MacBuhay

Apple refreshes MacBook Pro (finally)!

2010-04-13T23:04:00.000+08:00

Rumors somehow true / long wait is over / finally, grr, after much anticipation--what you'll probably say (if you're on the watch) of this latest bit of news on Apple.

Apple today refreshed its MacBook Pro range of mobile computers. Each now ships with 4GB of memory and new Intel Core processors with clocks ranging from 2.4GHz to 2.66GHz. Buyers now are offered options for glossy, high resolution glossy, and high resolution glossy with anti-glare displays. I actually want to upgrade, but it'll have to wait (and I'm doing fine with my white 2009 MacBook), I'm saving up for an iPad!

Lenten and the iPad craze

2010-04-03T14:59:00.003+08:00

In the Philippines, Lenten is a week of reflection, of looking back and moving forward, of renewing your faith. For me that's like four days of home sweet home, which, when later I'd realize I can't help but go online and check out some news. (My wife and I will need to tend to our "farm").

And what do you know, all the tech world is abuzz with the iPad's release this 3rd of April. Check out this link. A lot of good reviews have been outed, and some negative, extremely anti-Jobs verdicts were cascaded, but generally Apple has indeed stirred the computing industry once again. It's tech-beauty, it's wonderful to look at, easy to use in a touchy-feely way, and drool many can only do for now.

I want one, unfortunately, we can only hope to see a release date late this April for Asia. Oh, I need to save for this one (I want the WIFI+3G). It's like hoping that Easter bunny's lending me an iPad egg to hatch.

Safari update

2010-03-12T10:56:00.000+08:00

Make that Software Update click as Apple released an update today for Safari:

Negative on messages

2010-03-03T16:17:00.003+08:00

I was using Facebook (iPhone app) to check for messages when I got this weird screen:

So, not only do I have no messages, I'm on the negative or owe one, I'd better be composing and sending then. (Later the app crashed).

And the iPad it is...

2010-01-28T06:56:00.006+08:00

Finally, after all the non-stop rumors and speculations heating up as early as mid-2009 (actually nearly a decade now), at their "see our latest creation" event in San Francisco yesterday, Apple officially announced the much-talked-about tablet computer, which they named, awkwardly as it sounds, iPad.

Watch the Keynote here

While the iPad is showcased as Apple's "most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price" it's simply a blown-up iPod touch and offers nothing unexpected. But Apple is indeed right in calling it a beautiful device.

Here are the specs:

9.7" LED-backlit Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
1/2" thick (or thin)
10 hours of battery life and is said to still have a charge when not in use for a month
16-64 Gigabytes of flash storage
Accelerometer and compass
Speaker, mic, dock connector
Can run all iPhone apps, unmodified, and out of the box
Available in Wi-Fi (grab one in 60 days) and Wi-Fi+3G models (ready in 90 days)
Starts at US$499 (international pricing to be announced at a later date)

Actually, I've been saving up for Amazon's Kindle (which is officially available in the Philippines) but this made me reconsider. Imagine I can still use the many iPhone apps I have and read ebooks (iBooks looks promising) and listen to music...oh well.

iPhone apps holiday shopping

2009-12-27T14:35:00.000+08:00

Happy Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!

Holiday season's not done yet (at least in the Philippines, we're still in the festive mood until the first week of January), and we're all hooked into something one way or the other (either rushing to buy and wrap forgotten gifts or splurging on gadgetry with your bonuses, that is if your company's recession-proof, if that's even possible).

While I kept myself un-busy (fewer parties, more home and cable TV time) I recently did a quickie app shopping via my iPhone. And I'm glad I did as some apps are now available for free (for a limited time though). Here they are:

Tap Tap Revenge 3 (a paid app)
Freestyle
Traffic Rush
Eggs Away
Bouncedown
Wordbubble
Pets
Sniper-X
World War

These apps (mostly games) are actually in the Top 25 Free category and right now I'm addicted to Tap Tap Revenge 3 (I still play version 2) and Pets. Well, these apps, at least for me, are for killing time, especially when sleep is hard to come by. I'd recommend tapping on your iPhone's App Store regularly (I do once or twice a week) you might be surprised to find your most-wanted paid apps are given away free.

Get iTunes Holiday Sampler, it's free!

2009-12-12T16:32:00.002+08:00

If you have iTunes, download the free iTunes Holiday Sampler being offered by Apple (you'll need an iTunes US account). The 20 Christmas songs come in a nice iTunes LP, so sample yuletide tracks from David Archuleta, Amy Grant, Weezer, Sarah McLachlan, Barry Manilow, Aretha Franklin and many others. Click on the image below (iTunes link).

Enjoy them like I do in my car, our bedroom, taking over some of my unbeatable LSS tunes.

Fooling around with Dragon Dictation

2009-12-12T14:01:00.004+08:00

If you haven't already, download Dragon Dictation (free for a limited time) for your iPhone. If you're OC about privacy though, you should know that DD accesses all your contacts and uploads them to (DD's) servers, and it just won't work without Internet connection. Anyway, I was trying it out with well enunciated short dictations and, well I got funny translations.

Here I dictated "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs."

Here I said "my name is Carl Lozano."

Lastly, I tried out "the sun is shining, but the ice is slippery."

After a few more tries, it got my dictations correctly, shorter ones though, like "be there in a minute." Well, still not a better tap-to-text replacement.

Globe's G-Live Booboo

2009-12-10T13:34:00.002+08:00

Whoever's doing Globe's G-Live must either haven't slept in days or badly need a spell-check quickie.

G-Live, per Globe's website, "is a SIM feature that allows you to receive unlimited news and public service announcements. Information simply appears in an unobtrusive manner on the phone screen and doesn’t even go to the inbox." Unobtrusive is fine (read: negligible), but when the service announcements appear (read: bug) every time you open your iPhone (or is idle), it spoils the iPhone experience.

But you can actually deactivate this service by going to Settings \ SIM applications \ GLive \ Activation \ Deactivate (after ignoring this for the longest time, I deactivated it today finally).

Turn that Mac On

2009-12-09T17:38:00.003+08:00

It's rare that I don't turn on Rocket MacQueen (my MacBook) but because work (meaning that Windows PC at the office hehehe) kept me busy since Monday, two things I may have missed:

Dragon Dictation comes to iPhone free - a dictation app for dictating your message for sending via SMS or email and software updates released by Apple today for AirPort software, MacBook EFI, and SuperDrive firmware update.

Well, both done.

Premium Brands Christmas Sale at Paseo

2009-12-08T17:30:00.002+08:00

PhilMUG will be having a booth in this event and I'm joining (it's a sell/swap bazaar of sorts).

I stood on my MacBook...

2009-12-06T16:50:00.002+08:00

At the PhilMUG forum, I started a thread the other day, my exact entry was:

I thought I should share, just this morning, while I was looking for my favorite shirt, wifey placed my MacBook (in a laptop bag) on the bed. I was putting shirt after shirt on the bed until I found what I was looking for. I put on my jeans, and stood on the bed, then realized I was standing on something other than the shirts--too late as I actually stood on my MacBook--like 3 to 5 minutes! First thought was oh no, I definitely cracked my 'Book (which is the usual problem cited here), but when I checked and opened it, it's fine as it was, and yes, what a relief...

I got around 30 replies out of 700 views.

Majority said I was lucky, that it only proved how sturdy even Apple's entry level portable, while some found my writing funny or got them nervous, and one even suggested I sell this story to Engadget. The experience was actually scary, immediately I thought about the (lead/wait) time (it's still under warranty) it will take to have it repaired, considering I take care of it like a newborn baby. I thought to myself "whew, buti na lang..."

And so, like a newborn baby, I bought it its own crib (a new office table) where it'll be away from the bed (and from me when I'm late for work).

New toys thanks to PhilMUG Christmas Party

2009-12-05T23:15:00.001+08:00

I'm glad my weekend sked allowed me to join (it's my first time ever attending an eyeball) this year's Christmas party of the Philippine Macintosh Users Group (PhilMUG) held at Figaro Cedeno/Valero Makati today. Sponsored by Charlie Paw (the famous PhilMUGGER behind Digital Walker/Hub/Zoom stores), there were too many prizes to raffle off the hosts did it in four rounds (just for the minor prizes take note), the mods now dub it the "raffle" party - not much time spent to mingle. I got to talk to about four members, at least.

Anyway, I won two gadgets: a TuneFlex AUX for iPod (attached now to my car); and an X-mini II black speaker (packed in my bag for my MacBook and iPhone) the other two is a Pepper Lunch cap and an ice cream GC. Biggie, biggie, thankies!

My desktop

2009-09-30T08:22:00.002+08:00

I just love nature and seeing it in my MacBook rendered in stunning color and depth is nothing but awesome (keeps me "pushed" for work and prevents project "blocks").

Before Rocket MacQueen...

2009-09-23T11:45:00.003+08:00

My first portable computer is Toshiba's classic I can't recall the model. I had it when I was Technical Writer/Product Specialist for a software consulting firm. Fast forward and the same firm reemerged as a contact center/BPO and I became Customer Service Manager for a Web Services campaign in the US. I used to call her "Tongki."

After giving up Tongki for a consultancy job overseas, I had a better Toshiba notebook (see that big iPod Photo and navy blue Nokia 6670? Vintage now..) which helped me get through the pressing deadlines. That's "Shish."

I thought Toshiba's tough, Shish's only a year old and gave up on me easily. When my projects abroad were done, I went back home (permanently) and moved on to a new company, with which I was issued a 14" MSI MegaBook. In less than a year of use, "Krush" showed its many flaws. Still, a reliable extra PC for a few Microsoft Windows-only tasks.

And here's Rocket MacQueen, lovely! Making me regret why I switched only now. Apple, true to its marketing come-on, with a Mac, everything just works.

Welcome to MacBuhay!

2009-09-22T18:03:00.003+08:00

Hi, I'm CCLozano, and welcome to MacBuhay (buhay is the Filipino word for life), where I'll blog about my misadventures as I switched from Windows PC to Mac. While I did enjoy using Apple products (my first is the iPod Photo 30GB) it is only recently that I truly understood (and completely appreciate) the big difference when I had my MacBook (white mid-2009) which I call Rocket MacQueen. Still using Windows PC at the office (no choice there) but at home is where you can slap me the fanboy tag as Apple gadgets are slowly getting more and better spots.

The switch also encouraged me to get into (and hone my knowledge and skills in) digital photography, music, and web design--what I was longing to do (for hobby or diversion) but only got to jumpstart now--thanks to my fascination with technology.

So I'm a Mac newbie and so far the experience is amazing (though I had a few duh's) and here is where I'll share them cool discoveries. As I write about my Mac stories, appreciate it if you can leave me a note or two, or share your own. That's all for now, see yah!