Upgrading to Windows 11, An Odyssey

I currently have two PCs running Windows 10 that can't be upgraded to Windows 11, and with Microsoft recently sunsetting Windows 10 it was way past time for me to get a new machine, so I did. It's state of the art and I love it, but it's brought about a whole new set of challenges for me.

Both of my existing PCs, a desktop and a laptop, are old and tired, and between the two I have about a terabyte of docs, pics and videos, plus all kinds of old outdated software, so I wanted to start fresh and combine everything into one system running the latest software. Easy, straightforward plan, right? Mostly.

In preparation for the cutover, I copied all of the data I wanted to keep from both PCs to an external hard drive and then started to set up the new laptop. Microsoft makes things relatively easy to set up a PC now, if you want to play by their rules. I, however, do not, and herein lies the problem. I wanted to set the new PC up with local accounts, and they make that awfully hard to do these days. They want you to sign into new PCs with your Microsoft account, there's no local account option anymore, at least not any that are easily accessible, and they want you to live and play in the cloud. No thanks, not a fan. I don't want all of my data being sucked up into the cloud for a multitude of reasons. Number one is privacy, you really don't want things like your tax docs and medical records floating around in the ether. Number two is that I have way too much data, it would cost me a small fortune per month to store a terabyte of data on OneDrive, so I planned accordingly and got a PC with a huge solid state hard drive. Reason number three is that I like to be able to use my PCs offline, I don't want to be dependent on network availability to access my stuff. Three strikes and you're out, so it's local accounts for me, and OneDrive gets turned off.

To accomplish this in Windows 11, you need to interrupt the OOBE (Out Of Box Setup Experience) at just the right moment with a "shift - function - F10" keystroke, that apparently takes more finesse than I possess, but I finally got it to work after a couple of reboots. This key sequence brings you to a command prompt and from there you need to enter: Start ms-cxh:localonly This command causes the PC to reboot and allows you to set it up without a network connection and create local accounts. Of course, Microsoft fights you the whole way with annoying little pop-up suggestions like "Log in to your Microsoft account to get the full user experience", and "You're not protected, let us back up your files and settings". Doesn't matter that my data is still nowhere near the new computer, I'm just "not safe" by their way of thinking. So frustrating.

Anyways, I got past all of that and created two local accounts: an admin account for installing things and a standard user account for everyday use. I've found that this is the best method for protecting your device, if you accidentally download malware while on the user account, it can't install without you raising your privileges by logging into the admin account. It's a nice little safety valve.

Next, I started removing all of the bloatware that comes on a new PC, this is important to do before you install the things you really want and need. Case in point; Microsoft puts a trial copy of Office onto all new machines and because I purchased a full copy of Office Home edition, it had to go. You would think the Office installer would take care of things like that, but it doesn't, and you can't do a clean install of Office until you remove it, so I did. I also got rid of, or hid, a bunch of other non-essential crap, and changed all of the settings to my liking. Making progress!

The next step was downloading and installing my new copy of Office Home 2024. I thought this would be pretty straight forward as well, but surprise; it is not.

Office 2024 requires you to be logged into your Microsoft account to both install and use it. This means that even if you're set up as a local user and you've purchased a full copy of Office, you need to be logged into Microsoft whenever you use Office products. It also turned OneDrive back on, backed up my settings and files, and it used my Microsoft credentials to log me into Edge; "get points and bucks for your search data!" Again, no thank you. Frustration levels rising...

Easy fix though, I went back into OneDrive and turned it off, again, amid more protestation, and I logged out of Edge. This still leaves you logged into your Office products and able to use them, so I'm good with that to some degree. There was a small benefit to this extra step they forced me into; when I logged in it triggered the Windows 10 ESU (Extended Service Updates) and my old machines started receiving patches again, so I guess letting it back up my settings and files on a relatively empty machine was worth it. I was shocked at how fast it glommed onto my new machine and backed it up unbidden though, but it is what it is. It is nice to have a little protection on the old devices while I cut over.

Office wasn't done surprising me yet, though. I told you it's been a long time since I'd upgraded, so long that my old copy of Office came with Outlook, and that's no longer the case. You can only get a full copy of Outlook with the Office Business Edition now. With the Home version, you need to download "New Outlook", which is part of the Office 365 suite and is a web-based product. Why I would want to install Office 365 on top of my full copy of Office Home still eludes me, although Microsoft suggests that it will make all of my other devices more productive... The layman's translation to that is that they want access to all of your phone's data as well. Speaking of access to all of your data, New Outlook wants you to give Microsoft permission for them to access all of your contacts and emails. I don't know about you, but I have hundreds of business, personal and organizational addresses, and it would be wrong for me to hand that data over to a third party, it would be a breach of trust. My provider already has access to it, why would I give it to someone else just to use a third-party mail client? Not gonna do it, wouldn't be prudent.

I do like to have an email client though, as it allows me to combine all of my accounts into one view and it also gives you more features and flexibility than webmail alone. After a little research I've narrowed it down to a couple of options to replace Outlook. I'm currently experimenting with eM Client as an alternative. So far, so good, I'll keep you posted as I plod along. I really wish that there was an Apple Mail app available for Windows, it's got them all beat for privacy, functionality and ease of setup in my opinion, but there isn't.

One more tip before I wrap this up, and this is important; if you're an iTunes user, you are much better served going directly to Apple's website and downloading the Windows 64 bit version of iTunes instead of installing the Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Devices apps from the Microsoft store. When you install the apps, you can have a really hard time syncing your devices, especially if you still have any iPods. The Apple Devices app, which you need to manually sync any Apple device, including iPhones, has some awful ratings, some mentioning bricking of phones. The Apple TV and Apple Music apps themselves both work fine, but when either one is installed, they eviscerate iTunes, turning it into a podcast and eBook only shell of itself, and forcing you to download the third app, Apple Devices, for synching, and that's just too risky for me. I'm not using any 1-star rated app to back up and manage my phone. There are literally thousands of reviews from unhappy users about the Apple Devices app for Windows. Stay away, stay far, far away.

So, this exercise in modernization and consolidation has turned into a GIANT project for me, but I've learned a lot. It doesn't have to be so difficult for you though, if you want to roll with the program and set up as a "cloud first device". That's just not what I want, and when I pay this much money for a whole new setup, I want some say in the matter. I understand Microsoft's reasoning, they're basically giving you the Windows OS for free, and making their money from subscription services and packaging deals. Personally, I'd rather pay for my software and own and use it as I see fit. One thing I've learned is that nothing is free in the IT world, you either pay cash money for something, or you pay with your personal information, and in my opinion, your PI is much more valuable than money these days. It's a conundrum we all have to face in this digital age. 

At the very least, it would be nice if they gave you the option to set the machine up locally without having to break out of the setup. If you're not aware of this requirement beforehand, it's a difficult thing to recover from, and that's their thinking, I guess. It feels slippery and disingenuous to me, and I'm really glad I did my homework before I unboxed. An opt out for OneDrive would be greatly appreciated as well, it's annoying and frustrating. The average user isn't going to deviate from the network centric setup, only the fussy old users like me, so they wouldn't be losing any revenue. It would just be the right thing to do. 

Don't get me wrong, I really love my new machine and some of the new features. Windows 11 is streamlined and fast, and not that hard to get used to, all things considered. This latest crop of machines is amazing.as well, so this isn't a Microsoft or big tech hit piece, I just feel that it's important that they know we want, and need, more input into our own setup processes and PI management.

OK, I'm done grousing for now, I've droned on long enough. Stay tuned though; I have some updates and reviews coming up of the actual system I ended up going with, as well as a few apps I'm test driving. First, I'm gonna go take a couple Tylenol and lie down for a while...

Protecting Your Digital Photos and Documents

 We all have a ton of data on our devices; important documents, photos of friends and family, stuff you just don't want to lose. Anything can happen though, disaster is always lurking right around the corner. Spill your coffee on your laptop, drop your phone into the pool, your devices can even just up and stop working, and poof, everything is gone in a flash. That's why you need to back up those important files, and you need to do it now. Do not wait until it's too late.

There's lots of ways you can do it, and they're all relatively easy. You can back your files up to the cloud, you can use a backup program that will copy your files to an external hard drive and then do incremental updates to the saved data every time you make a change on your device, or you can just copy and paste the files you want to protect to an external drive. You have lots of options, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. Let's review a few.

Cloud backups can be seamless and easy, but the cloud can get hacked, so I'm not a big fan. I don't want any more of my data floating around in the ether for some bad guy to poach and resell on the dark web, there's enough of it out there already. I'm always getting a notice from some institution or other saying, "We regret to inform you that all of your personal information has been compromised. Not to worry though, we've signed you up for 3 free months of Experian Credit Monitoring Services and DeathGrip ID Theft Protection coverage. Enjoy it on us! (special terms and conditions apply)."

No thanks, I'm good. The best and most reliable way to safeguard your data is to back it up to an external hard drive. I don't like to use automatic backup software to do it though. It's always running in the background, and it slows the crap out of your devices. Plus, it backs up stuff that you really don't need to back up. The file structure it creates on your external drive isn't very intuitive, either. I 'm going to show you a relatively easy way to back up your files, and I guarantee it will take a little bit of the worry out of your life.

My preferred back up method is to copy and paste my primary file folders over to an external drive and then update it on a regular basis. It's quick, easy and painless, and the file structure is simple, it's just a straight up copy of your hard drive. The folders you want to back up (or copy) on a PC are shown below. Note: If you save a lot of stuff to your desktop, you should copy that folder over as well. 

These 5 (or 6) folders hold all of your personal data, and that's all you want to be backing up and storing, cuz that's what's really important here, protecting your stuff, not Microsoft's.

For a reliable external drive, I like to use a simple USB plug and play drive like the Seagate 2TB Backup Plus Slim Hard Drive. It's small in size but big on storage, and there's no power cords to fuss with. It works off of a built in USB 3.0 cable, drawing its power from whatever device its plugged into. It comes with preloaded backup software, but I don't use it. As I mentioned earlier, backup programs always seem to be running when you don't want them to, dragging your device down. I just plug in the USB drive to my device, open it up, ignore the preloaded software and create a couple of folders.

In this example, I've created a desktop backup folder and a laptop backup folder. Inside of each of those folders I create dated sub folders, e.g. "Laptop Backup 07 01 2025". There's plenty of room on these drives to do multiple backups of each device, and you should. Next, I copy and paste my main folders from the device's hard drive to the external drive's new dated folders. Simple as that. You can copy and paste one folder at a time, or do them all at once, your choice.

Once the external hard drive starts to get full, I delete the oldest dated subfolder before I create another one, this way I always have multiple copies of all my files on the external device, and I never run out of disk space on it.

But what about the pics on my phone, you say? The best option is to sync your phone, tablets and any thumb drives or SD cards you have with your PC or Mac on a regular basis. Then when you back up your PC to your external drive you catch everything in one neat package. It's the same principle as above, you don't need any fancy software or devices, just plug your mobile device into your PC or Mac with a USB cable and copy and paste (or drag and drop) the pictures and files over to the computer. Easy peasy. Synching your mobile devices also allows you to safely remove pics and free up storage space on them, something we all need to do.

Bonus Tip: For added peace of mind, I store my external hard drives in our little grab and go SentrySafe burn box. If disaster strikes, all of our docs and pics go with us, even if our devices don't make the cut.

Bottom line, you don't have to do it my way, but you do have to do it. Choose whatever method you're most comfortable with and do it without delay. Do not be that person that calls me on a Monday night in a panic and says "Help, that new upgrade just bricked my device and now I've lost all of my family pictures." All I'm going to do is give you the number for the Geek Squad, and wish you Godspeed and good luck, because you're gonna need it, all of it. 

iOS 26 and the Disappearing Icons

 

Apple confirmed the shift in their Operating System's nomenclature at WWDC25 last week, all of their product's OS's will jump to 26, which while confusing, is understandable. It's good to have a standard that has a built-in benchmark, e.g. "Oh yeah, that change happened in 2026". It's strange that it took them 18 revisions to figure it out, but it will probably be a good thing. That may be the only good thing about iOS 26 though. Their new "Liquid Glass" design with its translucent icons and notifications is weird at best, and impossible to use at worst.

I'm not gonna lie, from what I've seen of it so far, my eyesight is definitely not up to the task. Care will need to be taken when selecting wallpaper as well, so's not to make them even harder to read. Plus, they've revamped the look of some of the app icons, which will be a learning curve unto itself.

Who thought this was a good idea? I know weed is legal now, but maybe the Apple product designers should cut back on their consumption just a little bit. I mean, have fun and all, but come up for air from time to time, it will help you stay in touch with reality. Not sure what I was expecting with iOS26, but this is not it. No sir, this is not it at all.

Hopefully we'll be able to toggle the translucent effect off. I'm also hoping that they work overtime to refine this version before releasing it. That, and that they smoke less weed. That last one is super important.

In the meantime, I'm going to make sure that automatic updates are turned off, and I'm going to keep on checking the setting, cuz those rascals are always turning things on behind my back. Cheeky monkeys.

Quick, What Comes After 18?

If you said 19, you'd be mostly right. Unless, of course, you were referring to Apple iOS, then all bets are off. Rumors abound on the interwebs that Apple is going with a new naming convention for all of their OS's, Mac, iPad, iPhone, literally everything. The scuttlebutt is that they'll all be making the leap to 26, as in 2026. Seems like they've decided to bring all of their various Operating Systems in line with a single naming convention based on the coming year.

Here's a link to a great synopsis from Macworld: Apple Is Reportedly Skipping iOS 19, they explain it much better than I can. I mean, what about the new iPhone, will that jump from 16 to 26 as well? I'm so confused. 

Anyways, we won't have long to wait, Apple's WWDC25 event is happening tomorrow at 10am PT, that's actually 1pm ET for all of us right coasters, and I'm sure they'll put all rumors to rest. Mostly.

If you're like me and you like to torture yourself by seeing brandy new shiny things that you probably can't afford, you can tune in here on their website: Apple WWDC25, or you can catch it on the Apple TV app. What other surprises will they have in store for us? Lord knows, but it should be interesting, and expensive.

 

Repurposing Old Tablets and Smart Devices

While I'm on the subject of iPods, I thought I'd share a few tips on repurposing old smart tech. I have a ton of older devices; tablets, e-readers, mobile devices, you name it, I have it, and I find they can come in handy around the house. You can trade them in when you're upgrading, but you're usually lucky to get 20 bucks for them, and if they're in reasonable shape, that's a bad deal.

 You're much better served repurposing them to play a role in your IoT (Internet of Things), or "smart house". Old iPads and tablets are a great addition to your kitchen or family room and can serve as calendars, notepads, cookbooks, security camera monitors, music players, or all of the above. My old iPad Air is still in great condition and is an invaluable addition to our kitchen counter. Look up a recipe, quickly respond to a text, check your calendar while you're on the phone and add or update an appointment, you can even see who's creepin' 'round your back door. So many uses. You can mount them on a wall, or just use them in a free-standing cradle, there are a plethora of tablet mounts and cradles on the market, something for every situation.

Same with old mobile phones or iPod Touch devices, they make fantastic smart remotes for your TV's and entertainment centers. My iPod Touch is the primary controller for my Man Town A/V setup. It has my provider's app on it which has a Cable TV remote function, interactive program guide and access to my DVR library. It also has an Apple TV remote app, my iTunes library, and it connects to my A/V receiver via Bluetooth, so my complete music library is always available through my big boy stereo. Plus, it's got a keypad and Siri, which makes searching the guide grids a piece of cake. It also has internet access via Wi-Fi so I can keep track of news and scores. Forget those pricey universal remotes, this puppy does it all. Pro tip: you can also use old mobile phones for the same purpose as long as they have Wi-Fi. Just cuz they no longer have dial tone does not make them useless; they'll still upgrade and be capable of downloading apps via Wi-Fi.

Old iPods or MP3 players can be useful as well, paired with non-smart music systems. I have a Sony HD table radio and a Bose Wave that are both still excellent sounding devices, but both lack any smart features. Rather than upgrade them and trash a perfectly good music system, I use my old 3rd gen nano with them. From an aesthetic and haptic point of view, the 3rd gen Nano, or iPod fatty, as I call it, is my favorite iPod; what it lacks in functionality it more than makes up for in rizz. It's got that old school click wheel and iconic early iPod chrome backplate, it's a sexy little beast. Unfortunately, it no longer holds a charge for sh!t, but it works just fine nestled in a 30-pin dock, which both radios have. It expands the radios functionality, and it's a design statement; it says, "Music lives here". It also says, "We're old", but meh, I could care less. I wear that like a badge of honor.

Anyways, the possibilities are endless, you're limited only by your imagination. Plus, you're keeping it green by keeping things out of our ever-growing electronic waste piles, or the land fill. Double bonus.

So, repurpose those old devices when you can, old tech needs love too.

Apple Needs To Bring Back the iPod

I jumped on the iPod bandwagon early and rode that baby all the way to the end of the line, and it was a sweet ride. The iPod revolutionized the personal music player market. No more big devices to carry around, and more importantly, your portable music library was no longer limited to the number of cassettes or CD's you could lug around with you. Your whole music library, available all the time, right in the palm of your hand. Heady stuff, Jetson-esque stuff, and it still is. Digital data opened up a whole new world for us. Then the iPhone came along, a natural progression, and eventually phased out the iPod completely.

There's still a need for them, though. I love my iPhone, but it's not the right tool for every situation. If I'm going to be anywhere near whirling blades or water hazards, I don't want my iPhone in the vicinity. I also don't want to be constantly draining its battery; I want it charged and ready for when I need it. My iPod Nano is my go-to device for things like yard work, or long walks off a short pier. It's small, sleek, and functional. No dial tone, no annoying spam, no data stealing apps, just a good standalone music player, cuz sometimes that's all you need.

Apple had really hit the sweet spot with the Nano, and the 7th gen was their best device in my opinion, from both a size and functionality standpoint. It has Bluetooth, an FM tuner, a moderate amount of storage, and relatively little else, but it does the trick. If Apple built a new model based off of the 7th gen design with a beefed-up storage capacity, say 64 or 128GB, I'd be first in line to buy one. I'd even grudgingly accept Wi-Fi for ease of syncing, just as long as it didn't increase the size and battery drain by too much and they limit the apps that run on it. No mail, no texts, I want none of it. I'm sure they'd wedge their Apple Music streaming app on there, it's not something I need or want, but I could live with it as well.

I know there are other DAP's (Digital Audio Players) out there on the market, some with incredible specs like the high end A&K's and the Sony's, but they're all very pricey and Android based, and would entail duplicating my iTunes library or just outright converting my iTunes library into an app that works for both Apple and Android devices, but that's a hassle and entails subscription costs. My library is huge at this point with extensive playlists, so that ship has sailed for me. I'm pretty much locked into the iTunes world, warts and all, but I'm okay with that; it's free, familiar and relatively uncomplicated.

Uncomplicated, that pretty much sums up this whole argument. These days people are craving a "do not disturb" kind of device, it's not just nostalgia. There's most definitely a large market for it, and a new iPod is just the ticket. So, give us a new iPod, Apple, I'm begging you. My batteries are slowly giving up the ghost, its time, so let's get cracking.

Email Client Not Downloading Messages

 

Like many of you, I have multiple devices and multiple email accounts, so I use email clients to keep everything organized and available locally. I use Outlook 2013 on my Windows devices, and the standard iOS mail app on my Apple devices. All clients are configured the same to access my providers POP3 and SMTP servers, and all was working well, except on one platform, my Windows desktop. Messages were sending, but Outlook was hanging up when downloading new messages. It would sit and spin on "downloading" for hours, if I let it. Every so often a few emails would download, but it was a painful and incomplete process.

This was a vexing problem because mail was sending on the device, and occasionally, messages were downloading, so everything appeared to be set up correctly, plus the problem was limited to this single device. Hmmm. 

First thing I did was verify a good network connection for the desktop, which was easy for this device, it's plugged directly into a Gig port on my router and upload and download speeds were optimal.

A comparison of email account settings across devices was next, to see if I could find any differences, and I did.

When I first set up my email clients, I used all of the same settings, except on the desktop. The difference was that I had the Outlook 2013 client on my desktop set to "Leave a copy of messages on the server" and I had also checked "delete messages from server after 14 days", a subcategory, as well. On all of the other devices I had only checked "Leave a copy of messages on the server" and hadn't checked any of the deletion options. I had done this so that I could keep my mail server account effortlessly clean, while not missing any messages on any of my devices. My thought, a valid one, was that 14 days before deletion would give me enough time to be sure that I had received all of my emails on all of my devices before they were deleted from the server, and it worked, for a while...

When I unchecked "delete messages after 14 days", my new emails started flowing fast and furious on the desktop, just like on all of my other devices. Nice, like poop through a goose, as they say. Problem solved.

But why was this setting causing me problems? After all, it's something email clients are designed to do. Well, I did a little research and here are the major reasons "Deleting messages from the server" will fail:

A large volume of emails on the mail server can strain both the server and your device, causing freeze ups. Yep, that's me.

Server Issues. This is probably part of the problem as well. My original provider sold my email domain and address to another provider, and that new provider would most definitely not be my email provider of choice, if I had a choice, but I don't. I want to keep my current domain, that email address is ingrained into everything in my life, and I'm not ready to rip it out by the roots and throw my life into turmoil at the moment. Hint: my "new" provider is famous for the phrase "You've got mail". Nuff said?

Outdated or buggy email apps. It's probably time for me to upgrade Outlook 2013 to Outlook 2024, but I'm also in need of upgrading my PC's so that they can run Windows 11, so... I'll wait and do it all at once. *sigh*

Incorrect server settings. They were correct across devices and should have worked. Harumph. 

Slow or poor internet connection. Not my problem, man.

So, "Deleting messages from the server" was the issue that was hosing up my desktop, for a number of reasons, all stated above. To fix this in Outlook, go to "Email Account Settings", highlight the account you want to change, then click on "Change", "More Settings" and "Advanced". At the bottom of the advanced box, make sure that "Leave a copy of messages on the server" is checked, and that all of the subcategories that delete files from the server remain unchecked. It should look like this when you're done:

For now, I'm managing deletions on my mail server using the webmail interface from my provider. It's kind of painful; I'd prefer that it happened automagically, but it's a work around until I can clean up my mail server, and upgrade Outlook. There is another benefit to using Webmail occasionally btw, managing your spam filters at your mail server instead of on your individual devices is a much better solution in that constant battle with spam. Win, win.

One last thing, a friend was having the same issue with their Apple email client on their iPhone, messages either not downloading, or taking forever and then downloading in fits and starts. This same fix worked for them, so this problem is not unique to Outlook.

I think we all need to clean up our inboxes a little... 

That is all. 

Apple iOS/iPadOS 18.3 update - Security, Performance and Email Issues

 The iOS 18.3 update was chock full of surprises, not all good, and from the chatter I'm seeing online, I'm not alone in that opinion. It was a frustrating experience to say the least. Most notably for many, the mail changes were the worst part of it. Mail in iOS 18.3 now automatically categorizes your inbox for you and only shows you what Apple has deemed important in your inbox by default. You can change it back, kinda sorta, but life is hard enough without Apple making half of your inbox appear to disappear overnight. A change like this needs to be optional, not automatic, but it wasn't, so here's a brief summation of the changes you'll see, and some suggestions to regain order.

First things first though, a new update for iOS and iPadOS, 18.3.1, is already out, and you should install it immediately. It addresses both performance and security issues introduced by 18.3. According to Forbes, it's an emergency patch that fixes a security issue that’s already being exploited, and “an Apple Intelligence bug that may have been introduced.” the iOS 18.3.1 update fixes a flaw in Accessibility where a physical attack can disable USB Restricted Mode on a locked device. “Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.” What this means in a nutshell from a security standpoint is that anyone could plug a device or cable into your USB or Lightning port and copy your data, even if your iPhone or iPad is locked. Yikes, this needs to be addressed as quickly as possible.

The 18.3.1 update also fixes recent performance issues introduced with 18.3. So far it seems quick and stable, but the jury's still out. Fingers crossed.

Okay, now let's get to the email "enhancements" that they've introduced. It reminds me of their threads change, Apple seems bound and determined to reimagine email, not sure why, but they are. I’m a straight up chronological inbox guy, anything else tips over my brain. If you're the same, here's what to do.

In the top right corner of your inbox(es), you should see an ellipsis (...), tap on that and change the setting to List View from Category View. This will repopulate your inbox(es) with all of your email messages. If you have more than one email account, you'll need to do this for all of your inboxes.

You can also get rid of those inbox category icons as well by turning off contact photos in Settings/Apps/Mail. They still show up in the emails themselves, but this gets rid of them in the list view. I don't need or want to see stars, moons and clovers anywhere other than in my bowl of Lucky Charms. Note, actual contact photos will still show up in your emails, as do their little category icons, this fix just removes them from your inbox for a cleaner view.

Next, emails that Apple deems "needs responding too" appear at the top of your inbox now. This is a similar fix to getting rid of the contact icons, go to Settings/Apps/Mail, then turn off “follow up suggestions” and they'll go away. Basically, turn everything on that page off except "notify before delete", unless you like living dangerously lol.

There's also a new feature, or bug, in Calendar. After entering a new event, Apple Intelligence picks up on any text messaging or email regarding the event and prompts you with calendar inbox messages. Ideally this is a good thing, but when I enter an event like "Lunch at 12:30 with John Doe", I don't need a message that says "Text from John Doe says lunch at 12:30" in my calendar inbox after I've created the event. It used to prompt me with the text details while I was creating the event, telling me after the fact is just superfluous and annoying. Perhaps the next update will return this feature's usefulness, we'll see.

Lastly, these updates will toggle on Apple Intelligence by default, even if you previously had it switched off. If you'd like to keep it off, go to Settings/Apple Intelligence and Siri, and toggle it off. It's still in beta, so I keep it off. I did turn it on briefly when I test drove one of the new intelligent features, Image Playground. Kinda cool, it generated a pretty funny profile sketch for me that's mostly right. Mostly. Lord knows how intelligent it actually is, and what info it reports out (see bug notice above), so I turned it back off. I'll be sticking with my own lack of intelligence for now.

It shouldn't be this hard, Apple. Offer me things, don't force me to recover from them.

That is all.

Extended Warranties, Are They Worth It?

Retailers offer extended warranties on almost everything these days, but are they worth investing in?

For me, it depends on a combination of things; the deal being offered and the repair/replacement costs of the product. Black and Decker cordless screwdriver? No thanks, I’ll just buy a new one. It gets a little more complicated with higher end items, though.

It’s the devices that you’re likely to repair as opposed to replace that you might want the coverage on, especially if it covers you against accidental damage, e.g., dropping, spills, etc. and also covers consumables like battery replacement.

With TV’s, I usually balk. Most have a one year factory warranty, there’s no batteries or accessories to replace, and they’re not subject to a lot of wear and tear like a laptop or tablet, just mount them and forget them. Plus with the way the prices keep dropping, they’re more of a replace than repair device these days.

PC’s, laptops and tablets are similar in the fact that prices keep dropping; wait a year and you can buy twice the system for the same money, but they’re expensive to fix, and your first choice is always repair with this type of device. It’s a pain to move all your data to a new machine, near impossible if you haven’t been doing backups.

I purchased extended warranties on both my desktop and laptop, and both paid off big time. The power supply and motherboard on my desktop fried after taking a power jolt with only a couple of weeks left on the plan, and Best Buy fixed it with no questions asked, basically giving me back a brand new computer with my original hard drive.

I had purchased the same Best Buy extended warranty on my laptop, and once again with only weeks left on the plan I began having overheating issues with the video card. Because the video card was integrated with the motherboard, the laptop was deemed too costly to repair, so Best Buy gave me a gift card for the purchase price of a similar model plus tax, and I walked out of there with a brand new laptop. One with twice the processing power, memory and disk capacity, and a larger screen, no less. Nice.

I had also gotten a replacement battery for the laptop shortly before its demise, no questions asked. I just had to show my sales slip and warranty paperwork and they shipped a replacement to my house free of charge. Think about this; if a warranty covers battery replacement, you know you’re going to recoup most of the cost by ordering a battery before the warranty expires, they go for about $100, and what 2 or 3 year old laptop couldn’t use a new battery?

So, before saying yes or no to the extended warranty offer, here’s what I ask myself:

Would I want to get this product repaired?

Is it an “at risk” device, something that will see a lot of wear and tear like a laptop?

Does it cover things that are not covered by the factory warranty, e.g. power spikes, spills, drops?

Is the extended warranty for a longer period than the factory warranty, and is it a reasonable cost?

Consumer Reports warns against buying any extended warranties or purchase protection plans, saying that the odds are that most of the devices they are offered on will either never need repair, or the problems will surface during the original manufacturer’s warranty, however they do admit that the exception to the rule would be laptops, especially Macs, due to Apple’s skimpy warranty policies. They offer a chart (shown above) with average failure rates of products within the first 3 to 4 years that shows laptop failure rates at 43%, leading all electronics, appliances and yard equipment by a wide margin.

Personally, I think the Consumer Reports article is a little misleading. They come out so strongly against extended warranties, then halfway through the article backtrack when it comes to electronics. In my opinion, most people stop reading after the first few negative paragraphs and miss the important caveats. I do have to thank them for the failure rate chart, though. Very nice.

Bottom line, the choice is yours. Weigh your options and make the choice that’s right for you, and your budget.

That is all.

My Love/Hate Relationship With Apple

My wife got a shiny new 7th gen iPod nano in her stocking this Christmas, a pink one no less, and it put a huge smile on her face. The new nano is a nicely thought out little device and the perfect workout accessory; it holds a ton of music, has Bluetooth for wireless headphones, a built in pedometer, and it has the Nike+ personal trainer app, which is pretty slick.

She has an iMac and she’s had a couple of iPods and an iPad, so Santa felt pretty comfortable with this particular gifting. The only requirement for the new 7th gen nano is that it needs iTunes 10.7 or higher. Piece of cake, thought Santa.

His confidence was based on the fact that he has iTunes 10.7 running on both an XP and a Windows 7 machine back at the North Pole, both ends of the technology spectrum in the Windows world, plus the iMac in question already has iTunes 10.5 loaded on it, so upgrading from 10.5 to 10.7 on a fairly new iMac shouldn’t present any problems. iTunes 11 might be a problem, but 10.7 is just a simple rev bump.

That was his thinking, anyway, but Santa was wrong, way wrong.

First my wife tried to upgrade to iTunes 10.7. The download went fine, but her iMac balked on installation, informing her that she was running OSX 10.5 (Leopard) for an operating system, and iTunes 10.7 could only be installed on machines with the newest version of OSX, Mountain Lion (10.7).

So, Apple has a version of iTunes 10.7 for XP, Vista and Windows 7, both the 32 and 64 bit versions, but for their own platform there’s only 1 version, and that’s for their latest and greatest OS only. Nice.

Oh well, no big deal, we thought. Mountain Lion is available as a download on the Apple website, for a fee of course ($29.99). Wrong again…

To upgrade from Leopard (OSX 10.5), you first have to upgrade to Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6), and Snow Leopard is not available as a download. You have to buy the disc set from Apple, again for a fee, load it, and then you can download Mountain Lion.

Rather than order Snow Leopard online and wait impatiently, we decided to head out to the closest Apple store and pick up a copy. Seemed like a good idea at the time, we just wanted to wrap things up and move on at this point, but we were wrong yet again.

When we got there we were told that the brick and mortar stores don’t carry copies of the operating system, you can only order them online. Of course, they were very nice about it, even reminding us that we’d be able to download Mountain Lion once we ordered and installed Snow Leopard. It was small compensation though, and we trudged back home, extremely frustrated, and placed our order for the Snow Leopard disc set.

Now we sit and wait, knowing that once we get the software delivered, we have to do two OS upgrades and then an iTunes upgrade, plus we’ll need to fix the collateral damage; upgrading other programs so that they’re compatible with Mountain Lion. The collateral damage is the main reason we hadn’t updated the iMac yet. Our current version of VirtualBox, the program that allows us to load a second operating system, XP in this case, won’t run on Mountain Lion, and without it, my wife can’t work from home. So once we finish the OS and iTunes upgrades, we’ll need to do the VirtualBox upgrade.

Meanwhile, the pretty pink nano sits there next to the Mac, gleaming in its little acrylic box, unused and unloved, silently mocking me.

“Great present”, it whispers.

*sigh*

I take solace in the fact that with gifts, it’s the thought that counts, and none of these upgrades are a bad thing in any way. Matter of fact, they we’re way overdue, but it shouldn’t be this hard to set up a simple music player.

If Apple can make a version of iTunes for every Windows OS, they certainly could do the same for their own, so why don’t they? Well, they have to cater to Windows users, they make up the lions share of their customers, and it’s not their OS, so they can’t force change. Ah, but Mac users, they’re the cash cow. They can get them coming and going; new iPod, new OS (or two!), sometimes even a new system. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

Apple has released 3 OS upgrades since we bought the iMac in 2010, and countless versions of iTunes software and iPod firmware. Ideally, you always want to have your computers and gadgets up to date, it unlocks new functions and features, and can ultimately make a big difference in your device’s performance, but it gets very hard to keep up with, plus you have that old “collateral damage” problem.

The iPad, iPhone and Touch all have Wi-Fi and can sync to your iTunes account via the cloud, so you’re not as much of a slave to change as you are with devices like the nano that need to be physically connected to a system to sync and operate, but you can still get bitten, so beware.

The lesson here is; do your homework before buying any kind of software or hardware, especially when it’s for someone else. The last thing you want is to be raising stress levels instead of bringing joy and delight.

Oh yeah, and do your upgrades in a timely fashion, don’t be a slouch like me.

That is all.

Last Minute Tips for a Very Geeky Christmas

Still struggling with your Christmas shopping? Well, you’ve come to the right place; our annual last minute gift guide will help you get over the goal line. There’s something here for every budget, and all items are readily available and guaranteed to please that special geek in your life.


Apple iPad mini

The hot gift for 2012, nuff said. $329 and up at Apple Stores, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, basically everywhere. Comes with the new Lightning to USB cable and a USB power adaptor.


Apple 7th gen iPod nano

As it says on their website, it’s been completely renanoed. The widescreen and video are back after a failure to report for duty in the 6th Gen version. Bluetooth, Nike + support and a pedometer function have been added. It’s got a touch screen, FM radio with live pause, 16GB of storage for your music, videos, photos and contacts, and it comes in a plethora of colors. I think this is their best version yet.

$149 at Apple stores, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, basically everywhere, best selection of colors is the Apple Store. Comes with a set of the new Apple EarPods and a Lightning to USB cable.


Belkin YourType Bluetooth Keyboard/Folio for iPad

Touch screens are amazing, but sometimes you just need a keyboard. There’s a bunch of them on the market this year, but I like Belkin’s best. It has a responsive, well designed removable keyboard with 60 hour active battery life, and the folio adjusts for multiple landscape and portrait iPad viewing angles. Comes with a micro USB cable for recharging.

$79 to $99 at Target, Walmart, Best Buy


Logitech Harmony® 650 Remote

Love the Harmony remotes, hate the prices. The top end models go for $250 to $350; too rich for my blood, but the 650 can be found for as low as $50. It’s got a color screen, controls up to 5 devices, and supports over 5000 brands. Connect it to your PC via USB cable and let Logitech’s online software walk you through configuring it for one click activities, and their constantly updated database ensures this remote will be able to keep up with your component changes for quite a while.

$49.99 to $79.99 at Best Buy, Home Depot


Bluetooth Speaker Systems

Forget the docks and cables; you can wirelessly stream music from your Bluetooth enabled phone, iPod or laptop to a wide variety of Bluetooth speakers and receivers available in every price range. From the HDMX Jam at $44, to my favorite, the Bose Soundlink II at $299, there’s a lot of options here.

$44 to $299 at Apple stores, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, these things are everywhere this year.


iTunes Cards

Every Christmas we pick up a couple of 3 packs of the $10 iTunes cards, they make great stocking stuffers and they’re good to have on hand for emergency gifting. Available everywhere. $10 and up.


Google Play Cards

Finally, prepaid gift cards for Android users, what a concept! Available at Target, Walmart, Staples and Radio Shack. $10 and up.


That’s it, there’s something here for every budget, and they’re all “swoop in and grab” kinda presents. It will take you longer to find a parking spot than to find and purchase any of these items, so get it in gear and let’s wrap this thing up!

Apple Revamps iPods... again

The buttons are back on the shuffle, and gone from the nano, replaced by a touch screen that allows it to be half the size of the last gen. Its kind of become a baby touch, and speaking of the touch, its gotten thinner and they've added both front and rear facing cameras.

They've taken the best features from their current star performer, the touch, and integrated them into the nano, and shifted some of the nano's features, the camera and the FM tuner, to the touch. Very nice.

The nano appears to be morphing into the shuffle of the future, as the smaller size and the built in clip make it a lot more functional for on the go activities. My wife loves her little pink 2nd gen shuffle for her walkabouts, but I could never get used to a device without a screen, I just don't like flying blind. My nano is my portable of choice, and if there was one thing I'd change about it, it would be to add a secure way to fasten it to my clothes.

The improvements to the touch, while great, are way overdue. The cameras and the tuner should have been added to the 3rd gen touch. The 3rd gen was basically a fix. When they released OS3, they turned on the hidden Bluetooth functionality of the 2nd gen touch, and quickly realized that it wasn't quite up to the task of supporting Bluetooth and running the new OS. It became a flakey battery hog, hence the new processor in the 3rd gen, but why did they stop there? A Wi-Fi device as slick and powerful as the touch cried out for a camera, skype anyone?, and not integrating a tuner was one of those mysterious Apple tics that you just can't understand. My theory is that at some early design review Steve Jobs said "Radio is dead.", and from that point on, talk of incorporating a tuner became a taboo subject.

So, with these latest changes, the touch and the nano are finally dressed properly for the occasion, so to speak, and the shuffle has reverted back to it's most popular form. All of the devices have become more functional in their particular niche, and that's a good thing. I give Apple a solid B for this new crop, I just wish they'd slow down a little.

Check out the video below for a "first look" at all the new iPods, plus a preview of iTunes 10 and the current top apps:

Reloading An App, Revisited

Here’s an update on the post I did a couple of weeks ago about troubleshooting an app on my iPod touch. To Apple’s credit, someone from the iTunes Store Customer Support Team finally responded to me and was very helpful. Their first suggestion was to do exactly what I had planned on doing after I read their knowledge base, delete and reload the app.

I followed Apple’s directions, and even went a few steps further. I backed up iTunes, and then sync'd my nano and touch. Fresh copies all around! Speaking of copies, I made sure I had a copy of the old iTunes 8.0.20 installer, which I did, just in case. Next I backed up my PC to an external drive, and then I upgraded to the latest version of iTunes (9.2.1.5).

Surprisingly, all went well. When iTunes 9 was finished installing, I rebooted the PC and then tried resyncing my ipods. Everything worked fine.

Next, I deleted the app in question from both my Touch and iTunes. Then I went to the app store and repurchased it. iTunes recognized that I had already purchased the app and allowed me to download it for free, nice, and then a dialog box popped up that said:

"You must authorize this computer to download this application. There are also other applications on your Computer that are not authorized and will be removed if you don't choose to authorize now."

Not nice. So of course, I reauthorized the computer that I've been using to handle my account without interruption for at least 3 years. Very strange, but what's worse is the next message:

"You now have 5 of 5 possible computers authorized to use this account."

Why iTunes decided that the system I've been using for so long is suddenly not on the list is a total mystery. It's been authorized for 5 years, and it's been at least 3 years since I've replaced any components in it. Is it possible that iTunes 9 does a more thorough consistency check then iTunes 8, and just noticed the work I did 3 years ago? Regardless, at some point in the near future I’m going to need to deauthorize all the computers on my account and start fresh, but that’s for another time.

Anyways, the app appeared to download correctly, so I resynced my touch and tried to start the new copy of the app, and got the same error as before; a brief black screen followed by getting dumped back at the desktop.

bummer : (

I tried rebooting the PC and the iPod and then resyncing again, just in case, but the app still didn't work.

So, there I sat, broken hearted. Paid 5 bucks for an app that farted.

My bet at this point is that this latest version of Raging Thunder 2 just doesn't run on OS 2.2 as advertised. Polarbit still hasn't responded, but when I reported back to the iTunes support team that it failed again, they quickly offered to credit my account, which I quickly, and gratefully, accepted.

I can’t say enough good things about the iTunes Store’s customer service, and I’m glad I finally have all the computers upgraded to iTunes 9, even though to do it safely is a bit of a chore…The Sharing feature is the nards.

My only fear in all of this, is that my beautiful, shiny, fast as lightening 2nd gen touch is rapidly being painted into that inevitable high tech corner, obsolescence, at least in the available app department. I’m sure it won’t be long before all new apps are iOS4 specific, and I’ve seen the results of upgrading the OS on a 2nd gen touch. Poor battery life and general flakiness.

Hopefully, the good people of Apple will have come up with a tweak or two by the time that becomes necessary. In the meantime, I’m going to continue enjoying its current functionality, and that’s spinning tunes and eating downtime. I’ve become obsessed with trying to beat my wife at Five Dice. We play whenever we’re waiting in line, and it makes the wait go by in a flash. Passing the device back and forth is part of the fun, it makes it a much more interactive experience. Problem is, she always beats me. I think the tally stands at about 20 to 2 right now, advantage; wife. The fact that she’s constantly taking my first roll, and sometimes follows this by logging the score in a totally inappropriate box, isn’t helping my cause any.

Hey, you don’t think she’s doing it on purpose, do you? Maybe I should call her on it.

iPod Tip Of The Day: How To Troubleshoot An App

I’ve always been happy with my music purchases from iTunes, and up til now, with my App purchases also. About a month ago I purchased and downloaded Raging Thunder 2, a racing game for my Touch. I had searched long and hard for games that would work on a 2nd gen touch running 2.2, as a large percentage of the games and Apps available in iTunes these days are designed for devices running OS 3 or later. I’ve been tempted to upgrade, but I’m of the mind that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

My fear is that both the 2nd gen Touch and the Apps I currently have were all developed for OS 2. There's been a lot of hardware upgrades to the Touch since the 2nd gen, and both OS 3 and 4 were developed essentially for a different device. Why should I take the risk of having a buggy, flakey iPod when it already performs like a champ? Nah, I've been burnt to many times by their upgrades. When OS 3 first came out there were all sorts of posts about Wi-Fi strength and battery life going down on 2nd gens that had been upgraded. Seemed the processor just wasn’t up to all the new tasks, which is probably why they replaced it in the 3rd gen devices.

OS 2.2 has been a solid version, and I’ve been quite happy with my Touch just the way it is. Sure, I’d like to unlock the Bluetooth capabilities, and also be able to play games head to head without having to pass the iPod back and forth, but these are small things I can live without, so for now I just look for Apps that are rated to run on 2.2, but they’re getting harder and harder to find. I saw on the product description for Raging Thunder 2 that it ran on devices running 2.2 or later, so I paid the 5 dollars and downloaded it.

It appeared to load correctly, but once installed, it wouldn't start. Just a brief black screen, and then I’m dumped back at the desktop. Since purchasing it, I’ve sent 2 messages to the manufacturer, reported the problem to Apple by clicking the report a problem link in my receipt, plus every time I try to open the App, the Touch wants to know if I'd like a bug report sent to Apple. The message says that someone from Apple will look it over and get right back to me. No sir, not true. It's now been a month and I haven't had a single response from either Polarbit or Apple. Guess I'm out 5 bucks, but it's not the monetary loss that bugs me the most, it's the lack of response. The App store and the manufacturer should at least acknowledge my complaints. My emails have been very polite and chock full of details, plus they have the bug reports, so I’m sure they know exactly what the issue is. Instead, I have to scour their knowledge base, and then try a long list of “maybe this will fix it” solutions. Oh joy.

There’s a 90% chance that my problem is either a bad download or a bad install, and Apple does let you download things again that you’ve already paid for. You just need to delete the App from your iPod, and also from iTunes, then you go to the App store and select it for purchase again. iTunes will prompt you that you already own it, and ask you if you’d like a replacement copy for free. Click here for the full procedure for troubleshooting/reloading an App.

The instructions also say that you should upgrade to the latest version of iTunes and the latest OS before you try to download it again. As I said before, I’m not interested in OS 4, but I am going to upgrade iTunes from 8.02.20 to 9.2.1. We have version 9 on both my laptop and my wife’s iMac, so I know its stable, plus 9 has a nice sharing feature. Once all of our machines are running 9 we’ll be able to move purchases between all authorized computers, which will save a lot of hassle.

Of course, before you upgrade, you should always sync your iPods and do an iTunes backup, just in case…

Man, this is turning into a huge project! It would be soooo much better if either Apple or Polarbit would confirm what I need to do, but it’s a self service world these days, so I better get started. I’ll let you know how I make out.

iPad 2.0?

As I mentioned in a post last week, the new Apple iPad is a thing of beauty, with a boatload of potential, but it falls a little short in the value and function department, and it’s recent unveiling was met with a plethora of lukewarm, “If Only”, reviews.

Fear not, fellow geeksters, the tech world is already abuzz with rumors of an iPad 2.0 being in development, and possibly being released as soon as this coming June.

An authorized Apple repair shop, Mission Repair, has documented pictures of an iPad replacement frame that contains a berth that the webcam from a MacBook fits into perfectly, and TechCrunch is reporting that not only will the 2.0 sport a camera; it will also be slightly larger and will be running a version of OS X. Holy multitasking Batman, this could be the perfect tool!

We’ll see. At worst, this is just another good reason to look forward to spring.

The iPad: A Thing Of Beauty, But…

The new Apple iPad is a very slick device and it has the potential to be a real game changer. I say potential, because this version doesn’t have what it needs to appeal to the masses. I’m sure sales will be respectable, but it won’t be until the 2nd or 3rd gen of this device that we see it come into its own.

Basically it’s a Touch on steroids. I love my Touch, around the house it’s a fast and easy way for me to check my personal mail or look something up quickly on the web. Press the on switch and 20 seconds later you’re at the desktop and it’s downloading your mail. When I’m on the road, its all things for me; music, video and game player, repository of calendars and addresses, photo viewer, web browser and mail station. All that, and it fits in my pocket to boot.

Although I’ve often wished for a bigger screen, I really can’t see myself carting around a device the size of the iPad. I’ve already got my laptop that I have to lug around, and the iPad can’t replace that from a business standpoint, plus I’d never pay for a 3G plan for something like this. I don’t for my laptop, if I’m out of WiFi range, I just use my Blackberry. And speaking of Blackberries, could you see trying to use the iPad for a phone? Please…

I just don’t see it as a useful mobile device for me.

What I do see it as is the perfect coffee table companion. The ease of popping it on to show someone your photos, read the paper, check your calendar or just look something up on the web makes it a solid around the house network appliance. It puts the current offerings like Chumby to shame already, flesh this baby out a little with that function in mind, and I can see it becoming as ubiquitous in our lives as the iPod. Here’s what I think it needs to reach that status:

First and foremost, it needs a webcam. Picture this, you’re home watching the big game, and instead of twittering or texting your buds on your phone, you pick this bad baby up and have a face to face with them via Skype, all while remaining planted on the couch watching the game. Now we’re talking.

A built in memory card slot. If you want it to be a picture viewing device, it has to have a built in slot. I can’t see having to dock it to use the photo kit add on when somebody shows up with some fresh pics on a card, it defeats the whole purpose of it. If you’re gonna do that, you might as well just load them on your PC.

It also needs an IR port. Bluetooth is great, but can you imagine if it had an IR port and an app that would let you download the latest codes for your TV, cable box, DVD player and stereo components via WiFi? It's already capable of downloading the current TV listings. No more multiple remotes, no more ruining everyone else’s viewing experience by popping the onscreen guide. Bye-bye Harmony, you were good to me, but you’ll always be a one trick pony.

More onboard memory and better price points. It won’t be long for these two, remember the iPhone?

A lot of this stuff may already be in the works. Their first version of everything they make is always stripped down, probably so they won’t waste their time and money on features that no one wants. They listen to the buzz on release, and then add things that fit. Apple also has a penchant for putting the guts for new features in place ahead of time, so that they’re able to roll things out with just a firmware upgrade. Someone will be taking one apart as soon as they hit the stores, so we’ll know soon enough where their heading with this one.

I’m not ready to buy one just yet, but as I said earlier, this baby has serious potential. With a few tweaks and a price drop or two though, I'll be on board.

That is all.

Happy Black Friday!

One of the best things about the Thanksgiving holiday for me is Black Friday, but not for the reasons you’d think.

I love it because it’s one of the few days each year when we have the day off and nothing pressing on our agendas. The day is usually ours to squander as we see fit, and that is a very rare commodity these days.

Our ideal Black Friday involves sleeping in, followed by lounging in our PJ’s, consuming mass quantities of coffee, and pondering the eternal question; “Is it too early to start on those leftover desserts?” The answer, my friends, is that it’s never too early.

What I don’t like about Black Friday is fighting the crowds at the malls and the big box stores in search of bargains. Been there, done that, have the T-shirt. Although there are some great bargains out there, the really good ones (like $179 laptops) are always in short supply, and you need to be in line on Thanksgiving Day just to be a contender when the store opens on Friday. No thanks.

It’s not worth it to me to miss out on Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family and the annual after Thanksgiving slouch fest, just to get a good deal on some material item. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I can afford to pass up any bargains, it’s just that we’ve found out that: A) The downtime is more important to us, and B) A lot of the deals are available online.

Last year we were in need of some Apple products for the holidays, so I thought I'd check out their Black Friday sale and maybe save a little coin. Apple loves to shroud their events in secrecy, and this one was no different. They sent out an email a few days before the holiday that said to check out their website on Friday morning for great deals, so when we awoke, fashionably late, we got on line and found that there was indeed a substantial savings on quite a few items.

Being as it was already late, I called our local Apple retail store to see if the lines were out the door. I found out that they weren’t, but I also found out that the Apple store won't give you a corporate discount along with the Black Friday sale price. That was a bit of a bummer, but the sale prices were still good enough to make us want to saddle up and head down there. That’s when the very helpful sales associate suggested that we log in to the Apple site through our discount program and see if we could get our discount and the sale price that way.

Guess what? We could!

I should have tried to purchase it online right from the get go, but I had some preconceived notion that the best deals could only be had in person. Boy, was I wrong. We ended up getting some great deals, plus the shipping was free. Major items coming directly from Apple (like Macs and iPods) arrive very quickly, usually in just 2-3 days, even if they need to be engraved. By the way, my iPod has “Stayed home on Black Friday and still got this cheaper than you!” on the back.

So, it seems that in this weakened economy Cyber Monday has now become Cyber Weekend for most online merchants, and that’s good with me. Don’t spread it around too much though, I still like to see those shots on the news of the people in line outside of the malls, wrapped up in parkas and trash bags, waiting for the hunt to begin. Now that’s entertainment.

Ooh, gotta go. The news is coming on again!

Not Such Deep Thoughts, Part V

Once again, I’ve been too swamped to post much of anything lately, and all kinds of random thoughts are beginning to back up in my head. Time to purge all the temporary files and get this system cleaned up.


I really dig the new 5th gen Nano. The larger screen, video camera, FM tuner, microphone and pedometer are all cool additions, plus its battery life has been improved. Great job, Apple. Think you could find it in your heart of hearts to add a built in microphone to the Touch? And maybe an FM tuner while your at it? Oh yeah, and figure out why OS 3 turns it into a battery hog? Please?

Oops, my bad. I just realized that Apple can’t add a microphone to the touch. What with Wi-Fi on board, and apps like skype available, adding a microphone to the Touch would make it an iPhone without the need for an expensive multiyear contract with a mediocre carrier, and that just wouldn’t fit their plan. Sorry Apple, what was I thinking? I’d still like you to fix the Touch/OS 3 problems, though.



It’s way too soon to be hitting the Patriots panic button yet. Way too soon. Brady will find his rhythm, and the offense will get in sync. A year is a long time to be out of the game. Plus, the defense is only giving up 16-17 points a game, and that’s way better then I expected from them this early in the season, especially with Mayo out on top of everything else. Being 1 and 1 isn’t such a bad start, all things considered. I’ll give them a couple more outings before I let my hand creep any closer to the button.



Speaking of the Patriots, I never told you who the ex Patriot with the cool jazz club was. It’s Antwan Harris, and he owns an establishment called Zydeco Downton in Raleigh, North Carolina. I never got a chance to visit, as my work kept me tied up right until game time on Monday night, but there’s a great Patriots fan club that meets there on game days, the New England Patriots Fans of NC, and the food and music sound pretty good too! There’s also another group I found called CAP (The Capital Area Patriots), that meets at the Backyard Bistro in Raleigh for the games. The Bistro also hosts the Tom O’Brien radio broadcasts, and Red Sox Nation events. Amazing what you can find. I just love the interwebs!

Thanks for the invites guys, and I’m really sorry I couldn’t make it. Really sorry. I ended up hitting the “Sports Bar” next to my hotel, and that was a less than satisfying experience. When I walked in, all 4 people stopped talking and looked up at me with a “who the heck is this” look on their faces. Great TV’s, but no sound, ‘cause the regs were jiving to the jukebox as they chain smoked and ruminated on how there couldn’t be no lez-be-yuns in their wedding party. No suh. Wont right. We’s pretty religious. All I could think of was banjo music, so I just kept my mouth shut and beat a hasty retreat, after I scarfed a quick burger and fries. A mans gotta eat.



Speaking of eating, grits suck. Especially when you think you’re about to dive into a big bowl of oatmeal.



I’m really liking the new WBCN HD stations, especially Free Form BCN (HD3 100.7-3). It’s a reincarnation of BCN in its heyday, and you’re liable to hear anything. If you don’t have HD radio, you can listen online, or stream them on your smaaht phone.



I’m also warming up to the new sports station, 98.5 The Sports Hub. The only problem is, I really want to hear sports talk in the morning after a big game, and although I’ve got nothing against Toucher and Rich, it ain’t sports talk. Come on guys, cut back on the drunken sports fan interviews and give me the real thing. I know you can do it. I still can’t listen to those other chuckleheads in the morning, even though they seem to have dialed it back a notch since you’ve come along, and I need my fix.



There’s not many things that depress me as much as closing down our pool for the season. It feels like I just opened the darned thing, but the nights have gotten way to cold for a pool without a heater, and the leaves are beginning their annual leap to freedom, which means it’s a constant battle to keep it clean. So long old bud, parting is such sweet sorrow. Memories of floating on a raft in the dappled sunlight, as Castiglione serenades me with the game call, will have to hold me til next May.



That is all.

Ask And Thou Shalt Receive: iPhone 3.1 Released In Beta

I guess Apple listens to us, cause they've just released iPhone 3.1 in beta to developers.

It promises a few more goodies, and hopefully a few fixes. Apple is mum on the subject so far, but info is trickling out from the developer community. Stay posted...