPod to go along with the addition of the Harry Potter books being available at the iTunes Music Store. If I didn’t already own print copies of the books, and if I already wasn’t tempted by the black iPod nano (not to mention I already own two iPods), this would surely be on my “to get” list.

-Tom

PS: the link to the Apple Store entry to get in on this deal is “http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa?snape=y” =P

Oh man, I just can’t justify getting an iPod nano, yet I crave it! I was thinking I’d just get a 2GB black nano, but truth be told, for $50 more, considering I should not buy one in the first place, I’d probably buy the 4GB version.

Well, I plan to hit the Apple Retail Store tomorrow… lets see if my will power holds out.

-Tom

PS: iTunes 5.0 rocks!

PPS: The Motorola ROKR (aka: “The iTunes Phone”) is.. meh, not something I’m in to. Thanks anyway.

AppleInsider is reporting that Steve Jobs will be presenting at this year’s Apple Expo in Paris. The Ars blog Infinite Loop is reporting that rumors are abound that this will see the release of the last revision of the PowerBook line before the move to Intel.

Now, the skeptic in me has the following to say: perhaps this is true, but I’m willing to bet something bigger is on the horizon. If it’s just a speed-bump (which is all that can really happen to the PBs) with maybe a few neat flourishes, then I don’t think Steve Jobs would be in attendance to hold a keynote. Speeds bumps and minor platform changes are usually handled via a semi-discrete update of the website and a nice PR release. The optimistic Tom thinks the new Intel-based PowerBook might make an appearance (since rumor indicates the transition is moving faster than expected), but I’m not holding my breath. Instead, with Windows Vista now on the horizon, I think Mac OS X 10.5 info might be coming to the fore, or maybe a new product altogether.

Meh, basically, if Steve is attending the party, it’s so he can show off his new product with the pomp and circumstance it deserves. Which is good, I need something new to lust after.

-Tom

A nice little hack that displays an intro to your app loading, in the spirit of Megaman’s many bosses.

MegaManEffect

-Tom

Well, I’ll keep it short and simple. As many people by now know, Apple has just released their first “two-button” mouse, the Mighty Mouse. I’m not sure what I think of the name, but I dig the concept. I’ve placed an order for one, so I’ll maybe give some impressions when I’ve had a chance to play with it.

Now, for once, I’ll be slightly ahead of the curve, since I have not seen much mention of this anywhere, but the iTunes Music Store is now available in Japan. Prices range from 150-200 yen, and after taking a quick glance at the library, I see familiar artists like Ayumi Hamasaki, globe, B’z, and plenty of others. Now, I must hunt and peck to see if the J-Rock crowd got any love out of this.

-Tom

I just came across this link to a place called ETCHamac which will laser etch an image of your choice on to the backs of iPods and Aluminum PowerBooks. Barring the availability of art, I could see about etching Ishtar’s (from Macross II) face tattoo on my PowerBook…

-Tom

So the news around town on the various mac-related sites was that Steve Jobs gave a nice little speech to Stanford grads. I wasn’t planning on posting anything, but I found this site that had a copy of the speech, both in audio and written form. The message is a good one, so I thought I’d link to it.

Stay Hungry. Stay foolish.

-Tom

I will own this piece of G5 goodness…

If you don’t yet already know about this site, then you are missing out. It’s Andy Hertzfeld’s Folklore.org, which recounts the development of the original Macintosh through annecdotes by the people who helped to create it. Really good stuff.

-Tom

I’ve replaced all of the banners on this page with (arguably) work-safe images provided by my friend, Joey. Since I’m an image-whore, I still plan to get some more banners, but I really like what I have so far. Now, maybe my brother can shut up about (one of) my blogs being not safe for work =P I still need to work on images for the other blog, but that will take time.

-Tom

This would be cool, the Japanese iTunes Music Store… I could get my J-Pop fix! Wait, I’d still need a Japanese credit card… doh.

-Tom

Hannibal over at Ars Technica has his guesses as to what processors will be used in the new Intel-based Macs. Take a look at it here

-Tom

XLR8YourMac has some interesting info from developers who’ve been to Apple’s compatability labs and have had the chance to play with the Intel dev boxes. Sounds promising… I guess I’m considerably relieved.

-Tom

The banners up top are temporary right now… just a few favorites culled from my large collection of images over the years. There are some potentially not work safe images though, so I appologize in advance. I hope to recitify that soon, see my previous post.

-Tom

See the images above? I need something more Mac/Apple-centric. I’d like to go with the whole anime thing, so what I’d like are some images I could put up there… y’know, an anime girl using an iBook, or something similar to the iMac-girl. I want to shy away from proprietary images, so I do plan to start talking to my artist friends and whoever’s art I like and see about getting a few commissions done. If you are down, drop me a line.

-Tom

Apple will be switching to Intel in 2006…

I’m not sure what to say.

-Tom

This is perhaps THE coolest application to come out for Tiger to date. It’s called QuartzDesktop and the sample Quartz Compositions linked off of the developer’s website are pretty nifty too! I’ve been meaning to play with Quartz Composer, but now I’m getting ideas of what I can do with it…

-Tom

This is the future home of my Mac-centric Blog which will include posts from all walks of life… (almost) all things Mac. I will also use this blog as a test-bed for using WordPress, but so far I’m really liking what I’ve got so far. Test the site out and let me know if you have any suggestions.

Overview:
MacOtaku.com - all things Mac, with a little anime and a dash of hentai… well, maybe…
b3atm0nk3y.com - all things related to me, myself and I. Robotics, Mac, Anime & Manga, programming, Star Wars, rave-culture, electronic music, GUI and human-interface design, pr0n, etc… as of this writing, the domain has not been transferred to my current host, but soon, I’ll have that up (maybe in WordPress, or possibly just an update of the current incarnation using Simple PHP Blog).

Oh yeah, before I get the questions… yes, I do realize how “beat monkey” can be interpreted, but I’m paying homage to my rabid obsession with electronic music.

-Tom Heaton