News from Great Castle Wilson

Author: adminmcq

  • Mac Tip: MobileMe, passwords, iPhoto

    After changing my Apple ID password (which is used by MobileMe, iTunes, developer connection, etc.) I found that I could no longer publish pictures to MobileMe from iPhoto. Even though I was logged into MobileMe — sync was working; iDisk was available — iPhoto would tell me that “an error occurred with the publication of an album” because my “MobileMe account information is not correct”.

    If you’re hitting this, the fix is:

    1. exit iPhoto
    2. open Keychain Access
    3. find the key publish.me.com
    4. delete it

    Next time you restart iPhoto, all should be well.

  • iOS and the iPhone 4

    As I’m sure everyone knows by now, Apple finally announced the new iPhone yesterday. There are much better sources than here for all the details so, just for grins, I’ll point you at Gizmodo’s summary.

    (Link no longer works.)

    Some of the more interesting points:

    • The processor has been bumped up to be the same as the one in the iPad. That’s good, because it will help with sluggish web page loading, but also because the display has been increased in resolution to the point where it needs the horsepower just to paint it.
    • Speaking of the display, the resolution is now 960×640 which gives it >300 dpi resolution. To keep that in perspective, that’s better than a cheap laser printer. I’m not sure how they have pulled off changing the dpi without effecting the way applications look, but the claim is they’ve got it to work. Let’s hope it’s not the “2x” mode from the iPad. 😉
    • Really for me, the best new feature is an improved camera. I actually use the camera on my 3GS, but it’s absolutely terrible in low light conditions. The new one is supposed to be better resolution, better low light behavior, and it has an LED flash. I guess we’ll see. Any of the example pictures I’ve seen so far still seem to have a fair amount of noise in them.
    • They’ve also added another camera on the front of the display, for doing video conferencing. There’s an app called “Facetime” (ugh.) to support iPhone-to-iPhone calling, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why they didn’t just put iChat on it. If I could video conference with Deb on her Mac, I could actually imagine using it. Also, currently at least, it only supports calling over wifi. boo.

    The device will, of course, be running the new version of the iPhone OS, which has been renamed “iOS”. I suspect this was in keeping with the rumours of the new Apple TV box, which is purported to be running this OS. They probably have dreams of running it on other devices that don’t look anything like phones.

    The good news about iOS 4 is that will be a free upgrade for any iPhone/iPod that can run it, and should be available June 21. The bad news is that won’t be available for the iPad until “this fall”.

  • We’re an all mac family!

    For those who aren’t following Deb’s twitter feed, the latest round of random, gratuitous Windows glitches/crashes that have afflicted her old Dell laptop has led to some great news:

    New laptop – PC to Mac. Good thing I’m sleeping with the IT guy!

    Yes, our last hold out has switched. We’re now all rocking MacBook Pros:

    • Dennis has the 2.5Ghz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro that I was using until I got a new one a few weeks ago
    • I have the new i7, 15″ model
    • Deb got the i5, 15″ one (because, you know, mine needed to be the fastest. 😉 )

    Overall, this should make the home network IT tasks a lot simpler.

    We’ve got her contacts, calendar and favourites all moved over, as well as her email account set up so new mail goes there. I haven’t looked at moving her old mail over, but getting it out of Outlook 2003 is probably going to be no fun. Oh well, that’s tonight’s task[*].

    Unfortunately, it seems like there are still a small number of Windows apps that she will have to run, at least until we can find Mac replacements. The good news is those replacements appear to exist, but our budget has already taken quite a beating, so we’ll have to buy those incrementally. In the mean time, a copy of Parallels should keep her going.

    * Btw, if anyone has any words of wisdom about how to get mail from Outlook to Apple Mail, let me know.

  • Of course I got an iPad

    I’m sure no one is surprised that I did, indeed, go and pick up an iPad the first day that they were available in Ottawa. As I had been telling people, I didn’t pre-order one, since I wanted to use one first, to make sure that it was going to work well for my most important usecase (i.e. eBook reading) before I leapt onto the bandwagon.

    So, Friday morning, I went down to Carbon Computing and spent some time playing with the ones they had on display.

    [Aside: The iPad release to retail in Canada was odd. I have no inside information about this, but it’s pretty clear that the only outlet that was allowed to say they would have stock on the first day was the Apple Store. As a result, there were hundreds of people waiting in line when the Rideau Apple Store opened that morning, which is I guess the effect they were going for. By contrast, I just walked into Carbon Computing, wandered over to the display machines, played with one for a while, and then said “I’d like the 32Gig, non-3G model” — in and out in about 20 minutes. Having been in the line when the Rideau store opened a few months back, I can tell you that this was a much more pleasant experience.]

    In any case, the iPad does make a perfectly acceptable e-reader. It does not have as high a pixel density as the Kindle, and the glossy screen might get tiring in some lighting conditions, but overall it’s excellent. The screen is bright, and the colors pop.

    One clear win over the Kindle et al. is the availability of multiple book stores. Although Apple’s iBooks store currently only has the public domain books from Gutenberg Press in Canada, you can also get all of the books available for the Kindle, and all those for Kobo. This feature alone seems like it will doom the dedicated readers.

    As of writing this, there are no iPad versions of the eReader or Stanza apps. I can tell you that using the iPod versions in “2x” mode is simply not a viable way to read, so hopefully they will come out with updates. Unfortunately, it may just be that these “old school” readers will fade away in the face of the new players. This would be a shame, in both cases; I have a lot of eReader content that I’d like to be able to re-read on the iPad, and Stanza has been also very useful for reading my current ePub formatted content.

    Anyway, this is also the traditional “post done on the new device”. I used the WordPress app [Warning: iTunes link], which runs on both iPod and iPad. It’s an excellent way to manage your blog on either device, but the iPad layout is significantly better for entering new content.

  • Forest Fires (Updated)

    Most of Ottawa awoke this morning to the smell of smoke. The source, according to CBC, is forest fires from Quebec. I’m not happy about the lack of certainty in their description, particularly since they also indicated that firetrucks are driving around the city to see if there was something else going on. Hm…

    As Kim Horne said, “Is Ottawa on fire?”

    Smoke haze visible through the front window of my car

    Smoke haze visible through the front window of my car

    Update: The air quality index for Ottawa was 132 (== very poor) today. Normally, at this time of the year, it’s around 30. Today is not a good day to be doing outdoor excercise.

  • Prince of Persia

    Deb and I went to see Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time on Sunday. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it was great art, but it was everything it needed to be in a summer blockbuster: action, sexual tension, comedic relief, and a happy-but-not-trite ending.

    The two main thoughts I had about this flick were:

    1. This was the best live action fantasy movie I’ve seen in quite a while. The lines were delivered with a seriousness that overcame their silliness, even if the lead couple did struggle with some of them. The special effects generally worked, and did homage to the game. Speaking of which…
    2. They really did an excellent job of capturing the gameplay. The Prince of Persia games are action platformers, with much climbing of walls, swinging from conveniently placed poles, and running along walls. This happened often enough in the movie to be strongly evocative, without getting tedious.

    Capsule summary: Not a must see, but definitely fun.

    Rating: 3.5/5

  • Blogging is important

    I was chastised yesterday (by my niece(!)) for going so long without updating my blog, so I’m going to take advantage of the Memorial Day holiday in the US (== no meetings) to try to make amends.

    I really do appreciate that there are people out there who read this site, so I have to apologize for the extended drought. I will try to get back to a more regular (or at least more frequent) writing schedule.

    I particularly want to apologize to the commenters who posted while I wasn’t looking. You’re content *is* my reward, and leaving it sitting in the “pending” queue for months in unconscionable.

  • Classic arcade games aren’t.

    At CES, Microsoft announced “Game Room for XBOX 360”, which is purported to “recreate the old school arcade experience for you (and your avatar)”.

    (Image no longer available from Engadget)

    For Pete’s sake people, can we please stop finding yet another way to re-deliver games that we got bored of twenty years ago. If we ever want the world at large to treat games like a valid art form, we’ve got to stop glorifying trivial gameplay and graphics so stupid-ugly that they can be implemented by emulating the whole bloody machine in JavaScript.

  • Review: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

    Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the sequel to the 2007 game Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. At it’s core, Uncharted 2 is an “action adventure” game — think Tomb Raider — with all the standard features: run and gun levels, platforming, environmental puzzles, etc., but what really sets this game apart is the cinematic quality of the ultimate experience.

    To give you some idea of what I mean, I can tell you that I happened to be watching the latest Indiana Jones movie on the day after I finished Uncharted 2. Hands down, the game beat the movie at every level — action, story, characters, even emotional impact.

    This is a good game. It’s definitely the best PS3 game I’ve played in 2009, and I’d put it up with the “greats” like System Shock and Mass Effect in terms of how much I enjoyed the experience. If I had to complain about anything, I’d say that the strength of the story ultimately limits the replayability, but even at that, I suspect that I will play it again at some point.

    Click the picture above to get to the official game site. If it doesn’t start automatically, check out the “E3 Trailer” to see what you are getting yourself into.

    Summary: Get it.
    Rating: 9.5/10

  • E-book Readers

    Here’s a quick link-of-the-day with MacWorld’s take on an a number of the currently available e-book readers:

    Review roundup: E-book readers

    Personally, I’ve tried all of the Sony’s, the Kindle 2, and a couple of other e-ink based ones. In all cases, I found the screen flash on page turns quite frustrating. Ken tells me that you get used to it, but for me the iPhone still bests all of the other devices, as long as you aren’t trying to read PDFs. (And that’s not just because I’ve always got it with me.)

    What I really want is an Apple tablet with a Pixel Qi-like display.