Halfapenguin.com
macgeek

So this is a new advert for the palm pre...(found via appleinsider)

It looks like if you know how to use it, its very capable, i have to say i have some issues with the multitasking abilities of the iphone, i'm always doing several things at once and the switching could be a little more elegant, even if there was a special home screen of currently "running" applications on the first page...

While i'm pretty tied into the iphone with purchases, i'd be tempted if the pre starts making a strong presence..

Even if i stay with apple, having decent competition might start spuring them on with new technologies and opening up some ideas (A girl can dream... even if its probably in vain).

I've been listening to people claim that 30 mpg and greater is impressive (for reference my 10 year old Chrysler V6 convertible still has an EPA rating of 28-29mpg), the cutting edge of Volkswagen, the Polo Blue Motion has a fuel efficiency of 74 mpg.

There is one caveat to this, it is diesel based, given far more cars in europe run on diesel, which gets more fuel efficiency per gallon of fuel.

If it were to be sold here, current prices put regular gas at around 2 dollars, while diesel is 2.9 dollars. Equivalently this would mean on a cost comparison the equivalent of getting 51 miles per gallon... still very impressive.

However despite it having 99 grams of CO2 per km, while the Prius is ~102 grams/km, its being kept out due to failing to meet fuel efficiency standards. These are the same standards that SUVs are exempt from...

I was just thinking, looking at the iphone, as a piece of technology, aside from apple's attrocious implementation of AT&T, trying to violate the principle in europe of subsidised phones and other attendant problems.

(Currently not an apple fan, i'm eagerly awaiting the gPhone this week).

At what point can i start having copyrightable ideas about iphone like concepts... it all started with the apple patent application for the ability using an iphone interface to be able to rearrange buttons with fingers (aside from being a terrible exploit of the "process" patent), got me thinking.

If a person, say Tio Holtzman, discovers (probably in a drug induced stupor) the "Holtzman Effect" or rather a method of manipulating super strings to produce interesting spacio-temporal effects... and then someone, named Norma Cenva, comes along and takes the work (saves a couple of planets from bad math), and proceeds to produce a Foldspace engine, based on the initial equations and techniques of the first, in our system of patents, who owns the right to the foldspace engine? The kamakaize inventor who stumbled on the equations or the intuiative genius who took a badly implemented invention and built something truly amazing out of it?

Actually, nope i haven't had a breakdown, i just had to deal with what happens when the M25 doesn't exist.

Today i left the Albany area at 11:30, i arrived in Stony Brook at 7:30... on a trip that should have taken about 4 hours.

There was a toll road on the way out, however they don't accept cards, and i was out of cash (previous tolls). My TomTom claimed a difference of 20 minutes, funny way of describing a 4 hour period stuck in Manhattan.

The optimal route (including tolls) takes you through very congested motorways in the centre of Manhattan it was horrific, tiring and exhausting.

So for the time being i'm going to think happily of the M25 and the hour's i've spent on it ;)

The youtube app, is to be honest, a waste of a slot on the iphone, given the limited number of icons. I can see certain advantages like being able to show off funny videos to friends, particually when few other mobile devices support youtube. However as an earthshattering app to showcase iphone, it feels very much a disappointment.

Also looking at the demo video, and i know this is true for pretty much any phone on the market, but the shown off ringtones were terrible....you would think there would be some good songs they could set as ringtones. It seems an odd area to cut corners on when this is being sold partially as a music phone...

When the Mac Mini came out, i thought it was one of Apple's best moves, present to the world a cheap, very stylish, reliable replacement for whatever Windows PC they are currently using. Using semi-decent components, and a decent graphics card, i would have been tempted, if it were not for the fact that i had my shiny powerbook, and i was a student without funds.

I realise that Apple, in somewhat crippling the Mac Mini line, they were trying to prevent the gouging of the Mac Pro, and iMac markets, but these are different markets entirely.

The MacPro is a professional workhorse machine, current configurations have 8 core environments, which would give most desktop apps a run for their money. Unless you have more money than sense, you buy a MacPro because you need something that powerful for your work.

The iMac is for those who want a problem free, stylish, one piece desktop computer, its a computer for home offices, dorm rooms, and other places where space, and lack of cables are at a premium.

These obviously aren't the only uses for Macs, but they are the core targetted segments.

The Mac mini was developed to go after 2 new markets, the first, intentional one was that of Windows Switchers. The switching market is good, but perhaps not as well marketted as some other Apple products. This is in part why i suspect it has not been as successful as it was hoped.

However in building a cheap, small, moderately powerful mac, a new market was created, and that is of the person who wants a mac for a specific function, rather than the general purpose macs of the past. The obvious one is that of a media centre mac, which while clever, the AppleTV is not. However applications as very small server, cheap desktop to suppliment a laptop, or even, when installed with Bootcamp and Windows, makes a small moderatly powerful, very portable lan party system. However by crippling the Mac Mini, this market is reduced, if not lost, and the thing is in each of these uses, these are not functions that would be filled by any of the other desktop models.

Although my thought train has just realised Apple might do a refresh with Leopard and go "Here is Leopard in a box" which would be a good contrast as people realise again how horrific vista is, and the prospect of buying a Mac Mini, which runs leopard, with a good advertising campaign, would almost certainly be a hit.

So good luck Apple, I hope you are thinking along those lines, and in the not too distant future, i might be adding a Mac Mini to my network.

I've been thinking about where apple is going wrong, particually in light of the MacBook refresh. Admitedly i've got my eye on a MacBook pro but i've definatly been tempted by the small form factor of the Macbook.

However the Macbook is still too big to be small in my eyes. Looking at people who have the Powerbook 12", its a small, but beautiful form. It shouldn't be used as a desktop replacement, but i have no qualms using an external monitor and keyboard (although i do prefer my trackpad these days), when doing long stints at my desk.

There are other implications of the 12" form factor, beyond the size, a smaller screen does result in better battery life, as was established with the 12 " powerbook versus the 15" powerbook.

Sadly for whatever reason, the small and powerful seems to be lacking from apple, its an oversight because i know of many mac users who swear by their 12" powerbooks and ibooks, (if i had the money i'd buy a 12" ibook to have as a rough and ready machine if i wanted to travel).

Assuming its not Apple missing the mark, it must be some form of ulterior motive, either its a design issue (unlikely since there are smaller than 12" windows laptops", or more likely they have something in the wings they are preparing to bring out of the wings at the right time (after a few more tweaks).

Speculating i do wonder if they are looking at fuel cell based mini macs, although the tech is still a little bit infant stages, but an ultraportable with days of battery life with a decent OS would be a definate apple coup...

Anyway, I'm going to keep my eyes and ears and 4 noses peeled, and if i hear anything, this blog will be the 3rd place to hear about it from me...

As predicted by half the internet, new slightly shinier Macbooks have been released today by apple. No huge changes beyond the move to Core 2 Duo processors and slightly shinier starting specs.

Sadlty no sign of a decent graphics card, which is the main thing that would stop me from buying one. I would consider a slightly smaller laptop if it had that feature. But more on that another time.

According to Think Secret, the iPhone is diverting resources from Leopard, meaning that it will probably be October when Leopard is finally released. LINK

I'm expecting this isn't the real reason, and in fact its either that there are some bugs they want to work out before release, or they are planning something new and shiny that they don't want to tell us about yet.

One thing that is slightly annoying was i was planning to get a macbook (pro) in the next couple of months and was slightly waiting for Leopard. Given that many people may be in the same situation, Apple might be wise to offer free/discounted upgrades to any mac bought after May (implied/speculated release date). However of course this was speculation so Apple doesn't really need to do anything.

Either way, hope Leopard has something good. Its strange i thought dashboard was neat, and spotlight was a bit meh when i bought it, but now i rarely use dashboard, but couldn't live without spotlight.