Why I chose a Retina MacBook Pro over a MacBook Air

by Sam Barillaro. 1 Comment

The Premise
Around 6 months ago I accidentally cracked the screen on my 2010 13-inch MacBook Air. Don’t ask. It was still usable so I held out for Apple’s WWDC 2012 announcements before making any hasty decisions.

MacBook Air cracked screenApple announced some great updates to their range of Airs and Pros, including the introduction of the MacBook Pro with Retina Display (rMBP). Although tempted, I had all but decided to hold out for another year to see if a Retina MacBook Air was released. The very next day, the crack on my MacBook Air screen worsened…

With the cost of a replacement screen almost as much as a refurbished 2011 Air, the decision was made for an upgrade. I purchased the 13-inch MacBook Air.

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What are Google Glasses for?

by Sam Barillaro. 0 Comments

After watching the Google glasses concept video it didn’t take long for my initial reaction of, wow this could be cool, to turn to reality.

Many have stated their opinions on the video, including some parodies of the clip. It wasn’t until halfway through reading Trevor Gilbert’s take on PandoDaily I stopped. I asked myself, what problem do these glasses solve? What need are they tending to? Maybe I’m missing something, maybe in the future we will all walk around with these glasses because it’s just too much for us to carry a mobile phone with us. Maybe. Or maybe Google just wanted to drive more traffic to Google+.

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Piracy and our sense of entitlement

by Sam Barillaro. 0 Comments

A lot has been said lately regarding the whole piracy debate. No one (in their right mind) thinks it’s right, but there is some disagreement as to whether consumers are at fault due to an unrealistic sense of entitlement, or content providers who are making it difficult for their customers to simply pay for their content.

PandoDaily has seen the latest in this saga with two of their writers debating the issue. The argument for privacy, and the parody on our sense of entitlement.

I won’t begin to go through the issues with the parody argument of stealing an iPhone, but I get the point. Yes, we as consumers can be quite demanding, especially now it has become so easy to get and consume content. Is that our fault as consumers? These channels to procure content exist and they can’t be removed without breaking the Internet. Content providers can either fight the inevitable, or they can embrace the opportunity to reach a larger, global audience, in almost realtime.

For me, nothing sums it up better than Marco’s post. It’s not about what’s right or wrong (or grey). It’s about being pragmatic. Sense of entitlement or no, trying to fight the inevitable isn’t going to solve the problem.

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iPad 3 Predictions

by Sam Barillaro. 0 Comments

With the iPad 3 almost upon us, and my iPad 1 already sold, there’s not much left to do but guess what Apple have in store for us.

Retina Display
The obvious prediction. It’s been a while since I remember something being so certain before an Apple product launch. Of course the one thing we can be sure of is that nothing is certain.

iPhoto
Maybe not iPhoto exactly, but Gruber made a prediction and I tend to agree. It’s great having a higher resolution screen, but there needs to be something to take advantage of it. Photos on the iPad are great. There’s no easier way to browse photos with friends and family than on the iPad. Especially if you use AirPlay to an Apple TV. The one thing that’s missing. A way to manage your photos straight from the iPad.

1080p Movies
Again, what better way to show off retina display than 1080p movies. Currently HD movies from iTunes are 720p, which just won’t do justice to that beautiful Retina Display. This also lends to the rumor there’s an Apple TV update imminent.

Games
Gaming has already been a big sell for the iPhone 4S and I don’t see it stopping there. The iPad 3 will bring along improved hardware no doubt. Along with Retina Display, this means an improved gaming experience.

Update
In my haste to get my predictions down, there were a couple I missed…

Siri
Not really a prediction. There doesn’t seem to be a reason why Siri won’t be ported to the iPad.

Photo Stream & iOS 5.1
This would be the perfect opportunity to release iOS 5.1 to the public, hopefully bringing along some much needed improvements to Photo Stream. There are some glaring issues with Photo Stream. One of the biggest being the inability to control what photos appear in the stream, or for that matter, delete individual photos in the stream. This granular control is desperately needed if Photo Stream is going to be of any use.