Macbook Air 13″: First thoughts

I’m writing this article on my new Macbook Air. I’ve had the computer for about two days now. The official specs are: 13″ Macbook Air 1.8 Ghz Core i5 processor with a 128 GB SSD and 8 GB of Ram.

My old computer was a 2007 2.2 Ghz Core 2 Duo Black Macbook. I truly loved that computer- even when I sold it it was still running incredibly fast. But there are some differences in my overall Mac experience. So here’s what I notice most about the upgrade.

1. Holy S**t! This thing is beautiful

I always thought my Black Macbook was a good looking computer. It was. But the Macbook Air is incredible. The build quality is the best I’ve ever seen and the design is luscious, you want to spend half your time using it and the other half admiring it.

2. It encourages portability

When I put this computer in my bag and go to work I have to check sometimes if it’s really there. It’s lightness and strength makes it very portable. You want to pick it up and move it. And the battery life for me so far has been superb- I’m easily getting 7+ hours out of it through above average use. Another plus I’ve found is that it recharges about twice as quickly as my old Macbook.

3. It stays cool under pressure

Literally. One of my big complaints with my old Macbook was that it got very hot. This, however, is very different. Even after running simultaneous HD video clips in Chrome and playing iTunes and Spotify while running Photo Booth for about an hour the Air was barely luke warm. I’m thoroughly impressed, and even more impressed that I haven’t been able to kick the fans on in any dramatic way. 95% of the time it stays silent in operation.

4. The screen is the best I’ve seen on an Apple laptop

I have not always been a huge fan of Mac screens. Other than the absurd retina display Macbook Pro, Mac screens have always had lower resolutions and been difficult to see in any lighted or sun-bathed room. The Air’s screen is dramatically different than something like the Macbook Pro in that it has a lot less glare and is much more adept when dealing with sunlight. While it isn’t matte it does make a difference.

The bumped resolution to 1440 x 900 over 1280 x 800  is a nice improvement I’ve noticed when lining up two PDF’s side by side or other pixel-intensive tasks. The screen like all Macs is absurdly bright and even when battery life is not an issue I keep it to 2/3 or less brightness.

5. The keyboard is not my favorite

I think the general Mac-style chiclet keyboard is great. I’m very used to it and it works well. But I have noticed especially after writing longer documents that the keyboard has less travel and is not as pleasant to type on as my old computer. My fingers hurt more since I have to apply more pressure. It isn’t dramatic, but I can feel a difference.

6. There are some practical problems with the design

I’ll get straight to the point. The edges of the laptop are too sharp. It’s annoying and sometimes slightly painful for your wrists/body. The power button being on the keyboard is worrying to me. Already I’ve hit it three times and with an accidental “Enter” or click my computer will be turning off without me wanting it to. It hasn’t happened yet but I know it will. In addition as with all aluminium Apple computers this has the likelihood to scratch, which will bother me immensely once it does happen.

Worst though is the upgradeability. Buy your Air with everything you want now and will want in the future- because once you’ve configured it that’s it. You can’t upgrade the SSD or even the ram because it’s game over. You’re stuck with what you got.

Overall

Pros:

Great Screen

Quiet

Fast

Beautiful Design

Very Portable

Cons:

Stiffer keyboard

No Upgradability

A few user sacrifices in design

 

Bye bye, Dropbox

SVG Version of Image:Pac_Man.png (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dropbox, I have nothing against you. In fact, the syncing I’m come to know and love that you invented has made my life much easier many times over. When I see people email themselves files I laugh at them, because I have my trusty Dropbox. Though I want to make clear that I am a free user sucking the life out of Dropbox’s profits, so me leaving probably won’t matter much to them, but the thousands of paying Dropbox customers that will switch to GDrive will surely be painful. Maybe Dropbox will fix their pricing problem. I shell out $7.99 a month for Netflix, which I use a lot, but the idea of paying $10 a month for 50 gb of storage seems a bit ridiculous in my eyes. Nobody could have used say, 20GB for $4.99? I know I would have.

But the real reason, the elephant in the room, is that Google is joining in the Cloud fray with a product that is exactly like yours, except the storage is a quarter of the price, the storage options are more extensive, and it fits nicely into everything else you use with Google. It’s called Google Drive. Drive has a pricing option of $2.49 a month for 25 gigs. Google, I’m down with that.  And now Gmail gets 10 GB of space instead of 7, so I can keep more of my parents’ forwarded Windows Media Player video attachments without worrying about deleting them. Ahh.

Last week, I wrote about Insync, a startup that brought Dropbox-functionality to your Mac or PC. I’m sure as of this announcement they’ll be closing their doors. Which is unfortunate, but I’m sure they’ll come up with another great product of their own.

And to all the people freaking out about privacy and ownership of documents, I wouldn’t worry. Those terms are in place just so people don’t sue them, not so they can steal your secretive business documents and post your photos on Google +. Doing that would be a PR disaster.

And as much as I want to try Skydrive because it is cheaper and offers more free storage (7 GB) than Google Drive, I can’t. No really, I downloaded Skydrive for Mac and plugged in my Live account and password to get started and got an error. I thought my password might have been wrong so I went to the website to check, I had a password reset sent and when I tried to activate it I got another error. Oh, Microsoft. There’s a reason I don’t use any of your products anymore.

For Dropbox, I feel for you. But business is business Maybe Dropbox should have gone with those acquisition offers after all.

Best Apps you’ve never heard of

I’m a big fan of apps. Apps for my Mac, apps for my iPhone, and best of all web apps that can run on almost anything. So I’m surprised when people miss out on what are some of the best apps because they aren’t as popular as the big boys. So here’s a fun list, all of which are free and have links so you can start downloading.

Songza- iPhone, Android, Web

Songza is a streaming music player where you can pick music based on moods, time of day, genre, and activity. In one word it’s amazing. There are no advertisements and the playlists are curated by music lovers from everywhere. It’s great when you need some music for a party or are in a certain mood. Forget Pandora, this is the future.

Greplin- iPhone, Web

Greplin is like Google for cloud services. You authorize once for everything and can then search everything. Google Docs, Calendar, Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Gmail and more. It’s wonderful when you forget where a contact, file, or message was exchanged. Unfortunately there isn’t an Android version yet but it’s “on the to-do list”

Wordoid- Web

Domain Typer- Web

Naming things and getting a subsequent website domain is getting increasingly difficult as domain squatters and web apps are crowding the space. Finding a name or getting something just right is close to impossible, so my recommendation is to try this app. You can put in sounds you want in the word, limit the name by number of letters/numbers and it’ll return a list of results and whether their .com or .net domain is available. Though double check the .com/.net availability because I’ve found it isn’t always accurate.

And after you’ve found a name you want, visit DomainTyper. It will show you with almost 100% accuracy if a domain is taken and which .’s are available (.co, .tv, etc).

Insync- Web, PC, Mac

Insync brings that wonderful “Dropbox-esque” browsing of files on Finder or Windows Explorer to your Google Docs. You can even open up Docs, edit them with Word, and then save them back to your Gdocs folder (pretty cool, right). It’s free and means you can pay a LOT less for storage then Dropbox. For instance, $120 a year on Dropbox buys you 50 GB of storage. For $20 a year on Gdocs you get 80 GB. And kick-ass sharing and collaboration abilities. And the upload limit is 10 GB per file instead of the measly 250mb you get on Dropbox. It isn’t available for your Android or iPhone yet so if you need mobile access keep those files in Dropbox.

 

-Killed by Google Drive (not necessarily a bad thing as you’ll see in my other post, Bye Bye Dropbox).

Padmapper- iPhone, Android, Web

Browsing Craigslist for apartments is so 1999. Padmapper is a huge apartment directory on a map with all the listings available from Craigslist, Apartments.com, Rent.com, and others. It updates in real time and lets you customize based on price, bedrooms, bathrooms, type of lease/rental and of course location. You can even can set up email alerts if you’re looking for something specific that isn’t available at the moment.

Sleipnir- iPhone/iPad, Android, Windows, Mac, Windows Phone

I’m not going to beat around the bush- I love Google Chrome. I wish I could remove Safari from my Mac and my iPhone, but I can’t. And I wish I could have Chrome for my iPhone, but Google’ probably more concerned about the Android version and their search engine. So if you need a browser that will work on almost anything, try Sleipnir. In addition to syncing everything between all of your devices, it’s fast, handles tabs exceptionally, and has some great swiping features. I’m not in love with how bookmarks are done, but I’m getting used to it.

Appcleaner- Mac

For the Apple diehard I have a special treat. Let’s say you installed a few apps that you’re not too happy about and need to get rid of. Use this simple, light and easy app to uninstall the apps and associated files that have been installed with it. Just check, delete and go about your business.

Hope you enjoyed- as usual leave some comments, feedback and questions down below. Cheers!

Boiling Down Personality Matching

Meeting people you get along with is a bit of a conundrum, even with our super-connected society. So I’m wondering, can we boil down personality to 3 questions?

Sure, DiSC and MBTI can give you a good idea of what your personality is like with quite a few questions, and even sites like eHarmony have ways to match people who are dating (258 questions). A friend of mine started a great project, Roommatefit,  that matches roommates for colleges. I asked if he could keep me in the loop as his questions evolve.

But how accurate and predictable of “getting along” can a 3 question system be? Have you ever heard of or seen a personality-matching system so short? I’ve been searching, and so far: nothing.

Throwing myself off a cliff

and then realizing I can’t fly.

Learning basic Ruby on Rails has been an arduous process, having never programmed anything in my life before.  I just went through the excellent Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial  by Michael Hartl and I’ve now moved onto the part where I  start doing things on my own. And it isn’t easy.

A friend  of mine recommended I check out Twitter Bootstrap, and I  love the look and much easier CSS it can do. But integrating it into Rails is proving to be a headache, as I have very  little experience with front end functionality. After a few attempts I was afraid to mess things up and let it be.  But don’t worry Twitter Bootstrap, I will be back to figure you out and make my pages look a whole lot nicer than they do now.

At long last

my personal blog. Sure, you can check out my Tumblr,  but that’s been sitting idle since I returned from New Zealand.  My Twitter and LinkedIn are available as well,  just check out my About page.

But this is where the magic happens.