Strange & Charmed

This past year, I did a lot of traveling about on mini vacations! Of course, if you read my other blog, Black Alligator, you know this because I usually make sure to post while I am off on these wonderful adventures. Now, being someone who loves to blog, even when on the road, I usually don’t find it difficult to get myself some internet access. Usually, all the places I visited had Wifi or wired (ugh!) internet connections. The problem for me came, however, when I would have to share the one wired connection to the internet with a friend who also brought along their laptop! What is a girl to do in that situation? Well, get an AirPort Express of course! So, yes, I mentioned that my father bought me an AirPort Express for Christmas in a post a few days ago and I did promise to tell you more about it later, so here goes. {By the way, this is not a review of the product itself, as I have not yet actually gotten a chance to test it out, but a product review should follow in the next few weeks after I have had a chance to test the features!}

For those of you who are unfamiliar, the AirPort Express is a wireless router, made by Apple, predominantly for use on the go. That’s right! You can take this little gadget with you and anywhere you have a wired internet connection instantly create a wireless network. It is super convenient for travelers like myself, but it is also powerful enough for use in the home. It has 802.11n wireless connectivity, so it is the latest and greatest technology, and it is basically the size of my laptops power brick. It also comes with a few other useful features: Airtunes and a USB connection. Airtunes makes it possible for you to plug your wireless speakers into the router and play music wirelessly into any room of the house, a very fun feature that I am unfortunately never going to use! I will be using the second feature, however, the USB connection, so that I can plug my USB printer into the Airport Express and put my non wireless printer onto my wireless network! So, basically, with this little gadget, you don’t need to have a wireless printer to print wirelessly, you just plug in any USB printer and set up your network for wireless printing! I am going to LOVE that feature! By the way, the AirPort Express works with both macs and pcs, so if you are a Windows user who travels frequently, you might be interested in this gadget for yourself– don’t let the fact that this is an Apple product scare you away!

For more information or to purchase Apple’s AirPort Express {full retail $99}, click here.

I just thought that I should remind everyone that tomorrow begins the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, also known as anti-Macworld! Haha, oh, but I jest! I, of course, will be following the updates for CES and sharing with you any news I hear pertaining to amazing must have gadgets, great geek products, etc. For more information, you can head over to their website and take a look at the different speakers and vendors participating in the event this year!

In case you were interested, Apple has put up the streaming video of the Macworld Keynote from this morning. Now you can watch the Philnote yourself here. Enjoy!

So, I am pretty sure I am not the only person disappointed by the Macworld keynote this year! You would think that this being Apple’s final keynote at the event, they would have spiced things up a bit, but really, the best part about it was the performance given by Tony Bennett. Let us review, shall we, the 3 big things Phil Schiller revealed to the public this morning, and also that one final thing!

First of all, Phil gave us a software update, iLife ’09! Now, I will be honest, I think this version of iLife looks pretty cool and it apparently has fixed a few of the issues that came up with the last version of the software. iPhoto has new face sensing technology and geolocation tagging for pictures, iMovie has become even more user friendly, and Garage Band gives you music lessons for different instruments– all really cool.

Then, the next thing Phil gave us was…well… another software update, iWork ’09! This update includes things like easier to use spreadsheets, mixed chart types, new menus, iphone/itouch remote keynote application, ect. Sorry Phil, but this is totally boring and about to put me to sleep even typing about it, so I am just going to move onto the 3rd thing.

Finally, the last thing Phil gave us was the new 17 inch Macbook Pro! This is a little exciting, since it is new hardware and I think we have all been confused over the lack of a 17 inch laptop in the Apple Macbook lineup. Just like its smaller macbook counterparts, this new model has the unibody, magnetic latch, thinner body, ect. The most impressive, yet upsetting, update to this new mac, however, is the extended life battery that is more powerful than anything Apple has previously made. Downside- you cannot change the battery yourself, it just stays in there! Cheers and boos simultaneously!

Now, that one final thing we all need to know before Phil ends this, the most depressing of keynotes? Itunes! Well, obviously iTunes is still number one above WalMart and Best Buy, but in new news, Apple finally acquired those DRM-free songs that were being withheld for such a long time! Oh, and one final piece of news, if you are an iPhone owner, the iTunes music store is no longer Wifi-based, you can download your music right through the 3G network same as if you were using your Wifi connection!

Queue the music, quick before a riot breaks out! “The Best is Yet to Come” sang by Tony Bennett, I am totally feeling subliminal messages from this song choice. Thanks Apple, for reassuring the masses that although this Philnote was no Stevenote, we should look forward to some amazing things this year!

{Images via Apple}

According to this article in the Huffington Post, the Twitter accounts of Fox News, Barack Obama, Britney Spears and others were hacked yesterday leaving funny but false tweets for thousands of their followers. What has the world come to when our twitter accounts are no longer safe from hackers! Well, I guess if you’re a nobody like me it’s not a problem!

One of the most exciting, not gadget related things I am looking forward to during the Macworld Expo is the premier of not just one, but two Mac documentaries; MacHEADS the movie and Welcome to Macintosh. Both of these documentaries will be shown on Wednesday as far as I know, but being that I am on the wrong coast this week, I am obviously going to have to wait for them to hit theaters or at least iTunes!  Here are the trailers of each for your viewing pleasure!

So, I am totally excited beyond belief because Macworld 2009 began today and tomorrow is the keynote by Phil Schiller that I will be following via live blog here. Don’t worry, I will of course be posting/commenting on all the Mac news here on my blog, but in case you were wondering the Keynote begins at 9am pacific time, which means 12pm eastern time for me! I cannot wait, this is totally like Christmas to me, except all the presents I have to buy myself, and trust me, Mac purchases will be made this year!

For the past few months I have been desperately needing a new digital camera. My old Samsung is two years old and the lens and features were just no longer cutting it for me with all the digital photography and videotography I have been into lately supporting my blogs. So, one of the gifts I asked for this Christmas was a new digital camera. Now, not just any digital camera of course, but the Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS Digital Elph that I have been wanting and talking about for the past few months! I debated for a long time over the color I wanted and finally deciding on ‘Gold Tone’ highlighted the item on my Christmas list. Of course Santa, aka Mom, delivered!

So, lets talk about this great little camera, shall we? It is the 8.0 mega pixel model, which I know isn’t the latest technology necessarily since 10.0 mega pixels is in right now, but it really is all I need mega pixel wise, so there was no reason to buy more than I will ever need. So, other features that I find very useful/necessary. The video capabilities of this camera are spectacular. I have been taking videos almost everyday since Christmas and I am constantly impressed with the resolution and sound quality! Expect many, many more videos from me in the near future! The camera has a great image stabilizer as well that was a feature my last camera was completely missing. I hate it when you have a great scene in front of you, but your camera can’t quit seem to focus the shot and you loose out on capturing a great moment, but this camera is totally reliable when it comes to getting the shot the first time! Next, the face sensing technology is phenomenal! Whenever a person in the shot moves, the camera tracks the movement so that it can properly focus. This feature obviously comes in handy with pets and small children– both of which I frequently photograph! Final feature I am going to cover is the automatic image direction sensor that my last camera lacked. I love how I no longer have to worry about rotating my portrait images once I have downloaded them on my computer– the camera does it for me!

So, overall, I am totally pleased with my camera selection and how well this new little shiny gadget is working for me! I am expecting to put together some great home movies with it, so keep an eye out for those!

This was the scene at my father’s house yesterday over on the dining room table. Laptops were out and running, gadgets were in use, accessories thrown about, and even some couture was piled in the mess (yes, that is my stepmother’s tweed lavender Chanel tote on the chair)! What can I say, blogging at my dad’s house can get interesting! Notice one of my Christmas presents from daddy this year? Yea, an Airport Express! But we will talk about that a little later!

This Macbook case!!! This is the Silver Python Laptop Clutch from Violet May and it has to be the most elegant and stylish laptop case I have ever seen. Unfortunately, it also has the largest price tag I have ever seen on a Macbook case- $550! Why is it that tech accessory designers are unable to create chic and feminine cases at an affordable price? Am I asking for too much here?