Shared Calendar: Being on the same page

I'm not sure about you but for me, life is hectic. Living life as a single was bad enough. When you live life as a couple it gets even more complex. Then throw in the kids and it gets downright hectic. Life just never stops. There's always that next appointment or event that you are all trying to get to. And to make it more complex, sometimes events and appointments are for just one person or one kid, and sometimes everyone's individual schedules start conflicting with each other.

This is where having a shared calendar system comes in. I know many families already have some type of system. And many people have some form of system at work to keep track of things. But here is where the breakdown comes in to play, they are all different systems. And eventually something will fall through the cracks and an event or appointment gets double booked or forgotten. The shared calendar or "family calendar" is where it all comes together.

The shared calendar is something that I have used with my wife since we got married. At first it was not so much for avoiding scheduling conflicts or double bookings. I was a grad student at the time and she wanted to know when I get out of class and when my assignments are due. It was a system to keep me in check and to keep me accountable for what I was doing. However, as we started to add to the calendar, we started to add in particular work events that my wife had or nights out with the girls that she had.  It was essentially a heads up for me to know what is up in her life so I can react accordingly.

Eventually, this calendar of ours evolved to not only include all our events and work stuff but also chores that we have at home. Chores such as vacuuming and laundry that are done on a more scheduled basis. Then when the kids came along, it included the kids' events and play dates and such.

Having everything on the same page helps with planning and coordinating. It helps us know what we have agreed to with other people without necessarily needing to consult with each other first.  In a sense, it allows the freedom of knowing that we wouldn't be overfilling ourselves or creating conflict. The calendar system allows for us to note down what is happening and when. It becomes a good place to consult when we plan for family time and events. It allows for us to know who is able to pick up the kids when and if one of us will not be home for dinner or will be coming home late for any reason.

We execute this shared calendar system through Google Calendar. Using iCal or Microsoft's Outlook Calendar works too. The point is to have a place that all of you are able to access and edit with the devices that you own and use.

The beauty of Google Calendar is the ability to use it on essentially any mobile device and tablet, while being accessible on the website and also on most computers' default calendar program. As an added bonus, although I do not personally use this function, it also has the ability to allow for other family members to subscribe to it or to share it without editing capability.

Most of us have various digital devices ranging from smartphones to tablets to computers, and all these devices are connected. This connectedness allows for the ability to share and connect in a way that we weren't able to before. It's allowed my family to leverage technology to help simplify our life. It's allowed us to be on the same page on what is happening and when. It's allowed us to mitigate potential conflicts that may arise from miscommunication and poor planning. It's created a system of trust and accountability as both of us know what is happening in the other's life. And if something happened outside of the scheduled events, it promotes talking to grow closer together. The fact that we know what is happening in each other's life, we now can move on from asking what is happening to asking what happened during those said events in life.

I'm not sure about you, but having a shared calendar system is a life saver and a time saver for us. And I hope that this has been an inspiration for you to start something similar if you haven't already. And for those that have a system that works for them, I would love to hear about it.

Regulating life with the Fitbit Charge HR

For Christmas of 2016, I got a little gift for myself. A fitness tracker. It wasn't because I believed it would change my habit of getting off the couch more or the fact that I'm not moving enough. I know all these already.

The reason I got the fitness tracker was because it was free. I had collected enough loyalty points to redeem it. And to be honest I have been curious about what all the rage was about. So I traded in my points and redeemed myself a Fitbit Charge HR.

I will have to confess, I wasn't particularly interested in moving more. But I am a data junkie. A data junkie in the sense of hitting those optimal numbers and seeing how to improve myself. Now I have a method of actual quantification that doesn't require manual data keeping or entry (which often boils down to guesswork and half-truth).

Here's a machine that once strapped to my wrist will tell me all the stats I need. My heart rate, my sleep cycle and amount of sleep, the number of steps I took, how hard I actually worked out. It's a marvel in technological innovation for nothing more than a self-glorified self-quantification device. And it was glorious indeed.

[embed]https://youtu.be/A7Y3kUl0N2Q[/embed]
Over the course of the last half year I have learned some interesting things about myself with this Fitbit Charge HR. I wasn't actually as lazy as I thought I was. I required at least 7 hours of sleep to function. And apparently my heart rate spikes when I am under the weather or about to get sick.

This isn't to say that the core function of tracking my fitness was not useful. It was. I have been able to let it automatically track the intensity of my jogging and of my home body-weight workouts. Especially with the latter. I am now able to not just feel the burn but also quantify it with the fact that my heart rate has risen accordingly. Or conversely when I have been too lax with the intensity of my workout and thus need to push it up a notch. There is no hiding anymore.

But for me, the main takeaway from this device was the heart rate monitor. The monitor has been able to log and pick up on situations where I have been stressed or when emotions have been running high. It has been able to pick up on whether I was coming down with a cold. Although unfortunately, the device does not inform of these things ahead of time, it does allow me to check the history or and to check it real time while in the situation with a quick tap on the device. This has allowed me to step back from situations before they escalated and also allowed me to take preventive care prior to getting sick.

The last function that I have been pretty dependent on is the silent vibrating alarm on the Charge HR. It has been a key way for me to wake up in the morning now without waking up theWife or the Little Girl (that may have made her way into our bed). I found the gentle buzzing of my arm has been enough to wake me out of deep sleep without the noise associated with a normal alarm and this has been a plus for everyone.

Overall, the Fitbit Charge HR has been a keeper for me. It may not have revolutionized the way I live life but it did help me regulate it and help me maintain productivity in a core way by keeping a log of and watching over my body.

What about you? How have you been using a fitness tracker in your life? Got any tips to share?

Look out for a post on my review and thoughts of the Misfit Flash for helping to regulate life in the near future.

*feature photo and youtube belongs to Fitbit.com

Regulating life with the Fitbit Charge HR

For Christmas of 2016, I got a little gift for myself. A fitness tracker. It wasn't because I believed it would change my habit of getting off the couch more or the fact that I'm not moving enough. I know all these already.

The reason I got the fitness tracker was because it was free. I had collected enough loyalty points to redeem it. And to be honest I have been curious about what all the rage was about. So I traded in my points and redeemed myself a Fitbit Charge HR.

I will have to confess, I wasn't particularly interested in moving more. But I am a data junkie. A data junkie in the sense of hitting those optimal numbers and seeing how to improve myself. Now I have a method of actual quantification that doesn't require manual data keeping or entry (which often boils down to guesswork and half-truth).

Here's a machine that once strapped to my wrist will tell me all the stats I need. My heart rate, my sleep cycle and amount of sleep, the number of steps I took, how hard I actually worked out. It's a marvel in technological innovation for nothing more than a self-glorified self-quantification device. And it was glorious indeed.

Over the course of the last half year I have learned some interesting things about myself with this Fitbit Charge HR. I wasn't actually as lazy as I thought I was. I required at least 7 hours of sleep to function. And apparently my heart rate spikes when I am under the weather or about to get sick.

This isn't to say that the core function of tracking my fitness was not useful. It was. I have been able to let it automatically track the intensity of my jogging and of my home body-weight workouts. Especially with the latter. I am now able to not just feel the burn but also quantify it with the fact that my heart rate has risen accordingly. Or conversely when I have been too lax with the intensity of my workout and thus need to push it up a notch. There is no hiding anymore.

But for me, the main takeaway from this device was the heart rate monitor. The monitor has been able to log and pick up on situations where I have been stressed or when emotions have been running high. It has been able to pick up on whether I was coming down with a cold. Although unfortunately, the device does not inform of these things ahead of time, it does allow me to check the history or and to check it real time while in the situation with a quick tap on the device. This has allowed me to step back from situations before they escalated and also allowed me to take preventive care prior to getting sick.

The last function that I have been pretty dependent on is the silent vibrating alarm on the Charge HR. It has been a key way for me to wake up in the morning now without waking up theWife or the Little Girl (that may have made her way into our bed). I found the gentle buzzing of my arm has been enough to wake me out of deep sleep without the noise associated with a normal alarm and this has been a plus for everyone.

Overall, the Fitbit Charge HR has been a keeper for me. It may not have revolutionized the way I live life but it did help me regulate it and help me maintain productivity in a core way by keeping a log of and watching over my body.

What about you? How have you been using a fitness tracker in your life? Got any tips to share?

Look out for a post on my review and thoughts of the Misfit Flash for helping to regulate life in the near future.

I got the power! As in Powerline Network

Cables. I don't know about you but at one point in time I had them everywhere. This was in the days when WiFi was not as prominent and wired network was still the main way to get stuff done. I would have wires hanging on the edge of the wall and ceiling and over door frames. It was a mess. I remember when The Wife and I first got married, we had an ADSL modem from AT&T hanging on the wall along with a wireless router not too far off. It was all on the wall. I even had a friend come over and comment that I seemed to have a bomb mapped out on the wall. It was a mess.

The advent of WiFi saved the wires quite a bit and I was able to essentially get all my computers, phone and tablets connected. However, this all went out the window when I found that WiFi wasn't getting the speed I needed to stream media on the Roku media box. So a wired solution was needed again. But the problem is that I live in a two story house now, with the modem/router being upstairs and the TV/Roku being downstairs. There was no way I was going to have cables snaking through the house with two toddlers on the loose.

I needed another solution. Originally I started off with a more complex solution of using an extra wireless router that I had sitting around as a bridge point to bring the cable to the media room. But it wasn't elegant and I still encountered the WiFi issue. So on to looking for another solution. My in-laws of all people suggested that I should try out the powerline LAN adapters as a possible solution. And to get me on the right path, my over zealous father-in-law already bought four extra adapters that he wasn't using at home as he only needed two and found them good enough for him. So I now have four of these things to play with, from two different brands.

I'm not sure where everyone is with their network or wireless vs wired solutions either at home or in the office. But for me, I needed a consistent and stable speed for both the streaming media box and also our file and media server. And with the way the house is, these two things are not always able to be near the router/modem at the same time. For the rest of my devices, WiFi does fine enough. So for me, the powerline LAN adapter is fully for solving the issue of creating network without the need for wires galore and still maintain a faster speed and stable network than WiFi may provide otherwise.

So on to the solution. I was gifted by my father-in-law with a set of TrendNet 500Mbps Compact Powering AV Adapter Kit (TPL-406E2K) and also a Tenda 200Mbps Powering Mini Adapter kit (P200). Being the typical guy, I did not read instructions and decided to just do the plug and play pray option. Surprisingly, it worked right out of the box for me. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be this way or if my father-in-law already set it all up for me (but I doubt it, he is very tech illiterate). And surprisingly, despite the fact that the two sets were of different brands, they were able to work together. It just works.

But the question is, as always, how well does it work. I will say straight up, the speed on these things are good and consistent. However, the issue arises with heat.

The Tenda units tend to overheat easily and just stop working. A quick unplugging and replugging does the trick but can be annoying since it can happen anytime. I have gone for as short as 15 minutes to as long as two days. So it's not what I call a reliable source of plug-it-in and leave-it-be type of tech.

The TrendNet units functioned a lot better. It seemed to have been susceptible to heat only once when we experienced a heat wave and the room in which it was located rose to a blistering 29C/84F. Aside from that one fateful day, the units have been humming along great with no slowdown or hiccups.

Overall, the idea of running your network over your powerline is a pretty decent idea. It gets the job done. It minimizes the mess of wires in the house. It provides a more secure environment compared to WiFi. I would say it is a good mixture of helping to minimize and simplify your house and technology and also allow for better organization of your devices.

I would definitely recommend it to family and friends. However, I would also caution on buying too cheap of a unit as it seems like they are susceptible to heat failure.

What about you? How have you managed to organize the mess that comes with a more digital lifestyle that requires multiple devices? What is your experience with various solutions? Would love to hear about what you have been doing.

Why I use a Windows Phone

Often time people see me pull out my phone and they would ask me what it is, and I would have to explain to them that it is a Windows phone. And then they would ask why compared to either an Apple iPhone or the various Android phones available.

When you think of your smartphone, what is it that you think of? Apps? Email? Social media? Media? A tool to get the job done? Or a combination of them? I would think that for most people it would be a combination of various functions and various problems that they are trying to solve. I know for me, the smartphone has been an invaluable tool for information, communication and occasionally relaxation.

I have been one of those guys that have been trying to optimize my workflow or just the flow of life in general. I have tried various phones and systems with different results. For those interested I have been with Symbian, iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7, 8 & 10. Of them all, I found that they each serve differing purposes or what I like to call 'problems in life that they are aiming to solve'. Out of all of them, I have found that I keep returning back to the Windows Phone platform.

The Windows Phone experience ain't perfect and I don't expect them to be able to compete head-to-head with the other two titans in the mobile space. iOS from Apple has a definite advantage with their massive library of quality apps. Android is flexible from the start but I found that the experience varies a lot depending on the manufacturer of the phone and whether it was a low-end versus a flagship or somewhere in between. The Android experience in essence is a pick your feature and poison experience.

Like I said, I have been able to try various iterations of the modern Windows Phone experience and it is important to note this for the fact that each iteration was a distinct move and transition in how Microsoft saw and used the smartphone. However, what initially drew me and still holds me is the fact that the platform as a whole throughout the three main iterations have been built with communication and quick information capture as a premise. Their premise and philosophy is to give a system and a phone that requires you to use it less, to look at it less, so that you can focus on the important things in life, as in your real life, your family, your job and your hobbies.

I can't say that I didn't miss the multitude of apps that both iOS or Android have within their app stores but at the same time, the Windows experience has all the key apps for me to communicate and to keep in touch with the things I need on a day to day basis for living and for work.

For me, Windows Phone provided a system that can give me a quick glance at what is happening in my life with the ability to either respond or move on with life without the need to start apps or to pull down notification menus etc. All it requires is a wave of the hand or a tap on the power button and I could either have the basic notification or a more detailed list of what is happening, all presented within the main screen. I know, some of you are probably thinking that the usage of widgets on the Android system can do the same thing, and this is partially true, but it comes with a cost. A cost of extra resource on the phone that cuts into the experience. A cost of needing extra swiping motions. Either way, it is not as optimized as having a system built on this premise as a cornerstone.

Overall, Windows Phone is not right for everyone. It is a spartan experience. It is an experience where productivity and efficiency is key. It is a place where you don't need the multitude of apps but rather a key handful to get life done. It is an experience and a lifestyle choice that frees you more to live real life. For me, it has freed me from the temptation of playing or looking at my phone and allowed me to focus on my wife, my kids and my job. It has decreased the need to look at my phone for long periods of time and still able to accomplish the same thing with a glance.

If you are curious, start your exploration here. It is a journey down the rabbit hole. A journey to turn your back on what is popular in life. A journey of discovering what is important in life.

For those wondering I use a Microsoft Lumia 650.

A week with the IKEA Nordmarke (wireless charging pad)

I have always been fascinated with the idea of wireless charging for the cellphone. It seems so easy and nice to just plop the phone down on the desk and it just feeds the battery and when I need to go I just grab the phone and run. Seems like such an ideal world. A world without fiddling with wires (or at least visible wires), a world where your phone is perpetually being topped up with power when you are not actively using it. This is the dream.

So while I was walking through and browsing wasting time at IKEA with Baby Girl, I noticed the IKEA Nordmarke triple wireless charging pad on sale, for a very good price of just over $20 down from $80. I jumped on the deal without a thought in the world. OK, I did have a thought, how I was going to explain to the Wife on my indiscriminate spending spree. But my urge to buy overtook my fear (and besides, they have a lenient refund policy).

Anyhow, I bought the Nordmarke and home I went. Got it all plugged in. It came with the pad, an AC adapter and some pieces of paper (that I assumed were the instructions). In a true guy fashion, I didn't read the paper and plugged the thing in and plopped my phone down on it. And the phone started to charge. A delight to the heart. There appeared to be a status light right under the phone that was barely noticeable (at a later point, after reading the forsaken manual, I found that there are three statuses: solid = charging, blinking = error, none = not working). The light was barely visible under these modern smartphones with a barely manageable size of 5 inch. So I'm not quite sure why they even have it there under the phone and not at a more visible locale.

Overall, it seemed like it was a delight to play with the QI charging pad. However, upon further interrogation by the Wife, I had to admit that there is only a limited number of phones carrying the QI wireless charging standard and thus only certain phones would work (the iPhone being one of the major players that doesn't work without an add-on). That wasn't the only downside, the charger was pretty darn slow. It was more like a trickle charge than an actual charge. When compared to charging the old-fashion way, via a wire plugged into a wall outlet, I would estimate the time to charge was about 2x longer at the very least. Either way, I found that throughout the week, my phone was not getting enough juice and it was still running low despite the consistent trickle charge. And to top that, the USB port on the Nordmarke had a hard time sustaining a charge for my Fitbit Charge HR.

In the end, I had to say goodbye to the IKEA Nordmarke. It was a good idea but the current practical outplay of it wasn't all that great. If only it could charge faster. I guess if you are just plopping down your phone for the night while you sleep, it would be fine, but for that, how hard is it to just wire it up? Either way, the product was nice and thoughtful but the practical aspect of it was lacking. Maybe when they improve on the tech some more in the future it can be more useful.

A disclaimer, I was not paid to write this or review this.

Revisiting the Macbook Pro Wifi Issue

Read about the original issue about the MacBook Pro Wifi issue HERE.

So in the last half year since I blogged about the WiFi issue concerning the Macbook Pro and its random connection drop, I have found a new and more permanent solution. I bought a new router. Bought a Linksys WRT54G2 router and installed DD-WRT on it. So far in the last 2 weeks of wireless usage, I have not experience any connection drop or issues. So my theory on the WiFi instability and drop is due to hardware incompatibility between the WiFi card installed in the Macbook Pro and that of the router's chipset. So for those of you out there that is still experiencing problems, buy a new router. I know it is not the most economical solution but it helps with the stress level incurred due to the random connection issues when you really need the internet.

iOS4 for the iPod Touch battery non-issue

Anyhow, don't know if anyone has notice but probably have been wondering. If you own a previous generation of the iPod Touch and have recently updated to iOS4 you may have noticed that your battery life doesn't quite live up to the original state or potential that was present in iOS3.x.x.

So as to recap, over the course of the past week and a bit I have noticed that my iPod Touch tend to require charging more often. Generally, I would recharge every 2-3 days previously when I use it to listen to mp3, play a couple games, twitter, facebook, check email and also using it as a PDA. However without changing my usage habits I have noticed that I needed to charge the iPod every night or sometimes in the middle of the afternoon. This got to me to wondering if there was something wrong with the device for the massive battery drain. So, I decided to do some investigating on the Apple Support Forum and found that this problem is plaguing quite a number of people. There was a lot of work around solutions that entails turning off Push, Notification, Auto Fetching of Emails, WiFi, etc. However, these are inherently work-around. In reality there should be a problem or issue, considering that this issue did not arise until after the iOS4 update. So with further investigation and digging I found that a complete reformat and reinstall of iOS4 on the iPod as a clean installation may do the trick. And guess what, it did do the trick. Although, this would also mean that any previous data backup is now null. So you may want to proceed with caution before trying this as a fix, if you are likewise plagued by this vampirish issue.

After this fix, my iPod Touch has regained it battery life to similar level before the iOS upgrade. I am guessing that there was a bump on the upgrade that wasn't noted before that left some bits and pieces that was messing with the battery usage and consumption.

iOS4 for the iPod Touch 2G 8GB MC-Model

As the title clearly states, this is a personal reflection and review of iOS4 running on the iPod Touch 2nd Gen 8GB MC-Model.

For those that didn't know this is the current 8GB model that is available. It is virtually identical to a normal 2nd Gen model except for the bump to "MC" which is generally designated as a 3rd Gen device. However, Apple still view this as a 2nd Gen device despite the MC-model moniker.

In a previous post, I had mentioned that I had jailbreak my iPod Touch with the Spirit Jailbreak Tool. With the update to iOS4, this jailbreak was automatically uninstalled.

The download and installation of iOS4 was pretty smooth. There wasn't any issue with downloading from Apple's servers roughly an hour or two after it was released. The installation went smoothly (I presume since I was actually not there to physically monitor the installation process but there wasn't any error nor issues afterward). The re-installation of all my apps, files, settings, etc. went off without a hitch. It was a pretty smooth upgrade process.

iOS4 gained some notable improvement over iOS3.1.3. The first is the ability to have folders. For someone like me that have about 300 apps in iTune and generally having about 7 pages of apps, this was a God-send function. The second most important new function in my view was the new email app. The unified inbox is awesome and the ability to tweak your personal preference of archiving email or actually having the delete command equal to moving the email to the trash. This works out pretty well overall for my accounts synced with Gmail. An interesting new function was the ability to create notes on IMAP servers (like Gmail). Aside from these named new features there are quite a number of other ones that aren't named but those didn't quite standout as much.

Now the question is whether it was worth the upgrade, considering that my device is a generation old. I would have to say, Yes. The upgrade was definitely worthwhile, if not only for the ability to have folders or even just the unified inbox. An added bonus to the upgrade to iOS4 is the ability to use iBooks and its corresponding online book store from Apple. Although I have had previously been a devote user of Stanza as my ebook reader, I do not mind having another one that has a large online store behind it. Especially a store that stock more of the newer books.

Overall, the upgrade to iOS4 was worthwhile. So far there hasn't been any major issues with the new o/s. There has been occasional 'glitches' but I'm sure those will be work out in time.

iPod Touch Jailbreak

So for those that didn't know, I have a iPod Touch 3rd Gen 8gb, MC model. And because of this, prior to a couple weeks back it has been unable to be jailbroken untethered. With the new release of the Spirit Jailbreak hack, the newer 3rd generation iPod Touch are now able to be jailbroken.

This process was rather surprisingly simple. It was just a matter of using Bing.com or Google.com to find the hack's website, download the program, plug-in the iPod, sync/backup the iPod first, and then execute the jailbreak program. It was as simple as that. It took about 5min or so to accomplish.

As of yet, I am still not quite sure why I jailbreak my iPod Touch. Since I do not plan on running pirated software on it. I guess it was primarily out of curiosity that I did such a thing and also to say that I have tried it before. Although, with the upcoming release of iPhone OS 4.0 and the possible cost of upgrading the OS, it seems to be a good time to jailbreak and use some of the third-party programs and hacks available to jailbreaks to achieve some of the functionality of OS 4 while still retaining OS 3.x.x. Aside from this, I haven't quite figure out why to jailbreak. In a sense, it was over all a pretty educational process but nothing particularly outstanding.

I wouldn't particularly recommend jailbreaking or not. It seems to be a very personal matter and decision. And mileage and usages and needs varies depending on the user. But I for one am actually happy with what Apple already gave me in the default firmware and OS. A portable media device is just that, to entertain me on the go. I don't have need for it to be a 'be all it can be' device in my life.

Initial Thoughts on the Apple iPad

To be honest, I was one of those that were pretty excited with an anticipatory attitude amid the rumor mill prior to the official launch event. I would pretty much read any articles published online that speculated or tried to predict what Apple may come out with next. And I was getting pretty excited about the fact that this new to-be-announced-and-confirmed tablet device would be pretty revolutionary and fill in a gap with in personal technology that was unknowingly void at the present and be a symbol of revolutionary advance in technology. But alas, this was not the case. iPad ended up looking like an oversized iPod Touch with a few software updates and an upgrade for certain internal parts. Aside from that, it didn't seem to innovate as much as it could have been nor revolutionize technological needs.

I am left to wonder what exactly does this product do that can not be currently done with my current combination of a MacBook Pro and a iPod Touch (or iPhone for those that have one). With either of these devices I have already have the ease and mobility that is need for quick internet access, reading eBooks, checking email, displaying digital photos to friends and a multitude of tasks that can be accomplished with any numerous applications or apps from the AppStore. Either way, I was not convinced that the iPad is one of those must-need device within the home.

To be certain, I was disappointed with the lack of certain features that were speculated and wished upon. Included in this category was the ability to multi-task. But in reality I am quite fond of the fact that I don't actually need to multi-task on the iPod Touch. This is probably a carryover trait and habit that was gained through the 10 years of experience with the PalmOS (back when my PDA needs were serviced by a Palm IIIe and later a Palm Zire31) which also only did one task at a time. So this overall wasn't all that much of a let down, but imagine what could be done with the ability to have more than one app open at a time. Anyhow, the second letdown was that of the missing camera. A camera would have made the device a whole lot more meaningful in the sense that it could be used for video conferencing (with Skype or numerous other programs). This would have actually put the device to be more useful as a home communication device. I have still yet to figure out how this device would actually excel in term of movie or TV-show watching. The screen is quite a bit bigger than the iPod Touch and iPhone however it losses its mobility as a view-on-demand and view-on-the-run device. If I am to be at home watching a movie or TV-show, I would be more inclined to watch it on an actual TV, where the screen is a lot bigger, or on my computer, which also has a larger screen.

However, I do see potential in this device. Especially within the market where people only have a desktop at home and do not have a smartphone or laptop already. This device could cater to this market of people to become a home-mobile device for quick access to the internet, email and information from anywhere in the house. I can see this device to be used in the like of while sitting on the toilet, in the kitchen or sitting on the couch wondering what to watch on TV. Additionally, it does seem like the iPad would be a good home gaming console alternative. Personally, I actually do play with my iPod Touch as a gaming device more so than with my Nintendo DS. As a e-reader, I see potential. However, I'm not sure I wish to fully give my paper books just yet. Although, I have been known to read novels on my Palm devices in the past and currently on the iPod Touch with the use of the Stanza app. But a larger screen does seem to be nice, especially since the size is about the same as that of an actual hardcover book.

I guess time will tell if this device is able to sell and penetrate into the home technology market. But I have a feeling that version 2.0 redux will be a whole lot better with a lot better in term of bring forth some of the improvement that was missing from the current iteration. So I will just have to sit, wait and see how this goes. Maybe by this time next year Apple will be announcing the 2nd generation of this device ad we would all be blown away with the changes. As with most Apple products, version 1 is visionary in the sense that it is something new and it is a test bed for the market upon which they will improve upon. And for pete's sake change the name in version 2.

Bootcamp 3.1 Issues

So, the update Bootcamp 3.1 came out a few days back but I have not had the time to do the update from version 3.0 that shipped with Snow Leopard. Anyhow, late last night I finally got around to downloading the update manually from Apple's website and applying it.

It all seemed to go well until three 'fatal error' messages popped up sequentially. The first was concerning the new Bluetooth Keyboard, the second was the Magic Mouse (I assumed from the name of 'wireless multi-touch mouse') and the last and probably most important error in my case is that of Multi-touch mouse. I would say the last error is the most important in my case is due to the fact that I do not own any of the other two devices and probably never will since I'm quite happy and satisfy with the MacBook Pro's built-in keyboard and the multi-touch trackpad. However, the issue that is affecting me now is that the multi-touch trackpad does not work within Windows XP (Pro version, if this is relevant but I highly doubt it). And this issue can be confirmed with a quick search within Apple's Support Forum.

As such, it seems like a downgrading back to version 3.0 with the Snow Leopard DVD is not possible and would further irritate the Win-XP installation to the point of unbootable. So, it seems like the only way to fix this 'mess' would be a fresh re-installation of the whole Bootcamp partition with Windows.

So to summarize, the 3.1 update affects the installation and function of wireless mouse and keyboard and also that of the multi-touch trackpad and it seems to only affect Windows XP. A side note, OS-X was not affected in any way or form or fashion.

The Ugly Head of Wifi Disconnect

Read about the Original post pertaining to the issue HERE.

Well, I'm back home from my holiday travel and visits and guess what? The ugly head of my home wifi woes have returned. Within 30min of connecting to my home's wireless network I experienced the same unresolved wifi disconnection as I had before. So I am back to square one as to what the issue is. I'm starting to lean more toward the issue being more compatibility issues between the macbook pro and specific routers along with the possibility that either Apple or the router manufacturers implementing certain encryption (WPA & WPA2 more specifically) incorrectly.

Snow Leopard WiFi Update

Read about the original post about the problem HERE.

Well, I'm still over vacationing and staying at my in-law's place. And I have yet to experience another drop on the wireless network. However, I did end up changing a few options within the modem/router. The options that I changed was G-Channel only, changes from WPA to WPA2, and changed the channel from 6 to 11, since channel 6 was rather crowded by a couple of the neighbor's wireless routers. Aside from these three simple changes nothing else was touched. I was rather surprised that there wasn't any more issues forth coming that required further tweaking or investigation. As such, I am still at a lost as to the cause of the frequent connection drop at home. Tomorrow, I will be able to see if my home network is still afflicted and hopefully post more updates concerning it.

Follow up to Snow Leopard WiFi woes

Read Post Related to this Update Here

So anyhow, one of the odd things that I have noticed concerning the WiFi drop issue on the Mac OSX 10.6.2 was that it is seems to be router specific. As stated in my previous post, there hasn't been any issue with WiFi dropping while I am over at my school. To compound this mystery as to how and when a drop would occur is that I have not had any issues in the last 2-3 days at my in-law's, since the wife and I are out of town vacationing and visiting them. WiFi over at there house seems to be pretty rock stable. Have been able to achieve a pretty good download and upload speed along with a pretty low ping on the network. And this is coupled with their home network being a bit more complex, since the box that serve as the wireless access point is also a dsl/cable modem combo with a 4-port physical LAN router and also a USB external harddrive server, although they don't actually have a drive attached. maybe having this one box as the central hub is actually more efficient and better than my multi-box setup. anyhow, this box services a VoIP box, that provide the house's only phone line, a desktop computer and a TV-over-IP box. So I would have to say that although the physical network is simpler in its layout, the bandwidth pull and data-throughput that is achieved is probably as much as if not greater than my home network.  But, yes the surprising thing is that I'm able to achieve a stable and consistent connection.

Anyhow, another thing of note is that both my home wireless router and the wireless gateway, at my in-laws, are both made by D-Link. Which, I would have to say hasn't always been the most stable and greatest of network equipment brand and manufacturer. But I guess every so often there is a sour-grape and a box that actually work and does what it was designed to and advertised.

But yes, I will update if the situation with the wireless seems to change for the worst or maybe it fixes itself when I return home in a couple weeks.

Macbook Pro 13.3" Wifi Issues

I have been running a new late-2009 Macbook Pro since mid-september of this year. It comes with Snow Leopard preinstalled already. It is a pretty amazing machine compared to my two previous laptops, both the Dell Inspiron 700m and the Dell Inspiron 1525. There is a noticeable speed and performance difference. However, this may also be due to the fact that there is a significant hardware upgrade from the old laptops. Anyhow, the transition to the Mac OS-X has been pretty smooth with only occasional bump along the road in the process of getting used to it.

But, back to the point of the article. It seems that since installing the 10.6.1 update there has been intermittent disconnection on the wireless network. This problem has continued on with 10.6.2 update and also with the Airport 002 update from early December of 2009. Anyhow, the intermittent wireless problem is sporadic and is hard to recreate in an form or fashion in order to pin down an actual cause. Well, the actual problem seems to be that the wireless connection is dropped randomly at random intervals. Sometimes wireless can stay connected for only about 5min long while at other times it can last almost a day without dropping the connection. This problem is pretty annoying at times, to say the very least. And it seems like the only way to reconnect to the wireless network is to turn Airport Express off and then back on. One of the more interesting thing to note is that the wireless network status icon report that wireless is still connected with a strong connection, however no internet needing programs will be able to access the web nor am I able to ping the wireless router.

To back up a little bit, I will go and describe a bit of my home network setup. I have indeed played around with this setup in trying to isolate the problem but nothing seems to be able to solve it. My ISP is AT&T. They sold me a Motorola DSL modem, which also handles the ADSL login to AT&T's network. Connected to the modem is a Linksys VPN router, wired only without wireless function. Connected to this Linksys router are my wife's work laptop, my wife's work VoIP phone headset and also a D-Link 624 wireless router. This wireless router is the router that is serving up the wireless connection for my house and my wife's home office. Connected to the wireless router is generally the Wii, iPod Touch and the Macbook Pro; very rarely does my wife connect to the wireless. Aside from the Macbook Pro, all other wireless devices within the house have been able to hold a steady and constant connection with the wireless access point.

Having done some research on the web through Google and also on Apple's Support Forum, it seems like this is a problem that is not widespread enough to garner attention from Apple but enough of a problem that there are numerous sites and forum threads. None of these places seem to have a definite answer or solution to the problem either. Most seems to have only temporary workaround.

Anyhow, to sum up the problem: wireless is dropped sporadically for no noticeable or replicable reasons.

Temporary workaround and solutions that have been found online:

• Cycling Airport Express on/off (possibly annoying for some people)
  
• Using ethernet as much as possible (which kind of just avoids the actual issue)
• Running OnyX, and using the Automation Script to clean up the system (seems to work but the problem tends to come back after a while)
• Deleting the network caches (didn't seem to help, at least for me but seems to have for others)
• Creation of new Network Locations (didn't really seem to have helped for me)
• Disabling of "Ask to join new networks" option in Network properties, Airport's to be exact
• Some found changing to less crowded channel to have helped
• Some also found changing from 802.11N to G or B to G or viceversa to have helped. (I seem to have settled with using on G-only on my wireless network, since I don't have any B equipments and my router does not have N)
• Some have also found that changing from WEP to WPA or WPA to WPA2 or WPA to WPA to have helped (it didn't for me but I have settled on WPA)
• Disabling unused network services seems to have helped for some
• Moving Airport to be the top network service
• Modifying your RTS in your wireless router seems to be able partially produce a more stable connection but this could also potentially affect other computers on your network negatively.
  

There are probably more stuff that I have tried along the way in hope of solving this issue but none have seem to have helped. So does anyone also seem to have this problem or know of a possible solution or workaround?

An interesting note, this issue with the sporadic connection seems to have been only happening when I'm at home. While I am out at a coffeeshop or at my graduate school, everything seems to be running fine and dandy with no sporadic network drops on the wireless. But, at the same time I know it is not an issue with my wireless router since it does not exhibit any problem with any other devices, even laptop from friends coming over.