Last week was finally the week. The week Apple was set to change the world as we know it; to change the way each and every one of us was to interface with the world once and for all. That’s at least what the fanboys said. However, we got the iPad, an impressive, yet still disappointing tablet from the folks at Cupertino.

First off, it’s impossible to deny that this is a seriously cool looking device. The screen looks beautiful and is surrounded by an awesome looking case. The software also looks elegant and intuitive, just like that of the iPhone. Just like nearly every other Apple product, it’s a visual masterpiece. That’s just about where the “perfection” ends.

First off, there isn’t any multitasking on this thing. Usually, when I pay $500 or more for a computer, I expect to do a couple of things at once. This will be a debilitating flaw in the iPad, but it’s also one that can be easily fixed with a software update, which I expect them to do once enough backlash surfaces.

Next is the iPhone OS. The iPad probably has plenty of power to run at least a basic version of OS X that Mac desktop and laptop users would be familiar with. The 9.7″ screen should be more than adequate to view a OS X environment comfortably, since gobs of people have been installing it on much smaller netbooks and have been satisfied. This “OS X for iPad” should at least be an option for users to install.

Other than those two huge flaws, there are a few little things. There isn’t a camera, which can be forgiven, but is still an odd omission, given that almost every laptop, netbook, and phone has one. There is also the inability to make phone calls, despite the availability of 3G service. This can also be forgiven, but it’s still strange that they didn’t just throw it in there.

Even though the iPad is really just a big-ass iPod touch, it will probably still be a wildly successful device. However, it won’t have any staying power unless Apple fixes the multitasking problems.

I did get back into WoW this week, with most of my time playing wasted by downloading patches. I have gotten my character to level 9, so it’s not as much of a frustrating mess as it is when you begin. But I promise that I won’t endlessly ramble on about the game, since most conversation on it makes for dull material.

Staying up late to wait for said patches to download, I watched a really great documentary on Roy Orbison on KERA. Afterward, when the download finally finished, I downloaded his greatest hits. I never realized how awesome this guy was. Some of his stuff can be really haunting, but so enjoyable. If only I wasn’t creeped out every time I hear In Dreams. Thanks, David Lynch.

This week I also discovered an amazingly stupid feature of my Mac mini. The microphone jack isn’t powered. I was wanting to use my run-of-the-mill Logitech headset to see if I could use Skype or talk on WoW, but no sound would be recorded. It detected the microphone, but picked up nothing but silence. A little searching around on teh interwebz revealed that unlike most computers made in the past two decades, the microphone jack is unable to power passive mics. I pretty much have to have a mixer or a USB microphone. Oh well, guess that gives me an excuse to get a badass mic and try to get a little voiceover business going.

This next week is going to be busy as hell, with work plus finals. It won’t be fun, but it’ll pass by quick, to be sure.

First off, the entire setup process was super easy. With Windows and Linux, I’m used to at least two days of interface and program installation and tweaking. I simply plugged my mini in, turned it on, did my “mac dance” ritual during the opening video, went through the initial setup, and I was done in no more than ten minutes.

It also goes without saying how cool it is that they give you gobs of software for free with iLife. Even though the programs are not anything really special, they’re very useful and fun to use. I can’t wait to play with Garageband to eventually make a podcast.

With the money I saved by buying the mini on sale, I also purchased iWork. I haven’t really played with Numbers, but Keynote and Pages are great. It take a while to get used to the interface, but once you do it’s a pretty powerful office suite. Still no comparison to Microsoft Office, but still pretty darn good. It’s also nice that Helvetica is the default font is Pages. Now every paper I write looks like a Target ad.

I’ve also added some freeware I’ve always heard about to my Mac. Some good, and some not-so-great. First, I’ve always heard folks raving about Quicksilver, a application launcher that you use via the keyboard. This was almost my first freeware download on the Mac, and I found it fairly disappointing. I just find it quicker to get to my frequently used programs via the dock. I guess I just think more visually. I’ve never been really into keyboard shortcuts.

For NaNoWriMo, which I’m currently failing miseribly at, I tried several different programs. I finally settled on WriteRoom, since it has zero distractions from my writing. All it is is a black screen with green text. You simply type. Really cool. Only thing is that it’s a 30-day demo, with the full program costing $24.95. I understand paying for software that’s as good as this, but $24.95? For a black screen with green text? Give me a break. I probably won’t be purchasing this after the demo is over.

As for music players, it’s been kind of difficult. I’ve always hated iTunes, for either Windows or Mac, because of the almost communist nature of how it wants to control every aspect of your library and music player. So, I decided on trying Songbird. Songbird was pretty good for an open source program based off of Firefox, but it’s tragically lacking in podcasting support, and it also grabbed my entire music library and renamed every last file. Turns out automatic library management is turned on by default. Awesome idea, Songbird team! Good thing I had a backup! I have now switched back to iTunes for the moment, but I hope for something better to come along soon that allows for adding my music library that resides on my Linux server without fucking it up.

Other than those programs, I’ve also installed Celtx for future screenwriting, and the obligatory Firefox install.

Overall, my experience so far has been great. I feel that once I put more memory in this guy, it’ll be even better.

Went to Frisco last night to pick up a copy of Snow Leopard. Sure, I could have bought it at Best Buy, but I also didn’t know that there wasn’t a student discount on OS X. Even without a discount, the new OS still only costs $29. I’m still hesitating on taking the plunge today, though, since I’ve seen some pretty obvious, even hilarious, bugs on some Macs at work that shouldn’t have even made the RTM release.

For example, we received two brand-new 13″ MacBook Pros to prepare for use at work. They came with Snow Leopard, of course, and they all had one strange bug in common. In Spotlight, whenever you searched for a particular program, in this case Terminal, the results would show up in Chinese. Chinese. The default language is English out of the box. However, when we changed the default language from English to Standard, the problem was solved. Weird…

There are also some very frustrating changes to the interface, as well. Most notably the Macintosh HD desktop icon, a mainstay of Mac OS systems since at least the early 90′s, is gone by default. They’ve added a shortcut to the applications folder onto the Dock, but it still doesn’t replace that friendly little icon that gave me quick access to Finder. I know that there is a way to turn it back on, but I wasn’t there when my co-workers figured it out, so it is still a mystery to me.

Another thing we do frequently at work is add Macs to our Windows domain. Before, this was a easy as going to Applications > Utilities > Directory Utility. Not anymore. They’ve hidden Directory Utility deep in the bowels of the User Accounts configuration menus in System Preferences. They took something that would normally be simple and proceeded to bungle it up. I don’t think they even changed the program at all; they just made it harder to get to.

Given all of the problems I have with Snow Leopard even before installing it on my own machine, I have to day that my Apple Store experience in Frisco was very pleasant. I had never actually bought anything at the Apple Store before hand; I just browsed and looked in awe at the shiny new machines sitting on their birch veneer tables. I’ve always been pleased at the no-pressure shopping environment. I can do anything I want to those machines because they know that it will eventually lead to a sale. For me, it did, just at a Campus Apple Store, instead. I was really happy that I could just pick up the software, go to the nearest dude wearing the pretentious and uncomfortable-looking nametag, and he could check me out on the spot with his handheld point-of-sale system. Pretty painless. The only negative thing about my visit was realizing that they still charge $60 for the mac version of Sim City 4. Fucking nuts for a game made in 2003.

I’m way behind in the NaNoWriMo this year. I’ve got just a bit over 4,000 words. I should be near 15K. Oh boy, wish me luck.

I also bought my first mac this week. No, it’s not one of the new ones, but I got the previous-gen mac mini at the UNT Bookstore for a steal. The sale discount plus my Apple student discount made the final price of the entry-level machine $459. With the money I saved, I bought iWork and a new printer. Everything worked perfectly out of the box, and I’ve been pretty satisfied so far, but it could definitely use some more memory, since the base model only came with 1GB.

I’m also gonna give NaNoWriMo another shot this year. I hardly even got started last year, but now I’m trying to  build on a completely new story, kind of like a Kinky Friedman novel, so hopefully it works out.  They’ve also raised the word requirement to 50,000 words. It’s gonna be a hell of a challenge.

I’ve also noticed that I’ve fallen into a blogging rut. It seems that Sundays have turned out to be a pretty good day to do this. A day that I can just sit at my local coffee shop and take a big brain dump, for lack of a better term, on the interwebz. This is a rut I think I can stick to.

I’ve been contemplating purchasing a mac mini fairly soon, since my classes later in my RTVF career will most likely require expertise in Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and the other media-type goodies exclusive to the mac. I’m not really looking to use such programs on this mac, but I just want to get myself more familiar with the OS X interface and such so I don’t look like a retard when I go into the editing labs. It would also help me greatly in my computer support job, as well, since it seems like we’re getting more and more macs. I’ve been thinking that the base model mini with a 4GB memory upgrade will be plenty. For big-time storage, I can just dump crap on my Linux box over the network.

This afternoon should be busy, since I have to finish many different activities to finish my Spanish “portfolio” due tomorrow. I need to watch one movie, read three Spanish articles, write brief summaries about the movie and the articles, and rewrite a past Spanish composition. I hate this stuff, but thankfully it’s not too bad. For the next portfolio due, I want to find the Spanish movie where the dude jumps off a boat and directly into a shark’s mouth. Anyone have the title of that film?

And now, on with the rest of the day.