Just like most mornings, I woke up and checked my Twitter. The night before put us at the Gingerman where we drank a couple of pints of Lonestar and conversed with several geeks - doesn’t get much better. Dustin Diaz, of JavaScript and Google fame, brought his big camera, to which I proceeded to make obvious “your lense makes me feel inadequate” jokes. Yep, that’s me - taking the obvious one-liners and using them for personal gain. It may have garnered a chuckle, I’m not sure.

Jeff and I got back to our room and I use the words “passed out” here, although it was somewhere between passing out and going to bed - do you know the difference? Anyhow, the alarm came quickly and we got up, showered, and headed down to the complimentary continental breakfast. We’re staying at the Hampton - shitty wi-fi, fantastic continental, take your pick. One more good thing about the Hampton is it attracts a lot of the industry “rockstars.” Shit, Jeff and I were there, and we’re pretty important. I jest, but the highly talented Shaun Inman was there and I did get to pick up the size medium American Apparel Mint T-shirts he brought. Thank you Shaun - it was an awkward moment, but it was never dull - my name is George.

After all this we made our way to the conference, what follows are my notes from the different panels/presentations, enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

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When I first read about “Spaces” and saw the screenshots in OSX Leopard, I felt like it could be a huge potential productivity booster. Those from the Linux fold have been rotating cubes and “spaces” for quite some time - and of course when Leopard came out with it, they all chirped in to remind me, “that’s been on Linux for awhile.” Yea yea yea - but is it sold by an egomaniac who only wears black turtlenecks? Didn’t effin think so…

Anyhow, when I actually got Spaces - it ended up being anti-climatic. It didn’t really work how I thought it would (in my many pre-Leopard, about Leopard dreams) and it seemed like it was a bit buggy. I have seen many people turning spaces off, frustrated with it’s apparent shortcomings - but I am not one to let initial excitement die so easily - so I rolled with the punches for awhile. Fast forward three months and I am now moving from space to space like a Puppeteer on a powder day (sci-fi/drug connection makes reading all the better).

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Most publications start making predictions around this time of year, but I hate being wrong. It’s not so much that I don’t have ideas of where things are going - it’s more the fact making future predictions is a bit trite. Rarely are there any groundbreaking revelations and the novelty wears off quite quickly, usually by the third bullet point. In light of keeping it lite, there are three innovations which I feel are noteworthy for 2007 - the iPhone, the Wii, and Twitter.

Granted the Wii came out in November of 2006 and Twitter in March of 2006 - they really didn’t “blow up” until 2007. The Wii continues to have shortages and Twitter ballooned after SXSW 2007, where I first signed on. I had a conversation with Snook once and he talked about (and continues to blog about) staying away from hopping on any bandwagon as well as staying fair and balanced. This post will not be that way - I will gush and adore praise for my three favorite things of 2007.
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This thread on Apple.com pretty much sums it up. It’s not that we early adopters didn’t expect a price drop at all, we just didn’t expect it so soon.

I have a feeling Apple will do the right thing and offer up some form of reparation. First off, we are the crazy ones willing to drop down $600 on a first gen device - probably the most likely to drop money down on the next first gen device from Apple - but now we feel burned. Without early adopters you don’t get normal economies of scale - without us - Apple may not be able to launch something as risky.

I sold my AAPL stock today because A) I felt burned (especially for how much I have sold the iPhone to curious onlookers) and B) This aggressive of a price cut means either the demand isn’t there -or- they have reached economies of scale (which in such a short time wouldn’t make sense, at least not $200 a phone).

I will probably be back - but not so blind to the Apple shine this time around.

** Update: Kind of saw this coming - but good to see it actually happen **

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No, not my new band name (but keeps it for future reference), I just had a few things cross my plate, all of which were too big to warrant a twitter, yet too small to warrant their own post. I dunno, that could all be a lie as well. You never know with these internet blogs.

First off, congrats to Tease Marketing, for they(we) have officially refreshed their homepage to include a sign up for their new newsletter, “The Tease Effect.” Sign up, these ladies throw lavish parties and seem to know just about everyone. The newsletter is for upcoming events they sponsor.
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Now, with an official number on the table, some analysts look like jackasses for their pie-in-the-sky numbers, and others hit the mark. For the iPhone haters, of which there are a lot, they compare actual sales versus pie-in-the-sky and call the iPhone a faltered step for Apple. For iPhone owners, we read this stuff and think, “What’s wrong with this picture.” As I continue to show off my iPhone, most people get it. And this is when I realized; Apple has the market’s trust.

When Apple first started selling iPods, it took them over a year and a half to get to their one millionth iPod. They sold 270k iPhones in their first two days. Think about that. Obviously this trend won’t continue, but here’s another fact: Apple sold about ten million iPods last quarter as well. I’m going to make a guess that the majority of these iPod purchases are not new customers (and if they are, good deal), I think they are repeat customers.
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After writing a post titled, “When Your Tools Don’t Work,” where I had outlined my annoyances with the Mighty Mouse and Firefox, I am pleased to say, I think my Mighty Mouse is good as new.

But how is this possible? Well the other day I was skimming the web and found a how to by some resourceful guy who said, “Forget the whole rubbing alcohol solution, take that bama apart.” He posted a step by step guide to fix the mighty mouse by taking it apart.

Yes, it is a bit nerve racking to pry apart any kind of Apple goodness, but I was just so fed up at the short-termed-ness of the rubbing alcohol solution. My Mighty Mouse now feels like it did in the old days when I first got it. Now if only I wouldn’t have broken the middle click in frustration.

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I know everyone is probably ready for the iPhone fervor to slowdown, in fact someone close to me is so sick of hearing it, that bringing it up often causes a fight. That’s right, my fiancee may be the biggest advocate for the “no more apple iphone talk” movement. That’s why today, I snuck off to the Apple store to get my hands on the shiny iPhone and see it in all it’s splendor. Oh and to pick up a must have neoprene case for my new MacBook Pro (those cases stink!).

First off, the thing has a good weight. I picked it up, tethered to the display and all, and it felt like a sturdy piece of machinery. Upon touching the screen to unlock it I expected it to feel flimsy, like the screen of my current cellphone. Now I had read that it was a glass screen, but somehow I still had that premonition. The iPhone is solid. Built like a brick, tough as a brick.
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Frustrated!

I’m throwing this post out as a last resort. Somebody throw me a life ring here. Some people post solutions to problems, I’m posting a question.

Does anyone know if the most recent update to IE6 supports the “progid:DXImageTransform…” filter to get PNGs to work properly? Another potential issue could be that I am running IE6 in Parallels on my Mac. Either way, IE6 doesn’t work with any PNGs. This includes an entire backlog of sites that I have done in the past.

I’ve tried multiple things and none of the usual tricks work. Burn M$ Burn. Anyone?
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This is a bold statement from a lover of Apple products, but I have decided I need to go this route in order for me to be satisfied with the iPhone. A friend of mine, upon being asked to retell a joke or story, used to always say, “it’s too built up.” I feel this way about the iPhone, it’s too built up.

When 2/3 tech headlines are about one single product, I get a bit scared. Not that the iPhone won’t blow every other device out of the water, but it can’t make you walk on water (jesus phone anyone?). Don’t get me wrong, I definitely think that 75% of the hype surrounding this thing is 100% warranted, it does everything all of the other phones out there do, and it does it better.
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