…Actually my first new Mac and I’m really excited about it. Looking forward to getting productive with it.

…Actually my first new Mac and I’m really excited about it. Looking forward to getting productive with it.

I was watching the live blogs coming from the Apple Spring 2011 Event where they announced the iPad 2, so I thought I’d share my reactions that I originally posted to my Facebook account.
Watching the live-blogs from the Apple Event today. Steve says this is “Apple’s third Post-PC Blockbuster”. I wasn’t one of the reported 15 million iPads sold in 2010, but Apple’s events are still interesting. Guess I’m still IN the PC era LOL.
It’s official iPad 2 is here. “All new design” with a dual core processor. 2x Faster CPU, 9x Faster graphics, front and rear cameras and way thinner (1/3 thinner actually -8.8mm thinck). That’s thinner than the iPhone 4! AND it comes in white from day one.
Verizon will have the iPad in 3G version. Same prices and available March 11th.
Are you a presenter? The new iPad 2 will have HDMI out to mirror your screen (with the optional $39 adaptor sold seperately of course). Another cool accessory is a new “cover” that is magnetized and multi-functional. You’ll just have to find a photo. Too hard to describe. http://www.engadget.com/ has photos.
iPad 2 “Air Play” now works with video as well as audio to the Apple TV. Almost makes it a home theater device. This comes with a new iOS release, version 4.3. iOS 4.3 adds a personal hotspot for the iPhone 4. Pretty cool.
Ok, last iPad update (unless there’s “one more thing”). You can plug a guitar into the iPad and record. Now that’s pretty cool if you’re a musician. There was a bunch of other stuff announced around musical instruments. My summary: A much more compelling device than the original iPad.
I just don’t like leaving my content on Facebook only so there you go!
Brett
I’m loving Photoshop Lightroom 3 and all the publishing add-ons. This post was actually created within Lightroom during the “Export” process. I thought it would be interesting to show you the image I created today for my client Christmas Cards. I got the idea from a Planet Photoshop Christmas Lights Tutorial. I have both PS Elements 8 and PS CS3. I could do everything in the tutorial with Elements except vary the angle of the lights as they were drawn in with the brush tool. Cool effect. I think it’s fairly convincing. Let me know what you think.

Original Image

After Christmas Lights Photoshop Tutorial
Windows 7 isn’t all that new any more, but I wanted to share my upgrade experience and some of my favorite things about Microsoft’s newest OS after having used it for the past couple of months.
As I suspected, the hot topic surrounding Windows 7 upgrades was just how far one could go toward performing a clean install with upgrade media. First to clear up a couple of technical terms. Upgrade media are the disks that Microsoft sells that allow you to install Windows 7, but only activate if you have a qualifying installation of a previous version of Windows. In contrast the Full version of windows by definition can be instlalled on a clean hard drive with no previous Windows install present. The other big thing is that Upgrade media costs less than the full version.
Here’s how my upgrade went. Read More→
Well, that four months sure went by fast! I placed my pre-order with Amazon.com for Windows 7 Home Premium back on June 28th. I just got the shipping notification and my copy should be here right on time tomorrow. Yay!
Since I’m running Windows XP Pro I’m going to be doing what Microsoft refers to as a custom install. My 160 GB laptop drive has 25 GB free so I’ve decided to do the install on a clean drive (hopefully). I haven’t found a definite answer that this is even possible or not.
At any rate I placed an order this morning for a new 320 GB drive for my laptop, expecting to get it on Friday with my 2-Day Prime shipping. The delivery esitmate is Monday the 26th. My stuff almost always ships the same day. I placed the order early this morning so I’m wondering if all the Windows 7 shipments are slowing up the normal pace of things at Amazon?
Anyway, I’m definitely making the move to Seven, but I’m going to move in deliberate steps. Hopefully someone else will have experience doing an XP upgrade to a new drive over the weekend. If that’s you I’d love to hear from you! I will return the favor as soon as my new drive is delivered.

I was recently asked for my opinion on choosing a domain name. This case was a personal site, but a lot of the considerations are the same whether the site will be used for personal or commercial purposes. I ended up putting quite a bit of thought into my answer so I decided to share it.
Here are my personal priorities and considerations for picking domains: Read More→

I’m way behind in updating my Windows 7 experience. There’s a good reason! I have had no further experience with Windows 7. No, I haven’t given up on it or changed my mind about how good an operating system I think it is. Fact is I got busy over the summer and had to go back to my XP drive.