Category: product endorsements

MacBook Air – my review

On By Rick McIn Apple, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I’ve been switching from my old MacBook to a MacBook Air.

LOVE IT.

I can’t say that I’ve any complaints.

The perfect computer for 95% of people 95% of the time. Perfect for Facebook, email, browsing, photos, music, video.

Perfect for anyone who needs more than a phone when away from their main computer. If your smart phone is good enough, don’t bother. If you only need something like this at home, the cheapest iPad using wifi is a better solution.

My advice is to get the least expensive 11 inch. Unless you have some special requirements. It gets about 4hrs in real life use on a new battery. The idea is that you will only plug it in at night, with your phone.

On top of that you’ll need a USB card reader for your camera. Either Microsoft Office or the Apple iWork suite. And an external hard drive for storing data. And a USB to ethernet adapter if you want to plug in. … Leave a comment if you have questions.

detailed review

Volkswagen 1-litre car

On By Rick McIn product endorsements1 Comment

Reportedly will sell for the equivalent of US$600 in China by 2013. I believe Dana is buying me one for Christmas. Christmas 2013.

A limited production by was made this year. It works. Diesel fuel. 235 miles per U.S. gallon!

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

iPod Nano watch

On By Rick McIn Apple, books, music, product endorsementsLeave a comment

This is the best watch band designed to fit the new Nano I’ve yet seen.

It’s not available now. But I’m expecting to see them in the Apple store by early 2011. $40.

I’ll be back to wearing a “wrist watch” after many years wrist naked.

details

Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour

On By Rick McIn product endorsementsLeave a comment

I’ve penciled in the 18th and 19th. Contact me if you want to come those same days. Tickets will go on sale soon.

Calgary:

January 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 2011
Mountain Film Inc.
Tickets available at MEC Calgary
Tickets on-line at http://www.mountainfilm.ca
403-714-2402
info@mountainfilm.ca
Evening shows each night plus a matinée on Saturday

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

Check for festival dates elsewhere in the World.

Goodnight Hostel, Lisbon, Portugal

On By Rick McIn product endorsements, travelLeave a comment

Shout out for the Goodnight Hostel.

Excellent in every way, especially the central location. I paid $16.23 / night for a dorm bed, pancake breakfast included, in October.

Staff is warmly welcoming, perhaps more than any other hostel I’ve seen. There’s been a flood of new hostels open in Lisbon, one of the must visit cities of Europe.

There are many small touches I like, including this reminder to keep the volume down while socializing.

Walls Have Ears

I bought a MacBook Air

On By Rick McIn Apple, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Went with the smaller 11” model, but bumped up the memory to 4GB and the flash memory hard drive to 128GB.

Click PLAY or watch a review video on YouTube.

I’m projecting that this will be enough for me 90% of the time. (For the other 10% I’ll need to plug in an external drive. Or go back to my old MacBook laptop.)

If you are thinking about an Air for yourself, check the detailed review on ars technica.

city of the future, Lisbon

On By Rick McIn photos, product endorsements, things getting better, travel1 Comment

I visited impressive and sprawling “Parque das Nações” (Park of the Nations), a city of the future built atop the Expo ’98 site.

"Parque das Nações" (Park of the Nations), Lisbon, Portugal

"Parque das Nações" (Park of the Nations), Lisbon, Portugal

"Parque das Nações" (Park of the Nations), Lisbon, Portugal

"Parque das Nações" (Park of the Nations), Lisbon, Portugal

"Parque das Nações" (Park of the Nations), Lisbon, Portugal

It reminded me of all the “City of the Future” magazine articles (see more examples) I saw when I was a kid. This conception, for example, from 1964.

Thanks Paulo Barata, a new friend, gymnastics lecturer at the University here, for showing me this modern highlight of an ancient city. We had typical Portuguese lunch: cod, cod, wine, port, pastry, coffee.

(via Gymnastics Coaching)

new MacBook Air getting RAVE reviews

On By Rick McIn Apple, product endorsements1 Comment

MG Siegler on TechCrunch:

… I’ve used it almost everywhere I’ve been for just about a week now. There’s no question in my mind that this has replaced my MacBook Pro as my go-to machine.

But here’s the really crazy thing. It’s not just the size of the thing that I love so much (I have the 13-inch model) — which is amazing — it’s the speed. This thing boots up in less than 15 seconds, ready to go. My i7 iMac with 8 GB of RAM takes something like 2 minutes. My i7 MacBook Pro takes at least 30-45 seconds, and it has an SSD drive.

Applications seem to load quicker. Files transfer quicker. The thing shuts down in about 3 seconds. Macworld has the initial benchmarks. They don’t lie. It just screams. …

Goodbye, MacBook Pro. The New MacBook Air Is That Good.

Turns out the aging Core 2 Duo processor is not a problem. An all Flash memory machine makes up for any loss of speed.

Click PLAY or drink the Apple Kool-Aid on YouTube.

Having played with a couple now, I can’t believe any woman could resist. They are ideal for ladies that only want to carry a purse.

The $999 base price looks great. But I’d recommend more memory. And a number of accessories, including adapter cables. It only has 2 USB ports and a video out port.

If I bought one, I’d end up spending around $1400

The newest version of MS Office for Mac is getting praised, as well. No reason not to switch to Mac.

the new MacBook Air …

On By Rick McIn Apple, product endorsements1 Comment

I’m tempted.

The latest, greatest home run being hit out of the park by Apple. Starts at $999.

Click PLAY or watch a user generated ad on YouTube.

Details on Apple.

Upsides: less than 3lbs, long battery life, all flash memory storage, more …

Tempting. But likely a 5lb full-featured laptop is better for me.

Daring Fireball linked to this amazing statistic – 60 percent of Apple’s sales are from products that did not exist three years ago

Hipmunk – new airfare search site

On By Rick McIn product endorsements, travel1 Comment

Have you noticed that airfare search websites like Kayak, Mobissimo, etc. are no longer improving?

… Or getting worse?

Steve Huffman, co-founder of Hipmunk:

… “There are dozens of ways of buying tickets online, all of which, in our opinion, are equally bad and painful,” says Huffman. …

“We try to present the results in a useful way,” explains Huffman. “So instead of a wall of text that might span 35 pages, we have one simple clean interface where you can see the flights. You can see how they compare to one another and how long the flights are. But we also remove a lot of listings from the results–usually around 70 percent right off the bat.” Hipmunk smartly removes obviously undesirable flights, and you can also plug in your preferred airline so it will always appear in your results. …

Robert Scoble – Hipmunk takes the pain out of finding and booking flights

This is completely different. Check it out for yourself on hipmunk.com

Those sites still don’t have the charter airlines. I’ll be going to a travel agent, no doubt.