eMate

Woohoo! I got an eMate for Christmas. Now I just need to hack a new battery into it.

New Stuff from Apple

Okay, so there were updates for the Mini, the iMac, and the MacBook, as well as a new mouse and remote. I've been thinking about getting a Mac Mini to use as a media server. I've also been thinking about getting a new TV. That 27" iMac would take care of both needs at once. The wireless mouse and keyboard could make it just right for what I'm wanting. Hmm.

What's New from Apple?

The Apple store is currently off-line and has been for much of the past hour. What's going to be there when it's back up?

The PowerBook Is Down Again

Last night, I wanted to use the old 2000 G3 PowerBook to check a new CD my wife bought. The CD has an adhesive label signed by the artist, and it didn't play in her car or in her laptop. Since the PowerBook has a CD tray, I thought it might be the right machine to test the CD and copy it to another disc. Well, the PowerBook wouldn't start at all. No sound, no lights, nothing. It may be the PRAM battery. Researching the issue, I found that a dead battery will not let the 'Book do anything. Tonight, I plan to break down the laptop and pull the battery to see if I can get the 'Book to start.

New TiVo "Feature"

Last night, when I turned on the TV attached to my DIRECTV TiVo, the picture looked very wrong. I changed the channel and saw the same thing there. The TiVo had started grabbing the widescreen feed and was trying to show it on the old 4:3 TV screen. I checked the settings and found that the video was set for 16:9. I remembered I had set it when we bought the widescreen TV several months ago, but, then, it appeared to have no effect on the output. Apparently, DIRECTV sent out an update yesterday that activated the feature. I did find an extra item in the settings menu for the display that had not been there before. It allows you to set the output to letterbox or pan-and-scan when showing a widescreen picture on a 4:3 screen.

Another Cool Feature on the iPod Touch

This feature may have been there from the beginning, but I just noticed it last night. I assume it works the same way on the iPhone. If you've scrolled far down a Webpage or a list in an app, you can quickly return to the top by tapping the bar at the top of the screen, the one where you see the time and the battery. I've seen it work in Safari, in the Facebook app, and in the Settings app. I found it very useful with Twitter.

iTunes 9 Observation

I've noticed a cool little new feature in iTunes 9, or, at least, I've never noticed it before. The little blue dots that appear to the left of the title of a podcast now show if it's been partially listened to. It's almost like a phases of the moon graphic to show your progress on the podcast. As before, the dot completely disappears if you've listened all the way through. Cool.