On to the Next One

I have decided to only post photos to Facebook going forward, since nobody was really aware of this blog anyway. Friend me if you wish to continue following me.

iPad 2 Announcement!!

On March 2nd Apple announced the new iPad 2 and based on most of the rumors leading up to the event proved true.  Smaller form factor, dual core chip, cameras, same price.  I am hoping to unload my old iPad and pick one of these up because well it's new, but also the smaller size and front facing camera are worth it for me.  Unfortunately Apple is selling the first generation for a discounted price, so I won't get as much return now as I would have a couple weeks ago.  Still I will end up paying only about $150 for a new one with half of that coming from change I have accumulated at work.

While the iPad2 seems like the biggest announcement from the other day I think there were to other things specifically in the little iOS 4.3 software update of more importance.  

First, is AirPlay video support availability in 3rd party apps.  This will let people view live video from the MLB At Bat app on the big screen (assuming MLB allows it).  My guess is that initially video apps like Hulu Plus, Xfinity Tv and the ABC player won't support it because they want people to get TV content from the cable providers.  However, with the new HDMI cable available for the iPad2 you can mirror your screen to the TV and see the content anyway (well played Apple).

The other big change in iOS 4.3, which seems like a small feature and doesn't seem very practical for everyday use is iTunes Home Sharing support. It basically allows you to play any content in your iTunes library on your iOS device.  All you have to do is enter credentials and be on the same network and you can watch a movie that is on your computer.  I could see maybe watching a movie on your iPad that you don't want to actually put on your iPad or maybe using your iPhone in an iPod dock to play music you don't typically keep on your iPhone.  

Okay so great I will use that feature once to try it out and then maybe a handful of times besides that if I even remember, but mostly it will go unused like Compass, Weather, Stocks and the Contacts apps on my iPhone.  Where this starts to get interesting is with Apple's rumored "cloud based" iTunes.  There are tons of rumors swirling about Apple doing something with the "cloud" and iTunes or MobileMe.  The most recent and ideal rumor is the ability to access any song you have purchased from iTunes via the "cloud". Your iPhone would no longer have music on it and instead would just let you stream any of your music over the internet.  You would also be able to get a new computer, login to iTunes and magically all of your music would download to the new computer (this is currently the case with App Store apps).  The rumors also expand on this to not only include music, but other types of media too, like photos, movies, etc...  I am looking forward to this because I wouldn't have to worry about running out of disk space anymore it would all get uploaded to the "cloud".  Anyway back to iTunes Home Sharing.  The biggest hurdle in making this dream a reality are the record companies.  It is in their best interest to make you buy new music for each device and also re-purchase music if you inadvertently deleted it.  What if iTunes Home Sharing wasn't limited to just being on the same local network, but was instead expanded to be the internet.  Now I would start using iTunes Home Sharing all of the time.  No more loading my iPhone with music instead I could just stream it.  No more picking and choosing which movies to put on my iPad, I would have access to all of them.  It wouldn't be as great as if it was stored at Apple, but it would go a long way to making my life easier.

So two small things that could dramatically change how we access media in the coming years, all released as part of a minor software update.  Steve Jobs should have saved them for his "One More Thing". Nice!!!

Lots O' Photos incl. K's Birthday

Samoas

Backyard Sledding

Kalebs Birthday

Backyard Hill

I <3 Snow

You know it is a snowy winter when I inadvertently create two picasa albums called More Snow. Needless to say we got more snow and I took a few photos. The snow has gotten somewhat out of hand as you can see from the photos. At this point Boston has 70 inches officially at the airport, so I imagine we have to have somewhere above that maybe 80 inches if I had to guess. We have been lucky enough to not have the storms change over to a mix or rain. In non-weather related news, Camden is finally feeling better after his respiratory virus, he was really good about using the nebulizer. Somehow magically after he was feeling better he was able to crawl and even pull himself up. So now he is Mr. Mobile and doesn't just nicely sit in one place. I am currently happy about this and think it is a dramatic improvement over the uselessness of just sitting in place even if it means we need to be a little more aware of him. Kaleb is finally sleeping through the night again and actually slept past 6AM today. We were also able to bribe him into being potty trained again by purchasing a toy helicopter and only letting him have it after 7 successful days of not having an "accident". I wanted to move it back a day every time he did have an accident, but we decided that might be too harsh. Okay so here are the photos.

More Snow

More Snow

We got more snow last Friday bringing our total on the group up above 30 inches and at this point I am running out of places to put the snow in the yard. I have been diligent about keeping the roof clean and even did my daring shoveling of the top roof.

Now that the snow has stopped the crazy cold air moved in and we were blasted with the coldest air since 2005. I think that is the same cold day when I took a bunch of photos of Boston Harbor. This morning it was -4 when I got in the car at 6AM. Luckily it is going to warm up and we are going to get 10-15 more inches of snow. Great!!


Here are photos of Kaleb and I snowshoeing in the back yard.

More Snow

2011 Photos

We have mostly stayed in for 2011, with the exception of a trip to IKEA and snowshoeing. Enjoy the photos, sorry I didn't get any from the big snowstorm.

New Year

Snowshoeing at Maudsley

Lost Birthdays

As the new year for the calendar comes around I appropriately have an idea for a post regarding birthdays aka a new year for individuals. Up until this morning I had maintained a separate calendar on Google Calendar for birthdays. Each birthday would get an annually repeating event which "never" ended (luckily I didn't have to stop repeating for anybody). The system worked pretty well for me except I never really checked it to see when a birthday was happening so it was relatively useless, of course that is a different issue.

Well today I was chatting with my good friend @alexredsox and he told me his birthday was in a few weeks. I quickly set off to add it to my calendar, but while I was off doing this he recommended I try a different approach. He is well aware of my love for gmail and most things Google, so he proposed a much better solution to the birthday situation. So if you too use Gmail and Google Calendar just do the following:
1. Go to your contacts in gmail.
2. Update the birthday field for your contacts (if you haven't already)
3. Go to Google Calendar
4. In the upper right go to Settings > Calendar Settings
5. In the Calendar Settings navigate to the Calendar tab
6. Click the Browse Interesting Calendars >> link on the right hand side of the "Other Calendars" section.
7. Once in "Interesting Calendars" go to the "More" tab
8. On the more tab subscribe to the "Contacts' birthdays and events" calendar. (This will add a new calendar to your Google Calendar that will show an event based on the birthdays in your contacts.)

Now for the advanced users here is how to add the Google Calendar widget to your Gmail
1. Go to Gmail
2. Navigate to Settings
3. Select the Labs tag
4. Enable Labs if you haven't already (I suppose if you are advanced this is probably enabled already)
5. Enable the "Google Calendar gadget"

Now every morning when you log in to Gmail for the first time you can quickly see any birthdays for the day. All without having a Facebook account.