Take Away The Unnecessary

Keep asking yourself, does this “something” add anything to my life? If you have to think about an answer to the question for more than a few seconds, it doesn’t. Remove it from your life. Throw it away. Clear out the space visually and mentally.

There’s no use keeping around a piece of digital material (RSS feed, song, file, bookmark) if it’s not adding anything to your life, or helping you in any-way. Try to simplify things down and keep only the essentials, both in the material world and the evolving digital world.

Moving from a desktop computing setup to a notebook based setup comprising of a MacBook Pro helped my digital cleanliness propagation a few months ago, I migrated over 1TB of data into under 100GB.

Living For Now

Stop living for the day where you will own the faster computer, sexier car, bigger home. Start for living for today where you have the computer you’re reading this text on, the car you have parked in your garage, and the roof you have over your head.

It’s important to have these things in your sight, but don’t let them be the focus of your life. Let this minute, this current day be your task in hand. Enjoy it for what it is and what you have. Stop being materialistic and live for experience.

Goals Are Essential

Where would you like to be in six months, one year, five years away? While focusing on the current day, it’s important to have things to aim for, to have plans of where you’re going in life rather than simply living year in and year out. Set yourself goals on what you’d like to achieve in a certain period of time. Keep these somewhere where they can be openly viewed, and set time to reflect upon them.

Easing Workload

Keeping on a relative point to the first point mentioned, there are dozens, if not hundreds of ways you can make your life more simple. Find workarounds to tasks which you don’t enjoy. Find ways to delegate and remove tasks which you dread thinking about from your daily life. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Hate doing the housework? Hire a cleaner. If it’ll make you happier and improve your life, it’s worth the money - or as it could be otherwise called, it’s worth the investment.

Each and every Friday I post a desktop wallpaper which I have taken personally on travels and outings with my Canon 350D. The wallpaper is sized at a resoultion big enough to be used on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, so no-one will miss out.

| This image was captured using these settings: f/2.8 | 30mm | 1/3200th | ISO 100|

Feel free to leave any comments or constructive criticism about this wallpaper below - it helps me grow and learn the art of photography.

Get Desktop Version

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Macworld received its first baseline MacBook Air earlier this morning, and has posted initial benchmarks using its in-house Speedmark test suite courtesy of the lab.

The results are not mind-blowing as expected, slower than all other current model Mac’s in the open market. Including the MacBook Pro and the MacBook.

For this first set of tests, we used a default-configuration MacBook Air powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a 4200 rpm, 1.8-inch 80GB parallel ATA hard drive.

I do feel the hard-drive is one of the major bottlenecks of the MacBook Air. When set against laptops using 5400 and 7400 RPM drives, the difference is noticeable to say the least. I’m looking forward to seeing some benchmarks with the 64GD SSD option installed in the machine.

When set against a 2.2Ghz MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air encodes music in iTunes almost 50% slower than the Pro counterpart, and around 40% slower in the Handbrake encoding test.

Speaking of Speedmark, the MacBook Air’s score of 123 is the lowest score we’ve recorded for any Intel-based Mac laptop, but it does handily beat our PowerPC laptop reference system, the 1.67Ghz 15-inch PowerBook G4.

The 1.67Ghz 15-inch PowerBook G4 crossed the finishing line with a Speedmark overall score of 92 compared to the MacBook Air’s score of 123. The 2.2Ghz MacBook Pro led the chase at 185, just over double the score of the PowerBook.

Check out the full piece complete with initial performance views.

- MacHeist Staff

And so, after 15 very exciting days, the MacHeist II bundle finally comes to a close. It’s hard to believe but during the peak of the sale, the bundle was selling at an even higher rate then the Nintendo DS! So we’re ecstatic beyond belief with the way it all turned out to say the least.

Congratulations to the winner Calvin Chu of the MacHeist II bundle competition I ran last week.

MacHeist II finished the 15 day period selling 43,815 bundles and raising $488,003 for charity which was rounded up to an even half million dollars by the generous crew.

Your serials for the fourteen excellent applications are on the way.

As many Canon fans are awaiting an announcement on an updated full frame EOS 5D Mark II, Canon have come out with an update to its entry level DSLR - the XSi (450D).

The camera features a twelve megapixel CMOS sensor, 3.0″ LCD monitor, Live View with both AF modes (contrast-detect and passive), 14-bit processing and RAW, spot metering, improved AF, 3.5 fps continuous shooting, a larger viewfinder, SD/SDHC storage and a new higher capacity battery.

12.2 Megapixel CMOS sensor

Canon’s EOS Integrated Cleaning System

3.5 frames per second

3.0″ LCD with Live View shooting

9-point wide-area AF system

DIGIC III image processor

Compact and Lightweight body

The step up in improvements from the 400D to the 450D is much larger than what progress was made in the previous installment when Canon replaced the 350D with the 400D. Live View is slowly making its way across the whole line, along with 14-bit RAW, and a 3.0″ LCD monitor. These are too expected in the next edition of the 5D.

As a body targeted at those moving up from point-and-shoot camera, the megapixel count is something un-educated buyers take into account. While 12.2 megapixels stuffed into such a small sensor might not be so forgiving on noise at ISO 800 and above, it does sound impressive for Canon’s most affordable DSLR.

The Canon XSi is expected to start retailing in March 08.

After arriving back from Napier, New Zealand and sorting through a few dozen RSS feeds, I’ve come across a few cool things - one of them is the Macworld Keynote presented in high-definition Quicktime format, directly from Apple.

If you haven’t already watched the keynote, now couldn’t be a better time. In 720P (1280×720) at 30FPS, it’s the next best thing to watching Steve Jobs present Macworld Live in San Francisco.

Watch the presentation here.

Unbelievably thin. Astonishingly slick. Knocking on excessively expensive. The new Apple MacBook Air has turned more than a few heads in different directions since its unveiling on Tuesday morning.

There are things in the MacBook Air that aren’t perfect, and some that aren’t even near acceptable. But these are the trade offs that must be had in ultra portable laptops. I feel a lot of the community was expecting far too much from a laptop that’s designed with portability, sleekness, and style in mind. Bottom line.

The MacBook Air falls behind in these aspects:

- Lack of ports, specifically, the dropping of FireWire and the miniscule number of USB ports (one). Those with FireWire HDDs or other devices connecting using the standard will be disappointed. The lack of an Ethernet port is a slight disappointment, but the the recent advances of 802.11 N, this is a smaller point of interest.

- Storage Capacity. Another major tradeoff due to the size of the laptop consumers will need to overcome. Shipping with a 80GB 1.8-inch HDD, storage is at a premium with the MBA. The 64GB SSD is a nice additional option, however pricey at this current point in time.

- CPU/RAM thresholds. Stock at 1.6Ghz, and clocking out at 1.8Ghz, the MBA is notably slower in clock speed than other Apple notebooks. RAM on the MacBook Air is limited to 2GB of non upgradeable memory due to the fact it’s tied to the systems motherboard. Anyone requiring more RAM will need to look at other options (more on that soon).

- No user swappable battery. Possibly one of the most talked about aspects of the machine over the past three days, is the lack of a user swappable battery - falling as a major disappointment for users who wish to carry a couple of spare batteries with them on travel.

- Mono only audio. Not much to say on this point. This is what external speakers are made for, or alternatively, headphones.

As you can see, there are many aspects of the MacBook Air which do lack compared to the MacBook and the MacBook Pro - there’s no lying.

How about some finer more positive points?

- Form factor. Labeled and claimed as the worlds thinnest notebook computer by Apple, this is the main pulling point of the new machine. Clocking in at just 3.0 lbs and dimensions 0.76 x 0.16 inches, the MacBook Air is set to take the notebook industry by storm. If there’s one thing Apple can be praised on in the process, is its strong and continually developing relationship with Intel, shown by the new chip Intel built specifically for the machine.

- Possibly the perfect companion notebook for iMac owners and don’t need any real power in their notebook.

- First Mac with a SSD (solid state drive) option. I feel this is one of the less talked about BTO options on the MBA, however we’ll soon see this as an option over Apple’s complete line of notebook computers as price becomes more competitive.

- Keyboard backlighting. A feature previously only available on the MacBook Pro’s, it’s a nice addition to see a full size keyboard complete with ambient light backlighting. A finer point of interest, but one which does impress.

- Multi-touch input. Possibly something which Apple will incorporate on its full line of notebook computers in the future, much like the SSD. Taken from the iPhone, it’s a great sign of innovation and Apple’s willingness to try new technology on new devices.

Thoughts

The MacBook Air has a lot going for it, and a lot going against it. It’s not going to be suited as a main machine for most people requiring more than a simple notebook. It will pair up perfectly as a second more portable machine for those already running iMac’s/Mac Pro’s, etc.

Although expensive, I feel it will still be a huge success for Apple. When SSDs come down in price and ship as the stock drive in the machine, the MacBook Air will be even closer to the perfect portable machine.

Yes - I want one. But not it its current state. I feel as technological advancements improve, Apple will equally do so with the MBA. How does a MacBook Air with a 128GB SSD standard sound for the same going price? A lot better, and that’s the direction we’re heading for 12-18 months down the track.

Each and every Friday I post a desktop wallpaper which I have taken personally on travels and outings with my Canon 350D. The wallpaper is sized at a resoultion big enough to be used on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, so no-one will miss out.

Feel free to leave any comments or constructive criticism about this wallpaper below - it helps me grow and learn the art of photography.

Get Desktop Version

Want more? Check out the archives.

One of the smaller announcements of the day are the new applications released in a software update for the iPod touch. Mail, Maps, Notes, Widgets, Weather, and Stocks are all included in the iPod touch software update pack, which retails for $20 USD ($27 NZD).

Like many other Mac enthusiasts, I purchased the pack immediately after it was listed as available on the iTunes Store. One thing I reported on back in my iPod touch review was the lack of certain applications compared to the iPhone. This negative point can now be eliminated, and I expect to start enjoying the iPod touch even more so because of it.

I’m primarily excited about having my Mail with me on the go. Although needing a Wi-Fi hotspot to connect, it’s better than nothing which is the case here in New Zealand at the moment with the iPhone not yet for sale.

Equally impressive is the Maps application. I never expected it to be so useful, however it has already come into play once today offering me directions when I went for a drive this afternoon.

5 applications for $20, working out at $4 each. I know the Mail and Maps applications are alone worth $20 to me, so it really isn’t that much of a bad deal. I can see why some are disappointed with having to fork out cash for these additional pieces of software, but I’m not one of them.

Waldo asks a few questions regarding a new setup he plans to purchase.

I am in the buying position for a new Mac Pro and a new IiMac 24″. I currently do video editing currently on my iMac G5 with the old Final Cut and i just got the new Final Cut Studio 2 for Christmas, I also do audio production on my iMac with the old Logic, looking to get Logic Studio.

For years I have always wanted a Mac tower but never had the money, I am looking at the educational store to make my purchase. I finally have the money and I want the best Mac Pro I can get for my money and a baseline 24” iMac which is $1700. I have a budget of $7,600 and I want 2 x 30″ display set up for my Mac Pro.

Does your setup need two 30″ Apple Cinema Display’s, or would you be okay going with another brand? I would stay away from the Apple Cinema Display’s at this point in time as they’re on the verge of an update. Instead, I’d recommend two of Dell’s 3007 displays. These retail for $1399 each. If you’d be willing to stretch the budget, opt for the newer 3008 model ($1999 each). Saying you choose the 3007, this leaves $4800 left in the budget.

What is the best option for me? My Final system must include 2 30″ Cinema Displays and the 24″ iMac as well as the best Mac Pro I can get with the money. If it goes a couple hundred over….thats ok….but only if I really need it.

With the Mac Pro recently updated, your timing to make the large investment is very good. As far as I can tell, I see the Two Quad 2.8Ghz system to be the best value for money. First of all, you say you need the 24″ iMac. That’s $1700 more of the budget gone, $3100 remains to play with.

I’d suggest ordering from Apple with the following specs (prices from normal, non education store). Pretty much order the stock machine, with the exception of changing to video card to the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, an extra SuperDrive, and a AirPort Extreme card (Wi-Fi). The machine totals in at $3200, putting you $100 over budget, not taking into account the educational discounts you’ll receive.

Any extra money saved I’d spend on third party upgrades. I’d suggest keeping the 320GB drive for a Leopard (boot drive), then picking up a 750GB drive for storage ($170). As far as RAM goes, it’s dirt cheap now. Pick up a 8GB kit for $400 at OWC. You’ll notice the difference far more than any processor upgrade the money could be otherwise spent on.

Along with continuing answering questions via YouTube more frequently this year, I thought I could use this blog as a platform to help answer these too. Aidan asked:

First question: I have a 20″ iMac and I am planning on getting a 2nd display. I am looking for something that matches size and color. I was looking at the LG L194WS.

If you own the newer 20″ iMac (aluminum), I’d alternatively suggest a 24″ Dell monitor. The Dell displays have a great reputation for quality and value, along with looking the part. The 2407 Dell runs in at around $375 USD which is great value for a 1080P LCD display.

Second question: I have been looking at getting a 17″ powerbook for traveling. I was wondering if you knew why the 17″ still cost over $1000.

First of all, a 17″ PowerBook for traveling? I’d say your optimal choice for a traveling machine would be something smaller than a 17″ notebook. I’d suggest a used or refurbished MacBook if you can afford that much. If not, take a look at the late iBook G4s, more specifically, the 12″ version.

The form factor and casing of the 12″ PowerBook might be nice, but just like the 17″ PowerBook, resale value is still far more than it should be. If you really do want a 17″ laptop, purchase the original Core Duo 17″ MacBook Pro. It’d be a much better investment than spending 2/3s of the money on an aging PowerBook.

I’m still hard at work finishing up a NZ national computing course, hence the lack of recent blog activity. In the mist of an eventful past few weeks, I’ve sorted a solution to something which has been on my mind for quite some time, a reliable active photo storage system complete with a backup.

The Hardware

I now have a thee tiered system which incorporate Lightroom as the image management tool. The system is made up by three pieces of hardware. The MacBook Pro, Seagate Freeagent 250GB USB drive, and LaCie Porsche 250GB Firewire 400 drive.

The System

My active 2008 library is stored on the MacBook Pro’s internal HDD. Previous years folders (2006 & 2007) are sitting on the Seagate Freeagent 250GB USB drive. When 2009 comes around, the 2008 folder will be archived on the Seagate drive, on a continuous cycle.

Both the active 2008 library and the archived images get backed up onto another 250GB drive, the LaCie Porsche Firewire 400.

I’m relatively happy with how the system shapes out. I have my current years worth of images on hand wherever I am with the MacBook Pro and access to older archived images is provided by the very portable Seagate Freeagent USB drive. While backups are hosted on the reliable LaCie Porsche drive at Firewire 400 speeds for snappy regular backup sessions.

Most will remember the recent controversy surrounding the MacHeist 2 lead-up. Thankfully, this is in the past and the MacHeist 2 bundle is now for sale. It’s those two weeks again, the two weeks which were labeled as the week of indie Mac developers by many last year.

This years MacHeist bundle features eleven popular software titles for just $49 USD, the bundle is an excellent deal for anyone interested in trying out new applications. This years bundle is of excellent value, you’d pay $10 more for Pixelmator along (an excellent image editing application in comparison to Photoshop).

Phillip Ryu, MacHeist founder stated “Last year, our members were offered a choice of charities to have 25% of their purchase donated to. This initiative became a spectacular success, with $200,000 raised by the end of the event. This year, we’re hoping to shatter last year’s record numbers, and show how generous the Mac community can be.”

ChaChing
1Password
Awaken
TaskPaper
iStopMotion
CoverSutra
Speed Download
AppZapper
CSSEdit (Locked)
Snapz Pro (Locked)
Pixelmator (Locked)

Purchasing the bundle today will give you access to seven of the ten applications, the other three unlocked when certain sale milestones are accomplished. 25 percent of sale proceeds will be donated to various user-chosen charities.

If you’re into Mac software, supporting developers and charity, and want to stretch your dollar and receive great value for money, check out the MacHeist 2008 bundle. At $49, you can’t go wrong.

I have one bundle to give away thanks to Phillip Ryu and the great folks at MacHeist. To be into win all of the eleven applications free of charge, simply leave a comment below.

I don’t have many resolutions this year, just four. Four simple goals I’d like to follow in the calendar year of 2008. I succeeded with each and every one of last years set goals, I hope I will be just as successful with these four things this year.

Work Hard, Play Harder

Most of 2007 was spent working hard, toward the latter end I found myself wasting a lot more time than I would like to admit. This years goal is to push myself to work as hard as possible,while really enjoying myself after the fact. I know I can work and play hard, I just need to separate the two and focus on the task in hand.

Learn And Master Photography

I’ve learnt a lot this past year from my main hobby, photography. I hit last years New Years Resolution to take 15,000 images over the course of 2007, and this year, plan to not only continue taking images, but to read books, listen to fellow photographers, and further my knowledge of the art.

Make Decisions And Never Look Back

It was just a few evenings ago while I was watchig Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift where I picked up on this quote. Life is all about making decisions, to then make the most of them, we need to keep our heads up and never look back. Look at the positives, and reap ther best we can from all situations. I will do my best this year to make positive choices, and never look back at them - just keep moving forward.

Be Less Materialistic

Notice in this years list I don’t have anything listed under a heading “Buy ??” This year I plan to be far less materialistic than I have in the past. No large impulse purchases, minimal amounts of cash spent on technology, and just watching my wallet in general. Sure, if a really nice MacBook Pro update comes along, I’m not ruling out the chance of upgrading, there will just be a longer and more thorough thought process involved.

I feel the tag-line “next generation gamer” is far past its use by date, instead I now prefer the tag “current generation gamer” for those adopting a new console such as the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, or Nintendo Wii.

This Christmas I picked up an Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 is one console I’ve had my eyes on since it was introduced. The Playstation 3 really didn’t capture me as much as the 360, down to a few different reasons.

There was a brief period where I never touched games on any platform. when I first picked up my Playstation 2 I was quite keen on picking up the controller on a regular basis, this quickly faded away and for the past two years I’ve neglected video games. I wanted to make a re-entrance with all the great new games on the market and the new and developing technologies powering the systems.

When comparing the two consoles (360 & PS3), I looked at two main aspects. The online gameplay, and overall game catalogue. I feel the Xbox 360 leads the PS3 in both of these areas, Xbox Live has been perfectly executed. Along with gamertags, achievements, and all the other features packed under the hood, Xbox Live appears as if it’ll stretch the lifeline of games with all the added content and gameplay abilities over the service.

The exclusivity of the game catalog is currently won by the 360, mainly due to the age of the console compared to the recently released PS3. There are a few games on the 360 which really caught my eye and further stretched my preference over the PS3. 80% of my game catalog I had on the Playstation 2 were solely racing/sport games. I have never got into the whole FPS (first person shooter) scene.

This trend has continued with the first handful of games I’ve picked up for the Xbox 360. Including Skate, FIFA 07, Forza 2, Top Spin 2, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007. On the list of games I’d like to pick up include NBA Live 2008, Madden 2008, Grand Theft Auto 5 (on release), and Call Of Duty 4. See the developing trend?

I’ve been very impressed with the console to date after owning it for a week. If there’s any negative points I had to find, it’d be the excessive noise and heat the system creates while in use, and the lack of ability to create a wireless network connection right out of the box. I don’t like the idea of having to drop another $175 NZD on the Wireless Network Adaptor. I’m thoroughly enjoyed playing friends over Xbox Live, and I think it’s this feature alone which will end up introducing me to the world of FPS games such as Halo 3 and Call Of Duty 4 as my friends push me closer and closer to purchasing them for Xbox Live battles.

This won’t be the last I’ll be writing about the Xbox 360. There’s still so much more for me to discover and play with.

For all those who asked, my gamertag is “Glenn Wolsey”.