Reaction to today’s Apple announcements
Apple TV
1) At $99, they’re likely to sell a gajillion!
2) I love the ability to stream data. Curious if it will confuse people to have to work it through iTunes.
3) Netflix. Awesome.
4) I’m gonna be disappointed if they don’t allow other apps and services like Pandora.
5) Micro USB means they’re trying to make it hard to hack, which is annoying and hopefully not a dealbreaker. I need to get non-MPEG content on there.
iPod touch
With a mic and two cameras, that thing becomes an awesome communcation device, no AT&T contract required. You could do wireless off of a Mifi or whatever and have VoIP and Facetime everywhere.
iPods nano and shuffle
Very smart updates.
Ping??
I just have no idea what to think.
Prepare a new hard drive for Time Machine
(I like the LaCie d2 Quadra 1TB. These instructions assume that model, but can be applied to any.)
Make sure the drive is on. Go to spotlight at the top right of your computer screen, a little magnifying glass. Type “disk.” Open Disk Utility. In the left sidebar of Disk Utility, if the hard drive is on, you should see a line called just LaCie, with a blue logo. Click the line above it that looks like “Lacie 1TB” or something like that with numbers.
Click the partition tab. On the right. Change Current Scheme to 1 partition. Click the options button below, choose “GUID Partition Table” and hit OK. Name the volume (top right of the window) something like “Backup 1.” Hit Apply at bottom right. You’re good to go. Your Mac will ask if you want to use the new volume for backup. Say yes. If it doesn’t go into Time Machine preferences and choose “Backup 1.”
August 31, 2010 | Filed Under Tech | Leave a Comment
On Airport
“Unplugged all Airport satellites — wifi now works from the Airport Extreme. I guess I will try replugging in the others one at a time.”
Ok, here’s the root idea, with details below: you do have to start with one base station as the hub, the master. Test basic connectivity and range.
Now, some details, sort of psychological:
Networking is a real arcane process. You gotta either know what’s up, or do what the software tells you.
Airport devices are actually easier than other manufacturers, but they are still the least Apple-simple items in the consumer lineup. You have to be ready to reset all of them to factory defaults and start from scratch one airport at a time. It’s also important to know that Apple doesn’t sanction using more than three airport devices on a given network. Multiple base stations (comprising both Extremes and Expresses) should be connected as an atom looks: a nucleus with satellites, as opposed to in a chain or series, which configuration I have found unreliable.
Ok, here’s the root idea, with details below: you do have to start with one base station as the hub, the master. Test basic connectivity and range.
Then plug in and reset ONE Express. When you get that one green-lighted, stop. Then use your network for a few days and see how it feels.
Test network range, speed, and ease of connection with all devices, e.g. taking a computer or phone away from the house, using a different wifi network, then bringin’ ‘em home and seeing if they hook back up without you having to kick ‘em in the pants. Also, test any peripheral services such as AirTunes — playing audio wirelessly from iTunes and other applications; you gotta know about Airfoil (http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/)! — and printing to a printer plugged into the Express’ USB port.
Then call me to discuss.
Now, some details, sort of psychological:
Networking is a real arcane process. You gotta either know what’s up, or do what the software tells you.
Airport devices are actually easier than other manufacturers, but they are still the least Apple-simple items in the consumer lineup. You have to be ready to reset all of them to factory defaults and start from scratch one airport at a time. It’s also important to know that Apple doesn’t sanction using more than three airport devices on a given network. Multiple base stations (comprising both Extremes and Expresses) should be connected as an atom looks: a nucleus with satellites, as opposed to in a chain or series, which configuration I have found unreliable.
The most crucial recommendation I can make about configuring a wifi network is to have patience, about 3 or 4 hours worth on your first try with multiple base stations. You’ll get it, you just have to turn the puzzle pieces around a couple of times.
August 28, 2010 | Filed Under Tech | Leave a Comment
Links to the free iPhone/iPad apps I download for everyone
Google Mobile App
A couple that more people should get into:
Simplenote… hey, where did Simplenote go? Oh, here it is, revved up just a touch with tags and stuff.
August 18, 2010 | Filed Under Tech | Leave a Comment
Picking an internet service provider in San Antonio
For the record, my order of preference for ISPs in South Texas is:
1) Time-Warner – very fast, decent customer service, not AT&T
2) Grande Communications – often very fast, offer Fiber-to-the-Home in some places, good pricing, sometimes excellent (but sometimes bozo) customer service, and at least they’re not AT&T
a distant last) AT&T …
… Let me tell you, these jokers are probably the worst company we have to deal with. If they have even the smallest opportunity to screw something up, they will. I’m serious:
Call to change your billing address, they cancel your internet service. We ask them to install internet, and they put it dangling smack dab in the middle of the office and charge our client a mysterious $300 for moronic work, and then we have to come back and arrange things logically and have to charge for another couple of hours. We ask AT&T to troubleshoot a modem, and they log onto my client’s #$^%@! server, and change the IP address – a huge no-no — which shuts down file access, and forces me to make a bloody emergency call to set right.
Plus their internet is like 1/3 the speed of everybody else’s. At one of my clients’ office, it feels like a dial-up connection, and they say they can’t make it faster.
For the love of all that’s good and right in the world, do yourselves, your employees and loved ones, and your IT contractor a favor, and don’t make us use AT&T’s crappy internet.
Posted via email from J2 Tech Blog
August 17, 2010 | Filed Under Tech | 2 Comments
Taiwanese TV explains Antennagate
Awesome cartoon with Jobs as heir of Vader.
Taiwanese TV explains Antennagate
Bonus: Gizmodo is mistakenly referred to as “Gizmondo.” Hat Tip: Thanks, Michael Logan!
Bonus: Gizmodo is mistakenly referred to as “Gizmondo.” Hat Tip: Thanks, Michael Logan!
J2 Consulting ~ j2mac.com/calendar ~ 210.367.3420
July 20, 2010 | Filed Under Tech | Leave a Comment
BBOD, the feared “beach ball of death”
> I am having BBOD “beach ball of death” issues.
I’m going to phrase generally, for the sake of a blog post: Please check Activity Monitor (in /Applications/Utilities/). Look in the System Memory tab first (low memory is the usual cause of beach ball). If the green slice of free memory is small, reboot. Then look at CPU. If you have more green or red or blue than black, reboot. Finally, storage: again, if hard drive available space is small (below 10% of capacity), then we need to clear some space, possibly downloading Disk Inventory X from http://www.derlien.com/. If, after check CPU & RAM, you’re still seeing the BBOD, we have several possibilities: 1) We could reinstall Leopard, but the G5 in question just recently got that upgrade, so I think it unlikely that that would fix it.
2) We can cast a baleful eye on your hardware, particularly your hard drive. It’s fairly likely that, on this older machine, the system disk is bad, and that makes for a lot of real bad BBOD. Changing a drive out is easy and cheap on a Power Mac or Mac Pro, and might be a worthy idea anyway. Here’s a link: http://amzn.to/SeagateBarracuda500GBonAmazon 3) I’m gonna say to any G5 user that it’s time to upgrade. This may not be in the budget at the moment, but it should definitely be a priority. Snow Leopard is an important update for productivity, stability, and future compatibility. Call me to discuss! P.S. It is worth noting that, whenever I pick up my laptops — on which I’m always running 10 apps and 17 web pages, along with countless other 3rd-party utilities — I’m almost guaranteed to encounter the BBOD. And both laptops are current-generation units with 4GB RAM and plenty of disk space. But my iPad… Always smooth, cos I can only keep one thing open on it at any given time. And it keeps me focused on the task at hand. I know the tablet doesn’t work in a production environment, but I find the change in paradigm interesting.
I’m going to phrase generally, for the sake of a blog post: Please check Activity Monitor (in /Applications/Utilities/). Look in the System Memory tab first (low memory is the usual cause of beach ball). If the green slice of free memory is small, reboot. Then look at CPU. If you have more green or red or blue than black, reboot. Finally, storage: again, if hard drive available space is small (below 10% of capacity), then we need to clear some space, possibly downloading Disk Inventory X from http://www.derlien.com/. If, after check CPU & RAM, you’re still seeing the BBOD, we have several possibilities: 1) We could reinstall Leopard, but the G5 in question just recently got that upgrade, so I think it unlikely that that would fix it.
2) We can cast a baleful eye on your hardware, particularly your hard drive. It’s fairly likely that, on this older machine, the system disk is bad, and that makes for a lot of real bad BBOD. Changing a drive out is easy and cheap on a Power Mac or Mac Pro, and might be a worthy idea anyway. Here’s a link: http://amzn.to/SeagateBarracuda500GBonAmazon 3) I’m gonna say to any G5 user that it’s time to upgrade. This may not be in the budget at the moment, but it should definitely be a priority. Snow Leopard is an important update for productivity, stability, and future compatibility. Call me to discuss! P.S. It is worth noting that, whenever I pick up my laptops — on which I’m always running 10 apps and 17 web pages, along with countless other 3rd-party utilities — I’m almost guaranteed to encounter the BBOD. And both laptops are current-generation units with 4GB RAM and plenty of disk space. But my iPad… Always smooth, cos I can only keep one thing open on it at any given time. And it keeps me focused on the task at hand. I know the tablet doesn’t work in a production environment, but I find the change in paradigm interesting.
July 15, 2010 | Filed Under Tech | Leave a Comment
Search tips: What every googler should know
July 14, 2010 | Filed Under Tech | Leave a Comment
In case it’s not said anywhere else
In case it’s not said anywhere else: please try not to try to delete your “All Mail” folder in your mail client. Also, try not to select and delete all the messages in All Mail.
July 14, 2010 | Filed Under Tech | Leave a Comment
iPhone 4 antenna hasn’t bugged ne
It’s actually totally fine. Every phone has an antenna weakness somewhere. In the iPhone 4′s case, it’s a little more easy to trigger, but it hasn’t affected my experience at all (and I’m left-handed, and haven’t been concentrating on holding it a certain way). Also, while Apple’s response — “buy a case” — came out pretty douche-y, but as an independent, I can second that suggestion as something you need anyway. FWIW, the 4′s reception on GSM, 3G, and GPS has been markedly better than my previous units (and I’ve had ‘em all). On Jul 12, 2010, Steve wrote:
> Ouch! Perhaps a chink in the armor….
> > From The New York Times:
> > Consumer Reports Says iPhone 4 Has Design Flaw
> > Consumer Reports said signal problems with the iPhone 4 were a result of a flaw in the phone’s antenna design, and that it could not recommend purchasing the phone. > > http://nyti.ms/d7xZrx
> > From The New York Times:
> > Consumer Reports Says iPhone 4 Has Design Flaw
> > Consumer Reports said signal problems with the iPhone 4 were a result of a flaw in the phone’s antenna design, and that it could not recommend purchasing the phone. > > http://nyti.ms/d7xZrx
July 13, 2010 | Filed Under Tech | Leave a Comment
Serving Mac users in
South Texas and beyond
since 2003
Schedule Support
You can use this widget to book an appointment with Jonathan.
