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In part 2 of “My Tech”, I will go over some of the software in use on a normal basis. I run Mac OS X but I have an install of Vista Ultimate installed on a Boot Camp partition. My need for Windows declines each day. I’ve gotten to the point where I no longer have Parallels installed.

What’s in my Menubar:
Last.fm
Twitteriffic
Soundsource
Bandwagon FTP
DeskLickr

Desktop Apps:
AppZapper
Autorate
Disco
Handbrake
IEatBrainz
Linkinus
MacTheRipper
MetaX
Popcorn
Pukka
Skype
Tangerine!
Transmission
Transmit
VisualHub
Wednesday List
Spanning Sync
Connect360
Missing Sync for Blackberry

Web Apps:
Gmail
Google Reader
Google Calendar
Google Documents
Remember the Milk
Meebo
Backpack
My Pull List
My Mile Marker

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

Last Friday I received my Income Tax return and felt the need to buy myself something nice. I just got done watching Geekbrief TV where Cali reviewed the Apple TV and I was sold. I’ve been on a strict budget for the past few months so I felt a little guilty dropping $300 on an Apple TV. So I made myself an internal compromise. I said if I sell my Xbox 360 HD DVD drive, I’ll buy myself an Apple TV, which would pay for at least half of it. I immediately call up the local Apple Store to make sure they had some Apple TV’s in stock. They did and off I went.

Well its been a full week and I have to say I love the box. Previously I used Front Row on my Macbook hooked up via DVI. While it did the job, it wasn’t an elegant solution. The Apple TV setup was a breeze which if you used any Apple product, thats a given. The interface is what really sold it for me. Since I don’t have cable, I get my TV shows from iTunes, download podcasts and subscribe to Netflix for my media fix. Only thing I would have liked is a DVD player inside but I understand the decision not to include it. My Xbox 360 does have a DVD player and it works. Thats good enough for me.

While my new Apple TV is awesome, I’m going to have to give credit where its due here. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy my Apple TV as much as I am if it wasn’t for Visualhub who has helped me convert all my existing media over to h264. The program is simply awesome for converting to different video formats and its amazingly fast. I did run into one small problem when trying to convert previously ripped h264 files from Mediafork but it was easily fixed by changing a setting. The latest version 1.23 even supports outputting to Apple TV. If you need to convert some media to Apple TV, I cannot say enough good things about Visualhub. Worth every penny of the $23.

The 40G hard drive is tiny in comparison to my iTunes library which last I checked was around 140 gigs. Hacking the Apple TV’s hard drive is definitely in my future but I’d really like to go to a 250 gig drive which they don’t make yet. So in the meantime, I’m just keeping unwatched media synced which its actually pretty nice. I know what new podcasts are out and new TV shows and don’t have to worry about wading through everything. For the rest I just stream from my Macbook. I have the Apple TV hookup via wired ethernet so syncing and streaming is fast.

For Christmas last year I got a Garmin Nuvi 360 GPS, which has been kickass btw. Since I’m a Mac user, I always had to boot Parallels to install the latest firmwares using the windows software. Well as of today, I no longer have to as Garmin has released a Mac version of their WebUpdater and also their POI Loader. Both programs are universal binary but are still in beta. I just got done loading the latest firmware without a problem tho and the webupdater should work for any of Garmin’s GPS products.

Tuesday night I finally had some free time and decided to install Vista Ultimate on my Macbook. My Parallels install of XP MCE 2005 is getting full and I needed to reinstall anyways. Well would you know my luck, less that 12 hours after I installed Vista, Apple releases a Vista compatible version of Boot Camp. Thank god its just an updated driver CD and I don’t have to repartition and reinstall.

I just wish Parallel’s supported Vista on a Boot Camp partition so I didn’t have to reboot but the only two things i really need Windows for is to watch Netflix streaming movies and Comic Collector Live. Its only a matter of time for Parallels supports it and I can wait.

Paypal has a beta program that allows you to order an RSA token from them for extra security. Anyone can head over to Paypal and sign up for it. Right now there is a one time fee of $5(free for Business accounts) that comes directly out of your Paypal account.

Naturally I ordered one. In the package was the key itself, a wallet card, packing slip, Top 10 safety tips and an “Activating your Security Key” card. Setup was pretty painless. Login to Paypal and click the Activate Security Key link. From there it asked for the serial number and then the current code from the key and finally another code from the key 30secs after the first one.

What happens is when you login to Paypal using your login and password, your taken to an additional page were you type in the current number displayed on your Security Key. The key changes every 30secs. If for some reason someone knows your login/password they still need to have that code to access your account. “Something you know and Something you have”. Its very seamless and adds an extra layer of security for the paranoid.

I’ve actually just started using Paypal as my main debit card leaving my bank’s debit card at home. I move what I will need into my paypal account and this keeps me from those impulse buys I always fall for and helps keep me on a budget. It is a little weird reaching for my keys everytime I want to login to Paypal but I do feel a little safer with all the phishing going on with Paypal and eBay.

You can also link the key to your eBay account but I haven’t gone as far as that yet. One other nice feature is you can attach the 6 digit number to the end of your password. This bypasses the secondary screen and logs you right in saving you some time.

[The PayPal Security Key]