Incredible Closet

Clash of The Titans

2010-01-15T15:42:00.001+11:00

This is a very interesting business case

A sign, which reads "Google Bai Bai (bye bye)" is seen near flowers, left by visitors outside the Google China headquarters in Beijing. Photo: AP

In drawing a battle line with Chinese Internet censors, Google is reclaiming a "Don't Be Evil" mantle lost in a global business arena where profits routinely trump morals.

January 15, 2010 - 1:20PM

Ubuntu Karmic Koala Alpha2

2009-10-25T17:26:00.001+11:00

Ubuntu Karmic Koala Alpha2, originally uploaded by dmolinap.

Very nice desktop - clean and rich in information. I have not, however, seen Windows 7 so I cannot decide what OS has the slickest look...

iPhone 4G Mockup, now with multi-tasking

2009-02-15T19:34:00.001+11:00

iPhone 4G Mockup, now with multi-tasking, originally uploaded by oysterjelly565.

Aligned with aluminium design. The home button is too small.

Upcoming - Collage from Tapulous

2008-11-08T22:16:00.000+11:00

Tapulous - Social Apps for iPhone - Collage

This is an iPhone app to watch - Twinkle has been a great success and this could be, too!

The State of the Mac mini October 2008

2008-10-24T21:14:00.000+11:00

The State of the Mac mini October 2008

I love my Mini and I really hope Apple can come up with an interesting update. I guess I have to wait and see. But I agree with the points mentioned in above link that Mac Mini is NOT a failure.

Floriade 2008

2008-10-06T23:32:00.001+11:00

The theme of this year is Movies that Changes Australia - or Floriade 21. I'm not too sure where the 2¹came from. My beat guess was it came from the biggest cineplex chain in Indonesia, 2¹Group. But maybe it's too far fetched.

What A View

2008-10-04T23:40:00.001+10:00

This photo was taken when we stopped for quick rest on our way to Canberra. I've never bored with the view every time I stopped by.

Qantas boarding passes go digital - BizTech - Technology - smh.com.au

2008-09-12T14:23:00.000+10:00

Qantas boarding passes go digital - BizTech - Technology - smh.com.au

Asher Moses
September 12, 2008 - 9:59AM

Qantas has signaled the end for paper boarding passes and will offer customers the ability to board using a mobile phone or other handheld device from early next year.

And for the first time, Qantas international customers will be able to check in to their flights over the internet, a feature previously offered only to those travelling on domestic flights.

Flyers could also select their seats online either at the point of booking or later via the Qantas.com website.

Qantas said mobile boarding passes would be sent to the device as a 2D barcode a day before the flight, but the option was only offered to those who selected their seats online before departure.

Qantas executive general manager John Borghetti said the move would allow customers to have a completely paperless booking and boarding experience.

He specifically named the iPhone 3G as a device Qantas was working to support.

"Customers with baggage [who have already checked in] can proceed directly to the bag-drop facilities before heading straight to their flight," Borghetti said.

But while the move towards barcode boarding passes will lead to a faster, smoother boarding experience for passengers, it is also designed to cut Qantas' personnel costs, such as at check-in counters.

Inside Google Desktop: From the desktop to your TV

2008-06-28T13:10:00.000+10:00

Inside Google Desktop: From the desktop to your TV

Interesting tool from Google for Windows (at the moment). It basically searches and locates your media files (movies, photos, musics) and makes them available for streaming using standard uPNP connection (supported by Playstation 3, X Box 360, and media streamers).

Microsoft eats humble pie over XP

2008-06-26T12:42:00.000+10:00

Microsoft eats humble pie over XP

Looks like we might be seeing Windows XP as the OS with the longest lifespan in computer history...

Bluetooth helps double amputee walk again

2008-01-27T00:07:00.001+11:00

Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Bleill lost his legs when a bomb exploded under his Humvee while on patrol in Iraq. He has 32 pins in his hip and a 6-inch screw holding his pelvis together. He's starting to walk again with the help of prosthetic legs and Bluetooth -- the technology that usually brings to mind hands-free cell phones.

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MacBook Pro rumored to be getting multi-touch trackpad, sun also rumored to rise tomorrow

2008-01-22T21:17:00.001+11:00

Filed under: Laptops

While you'd be hard pressed to come up with a safer Apple rumor to predict, it seems that AppleInsider has it on supposedly reliable word that the company will in fact be extending multi-touch trackpads to its top-end MacBook Pro line, and in the "next several weeks," no less. What's more, those same sources say that the new MacBook Pros (both 15-inch and 17-inch models) were originally supposed to make their debut "at or around Macworld Expo," but they got pushed back after Apple was forced to put additional resources and personnel on the MacBook Air in order to get it out in time. No firm word on what other specs we can look forward to, unfortunately although AppleInsider speculates that the laptops could be standardized around Intel's 2.5GHz and 2.6GHz mobile Penryn processors, which should offer some slight battery improvements in addition to a boost in performance.

[Thanks, Mark]

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Microsoft facing patent violation accusations in China

2008-01-20T19:13:00.001+11:00

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

In the second such incident in as many months, Microsoft has been accused of using a foreign organization's intellectual property without proper compensation, this time over a proprietary method of inputting Chinese characters called ZhengMa. Following last month's copyright suit in the Philippines, Redmond is now facing accusations from Chinese tech firm Zhongyi Electronic that it has been using the latter company's technology "without commercial agreement for a decade." Microsoft, for its part, denies the claims, stating that there was in fact an agreement in place and that it was fulfilling its fiduciary duties as laid out in that agreement. According to Reuters, a lawsuit may be in the works once Zhongyi figures out how many infringing copies of Windows are in the wild.

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Vista successor rumored to be on track for 2009 release

2008-01-20T19:11:00.001+11:00

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Rumors of Microsoft's successor to Vista have been cropping up virtually since day one, and if this latest one is to be believed, it looks like one of the earliest may have been right on target after all. According to TG Daily, "several industry sources" are now saying that the a very early version of the so-called "Windows 7" OS has already shipped to "key partners," and that Microsoft is now eying the second half of 2009 for a release of the real deal. That's a slight revision from the most recent rumors, which had pegged the debut as late as 2010 or, more vaguely, sometime within the next three years. As if that wasn't enough, Microsoft's apparently also lined up the next two early versions to be released, with the so-called M2 build slated for April or May of this year, and the M3 release slated to drop sometime in the third quarter. Given recent history, however, it's probably not the best idea to start marking your calendars just yet.

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Testing Animoto

2008-01-13T02:49:00.001+11:00

I was playing around with animoto (www.animoto.com) and it was quite impressive...

Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable system gets FCC approval

2008-01-12T19:51:00.001+11:00

Filed under: Networking

It's not like we haven't seen consortiums working to establish better links between America and Asia, but the more the merrier, right? Apparently, Verizon Business has just recently received the all-important thumbs-up from the FCC to "activate and operate the Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable system in the US." The TPE cable is hailed as "the first next-generation undersea optical cable system directly linking the US and mainland China," and is the first major system of its kind to land on America's West Coast (Oregon, to be precise) in over seven years. For those curious, the 10,563-mile submarine communications cable will be able to support the equivalent of 62 million simultaneous phone calls -- which is "more than 60 times the overall capacity of the existing cable directly linking the US and China" -- and will initially provide capacity of up to 1.28Tbps. So, when will this thing be up and running? If all goes to plan, it should be fully operational by August (you know, prior to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing).

[Image courtesy of Devicepedia]

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MacBook Air

2008-01-12T13:53:00.001+11:00

YEP...

Macrumors is reporting that the new slim MacBook will be called the MacBook Air

But why do they call it Air?

Maybe it is the Wimax? Macpredictions thinks that it won't have any cables. Induction charging! Ultra Wideband Bluetooth! Wireless USB! Cool if true.

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Wired article on development of the iPhone

2008-01-12T13:15:00.001+11:00

Wired today has an incredibly good article on the iPhone, what it took to get it built and how it changed an industry. There is no shortage of insider details throughout and it really puts a great perspective on the difficulty of making this product and the challenges Steve Jobs/Apple had to overcome

Go. Read. It. (if you haven't already)

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In case you missed it: Sony Pictures is going DivX

2008-01-12T13:12:00.001+11:00

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Video

It's been hard enough to keep up with the CES onslaught of news over here on Engadget, so it's understandable if you missed the news over on Engadget HD that Sony Pictures Television is going to start releasing download-to-own but entirely DRM'd DivX content to DivX-certified products like the PS3 and DSM-330. Sadly, 360 owners will be left out in the cold thanks to that unit's lack of proper DivX certification. Otherwise Sony is short on details of actual distribution, so hopefully we'll be learning more soon.

[Via Engadget HD]

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Mozilla Takes on Microsoft in China

2008-01-12T12:58:00.001+11:00

Like most Chinese Internet users, Chengdu native Gang Lu for years used Microsoft's (MSFT) Internet Explorer for his Web browsing. He switched to Firefox, the open-source browser, six years ago only after going to Britain for graduate school and finding most of his friends and colleagues using it. Today, Lu is the London director of business development at Netvibes Asia, which offers personalized home pages, and spends much of his time working with Chinese Web startups. He says he's frustrated because so few Chinese sites support Firefox. "I have visited quite a few Internet companies and talked to their developers. More than 95% of these guys say: 'We just need to make sure our Web site or our service can work on IE. I don't care about Firefox.'"

Now, Firefox fans are trying to boost the upstart browser's Chinese profile. Last month, Mozilla signed an agreement with China's most popular search engine, Baidu (BIDU), to cement an existing relationship that allows...

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Macworld 2008 banners popping up: "There's something in the air"

2008-01-12T10:56:00.001+11:00

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Gotta love those vague, suggestive statements Apple puts on its event banners before the big show. This year's Macworld Expo banners read "There's something in the air" -- but even if that something isn't a whole lot of new wireless / cellular gear, there's certainly no shortage of breathable hype.

[Photo courtesy of Andrew S.]

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New Intel Canmore chip destined to hit AppleTV 2

2008-01-12T02:16:00.001+11:00

HardMac is speculating that the next generation AppleTV 2 (or 3?) might use one of the new System on a Chip (SoC) designs Intel announced this week at CES. Currently, Apple uses a standalone 1Ghz pre-Core Intel chip for its AppleTVs. According to Hardmac,

They plan to release in Q3 2008 the Canmore, an x86 processor-based SoC supporting audio 7.1, hardware-decoding for high-definition video up to 1080p and advanced DRM management.
In summary, all functions required to build a new and more powerful Apple TV which could then become independent of any computer to get access directly to movie catalogs available on the iTunes Store.

According to Intel, the Canmore line shouldn't be ready until mid to late 2008. Apple, readying iTunes movie rentals won't need too much - if any- more horsepower to download and play rentals on the AppleTV. However, if the device is to operate as a standalone device, a speed bump may be in order.

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It's an 8-core Mac Pro!

2008-01-09T02:38:00.000+11:00

Apple did not wait until Macworld keynote to launch the ultimate desktop - Apple Mac Pro, now sporting dual quad core processors. It has anything in the world possible to be put in in the mac infrastructure and available now.
Now if you excuse me, I am continuing browsing the Apple Online Store....

UPDATE : Apple also released a refreshed X-Serve - so they let the beasts out first....

Apple Store Site is Down

2008-01-09T00:42:00.001+11:00

Usually the store is down either it is on maintenance (the boring part) or they have something new (the interesting part). The time is not logical for Apple to have a new offering as the Macworld keynote by Steve Jobs is not due to next week - so it is most logically be a maintenance routine. But it has been down for quite a while now and in the message it says (I am still reading it now after refresh) that Apple is updating the site, usually it says something about maintenance. What could they be updating? Could it be the movie rental offerings? It has to be something that Steve not put that in the spotlight in the upcoming keynote. But I can always wrong....

Wii Fit - Boxing

2007-12-23T13:15:00.000+11:00

A new game introduced for Wii Fit - aerobic boxing. I am not sure at this stage whether it will be pre-packaged with the board.

Cyberlife Consolidation ; I Have Sold Myself to Google

2007-11-18T20:40:00.001+11:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I got hooked with Google tools and apps. Now I tell you that my life online is more and more tangled to Google. Yup, I had bit the bullet and stepped in to Google world. Not that I work for the company, but by storing my virtual life in Google infrastructure.
If you ask who knows me best, I'd say Google now. Google stores my idea, my rants, my thoughts, my memory, my life. It is a scary thought at some point - I sold myself to Google for the convenience using their tools. And just like selling a soul to Satan, it's hard to break the deal.
Google has miraculously provide tools where using a Google account you can do almost what you want to do online. And I am using those tools to allow me doing what I want to do seamlessly everywhere and using any machine. As long as I have internet access, log in to google, and I am basically home. I can access my documents, spreadsheets, photos, my favorite news, and beyond. I can even synchronize the pages opened in the browser so it shows the sites I visited last.
Like signing up a deal with the devil, this looks like a very sweet deal in the beginning. But with this deal, I had given up my privacy to Google and just have to trust them to respect my privacy. If Google turned evil, I am screwed big time.
PS: I am only selling my personal life to Google. I am not sharing my current employer sensitive information in any way against my company policy. I need to say this to keep me employed :)

TidBITS iPod & iPhone: 3G Cell Data iPhone Now Feasible

2007-10-16T12:52:00.000+10:00

TidBITS iPod & iPhone: 3G Cell Data iPhone Now Feasible

The more reason for me to wait for getting an iPhone. Q2-2008 may be too long for some people, but it fits nicely with my cashflow prediction. My concern is more on who will be the "chosen one" to carry iPhone in Australia...

New iPod... Not yet

2007-09-28T19:31:00.000+10:00

I was looking forward in getting the new iPod Classic. I am going for a trip and the idea of carrying enough loads of music and movies would enhance my trip's experience. And most of all, I thought I could upload photos from digital camera so I won't need carrying laptop everywhere.
But no. Luckily I did some research before I click the 'Add To Cart' button and apparently iPod Camera Connector does NOT work with new iPods. I was checking Australian store and they said it worked.
I checked US site and below was on the site:

And this is what was in Australian store:

This is contradicting with the feedback that it was not the case.

Apparently Apple updated the site on 14 September, but did not replicate that update in Australian store - I don't know about other countries. This is misleading and potentially creates dissatisfaction to customer who did not spend extra effort researching. Normal people would assume that the existing accessories should work. And I did not see visible communication from Apple on these changes.

I am holding back my desire to get iPod Classic just because of this.

And I could not imagine how this impacted the current iPod users who already invested significant amount of dollars on accessories and now became useless if they wanted to upgrade to new iPod. I think Apple should find a solution or otherwise we need to hack the iPods.

ARE THESE IPOD PHOTOS REAL?!?!?! Nevermind Apple told us to take them down.................... | 9 to 5 Mac

2007-08-25T12:27:00.000+10:00

ARE THESE IPOD PHOTOS REAL?!?!?! Nevermind Apple told us to take them down.................... | 9 to 5 Mac

Apple is undoubtedly receive the highest attention this past years. Steve Job's product launches which used to be more like cult masses now had become Vatican masses by the pope. Some people I know that I would not imagine have the level of interest to Apple surprisingly aware when is Steve's keynote going to be held and speculate what product will be launched.
I have seen the power of "keeping it secret" have a huge impact in the success of the keynote. Best keynotes I have seen always involving something new and unexpected. I watched the keynote without knowing what to expect. Now I - just like most others - are speculating. It was different experience, before, not knowing means no disappointment (or less), speculating means you have set of expectations and will create additional disappointment should the expectation not met. More to that, keynote is also the benchmark of AAPL price.
That is why Apple is trying hard to keep it a secret, and it is not an easy job. In the industry structure where you are no longer own everything end-to-end, source of leakage are everywhere. You can protect yourself with NDA (non-Disclosure Agreement), but somehow temptation is always out there.
The good thing for me as consumer is the situation forced Apple to deliver even better products, because attention is there and they can't make mistakes. Remember Safari for Windows, hacked within 3 minutes of its release time... that kind of attention.
Anyway, I can't wait what comes next from bitten Apple. iPod Touch, iPod Pixo, MacBook Mini ... bring them on!

iMac Aluminum 2007

2007-08-11T19:14:00.000+10:00

I went to Apple Reseller shop today. I had to see the new iMac and I did. I could feel the temptation to just swipe my card and to bring that home. It was beautiful - massively beautiful - they only had the 24 inch in stock. Played around a little bit and could feel the power - mind you, my latest Mac is 1st-gen Mac Mini.
I could not played around with iWork 08 as it was in trial mode and asked my email address. No way! That is how fresh the iMac was in the store, it was just taken out from the box and no settings from the store yet.
I spent some time with the store staffs admiring and adoring the iMac and I felt like a major Mac-Geek when I told them that in the new model there was no upgrade option for graphic card, and they did not realized that. They could tell that I am a Mac fan (if not guru, heh heh) and they took my words seriously. I told them I am waiting for MacBook Mini :P
I already put iMac in my want list as it is time for me to upgrade. I just need justification for 24 inch...

Tech world falls for Tom's foolery - Technology - smh.com.au

2007-08-06T14:15:00.000+10:00

Tech world falls for Tom's foolery - Technology - smh.com.au

Ha ha ha! People are really buying any rumors about Apple.

Gamers get to 'execute' corrupt officials - Games - Technology - smh.com.au

2007-08-06T14:13:00.000+10:00

Gamers get to 'execute' corrupt officials - Games - Technology - smh.com.au

The game seemed to be a bit too much - killing the sons and daughters as well? Maybe they need to 'soften' up a little bit and adjust to current relevance...

HD DVD Touts Sales Growth Over Blu-Ray's Decline

2007-07-18T23:13:00.001+10:00

My prediction is partially formalized with cheap players driving the adoption rate...

clipped from www.engadget.com

Besides moving low-priced HD DVD players, the HD DVD Promotional Group is taking advantage of Home Media Expo 2007 to announce its most recent sales data, with HD DVD going up, and Blu-ray going down. Specifically, the Nielsen Netratings mentioned show HD DVD hardware sales up 37 percent, and software sales up 20 percent from the first to the second quarter of this year.

Apple Knowledge Navigator

2007-06-03T23:18:00.000+10:00

This is Apple's vision 20 years ago!

Microsoft Surface Comes To The Surface

2007-06-01T22:44:00.001+10:00

It looks like an iPhone, works like an iPhone and more. I should admit that I am impressed with the product and a potential wish list if I can afford one. I just have a problem with no space under the table to put the feet under...

New from Google: Google Gears

2007-06-01T00:15:00.000+10:00

While everyone attention is WSJ's D - Google launched beta version of Google Gear which allows web application runs locally. Below is the information I clipped from Google Gear site.

Google Gears (BETA) is an open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using following JavaScript APIs:
Store and serve application resources locally
Store data locally in a fully-searchable relational database
Run asynchronous Javascript to improve application responsiveness

System requirements:
• Mac OS X 10.2+
• Firefox 1.5+ and Internet Explorer 6.0+
Google Gears (BETA) is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux

This is currently for Google Reader, but I can see where it is going. Imagine you can do your Gmail, Calendar, Docs&Spreadsheet, and other Google application locally in any platform offline and online. You get yourself a full application experience! You don't need email client and office suite anymore - Microsoft, watch out.

I see a lot of potential with Gears and it will be interesting to see the transformation of computing experience because of this.

More on Intel Metro

2007-05-27T18:44:00.001+10:00

A working prototype... Intel commented that it was not for production but to encourage manufacturers to build and this is a proof of concept. If Intel can do it, everyone can. Right, Apple?

clipped from www.engadget.com

The marketing shots of Intel's 0.7-inch thin Metro laptop prototype caused quite a stir

World's Thinnest Laptop from Intel

2007-05-27T12:30:00.001+10:00

Hmmm... This is also in the cooking for heavily rumored Mac Subnotebook - or I call it MiniBook. This gave a strong sign that the rumor may come to reality. Intel is targeting end of the year, so I guess Apple will launch it ahead. I would say September 2007 the latest?

clipped from www.macrumors.com

Businessweek profiles "Metro" -- a prototype laptop designed by Intel and Ziba Design. The 0.7 inch thick laptop is the world's thinnest notebook and weighs only 2.25 pounds.

To achieve its small size, the laptop uses flash memory in place of a standard hard drive. This addition also improves battery life up to 14 hours. Also included is wireless connectivity with options for cellular, Wi-Fi or WiMax networks, fingerprint reader, noise canceling technology, and more. "Price was not a concern" for the design.

Carbonized Kevlar iBook

2007-05-14T22:02:00.001+10:00

This mod from Indonesia transformed an iBook into a bulletproof laptop (upper part only) by applying kevlar skin. It cost him around USD180 to order a custom kevlar skin.

It does look cool...

Mobile Phone Took Over Computer to Access The Net in Japan

2007-05-06T22:32:00.001+10:00

The growing improvements and enhancements in mobile technology, especially in Japan, had led to the drop of computer literacy in Japan's younger age population.

read more | digg story

My Live 2.0 and Recent Rumor on Microsoft/Yahoo Deal

2007-05-06T01:27:00.000+10:00

This is the hottest news on Friday evening my time (GMT+10). Every hours my RSS reader (Google Reader, if you must know) flagging recent development on rumors of this potentially the biggest Internet deal of the year, if not the decade. Microsoft and Yahoo are the old players in the Internet world - well, Yahoo may be even older. I still remember that I am still using Netscape Navigator and using Yahoo to search information from the web. That is before Microsoft took over the Internet browsing game with Internet Explorer.
I can't remember whether I had Yahoo account back then - as far as I remember, I just used it for searching websites - which mostly US content and I saw it growing eventually. I got the feeling that people in Yahoo were adding the content manually non-stop back then. And it grew globally with the introduction of Yahoo locals. It was not as sophisticated as how Google started the expansion, but it really was a big milestone in Internet by going to a main site called portal. I did, back then, put Yahoo as my home page. I should admit, I grew up with Yahoo.
I don't use Yahoo as much now, especially since Google grew. Google gave me a good impression first time I used it by how simple it was, with uncluttered design, and how the results just popped up in seconds and what a result - more than Yahoo could provide at that time. Google got it right with straight give the result. Some people still stick with Yahoo as they provide news clips that related to your local before you do the search, but Google is a favorite for people who wants quick answer. And I am the latter one.
Enough about Google for now - will come back to that later.
Just right before I was 'leaving' Yahoo, I joined Yahoo Groups of my university batch. It worked with my office email and Yahoo mail is not popular, if not introduced yet. My personal email back then was ibm.com (now att.com) and msn.com (registered when I bought Windows 95). My first web mail was Hotmail, and still using it today for MSN chatting. I had my Yahoo account when I needed free personal account with pop mail capability - for my phone. This was way before Blackberry. Yes, I am always ahead of time in technology adoption. But that was as far as I used Yahoo services, other than Yahoo Messenger.
By that time, I also started to 'leave' Microsoft by switching to Linux. I kept my hotmail account and Yahoo account for GAIM (a multi-client chatting tool), and I used myrealbox (from Novell) for my email. That was the time that I was completely non-dependent on MSN/Yahoo services (other than the accounts). No, I lied. I still use my Yahoo account for my phone email. I started to use Google as my main search tool, as it is the main page of Mozilla browsers.

Then came Mac OS X. I heard the buzz that they based on Open BSD (Darwin) and it had beautiful user interface. I was in the state of enjoying my Linux setup - which was not as pretty as Windows, but I had the security and convenience I want. I am not a hardcore gamer so I am easy to pleased, not. So I switched to Mac, again - I used to use Apple ][, first Macintosh, and LC][. And how surprised, happy and excited I was that I could bring my Linux lifestyle in Mac OS X - in style.

And everybody remember when Google introduced GMail, with said unlimited storage starting from 2GB. That blew my mind as at that point my Hotmail was 2GB and my Yahoo was 1GB. And it came with Google's simplistic design and awesome search capability. And it was very fast. I arranged an invitation from a friend who bought an invitation from eBay (for USD1) as it was invitation only that time. And I fell in love once I logged in to GMail. It is my main email tool since then.
After that, my life had turned 2.0 gradually. I started using Writely (now Google Docs after Google bought it) and Google Spreadsheets. I use GCal and sync it to my iCal - and sending reminder to my phone via SMS. My phone can run Opera and I can access my GMail anywhere within network. I plan my projects using Central Desktop, my personal finance using Wesabe and I also had become a social networking junkie. I store my snaps on my flickr and Picasa Web. I read RSS feeds using Google Reader religiously, and share interesting articles to family and friends, and to my blogs.
Just recently I turned back to Yahoo. That is when I had enough having my flickr page kept on reminding me to change my ID to Yahoo ID. I still feel a bit cheated now as I still see the 'oldskool' login page in flickr. But I had merged my flickr account to my Yahoo account. Then I started trying Yahoo's newest service, MyWeb 2.0 - a web bookmarking tool and alpha, a search tool from Yahoo similar to that of Google, with added features. I like the simple design and much nicer than what I expected, so I started using it. But it is not as critical as how I depended to Google services. I've sold myself to Google, in a way. If someone knows the most about me, it's Google.
So I completely understand how Microsoft and Yahoo were worried with how Google has grown today. And they do need to do something about it. I may not be a common people that uses web services that extensive, but how I was personally dependent to most of Google's service showed that Google had done something right that lured me into their trap instead of Microsoft's or Yahoo's. And this is keep on growing. Most of my friends are using GMail and they started to use GCal. My family friends - not a power user of Internet - were thinking of checking GMail as soon as I told them my GMail address. They said that their friends starting to use GMail as well.
So what is my point? My point is Microsoft and Yahoo should do something, they should be worried. Either by combining forces, one acquires another, or do something else separately. My friend said to me that Google had become too big, it almost like Microsoft. I am afraid he could be right. In the mean time, I will still using Google services until something better comes up.

South Park Mac vs. PC Video

2007-05-05T12:57:00.001+10:00

A skit created in South Park style as a parody of Get A Mac - Ad. I found this funny...

clipped from n0xtrum.blogspot.com

WSJ Says Microsoft/Yahoo Deal Not Happening

2007-05-05T11:02:00.001+10:00

TechCrunch says that WSJ says that Microsoft/Yahoo deal is not happening... talk about she said/he said

read more | digg story

Microsoft aggressively courting Yahoo (again)?

2007-05-05T02:46:00.001+10:00

The news getting hotter and hotter by the hour... If this happens, it will be the biggest deal in the internet industry this year...

clipped from www.engadget.com

In what would be one of the biggest business deals to go down -- well, ever -- Microsoft is rumored to once again be in talks to buy Yahoo after being rebuffed numerous times in past years. The New York Post is citing unnamed sources in reporting that Goldman Sachs is helping Team Redmond make a play for the web's perennial "number two," and arguing that an acquisition or merger would make sense for both companies.

Ten Videos That Made YouTube Famous

2007-05-05T01:48:00.001+10:00

YouTube has grown way beyond its humble origins. Here are ten videos that spread like a virus all over the internet and made YouTube famous.Somehow it just fascinating how these videos helps YouTube to be where it is today...

read more | digg story

Sydney BloggerZone

2007-05-02T00:25:00.001+10:00

Sydney BloggerZone, originally uploaded by cyberlucky.

A sponsored event - bloggers were invited to have breakfast, and share experience as well as latest gossips on blogging technology during CeBIT Exhibition. This was probably my first uber-geek activities - and I was feeling out of place. People can passionately talking about a tablet PC. It's a PC for ***'s sake!
In general - CeBIT Exhibition did not give me any 'wow' feeling. Compared to the one in Shanghai, this exhibition is very low key.

Yahoo! Acquires RightMedia for $680MM

2007-05-01T01:22:00.001+10:00

Internet convergence is coming to reality...

clipped from mashable.com

Yahoo is making its power move to counter Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick: the company is acquiring RightMedia, the ad marketplace in which it already owned a 20% stake.

In a New York Times article to be published Monday, the price is pegged at an awesome $680 million, equal parts of stock and cash. Google-DoubleClick was $3.1 billion in cash. RightMedia recently launched its ad marketplace RMX Direct, which is basically an ad network aggregator: they’ll fill your inventory with whichever ad network pays the best.

Leading VC firm opens in China

2007-04-29T17:58:00.001+10:00

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm, has opened operations in China with offices in Beijing and Shanghai and formed a $360 million fund to invest in Chinese startup companies.

clipped from www.my-esm.com

Leading VC firm opens in China

Joe Zhou, formerly with Softbank Asia Infrastructure Fund (SAIF), and TDF Capital partners Tina Ju, David Su and Forrest Zhong are leading the KPCB China team. KPCB said its China team plans to invest its $360 million China Fund to assist Chinese entrepreneurs and to promote innovation in high-growth industries, including technology, Internet, media and wireless communications. The Fund will also invest in new consumer areas, healthcare and green technology.

Vudu - Apple TV's New Competitor

2007-04-29T14:51:00.001+10:00

I don't like the design, but I can only give better comment until I know what this thing can do. But I always welcome competition...

clipped from gizmodo.com

The box is about the size of a hardcover book and delivers video streamed in MPEG-4, which is upscaled to HD. It has HDMI, composite, and S-Video ports. Vudu goes online via an ethernet cable, and the media stream is managed through a load-sharing distributed network, which should guarantee instant access to the movies without stutters. The remote control has a scroll wheel (nice touch) and appears to have just five buttons. There are plenty of open questions about Vudu—like the size of the hard drive—which won't get answered until closer to the launch this summer. The price is going to be competitive with Apple TV, but probably a bit more expensive.

Vudu [Teaser Page]

I Am Going to CeBit Australia

2007-04-23T22:29:00.000+10:00

I just secured my ticket. I got my boss' approval to attend and I am going. This will be my second CeBit I attended. The first one was in Shanghai, which was huge.
Watch out this space as I will definitely try to cover it real time. And maybe even do the BloggerZone thing, where my feed will contribute overall CeBit newsfeed. That'd be awesome.
I am thinking to go for the dinner, but maybe next year. I am going to get the feeling first.

Tribute to Bill Gates

2007-04-16T20:56:00.000+10:00

A clip from David Letterman's Show

A Day with Bill & Steve

2007-04-09T17:59:00.000+10:00

Supermarket 2.0

2007-04-03T20:59:00.000+10:00

A funny parody on Web 2.0 applications. I like the cookie joke...

Painting Monalisa using MS Paint

2007-03-31T22:09:00.000+10:00

My sister can draw good pictures using Microsoft Paint, but this is absolutely amazing. I could not believe MS Paint could make a painting this complex. But I guessed I was wrong. Simply Amazing

Apple Ad Spoof - Wii and PS3

2007-03-31T00:42:00.000+10:00

Wii is the way to go!

Testing ecto

2007-01-27T12:12:00.001+11:00

Qumana did not work with Blogger2.0, so I am trying ecto to see whether this can be my solution.

iBook as a Wireless Router in a Hotel

2007-01-20T11:15:00.000+11:00

This may not new and some of you probably already know it, but I tell you anyway. In mac OS X, there is a function call Internet Sharing, which - pretty straightforward - shares your internet connection on your Mac. My buddy visited me in my hotel room to find I brought my iBook and my office laptop (a Thinkpad). He brought his MacBook and wanted to connect to the net, and he turned the sharing in my iBook that was connected to the hotel network. And he found the performance was acceptable. I was excited, so I opened up my Thinkpad and I saw my iBook as one of available network. I managed to connect and yes, the performance is acceptable.
Now I had my iBook always connected in my room and also use it as my personal wireless router. Very cool!

OpenMoko - alternative to iPhone

2007-01-16T23:31:00.001+11:00

OpenMoko, originally uploaded by smstextnews.

Launched in February 2007, OpenMoko offers linux-based phone solution - and hopefully backed by open source community to the market. The phone has touch screen that accepts both stylus pen and finger and sports GPS. Some concerns occured when Apple said that iPhone is a closed system - especially from geek community. For these guys, OpenMoko may be a better deal. It will work under SyncML so someone will create the iSync plug-in, undoubtfully.
Current UI may be too linux-like and not as fancy as iPhone, but I am positive there will be solution like iPhony available soon.

iPod Mobile

2007-01-09T21:47:00.001+11:00

IMG_1977, originally uploaded by Olivas2005.

Forget iPhone, get iPod Mobile. iPod integration is the new hype in automobile industry and Citroen took it too seriously. But it's marketing. And they put quite significant size of Apple logo - instead of Citroen.

2007 - I Welcome Superdrive....

2007-01-04T18:49:00.000+11:00

Yay! My order of DVD Writer Dual Layer arrived this morning. I went straight home and installed it in my first generation Mac Mini. I bought this Mac Mini on day one Apple sold it - and I was the last one who managed to get this baby. The person after me had to wait for three weeks for next delivery. So it is something for me. And now it has Superdrive! Yay (again)!

Apple Welcomes 2007

2007-01-02T14:23:00.000+11:00

This is what is showing in the start page of www.apple.com today - still 1 January in the US. Apple must be up to something big early this year. Could it be Leopard comes out sooner? I can't wait for the Keynote on Macworld 2007. One more week, baby, bring it on!

New Year, New Toys

2007-01-01T12:45:00.000+11:00

I had a low key new year's eve. Just went to a friend's house, ordered Thai food, beers, and watch NFL, Redskins v. Giants. No I am not a fan of NFL. In fact that was the first game I watched fully. Giants won, I think, and Tiki Barber had an awesome touchdown. I brought my iBook with me, so I also browsed the internet and play Raiden.
My buddies then went of for a cruise, and I went back home straight. I could not spent big money this time, although I was really tempted. I am back to my daily routine at home, turned on TV and back on the net. That is how I spent the last of 2006.
Now is 2007. What am I looking forward to? Macworld - especially the Keynote. I want to see my option of toys this year. I am giving up my iBook this year, I am planning to give it to my special someone, and I want to see what is (will be) available for me this year.
Macbook? Hmmm...looks nice. Macs are so popular nowadays (which is good for Apple) and I can see people carrying Macbooks everywhere. I'm going to miss the uniqueness of my iBook (clamshell Indigo, 576MB memory, airport, Tiger - how cool is that). I bet it is going to be a looker when I gave it to special someone. Anyway, Macbook will be my realistic option for my next laptop.
Unless they come up with 12" lines - MacBook or MacBook Pro. Or maybe 13" now - widescreen. I am not a fan of big screen laptops anymore. I used to have one for work - 17" - and it was impractical. I did not need the real estate all the time. Now I am carrying 12" Thinkpad for my work, with 19" screen monitor on my office workstation. That is my best setup. When I am travelling, I can manage working in 12" display as I mostly do emails and some office documents. If I need multiple windows with multiple applications, I try to do it in the office. So definitely I am going for petite laptops. Bring on MB Lite...
I am also looking forward for Leopard (Mac OS 10.5) to arrive. And it's better be soon, because a lot of people are holding their next purchase to come with the new OS. Mac users need to show it off to Vista users, right? And with no free upgrade option like that of Vista, we prefer to wait.
And iPod. I still have my dependable 4th generation iPod always in my backpack. I had no good justification to get iPod Video. iTunes Store in Australia don't sell movies, and I cannot see myself watching 2-hours movie in such a small screen. And I also don't see why I need to carry my movies everywhere. iPod is a personal entertainment system by nature. Range of accessories extended it to be enjoyable by friends and peers, like speakers and car connection kits. But it still hard to share a small screens for movies. Well it is still possible to have video solution for cars, but I don't have a car. iPod Video never went to my shopping list until I decided to pre-ordered Tubular. With Tubular, I can browse, view, and download YouTubes clips and export them to iPod Video. Now that is cool. iPod Video, you are on my list.
iTV or whatever the new name is. Nah. This should wait. I have my mac mini to do the job. It is now my entertainment centre running equinux' Media Central. Although I may be in the market for Elgato's EyeTV USB tuner combo DTT and Analog and a widescreen monitor. That'll bump up my media ecstacy, for sure. Oh, superdrive is on the way so I can burn some of my movies to DVD. My hard drives are almost full.
And Nintendo Wii. I missed the first batch of release because I was so indecisive. Now the next shipment is around mid-January. I will still be indecisive then, but it is on the list.
ADSL 2+ modem should be on the way to replace my old modem and giving me the maximum speed that I want to see.
This should be an exciting year..... Happy New Year 2007

Let the Game Begins...or Not Yet?

2006-12-30T20:52:00.000+11:00

Yup, guys... HD-DVD and Bluray DVD. Which one will survive? Like movie industry remakes, some people said that this one is the old story of VHS and Betamax. VHS took the lead with support from porn...uhhh...adult industry. The industry printing movies in VHS, creating demand for VHS players (no statistical backup, but it was believed that they influenced consumer demand) and pushing the VHS price down due to economies of scale. Movie industry then went VHS as it allowed bigger margin from lower cost. Betamax has better quality in term of picture, but they lost the biggest selling point, content.
I also believe that iPod video benefitted from the growing service of adult content for iPod, especially outside US. iTunes Store only sells music videos in non-US markets. I bet being able to have porn at your disposal almost anywhere created demand for iPod videos - at some rate. No, I don't have porn in my iPod. :)
I believed that the battle between HD-DVD and Bluray will be decided by adult industry. However, it seems that it won't be the case, as per article here. They decided to wait. They waited for the games industry, the war between XBox and PS3, representing HD-DVD and Bluray. What? So we have a new twist on this remake story....games. Off course, games back then used catridges. They were not part of the equation that time, nor computer industry. So will the success of HD-DVD or Bluray depended on Microsoft and Sony? I think not. It depends on the game software industry. EA, Ubisoft, etc will play major role in this war. They are the ones whom will decide which platform they want to go to more, just like adult industry in previous war.
XBox and PS3 still playing some role, but at the end the content decides. I still believe in that. XBox sold more consoles this year, they are ahead in the game. But it ain't over, nor started. XBox in the hand of users now don't have HD-DVD, they need to fork out extra dollars to buy external drive. Still a question whether users want to upgrade to HD-DVD. Microsoft may wanted to play it safe by not including HD-DVD built-in. They still have option to sell external Bluray in the future. Sony, however, went all the way with PS3 and Bluray. Not surprising as Sony owns Bluray. Sony believes that they have enough content to support Bluray - support from Sony's movie distributions. Still, Sony has to get the buy in from games industry - really, really bad. Sony needs to sell PS3 to them and the customers. Honestly, PS3 is still the cheapest Bluray player in the market, too bad not cheap enough. Sony sees PS3 as a way to penetrate households with Bluray players, and willing to subsidise - PS3 is sold at loss, according to some report. But the market saw it as a game console, not an entertainment centre - as Sony wanted it to be. Game console should be fun, spending a lot of money is not fun, for most of us. Personally, I still go with Nintendo Wii.
There is another player that may actually the biggest player of all. This player tends to lay low and undetected. Pirates. While the others considered content is the biggest investment, for them it is almost none. They can drive low cost production and bring down overall price. They may even drives the production of cheap players. But now they facing a big hurdle. Digital Right Management (DRM). Both HD-DVD and Bluray will implement DRM on contents. My guess is whichever the format they broke first, it will be quickly mass-produced at the quantity unimaginable. Industries will lost from contents, but we will know which one is the popular format.
I am indifference on either format, but it is a hell of a war to watch......

I can't blog Digg to my new blogger! Aaaargh!

2006-12-28T21:43:00.000+11:00

I love digg. It let me find news that I like to read, sorted for me. Well, interesting news for me mostly related to Apple anyways and digg has Apple news in separate section. Cool! I also blog the digg news a lot. Sometimes I visited digg site during my lunch break, and I just blogged it so i can read it later at my personal time - talk about dedication, ha!
And today I made a stupid decision, upgrading my blogger to the new - no longer beta - blogger. It seemed like a good idea initially until I went to digg site and click the "blog it" link. digg said that I migrated to new blogger..... Cool, that was what happened, I thought. I just went to profile setting and change the username, I thought. Didn't work. I set up manual setting, didn't work. I started to get nervous...
I went to blogger help, and follow the discussion that led me to the link on blogger help saying that the blogging function on the third party needed to be updated, and only flickr had done so. Aaaaaargh! I want my old blogger back! They supposed to warn me before I went ahead with the upgrade, or did they? Honestly, I didn't pay attention to the terms & conditions. Like normal average guy, I just ticked it to go ahead.....
I want to blog my digg news......:(

Install Windows to a Macintosh USB drive (without Bootcamp).

2006-12-28T19:54:00.000+11:00

A guide to running Windows on an Intel Macintosh, from an external disk drive, without using Bootcamp. Earlier guides require the internal drive to be partitioned with Bootcamp, leaving an unused windows partition that just wastes space.

read more | digg story

Poor boy .Mac alternatives

2006-12-27T15:25:00.000+11:00

Whether or not you can make do without the annual subscription service offered by Apple depends wholly on your willingness to nit-pick through the alternatives. The following article will break-down available solutions based on the specific “conveniences” you wish to retain while saving a little money in the long run.

read more | digg story

More PC buyers will be going Mac in 2007

2006-12-25T00:38:00.000+11:00

"Intel CPUs and dual-booting Windows are just two reasons more people will be choosing the Mac." I see the general buzz around Macs as a reason for those who've been holding off to finally take the plunge and buy a Mac. And the "halo effect" _does_ exist.

read more | digg story

Leopard build 9A321: all the new features listed!

2006-12-25T00:37:00.000+11:00

The latest build (9A321) of Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 is revealing several neat features. We gathered all this information in one article for you, Mac OS X fans!

read more | digg story

Long, Hodgman (Mac & PC Guys) win Advertising Award

2006-12-20T19:27:00.000+11:00

Justin Long and John Hodgman, the actors who portray a Mac and PC from Apple's current 'Get a Mac' advertising campaign, won a 2006 Garfield Bobby Award in the Best Performance, Male category from Advertising Age. The hands-down winners this year are Justin Long and John Hodgman, better known to you as Mac and PC in the campaign for Apple Computer. Congratulations Mac, congratulations PC.

read more | digg story

Bring your Mac OS X Application in Your Thumb Drive...

2006-12-20T18:19:00.000+11:00

Portable iChat, Safari, Mail, iCal, and Address Book

read more | digg story

Teenager receives Zune with preloaded porn

2006-12-20T18:12:00.000+11:00

A couple on the south side of Chicago gave their 12-year-old daughter a media player...but it came with a whole lot more than an instruction manual.

read more | digg story

Telstra offers Next G via USB

2006-12-20T17:55:00.000+11:00

Telstra has quietly started offering two new ways of accessing its new nation-wide third-generation Next G mobile network, with two new USB modems now on sale. Need to check if it is Mac friendly.....

read more | digg story

Happy Birthday iPod!

2006-10-24T13:41:00.000+10:00

I have my iPod available for me most of the time. I carry its charger most of the time. I can't imagine how I go through the boring moments in my life without my iPod. Walking from home to the bus stop, sitting (or standing) in the bus to the office, walking to the office... my iPod spices it up with music in the background.
It used to hold all my songs, but with my ongoing growing collections - and iTunes Store availability in Australia makes it keep going strong, I made my ol' 20 GB iPod store randomly selected tracks from my collection everytime I plug it to my mac mini. I have no solid judgement to get the shiny 60GB model, yet. But how I love it.
And to learn that iPod was born when Toshiba showed Apple its (then) new 1.8" hard drive without knowing the use of it....

Happy Birthday....

Apple looks towards flash-enabled notebooks

2006-09-29T23:56:00.000+10:00

"People familiar with the Mac maker say it has been working closely with Intel engineers to implement NAND flash into a future-generation of its MacBook notebook lines. Apple is amongst the best positioned in the PC industry to adopt the technology broadly due, in part, to itssupplier arrangements with the world's five-largest NAND suppliers"

read more | digg story

TechCrunch: Why the new .Mac webmail is important

2006-09-29T23:46:00.000+10:00

"I agree that .mac is Apple's most difficult to use product and needs a lot of work. However, I think that the changes are important for one reason: There are very few Ajax webmail services today that allow users to access multiple email accounts. .Mac will be one of them."

read more | digg story

Sony Macbook? Shame on you, Sony!

2006-09-22T20:35:00.000+10:00

Sony rips off MacBook design by ZDNet's Jason D. O'Grady -- Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Sony may have taken this one a little too far. The consumer electronic giant's latest notebook looks like a blatant ripoff of Apple's wildly popular MacBook.

2006-09-14T22:17:00.000+10:00

Microsofts redesign of the ipod (well its packaging atleast)

Fun-neeee!

Apple + Google = .Mac^2

2006-09-09T23:41:00.000+10:00

The Tao of Mac apparently explored further the possibility of a new .Mac services in this post (http://the.taoofmac.com/space/blog/2006-08-30). Funny enough that the title of the post is similar with my previous post with added twist of "^2". I think the post has comprehensive analysis - much better than speculative approach I had.
Anyway, I am glad that this idea still floating around and followed up.

Cool things you can do on a Mac

2006-09-09T23:02:00.000+10:00

I am posting this as my own reference on shortcuts and tricks that I think allow me to be more productive/effective using my Macs.

read more | digg story

China - World's Largest Internet Market By '07

2006-09-07T22:58:00.000+10:00

The number of broadband subscribers in China is growing at a staggering 79 per cent annually, and will reach 79 million in 2007, consulting firm Ovum predicted in research released today. Recent estimates from Leichtman Research suggest that the number of broadband connections in the US, currently the world's largest market, is around 51 million."

read more | digg story

Why Did Apple Introduce New Products Before September 12th?

2006-09-07T16:45:00.000+10:00

This morning, Apple unveiled its most powerful iMac and Mac mini lineup ever, without an announcement. In previous post, it was said 23" iMac but they came out with 1" larger.
With a keynote planned next week, the obvious question is this: why did these new computers drop onto the radar screen before the event? Will there be something exciting in the keynote next week?

read more | digg story

Why Did Apple Introduce New Products Before September 12th?

2006-09-07T16:43:00.000+10:00

PS3 delay in OZ - March 2007?

2006-09-06T18:50:00.000+10:00

That is ridiculous. I am not planning of getting one as I already hooked with Wii. I hope Nintendo is not planning to delay Wii just for kicking PS3 in OZ.

read more | digg story

Letterman - I Don't Want a Computer

2006-09-06T18:36:00.000+10:00

David Letterman explains why he doesn't have a computer, and no intention to get one.

read more | digg story

Transformers Are in The Near Future

2006-09-05T00:24:00.000+10:00

Transformer - video powered by Metacafe

They nailed the mechanism in the RC size. I wonder, once they build the lifesize, where the driver will be once it turns into robot?

Apple's Secret Ingredient

2006-09-04T23:31:00.000+10:00

If you look at what Apple's done over the last few years, there's an almost absurd amount of fresh thinking and major leaps forward. At some points along the timeline, things just seem to magically click together at the right places.

read more | digg story

Did Apple Ditch BootCamp?

2006-09-03T15:11:00.000+10:00

What happened with BootCamp? In Apple's Get A Mac section. it was said that to run windows, parallel and windows OS required. Does Apple think that BootCamp is not a good idea? Parallel still have issue in performing Windows in the hardware's full capacity - which BootCamp can. Although it is a pain to reboot the hardware to change the OS.

Will Parallel will be the app of choice to run windows rather than BootCamp? But I remembered in the Keynote that BootCamp will be bundled in Leopard...

============From Apple Site===================

Which means, of course, that the Mac may very well be the only computer you’ll ever need. In fact, the Mac’s flexibility — its ability to run both Mac and Windows* — has both customers and columnists very excited.

As Computerworld’s Scot Finnie points out, now you can forget about about having “to choose either the Mac for its superior design or Windows for its wealth of available software.” That’s because “you can have both operating systems on the same computer — the best of both worlds.” Mac OS X and Windows XP side by side. One great computer. Two operating systems. Many, many programs to run.

Talk about a win-win situation. Now you can take advantage of all the benefits of owning a Mac but still enjoy the convenience of starting up your Mac in Windows XP and running a Windows-only game or productivity application when needed. Third-party software solutions such as Parallels Desktop for Mac help make it possible.

That’s a prospect that has the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg very excited. “You can run any combination of Mac and Windows programs at the same time, on the same screen.” For example, you could “simultaneously download your corporate email in Outlook using Windows while editing a home video in iMovie using the Mac OS.” Or how about this multi-tasking example from Mossberg: “I was able to do email in Apple’s Mail program while simultaneously watching a baseball game in Internet Explorer.”

And the latitude Parallels Desktop for Mac lends New York Times tech columnist David Pogue has him raving: “I just can’t tell you how handy it is to be able to live in Mac OS X but have the flexibility to duck into the occasional Windows program without having to restart the Mac.” How’s that for opening up a whole new world of possibilities?

If you’ve ever wished you could enjoy the best of both worlds, now you can. With a Mac.

*Purchase of Windows and Parallels software required.

Play Simcity for free - If you are using Windows

2006-09-02T11:24:00.000+10:00

Play original simcity online - but only works in Windows environment....

read more | digg story

Is It Possible to Surpass World of Warcraft?

2006-09-02T11:21:00.000+10:00

A new report from analyst group DFC Intelligence's David Cole looks at the unique path that gave rise to Blizzard's groundbreakingly-populated MMORPG World of Warcraft, including the myths behind its international impact, and the forecast for competitors hoping to break off a chunk of Blizzard's success.

read more | digg story

Apple to release 23-inch Merom-based iMac

2006-09-02T11:11:00.000+10:00

Apple Computer in September plans to unveil a new line of iMac computers with faster processors and a little surprise to boot: a stunning 23-inch model.

read more | digg story

Time for an Apple/Google Mash-up

2006-09-01T19:40:00.000+10:00

Wow! BusinessWeek Online's writer apparently had the same idea. I wonder who got the idea first?

Time for an Apple/Google Mash-up The two titans are drawing closer together. If they would just combine their offerings, they'd pose a real threat to Microsoft

Bill Gates Praising Macintosh

2006-08-31T23:25:00.000+10:00


This is pure gold.....

Multi-Touch Digital Interaction

2006-08-31T23:14:00.000+10:00


It was said that Apple had patented the technology, but I am not 100% sure. But I can imagine the possibilities in everuday's electronics. It'd be so cool.

Apple Keynote Bloopers

2006-08-31T22:52:00.000+10:00


Some funny clips of Steve Jobs and his gang over at Apple mssing up on their very important keynotes. Nothing is perfect....

iTALK . Apple Cell Phone Spec Commercial

2006-08-31T22:40:00.000+10:00


Spec commercial for a new cell phone from Apple by award winning filmmaker Christopher DeSantis with design by Gregory DeSantis. I really don't think this is a real thing and I don't think iTalk is a good name. I don't think MacBook and MacBook Pro are good names as well.

Microsoft Launches Mac Blog

2006-08-31T18:53:00.000+10:00

Microsoft's Mac Business Unit (which is headed up by Roz Ho who has been seen at Stevenotes on a number of occasions) just launched their own blog, Mac Mojo. An interesting read which should expand into lots of insightful posts. Certainly beats all those glossy blogs that boil down to nothing.

read more | digg story

China: The Next Software Center?

2006-08-30T22:48:00.000+10:00

"China may be world's manufacturing power, but it's hardly renowned as a software center. The world is going to need software center alternatives to India. For one thing, wages are rising in India. And it just isn't smart for companies to rely too heavily on one country. Only China has enough human resources", Liu argues.

read more | digg story

Apple + Google = new .Mac?

2006-08-30T21:39:00.000+10:00

Hmmm......this is very interesting news, Google CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt Joins Apple’s Board of Directors. And somehow I got this feeling that Google and Apple had been flirting for some time - as you can see in my previous post.
What could this mean? I am totally speculative, but this may be the beginning of joint effort to create web services available for Mac users, a new .Mac.
There has been a lot of discussion around the future of .Mac in many blogs. Apple had been trying to get Mac users to pay premium for its web services - I was included - with its seamless integration with iLife. I was a .Mac user once and I saw the good value in paying the premium, happy with .Mac mail account, web calendar, and iDisk. But like most people, mail application is the most used facility. Then GMail was introduced, with huge storage capacity and - this is the best part - free. I started to question myself on whether I should stop my .Mac subsription. I decided to run in parallel and I found that I could live without .Mac, so last year I discontinued my .Mac account. Sometime I missed my .Mac account and Apple gave me some cute messages everytime I went to .Mac site. But I never click the renew button. I don't think I want to spend money on that service, although I like it. Google had been giving the service for free - (well, at cost of some privacy intrusion. But I am not a celebrity or a type of person that needs 'top-notch' privacy measurements, maybe I will be at some time, but not now).
I am Googled now. I post my photos from iPhoto to PicasaWeb, export my iCal to Google Calendar, and blog in Blogger. I don't have iLife 06, but what I can imagine is if Google and Apple synergize their product to be ultimate webservice for Mac users, iWeb should interface with Blogger and Google Pages, and my mac email account storage keep on growing in size. And all of these should be free.

Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro Coming Soon?

2006-08-29T23:08:00.000+10:00

I was browsing Apple Store Australia - I am in the market for Macbook. And I was just wanted to check out the specials in the Sale page and Apple Store Australia apparently discounting MacBook Pro 15" WHILE STOCKS LAST! I could not think other possibility than MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo is coming on our way.

Well it is almost the end of August, so the rumour that Core 2 Duo MacBook (Pro - looks like it) will be in store in September may be closer to reality.

But I am not looking forward to get MacBook Pro - C'mon Apple, blow my head and give me extacy. Slam those Core 2 Duo in all range, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac!

iChat AV and AIM can do video call!

2006-08-23T17:12:00.000+10:00

I think I missed this big time. I checked the articles and some of them were dated back in 2004. Will this be the answer I am looking for?

FYI, I won the bid for iSight. I have paid it out and waiting for delivery.