So Apple has released the new iPad, having dropped the numbering. Everyone expected iPad 3 but it is just “iPad”. And I guess you know what I am going to say, JUST BUY IT! Just so that I am not misleading anyone, that’s me with the first iPad.

I keep reading articles discussing whether one should upgrade or not and a lot of the experts say there is no need. The changes are not significant. I think most of these commenters are just scratching around for something to write, knock Apple or plain, just have no idea.

The first issue, and I have discussed this previously, the initial investment of $900 for an iPad is the start point. If you buy an iPad today, you get your tax deduction and you should plan to fall into line with Apple’s regular one year upgrade cycle. So assuming that you bought your first iPad as the 2 sometime last year, you now put it on eBay on a 3 day sell cycle. Most are going for between $600-700. Having bought my “iPad” day one, I immediately knocked mine out at over $600. So the full year use and tax deductibility means out of pocket less than $300. If you wait for iPad 4, the resale of iPad 2 goes down significantly. So JUST DO IT!

There are a couple of other features which I would like to point out.

The screen is gorgeous and it’s a significant improvement on the previous screen. It’s like getting a new pair of sharper glasses. The screen is 9.7 inch, which I think is the same.

The resolution is 2048X1536 and 264ppi. Retina Ready! The non technical comment is bloody awesome. I have the WiFi 4G (a bit more about the Australian ACCC attack on Apple Australia later), 64 GB version. Now, a bit has been written about the 4G connectivity. Australia has one 4G service provision via Telstra. The iPad is incompatible with Telstra’s 4G network.  I have tested the iPad speed on 3G and you are lucky to get 1.2-1.5 MBps. ADSL2 gets you around 6 MBps and my iinet connection of ADSL2+ comes in at 12-14 MBps. I have had my new iPad up to 10 MBps on the Telstra HSPA+ network. This for me is a significant upgrade reason, as if I was really looking to justify my upgrade. For the first time, I am now starting to use the iPad as a mobile full computing unit. Previously I would lug my Macbook and iPad around the world, but no more, just the iPad. The carrier speed justifies this.

The iPad processor speed is noticeably better. It carries the A5X processor whatever the hell that is. It’s just faster as you would expect of an upgrade. It has a 5 megapixel camera which I guess turns some people on. It is good for Skype and FaceTime video calls.

One area that is impressive is the 1080 High Definition video. iTunes have been upgrading their movie library to HD movies which you can efficiently download from the “Cloud” to watch on your iPad. But you can also connect via Aiplay into your Apple TV and watch the movie that resides on the iPad or is streaming via the iPad to the Apple TV. So the new Apple TV (Ver 3) has been upgraded with a faster processor but more importantly HD 1080p video. I read somewhere that you now do not need a BlueRay player because of the quality of the video which you can stream via rental or purchase from the Apple store. From what I have seen, I would probably agree with that. iTune HD videos are very good.

The Apple TV retails for A$99. I have two, one connected to the Australian iTunes store and the second connects to the US store. I have a Bose Theatre system and the Apple TVs connect into the Bose and the Bose consul connects via HDMI to my HD TV. I am very excited. Games of Thrones 2, the Killing Season 2, and Mad Men Season 5 have just premiered. I stream Game of Thrones through the aussie store, Mad Men and the Killing via the US store.

So there has been a bit of fanfare on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ACCC taking a potshot at Apple Australia for misleading the Australian consumer. I am trying to picture the beaucratic dimwit that thought this one up considering all of the legitimate targets that the ACCC could have gone after, petrol groceries etc.  Directly off the ACCC website:

“The ACCC alleges that Apple’s recent promotion of the new “iPad with WiFi + 4G” is misleading because it represents to Australian consumers that the product “iPad with WiFi + 4G” can, with a SIM card, connect to a 4G mobile data network in Australia, when this is not the case”.

As an Australian consumer, I noted that the new iPad has 4G capability. I did further check the compatibility of 4G in Australia and very quickly learnt that the iPad would not connect to Telstra’s 4G network. But as result of HPSA+ I knew that I would get faster connectivity on Telstra’s network than 3G. It seems that the ACCC is arguing that Apple is misleading consumers by offering the technical specification of 4G. Is it misleading because 4G is not available in Australia. But if I take the iPad to the US, I can purchase a SIM and get 4G. I think the qualification by the ACCC is pretty pedantic and I think they have bigger issues that they can go after. Apple Australia have agreed to full refunds for anymore who feels that they have been “mislead”. I’d be interested to look at those numbers. As I sit in my office, another Speedtest.net comes up with 8.83 Mbps on a Telstra SIM. That’s outstanding. ACCC should spend my tax dollars in areas that affect me, not this headline grabbing effort.

We will miss the anticipated iPad 3 and Apple TV announcements due for the 7th of March.

We’ll have a look at the releases next month. Everybody is expecting an iPad 3 or iPad 2S announcement. There is always a lot of speculation around Apple Events and as you approach the date, people tend to work themselves into a frenzy! The rumors are as follows. A new iPad 3 with a Retina Display. This display will be similar to that on the iPhone. This is a significantly higher quality display. The second rumor which seems plausible is a faster processor. In addition 4G network support meaning much faster downloading. There are also rumors getting around indicating a cheaper iPad 2 for say $300 competing with the Kindle Fire. Also the possibility of an 8 inch iPad.

In addition, my observers and information leaks point to an Apple TV 3 being released. I’m actually more interested in this than the iPad. I love the Apple TV although it has been described as Apple’s hobby. People seem to get excited about Netflix streaming. I have an account but I prefer buying TV Seasons from iTunes and streaming. My current favorite is Dexter!!! There is talk of major network sign ups. HBO and Showtime. Apple TV and iPad 3 combined could indicate a significantly higher quality picture being played from the iPad via Airplay through your HDTV.

All will be revealed on Thursday Sydney time.

I want to talk about the Kindle Fire and then I am going back to some new sports monitors. But firstly the Kindle Fire.

Not available outside the US, well certainly not in Australia. This Kindle Fire, a $199.00, seven inch tablet is really really well priced. It also goes pretty well.

Now this unit isn’t an iPad but for $199, it’s very very good. So far I have loaded up two movies and a TV series all purchased or rented online. Providing that you have a US address you can use an aussie credit card. Now here comes the hard part. You need to have a US VPN service which tricks US vendors into thinking you are sitting in Miami or somewhere in the US. These services are available and easy to access. The Amazon system knows that the download is outside the US and you get a polite message saying that there is a download error. Same with the purchase of the Fire. Unless you are in the US you can’t purchase or ship from Amazon. Again there are other services that accomplish this.

The screen is magnificent and the books and movies that I have viewed are very good. Interestingly the prices seem slightly cheaper than the Apple iTunes store. The Android apps look pretty good. There is an Office type app built in and I have set up my emails within the Fire.

An interesting gadget that I saw recently and planned to pick up in the US. Unfortunately all released products were recalled. Hopefully it’s temporary as it looks really interesting. Previously I reviewed the Jawbone Jambox small speaker system. Great to travel with, but I am not a Bluetooth fan. It’s too finicky on connections. The Jawbone Up, although recalled, is basically a health pattern monitoring bracelet. It tracks your activities, your sleep patterns and food intake. I am really keen to get one of these and see how it operates. Hopefully it will be released again soon.

The next gadget is a doozy.

It’s the latest Sports Watch from Garmin. The Forerunner 910 XT. What differentiates this, is the fact that you can monitor your running, walking, bike riding and swimming. It uploads your activities to Garmin Connect.

I picked one up in the US and I have been using it for the last week. I have often wondered how far we swim during our various sessions. Our Wednesday and Friday sessions are 1.2 kilometers and the weekend shark bait swims around Mona Vale Beach headland are 1.4 kilometers. The watch uploads this data plus routes taken and other bits of meaning data to the Garmin Connect website. I did a couple of 6-12 kilometer walks plus a quick 20 kms mountain bike ride with all of routes taken uploaded to my Activity register.

The only problem is that I haven’t figured out how to tell the time with it! That seems a bit more challenging!

So the big question is, do you buy Apple shares today and unfortunately the answer is you missed the boat. I bought my first iPod back in 2002 and my first iMac in 2003. Apple shares were trading around the $30 mark versus the current $453. I’m a great believer in “if you love the product, buy the shares”! But at current levels, everyone is buying the product and everyone is buying the shares. The Apple acolyte websites are tipping $1000 per share! Beyond that the Guardian newspaper is suggesting the world’s first trillion dollar company! I think these predictions are way off the mark. There are just so many iPhones and iPads that you can shove down people’s throats. To me there is just too much oohing and ahhing about Apple. I think it’s herd mentality.

But let’s have a look at what is ahead for Apple. I’ll summarize the predictions and rumors for 2012.

iPad 3

It looks as if there will be an announcement in February for a March launch. Word around the traps is that iPad 3 will be similar to the iPhone 4 as to iPhone 4S upgrade. I.e. not much difference. iLounge.com believe that they were able to observe one at CES recently. Their observation was that it was slightly thicker.

iPhone 5

There have been reports coming out of Foxconn, the Apple supplier, that iPhone 5 production is already underway suggesting a June release. It is rumored that the phone will be slimmer. It will be compatible with LTE networks. Speculation is that it will use the Qualcomm quad-mode chip. It is also rumored to have a 4 inch screen. Piper Jaffray are suggesting an August release date.

Apple iTV

Bloomberg Business Week reported back in November that Sharp will be the screen supplier for the much anticipated iTV. There are rumors circulating that Apple will launch the iTV in April or May this year. Speculation is that the screen size will be a 42 inch set. Now why would you need an Apple iTV? It has been suggested that the TV will incorporate Siri technology of which I am not a great fan. Siri does not understand Australian. I think we talk too fast. I know what will happen to me, I’ll say to my iTV, launch Die Hard 3 and I’ll get Sound of Music. However, I have reported previously that once you are caught in the Apple eco system, it is easier to have all of your componentry linked. Yes other vendors could come out with better iPad clones, PCs, and what not, but to have everything seamlessly linked is very convenient. I have been an Apple TV streaming user from day one. I really enjoy renting and streaming stored TV shows from iCloud. It’s easy and works a treat but only if everything is Apple. I.e. Airport Extreme as your router, Airplay etc.

iTV, I’m a buyer.

iPods

Last year I mentioned that I picked up a 64 GB iTouch. I love this little unit but I could really do with some extra storage. I would love to see a 250 GB iTouch. I have started to reburn my over 1000 CD library at Apple LossLess. Currently my entire library is at 320 kbps compressed AAC format which is significantly higher than the 256 kbps of the iTunes store quality. I have also subscribed to iMatch and have all my purchased albums and ripped CDs in iCloud for the $25 per year subscription. I have been streaming my iCloud library down through the Apple TV through to my Bose Lifestyle system and it works a treat. Still, I like the idea of a higher capacity iPod for the Lossless format tracks.

So getting back to my original point, forgetting new iMac, MacBooks and other products, are the big ticket revenue generators enough to maintain Apple’s upward momentum? I can’t see it. I think that there will be some rude shocks this year and you could see some unexpected volatility in Apple’s stock price. Would I go short? No way. Trend is your friend. A market has to give an indication of a major change in sentiment or price momentum before you would commit to the short side. Apple breaking into new high territory is not a reason to short. Take profits? Maybe. If you were already in for the ride. This is personal opinion not investment advice!!!

iTune Gift Cards

This is so easy and means that recipients can buy, albums, books or apps. Even TV shows and Movies.

I’m on the US, UK and Australian stores and prices and selection vary across all stores.

In terms of a couple of my recent purchases, here’s a couple of recommendations.

Boardwalk Empire Season 2 is now available on the Australian iTunes Store.

Game of Thrones is an awesome series and is also available on the Australian Store. Season 2 is just around the corner.

Sons of Anarchy is fantastic. Now just finalized Season 4. On the US store.

And what about Breaking Bad? This is one of the best shows around.

For a bit of Australian content you can’t go past Rake from the ABC.

Sonos Play: 3

I’ve been following Sonos for some years. I was never 100% sure how I would fit their products into my stereo system. And they were expensive. Recently, they brought out this wireless speaker unit. I had a listen over the weekend and the sound was superb. In fact, my little den has a mini hifi system with book shelf speakers. As an alternative I could have just bought two of these and had them sitting on the bookshelf with no need for the receiver amp. They are about $400 a pop and you can get away with one but you probably need two for true stereo. One drawback is no battery power so you can’t take it outside and play music. They use a proprietary network which seems to overlay your own network. You just play music via your computer into their network.

 Bose Soundlink Wireless Speaker System

My main stereo system is a Bose surround sound. Getting a bit old but still sounds great. Little cube speakers and a subwoofer. Bose do some very nice portable and iPod dock speakers. This is a relatively new one, which is very small and has impressive sound. Approximately $400.

It’s portable and the connectivity with an iPhone is via Bluetooth. Now I am a Bluetooth hater and I am a bit suspect on the sound via Bluetooth. I don’t know why they don’t do a Sonos and go wireless.

Microsoft Xbox 360 with Kinect

Ok, you all know that I think MS is the dark side. And Steve Ballmer is Darth Vader. However, I am keen to get an Xbox 360. I’m not much of a gamer but this has a couple of attractions to me.

First, you can get Foxtel and live TV record and store. The subscription is pretty cheap. They are about $400 and the subscriptions can be as low as $20 per month. I mentioned I wasn’t a gamer but I would do some of the exercise stuff and Zumba!!!! Maybe some more dance stuff as I am hopeless. From my investigations, the Xbox is the pick of the consoles.

Headphones and Earphones.

B&W P5 and C5s

I have a set of both. They are reasonably priced and have great sound. The P5s are $449 at the Apple Store and you discount down particularly if you have a business account. Don’t forget the 14 day return policy.

The C5s are the in ear canals. The sound is remarkable for the price, but you need to ditch the ear pieces and use the Comfy Ear inserts. They are $249 at the Apple store. About $180 at Amazon.

Camera: Lumix GX1

Just out in time for chrissie, this camera looks a beauty. I think they are quoting about $800 with lens kit. I definitely have my eye on one of these.

Apple iPod Touch

I bought one of these recently, a 64GB. It’s not really an iPhone without the phone. I use this extensively, I jam it up with my head banger rock. Hey the original Black Sabbath are getting back together. Ozzy and the team! I use it as a remote for Apple TV and my Denon system. I Airplay media from it. And I use it in a dock at night for “White Music” to sleep by. Check out the App. I sleep very deeply these days. $399 for the 64GB. Get the 8GB at $199 for the kids for chrissie.

Bike: Giant Trance X 3

I had my mountain bike knocked off the other day. I am just waiting for the insurance and I might have a look at one of these. One of my buddies recommended the Giant Trance series. It’s a mid range hardcore soft tail, I know I sound like an expert but I aren’t. That means shock absorbers at the back. They retail for about $2000.00.

Music: Plenty of ReIssues and Box sets.

It’s been fantastic. Plenty of boxsets with great album re-issues. Interestingly, you get the remastered CDs, DVD and BlueRay. Plus memorabilia. The CDs get ripped into iTunes. 5.1 remixes can be found on the BlueRay disks. The sound is magnificent.

Here’s a few that I have picked up recently:

Jethro Tull 40^th Anniversary Aqualung

Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here

 Nirvana Nevermind

 The Beach Boys Smile Sessions

 The Rolling Stones Some Girls

Happy Christmas shopping!

I’ve always loved gadgets mainly because they enhance everyday activities. I’ve always loved my music, MP3 players, smartphones, movies, and TV shows. The efficiency that has been added to every day business usage.

Here’s my gadget journey and some of the gadgets that I’ve loved over the years.

Back in the 90’s I was an active runner, now a regular walker because of a dodgy knee. Sometime around 1994, I bought a Sony Walkman Armband FM Radio with sweat proof headphones! This unit was small and great for jogging. I picked it up in New York and whilst running around Central Park and listening to a US Classic Rock station, I was introduced to one of the early Black Crowe albums. I loved these guys and started collecting their albums.

At some stage in 1990’s I bought an Apple Newton. This had a cult following. I found a small shop in New York which was a Newton specialist retailer. This was the forerunner to the Palm Pilot. I loved the idea of collecting contact addresses and storing them on “smart” gadgets.

I remember the great Steven Segal movie Under Seige 2, what, nobody remembers it? Aside from playing a chef in his own restaurant, Segal was an ex Navy SEAL who was on top of his technology. He was on holidays on a train, which was hijacked by terrorists. He managed to use a cut telephone line connected to his Apple Newton to alert the good guys and save the day. He faxed the alert. I was amazed at this wonderful piece of technology

Unfortunately, Steve Jobs did not share my enthusiasm for this wonderful gadget and he canned it when he returned to Apple. There is still a Newton cult following out there.

Towards the end of the nineties, I bought my first digital camera, a big hulking Olympus. I also bought the Palm Pilot which I loved.

This was while I was living in Hong Kong, which at the time was gadget central. I did a lot of jogging in HK and in 1999 one of the first MP3s came out called a Rio. I could only fit half a CD on it, but I was so impressed that I could listen to half of the Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers and hit replay every 20 minutes or so. Then the battery would run out. This probably set me on my path of efficiently getting music onto portable players, jogging, biking, gyming and getting lost in my music whilst getting fit. Or trying to work off the Heinekens.

I was big on Sony. Their hardware was awesome and they could have continued to dominate the media space but they never worked out that the software needed to talk to the hardware. This is where Apple nailed it. They launched iTunes and the “Jukebox” software prior to the iPod. Sony brought out a Mini Disc player where the disks could hold quite a number of CDs. But it took quite a while before one was able to handle jogging and not incur track jumping. I had a few of these and they were pretty good, but then the iPod was launched. That changed everything for me in quite a few ways.

Steve Jobs ramped up the development of an MP3 player code named P-68 during 2001. Jobs named the MP3 player the “iPod” and nobody really knows where he got the name from. He just came up with it! It was launched about a month after 9/11 terrorist attacks.

So I bought the first generation iPod. I was absolutely amazed because I could fit 100 CDs onto this minimalized unit. I used it running and bike riding. And I was one the first to wander around or sit on a bus with earphones listening to an iPod. The problem was my Windows software which wouldn’t communicate with the iPod. You had to buy a third party hack software.

So the solution for me was to buy an iMac. I had rationalized that all I used my home computer was for Email, Browsing, Contacts, Music and Photos. I was due an upgrade so in 2002 so I made the jump to Apple from Windows.

I was amazed at this computer. So simple, yet very powerful. It did everything that I wanted it to do and ran my music files and syncing seamlessly with the iPod.

It was not long after that I decided to add an iBook to my business computing. The company I worked for at the time, used Windows based PCs and our contact manager was ACT for Windows, which was and still is, a very efficient CRM. I could quickly export all of my marketing contacts to the Mac Address book, travel around the world, sit in the Apple shop theaters and use their free wifi. One time, I wrote up our monthly marketing letter and sent it out to 3000 recipients from the Michigan Avenue Chicago Apple Store, whilst doing a US roadshow.

That 12” iBook is still going and my 84 year old mother is connecting it to her nursing home internal wifi! It’s nearly 10 years old!

So now my Apple journey was well and truly off and running. What really impressed me, was the simplicity and that fact that the operating system did not crash. No viruses and it had a strong built in firewall. Everybody said “but the hardware is so expensive”. I found that owning Apple hardware was significantly cheaper than PC Windows because the included software was nearly enough to get by. Third party Mac software was way cheaper than Windows software. I then got into the habit of upgrading on a 12-24 month cycle. Putting the old hardware on eBay where Apple devotees picked up the old Macs for 50-70% of the original purchase price. This is the same for iPhones, iPods and iPads.

But look at all this, it’s Job’s genius. He has been described as a re-inventor. All of these items were around. He just made them ascetically pleasing through Jonathon Ive’ design genius and they JUST WORKED. Most of these items previously failed because they didn’t achieve those two objectives.

I do think that Apple may not go forward after his death. Jobs was a user. If he used his hardware and software, and it didn’t work, I can imagine his ranting and raving to get it fixed. Not so now. I am writing this under OS X Lion and I finally felt that 10.7.2 was stable enough to upgrade my work Macs. Mail still crashes once or twice a day and I still think it is slow after the upgrade from Snow Leopard. If Jobs was having the same issues, a fix would be out immediately. I’m not so sure that the same attention is being applied.

I will sorely miss the product launch shows that Jobs put on. The anticipation prior to a product announcement, I just can’t see Apple replicating this.

Thanks for the reinventions Mr Jobs, I’ve loved the ride to date.

Since the advent of Windows in the 90’s, I have always been a keen up-grader to get the “new” feel and come up the learning curve quite early. I have never reverted back to a previous version until now. My techo mate gave me the early developer update 10.7.2 which I applied…and still Mail 5 constantly crashes.

After that, it was back to Snow Leopard. It does seem that stand-alone machines are going fine for Lion, but if you use your Mac in a corporate environment particularly on an Exchange Server, you are more than likely to have problems. Our outsourced Exchange Server is 2007 and that could be an issue. It still doesn’t excuse the idiotic treatment of PDF files and the general slowness that a lot of people are reporting.

CSC what the ….?

Just when you thought that we’d had enough acronyms, there’s a new that I have to learn. Compact System Camera or CSC. I just love high quality small gadgets but not so small that they are hard to use. These small powerful digital SLRs are really exciting.  I have quickly scanned the product reviews on these cameras and as long as they a minimum 3 out of 5 and the photo is good, I’m fine.

Here’s a few that I have looked at:

Olympus EP 3

This is a gorgeous looking snapper. I have had a variety of cameras over the years but my first digital was an Olympus back in 1998. Big and hulking but took a great shot. Forget all the geek specs and techs and just look at the photo. You don’t have to know all that stuff to know a good photo.

These CSC cameras have inter-changeable lenses. They are also very compact. I love the retro style of the EP 3.  12 Megapixel with full HD movie. 35-point AutoFocus. I couldn’t see whether it had a retractable screen.

The online prices in Australia start at a little above $800. Here’s a funny thing. Recently I have found that these prices are cheaper than Hong Kong, which was always my gadget purchase destination.

Panasonic Lumix G3

Another gorgeous looking camera. These Lumix cameras are ranked very highly by reviewers such as T3, my favourite gadget magazine. I am seriously looking at getting one of these.

One thing that I love about this camera is the retractable screen. So you can pull out the back viewing screen to see the shot from the front of the camera. I like taking pictures of myself!!!!

16 Megapixel with 1080i HD video, autofocus. All the usuals.  They are a bit cheaper than the Olympus, around $700-800.

Canon Powershot G12

This is my current camera which I gave to my daughter when she moved over to New York. I settled back to the Canon Powershot S95. A compact little beauty for my pocket. Although the G12 does not have interchangeable lenses, it takes the most superb pictures. It is, however, getting dated and Canon seem to be behind everybody else in this CSC space.

10 Megapixel 5 X Zoom. It has the retractable back screen. 720p HD Video. Autofocus.  Online in Australia you can get these for about $500 or less.

Sony Alpha NEX-C3

A mate of mine bought the 1st generation NEX-5 and we were looking at his holiday snaps on his TV. They were nothing short of awesome. This is the 2nd generation of the Sony series.

It’s a 16 Megapixel camera and as you would expect, video will be Sony excellent. It shoots at 720p.  The camera itself looks fantastic and it has the retractable screen.  Around $800 online in Australia.

There has been an eerie quiet about this operating system. I think the reason is that commentators are scared to voice negative opinions. On the Opinions Page of Cult of Mac, a blogger wrote an article entitled “OS X Lion turned me into a ranting bitch!”.

http://www.cultofmac.com/os-x-lion-turned-me-into-a-ranting-bitch-opinion/107853

The Apple acolytes were quick to jump to the defense of OS X Lion. I read the article and thought blogger made very good points.

My issues are as follows:

1. The new Mail program crashes regularly.
2. I use an outsourced Exchange Server and although Mail 5 is Exchange compatible, I have certain days where the sub folders just don’t appear. And it varies from Mac to Mac.
3. MobileMe email regularly fails to send. I have found this on multiple Macs. It brings up the Account Box after a failed send. This is really bizarre.
4. The Mail search is a disaster. I spend hours trying to find old emails that I need to follow up.
5. Enough on Mail, I have had to go over to the dark side and use MS Outlook for Mac. It works!
6. Preview, what is this disaster? I get a lot of PDF documents. You open the document in Preview and when you go to save it, you get the choice of UNLOCK or DUPLICATE. I just want to save the PDF on the Server!!!!! Just like MS Outlook I have had to download Adobe Reader another Dark Side software.
7. Safari crashes regularly.
8. Safari leaves open all your viewed windows and then reopens all of them when you reboot.
9. I always do rebuild OS from scratch once or twice a year. This gets rid of derelict files and cluttered stuff. A general spring clean. I did this with Lion and when I went to copy my MobileMe website domain, I could not find the “Library” sub directory. As it turns out, I had ask my Techo how to find it. It turn out that Apple have hidden this sub directory. This is quite bizarre. Why would they do this?
10. When I do a clean install, I sync everything up to MobileMe, Contacts, Safari Settings, Calendar and some Mail Settings. My Contacts all disappeared. I got them back but it was after cutting and pasting the old file from an old Library backup.
11. The Finder Window looks like some sort of bad programming. It doesn’t show the old disc usage, which I found important.
12. This scrolling business is giving me RSI. I hate it.
13. Processor overload. My 13 inc MacBook goes into Processor Overload on a daily basis. I have seen this before and Apple always bring out an update to fix this. But when? My MacBook is only a few months old and I find it quite disconcerting to hear the processor overload.

So the first Update 10.7.1 has been released but it seems just a small bug fix at 80 MBs.

Sorry Mr. Jobs but this Lion upgrade is a shocker!!!!!!!

One thing I particularly loved was that you could get some obscure albums on the iTunes store…like Savoy Brown’s A Step Further, released in 1969. Side 2 is a recorded in a pub and the single, 20 minute track is the Savoy Brown Boogie. On full blast after six Heinekens, this really fires me up. And who could forget Grand Funk Railroad? The reunion album from 1997 called Bosnia, live with the Illinois Symphony, is extremely hard to get…except on iTunes for $11.

But the more I read up on sound quality, the more I realized that 128 kbps was a very inferior sound quality. iTunes addressed this by introducing a higher quality format –at 256 kbps while still an AAC file type. An improvement, but still quite a distance from Apple LossLess which is full CD quality.

So some years ago, I decided to go back to buying CDs. The price of CDs has come down dramatically and a lot of the time you are picking them up for between $6 and maybe $30, depending on whether it is a new re-mastered Deluxe Edition with DVD.

A lot of my preferred genres are reissuing re-mastered versions. Many of them are called the Deluxe Editions. Pink Floyd is doing their major reissues on the 26^th of September. I have ordered Dark Side of the Moon, Meddle, Animals and the Wall. Wish You Were Here will be out in November.

Dark Side of the Moon will be available in three editions. The Discovery Re-Master will be a single CD. The Experience Edition will be 2 CDs, with the 2^nd CD being a Live Recording. The Immersion Edition is $180 and it is a 6 Disc Box with Bluray and booklets. The Experience Edition will do me and it’s approximately $25 for 2CDs.

Recently Paul McCartney released Band on the Run, McCartney I and McCartney II. Venus and Mars (one of my all time favorites) is due later in the year. The Beatles had already re-issued their entire catalogue as has John Lennon and George Harrison (via their respective estates).

I have been ripping the re-mastered higher quality CDs into my iTunes Library at a bit rate of 320 kbps. I tried Apple LossLess, which is supposedly the highest quality but the disk space was huge. The average album took up between a half and a full gigabyte. I keep about 900 albums on my iPod Classic which is 160 GBs. At 320 kbps you can probably fit 1000 to 1100 albums on the iPod Classic, maybe a bit more.

320 kbps is the next quality setting down from LossLess. Depending who you talk to, some audiophiles will say that most listeners can’t pick up the difference between 256 and LossLess. I don’t agree. I use some reasonably high quality phones. Shure SE 535s which are a premium in ear, and the B&W P5s which are a noise reducing on ear headphone. I think that you should try to squeeze the best quality that you can if you have invested in expensive headphones or a Hi Fi system.

Last month I wrote about iCloud and how, for $25 per year, iTunes will match your Library and store your collection in the Cloud. My question is, will it be at the higher quality 320 kbps or at the iTunes 256?

Here’s a couple of other favorites in my Music Library.

The Allman Brother’s Eat a Peach, which is a 2 CD with the legendary Fillmore East Live Concert on the second CD.

And the Rolling Stones Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out Box Set. Which is 3 CD set and DVD.

And a few months ago they released one of my favorite Bowie albums in a box set, Station to Station. The original album re-mastered and a 2CD live concert.

That’s enough of my old musical tastes! I do like the Foo Fighters and the Artic Monkeys. I tried the Kings of Leon but I just couldn’t get there.

At the recent Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple made a series of announcements. Actually Steve Jobs made the announcements assisted by his team. So, last week the announcements included the July release of Lion, the new Mac operating system. They also announced the upcoming release of iOS 5 but probably the most significant was the announcement of iCloud.

People have been talking about Cloud Computing and its potential for a while. Apple have had their Cloud Computing service in Mobile Me where you had Contact, Calendar, Mail, iDisk and Backup syncing to various machines and devices. I’ve used Mobile Me for some years and I really liked it, albeit it’s somewhat expensive. Sometime in the near future, Mobile Me will cease and a new iCloud service will replace it.

Of most interest was the iCloud announcement and iTunes. What does it all mean? Later in the day, Apple released iTunes 10.3 which, after installation, allowed you to log onto your account, navigate to a link in the Store called Purchased. On this page, it replicated all of your iTune Store purchases. The page showed Music (US store only) Apps and Books. Ok, so what’s the big deal on this? Well, you are able to download any of these purchases to whichever device that you are logged on to. The whole idea is that your purchases are stored in the cloud and are only downloaded when needed. Now, this is currently only available in beta and it will not go fully live until the release of iOS5. Apparently for a fee of $25 per year, you will be able upload your ripped CDs for cloud storage. I’m starting to run out of space on my Mac and this service could be really useful to me. Particularly if I can store iTune movies where I just download the movie or TV show from my iTune’s “locker”.

Have a look at the MacWorld article for more information on iCloud.

http://www.macworld.com/article/160380/2011/06/icloud_what_you_need_to_know.html

So let’s have a look at my latest favorite gadget, the Nike + GPS Watch.

The Nike watch links to a shoe pod plus some satellite eye in the sky, which assists in storing the GPS data on the watch. Like the Nike+ link and iPod, it uploads to your Mac or PC via USB to the Nike+ website. Below is the route mapping. I was doing a roadshow in Auckland last week and this is the route mapping. I just walk these days but if you are running or walking, you record your stats and route. Some people ask me why you want to do this? Well, I find it motivational, it gets me out there.

The watch is a joint venture with TomTom and is really quite cheap for what you get. The US price is $200.00.

Damien Hatfield