Updated: 11/19/05; 12:33:13 PM

 Thursday, September 8, 2005
4GB Black iPod Nano - First Impressions
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Since the inception of this blog, I've intentionally avoiding writing about specific Apple product launches as that need is already served (and covered quite well) across the Mac web, however, I did want to devote a few bits yesterday's big event at Moscone. Props to Peter Cohen of MacWorld for arguably the best quasi-real time coverage of the event on the web.

I had just recently purchased the Razr phone and thought that I'd be in for a major dose of disappointment with the iTunes phone coming out within a month of my purchase but for me, this announcement was a solid sleeper - nothing to see here folks, move along. In essence, it's an iPod shuffle stuffed inside of a clunky Motorola phone that you have to sync with your computer instead of accessing the iTunes music store remotely as everyone expected. Count that one up as lame.

The big surprise of the day came in one very small package -- replacing entirely one of the most successful parts of Apple's iPod product line. Alas - the iPod Mini is no more. I always really liked the design of the iPod Mini and was sad to see it go --- until I got a chance to see it's replacement, the iPod Nano, up close and personal. This is truly one of those times when Apple hits a home run and just nails it - firing on a ll cylinders, product design, manufacturing, integration, sleek and beautiful - just amazing. The only thing that I've seen so far that leaves me flat is the new commercials for the Nano, which can be seen here.

In addition, iTunes version 5 was announced and was immediately available for download. Some very nice refinements to iTunes, including the nested playlists which I'm quite enjoying -- but it looks like they still haven't caught on to the problems with Podcasts and rankings being so easy to manipulate.

Being heavily involved in the Mac community, I get a chance to use just about every piece of hardware and software that Apple produces and they seldomly disappoint but this time, even if you currently own the biggest & best iPod on the market, go take a look at the Nono, it's really really good. I think Apple has raised the bar and I only wish I could have seen the faces of the folks over at Creative (makers of the Zen line of MP3 players) when the Nano rolled out. Several months ago, Creative declared war on Apple by talking a lot of smack when their Zen Touch and Zen Micro products were launching last November. I tried the Zen Micro for a few weeks in March and while it's a solid improvement in the product line for Creative, to call the two devices competitors, really isn't a fair statement to make for Creative. Its like comparing a kids toy to a professionals tool -- and now even more so with the Nano. Did I mention that it also comes in black? Nice!

I'm certain that you'll be reading a lot information about the Nano in the near future - especially with Apple Expo Paris coming up in two weeks but as cliche as it may sound, words alone truly cannot accurately portray the Nano, you need to get one of these things in your hands and see it for yourself. It's the new Apple at it's best - great design, part of a well integrated whole at a decent price - completely blowing the competition out of the water.

[ Update: ] -- Less than 24 hours after Steve stood on stage and introduced the iPod Nano to the world, fellow Mac geeks in Asia have once again taken a perfectly good piece of Apple hardware and ripped it apart to see how it all ticks. It's kind of difficult to look at if you are one of the millions lusting after such a great device but that aside, the Nano is as impressive on the inside as it is on the outside.
9:59:04 PM    
Mac OSX - App of the day: Anacron for MacOS 10.4 Tiger
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For the most part, your Macintosh is a self healing system with automated scripts full of Unix goodness that run during the middle of the night to keep your Mac in top shape -- but what to do if your Mac is one that does not stay on throughout the night. Rumor has it that there are actually people out there who can be found in places other than in front of their Macs cranking out code in the wee hours of the morning and for those folks, Anacron is made just for you.

Anacron runs the periodic daily, weekly and monthly tasks on your Mac even if the machine (a laptop, for example) spends much of its time asleep or switched-off. Anacron silently checks when you reboot and every sixty minutes while the computer is running to see if the various periodic scripts are overdue, and runs them if necessary. The advantage of Anacron over many other solutions to this issue is that it runs as a proper Unix background process, requires no user intervention, and uses the regular periodic scripts, including local additions or modifications.
8:51:33 PM