Well it officially just ticked over to 2009 in New Zealand. I wish my regular readers a Happy New Year! Best of luck for 2009 and lets hope it brings joy to you and your friends. Hopefully this blog can survive one more year longer.

The clock just ticked over to Christmas Day in New Zealand. I wish you a happy Christmas day and hope today is great and you have a good feast and get fat. Also say hello to all your relatives from good old yum9me. Have a great day and enjoy your presents. Sorry about not getting my one, the shipping container fell into the sea and destroyed them all.

See you in a few days after I’ve finished playing with my beauty below.

Early this morning, New Zealand time, Steve Jobs took the stage in a special Apple event where he announced a bunch of notebooks. I got up at 6am to read the up to date news on these new systems. As I said during the last event about the new iPods, I find myself less excited and feeling a little disappointed after the announcement. I feel this is not because the products suck or are just minor updates, but because rumors about these are getting released months, weeks, days and hours before the event, and they turn out to be true. I would enjoy the keynote a lot more if the releases were a complete surprise, something i hadn’t seen before, but that seems to be impossible nowadays, unfortunately.

If you want to know about the new MacBooks, you can go to Engadget, MacRumors, Ars Technica or any other tech site that reports on Apple news. If you want the specs and more detailed information, you can go to the Apple website or store for that. They both looks pretty cool and they both are pretty expensive, which is a shame. I had plans on getting a MacBook before, and I still would like a MacBook now. They also announced a 24 inch Cinema Display. The thing that makes this product so special is that it was made for MacBook, Pro and Air. It has 3 cables on it, MagSafe for power, USB for data and Mini DisplayLink for graphics. I think this is a great solution for connecting your notebook to a monitor. It is similar to some kind of docking solution, except with cables. The monitor has power USB ports for those desk items like keyboard, mouse, external drives etc.

The new MacBook is made out of Aluminium instead of plastic. The case looks really nice, much nicer than the previous one in my opinion. The screen is glass and features a LED backlit monitor. It would have been nice if it was capable of 1440×900 instead of just 1280×800. It also has a backlit keyboard on the high end model which is something that I would love because I do type in the dark and have difficulty seeing the in that setting. They have also ditched the Intel integrated graphics with a nVidia GeForce 9400M which is a much better graphics option. I also noticed that it uses DDR3 RAM instead of the DDR2 that most other notebook computers use.

I do love the new MacBook over the old one. The only problem is the increase in price point. The old custom configuration I had would have cost me $2500 with AppleCare and an Educational Discount. My new custom configuration is going to cost me $3000 with AppleCare and Educational Discount. I’m starting to wonder if a $3000 notebook computer is a smart thing to do. Should I just give it a skip and go with a cheaper Windows PC? I really want this MacBook but I’m not sure if I could do it for $3000. Only time will tell if and when I own this beauty…

Last week, Apple hosted an event to show off their new music stuff. This included a new version of iTunes, a range of new iPods, and new software for iPhone and iPod Touch. I didn’t get up a 5am like the last event to see what Apple was announcing, I could wait till later because I don’t need an iPod and also a lot of the announcements were already rumored around the internet, mainly due to a Kevin Rose inside source.

To sum up everything in a paragraph, new version of iTunes, 8.0. Adds grid album art view and Genius which makes playlists from songs similar to the one chosen. New iPod Nano, old slim design, accelerometer and Genius plus also a gimmicky (useless) feature, shake to shuffle. New iPod Touch, same as old one, slight design changes, Nike+ built in, volume on side. 2.1 software for iPhone/iPod Touch, fixes the bugs in 2.0 and adds Genius. The only things that interest me is the iTunes 8.0 update and the 2.1 software.

I installed iTunes straight away and I have noticed that it works better than 7.7 did in Vista. It still isn’t perfect but I guess the only way to make iTunes work perfectly is to get a Mac. As you know, I prefer to play my music by album so the album art grid view is great for me. It allows me to select an album to play pretty quickly. I also had a quick play with genius. I was happy with the selection it made, although it could probably have made better choices here and there, but I’m sure it’s playlist selections will get better as time goes on. I think Genius is a great way to find similar songs that go together in your library in a quick and easy way. It also allows to rediscover some of the music that has been buried in your library for a while. I think it is great alternative over Party Shuffle in iTunes and definitely the shuffle mode.

I have yet to upgrade my iPhone to 2.1 but I am really looking forward to being able to. Genius on it is going to be great, although I am a bit worried about how well it would work with only one third of my music collection on it. In saying that, it has most of the songs, well albums, I enjoy listening to anyway. Also the bug fixes to the keyboard lag, random app crashes and long sync/backup time will be greatly appreciated. I’m just waiting for QuickPwn for Windows to get released and I’m on the bandwagon. I need the unofficial third party apps as much as I need the official ones, that is why I haven’t gone through with the upgrade already.

So the event was prety dull. I think it would have been more exciting if the products hadn’t been rumored in such great detail beforehand. It kind of ruined the anticipation of the announcements. Although I wasn’t expecting any new computers (MacBook please!) to be announced, that will be the thing I am looking forward to the most. I think I am turning towards the Apple side!

As you may have noticed, the last blog post I have made here was exactly a month ago, on the 25th of July. Why has it been so long since I have posted? Well the main reason is the idea well run dry (thanks for all your suggestions, all who emailed in.) Now I have gathered up some ideas and have some new things to blog about after this break. I do think that this was a perfect time to have a break, right before my first milestone, more about that on the date.

So, what has happened to me since I have been away. Well first I got sick and had a week off school. I got sick on the Saturday, which was a week before the school Formal. I went to the doctors and he gave me medication to take but I wasn’t getting any better so I returned to the doctor on Wednesday who though it could potentially be appendicitis and sent me to the emergency department to get test taken. This was a scary thought as I hate hospitals and the thought of having surgery.

When I got there, I waited for a bit and then later got check out, where the stuck a thing in my arm, took some blood and then put me on a drip. I waited for about 3 or 4 hours before the results came back, which showed nothing so I got let go. I had KFC for dinner at 8:30pm which was getting late but I only ate half a burger because I really didn’t feel like eating.

After that I started feeling better but I took the next day of resting, and then on the Friday, although I would have preferred another days rest, and could have used it, I needed to go to school to pick up my Formal ticket for the next day. I already had payed $90 or however much it cost and already had a suit hired for the event.

So the next day, I went to the school Formal. This is a big deal for a lot of people, but for me, it was just meh. I thought I had better go because this would be my only opportunity to ever go to one so I needed to see what it was all about. It is really weird seeing everyone dressed formally. I am not used to seeing people like this. And the event, it was average, but nothing I would have missed if I didn’t go. Oh, also I have to mention how crappy the food was, I wish I had eaten beforehand. There was also an afterparty, but I don’t think I’ll go into that.

Other than that, I have had assessments and have been doing other stuff (iPhone *cough*) as well as the usual. Still have a few things to get sorted out but by the holidays, my todo list should be clear. I still have to start that damn reading log so I can get the English credit I need for University. I did plan on finishing it this month, which is now over, so I doubt that will be happening. It’s a shame because I was hoping to have this of my plate for when the Fall TV shows start their new seasons. Despite my workload, I will be trying to keep this blog updated like I had before my break.

Tomorrow I will be leaving for an overnight school trip. We are going somewhere not too far away and will be doing something that I do not know. So as of around 11pm tonight, that will be the last time I use my computer until I get back on the Tuesday afternoon.

Now that’s around 40 hours with no computer, no cellphone or iPod or anything of the sort. I am not going to have any technology for a long time. I can’t remember the last time I have been away from my computer for that long, but its probably been years. The longest I am usually away from the internet world is about 10 hours which isn’t that long but I am going to be away from it all for 40 hours and in 10 hours the internet moves pretty fast so I’m going to have a lot to catch up on being away from it for 4 times that.

Being away from the internet for so long is going to make it hard to come back with a huge pile of articles in my RSS reader, stories on Digg, Tweets to read, and other things to catch up on. This opportunity my help me by evaluating my internet usage and possibly help me make some cuts on unnecessary parts so I have more time to do other stuff and be more productive. As well as helping me through the experience of going away, it may also help me in my current life, online and offline. Maybe 40 hours away from it all will do me some good after all.

On Friday, 9th of May, I turned 18 years old. Now this is a big thing because it means I can legally do a lot of things. Purchase Alcohol and Cigarettes, Gamble money, and do other things that I will think of later. Anyway, its supposed to be a milestone for a young person. To be honest, I couldn’t care less. It doesn’t feel any different and I probably won’t do any of the things stated above for a fair while because I don’t care and am not interested in wasting money on those luxuries.

Now onto my birthday… Every year for a few years now, Birthdays haven’t really meant much. They seem like normal days, only slightly different because I get a few gifts and people give you a different number to associate how long you have been alive. This year, I didn’t really get much in the terms of the gifts department. I did get gifts, but they weren’t anything special or anything worth talking about. Maybe that is one of the reasons I don’t care much about birthdays anymore, I don’t get cool toys like when I was little.

And in case you are wondering, no, there was no party. Parties do not appeal to me really. I did not have friends over and do stuff. There is really nothing to do, nor a reason to celebrate, in my opinion. Some would say I have a negative or bland view on birthdays, or celebration in general, and yes, you are probably right. Why don’t I care? Maybe because no one else does either.