Year In Cities 2012

in

This will be my fourth year keeping track of which cities I've slept in over the past year. I've done this for 2009, 2010 and 2011. I originally got this idea from Jason Kottke and liked it, so I decided to do it too. Once more, one or more nights were spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days Alexandria, VA*
Wirtz, VA*
Lafayette, IN*
Bloomington, IN
Louisville, KY
San Francisco, CA
Lake Buena Vista, FL (Disney World)
I increased my city count from 6 to 7 this year.

WWDC 2012: The News

in , , ,

WWDC 2012
Watch the video from the keynote. Well, that was exciting. Now that the WWDC Keynote has concluded, Apple has now revealed what they've been working on lately and was ready to release to consumers (or at least developers). Here is a rundown of the basics. I'm sure you can get much more detailed coverage from your normal sources:

The Hardware

MacBook Air:

  • New Ivy Bridge Intel-based CPUs up to 2Ghz, dual-core i5. Turbo boosts to 3.2Ghz
  • Up to 8GB RAM
  • 60% faster graphics
  • Up to 512GB SSDs
  • USB 3.0
  • Factime Camera now 720p

  • Prices have decreased - 11" $999 & $1099, 13" $1199 & $1499

    MacBook Pros:

  • New Ivy Bridge Intel-based CPUs up to 2,7Ghz quad-core i7. Turbo boost to 3.7Ghz

  • Up to 8GB RAM
  • 60% faster graphics - GeForce GT 650M, Kepler architecture. Up to 1GB video RAM.
  • USB 3.0

  • Prices the same - 13" is $1199 & $1499, 15" is 1799 & $2199

    Next Generation MacBook Pro:

  • Ridiculously thin (.71 inches thin) - 25% thinner.

  • Retina display - 2880 x 1800, 220 ppi. 15.4 inches. (5,184,000 pixels)
  • 4.46 pounds - lightest MBP ever - lighter than a 13" MBP
  • Glare/reflection reduced by 75%
  • Battery life - up to 7 hours, 30 days of standby.
  • HDMI port
  • Up to 768GB SSD flash storage
  • Up to 16GB RAM
  • Using the new nVidia Keplet GPUs
  • Quad-core i7 Ivy Bridge Intel CPUs
  • Ports - SD Card, HDMI, two USB3, Magsafe 2, two Thunderbolt ports, headphone jack.
  • Backlit Keyboard
  • BlueTooth 4.0
  • FaceTime HD Camera
  • 802.11 N
  • Dual microphones (uses beam-forming to enable a new generation of voice applications)
  • No built-in Ethernet (see adapters below)
  • No built-in optical drive (why need it?)
  • Price is $2199 for the base model. Two new Thunderbolt Adapters:
  • Thunderbolt to FireWire 800

  • Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet

    Mountain Lion

  • Over 200 new feartures

  • Highlighted in the keynote: iCloud, Messages, Reminders, Notes, Documents in the Cloud, Dictation, Notifcation Center, Sharing Services, new Safari (synced tabs, unified address/search bar, tab view gestures, fastest javascript engine, share sheets), Power Nap (fetches email, reminders, calendar updates, photostream...in the background while asleep, Time Machine backups, auto Software Update), AirPlay, and Game Center.
  • Ships in July for $19.99

  • Developers get the Gold Master release today (Apple called it "near final" on stage).

    iOS 6

  • Lots of new Siri improvements: Sports info, Restaurants (Yelp & Open Table), now launches apps, "Eyes Free" (working with various car manufacturers to have built-in Siri integration with their cars), lots of new international languages (including local search for these countries).

  • Siri coming to the iPad
  • Facebook Integration - just like Twitter in iOS 5. Photos app, Safari, Maps, Came Center, iTunes Store, App Store (you can like apps or see what people have liked), Notifcation Center posting (Twitter also gets notification center posting), Contacts (Contacts data within Facebook will show up in Contacts app).
  • Phone app (messaging/reminders options to incoming calls).
  • Notification center: Do not disturb feature
  • FaceTime over 3G/4G
  • Unify Apple IDs with your phone #.
  • Safari: iCloud Tabs, photo uploads, smart app banners
  • Shared Photo Streams: Easy way to share photos with other people.
  • Mail: VIPs, add photos & video from compose window, pull to refresh.
  • Passbook: OS integration of movie ticket, starbucks card, plane ticket type apps. Makes it easy to find your tickets for various things within apps.
  • Accessibility: enhanced features to benefit autistic kids (kickass Apple), single app-mode (allows teachers, for instance, to lock an app preventing the home buttom from being used).
  • Maps: Local Search(Yelp integration), Traffic Service (pools data from other iOS users), Turn-by-turn navigation (routes you around traffic, can display on lock screen for mountin in a car while driving), Siri integration, Flyover (3D views).
  • Beta 1 released to developers today.

    Post-keynote Update: Mac Pros

Not that big of an update. Disappointing. No USB 3, no Thunderbolt. Mac Stories has a good rundown of new vs old.

WWDC 2012 Rumor Roundup: iOS 6, Mountain Lion, iCloud and Macs

in , , , ,

Arnold Kim, at Macrumors:

With Apple appearing to have a full slate of announcements lined up for its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote on Monday, we're offering this roundup to summarize a number of the high-profile rumors that have been circulating ahead of the event. Arnold has done an excellent job of compiling together all of the rumors that have been floating around over the last several months. He does a good job laying out the more or less credible ones too. I for one am hoping for new Mac Pros, and an iOS 6 Beta… Happy Keynote Day everyone.

Rick Santorum For President?

in , , ,

Rick Santorum just tied Mitt Romney in the Iowa Caucuses last night, which is hilarious for dear old Mittens. What's even more hilarious (and you're probably aware of already), is that whenever you search for Rick Santorum in Google or Bing, the website spreadingsantorum.com is usually featured in the top few results. If a concerned conservative (or liberal) voter tries to learn about Rick Santorum's policy platform or Rick Santorum for president, or even Rick Santorum's family values, said voter is instead subjected to a mental association likely to hurt Santorum's chances of winning the Republican nomination and the White House. And that is a problem for America. Why? Because spreadingsantorum.com isn't the top result. But we can fix that. This post contains a handful of keywords and phrases Santorum needs to own if he's going to direct curious voters from Google or Bing to Santorum-friendly websites. This post probably needs more (and should probably contain hostile keywords Santorum will likely buy in order to bury spreadingsantorum.com in search results), and you can add them by editing the post when you reblog it. Which you should probably do now. Go to work, Internets. via Geoff Barnes.