Category: Technology

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I can see there being a market for the MacBook Air – not a market I fit into, but a market nonetheless.

When catching the first glimpse of the Air, it really is quite stunning. The size alone is enough to make you think aloud: how’d they fit a computer in there?!?

While the computer weighs in at about three pounds which is really light, it appears that it should be as light as a feather. Essentially, looks are deceiving on it – but not necessarily in a bad way. I must admit that I did grab a manila envelope to see if it were true – and it is. You could easily hide it and no one would be the wiser – unless you have the power cord plugged for some reason.

Apple has very cleverly hidden the USB, audio jack and DVI port in a fold down compartment which when closed is almost invisible. It’s been fun watching people try to find it – and once they do, the “wow” look really comes over them. It almost seems as if the rubber “feet” on the bottom for spacing from the work surface work in tandem with the port. If the machine didn’t have the feet, the door would hit the surface the computer is sitting on. I don’t know how this will work if you’re using the machine on your lap and need to have something plugged in – even if it is simply headphones – whether or not this will interfere with keeping the port open.

Like the other laptops with a back lit keyboard, this one is just as impressive. It may be that the keys are black and the letters simply glow when in a dim environment, it’s a simple touch of elegance that is simply Apple.

The way that the laptop is hinged rather than clasped like the MacBooks reminds me of the clamshell iBooks – you remember the ones.

Now back to the market for this computer… the one I do not fit into.  I could see this machine being perfect for someone who travels a lot and is doing a number of presentations on a regular basis. Perhaps a sales rep doing a few pitches a day or someone who is on the road a lot. It seems like a great machine for email, internet and presentations. Maybe Al Gore will pick one up for when he does his global presentation… I’m sure as a board member he has first dibs. I definitely do not see someone purchasing the Air to be or replace their primary machine. Hard drive space and processor speeds simply don’t allow for this to be a good primary machine and though I’d love to have one for myself, I simply don’t have the need. However, my home set up is a 20″ Intel iMac – maybe the Air would be a fantastic notebook. If I didn’t have a work issued MacBook Pro, I might have considered splurging and picking one up but I definitely think Apple has done it again!

It’s simple, elegant, and simply done right. I just hope it is received well and doesn’t fall the way of the Cube. Don’t remember that one? Check it out.

Editor’s Note: Greg Probst is the author of Blue Sleeves Blog and is a regular contributor to Probstisms.

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Something that has got me really excited is that I’m going to be getting my hands on a MacBook Air. I’m hoping it’s sooner rather than later – it’s been on order since the day it was announced. I’ll be posting some unboxing pictures and my first impressions of the MacBook Air. Stay Tuned!

Editor’s Note: Greg Probst is the author of Blue Sleeves Blog and is a regular contributor to Probstisms.

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This week, I will be attending my first Business Objects Partner Summit. Actually, this will be the first software conference that I have ever attended besides the Microsoft Office launch events I go to with each new release and my own company’s user conferences.

I am looking forward to seeing what Business Objects has in store for us, but I think I am most excited about spending time with the other members of my team that I haven’t seen since last July. Don’t get me wrong, I love working from home with all of the time I get to spend with my family, but there is definitely something to be said about team camaraderie. We have an outstanding group of people and it is always a fun and interesting time when we’re all in the same place at the same time.

If time permits (and confidentiality agreements allow), I will try to blog about anything cool that happens at the conference. I don’t expect that I’ll be doing any live blogging, but I’ll definitely write about anything that seems interesting.

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Google GmailFor those of you who are not familiar with Gmail, you soon will be. Gmail is Google’s free email service, and it is one of many excellent services that Google provides. Most of the people I know already use Gmail as their main email service, and I suspect that many more will soon join the ranks of devoted Gmail users.

Google has always offered a tremendous amount of free storage space with each Gmail account, and with competition from Yahoo and Microsoft, they continue to add space to each account for free. Right now, I have 6,290 MB of space. That’s over 6 GB of storage space for free!

The catalyst for this post is my wife’s less than a year old Dell laptop. Sadly, the hard drive in that machine is beginning to show the telltale signs of failure. You know the ones – the terrible scratching sounds, the no drive detected errors, etc. Needless to say, we have been scrambling to find good ways to make sure her important business files are safe and sound. The first thing we did was save the files off to a USB flash drive. This is a good short term solution, but flash drives are easily lost. We have also started to use Google Docs more so local storage is becoming less of an issue.

Then something came to me. Why not use the 6+ GB of storage I have with Gmail to store my important files on Google’s servers? Using Labels in Gmail makes organizing all of your files insanely easy, and of course, Gmail comes with the power of Google’s search if you ever need to find a specific file. Follow these easy steps to save your important files in your Gmail account.

1. From your Gmail Inbox, click the More Actions drop down box and select New Label.
2. Enter a name for your new label like “Documents” or “Files.” This will help you find your files later.
1. Compose a new message and enter your Gmail address in the To field.
2. For the message Subject, use the name of the file you are sending to Gmail.
3. In the message Body, enter keywords or phrases that will help you find the file in the future.
4. Attach the file to the message.
5. Send the message.
6. The new message will appear in your Inbox.
7. Select the message by clicking the checkbox next to the message.
8. Click the More Actions drop down box and select the Label you chose for your documents.
9. Click the Archive button to remove the message from your Inbox.

Your file is now saved on Google’s servers. In order to access your files in the future, simply select the Label you chose for your documents. Labels are usually displayed under the Chat window on the left side of the page. Clicking on a Label will show all of the messages with that label so you will be able to see all of the messages you have saved with your important files. You can also use the search feature in Gmail to find a specific file. This is why using descriptive file names and adding good keywords is very important.

I hope this helps you get more out of your Gmail account and avoid the problems of a hard drive failure.

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While reviewing my Last.fm Dashboard yesterday, I found this excellent track from Christian McBride and his band. The track starts out as a jam but spontaneously evolves into James Brown’s Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose. Moments like this are the reason it is so fun to play in a band. You never quite know what’s going to happen when everyone starts stretching out. You can play the track here.

Christian McBride – Out Jam/ Give It Up Or Turint Loose

Back in the day, I played in a band called Real Jazz Quintet with my brother Jeff, my buddies Terry Brown and Rob Buckley, and a dude named Dave that played awesome piano. Well, one night at a coffee shop in Aurora, Illinois called Roasters, we had one of these moments, and luckily, we recorded it using an insanely cheap but effective boom box. Check out A-Town Drug Bust by Real Jazz Quintet.

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Santa Claus

Just in time for the holiday season, Apple has released a new Get A Mac ad featuring good ol’ Saint Nick and our two favorite television personalities, Mac and PC. This time, they’re in wonderful CGI glory.

The Get A Mac ad campaign has been a huge success, and the ads are getting better and better as time goes on. Mac and PC have great timing together, and it’ll be a sad day when Apple changes to another ad campaign.

Anyway, while I was watching this latest ad, something came to me. I think PC (John Hodgman) would make a great voice over actor for a Disney/Pixar movie. He has great comedic timing, and his voice would be perfect for an animated character.

El Jobso, what do you think?

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The iMix feature in Apple’s iTunes Store is one that I have never really gotten in to. Sure, I used to mix cassette tapes when I was a kid, but for whatever reason, I’ve never really been one to build a lot of playlists in iTunes. That’s not to say that playlists and iMix aren’t really cool.

My buddy Terry Brown of Lazy Revolution fame sent an iMix to me today of some excellent jazz Christmas music. I’m not talking about the normal stuff you hear on the radio. Check out this iMix and see for yourself.

Now, to me, this is a great use of iMix. What better way to pass along some holiday cheer than to hip a friend on to some cool jazz music. If you have some favorite music you’d like to share, feel free to post a link in the comments section of this post.

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I have been playing with Safari 3 on Mac OS X Tiger and Windows XP lately to see how it compares to Firefox. Safari 3 definitely launches faster than Firefox on both my Mac and PC, and it also seems to render pages faster. The RSS reader is still one of the best I have seen in any of the browsers although I have switched to Google Reader to keep track of my RSS feeds.

There are still some annoying page rendering differences between Firefox and Safari, and I’m not quite sure who to blame. Is it Apple that hasn’t built in support for the latest web standards, or is it the web designers that have built their website to look good on IE and Firefox? As a content creator, it is incredibly frustrating to me that each browser has its own quirks. My site looks perfect on Firefox and Safari, but it looks like crap in IE 6. For that, I place the blame on Microsoft for baking in a whole lot of proprietary code into IE 6. IE 7 does a much better job at rendering standards based pages, but it still has a ways to go.

I could go on and on forever about bad page rendering, but I did have a point for this post. Safari 3 has a really cool new feature that I have come to use a lot. Under the Window menu, there are two new options: Move Tab to New Window and Merge All Windows. I don’t have a whole lot of use for the first option, but I really like the Merge All Windows option. I have come to really enjoy using Tabs while browsing the Internet, and sometimes, a link will automatically open in a new window. I have to admit, it drives me nuts when this happens, and the Merge All Windows option has been a huge help.

Apple has once again introduced a great new feature to make browsing the Internet faster and easier. Now if they can get together with the major web sites to make sure the pages render properly, I’ll be a happy camper.

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Ever since I saw this post on TiVo Blog, I have wanted to test drive the new Rhapsody service on TiVo. Well, I have finally had a chance to spend some time playing with the new Rhapsody service, and I have to say that it’s pretty darn good.

There are some annoying performance issues like songs cutting out and the pages locking up, but I’m not sure if it is because of the service or my wireless network. The USB Wi-Fi adapter I use with my TiVo is kind of old and isn’t in the best of shape so it doesn’t get a very good signal. I have seen comments on other blogs that the performance of the service is a little iffy so my performance issues could be a combination of the service and my USB adapter.

I really enjoy the ability to search for and listen to pretty much any artist I can think of. A feature I like even more is the ability to enter the name of one of my favorite artists and listen to their music along with similar artists. It really is a great way to hear artists and songs that I may have never been exposed to, and with the radio stations in Saint Louis, I need some way to hear something new.

Over all, I am very impressed with the new Rhapsody service on TiVo. I’m not sure that I would spend the money on a monthly subscription to Rhapsody because I have so much invested in iTunes, but for someone without a large music library, Rhapsody and TiVo make a perfect combination to get music from the Internet to the Family Room.