*STOMP*, Ketchup!
Wednesday August 15, 2007 at 3:06 pm | Filed under Entertainment, Family, Mac, Me
Good grief… over the past few weeks the Sharks get a new logo, Apple announces a new iMac/iLife/iWork/etc, our TV breaks, Monique and I drive halfway across the country and back for my family reunion in Colorado, and we get to go to a great concert at the Greek where we saw Squeeze and Fountains of Wayne. Oh yeah, and we also found out that we’re having a girl! I’ll tackle these one at a time:
The San Jose Sharks get cartoony! This new logo was unveiled in late July. I still haven’t seen any new uniforms, but those are on the way too. I don’t mind the new look, it’s really using the same colors as before but it’s a more aggressive style. Change is weird so far, but I’m sure it’ll grown on me.
Apple made a few announcements on August 7th where they introduced the new iMac, which looks like a giant iPhone, and the new iLife and iWork. The iMac is really nice, and comes with a new apple keyboard that I’ve ordered to replace my keyboard. The new ones have much less travel in the keys and are really nice to type on, plus they’re super thin!
As for iLife, it always seems to be packed with enough features to more than justify buying the new version each time it comes out. This time around there’s a ground-up re-write of iMovie, which I think will do wonders for those who have been shy about making movies because they were scared off by complicated software. Not that the older iMovie was complex, but this new interface is ridiculously easy. The downside of the new easy goodness is that some of the more advanced features were removed. So I’ll be keeping my old copy of iMovie ‘06 (which the install kindly keeps for you in a separate folder). iWork is better than ever, and now there’s a new alternative for Excel called Numbers which seems really promising so far.
What’s next on the list? Our TEE-v done broke-ded! Yeah, we noticed a couple of weeks ago it was turning off from time to time on its own. Turns out it was trying to tell us that its lamp was nearing the end of its life. So tonight, after waiting and waiting, the dude is supposed to come out and fix it for a small fortune. Fun! It’ll be nice to have our idiot box back in action!
We took a mother of a road trip, me and the pregnant lady, to Greeley Colorado to meet up with a ton of family at my tri-annual Family Reunion. I still haven’t posted all of the pictures for this one, but they’re coming.
Lastly, we went to a great great concert on Monday night, had a friend with some last minute free tickets (Thanks Cary!) and we got to see Squeeze and Fountains of Wayne at the Greek! I am always weary of seeing bands that may be past their prime, but wow, Squeeze delivered! Those guys are getting up there in age and they still sound as good, or BETTER than they ever have.
In closing, I’ll throw a little baby update in here. We’re so excited to be having a girl. We’ve been shopping for stuff, we’re starting to go to checkups more frequently now (another one tomorrow morning), Monique’s got showers coming up, I’ve gotta get a lot of things done with the nursery before the big moment, and I really need to be posting to this here site more!
8 Responses to “*STOMP*, Ketchup!”
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Curly Says:
August 17th, 2007 at 11:00 amhttp://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/apple-takes-a-step-back-with-imovie-08/
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Joe Says:
August 17th, 2007 at 4:10 pmYeah, good article. He’s right on, and said in an entire article what I summed up in one sentence.
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Curly Says:
August 18th, 2007 at 4:14 pmHey, I was just at Fry’s and saw one of the new keyboards. Did you type on it before you ordered one? They are super cool looking, but I’m not sure I like it better than my iBook keyboard (for feel). Maybe it would grow on me, but it seems like there is very minimal key action on the new keyboard.
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Joe Says:
August 18th, 2007 at 9:24 pmYeah, I tried one out attached to a new iMac at the Apple store. I like the minimal key travel a lot (mentioned it above). Is your iBook one that has the minimal travel keyboard? I can’t remember. The new keyboards are very similar to those.
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Curly Says:
August 23rd, 2007 at 7:01 pmOops, I didn’t remember that part when I posted my comment.
I’m just guessing, based on ten seconds of typing last weekend, but I’d say that my iBook’s keys have roughly 1.5 to twice the action of the new keyboards. Some things you just like right away, and most of the rest you get very used to very quickly.
When the QWERTY layout finally gets superseded, that will be odd at first, but it will be better in the long run. Who knows, maybe typing itself will fade in importance?
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Joe Says:
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:07 pmI got the keyboard on Tuesday of this week and I really like it so far. It’s pretty different form the usual keyboards, but for the better. Personally it’s a good fit for my typing style, it’s easy to clean, and it nice a compact. Looks great too!
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Curly Says:
August 26th, 2007 at 2:15 pmSo . . . this morning I accidentally tossed half a glass of milk & protein powder right onto the left side of my Apple wireless keyboard. I immediately popped off all the keys (from Return all the way to Esc) and wiped off the big gunk, so it wouldn’t harden, but then I had to leave. I’m now taking a break from putting the cleaned keys back onto the cleaned keyboard.
What would happen if this were a new style keyboard? Do you think it is user serviceable? It would be totally cool if it were weather-sealed, like the high-end Canon SLR lenses!
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Joe Says:
August 26th, 2007 at 10:44 pmNot sure, and I don’t want to pour stuff on my keyboard to check!
If you’re prone to these types of accidents, though, I’d recommend an iskin cover for your keyboard. I’ve never had any keyboard spills go into my keyboard before, but if I had I would rather it go onto one of these covers instead!I don’t see any easy way to pop off the keys, but they do push down flush with the aluminum surface they sit on, I’ve heard a damp cloth is the wya to go when cleaning it. No need to take off the keys, apparently. The only way to see how it stand the test of time is to use it, eh?