After more research, i decided to follow the lead of a couple more individuals, and send off an email to Apple CEO Tim Cook. I spent a bit qccrafting the letter, and after making sure it was appropriate i hit the send button. I was a couple of hours i got a reply (not from Tim) that promised to check with the engineering group, and to get back to me. The next day, i got a call, and a committment to repair.

Today, the machine went to the Apple store to get the logic board replaced.

(that would make this entry the first from the iPad, as I am currently without an actual computer)

I’ve had nothing but love for Apple hardware since I made the switch form the Windows world. They have done nothing but “just worked”. Well, that seems to have changed a bit as of late, you see, I own a “mid 2010″ version of the Macbook Pro. Those of you dealing with them, know what I am about to launch into. The dreaded black screen o death. The Mac equal to the Blue “FU” screen that Windows users have to get used to if they run Windows long enough.

I had no issues with my machine, and as I have done in the past, I gambled with Applecare extended warantee. I thought “Nothing wrong by now? I should be good”. Well, that was my mistake. Things took a turn after the update to 10.6.8, I would occaisionally get a completely black screen crash while I was working on something. It acted like someone hit the power, and all went black though the keyboard lights would stay on, and the power light would also stay lit. The only recovery was to manually power cycle the machine, and hard reset.

Then came the final update to 10.6.8 (the pre lion update), and things got worse. Now when I tax the machine hard, it will do it in what seems like a “predictably random” fashion with the same error report being generated. They all begin with “panic(cpu 1 caller 0x9f55b1): NVRM[0/1:0:0]: Read Error 0×00002080: ” and again, I reboot. Frustrating to say the least, and nearly impossible to depend on the machine as a photographer.

I made the genius bar appointment, and took the machine in this afternoon. Much like a car making a noise, I could not for the life of me get the machine to fail while at the Apple store. They ran a set of diagnostics, and gave it a clean bill of health, and on my way I went.

I am now back home with a machine I have little confidence in, with no answers in sight.

Anyone know anything about the causes or a solution to this one?

That being said, I stumbled accross a piece of software that allows the iPad to become a secondary display over wifi and thought “Why would I need that”?, and I got to thinking.

It allows me to share display while photographing, and let someone else see my display without being directly over my shoulder (a good thing no matter how much you like your client). It also allows for a mobile workflow that (almost) matches my home workflow.

The software I found is called Air Display, and is made by Avatron software.

The setup is super simple, and once you’re connected, it allows you to use the standard displays preference pane. I have noticed some interesting artifacting when my MacBook Por changes from integrated to Discreet graphics, but that’s a small issue that I’m sure they’ll fix in the next update.

Now as we all know, there really isnt a backup unless there’s more than one, so I have set up another Chronosync job on the theater machine to notice the update on the network drive, and back that one up to another offsite share.

These jobs are scheduled to run completely on alternating days as well. So far, so good. Those of you without an established backup plan might benefit from taking a look at Chronosync.

ChronoSync | Perform File and Folder Synchronizations and Backups Like Clockwork | Econ Technologies: “”

(Via .)

(Note, the front image is backwards as the cling mounts to the inside of the window. It will be right reading from the outside of the window)

These are fairly hard to find, and I will cover standard postage to anywhere in the continental US for the $5.00 price.

Please reply here with an email and I will contact for paypal information.. First come first served until they’re gone…

The iPad is to take the place of my trusted Franklin Covey planner (With a few additions). The first addition was a case. It had to be something that was protective, and presentable without being over the top. Shouldn’t be too hard to find (or so I thought). I settled on one made by rooCase. The “Executive Leather Portfolio” in smooth black. It is quite functional, though it’s not leather, it’s at best “pleather” and kind of smells like PVC piping. Nevertheless, it has a loop for a pen (or stylus) and room for some notes and business cards.

As I went through the setup, and sync for the first time. I began the process that I’m betting every new iPad owner goes through. The “app shopping frenzy” proceded. The standard iOS apps of Notes, and Calendar don’t quite fit the bill when I’m looking to replace the functionality of the Franklin planner, so I settled on an app called “Things“. It’s not quite a direct replacment but the functionality is similar enough to make it convenient, and it will sync with the desktop version, and ical.

Other apps I ended up with were:

• Portfolio (for photo portfolio presentation)
• WordPress (for updating blogs)
• Pulse (RSS reader)
• Pages and Numbers (Word Porcessing and Spreadsheet)
• VLC (Video player)
• Netflix
• Pandora
• iSSH (for Server administration)
• Ego (to track twitter followers, and website stats)
• Tweetdeck (Twitter client)

I’m relatively certain I’m not quite done shopping and spending money on apps. I’ll keep posting if I fond something new and cool. If you have any recommendations, shoot me a note.

The goodness associated with the iPhone 4 upgrade has included a great experience with the Apple service center as well. It seems that having no screen protector on it was a mistake. I ended up with what appeared to be a piece of hair on the screen, it wasn’t. It was a scratch, about 3/4″ long, and right in the middle of the screen. I’d love to say I know how it happened, but I can’t. I am a bit of a type A when it comes to my phone. No keys, change, or other objects that could have scratched it had come anywhere near it.

I made an appointment, thinking that they were likely going to send me on my way, and I would finish out my contrat with a scratched phone.

I was almost in a state of shock when the Genius that I spoke with offered to replace the phone! She was quite helpful, and though they didn’t stock screen protectors in the store, she was nice enough to point out a kiosk in the main mall area that had them (our local Apple store is int the mall)

So, I have been VERY happy with the upgrade.

Thank you Apple, and thank you un named Genius..

There are many displays out there, and many that are in the same size neighborhood as the 27″ Apple display. These are all pretty nice, but they generally have a resolution of 1080p. This only gave me 30 more pixels of vertical space to work with. This brought me to looking for something with at least 1200 vertical pixels, limiting my choices even further.

I had my mind pretty much set on the 24″ Apple monitor. It’s increased resolution, and a couple of extra inches of real estate would make it an upgrade, not to mention the cabling (USB, Mini DP, and built in Magsafe)

Then Apple released the 27″ Cinema display. I can’t really say too much other than “WOW”. This thin is by far the biggest monitor I have ever owned, and on more than one occaision over the last week had me wondering why I hadn’t gone this route much much earlier. The 2560×1440 is great, allowing a far greater area of view, and number of usable windows. This in pair with my i7 Macbook Pro is more than enough of a system to allow for a couple of years of no upgrades (don’t quote me on that one). Apple also put this one at the pricing sweet spot of just uner $1000 with the educational discount.

If youre a Mac user, and have the mini DP machine, I highly recommend taking a look at this monster. You’ll be glad you did.

The second piece of news came from Apple, and is all about the app store, it seems that they have approved the Google voice app! Thank (insert diety here)!!!

It’s about time we are allowed to make use of this great piece of technology!

Here’s a link GV Connect

Now if AT&T would just pull its head out, and realize that tethering isn’t something we should have to pay extra for, or accept a crippled data plan to use.. Sell us a cable and shaddup!

Firstly, I ran across  the Western Digital 1TB laptop drive on Newegg. The Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD10TPVT 1TB 5200 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5″ SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive is a little bit larger (thicker) than a standard 2.5″ laptop drive, but after some research, I found that it will indeed fit into the case of the unibody Macbook Pro. A little more research, and I found an easy guide on how to install it over at ifixit.com (direct link to how-to article)

Next I thought about the best upgrade to any machine to increase speed. RAM is generally the quickest way to get more bang for your buck with a machine. I took it for granted that 4GB would be enough with the MacBook and I was right (for the most part). I also figured that since I was digging into it, I’d see if I could do better than the Apple RAM prices. Again, I headed over to Newegg, and found 8GB for $249, not a bad deal, and it leaves the 4GB available for another project. The G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Memory for Apple Model FA-8500CL7D-8GBSQ installs easily, and really snaps things up. As with the HD, I found the installation instructions over at ifixit.com – (direct link to how-to article)

Now some will say that the HD isn’t really that great of an increase in performance as it is a 5400 rpm drive. They’d be right to a point. It is a lower RPM drive, though it does hold an additional platter, so the seek times are better than average. I don’t do video, and find it to be plenty fast. Those of you that are looking for pure speed, might do better to go with one of the 7200 rpm offerings. I personally was after capacity.

The Geekbench numbers before the upgrade were in the 5700 range, and after adding the HD and RAM I was in the 6300 range. Not a huge upgrade in the benchmarking universe, but very noticeable in the day to day world. PhotoShop absolutely flies.

Jailbreaking opens up new possibilities, and possibly a can of worms. No longer can you take it to the genius bar and have them work their magic (without restoring the phone to its original state). You can finally install some goodies that Apple has not seen fit to approve for the app store for one reason or another (I won’t even go into that one with any depth).

I can now run an app that allows me to use the iPhone as a wifi hotspot (MyWi on cydia), and af all things, an app that allows me to use Google Voice like every other user.

The jailbreak is relatively simple, and can be found over on Lifehacker. The direct link to the article is here. Using this article, and following it precisely, opens up the completeness of iOS4 and all of its multitasking goodness. I have not noticed much of a performance hit, though the 3g is kind of a dog to begin with.