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New Home October 1, 2007

Posted by reverseengineer in Announcements, Meta, Milestones, News, Wala lang.
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Full story here.

We’re moving! October 1, 2007

Posted by reverseengineer in Announcements, Meta.
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Like I announced some time ago, Mac-A-Doodle is moving over to the Inquirer.net blogging network, although I didn’t say when. Well, I’m saying it now: that move is sometime today, October 1, 2007.

Later today, this WordPress blog at this URL will freeze, and commenting and posting will move over to this new URL:

http://inquirerbloggers.net/macadoodle/

Please copy it, save it, bookmark it. It’ll be up within today, and from here on in, you can get your Mac-A-Doodle noodles there.

Over there at Inquirer Bloggers, Mac-A-Doodle will still be the same old blog, with a little different look, but that’s about it. All the previous stuff has been exported there (or in the process of being), so it’s still the full, unabridged MAD. You can come back here and poke through the old stuff, but you might as well do it there anyway. Up to now it’s all been me, but maybe I’ll start asking guest bloggers to help out now and then. For variety and more refreshing points of view other than this old coot’s.

It’s an important milestone for this blog – just five-and-a-half months old, it moves into a new, bigger neighborhood. But October 1 also marks a personal milestone for me. Here’s why:

I’m pretty busy these days. I personally edit a couple of magazines directly (a monthly and a quarterly), and help out on a third one (a monthly too). Being in charge of the whole editorial department, I supervise twenty other titles in our company. I write up to twenty or more articles and columns for some of these titles as well, every month.

I also blog for several of our sites, administer a forum, and on the personal side I help moderate three others. I also have my own personal blog, which has lain fallow for the past few months precisely because I have no time to blog for it (which is one big continuing regret of mine that I still hope to fix.)

Aside from all of these I am also a Writing/Communications Consultant for a big PR firm and train their writers and evaluate and edit their work. This takes up the little time I have outside of my day job. When there is any time left at all, I try to write some fiction. Short stories, that sort of thing (Number of stories I finished this past year: zip.)

And then there’s Mac-A-Doodle.

MAD is a personal project, which I do for my own pleasure. My fanboyism needs an outlet. In the beginning I was ok, but it rapidly became inconsistent, and I wrote for it spottingly. I enjoyed it big-time-plenty, but life often got in the way.

Three months ago, ruing the fact that MAD was going the way of my personal blog – which is to say, nowhere fast – I resolved to write in Mac-A-Doodle every single day of the week. At least one post, more if possible, for at least three consecutive months. Three. Full. Months. A full quarter of a year. No matter how busy I was, no matter where I went, even if I wasn’t getting paid for it.

I wanted to prove to myself that I could put my nose to the grindstone for MAD, and keep it there and not come up for air. I didn’t think I could do it, but I was willing to try.

Whaddaya know. Today, I complete that three month goal. I did it. Not just a post a day, but often two, sometimes three, and on occasion four or five. Go back and look if you don’t believe me. Hey, I don’t believe me.

And it so happened that within this three-month jag, inquirer.net asked me to join them. I said, ok, lets make it formal on October 1, the day my three-month self-imposed struggle ends. Only it hasn’t really ended. It’s more like it’s just started. With a bigger audience, the pressure is equally bigger too. Hey, I don’t mind. I’ve found I can do it after all.

It’s just a URL/bookmark/feed change for most of you folk, but for me this change means a lot. As much as your continued patronage. Thanks for reading, doodlers. I hope you continue to doodle at the new site.

Let’s go!

The One September 27, 2007

Posted by reverseengineer in Alternatives, Announcements, Hardware, iMacs, The Other Side of the Fence.
6 comments

It seems the fading Gateway still has some fight left in it. The former computer giant has unveiled its contender for the iMac throne with something Gateway calls, simply, One.

Tale of the tape:

  • 3.6″ thick all in all
  • 19-inch widescreen LCD
  • 2 models at US$1300/US$1800
  • 1.5GHz/2GHz Core 2 Duo
  • 2GB/3GB memory
  • 320gb/500gb hard drive
  • special online-only model at US$1500
  • all black front
  • metal shell
  • all cords and most ports out of sight (all on the power adapter)
  • side-mounted slot-loading DVD burner
  • no announced date of availability, but soon

Now call me silly, but doesn’t that look like something we all know?

Google Calendar interface for iPhone upgraded September 26, 2007

Posted by reverseengineer in Announcements, Apps, iPhone, Updates & Patches.
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The Google Calendar graphic interface has just been upgraded to have an iPhone-specific look when using the popular phone.

Being tailored for the iPhone, it’s now a perfect fit, and can show distinctive colors based on your calendar preferences. iPhone users can just point their Safari browsers to http://calendar.google.com.

For more info just head on over to the Official Gmail Blog here.

Heads-up: MacBook/MacBook Pro update September 25, 2007

Posted by reverseengineer in Announcements, Apple Inc., Downloads, Hardware, Notebooks, Updates & Patches.
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Apple’s just issued MacBook/MacBook Pro Update 1.0 via Software Update.

This update enables file system journaling on MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook computers. Some MacBook and MacBook Pro systems were shipped with file system journaling turned off. Journaling is recommended on all Mac computers as a preventative measure against file corruption.

Eh? The 660KB download is explained further on the Apple Support Page here.

Coffee and a song: 50,000,000 iTunes tracks for free September 25, 2007

Posted by reverseengineer in Announcements, Free Stuff, iPhone, iPods, iTunes Store, Music.
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Starbucks announced today that they are giving away 1.5 million songs everyday from October 2 to November 7 across its 10,000 branches in the United States, for a total of 50,000,000 by promo’s end.

This is part of the launching of the “Now Playing” arrangement with Apple that allows iPhone or iPod Touch users or those accessing the US iTunes Wifi Store at one of 600 initial Starbucks outlets in New York and Seattle to preview, buy and download the song current playing at the coffee shop as instant gratification. The “Song of The Day” promo will give customers iTunes cards for a complimentary song download for a specific track selected by Starbucks.

The songs will be selected from a wide variety of artists including Bob Dylan, Joss Stone, Dave Matthews, Bebel Gilberto, John Mayer, KT Tunstall, John Legend, Annie Lennox, Joni Mitchell, Keith Urban, Paul McCartney, Sia, Band of Horses, Hilary McRae, Frederico Aubele and Sara Bareilles. Customers have until the end of the year to download their free tracks.

MacADoodleTransfer September 22, 2007

Posted by reverseengineer in Announcements, Meta, Milestones, New Stuff, Updates & Patches, Wala lang.
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Not quite Mac-related news, but important just the same:

I’d like to just announce that MacADoodle is joining the Inquirer.Net blog network soon, and it’ll put this little Mac blog within the reach of a much wider audience, not just that lovable little enclave of Mac fanatics (and bashers) who currently read it today.

The Inquirer.Net website is the largest news portal in my country, with 1.8 million uniques and 25 million pageviews a month from across the world. It’s the online presence of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the largest and most influential newspaper we have here, but it’s much more than just a digital version of the newspaper. It has its own writers and staff, and more updated, dynamic content than the paper itself.

We’re currently exporting the archives and testing the waters at the moment, and we’ll make a formal turnover soon. This is basically just a heads-up, so you know what’s happened if this site stops updating all of a sudden. Even with the transfer, it’ll largely be the same old site, maybe with a few new features and a slightly different look, so don’t worry. Anyway, I’ll make sure you guys know the new URL and feed for MacADoodle as soon as it firms up, but for now, monkey business as usual.

I’d just like to say too that MacADoodle is proud that Inquirer.Net asked us to join their network. I hope this is the start of something bigger and better. A big MacADoodle Slobbering Thank You in advance to the site and to Mr. JV Rufino and Mr. Joey Alarilla, both rabid Mac users themselves (Joey’s just got on the boat, actually, and he’s been scratching his head saying to himself, where has the Mac been all my life?)

Anyway, yun lang po.

New OpenOffice for Mac available Sept (next year) September 20, 2007

Posted by reverseengineer in Announcements, Apps, FOSS, Share/Freeware.
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On the heels of the release of OpenOffice.org 2.3.0 update for most operating systems on the planet this week, the group has announced that they are releasing a new native Mac version of OpenOffice, the FOSS alternative office suite, one that does not require X11 to run, in September – of 2008.

I actually did a double-take when reading the original report from Computerworld, thinking they meant this September we’re in now – which made me wonder about the odd statement; why not just say this month then?

Macworld UK didn’t even notice the year: writer Jonny Evans, citing the exact same original report I linked to, wrote totally a off-the-mark and misleading report that headlined “Mac native OpenOffice this month?” It further says:

Popular and free Microsoft Office alternative OpenOffice seems set to ship in a native Mac OS X version later this month.

A report on Computerworld claims that OpenOffice 3.0 will ship later this month, citing a presentation to be made today by the lead engineer working on the project, Eric Bachard.

If you hurry, you can still read Macworld UK’s big blooper (if they haven’t yet pulled it by now) here. (If they have, I can still show you – I saved the page, heh heh.) They should read more closely, especially if they’re just snagging a report. Macworld should be more careful. If you’re just going to crib (like me), at least get the dates right. Tsk tsk.

Ahem. Back to the story.

Development for the Mac platform has been lackluster and perfunctory of late, but with the increasing popularity and acceptance of Macs and OS X as part of the halo effect of the various Apple “side” projects, apparently the group has re-thought their commitment to the Mac community and redoubled efforts to develop the suite for the platform, and assigned a few more people to the project. But – a year?

Version 3.0 is being designed for OS X 10.5, although by then 10.6 might be the prevailing OS for the Mac.

A year might be too long for most people. Like me. This is one instance where I literally can’t wait. And I don’t mean that in a good way.

Mum Tuesday: the UK iPhone September 18, 2007

Posted by reverseengineer in Announcements, Apple Inc., Events, iPhone, Support, Telecommunications.
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The Apple Event in Regent Street’s done, and we’re basically underwhelmed. Just the rollout announcement of the iPhone for the UK. No earthshakers, no surprises, no open-line 3G units. Here are the uh, high points:

  • O2 is the official sucker carrier
  • Rollout will be on November 9
  • 8GB iPhones will cost approx US$535
  • You can transfer your existing number from other carriers
  • Same banana – use iTunes to activate, update
  • Nothing new – no 16gb, no 3g, no open lines, no nothin’
  • No news on carriers for other European countries

Ho-hum. For a more detailed coverage, check out Engadget.

Becoming un-blued September 8, 2007

Posted by reverseengineer in Announcements, Apple Inc., Hardware, iPods.
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Breaking News: Boing Boing confirms that there is no Bluetooth feature in the new iPod Touch. Despite obvious “evidence” on Apple‘s own sites (and reported everywhere on the net, even here), an Apple spokesman Boing Boing, uh, spoke to unequivocally says there is no Bluetooth of any kind in the new iPod.

We were all just imagining that little squiggle then. Hmph.

See the denial through Boing Boing here. Doink doink!