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

]]> http://brettweaver.com/dell-inspiron-m101z-unboxing-and-review/feed/ 0 http://brettweaver.com/best-domain-name-registrar-namecheap-hive-five/ http://brettweaver.com/best-domain-name-registrar-namecheap-hive-five/#comments Wed, 10 Nov 2010 05:38:20 +0000 Brett http://brettweaver.com/best-domain-name-registrar-namecheap-hive-five/ Best Domain Name Registrar: Namecheap [Hive Five Followup]

The upgrade process

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. I removed my original 160 GB drive with XP on it, and installed a new 320 GB drive. After printing out the Windows 7 upgrade guide by WinSuperSite’s Paul Thurott,  I booted the system with the Windows 7 upgrade disk in the drive and followed the prompts to do a custom install.  The install went smoothly.  It’s a relatively quick install, but the question was, would it activate successfully once it phoned home to Redmond?  The answer was no. At least not initially.

Paul did a great job researching and experimenting with the upgrade media. His suggested next step after a failed activation was to do a “registery hack”.

Method #2: Registry hack
Note: This workaround is not supported by Microsoft but my understanding is that it has a 100 percent success rate.

The registry hack worked for me. Activation was successful after performing the steps outlined and re-booting my laptop.

On a side note, I have also upgraded my wife’s Vostro 1520 laptop. I ordered upgrade media from Dell (which they sent at no charge). They will only send an equivalent disk. In other words, since the Vostro came with Vista Home Premium 32 bit, they sent Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit. We decided we might want to upgrade the RAM in the future from 3GB to 4GB or more which really requires a 64bit OS. So I backed up and then did a custom install with MY 64 bit upgrade disk from Amazon. After entering the license key from the disk from Dell the activation went smoothly. I wanted to throw that in there in case anyone else is wondering about doing a similar upgrade.

Windows 7 Review

During the summer I got my first case of Mac fever. I read MacBook Pro reviews, watched videos and read message boards.  I made up my mind that I would get a MBP, but would wait at least a year. I think the best compliment for Windows 7 is that I no longer have Mac fever. Well . . . maybe a little!   Microsoft has really closed the gap. Despite the warnings by the aforementioned Mr. Thurott, I have come to really like the new task bar. I can see where it might confuse some people, but pinning programs and re-arranging icons is great.

I wrote about Libraries in Seven during my beta test and that remains my favorite feature I think. On the visual front, I like the semi-transparent task bar and window frames and the “slideshow” wallpaper that changes on set intervals. Speaking of wallpaper, I just downloaded some great wallpaper images from National Geographic. These are great if you like landscapes.

This is getting long so I’ll just mention a couple more things that have worked really well for me. One is networking. Windows 7 calls it Home Group.  It’s just easy. “It just works” is a phrase that Apple fans like to use. Well, so far Windows 7 “just works” for me. The other thing I use all the time is sleep-mode. That’s a simple thing, but XP would lock up coming out of sleep half the time so I never used it.  Now it’s like near instant boot-up out of sleep.

It really is time to move on from Windows XP.   Windows 7 is rock solid, clean looking and runs all my apps and hardware flawlessly. Way to go Microsoft!

Brett

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.

Here are my personal priorities and considerations for picking domains:

1. Shortest .com that I can live with while avoiding dashes or special characters. If you’re lucky enough to find your preferred address ending in .com then stop reading this and register it! Now! Even for churches and organizations I recommend at least parking the .com even if you decide to use the .org version.

2. Will I be communicating the domain verbally? If so it needs to be memorable. Also consider the savvy-ness of the audience you’re communicating to. If your audience is relatively new to the web it’s even more important to stick with the familiar dot-com domain. If you run with a tech savvy crowd, then they are most like ready for anything you throw at them.

3. If people will be finding the site using primarily links online from your other profiles (Facebook, MySpace, etc.) then they’re just going to click on it mainly and the length and memorable factor is less important.

4. Will you print it on business cards? If it’s too long it might not fit well. Also three words are more difficult to remember than two. Keep it as short as possible.

5. If it’s a commercial site that you want to make money with then the decision is much more important than if it’s a personal / business card / blog type thing. If somebody wants to really wants to see your site (they know you or want to get to know you) they will spend the time to figure out what it is. If you’re trying to catch the general population of casual surfers you better make it as easy as possible because you only have a couple of seconds (literally) to hold their attention. Commercial sites need relevant, memorable names. Don’t get cute with it.

I know I promised five tips but here’s a bonus. Try NameBoy.com. You’ll know what it does when you get there so no further explanation is necessary. I’ve never registered a domain without running it by NameBoy.

So those are my top five considerations for choosing a domain name. I’ll give some registrar and hosting recommendations in a later post. Hint: Don’t default to Godaddy. There are other alternatives that don’t use questionable advertising practices.

Brett

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.

I’m not that dependent on MS Office, but I need it every once in a while and I decided it just wasn’t worth the trouble of re-activating it. Also I didn’t want to invest any more time in this operating system that I would have to re-install come October.

So right now I’m just waiting for Windows 7. I took advantage of the pre order for Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade at Amazon.com so I should get my copy on October 22nd.

I plan to install Seven on a fresh hard drive. I need a bigger drive anyway and it would just make me feel better if I had the old XP disk intact just in case I need to revert. There’s probably some licensing issues with that strategy and it’s still not clear if that will even be possible. I’m confident someone will figure out how to do it though. I will report my experiences here so stay tuned.

Brett