Reason TV: Should You Go To Jail for Unlocking Your Phone?

Want to unlock your iPhone? The law now says it is illegal. These two guys on Reason TV talk about the legal aspects of doing so. The bottom line question is “Who Owns Your Phone”?

Amazon Cloud Player App and Auto Rip

One of my favorite streaming apps is the Cloud Player from Amazon.com. What you get with this iOS app is a player for all Amazon.com songs you purchased. As an added bonus, Amazon started a new feature called Auto Rip. Auto Rip automatically sends an mp3 copy of any qualifying compact disc you buy from Amazon to your Amazon Cloud Player.

Auto Rip CDs converted to MP3 for Cloud Player, like all other MP3 files in the cloud player can then be downloaded to your iTunes, iPods and other devices almost instantly even while you wait for the physical CDs to arrive in the mail. I like CDs. I like the fact that this new feature automatically rips CD purchases to mp3 without the end user having to do it himself. The prices for Auto Rip CDs are no different than for any other CD you find at Amazon.com.

The other nice thing about Auto Rip is that previous qualifying CDs that I bought from Amazon before Auto Rip began were retroactively added to my mp3 Cloud Player at no additional cost. Nice. Apple certainly can’t offer this since they do not sell CDs and have mostly abandoned all disc media formats.

Like purchased MP3 files, Auto Rip CDs do not count against any quota you have in the Amazon Cloud Player.

The Amazon Cloud player is available as a stand alone web application / site that plays on any computer (Mac, Windows, etc.) as well as for iOS devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) and Android. The photo above shows a standard MP3 song that I bought (left frame) and a track from a full album that I recently got as a CD (right) that was loaded to the Cloud Player with Auto Rip. Below is the Amazon Cloud Player in web form.

All song in your Amazon Cloud stream on the web and through the Cloud Player apps for iOS and Android. Nice.

Firewire Target Disk Mode

This guy has a fairly informative video on using Firewire Target Disk mode.

I’ll probably be using this instructions when I get around to hooking my old iBook G3 laptop to an even older Apple Powerbook G3 Pismo that I recently bought for only $35.

I also plan to blog more in 2013 on Macs and other things Apple. Been fairly negligent to this blog this past year.

Kitchen Carnage

A merchandising product from the folks that brought you The Annoying Orange, this is the Kitchen Carnage game for the iPod Touch and iPhone. The object of the game is to destroy as much fruit as you can to get points and admiration of the Annoying Orange. The bugger is cocky though… All of his friends are in the game including Pear, Passion, Midget Apple, Marshmellow and yes, even Knife. It’s a great little pass time for when you want some momentary relief from everyday life.

The game is free and available from the Apple App Store on iTunes or directly through your iOS device.

iWork Public Beta Website to End

Got this from Apple.com:

Dear iWork.com user,

Thanks for participating in the iWork.com public beta.

Last year, we launched iCloud, a service that stores your music, photos, documents, and more and wirelessly pushes them to all your devices. Today, there are already over 40 million documents stored on iCloud by millions of iWork customers. Learn more about iCloud.

With a new way to share iWork documents between your devices using iCloud, the iWork.com public beta service will no longer be available. As of July 31, 2012, you will no longer be able to access your documents on the iWork.com site or view them on the web.

We recommend that you sign in to iWork.com before July 31, 2012, and download all your documents to your computer. For detailed instructions on how to save a copy of your documents on your computer, read this support article at Apple.com.

Sincerely,
The iWork team

Comment: While I do use Pages and Numbers, I rarely ever share these online since none of my clients use the iWork suite of programs. Fact is I used the Pages site only once and that was two years ago. Back then it still was only in Beta and to the very end it has remained in Beta. Way to go Apple.

2011 MacBook Pro – 13 inch

MacBook Pro 13 inch Laptop Complements Other Modern Macs

The MacBook Pro with the 2.3 ghz Sandy Bridge Intel Core i5 processor is a fast little notebook that greatly compliments my slightly older, 2009 MacBook Pro which I love using. Essentially the 15 inch MacBook Pro is my stay at home desktop model (I find it too cumbersome to take around all the time) – while my new 13 inch MacBook Pro is my travel nearly everywhere laptop.

The computer has all the ports and connections you’d expect from a MacBook Pro and runs all of the software I use on my 15 inch MacBook Pro with that familiar “ease of use” that goes with every Apple product.

The 13 inch MacBook Pro is a great compliment to my older MacBook Pro. Document exchange is seamless through my wired network, wifi or the cloud. Just like my 15 inch MacBook Pro, this one excels at all the tasks I throw at it including desktop publishing, photo editing, website building and maintenance, audio and video editing, word processing, research, entertainment and more. It currently runs Apple’s OSX Snow Leopard (10.6.8) operating system and is ready for Lion (Mac OSX 10.7.x).

This Mac is used for nearly everything that I use my 15 inch MacBook Pro for. Web content management, desktop publishing projects, word processing, music management, photo and movie editing plus more. Often this Mac is used at places other than my primary home based work location. It’s a great take anywhere computer with all the bells and whistles of bigger Macs.

This MacBook Pro 13 inch has the Sandy Bridge Intel Core i5 processor clocked at 2.3 ghz, 4GB of ram and a L2 / L3 cache. Ports include Thunderbolt, Ethernet 10/100/gigabit, Firewire 800 port, 2 USB ports, 1 SD card slot and an audio in/out port. It runs Mac OSX 10.6.6 and higher and has built-in Wireless WiFi and Bluetooth.

At the time of purchase I considered the current 11 inch MacBook Air and this 13 inch MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro is larger and heavier than the MacBook Air. I chose this because of the ports, the processor, DVD R/W drive, the amount of RAM built in and the speed. The MacBook Air does not have an ethernet port or an optical drive. I still need those things.

The MacBook Pro has all the ports + a DVD R/W optical drive. You don’t get as much with the MacBook Air.

You can’t go wrong with the 13 inch MacBook Pro as either your primary computer or a compliment to any other modern Mac that you already own.

On the road with my MacBook Pro.

MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard 10.6.7. It has been upgraded to 10.6.8. I may update to Lion 10.7.x at a later date.

Low End Mac: MacBook Pro (Early 2011)
Every Mac : MacBook Pro (2011)
Apple: MacBook Pro User Manual

Steve Jobs: 1955 – 2011

Forever Steve, Forever Apple. Thank You.

Apple Store Ala Moana. The light is off. Photo by Ryan Ozawa.

http://www.apple.com