Jordan Satok

Some companies do it right. Other World Computing is one of them. They’ve managed impressed me.

Often companies don’t realize the value of good customer service. If I am going to spend money on a product and want to ensure I choose the correct one, the most valuable thing for a me is good customer service.

On Friday night, I realized there was only about 30GB left on my Time Machine drive, and decided to order another hard drive. I had spoken to Bob at OWC earlier that week, and had chosen the Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black Hard Drive. Bob was great to deal with, and I learned a lot about different hard drives from talking to him.

I placed the order at about 6:30PM, and kept my eyes on the FedEx Tracking page that night, and was very impressed when the package was picked up just after 7. Just before 10PM, it left the FedEx Depot in Cary, IL for Memphis, TN. At 1:21 AM, less than 7 hours after I had placed the order, it was en-route to Toronto. Monday morning the order was delivered.

This scenario would have impressed me normally, but considering that it was a holiday weekend, I didn’t expect OWC to be shipping, or FedEx to be delivering.

Long story short, It was a seamless experience. They did it right, and exceeded my expectations.

I’ll have a post up soon reviewing the NewerTech Voyager Q, a hard drive dock sold by OWC.

In case you were wondering, the level of service that was provided to me was not due to the press relationship I have with OWC. I paid full price for the hard drive, and ordered directly through the website, not through Press Contacts. I highly recommend Other World Computing for all your Mac related upgrades.

Today, Apple released an updated iPod Shuffle, featuring no buttons. The iPod is controlled by three buttons on the headphones, but there are in fact no buttons (apart from power, which is a switch), on the iPod.

I have felt for a while that Apple has been moving in this direction. Steve Jobs made a point of mentioning the lack of buttons while releasing both the first and second generation iPhones, which both feature no buttons apart from power and home. Both these buttons are of course essential to the functionality of the iPhone, but both are used for a couple tasks, making them more useful than a single button. For example, the home button of course takes you back to the home screen while in an application, but it also returns you to the first page of apps if on another page, and if pressed with the power button, it takes a screenshot.

The same applies for the trackpad in the most recent MacBook and MacBook Pros. These notebooks feature a glass trackpad that does not have a physical button. Instead, there is an area at the bottom that will click if pushed, or one can tap anywhere on the trackpad with Tap to Click enabled. If one clicks on the bottom right of the trackpad, within the area that clicks, this results in a right click.

Before integrating the button-less trackpad, Apple added Multi-Touch technology to the trackpads of the previous generation of notebooks. Some of the actions that can be preformed using the Multi-Touch trackpad once again showed how tasks that previously required a more complex action. An example of one of these actions is rotating an image with Preview, previously one would need to go to Tools in the menu bar, and then select Rotate Left, or Rotate Right. With the addition of the Rotate motion in the trackpad, one places two fingers on the trackpad and rotates in the direction they want the picture to be rotated.

I plan to discuss some of my thoughts on Multi-Touch in an upcoming article, but for now, I will focus on my thoughts of the button-less iPod, and future button-less Apple technologies.

Back to the button-less iPod. While I understand that complaints can be made, especially those complaining that they want to use their own headphones with the new Shuffle (which will not work, unless an adapter is added that will add the buttons - it will come at an additional cost, likely in the $20 to $30 range). I feel the new iPod doesn’t just demonstrate Apple’s taste for simplistic design, it also shows how Apple likes to simplify products, a characteristic I feel Apple has shown many times before.

The new iPod is essentially a usb flash drive with a headphone jack, because of the lack of buttons, and the size. Please don’t take this the wrong way, as I understand that it is of course not a flash drive, but rather an MP3 player. Apple has shown yet again how products that were believed to be very simple, in this case; the 2nd Generation iPod, which featured five buttons, can be simplified.

I look forward to seeing the new iPod, testing it, and reporting on my feelings regarding the lack of buttons after testing it.

For those interested in seeing how Apple implemented the iPod controls into the headphones, please see the Apple Support Page detailing the controls.

While at Macworld in January, I stopped by the Griffin booth to check out some of their newest products. My favorite my which was the Simplifi. It is a iPod or iPhone dock, with an SD reader, a CompactFlash reader, and a two-port USB hub.

I’ve always liked products that make things simple. Why have a iPhone dock, Card reader, and USB hub, when I can one device that can do everything.

The front and back are white plastic, while the top is a very nice brushed aluminum, which nicely matches the Apple Aluminum Keyboard.

It includes a set of dock adapters so you can use it with most iPods and iPhones.

Setup is easy, as expected, connect the mini-USB cable to your Mac or PC, and connect the power cable to an AC jack. It would be nice if it was completely bus powered, and did not require a power cable, but seeing how many devices it potentially replaces, I don’t think this is a big issue.

It would be nice if the Simplifi had more USB ports on it, as it only has two, and much of the back is empty. As well, I don’t have a need at all for CompactFlash, and would have enjoyed two USB ports on the front instead of the CompactFlash reader.

Overall it is good product, that successfully does what is advertised. Along with my complaints above, it would be nice if it was a bit smaller, as it is not quite the size of a device I would like to carry with me.

For me, I already own the Apple iPhone 3G dock, and my Dell 2408WFP already has an SD reader, CompactFlash reader and USB hub. If you have an Apple display,

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably read bits and pieces of my search for the perfect monitor. I’ve tested three, totally different monitors, looking for the right one for me.

From the beginning, I wanted a 24″ Monitor that supported the 1920×1200pixel resolution, and would easily connect, and nicely integrate with my MacBook Pro.

The obvious one was the Apple 24″ LED Display, released at the same time as the new Unibody MacBook Pros. I also tested a basic Samsung 24″ monitor, and then finally settled on the Dell 2408WFP.

Monitor #1: Apple 24″ LED Display

When the new Apple 24″ LED Display was released, I wanted one immediately. It’s a 24″ Glossy display, with builtin iSight, Speakers and Microphone. It is the first, and only monitor to have the new Mini DisplayPort on it. I ordered it shortly after it was released,

Before I talk about why I didn’t keep this monitor, I want to say how nicely this display integrated with my MacBook Pro. I could tell they were really built for each other.

Now onto the bad part. The display is glossy. While this doesn’t sound so bad, it is. The display was so reflective, that even when viewing a light image, and the brightness all the way up, there was an awful reflection. I did some research and found a couple options for covers that would help cut down on the glare, but think about it, would you want plastic sheet covering your thousand-dollar monitor? I certainly did not.

The Apple 24" LED Display reflecting light from a nearby window.

I struggled for a couple days, hoping I could become used to the glare, but after nearly two weeks of use, I couldn’t. So I brought the display back to the Apple Store.

Monitor #2: Samsung 2463UW

I found the next display while shopping at BestBuy. It is, as I consider it to be, a basic, low-end 24″ display. While it has a built-in Camera, Speakers and Microphone, it isn’t the $1000 Apple display I had previously tested. Without much research, I bought it, knowing I had two weeks to use it, and return it if I didn’t like it.

I knew, less than 10 minutes after opening it up, that it wasn’t the right monitor for me. At less than half the price of the Apple Display, the quality of this display suffered. I calibrated it a number of times, and regardless of what I did, the colors were awful.

I did see a benefit with this monitor though. The Apple display only had the Mini DisplayPort for connecting to the computer. While this was fine, considering I have a latest generation of MacBook Pro, that has Mini DisplayPort, I felt that I didn’t know what Apple is planning for the future, and this connection might leave me with limited options. The Samsung 2463UW has VGA, DVI and HDMI ports, allow me a few different options for connecting the monitor to my computer, and other devices.

Monitor #3: Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP

My favorite display that I’ve tested, to this date is the Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP. I’ve been using it for the last month or so, and have found it to be excellent. The 2408WFP is Dell’s top-of-the-line 24″ display. It has a every feature you’d ever want in a monitor; height adjustable stand, tons of inputs, and a great panel.

The colors are accurate, everything is sharp, and best of all, this display isn’t glossy! There are two DVI ports, one VGA port, one DisplayPort (not the mini one that Apple uses), one HDMI port, one Composite, one Composite and one S-Video Port. I can connect virtually whatever I want to this display. It also has four usb ports (two on the rear, two on the side), and a 9 in 2 card reader.

The final setup. (Note the Dell Mini 9 on the left)

So, I’ve decided, that the Dell is the perfect monitor for me. It was cool testing out all these monitors, and seeing the differences between different screens.

I managed to snap a slightly funny picture today. We’re currently experiencing a major snow storm here in Toronto, and while looking out the window I saw the mailman walking along, with a full blizzard surrounding him.

Good to see that Canada Post isn’t scared of the weather!

Since the introduction of the concept of the Netbook I’ve been intrigued. In my mind a Netbook is a low power, low cost, small computer that usually runs a custom version of Linux or Windows. The most popular ones to date include the Asus Eee PC, the Acer Aspire One, the Dell Mini 9 and the MSI Wind. All of these Netbooks run on the Intel Atom processor and have under 9 inch or smaller screen (with the exception of some models of the Eee PC). Recently there has been a lot of speculation regarding whether Apple will enter into the Netbook market with a similar offering as other manufactures, or if they will do something revolutionary.

I haven’t purchased, or used a Netbook for 3 main reasons.

1. “Future Proofing”: As I see it, many of the Netbooks available today are not future proof. They barely meet the requirements to run a modern day operation system, and they are quite difficult to upgrade, making it impossible for these computer to be usable for more than a year or two.
2. I haven’t found a Netbook yet that is perfect for me. For a while I was sold on the Acer Aspire One, but after testing one out, I realized it wasn’t for me. There wasn’t any big issues with it, but there was one that stood out to me; the trackpad click buttons are on the side of the trackpad.
3. I need a full version of the operating system. I’m a power user. I don’t want a stripped down operating system that just works. I want it to run a full operating system with no limitations.

If Apple made a Netbook, and I was going to buy one, it would need to have the following.

• RAM easily upgradable to at least 2GB, preferably 4GB
• Full operating system, with no limitations dictated by the hardware
• At least a 4-5 Hour battery with average use. On my new MacBook Pro I find that depending on what I’m doing, I will get between 1 hour and 45 minutes of battery with the NVIDIA GeForce 9600M Processor, to 3 hours of battery with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M Processor. 4-5 Hours with WiFi on and 75% brightness is a must for me.
• A decent number of ports. The one reason I won’t use a MacBook Air is the number of ports. I need at least 2 USB ports, and an ethernet port.
• A reasonably priced 64GB SSD upgrade.
• It has to have a full sized keyboard. I found when testing a number of Netbooks that the keyboards were very difficult to use. The spacing on many of them is not right, the keys are too close together, or some functions can only be preformed with shortcuts.

There are a few things I don’t think is essential in a Netbook, including the following.

• It doesn’t need to be as thin as the MacBook Air is, or anything close to that. I’m fine with the thickness of the MacBooks and MacBook Pros. I don’t want to compromise anything for the thickness of the computer.
• It doesn’t need to have a video output on it. I recently ordered the new Apple 24″ LED Display, but if I had a Netbook, I am sure I would not connect it to this display.
• It doesn’t need to have an Aluminum Unibody Enclosure. That adds costs that are not needed for a product like this.

Apple has always been an innovator in creating new products, and I’m interested to see if they choose to enter into the Netbook market, and if they do, I am interested in seeing what they produce.