Atoms - Apple announcements great but not earth-shattering

Today's announcements of new hardware were great for Apple products and I wish they would have happened sooner but that's not how Apple does things.

1. Headless (Mac Mini) - this idea has been out for awhile. Look at the Wintergreen Systems MiniBook at eCost. $432.70 for basically the same thing. I wouldn't be surprised if SJ took one these and layed it on the engineer's table and said "Make it a Mac".



When I test the MiniBook, it seemed to get really hot. I hope the vents on the back of the Mac Mini are adeqaute for ventilation.

2. Flash iPod (iPod Shuffle) - while I understand the creation of this piece, I'd rather have an iPod with 512MB internal memory and the ability to load my own SD cards. I'd load the 512MB with the OS and a few tunes I'd always want around, and then allow the SD card to be a holder of the majority of my tunes on separate cards.

For me, the Palm Tungsten E ($199), with Real Player and Pocket Tunes and the ability to swap out SD cards is still a much better bang for the buck.

MacWorld Expo keynote this morning

Since there's supposedly no stream of the keynote this year :(, I'll be monitoring the blogs to read what's new.

Mac Observer

Mac Daily News

On the wish list;

1. A sub $500 headless mac.
2. An iPod that accepts flash memory cards.

Atoms - writing with a Sharpie Pen on a CD or DVD

I bought some cheap HP CD-Rs the other day. They work great and I've yet to have one not burn the data. However, when trying to write on the bloody discs with a sharpie, the results are less than satisfactory. There seems to be a glaze coating on the top side which provides a slick surface which to write on. Not only that, HP has placed their logo and dark blue ink over three-quarters of the surface.




The best CDRs and DVRs are the ones that are totally blank on top which allow maximum writing space.

BITS versus Atoms, born versus made, that sort of thing

Though this blog may differ with the mainstream, as I have yet to purchase an ipod or Tivo and choose to use cheaper alternatives if they perform the necessary tasks. Many times they do that and more.

My latest tech toy is a 2.5", 40 GB hard drive within a Firewire case. I've been connecting it to the computer with the ATI video card. This card allows the Time Warner cable to connect to the back of it. Using the ATI software, a complete listing of the day's programming makes recording easy as a click of a mouse on which shows to record.

Once the show is finished, I can disconnect the small 2.5" drive and take it with me. That means I can now watch my shows when I want and where I want. Try doing that with the TIVO.

Total Cost = $98.00

Firewire cable - $9.00
Firewire Case for hard drive - $20.00
Used 40 GB, 2.5" hard drive - $69.00