Leave it to Apple, to come up with one of the easiest solutions possible (and in turn make my job easy).

View at Apple.com: Time Capsule

While certainly not cheap ($299 500GB/$499 1TB), Time Capsule is a tremendous leap forward in the ease of use factor. I had it operation in a matter of minutes, and our MacBook Pro is currently in the process of shoving files over.

Couple things to note:

1. Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard only for automated backups using Time Machine
2. Can function as an network attached storage (NAS) device for any platform
3. If you have any wireless device, that isn’t 802.11n capable, it automatically downgrades itself (bummer)

Any questions?

http://www.karelia.com/?refid=273247

You should check out Sandvox, the website builder for the Mac that is coming soon from Karelia Software. It is in public beta now, so you can try it out even though it’s not ready to buy yet.

I’m encouraging people to sign up because it’s a cool program, and because if you sign up, I’ll get a discount when it’s released. If you start referring people, you can get a discount too…

“Every year at CES, Sharp comes out with a larger Aquos LCD TV than the year before. And I always drool for about 15 minutes before they tell me it won?t be available for about a year or so. However, with its current 65-inch giant, it looks like they actually have a price on the set?although at $20,999.99 it?s a bit out of my reach. Specs are also impressive with a 1080p image, 176-degree viewing angles, 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution and pixel response time of less than 6 ms for excellent viewing of quick motion scenes.”

via: Gizmodo

My favorite part of the whole article has to be where the SVP says:

“We were out of compliance and we recognize that file was out of compliance with the association rules”.

So, let me get this straight, you were completely lax in your security policies concerning customer data and you knew about it?

In situations like this, companies should be fined let’s say $500 per/customer. By my math, CardSystems owes their customers around 20 billion dollars, give or take. Certainly by their negligence, lives will be affected, if nothing else, by the sheer time wasted in dealing with this fiasco.

They’ll probably get off with a slap on the wrist and a give half-hearted apology. “We promised to fix our ways…” blah, blah.

Another item:

Due to some electrical work tomorrow, the power may be off in our household for brief periods tomorrow. As this site is hosted on my G4, you might get a page not found. Rest assured, I will have things running as soon as possible.

If you find anything that doesn’t appear to be working, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

SmashMyiPod.com

It looks like they have set up several smashmy[insert hot consumer product].com. The really tragic thing is people are actually donating. I wonder if starting a web site: givememoney.com would be a hit? Shucks, the domain is already taken.

Seriously folks, let’s spend our cash on something a little more productive…

The 15-inch will get a new display with 1440 x 960 resolution; the 17-inch will get 1680 x 1050. Both will be 46% brighter than previous models, and both will have 22% better battery life.

PowerBook Page

With the PowerMacs, you can now get four G5 cores (running two dual-core CPUs) in a single machine. DANG! Also included: DDR2 SDRAM, PCI-Express, support for up to 1TB of storage, and, of course, long awaited multiple Cinema Display support.

PowerMac Page

You will also see a slight drop in the pricing of 23-inch and 30-inch Cinema Displays.

Display Page

• Thinner all-in-one iMac G5
• VIDEO IPODS!
• iTunes music store updates (w/iTunes 6)

Although I’m not sure I would agree 100% with the video iPods, you have to admit Apple always seems to do it right. One of the added features to the iTunes music store is music videos and tv shows available for purchase; that of course, play on the new video iPod.

I was kind of hoping the rumors of new PowerBooks were true. As much as I would like a new iMac, I’m really more interested with replacing my aging G4 with a 15″ PowerBook. Of course, Lynnette would probably not allow either (with Peanut on the way and home improvement projects looming, my technology budget is basically zero.)

Oh and the new FrontRow application looks like the beginnings of an Apple Media Center. Hopefully, it will make it to the Mac Mini in the near future. That would make the prospect of getting one even greater.

Here is a full recap of the special event today by Engadget.com:
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000207062697

“Organize to do lists, notes, images, and photos Plan a personal or business trip Keep track of what your competitors are doing Plan a home improvement project Collaborate on a new business idea Keep track of houses you’re considering buying Gather information for a research project Keep a list of gift ideas for friends Build a For Sale page, Organize and plan a wedding or event”

I am currently using Backpack to manage our Christmas plans for 2005, as well as several business ventures in the pipeline.