I was recently reading one of my friend’s blogs about how her kids had no idea what a VHS tape was & were horrified that you had to rewind something! When I stop and think about how fast our everyday items are changing & evolving, I’m just floored. I have had my iMac for 1.5 years & I’m still in love with it, but can’t quite give up the PC. I have H’s old laptop to use downstairs while watching TV, for travel, to multi-task at my desk when I’m deep in photo editing and to run Quicken. One of the original reason I turned my nose up so long at Apple was the mouse that didn’t do as many cool things as the PC mouse. I was accustomed to having my big trackball mouse with tons of programmable buttons and shortcut keys. I have the Magic mouse for my iMac & the ability to scroll/swipe has much improved the functionality. Also hidden in my desk are 3 separate external hard drives. My original old 250GB, my new 500GB, and my 1TB that is a backup for those and my iMac. I store all of my photos on the xHD’s and not the mac, plus back them all up on DVD’s. Apple has made things in the computer world SOOOOO easy & seamless, smooth. I still get annoyed about working on things in a PC & am amazed that Windows software is still so awkward & clumsy to work with.
Since getting my iMac, I’ve turned into a Apple freak. I’ve had my iPhone for a little over a year & it’s changed my life! The 3Gs was amazing when it first came out- there were no phones that could compete with it. In just the last year, there are so many droid phones that are as good, if not better, than the iPhone. Plus, the AT&T coverage really leaves a lot to be desired. But seriously- the iPhone puts everything at my fingertips that I ever really need. My pictures, music, email, calendar, the internet & so many useful apps like maps & directions, google search, and tons of fun stuff. It’s like a little mini-computer in my hands & it’s stunning how far phones have come in the last 3-5 years. Since I’ve upped my running & have been doing some running by myself, I have been using my iPod more lately. Having resisted Apple for so long, I resisted iTunes & was a late comer to the mp3 party. I owned an mp3 player for years, but never really used it properly & mostly listened to the radio & never knew how to make proper playlists or easily change what I was listening too. Again- iTunes changed all of that! I listen to more music while sitting at my computer, we listen to it on long drives by plugging the iPhone into H’s car, I have been growing my music collection (even adding new types & genres) the last year by buying super cheap CD’s or downloading songs online. The next step is to start going digital on the movies & shows….I can’t wait to get those to where we can download & stream them to our TV!
I’m still using the trusty old Garmin Forerunner 301. I’ve been running with this GPS for probably 5 years now & I’m addicted. I feel naked running without it- not knowing time or distance or pace. They have some newer, slicker ones out there & even iPhone apps that will track your mileage, but I like what I know. I’m not sure what they could so, short of integrating an MP3 player on-board, that would make me rush out to buy a new one.
Online, things are changing fairly rapidly in terms of technology. A large portion of my time online is spent in my Google Reader still. I have hundreds of feeds on a variety of topics & this is how I stay on top of news. If you don’t have a feed reader yet- DO IT! So many more websites & businesses are integrating with feeds readers, linking to facebook pages to follow updates & offering twitter accounts so followers can catch the latest news. I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook at this point in life. It’s so helpful & can be fun to see your friends photos, but I am very leery of their privacy policy & am annoyed with friends that post all their games/apps to their profile. I love being able to follow businesses and stay tuned into upcoming events or specials, but the limits of Facebook are that you can’t save or search for old status updates very easily. I haven’t dipped my toe into the twitter world yet, but may set up an account at some point in the future just to have one.
That’s all I’ve got for now- I will have a few photography related technology updates in the next few months & am still doing some upgrading/fancying around the blog.
GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: A gorgeous crisp fall morning here in Houston & nothing planned today but a whole lot of relaxing!
I tried to figure out if we have any overlapping music based on your screensaver, but from this distance the only one I could confirm was Lady Gaga.
I’ve been an Apple freak since 2003. Apple Rocks, PC not so much.
I think we have the same size iMac 21.5″ ?? I’ve got a 1 TB hard drive. Just got it back in March of this year. I know there is SO many cool things I can do with it but I just haven’t figured out *how* so I still struggle a bit with the Mac stuff. I really wish I had more time to spend with iPhoto.
I’m on FaceBook too and finally figured out how to hide everyones *game crap* without hiding them. If there’s a game post you don’t want to see move your mouse to the right side of the pose just below the gray line. An x should appear. Click on the X. Some choices should come up that allow you to hide just the game postings. I was pretty annoyed with FB too until a friend told me how to do this. Now I’ve got all the game posts hidden and just see status updates, photos, videos. Look me up & connect. I don’t do the FB game stuff myself.
We’ve had Sprint forever and I just upgraded to the HTC Evo. It’s basically Sprints version of the iPhone and WOW! you are so right. These little things are mini-computers in your hand. I’ve got GPS navigation, compass, internet, e-mail at my finger tips and LOVE IT.