Repeat after me: "I will not buy anything from Monster Cable".

I'll say it again: I will NOT buy anything from Monster Cable. Were you to ask me the reason, I'd point you to a simple Google search of the phrase "Monster Cable sues". I've never been overly enticed by Monster Cable products, my opinion of them being overpriced for what they claim to deliver. On top of that, there have been highly suspicious and well-documented shady sales-floor practices (which you can read about over at Engadget HD) and topped off by the amazingly brazen lawsuit against Monster Transmission & Performance. Audioholics.com has an interesting write-up as well.

Where will I buy audio interconnect cables from? Blue Jeans Cable, or many of the other companies that WON'T be silly-suing anyone and everyone over a simple word.

Good luck,

K

Mac OS X.5

I made the jump to 10.5 on the laptop yesterday (12" PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz 1.25 GB DDR SDRAM for those that are keeping score) and while it was a rather bumpy ride, I managed to make it through unscathed. Had I elected to erase the hard drive and do a clean install, everything would've gone much smoother, I'm sure, but when you've got a couple years' worth of preferences and passwords and the like, I just can't see that doing a clean install would be any less of a hassle for getting everything back where you need it. The biggest problem I had was that suddenly (after finally getting it to boot in 10.5) my account was no longer recognized as an Admin account. What's that mean? Well, no changing anything, and next to no trouble-shooting capability. Regardless, I managed to get that squared away and get my storyboards done as well (during the three attempts of installing which ran at least an hour and a half each). Now things seem to be running nice and smooth, and yes, I do like the look and feel of it. Mail is much more useful, Safari is much more useful, things are just more useful. And it appears that all my apps (Photoshop, Toon Boom, Illustrator, Anime Studio Pro, Flash, etc etc...) all work just fine. Apple and Adobe have dropped a big bomb on After Effects CS3 users though; AE needs an upgrade to work with 10.5, and Adobe won't have it until December, so they say. What?! I think this is just another symptom of Apple disregarding their computing platform for their gadget platform. I've said it before and I'll probably be saying it again soon, but I'm waiting (along with many many others) for an updated Mac Pro to come along. It's been well over a year now, and the rumors are barely starting to trickle in about anything new on that front. First I was waiting to make the jump to Intel Macs because they didn't make a universal binary version of the Adobe Creative Suite - it would run, but only through emulation software which countered any speed gains made by the new computer. So, I waited... and waited. They came out with the universal binary finally in June (I think) but by then the Mac Pro was close to a year between updates, so it would've been silly (I thought) to get a Mac Pro only to have them update them a week or two later. Well, it's been four months now, and while it's probably good I waited, I am now one impatient and frustrated Apple customer.

Oh, and all you laptop fanboys whining about wanting a Macbook update, just shut up. It's only been 5 months since your last refresh. Pansies.

That's it. I need coffee.

Good luck,

K

iPhone: a Mac addict's prediction

The prediction: the iPhone is going to flop.

O.K. - maybe it won't be a Zune-esque flop, but a flop in relation to the nauseating hype surrounding the release of this all-in-one wonder. I just wanted to get that on the record on this day before the "BIG DAY".

A little background:

I am a life-long Mac addict. Although my first computing experience was with a Commodore 64, and I thought it a mighty swell machine, when my dad brought home an Apple Macintosh, my computing world was changed forever. My dad brought home three more Macs over the years, and the first computer I ever owned was a Tangerine iMac (233 mHz G3), which was eventually replaced with my current machine, a dual 1 GHz PowerMac G4 Quicksilver. I also own a 12" Powerbook G4 - the last of the Powerbooks to come out before the current Macbooks. I've known and loved many other Macs over the years - from the old beige towers to blue and white G3 towers to "Mirrored Drive Door" G4's to blazing monster G5's.

I love Apple computers.

But I'm feeling forgotten lately. The machine that I'm waiting for seems to have been forgotten as well in all the iPhone hype. The current Mac Pro is a swell machine, but it is has been eight months since the last significant update to that product line, with no news or hints as to what improvements will be coming next or even when an update might happen.

And frankly, I am sick to death of hearing about the iPhone. To me, as a life-long Apple fan (oh, I forgot to mention that I also own a 3G 20GB iPod as well as a 1G 512mb iPod Shuffle... my wife is a very patient woman) I get the feeling from what I've been reading and hearing that this gadget is a dreaded "jack of all trades, master of none" as it's a phone, it's an iPod, it's a web-browser, it's a text messager, it's a wide-screen video iPod, it's a camera for Pete's sake, it's your new digital lover that you'll never be without, blah blah blah.

I won't be buying an iPhone.

My why list is long, but near the top of that list is the fact that, like the regular iPod, you cannot replace the battery. Not only that, the largest hard drive is 8GB! (EDIT: The iPhone has a flash drive, not a hard drive like the previous full-size iPods. That explains the low storage space numbers, and actually 8GB isn't bad for a flash drive, but still weak as far as iPod standards go.) And on TOP of that, the thing runs you a minimum of $499 BEFORE the mandatory 2-year service contract. To be fair, Engadget put together a fantastically detailed real-price comparison of the iPhone and other similar devices, and it turns out that the iPhone is well in-line with other plans. And to be even more fair, I couldn't put any of the iPhone's data plan features to use, so they don't appeal to me. It pains me to admit (as a friend of mine pointed out, and try as I might, I couldn't refute what he said) that this puts me right out on the front porch of the technology old-folks home, quietly rocking with a wool blanket on my lap reminiscing about "The Good Old Days".

I am willing to admit that my feelings against the iPhone may just be "forgotten fanboy" syndrome, as it is a distinct possibility. And if Apple is using iPhone to really push themselves in the public eye in order to create a larger audience to market their latest and greatest Intel Mac Pro that I was just too impatient to wait quietly for, then I'll be first in line to apologize. And as long as I'm there, buy one of those shiny new computers.

Good luck,

K