Gravitational Pull: A blog about tech and other stuff.
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Anyone wanna buy a used Airport Extreme?
Had to expect this but, still… “Two peripherals also reached the Apple Store on Tuesday without a separate announcement. AirPort Extreme revision The AirPort Extreme Base Station introduced in January now adds gigabit Ethernet without a price hike ($179).” (via AppleInsider)
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Blogoshpere’s Vista verdict? Blech. VmWare Fusion? Yum.
Apparently I’m not alone in finding Windows Vista a less than compelling upgrade over XP. Bloggers all over, including more than a few on my daily or weekly reading list like Philip Greenspun and Joe Wilcox, seem to be finding the same irritating flaws. Those pro reviewer reviews that come out on the first day…
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Blaspheming in the temple of the Mac: Boot Camp
Ah, the crazy things we do to play a silly computer game known as Civilization, or in this case Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword expansion. Each and every version of Civ comes out first for Windows and some months later for Macs. And so, each and every time, I have to obtain, borrow…
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Civ IV’s latest expansion piles on the complexity
My long-ago pre-ordered copy of the Civilization IV expansion pack “Beyond the Sword” arrived today, and after a very busy work day, Friday family dinner and the usual bed time dawdling rituals from the kids, I found myself with a bit of free time (the wife is just back from a business trip to Europe…
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Hardware updates galore
I happed to glance over at the “Tools I use” link that sits on another part of my web site this morning and I realized that it was horribly out of date. Using a few minutes snatched from my lunch break, I’ve deleted the verbiage about my trusty old Powerbook G4 and added a description…
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An Aussie answer to all bag lusters
My wife thinks it’s hilarious but it’s undeniable that we gadget guys need bags, lots and lots of pretty bags. Well, maybe not pretty — you know, sort of manly, handsome bags. A bag for the camera, a bag for the phone, a bag or two for the laptop, a bag for all the bags.…
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Netgear’s confusing power play
I was reading the latest issue of the excellent Mac newsletter Tidbits this morning when I came across an article comparing the performance of a wifi network to one of the new powerline networks. Ah, I thought to myself, I remember when I hoped that powerline, which runs ethernet over the electrical wiring in your…
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Doh, hit by a MacBook Pro revision
So after advocating avoiding the first iteration of new gadgets and programs, I finally ponied up for the latest revision of Mac laptops, the Macbook Pro with Intel’s Santa Cruz Core 2 Duo chip. It also happens to have a new generation of video controller chips, Nvidia’s GeForce 8600M GT. Ho hum…or not. One reason…
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Don’t rush out for an iPhone (really)
(Updated 6/21) With the release of the undeniably super-cool iPhone just around the corner, I have a plea for gadgetistas everywhere: Please don’t camp out, queue up or generally make a fool of yourself on the evening news in front of an AT&T wireless store next week. Like I’ve said over and over, there’s no…
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Calling all comparers – time for virtual showdown
Software developer Paul Lefebvre has a tidy comparison up on his blog between VMware’s Fusion and competitor Parallels Desktop. Both products let owners of Intel-based Macs run other operating systems like Windows XP or Linux. I’ve been messing around with Fusion for a few months now and it’s very impressive. One cool feature absent from…
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