Tag Archives: Apple

Bye bye WRT54G, hello Time Capsule

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My old Linksys WRT54G router, which survived 24/7 operation for over 4 years, numerous firmware upgrades using open source firmwares, and sometimes room temperatures probably in the 90 degree mark has finally died. I noticed this afternoon my wireless signal all the sudden got really flakey and then just flat out stopped. Numerous reboots and resetting of the firmware did nothing to fix it. Probably some cheap soldering job finally gave way.

This provided the perfect opportunity for me to purchase a 500GB Time Capsule from Apple. The product has intrigued me since it was released several months ago and I have occasionally considered about purchasing one. Having a laptop, it is a real struggle to get reliable and frequent backups given that I have to remember to plug in an external hard drive every time. Backups sometimes will happen with weeks between them.

I have been playing with fire far too long. Now with a Time Capsule, backups hopefully will be reliable and frequent. Setup was painless, I plugged in an ethernet cable to get the fastest initial backup possible, and now it is backing up everything on the laptop (~66.5 GB).

I took the opportunity to move my wireless router and cable modem back into the living room, where it is usually cooler during the day when the air conditioner is on. I am re-arranging the room a little bit to have a better office area. Should work great.

I will post further thoughts and reviews as I have time to use this Time Capsule.

iPhone 3G plans are insane

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For many years I have wanted the perfect cell phone. I had been sick of unreliable phones,  awful user interfaces, little to no syncing with computers, and cell phone plans that are borderline criminal. I longed for a cell phone that made me proud to use it, not forced to use it.

The iPhone fits almost all of the criteria above. For a phone, especially a version 1.0 one, it is spectacular. My brother has one and loves it. My best friend has one and loves it. The reviews I have read love it. The user interface is beyond beautiful, simple, and easy to use. It is one of the few phones that makes syncing simple and without hassles. If it weren’t for my Verizon Wireless contract not being fulfilled until December 27th, 2008, I would have probably gotten one by now already.

Yet there is one huge hangup with the new iPhone 3G: its phone plans. They have now crossing that line between borderline criminal and outright criminal.

The first iPhone plans seemed somewhat reasonable. AT&T Wireless isn’t the greatest service, but I could live with that as long as it worked well in Manchester, NH and my condo, which it does.  A $109 for 2 iPhones on a family plan, 700 minutes, unlimited data, unlimited nights/weekends, rollover, unlimited mobile-to-mobile, 200 text messages, and visual voicemail? I can handle that. About $34 more for 2 phones to get internet access and visual voicemail seemed reasonable. The text messages are an outright disgrace (it costs more to send a text message on AT&T then watching a freakin YouTube video), but I don’t use those much.

The new iPhone 3G data plans are a joke. For a family plan if my wife and I were to each get an iPhone would cost about $140 plus taxes to equal what the old iPhone family plan offered. Data rates went up, text messaging was taken away (so I had to add $10 worth of messages to my estimate), and I am sure they found a way to raise the price on the voice plan too.

Given how the economy has been the past few months with few hopes of improvement in the near future, how the heck does AT&T and Apple expect to sell a ton of iPhones if no one can afford the cell phone plan for it? Right now I pay $75 for 2 lines with Verizon, 500 minutes, 250 text messages per line, and your standard cell phone plan features (unlimited nights, etc.). To get an iPhone for my wife and I would effectively double our monthly cell phone bill. Yes, having an awesome phone that I can sync everything to and use the internet wherever I am would be awesome, but doubling my cell phone bill awesome? I don’t think so.

The iPhone seems a perfect candidate for a family plan. Yet it barely, barely, gets a discount. Most cell phone plans only cost $9.99 more to add a second phone line. The iPhone? You get the the priviledge for $50 more a month. Are you kidding me?

My wife and I would love an iPhone, for different reasons. Yet in December, when our Verizon contract has finally been fullfilled, I don’t know if we can afford it. AT&T now stands to lose 2 customers they could have switched from Verizon Wireless. Their loss.

Update: According to AppleInsider, it is even worse then I feared. Apparently for Family Plans you either have the option of $30 for unlimited text messaging or paying per text message. There is no SMS plan in between these two extremes. This is complete bullshit. Now the iPhone family plan for 2 lines will be $159 + taxes, more then doubling what I am currently paying for my cell phone plan with Verizon.

It is official, my wife and I are not getting an iPhone 3G. AT&T just officially lost a customer and Apple officially lost 2 iPhone purchases.

No more technology debt…

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As of today, I have no debt related to technology. My HDTV has officially been paid off. My computer equipment (Macbook, printer, router, etc.) and PS3 have been paid off for awhile.

Spending on technology is a weakness of mine. Give how quickly technology depreciates, it is something really hard to keep in check. I hope I can stretch the Macbook’s life to last another 2 years, especially since I replaced the hard drive recently. I just bought a new printer recently, so that should last awhile. The PS3 should not need replacement for at least 4-5 years if I can help it.

The last bit of technology I may need/need to replace in the near future is my wireless router. I currently have a Linksys WRT54G running the DD-WRT firmware. The router itself is almost 4-years old and works great. However, I am being very paranoid about backing up my Macbook. I have come to the conclusion that unless I fully automate the process and do not have to rely on plugging in my external USB hard drive, I will not have up-to-date backups of my Macbook. This bothers me big time.

I think buying a 1TB Time Capsule will be a very sound investment. Then I can use Time Machine to automatically back up my Macbook every hour wirelessly, without having to worry about plugging in a hard drive. Storage won’t be an issue, by the time the 1TB fills up consistantly, there will probably be USB hard drives I can plug into Time Capsule at least twice that size. Not to mention, my wife doesn’t have to worry about doing anything to have backups.

Time Capsule does not solve the off-site backup issue, but it resolves the up-to-date backup that is immediately available issue.

Maybe I will set aside $10 a week until I save up enough to buy one…

First Impressions with Leopard

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Here are a few first impressions on my experience of upgrading to OS X 10.5 Leopard:

  • Make sure you do proper backups before upgrading. I cannot stress this enough.
  • I did an erase and install. I hadn’t reinstalled OS X since I got my Macbook and just decided it was as good as time as any to do it.
  • Did I mention that Apple doesn’t assume you are a thief? No serial code and no product activation. Breath of fresh air for sure.
  • Installation on my 1st Generation Macbook took ~40 minutes.
  • My Macbook definitely is a little faster, especially when I have several applications open and doing stuff in the background.
  • The iTunes Artwork screensaver now works with album art downloaded from the iTunes Store.
  • Any VBR AAC file encoded in Leopard now shows its real bitrate in iTunes.
  • According to Hydrogenaudio, the AAC encoder also has sound quality improvements.
  • Web Clip in Safari is going to get a workout.
  • I am really digging Coverflow in the Finder. Makes me wish someone made a Windows version of it, I can picture my work using it.
  • Speaking of the Finder, it is faster, beautiful, and much more functional.
  • Time Machine is great. After the initial backup, the only time I have even noticed it was when I happened to look at my external hard drive and saw the disk activity light on. I think the “gimmick” UI actually makes more people want to use it, as it is quiet beautiful. It is simply as easy as backup can get. Try restoring a photo from your iPhoto library, it will take your breath away. Volume Shadow Copy in Vista cannot compare.
  • Leopard seems very stable. No crashes or any noticeable first version bugs. Apple definitely did a lot of polishing work on it.
  • I’m liking Spotlight much better this time around. Faster and you can do boolean searches.
  • Grammar checking is a joke so far. If I can even get a sentence to show the green underline, I haven’t got it to offer suggestions on how to fix it yet.

    • I highly recommend this upgrade for Mac users.

    For another perspective, Leo Laporte (of TWIT and TechTV fame) has a good first impressions review.