Apple announced the new iPad on March 7th. They aren’t calling it the iPad 3, and they aren’t calling it iPad HD. It’s just the new iPad. That’s it.  Honestly, it’s a smart move. At least this way they aren’t starting to sound like a Rocky sequel.

I’ve watched the keynote and read the blogs. I’ve also scoured Apple’s website.  I had some predictions, so let’s go into detail on what they were and what I predicted wrong & what I predicted right.

• 4G LTE Capability Predicted Correctly! 
  This was a prediction that I really shot in the dark. I honestly figured Apple would wait to put 4G in the iPad when 4G was more wide spread. Right now it’s only available in limited places.  It’s growing, but still limited.  Only 4G LTE for USA, so AT&T and Verizon it is.

• Siri for iPad  Sort of Incorrect. . .? 
  Siri herself isn’t on the new iPad, but they did implement a type of voice dictation.  If it’s anything like the voice dictation that was originally released for iOS 4, then it’s probably pretty terrible.

• More Storage Options, Perhaps 160GB models. Predicted Incorrectly
  Nope,  same ol 16, 32, and 64 Gig options. Wishful thinking never fails us. 

• Retina Display  Predicted Correctly! 
  Wow, a million more pixels then the common HDTV!!?? Holy cow! A whopping 2048-by-1536-pixel resolution at 264 pixels per inch (ppi) to be exact.

• Better Rear Facing Camera  Predicted Correctly! 
  I had thought that Apple had did away with the “iSight” name, but they have brought it back in the Rear Facing Camera on the new iPad. (5 Megapixels)  – Record up to 1080p videos!

• Improved Front Facing Camera Predicted Correctly! 
  They’ve renamed it… it’s now the Facetime camera.  It’s probably better (it can’t be any worse), but they are only saying “VGA” quality photos on their site.

• Discounted Pricing on iPad 2 models Predicted Correctly!
  Starting at $399. You can’t beat the price, but you might wanna save up $100 more and just get the new iPad.

They also announced a new Apple TV for the same price of $99, with support of videos at 1080p resolution. But, we don’t care about that when they shove a new iPad in our faces.

The big talk of the day is Apple’s Keynote set to happen early this morning in San Francisco. Will they announce the next version of the iPad? Another iPhone? Nobody knows, and Apple likes it that way. With all the click bait articles out there, you would think Apple was completely open about their products, but we all know they are not.

I’ll be following the event from home via live blogs and watching my favorite geniuses cover the event over at TWiT.  One of these days I’ll make it to an Apple event, but that is in the future. And I usually only live three days in advance.

To honor the event, I have a few predictions. I do not think they will announce a new iPhone, at least not now. I see them waiting to do that around WWDC. The last two iPads have been announced at the same place they are holding this event today, so it only makes sense that they would announce the iPad 3 (or whatever name they decide on) here.

Finally, here are my predictions:

• 4G LTE Capability
• Siri for iPad
• More Storage Options, Perhaps 160GB models.
• Retina Display (this has been a prediction of many ever since the event invitation was shared with the public)*
• Better Rear Facing Camera (Comparable if not better than the iPhone 4S’ camera)
• Improved Front Facing Camera
• Discounted Pricing on iPad 2 models

There you have it. We’ll see what happens!  Maybe one of these days Apple will start live streaming their events so everybody can join in.

*The image at the top of this post is the invitation they sent out to “select” people.

Don’t you think? I know technology is a big and scary world now, but it’s a camera. We get it.  It takes pictures.

You can find this gem here:  http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/9027.html

(by the way, I realize that there is a 99% chance this is completely fake. But I don’t care. It’s Hilarious!)

USB port zaps on touch. Eck
Poor iMac

Time for an upgrade

Although Apple does a pretty good job at letting you know what’s hot, sometimes Google falls short.  Now you can know in real time what’s hot and what’s selling. The easier solution to manual search.

There's A Map For That

I have to get my hands on this story. It’s too much.

It all started with Verizon issuing AD’s displaying a rich vibrant red 3G coverage map, and AT&T’s “spotty” blue coverage map. Of course, why wouldn’t this make AT&T upset. Turning to legal matters would seem like a sure fire way of taking care of this. But there stands only one problem. AT&T is now suing Verizon for “mis-leading customers”, because as it turns out the 3G Coverage Map Verizon shows is accurate. AT&T has not taken the time to upgrade their 3G coverage.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/atandt-sues-verizon-over-theres-a-map-for-that-ads/

Funniest thing is, the judges overruled the idea of Verizon pulling the ads. They are still running and probably will stay that way.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2356122,00.asp

AT&T is trying to say that most people are not able to distinguish the difference of their 3G Coverage Map, and their actual Data map (which includes EDGE, GSM, etc). Granted most people may have difficulty understanding the real difference, we can still tell the best kind of coverage and how much of it there is throughout the states.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/181379/verizon_lawsuit_makes_atandt_the_villain_again.html

They are also starting their comeback commercials. Check boxes comparing the two differences (how original), with Luke Wilson (who again) comparing.
What I find completely humorous is AT&T has went to saying “The Best 3G Coverage” to “A Better 3G Experience“  Maybe Verizon should file a counter claim that AT&T is just straight up lieing. Once Verizon (if they ever do after this) gets the iPhone, I see AT&T retiring from the mobile wireless market and selling to Verizon. Especially now that Verizon is tied up with Google. (and that’s all I’m saying about that) Who knows what is going to happen next.
http://www.9to5mac.com/AT-T-Verizon-ads-court-judge-misfit-43562

I want to know your opinons

Man- this thing is becoming more and more my personal mini computer rather than ipod.

Dammit Apple, quit making such amazing products.

Edit: (12/21/08 7:48 AM)  Seems like the WordPress app worked flawlessly, as if I had any doubt that it wouldn’t. Well, time to go mail Christmas cards.

I just recently upgraded to Leopard, so a lot of the things that are different about it (compared to Tiger), I’m just now finding out. One of the things that apple changed was the name and location of Windows Sharing in Preferences. It is now called SMB and here is how you find it:

Start off by opening up “Sharing” in “System Preferences”

Then, after you have “File Sharing” checked and highlighted, click on “Options…”

From the drop down menu that shows up, check the box that is called “Share files and folders using SMB”.
Though I’m not entirely sure why Apple calls Windows Sharing SMB now, this will for sure get the job done.

Your Mac (running Leopard) will now successfully show up on a Windows Computer! Yay!

Technically, It’s still in Beta, but what has Google released that doesn’t stay in Beta for about two years? 

It’s basically the Safari engine, WebKit, with a Google feel.

And I’ll admit.. It’s nice. You need to grab you a copy.

http://www.google.com/chrome 

Good things about this browser:
 It’s Open Source
 It’s Free
 It’s Not a Memory Hog
 It’s Secure
 Has Private Browsing
  And many other features, just check it out.  

 – But: Firefox is still good, but so far Google is bumping up past it.

(I also downloaded IE 8 Beta, but that’s not important)

But, when I opened up my email today I had a letter from ZDNet with the subject “Apple files suit against Psystar”. So, I guess Apple had enough and is opening up a “legal” can of woop-ass. Don’t worry, that is the first and last time I’ll be using that phrase.

What I find kind of funny, (and maybe a little sad), is the fact that I had seriously taken this company into consideration. Like buying one of their cheaper products, and just seeing if it really is a Mac clone.

Well, that was before I read up on them. Not only are they big on copyright infringement, they are nothing but low level pirates trying to make a few bucks. Apparently, with their bootleg Macs (that’s what I’m calling it now at least) Software Update fails, iLife won’t install, (though I didn’t read this but I’d say Office 2004 & 2008 won’t install or update!) and I guess Leopard all  around just acts funny. (Not the good funny either!)

But yeah, say goodbye to Psystar. You can read about the lawsuit here.

Whether or not this is true – I don’t know –but apparently Apple is even demanding Psystar reclaim all their sold products. Now, I don’t know how many they’ve actually sold (and lets hope not that many) but you can bet a few people have bought them — and they aren’t going to want to give them up. When you buy a computer, you customize it to your liking, and when the company you bought it from tells you that you can’t have it anymore, that does nothing but make you furious. At least, it would to me.

Here is what I think Psystar should do: Pay Apple however much the law suit goes for, and then buy all their customers who got ripped off by them, an authentic top-of-the-line Apple. Comparable to what they already have. Because from what I saw on their website, they were offering 8 GB models for 899 [or somewhere close to that]. That means they are going to have to pay about 3 times as much for a comparable model. I’m going to guess Psystar doesn’t have that kind of money (or at least they definitely won’t after the law suit is over with) — So it looks like either loans are going to have to happen, or its Bankruptcy.

Good job Apple. Bye Bye Psystar.

(SO, by writing this post, I get a free Apple product now…right? — no, I didn’t buy anything from Psystar. But I took time and effort. Come on.. Mac Mini?)

I’m still working on the site, obviously. You’d be surprised how much stuff you actually have to work on when you go from having a HTML constructed site to a WordPress site. There is a lot of getting used too. But, I can honestly say – I Love It! WordPress is so much more powerful than I used to give it credit. I have a Leopard theme on here now, mocking Mac OS X 10.5 — but… It doesn’t like widgets on my sidebar. SO, it may have to go.

Mainly because a lot of my WordPress plug-ins I have activated need this so called “widget feature”. And yes, I know you can activate them manually with a few PHP tweaks, but why do that when I can just find a theme to do it for me?

To the internet!