Digital Lifestyle

didn't everyone?

I was under the impression that the 4 Gb was out? It's not on the Apple store for sure.

I said I'd do it, so I done it.



That's an Acer Aspire One (1.5GB RAM, 120GB HD) running OS X 10.5.4. (iPhone included for scale. Sloppy room in background because I wasn't policing the kids while installing OS X). I have Airport, MobileMe, 1024 x 600 Quartz Extreme video, audio, pretty much everything, in a 2 lb package. No CD/DVD, of course, without a drive! Sleep doesn't work and Bonjour is iffy. Can't mount my iDisk, either. Everything else just works. Dual boots with Windows XP Home.

Initial setup was involved, but it was well documented. The hardest part for me was disassembling the machine to upgrade the RAM and swap out the provided Atheros wireless card with a Dell 1390 card from eBay.

How do you like the display? A guy near me at work got one, and I thought it was borderline.

It's good within its viewing angle. Tilt the monitor too far forward or back and it will wash out. I figure that's part of the trade-off for a $400 Mac portable, but you're right: it's not an Apple display.

iChat speakerphone

http://store.ipevo.com/TR10-Speakerphone-for-iChat/M/B001E07Q66.htm

Also records iChat 'calls'.

I was thinking perhaps getting an iPod Touch in case we can get a wifi signal in the hospital.
Can anyone tell me why I would NOT buy the Apple Store refurbs and save a few bucks?

8 GB 179 vs new 2nd gen at 229
16 GB 219 vs 299
32 GB 319 vs 399

To me, the 16GB refurb looks like a good deal.

Are there any differences in APPS that the old vs new can run? What about GPS? Only in the iPhone I presume.

Are processors same or different between versions and between touch and phone? And if different, any significant app performance issues reported and or noted by anyone?

Any external keyboards? Can the Apple Wireless BlueTooth be used?

And my wife's birthday will be during my hospital stay. So, perhaps this could be her early gift.

I know that the original Touch lacks the new one's built-in speaker. And I know there's more; I just can't think what at the moment.

lack of a built-in speaker is huge IMO. can't hold up the ipod and show a youtube video or any thing to them with sound ... for instance.

So, it's worth the $50 additional iyo?
I need to find out if wi-fi is even available at the hospital or certain areas.

That's the big deal. They don't even allow cell phones in a lot of them.

IMO yes -- but then I'm always wanting to find some quirky video and show it to my kids. Like Jack Benny playing violin since my daughter brought home her practice violin... but had to use iPhone after realizing iPod had no speaker.

It's a small thing.

Otherwise I don't believe the processor has changed.

Three main features:
external speaker
headphone jack has mic input support
Nike+ support built-in (hey you don't have to run, it can track walking too)

It also now has external volume rocker switch which IIRC my wife's 1st gen does not have.

It's a solid upgrade and I'd go with 2nd gen if I were buying new for a teen or an adult.

Bill, the offer of a loaner iBook stands, if you think it would be useful or helpful. It's a 1.33 ghz G4, so while it's slow by current standards it can still do most stuff.

Jeff,

I haven't forgotten you. I need to figure out who to contact at the hospital for wifi access points and such.

okay...found it...http://www.clarian.org/portal/patients/visiting?clarianContentID=/visiting/iu_internet.xml

Now, where will I be?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2008 12:56PM by El Jeffe.

Remember when I said I liked Genius? I changed my mind. With my large library it has all but sucked the life out of my iTunes installation. So I turned it off.
--

Apples take on Genius:

Meet Genius: a brilliant way to create perfect playlists. Play a song, click the Genius button, and iTunes creates a playlist of other songs from your library that go great together.

My take on Genius:

Meet Genius: an inefficient way to create playlists. Play a song, click the Genius button, and iTunes is immediately crippled by a flurry of server interaction whereupon Apple enjoys repeatedly cataloging 20,000 songs from your library to find 20 that go great together. Repeat this process regularly for added agony.

Huh -- works fine for me with a segment of my library that's 17k songs.
I still kind of like it... better than a sharp stick in my eye!

Yeah, I don't have that problem. Mine connects to apple once a week, but never when I'm actually creating a playlist.

I have 19,500+ Music tracks and 30 movies in iTunes. When I rip CDs, occassionally they won't be available in Genius so then I have to do a manual update. Last weekend clicking the update button crippled my iTunes app.

I still like the idea and it did allow me to create some good lists so I may turn it back on and try it again someday... but it had my right pissed off for a good portion of my morning last Saturday. :-)

This is just stupid.

That's a weird concept... make a laptop that needs more power than the AC adapter can provide by itself.