Gosh, I can't believe I have been blogging so long now that I blogged about getting my first Mac over two years ago. Ever since that time I am a complete convert, and finally Andy succumbed as well. After over two years of seeing me have an easy intuitive computer experience, while he fought with his PC daily, he finally decided to come over to the light side. We went to an Apple store in Orlando today and picked up two matching Macbooks.

These were not impulse purchases; we had been carefully deliberating for weeks. We were both eligible for Apple's educational discount since we are both in school, so that saved us $100 for each Macbook. We got the mid level ones, Tis is Andy's first time ever working with a Mac, so he is on for a bit of a learning curve, but at least he has me there to help him out. I had to learn everything on my own, or through Google. My Macbook is already all set up the way I like it because I was able to transfer everything over via a firewire cable- pretty sweet. We'll see how Andy makes the adjustment.

I am kind of stoopid when it comes to computers sometimes- I know, I know, say it isn't so, right? Like you hadn't figured that out already. However, I am always trying things out of necessity and every once in a while I am successful in figuring something out. This morning after much frustration, I finally figured out how to "tether" my iBook to my Bluetooth cell phone wirelessly so that I can access the internet from anywhere I can get a cell phone signal. Yes, I have an unlimited data plan that covers this, so I won't be racking up huge charges- I made sure to research that extensively. It is not terribly fast, but the ability to use my laptop nearly anywhere is very freeing. So you may see me posting at different times of the day now that I have a reason to take my laptop along. Hooray, success!

So in case you have been under a rock all day or haven't paid attention because it isn't your thing, Apple revealed its new iPhone today at Macworld. It won't be available until June, Apple says, but is it ever slick. The iPhone will be part iPod, part smartphone, part mobile computer. It will have wi-fi, bluetooth, a two megapixel camera, an OS X operating system, and all kinds of other neat features. And I am going to have my hands on one of them as soon as possible! I am thinking I am pretty lucky right now to be a Cingular customer, as Apple chose to partner with Cingular and the iPhone will only be available through them. And even luckier still is the fact that I am due in May for a new phone- it will be two years since the last one, so I should be all set, $499 price tag be damned. I'll save my pennies until then.

Anyone else excited about this thing?

I found a cool little HP photo printer that prints borderless 4 x 6 inch prints for a steal today at Target, so I am quite pleased. I have wanted one of those things for a long time. Digital cameras are great, but there are times that I just need to make prints, like for my scrapbook and such. I always like to send a cute photo in a birthday or Christmas card, too, and I am too much of a home body to want to go out to the store every time I want to make good quality digital prints.

Which brings me to this. My friend at work teases me about being a hermit in training. He says that one day I am going to be the "Crazy Poodle Lady" that all the kids in the neighborhood whisper about. I don' think that will ever happen, but I do find that I really enjoy my time at home, and the more stupid people I encounter the less time I want to spend out and about among them. But I think that is probably true of anyone. It is not my fault that there are not that many cool people arouns here to meet, that is just the way it is. I mean, after all, I have met all of you guys through this blog and I think you are all great, just too far away. Does that make me a hermit?

I posted this little review over at MobilitySite already, but I thought I would share it here too. One of the things I looked forward to the most when I got my first Mac, a 12" iBook, was ordering a foofbag for it. If you are not familiar with Foof, she is from Australia and handmakes wonderful fun and funky pouches for protecting your iBook, Powerbook, or even your iPod. Even before the advent of iPod socks, Foof was making these marvelous pouches in a similar form factor and fantastic fabrics. The foofbag pictured is called "purple people eater," for obvious reasons and is just one of the many fabric options available. I ordered the "it's not easy being green" corduroy foofbag for my laptop, and it is splendid. It protects my iBook just enough to allow me to carry it around with me, but doesn't add much bulk. I can only imagine that the foofpods are excellent as well, and I am really digging the one she calls "half a giraffe." That and the foofbag called "I ate the giraffe!" These bags are not a new product, but are fabulous and handmade so I decided to share the experience. I will be ordering from her again!

Sorry to any non techie readers, but my true geekery is going to shine in this post, so just bear with me.

In addition to my laptops, I like to have a handheld deivce or Pocket PC to take with me for internet connectivity on the go, or even in the house. I used to use my Pocket PC, a Dell Axim X30 to check my e-mail and comments early in the morning as I was sitting at my vanity getting ready for work. The "instant on" feature was nice in that there was no waiting for it to boot up. But alas, it was not a perfect system and the tiny screen with its low resolution left me scrolling back and forth just to see each webpage. I ended up selling it and all its accessories on eBay to fund the next gadget in line. But what would it be?

I starting looking for an upgrade and I found that the newer Dell Axims are now up into the $500 dollar range, and still lacked a lot of the accessories I would want. That was a big jump for me because previous Pocket PCs I had were only about $350 including a few accessories. And then there were the issues with the new operating system. I read thread after thread on forums talking about how difficult Windows Mobile 5, the new operating system was. Dealing with that just didn't seem to fit into my overall migration away from Microsoft products either, with my new iBook and all.

And then there was the Nokia 770, Nokia's first non-phone device. It is called an internet tablet, and it has both Wi-fi and bluetooth for connectivity. Most importantly, though, it has a gorgeous 800 x 480 pixel screen which is perfect for viewing the tiniest details on webpages in a way I have never seen on a handheld. And the price, oh the price. A mere $359 from NokiaUSA.com. Not surprisingly Nokia is sold out of the things, and I had one on order, but then a few started appearing in CompUSA stores, and I tracked one down in Orlando. The sales people didn't even know what it was.

So, I picked one up, and let me tell you, it is impressive. First it runs a version of Linux as the operating system, and comes with Opera as the preinstalled browser. I can post to my Movable Type blog from it, and check my stats using CPanel from it and various other things I could never do from Microsoft Pocket PCs. It doesn't have the fastest processor or very much memory, but it does what it is supposed to do very well. It uses Reduced Size Multi Media Cards (RSMMCs) for storage, and they can be found in sizes up to a gigabyte currently. The battery life is pretty good- I get nearly four hours of browsing on a charge at close to full screen brightness, and the batteries are replaceable so it is easy to carry a few spares. The unit has a neat brushed metal cover that goes over the front to protect the screen, and then can be flipped around to cover the back when the unit is in use. It is definitely a nice touch.

All in all it is just really cool to see my blog in miniature and be able to surf from anywhere in the house without lugging a laptop around. Do I NEED the Nokia 770? Probably not. But its cool factor won me over as my handheld device of choice for 2006.

I have been e-mailing back and forth quite a bit with my web designer in the past week, as she was helping me move to a new host,and it was discussed what a tech geek I am. I would say that I am more of a "gadget geek" if anything. This was brought up because I would e-mail her from work in the middle of the day, and I mentioned to her that I could not check my blog while away from home, because I was e-mailing on my Pocket PC, connected wirelessly by bluetooth to my cellphone using a dial-up connection and that my cell phone's data plan would get eaten up too quickly viewing such a large file. Just in case you're wondering, we use a lot of computers at work and they all have internet access, but we are not allowed to use them for personal use. It is that whole "misuse of company assets" kind of thing. And we have keystroke monitoring among other things so they WILL find out if we break the rules.

Anyway, my bluetooth connection for e-mailing is geeky enough, but I also use my Pocket PC to play TV shows and movies when I am on the go. I have a bunch of movies that I have converted from DVDs and store on a one gigabyte SD card. I also use a TV tuner connected to my laptop to record shows that I want to watch that come on too late at night. The software I have shows the local program guide and all I have to do is scroll through it with a remote and click on the shows I want to record. It automatically converts the recorded shows and compresses them for viewing on my Pocket PC. Then I quickly store the shows to my SD card and I have the latest shows on the go. I watch them at lunch and breaks. I can carry about 10 hours worth of TV and movies with me on one SD card. Pretty amazing and pretty geeky at the same time, huh?