09.10.08

You Win Some, You Lose Some

Posted in Appleology, Rants at 7:29 pm

Tuesday saw the Apple event, and with it came the news of iTunes 8 and a few other little bits. Before I go into this, I should probably say that I didn’t have any trouble with my iPhone backups before installing iTunes 8, and now they sort of stall or at the very least run intolerably slowly compared to before. That’s probably an artifact of the 2.0.2 firmware, though, so unless it persists after Friday (when 2.1 hits) I’m willing to let it slide and just not sync tomorrow.

What is interesting to note is that the biggest complaint I had with iTunes itself– the sometimes ten-second-long visits of the Beachball of Damnation– are now, largely, things of the past. Granted, my library is not terribly big compared to some folks’ stashes– I’m really only using about 82 GB (just under 20K files, and I did buy a 300 GB drive last year to ensure I didn’t run out of space), according to iTunes– but it was still a genuine pain in the ass to sync up, and I dreaded adding new material simply because it would be such a tremendous sink of time. Those days, thankfully, are gone, and I again have a reason to advocate the use of iTunes, as it’s back to what made it attractive for me in the first place: for the day-to-day stuff, it doesn’t get in the way. Smart Playlists are zippier, the Spotlight-search runs ludicrously fast again, and background tasks are now truly background, as opposed to “I’ll say it’s background, but good f$%#ing luck trying to do anything in the meantime”. I have some complaints about how some preferences were obscured (the genre panel option in particular; I don’t use it and I don’t want to waste time with it), but overall this is the kind of update that makes me really happy as an iTunes user.

Now, iTunes is grinding through my library to find out what songs I like through the Genius feature, which I am only using to see how it can reconcile my loves of both Maximum the Hormone and Debbie Gibson. My collection is the ruiner of AIs.

Probably we’ll talk more about this on Saturdayish.

07.16.08

Into The Rabbit Hole

Posted in Appleology, Rants, Shameless Self-Promotion, Site News at 1:46 pm

So. A few days have passed since I made the jump to the Appleologists’ communication tool of choice, the much-vaunted iPhone 3G. It’s probably not a big surprise that the device has seen almost constant use in that time– heck, I’m using it right now. I want to touch on some of the differences between the iPhone and my previous primary music device, the iPod Touch, and make a few comments on the features of the new device that make it ( a sweet, but ever so slightly sour, experience… » )

Overall, I have to say that I really like the iPhone, though I suppose that’s fairly evident. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but what it provides works for my purposes, and gets me thinking about other things I could do. I think that the hallmark of a good device isn’t one which just does what you want, but also one that helps you do things you couldn’t feasibly do before. In that regard, the iPhone is perfect for me, because it allows me to expand my horizons a bit more on the spur of the moment. I’m a very spontaneous person when left to my own devices, and if I can avoid having to do hours of prep work before I take a two-hour trip out somewhere, that helps me and gets me out of my shell a bit more. And any experiences I have become fodder for your amusement: expect a lot more livetweeting, random journeys, and other weirdness on this site, folks.

Later this week, on the LJ, I’ll talk a little bit about E3. What I have to say is… unkind.

07.13.08

iPhilibuster

Posted in Appleology, Bailout, Rants at 12:07 pm

I have quite a bit to say about the iPhone 3G. To much surprise, not everything is positive. But to little surprise, I’m a bit short on time right now to type it all up. Expect the full TFO-style review at some point this week.

Spoiler: The short answer is that I’m torn between being glad I waited for the 3G version and kicking myself for not getting off of Sprint sooner.

07.08.08

The Second Coming

Posted in Appleology, Rants at 12:17 pm

It’s a little funny to think that in less than 72 hours, I’ll be in line for an iPhone 3G. Considering how much I pooh-poohed the original, and how much I claim not to be a true finds-no-faults Apple fanboy, I can’t deny that it’s a little awkward to be so excited for the device; particularly when you consider that the out-of-the-blue Song Summoner game isn’t compatible with it (but I still have Momiji for that, should I so desire). Still, ( the whole thing is a bit more to me than just a new phone… » )

I can’t promise that this will be the last iPhone post, but I can say it’ll be the last one for a little while, at any rate. Definitely the last one before I have the device in my hand, but certainly not the last one overall. Sorry for being so annoying with them.

There’s going to be another Game Clear today or tomorrow, count on it– then Tactics A2 gets started. For right now, though, I’m going to give 150cc (MK Wii) a shot just to see how badly I screw it up. Later, folks.

01.16.08

Touched

Posted in Appleology, Rants at 5:30 am

So, as you might have surmised by my lack of enthusiasm, yesterday’s MacWorld was actually pretty tame. The biggest announcement was indeed the somewhat unsurprising MacBook Air, which by all accounts is impossibly small. Of course, having handled an iPod Touch for about, oh, all of last night, I don’t think I need to say “impossibly”. The minuscule size is quite possible– and actually very nearly probable.

I’ve tried not to think of the Touch as an iPod, actually; with the SDK coming up in a month and a half, it’s really more a Trojan Horse into the palmtop computer/organizer venue. Even as it stands now, with just a handful of the sync-capable apps and the extremely tightly-coupled Google integration, the device is more organizer than I’ve ever used. And believe me when I say I’m going to make use of it; the Basroil’s a wonderful computer and still my primary, but sometimes there’s just not enough room or time to sit down, pull it out of the bag, open it up, and so on and so forth just to check mail. Pittsburgh’s a good spot for Wi-Fi, too, so I should have no trouble staying connected. Naturally, I probably won’t be able to make use of some of the really obscure features, like location via hotspot proximity, but we shall see. If anything, I’m definitely going to go ahead with the .Mac subscription so I can keep everything more or less synced up (the Touch syncs to KOS-MOS, and I keep most of my calendar appointments on the Basroil).

Oh, incidentally? The YouTube integration? Pure bliss. I look forward to being able to show off “The Weapon Of CX” on-demand.

It’s been kind of a crappy week for gaming, both in new releases and in stuff I’ve played. I couldn’t get much further in Eternal Sonata the past couple of nights, but tonight I hope to plow through to the next chapter at least turn it on unless something else comes up. Something usually does. Ah well; one way or another I’ll have something on the other side tomorrow. See you there, then.

01.14.08

And The Hits Keep Coming

Posted in Appleology, Rants, Writing at 6:32 pm

All right, I promised you guys that I would talk about GASP. The Gaming Association of Southwest Pennsylvania is a regional board and tabletop gaming group that meets monthly. We play obscure board games and on occasion roll a little of the polyhedra. Coincidentally, I tracked down an old module and have begun preparations to run a one-shot D&D session of my own during these times (there’s on the order of 50 of us, so it’s not like there won’t be people doing other stuff or I’d be monopolizing the event). So, that’s that; it’s pretty basic and nothing too spectacular.

I also said I’d talk about the whole ‘workout’ thing that I’ve been doing. To be honest, there’s not much to say– I’ve gone to the gym four times so far, today was the fifth, and I’m working on increasing stamina and maybe a little bit of ab definition and arm strength. The primary purpose is to just get me moving in a comfortable environment. I’m certainly not going to suddenly go overboard and work towards being an Arnold-like muscle mass. I’m about twenty years too late to want to do that.

There’s also my task of finding a literary agent for Blueberries; letters are going to be written and sent out, if not during the week, then on Saturday. I have my resolution to keep, after all, and a list of forty agents with more to come. I’m probably going to start sending out review copies to friends and family soon, so if you’re interested in giving it a look, please let me know.

Finally, MacWorld is tomorrow. I’m severely psyched for the show and the announcements, but the problem is that the odds are starting to swing away from an iPod/Touch refresh and more towards a MacBook announcement. Whatever “Air” is, it’s going to be ‘big’ but not for me. Moreover, it’s only been three months since the Touch was released, and I don’t think Apple would be willing to take that kind of a bath by dumping a new model this soon after Christmas. I’m looking forward to whatever’s up tomorrow, but for now my expectations are a little deflated.

Catch you folks tomorrow.

01.08.08

The Calmness of WAIT HOLY CRAP

Posted in Appleology, Gaming, Rants at 5:34 pm

These past few weeks I’ve been pretty heavily indulging in the geeky pursuits closer to the LJ-style than those things which would be applicable to blog entries. That naturally leans a bit more towards these posts being somewhat leaner than the LJ posts; then again, to be totally honest, after a month and a half of neglecting gaming and anime in favor of writing, the balance needs to be maintained again. I wouldn’t count on my attention wandering back to writing for a few more weeks, anyway, but I assure you it will in time, especially given that I’m likely to be doing up the first batch of query letters at some point this week.

On Thursday I’ll likely have something to say about life that’s a bit… let’s call it, unorthodox for me. There’s also tech news from CES rolling in, and that’s completely neglecting the matter of the upcoming Macworld show where undoubtedly people will be inundated with remorse over their post-Christmas impulse purchases of iPods or iPhones. (I came about twenty minutes away from breaking down and getting an iPod Touch myself these past couple weeks, but I didn’t, and I’m counting my blessings with each rumor that arises.) If there’s one thing that I really miss, it’s a May E3; still, I remember when there was no E3, and CES was the big event for both tech and gaming. I’m sure I’m not the only one to remember reading about CES in Nintendo Power long, long ago. Anyway, the tech news might be better held on to until the middle of next week.

Unrelated and slightly gaming-related: Playing through the first few bits of StarTropics last night, I came across an NPC proclaiming herself to be “Miss C-Island 1990″. And holy crap did that make me feel old. Hmm… now that I think about it… Well, I’ll just keep that idea quiet for now.

Catch you all tomorrow on the other side. Maybe with some thoughts on StarTropics and a quick update on Eternal Sonata.

Also: After finishing the post for today, Steve over at the Wicked Good Podcast brought it to my attention that The Mole is returning. Let me repeat that so it sinks in: The Mole is returning. Twice before was I denied the opportunity to go on the show, but now… NOW….

11.06.07

Lolcat

Posted in Appleology, Rants at 5:34 am

So, I’ve had some exposure to Leopard now. I managed to install it on both of my Macs– the Basroil (the Intel MacBook) and KOS-MOS (the PPC Mini what serves as my media center PC). To be completely honest, my initial expectations were totally wrong. The Basroil suffered a little bit of a slowdown, and KOS-MOS actually doesn’t suck anymore. Let me go into a little bit of detail here.
( I also go into the bug, so you don’t have to. » )
Overall, I’m happy with Leopard. I do use KOS-MOS often enough (daily for the iPod syncing) that the speed increase offsets the slight decrease on the more-commonly used Basroil. And in actuality, the times that I do run against the delays on the Basroil are few and far between. So, no worries, really.

We’ll go ahead and give a real update on the writing tomorrow.

11.03.07

Hi-Five My Remix

Posted in Anime, Appleology, Rants, Writing at 8:27 am

I’d been vaguely aware that the current issue of Wired– which I read only occasionally, sadly– had something rather interesting, but for the life of me I couldn’t quite recall what. (This lapse certainly could not have been the result of my Pokemon obsession, or my furious and frantic NaNo preparation, no sirree.) As it turned out, the feature that had caught my attention was a look at the manga industry as it exists in Japan. I’ll start by briefly recapping the article, then give my thoughts.

(EDIT: Incidentally: I was surprised, after my voice gave out yesterday, to find copies of Leopard at freakin’ Best Buy. I mean, the most stridently anti-Mac place I could think of now has a huge Apple display where they maybe once had a plasma screen showing off the latest DDR. Meh. You win some, you lose some, really. Related to this, Leopard is nice, very nice. Installing Leopard is unimaginable pain. Right, back to the Wired rant.)
( That all depends on your definition of the word ‘brief’. » )

10.22.07

Thoughts of a Despairing Appleologist

Posted in Appleology, Rants at 4:33 pm

Over the weekend– which was fantastically relaxing, thank you– I came across a post on an unnamed forum by an unnamed individual. Well, all right, the forum and the person do indeed have named, but I’d rather not reveal them here. Anyway, this person’s someone who I’ve had an arm’s-length relationship for a while, and in general I respect his opinion, even if I also in general almost never agree with him. Funny thing about that, really; I might not agree but he’s got a solid opinion and his arguments work from his point of view… just not mine, usually. That’s tangential, really, to the point at hand, being that he had a temporarily-bricked iPhone because he loaded a custom ringtone on it prior to the firmware upgrade.

Needless to say, he was upset. ( I don’t blame him, really… » )