Four the last year I have been using the application, NewsFire as my News Reader of choice to view and manage all of my RSS Feeds. NewsFire makes it very easy for me to manage hundreds of feeds, without the hassle of having to go to each indiviual site. But, since i’ve got an iPhone, I want to be able to check my feeds on the go. So I did a little reasearch and I come to find out, that there are currently no RSS Web Apps avalible. So I opted for the next best thing, Google Reader.

Google Reader is a free web based application similar to Gmail but only, its an RSS Reader. And yes you guessed it right, its made by Google. After I got on my Mac and copied all my feeds over from NewFire, I was ready to roll. To my suprise I really like Google Reader. Its great if your away from your home computer, or if you dont want to fork over the cash for NewsFire. It is lacking alot of features and functionality, but hey, almost everything is better when its free.

On the iPhone, it was even better then I had expected, since this is a version designed specifically for mobile use. The mobile version of Google Reader is pretty much the same thing as the standard version, but only you can not add and subtract feeds. This is not really a problem though, since you can’t copy and paste on the iPhone anyway. The look and feel of Mobile Google Reader reminds me of iPhone Mail. It is very easy to navigate with, and find feeds quickly. Since it is formated perfectly for iPhone’s Safari there is not the hassle of trying to readjust the page size. Google Reader has been convenient for me, and I highly recommend the standard version as well as the iPhone version, for anyone who wants to keep track of their feeds on the go.

Posted: October 14th, 2007 under Review, Software.
Comments: 1

Today I ran across this on Gizmodo, this guy has a full spare room in his house dedicated to his Apple collection. He has just about every Mac model ever made, eveything from the Lisa to the MacBookPro. It is very impressive to me, that someone could have over a hundred Macs. But, what truly surprises me is thay they are all fully function-able. And I though I had a big collection!

How big is your mac collection?

Posted: October 5th, 2007 under Apple, General.
Comments: none

As many of you know, Apple recently cut the price of the iPhone by $200 only 68 days after the release date. The price drop from $600 to $400 has been an extreme shock and disappointment to many iPhone early adapters (such as myself) who are loyal Apple custumers.

In response, many custumers immediately started complaining to Apple directly via phone and email demanding a refund. Many customers were able to get a full $200 refund after talking to Apple repressives for many hours. A friend of mine was able to get $300 back for his 4GB iPhone, after complaining for over 3 hours the first day of price change. For customers who purchased iPhones early with their American Express Cards, were eligible to receive $200 credit to their account.

After receiving hundreds of emails of the price change, Apple CEO Steve Jobs published the open iphone letter, which states that all custumers who purchased an iPhone before August 22, 2007 are eligible to receive a $100 store credit.

So needless to say, I received my $100 credit which will probably end up paying for part of the sales tax on the purchase of a MacPro (as soon as theres an update). Although I am happy to get any money back at all, I do think Apple should plan their pricing more effectively in the future. But most of all, they should have refunded all their customers the full $200, with choice of cash or store credit. Instead of giving some $100 store credit, which in reality, the customer is only getting back 50 bucks, which is goes back to Apple anyway.

Posted: September 25th, 2007 under Apple.
Comments: 2

Well, I’ve had my Nikon D40 for about eight months now. I have had a lot of fun with it so far and I can list many things I love about this camera. So I think it’s about time I share my top five of many reasons, I love that little DSLR.

1. Size and Shape
The size and shape are very important characteristics of a camera for me. When I was looking for the right camera, I looked and tried out many types, but none of them had as comfortable feel as the D40. Not even its big brother, the D80. The D40 fits all needs of expectation for this category. It could not be any more comfortable or convenient to carry around with me. With the body size being significantly smaller than a traditional DSLR, this makes it a much more enjoyable experience shooting photos on the go. The selection buttons are placed comfortably to make it easy to efficiently view your photos while out in the field.

2. Functionality
All the buttons on the D40 are easily placed within thumb or finger reach. This makes adjusting settings and reviewing your shots very easy. Since the most used functions are placed on the back of the camera body, scrolling through photos and changing aperture size is very fast an efficient.

3. Image Quality
When looking for a Digital SLR, I wanted to find something that has a fast shutter speed, with good image quality. The D40 shoots fps at 6.1 megapixels. Although the D40 is only 6.1 megapixles, it shoots at a resolution of 3008×2000 in JPG Fine. This is great for me since I will only be printing about 1% of my photos anyway, so the amount of megapixles isn’t such an issue. But the resolution of the photos is large enough to display them on a Apple 30inch Cinema Display without any distortion to pixels what so ever.

4. Simplicity
The Nikon D40 is very user friendly. It can be used in as simple of a mode as auto, or can easily adjusted other presets such as; portrait, landscape, close up, and many others. It’s auto focus feature is great for snapping a quick shot at 2.5 fps. Another key element is, it can be used like a traditional SLR camera, with manual focus, flash, and aperture settings.

5. Upgradeable
The Nikon D40 is very upgradeable. Most D40 accessories are compatible with the rest of the Nikon DSLR lineup. Nikon’s DX lenses are backwards compatible with any Nikon DSLR. Which means a few years down the road when I decide to upgrade camera bodies, I can use all of the same lenses and filters.

Posted: September 17th, 2007 under Review, Photography.
Comments: 5942

To those of you who have been reading my blog checking for updates. I just want to say thank you. I’m sorry for not updating this last week. But, from now on, I will be trying hard to update with new content 2-3 times each week. I appreciate the support, and I would like to hear feedback from readers. Feel free to contact me via Email, or in the comments.

Posted: September 17th, 2007 under General.
Comments: 50

The guy’s over at iLounge posted the first unboxing photos of the new iPod Classic and iPod Nano. There are shots of the Classic in both colors and the Nano in all five colors. A few shots even a size comparison to the first generation iPod. They can be viewed on Flickr here..

Posted: September 6th, 2007 under Apple.
Comments: none

Today Apple announced the new iPod line up at their special media event, during Steve Jobs keynote. The new iPod line up consists of: iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod Classic, and iPod Touch. Much to my surprise, today while browsing the engadget live text stream of the media event via my iPhone. I saw an iPod with features that I did not expect to see for another year. I am not talking about the iPod Touch, but the iPod Classic. The iPod Classic is the replacement to the current “iPod with video playback”. It features full metal enclosure, 40 hours of battery life, an improved user interface, with hard drive capacities of a whopping 80gb and 160gb.

In my opinion the iPod Classic is the best device in the new line-up. It has the most storage, with the most familiar user interface, and lets not forget the click wheel. Basically the iPod Touch is an iPhone without the phone. To me, that doesn’t make much sense in my case considering; it still has and extremely limited storage capacity and is missing many other features like mail, bluetooth, google maps and others. Although, the iPod Touch is significantly smaller than the iPhone and iPod Classic. I believe it is, merely a middle of the road product.

The New Nano makes a whole lot more sense considering, it now features a bigger screen with video playback and cover flow. I guess the real question is, how often do you really watch videos on your ipod, and where are you going to use the wifi card in the Touch. You will probably use it about as much as you use the notes and calender feature on your current iPod. As often as I thought, just about never. Plus if you really wanted to watch a video on your iPod you will most likely going to connect it to your TV for playback anyway. So, I think for what its worth, the extra cash to upgrade to the iPhone or the Classic the is the only way to go.

With the release of the 160gig iPod Classic I feel very inclined to purchase it since my music collection is currently at about 80gigs and continues to grow daily. As for the iPod Touch and the new Nano, they don’t catch my attention what so ever. I don’t see any reason to have an iPhone with out the phone. What I recommend to myself and I’m sure many others: just stick to the basics, and keep rockin’ the classics.

Posted: September 5th, 2007 under Review, Apple.
Comments: 1

Today in the digital music world it is easier than ever to obtain a huge music collection with the help of: CD’s, LP’s, websites like Jamendo.com, P2P clients like, Bittorrent, Limewire, or maybe even The iTunes Music Store. But, have you, or do you even listen to all those tunes? And you and I both know that you don’t want to let go of any of that music. But, how are you going to listen to all that music? Well, you could sit down turn on Party Shuffle, and listen away. That could work but that still doesn’t really do the trick.

Or you could make custom playlists, that flow seamlessly, with multiple genres, that refer you to new artists that you already have in your iTunes Library. But, lets face it, no the average person wants to take the time, effort or energy to even attempt do so. What’s the solution? The Filter. The Filter is a free app that runs along side with iTunes that creates playlists based on recommendations in their data base, to help you discover new music you already own in your iTunes Library.

All you have to do is select three songs from your iTunes Library and click the “create playlist” button and The Filter will create a custom playlist in iTunes with 30 tracks (default) that were all recommended by their database, which you already have in your library. You can then change the settings to fit your need of specific playlist needs. You will be truly amazed about how accurate The Filter is. And if the music you already have isn’t enough to feed your habits, The Filter also refers music you don’t have, based the existing in your library.

Other features of The Filter include widgets and “My Filter”. This app is great since its very simple to use and configure. The Filter turns a pesky task into an enjoyable user experience. Download The Filter here.

Posted: September 3rd, 2007 under Apple, Software.
Comments: 1

Last month some friends and I decided to enter and try our luck in the Heinz Ketchup, Top This TV Challenge. The Top This TV Challenge is a commercial contest open to anyone who wishes to create an original 30 second commercial to advertise Heinz Ketchup. Heinz worked together with YouTube for the video uploads.

YouTube set up a channel for all the contest entries. So when I heard about the contest and the $57k prize, I set off to make a crew. We ended up with three commercials, but sure enough the second entry of ours was rejected from the contest all together. I received an email from Heinz stating our entry was not valid due to content reason that make it unsuitable for television.

I think it might of had something to due with poking fun at dieing fat people. But that didn’t discourage us from making a final entry with less than 12hrs left to the submission deadline. So next we made a second fat man video. That video was at least was accepted into the channel on YouTube. But needless to say since Heinz personally choose the top 15 finalists, we were left behind.

Personally I think viewers should have gotten to choose the top 15 since most of the ones they choose were; professionally made, cut, but the worst is none of them were very funny. Honestly, what do most people care about in America, comedy. So to watch my rejected entries check out my channel at on YouTube here.

Posted: September 1st, 2007 under Film/Video.
Comments: none

Hello and welcome to my blog! I finally started my own site today, where I will be writing about anything from mac news, skateboarding, to food reviews.

Posted: August 16th, 2007 under General.
Comments: none