The time has officially come, where I give up trying to use my Apple aluminum keyboard. After 8 months with the thing, I’m ready to move on. I was first awed by its slim profile and aluminum looks but it has pushed me over the edge. The keys are too flat to be responsive enough for me. Maybe because I learned how to type on a basic Dell keyboard, I need more of response, when I type a sentence out.

The keyboard has ruined my accuracy, constantly mistyping as I work on homework or type out a Twitter. It’s infuriating. Going to school and using the Dell keyboard is almost like an oasis from this issue. On the Dell, less errors, and quicker typing.

I’m hoping Apple releases new keyboards soon, though it seems unlikely. After making the switch from the Mighty Mouse to the MX Revolution, I’m probably going to go Logitech for my next keyboard purchased. I would be surprised that Apple would leave its focus on design to produce a usable keyboard, or have motivation to. The redesigned keyboard is highly loved by other mac users for its sleek profile. But for me, that design doesn’t cover the fact that typing on it is a pain.

Feeling that Youtube was over saturated with Snow Leopard videos and thoughts, I thought Tumblr would be the perfect location for my thoughts. I received a copy of Snow Leopard Monday as a gift from my brother, and promptly placed the disc into my late 2008 MacBook Pro. Followed the routine steps, and left the machine for a snack. But I returned, with a completely gray screen, without a single trace of a cat or be specific a snow cat. I restarted the computer, and it booted back to Leopard.

Confused, I removed the disc from my computer, and reinserted it. Followed the same steps, and Snow Leopard began installing without a hitch. At the end, I saved 20gb from my hard drive! I was impressed by the gain of space.

But I’ve had a few minor issues when using SL. First off, Safari seems slower and in the first five minutes using it to check Twitter, it crashed. Not trying to be nick picky, but its not impressive when you install a new OS, and in the first few minutes things already start to crash.Logitech Control is famously known for not updating the control center for their mice and keyboards, so I am stuck with non customized MX Revolution. Being someone highly reliant on those buttons, I setup hot corners to facilitate until they update the software.

But overall, I’m satisfied. Snow Leopard doesn’t have the same wow that Leopard had. But it wasn’t advertised to be. I’m loving the small tweaks Apple placed in the OS, especially in expose, and I’m glad to receive 20gb in additional hard drive space. I’m not complaining about the minor issues, because with very new OS release there is always incompatibility. I’m looking forward when Apple update Snow Leopard so it can even faster and impress me more.

I purchased my Griffin Elevator from the Apple Store almost six months ago, and overall I’m quite satisfied. It’s quite simple of a product. Two aluminum legs that are connected on the bottom with a clear acrylic cross beam. Simple as that. It provided great ventilation and storage space where I could store much of my desktop junk. But over the period of use with the laptop stand. One thing irks me the most

As you can tell by the picture posted along with this entry. The only thing holding on to the Macbook is the friction of two rubber strips. Although they are quite thick, and never had a problem of holding onto the mac. It worries me immensely. I wished Griffin designed some sort of lip at the ends of both pieces of aluminum. So if the rubber ever gives up its friction, or through some force of nature that the Macbook is tugged on. It shall still be safe on the stand. But otherwise, there is a nightmare running in my head, depicting my beloved Macbook Pro falling to the ground from a simple tug of my headphone cord.

Just a simple suggestion to Griffin, and to other laptop stand manufacturers. Rubber shouldn’t be the only thing keeping the device on the stand. That’s a accident and lawsuit waiting to happen. And it will involve tears.

So I announced this on Twitter a few times, but don’t want to seem like a spammer. I am currently selling my JVC MG-330 Red camcorder. It’s a standard def with a built in 30gb hard drive. Includes the box, all the paper work, remote, and of course the camcorder itself.

This is the exact camcorder I use to film all my Youtube videos. Probably most notably when I traveled to the Fifth Avenue Store in NYC. Video can be found here. The camcorder is in in perfect working condition. I want to sell it because I figured that I don’t need a 30gb harddrive for my use. I want to get a more compact camera so its easier to travel with. But this camera is still great and I am saddened when I think about selling it. 

So contact me with @ message through Twitter, or email me. That link will be on the top left of the blog. I’m asking for 190 USD. If you purchased the camcorder, and Unbox it on your channel. I will feature the video on my channel auto-playing for a few days. Win Win for both of us!

Upon purchasing my new iPhone 3GS, many of the current accessories did not work. Probably the one most present was Pivotal’s Podium Revolution. An iMac like stand like for the iPhone would elegantly raise my first generation iPhone to a comfortable angle where I could use it like secondary display. After purchasing the 3GS, I was excited to it as a secondary camcorder but I remembered that the actual piece that held the iPhone was first gen only. After contacting Pivotal asking to purchase just the adapter without success, I looked for a cheap stand for my iPhone, so that I could occasionally use it to record videos at a respectable angle.

That is when I ran into the Twist Pod. A 10 dollar universal tripod- stand for all electronics. Quite simply, it was a Gorilla Pod rip off, but what was interesting, was not the tripod but held the electronic. It was a plastic mount that would grip the sides of the device. Although it looked quite cheap, it held the iPhone well with or without a case. With a push of a button, the mechanism inside releases the device. Talk about ease of use.

Another plus for the device is that the actual mount is removable. I wasn’t a fan of the Gorilla Pod ripoff tripod, and wasn’t very impressed that it couldn’t securely grip onto anything. But the bottom of the mount connects to the tripod by a standard tripod mount. Eureka! Any tripod I chose could hold be used as an iPhone stand, a great flexability when I finally want to record some videos with the device. Bottom line, I’m quite satisified with my purchase. For ten dollars I found a somewhat mediocre flexible tripod, and a quite functional iPhone tripod mount.

I’m not picky when choosing cases for my iPod Nano and iPhone. As long as it looks half decent, I’m fine with whatever covers it. Recently I acquired a Speck iPod Nano case from Bed, Bath, and Body for a mere 99 cents. Quite shocked by the discounted price, I quickly purchased one.

Unboxing the packaging was a nuisance. A tangle of cardboard and plastic interweaved together into a cardboard box. After a few paper cuts on the hands, the case came out. The back was a textured rubber, so grippy to the point where it stuck to the palm of my hand.  I didn’t mind since I ever rarely took my iPod Nano into the public, and more rare that its ever in my pocket.

The package also boasted about an included screen protector. But quite simply it was a cheap plastic cover, that was crushed into place but the rubber backing. Screen protector? Not really, packaging that can be reused? Yes.

I like the case, and believe it would be a good alternative to my Agent18 clear case that was currently sitting on the iPod Nano. But look at the bottom of the case, something hit me. There was no area that allowed me to dock it. Only two small holes for the headphones and hold switch. In my view, epic fail. My iPod Nano’s main function is to sit in the matching docking station, and blasts the currently playlist I wished to listen to.

But some might argue that my opinion is quite biased since I had only one fucntion for my iPod. But I thought, for someone who owned this case and only occasionally synced it. It must still be the biggest annoyance to rip off the rubber skin, and carefully remove the plastic shield. Not worth the work for me, and I don’t think for anyone. So for anyone who never syncs with their computer, congrats you have found a great dirt cheap case for your iPod Nano. For everyone else, not so much.