The Case for a 12" MacBook

This photo clearly shows why those of us who have the 12 incher want another one.

No it doesn't mean 'cheap' Mr. Jobs. It means portable power in a form that is most portable.

Why There's No Firewire on the new MacBooks.

And so my dreams of a new black MacBook with firewire have been dashed along with my hope of a return of the 12" laptop from Apple. I'll get on the latter issue at another post. There's much to be bothered about the lack of Firewire on the MacBook but thinking about Apple and how Apple has moved in the past, the removal of FW from the consumer line of the laptop is completely understandable, if annoying.

Think about what has happened in the consumer camera space in the past couple of years. We have DV cameras that record directly to hard disk. We have flip cameras that record directly to SD disk (I have an older one with horrible compression). And of course we have the regular still cameras that save internally and externally to a number of removable media. What do all of these cameras have in common? They can transfer files directly over USB/USB2 to any computer or can have their removable media inserted into a card reader that also connects over USB.

Therefore the need for FW in the consumer space going forward does not need Firewire. it only needs USB. I have no doubt that the monstrosity that is iMovie 7.1 will be made to recognize these kinds of cameras and media (assuming it does not currently do so). I have long ago created a DVD through iMovie with my flip camera and files imported from an SD card. it's not hard.

What Apple has done is said that it won't allow it's more pro customers get away with buying the low end Mac to do work with "higher end" cameras. At least that's my read. If you want to hook up a Camera that *requires* firewire to move data then you probably have the resources to ante up for a MacBook Pro and Apple will be glad to take your money. of course that annoys people like myself who wanted a smaller machine but still wanted the pro features a-la the long dead 12" PB which had everything except the expansion slot.

Now some people are moaning about the supposed loss of FW target disk mode. If you have a techie who complains about this, please reconsider paying for his or her service. All intel Macs can be accessed in target disk mode via USB. No it's not firewire, but it does the same thing. they can still diagnose the HD with utilities over USB.

The Bad Thing About Cell Phones

And so I had a very busy weekend. Such a busy weekend in fact that I didn't place any phone calls or txt messages for 2 days. Well 1, but let me finish. In my apartment I have what we shall refer to as 'spotty" service. That is I get reception in one spot and not another. Oddly, on Friday night I happened to notice two odd things:

1) The battery had gone down to 1/2 charge.
2) I had 4 bars where I previously have none.

So I thought: "great my battery is going." and "Great! ATT must have thrown up a tower somewhere!"

Sadly neither was the case. After spending all day Saturday working on my Car and a DVD for a client, I settled down to enjoy the evening. I happened to look at my phone and lo and behold the battery was again at 1/2 charge. Now I'm thinking that I hadn't used the phone all day except to look at the time. But I also had 4 bars.I suppose I was so enraptured by having service in my apt. that it didn't dawn on me that something was not quite right.

So next day I head out to visit moms. While we're at Home Depot I decide to let somebody know I was alive ( I have a habit of not answering phones and people have habits of not leaving messages, bad combo). Oddly the message took forever to send and I never quite saw that it went since the screen blanked out to save the battery. But I had 4 bars!

Then I got annoyed that the lucky person to have received a txt message from me didn't even respond. I mean, a text message from me is a special thing y'all. Still I'm distracted by this 4 bars everywhere thing.

It didn't even occur to me that I had not received a single phone call in the past 36 hours which is odd. So anyway, this afternoon I'm at work, sitting in a room that is a known cellular dead zone. I check the phone. 4 bars. No way. so some 72 hours later I realize that the cell phone had in fact been partially locked up. It would show the time, play music and all that jazz, but it would not be receiving or sending calls or txt. Reboot.

As I exit the dead zone, the phone lets me know I have a message. From 2 days ago. just imagining if I only had the cell phone as a means of contact. That would have sucked. Worst is to have no clue that your phone is locked up.