apple

Whoosh! There goes 2010.. Bring on 2011 I'm ready for you!!!

Submitted by garan on Sun, 01/02/2011 - 11:54

My blog is still here! With the upturn in Facebook and Twitter over the last 12 months I've not posted much as I guess l've become a bit of a FB'aholic and am fascinated by it from a professional point of view. The introduction of AJAX powered chat in a browser has seen a lot of my friends contacting me via FB chat and the private message system provides more personal messages than I get through email. From a cynical standpoint, FB is potentially very sinister as they've got too big but the same could have been said about Google a few years ago but their star has waned slightly. Twitter was also meant to take over the World but within my group of friends it's been eclipsed by FB too. It's going to be interesting to see what comes next and in the meantime I'm very interested in L7 firewall appliances... Getting geeky now so I'll move on!

2010 brought us the iPad.. No surprise that I have one and I'm sat in Starbucks typing this on it. I'm trying hard to justify having an iPad. It's a gorgeous piece of kit but I think I could have happily managed without it, using a combination of my smart phone and my laptop. I don't need a middle device. The iPad is useful in the office on my own 3G connection though. Sometimes there's something I'd like to do on my own kit and my own net connection but feel once again that it's overkill.

I mentioned smart phones. This year I've been rocking an iPhone 3GS as my main phone and have had a few different work phones. A Vodafone 360 handset was the least useful during an eat my own dogfood phase. No surprises that Vodafone have stopped developing their own handsets. I had a HTC Desire - that was a highlight. The functionality and feature set is much richer than the iPhone but it doesn't have the same polished user experience as the iPhone. I did like the portable wifi hotspot feature though; something I'd consider jail breaking my iPhone for.. My latest work phone is an iPhone 4. Nice upgrade to the 3GS. Finally a camera flash! The battery life is better and the screen is good but it's not worth paying for an upgrade. I'm eligible for an upgrade at the moment but that would reset the timer on my 24 month contract. No thanks! The future is SIM free, maybe Google Nexus S shaped and powered by giffgaff.

2010 saw me finally get rid of the Beemer. I'm running around in a Golf and whilst it's nice with a hefty punch and gokart handing I miss the comfort of the old girl, especially on long motorway runs. I also miss getting the back end out around roundabouts plus VW traction control doesn't understand that I want lift off oversteer!

I've still got the R3. Thinking about an upgrade but will have to see how finances are looking when Spring approaches. I know what I'd like but it depends what sort of part-ex I can get for the yellow beast.

So 2011... What will it bring? I dunno! But I do know that I'm in charge and I'm going to make it a good one! Please join me for the ride!!

Apple Wireless Keyboard on Vista 64 Continued

Submitted by garan on Wed, 02/04/2009 - 23:31

Having used a Happy Hacker Lite Keyboard for quite a few years, I'm used to having to use key combinations to page up, go 'home' or even to perform F4. Now that I'm using the Apple Wireless keyboard, through the lack of Apple providing standalone drivers, I need to make Vista work myself. On one hand I can understand why Apple don't want people using their peripherals on Microsoft machines which could be looked at as devaluing their brand. But on the other hand, not having drivers for Vista or XP mean that lots of people like me buy the shiney product without reading the small print and end up thinking 'argh! I hate you Apple!'. Other more sensible people do read the small print, buy a Logitech DiNovo Edge keyboard and always wish that they'd got the Apple one!

Coincidentally Logitech don't support the DiNovo Edge on OSX but the core buttons work out of the box and the extra buttons can be programmed using ControllerMate. That's a blog post for a different day!

Going back to the Apple Keyboard problem, the traditional way to re-programme a key press on XP or Vista is to use Randy's Sharpkeys to change registry settings to make the keys do other things. The problem with the Apple keyboard is that the 'fn' key simply doesn't register. This is where AutoHotKey comes in. It requires a bit more understanding that Sharpkeys but it works! Micha on the AutoHotKey forum wrote a HID DLL specifically for picking up the fn keypress. Thank you and hats off; I wouldn't know where to start!

How to get the fn key working..

Long version.. Read, understand and implement the guide at http://yotz.eu/fnkey/

Short version.. Download and install AutoHotKey. Go to the bottom of http://yotz.eu/fnkey/ and download the AppleWirelessKeyboard.zip file, put it somewhere sensible and add a shortcut to the Apple Wireless Keyboard.ahk file in your Windows Startup folder. Page up sorted!

Apple Wireless Keyboard on Vista 64

Submitted by garan on Tue, 02/03/2009 - 12:19

I've been trying on and off for about six months to get my Apple Wireless Bluetooth keyboard working on Vista 64. The first part of the puzzle was finding a bluetooth dongle that had support for Vista 64. Most only support Vista 32. Here's the one I found:

http://www.trust.com/products/product_detail.aspx?item=15542

Twelve quid from Novatech. The key thing is that it has a Widcomm chipset.

That was only half of the story. Getting an Apple device working on Vista is like getting a camel through the eye of a needle. Both companies are pig headed when it comes to claiming that they are right and someone else is wrong I'm sure!

Enter this blog article which sorted it all out for me.

http://babyloncandle.blogspot.com/2007/12/wireless-apple-keyboard-on-vis...

My only concern is what happens after 3 hours if the keyboard goes to sleep. I'm sure I'll work it out :)

Check out the Android!

Submitted by garan on Mon, 10/06/2008 - 09:35

Google have taken another step towards total world domination through the introduction of their new mobile phone OS. With the recent spate of Apple's lack of consistency with regard to what is and what isn't allowed on the App Store swiftly followed by extension of the developer non-disclosure agreement to stop folk publishing their rejection letters, maybe Android is the way to go?

Whilst I mull this over I think I'll have a play with the HTC Android emulator:

http://tmobile.modeaondemand.com/htc/g1/

App Store Rejections:

http://www.macrumors.com/2008/09/13/apples-app-store-rejection-policies-...

App Store Rejection Letter NDA:

http://www.macrumors.com/2008/09/23/apple-extends-non-disclosure-to-app-...

Going to start saving..

Submitted by garan on Mon, 08/04/2008 - 23:10

I dropped XAMPP on my Mac yesterday to do some offline dev work. It really highlighted the shortcomings of my 12" PowerBook G4. It's been a tireless workhorse over the last five years, being replaced once by a newer, swisher Intel Macbook Pro that lasted less than six months before I sold the new upstart and returned to the old faithful. It's great for running a web browser, a few terminal sessions and a mail client. But asking it to run Apache and mysql with PHP running on top is proving too much. It's taking about a minute to render a local copy of this blog!

Here's why the G4 is great! http://garan.org/why-macs-are-great (from November last year)

So it's time to start thinking about a replacement. Macrumors.com is anticipating a September release of Macbook and Macbook Pro upgrades. I don't need the power of the Macbook Pro range but the aluminium case on this model has seen a lot of bumps and scratches without a hiccup, most recently being bounced off a shelf in the garage onto the concrete floor! So the rumors of an aluminium case for the lower end Macbook along with investment bankers anticipating that Apple will lower prices to maintain their market edge. Glass trackpads that will give iPhone'esque gesture controls are another possibility so I'm going to start saving!! :D

iPod touch

Submitted by garan on Tue, 03/25/2008 - 11:31

My neighbour's just bought himself an iPod touch. Wow! It's a lovely piece of kit. Paired up with a wireless connection it does a lovely job of displaying the BBC's iPlayer content. Very impressive. One day when the iPhone has 3G+ data speeds I may be tempted..

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