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Friday night I headed down to the Danbury, CT Apple Store for the Leopard release event. The store was closed from 4:00pm to 6:00pm so they could prepare for the release. I ended up going down for 3:00pm because I made a Genius Bar appointment so they could take a look at my iPhone which was suffering from the negative black screen issue.

I plopped down in line right after the Apple Store closed, I was 4th in line of about 100 people. The 2 kids in front of my weren’t even there to buy Leopard. One had received it earlier that day in the mail and the other just wanted a free t-shirt. The guy behind me had just recently returned a Vitsa machine he had nothing but problems with and was there to purchase his first Mac, so I was giving him some advise and telling him about the difference’s between Mac and PC’s. During the whole time, Apple employees were handing out waters to everyone in line and taking pictures.

6:00pm rolled around and they opened their door. I made a beeline right for the Leopard DVDs and think I was the first to purchase it. As much as I would have loved to stay and check out everything, I wanted to head home and install Leopard right away. So right after I got my DVD and Tshirt, I left for home.

I never posted here when I got my iPhone for some reason. But now I’m on my 2nd iPhone and guess I should take the opportunity to talk about it.

After Apple’s last major announcement, I was sold on the iPod Touch. I’ve written here before about my decision to not go with the iPhone but the Touch was perfect for me. Everything I wanted in the iPhone without changing cell phone providers. A few weeks later, the iPod Touch’s were released and I was one of the first ones out of my local Apple store with one. The iPod Touch was the sexiest piece of hardware I have ever owned. After a few days of using it, I wanted more. WiFi access wasn’t enough, I need always on access. All of a sudden the newly price dropped $399 iPhone was attractive. After a day of getting up the courage to switch carriers, I went to the Apple Store and returned my 16GB iPod Touch for a new 8GB iPhone.

Within a few hours, I had hacked the iPhone and enjoying 3rd party software along with my now always on access, Mail and other goodies like hacked ringtones that the iPod Touch didn’t support. A week later, Apple release iPhone firmware version 1.1.1 and knowing it would kill my 3rd party apps, I installed it ASAP. For me, the 3rd party apps were a work in progress at best. There were a few apps I liked but none I couldn’t live without. Even today I don’t feel I’m missing out especially with Apple announcing official 3rd party support in February. Hopefully native apps for IM and Twitter will finally be a reality.

Enter my 2nd iPhone. A friend of mine who bought an iPhone at the same time I did, was having issues with “negative blacks”. He pointed me to a website that tested for this and sure enough, I was affected too. Most stuff was OK, but movies like 300 really showed the problem. I wasn’t in too much of a rush to get my iPhone replaced so I waited a few weeks until I was going to be at the Apple Store again, for the release of Leopard.

Before the Apple store closed to prepare for Leopard, I made a Genius Bar appointment and had them look at my iPhone. I showed him appleservedup.com on my phone, he checked his and I had a new phone within a few minutes. I checked the site for blacks and dead pixels before I left and everything was perfect. Now I can finally apply my Invisible Shield thats been waiting patiently for me.

Has Apple blown its load too early? Its been a hell of a year for Apple to say the least. iPhone, AppleTV, redesigned iMacs, Leopard, full iPod refresh including the long awaited iPod Touch. But what’s left? We are only 4 months from Macworld 2008 and I cannot think of what Apple has up its sleeve. There are a few product lines that could use a refresh, Macbook/Mac Pro, but redesigns would hardy be Macworld worthy. Either Macworld 2008 is going to be lackluster compared to the last few years or we can expect some big surprises.

Decisions, decisions. Apple revamped their entire line of iPods yesterday and introduced a new model, the iPod Touch. The iTouch, as I call it, is the iPhone, without the phone. To me that translates to “everything I wanted in the iPhone without losing my Blackberry and switching carriers”. And speaking of the iPhone, they officially discontinued the 4GB model in favor of the 8GB model, then lowered the price by $200. iPhone now costs $399 which is very attractive but also at the $399 price point is the new 16GB iPod Touch.

iPod Touch:
I haven’t been this excited for a product in awhile. In a previous post I stated I would pass on the iPhone. My dependance on my Blackberry and switching to AT&T were really my only reasons not to purchase one. Otherwise I thought the iPhone was amazing. Now Apple has all the amazing without any of my worries. Without a doubt, I’ll be picking up the iPod Touch the day its released. I went as far as to pre-order it from Apple.com last night but when I seen they charged me sales tax, I said screw it and I’ll just pick one up at an Apple store when they are available. I’m all about instant gratification. Its just my luck that the only product that wasn’t in stores already was the iPod Touch. Apple’s site says it ships by Sept. 28th. That’s along time to wait when you want something today. That’s around the same time the T-Mobile Blackberry Curve is rumored to be released so I should have some new toys to play with at the end of this month.

iPod Nano:
The Nano’s got a major overhaul with a new design, interface and video support. Unfortunately it seems the Nano is the sleeper product of the day being overshadowed by the Touch and the iPhone price drop. If the Touch wasn’t released, I would have ran to the store to pick up a new Nano without a second thought. $199 gets you a 8GB Nano that plays video. That’s epic.

Afterthoughts:
The 2-3 week wait for the iPod Touch is actually good for me. It will give me time to sell off my G1 Nano and my AppleTV to make room for the new iPod. My decision to sell my AppleTV stems more from my currently living situation than the new iPods. My HDTV has died and only have access to an SDTV so the AppleTV will do nothing more than collect dust for the next few months. With the Xbox 360’s support for SDTV, h264 and the help of Connect360 for my Mac, I don’t lose much from not having my AppleTV. Don’t worry little AppleTV, we may one day meet again.apple

I get a lot of questions about the kinda of hardware I’m running these days. I thought I’d do a few posts about the hardware, software and everything in-between that I am currently using. With the exception of the Router and NAS, most of this I carry with me all the times in my Timbuk2 Blogger.

Hardware:
Macbook 2.0Ghz/2GB RAM/250GB HDD
Western Digital Passport 120GB USB External HDD
Buffalo Linkstation 250GB NAS
Linksys WRT56G running HyperWRT 2.1b1 +tofu13c

In My Bag:
iPod Nano 4GB w/ Nike+iPod Kit
Nintendo DS Lite + games
Sandisk MicroCruzer 1GB Flash Drive
Microsoft Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 6000
T-Mobile Blackberry Pearl
Garmin Nuvi 360 GPS
FujiFilm V10 Digital Camera

Home Entertainment:
Norcent LT-3222 32″ LCD TV (Slowly dying)
Microsoft Xbox360 Premium
Apple TV 40GB

One of my favorite features in iPhoto is its ability to compare changes you’ve made to the original with the press of a button. In previous versions, it was assigned to the CTRL key. With iPhoto ‘08, this no longer works. For days I was hating the new iPhoto because it seemed they removed this feature. After a little digging around, I found that Apple has not removed the feature but just moved it to the SHIFT key. I’ve actually found this to be a welcome change as I check against the original a lot and the SHIFT key is much easier to locate and press.

NBC Universal is looking to not renew its contact with Apple in regards to its Television content this December. Last season I purchased full seasons of Lost, Heroes, The Office, Studio 60 and Battlestar Galactica, mostly all NBC shows, from iTunes. I canceled cable and even bought an AppleTV. So you can expect, I’m a little pissed about this. If NBC wants more money, they are in ever right to ask for it and take it somewhere else if they are not happy. But if they pull from iTunes, I’ll have to resort to torrents for these files now. So Universal, since you’re so interested in dollar figures, what’s better…$1.99 of my money in your pocket or losing the war on piracy? When will companies learn that downloading shows via bitorrent isn’t about stealing, its about convenience. And I would gladly pay $1.99 an episode for convenience, especially with all the promising upcoming shows this season.