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Here are some photos I took of the inside of a PowerMac G4. Enjoy!
(Click on the image for a larger view)
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Last weekend we went to the Apple Store in Pleasanton to see if they could help me with my new iPod touch. Here is a picture of the store taken with the new iPod touch.
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This is both a song and a poem. It can be read as a poem or sung to the tune of “1985”.
The Macintosh came,
In 1984,
It was a great computer,
It was one to adore.
With a black and white screen,
It was a little lean.
But still it was so cool,
A very useful tool.
128,
That number isn’t great,
But it made everyone go wow,
Though it’s useless now.
That is only about a page,
Of text in these days.
But then it was incredible,
The day was unforgettable.
January, January, January 24th.
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I found these photos I took on iPad launch day of the iPad versus the Newton. On the Newton screen is a drawing I made of the iPhone OS. Enjoy!
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Here are some photos of mine from iPhone 4 launch day in Santa Rosa, California.
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Good morning everyone! Ignoring those folks on the east coast who already have their iPhones, we are waiting in line so my dad can buy his iPhone. We got to the Apple store around 6:15 am. Around 6:30 am, the Apple store employees sorted people by if they had reservations for the phone. By 6:37 am, there were about 200 people waiting in line, most of which did not have reservations.
We entered the mall at 6:40 am to find about 200 more people without reservations, but with chairs and sleeping bags.
At 6:47 am, there were 72 people in the reserve line.
At 6:52, the Apple employees ran through the mall clapping and cheering.
At 7 am, the Apple employees counted down from five and opened the gate. The first people went inside.
At 7:08, the employees came by with bagels and pastries.
7:50 am: We are getting close!
7:53 am: There are 102 people behind us in the reservation line.
8:07: We get to go in!!!
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Even though iOS 4 (the new name for the iPhone OS) was released on Monday, it will never run on my iPod Touch, because it is a first generation iPod Touch. iOS 4 will only run on second and third generation iPod Touches. Even second generation iPod Touches won’t get all the features in the new update.
Luckily, this new update is free. The iPad version will be available sometime in August.
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I can’t imagine that I am the first to record either of these discoveries, but I thought that they were entertaining.
1. iPhone/iPod Touch Calendar
On the iPhone and iPod Touch calendar, you can keep going back through time until you reach January of 1933. Why that date? I have no idea. The screenshot below shows the iPod calendar.
Note: iCal on the Mac appears to be endless. The Go To Date indow will only get you to the year 990, but you can go farther with the buttons.
2. iCal Icon
For users of Mac OS 10.4 Tiger, if you look at iCal’s icon in the dock, you will see that the icon shows July 17. I posted about this a few years ago, too. For users of Leopard (10.5) and Snow Leopard (10.6), you can still se this icon in the Applications folder. Or, just look at it below! Why July 17? That is the day that iCal was introduced.
I hope you enjoyed this little bit of trivia!
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Posted by mackidsblog
Since I am a kid, and I write this blog for kids, I thought this would be a relevant topic to post.
Earlier this week, I had a lot of homework one night, and a couple of events to go to. The big part of my homework was writing a five paragraph essay about a project we just finished. Since I had to go somewhere, I couldn’t use my home computer and my iBook G4’s battery is dead, so it has to be plugged in. My solution? I borrowed my mom’s iPad and wrote the essay in Pages. So, the point of this post is to discuss the usability of an iPad for something useful, like homework.
Getting started was easy. I opened up Pages and created a new document. Formatting was pretty easy using the built-in styles. Use a Title style for the title and a Body style for the paragraphs. Typing was also mostly easy. I couldn’t type really fast, but I can’t type really fast on a regular keyboard either. So, for writing a document, I would say it is pretty good.
Now, for printing. Since the iPad has no way of printing directly, I tried to email it to myself. The iPad has a WiFi bug, so it wouldn’t email. I tried hooking it up to my dad’s computer, and we finally got the file off. There are two things to remember when transferring a file from an iPad to a Mac.
• First, you must first export the file on the iPad. When you start up Pages, you will see the document chooser. Swipe to show the correct document, and tap the little arrow. Select export.
• Second, once you export it, you can hook the iPad up. To find the file, go to the Applications tab of the iPad in iTunes. Scroll down to the File Sharing section.
Hope this helps, and yes, I do think the iPad could be useful for homework.
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Oops! Found this old post waiting to be published. Now that school will be out soon, I hope to be posting more. The date on this post should be April 6, 2010.
Now that the craziness of iPad launch day is over, I will review my experiences.
We went to our local Apple Retail Store around 6 pm (Pacific Time), just to get a look at an iPad. We planned to just look, but we ended up buying a 32 gb model (WiFi only of course). I also brought my dad’s Newton MessagePad and the Apple store employees really liked it.
We brought our iPad home and set it up.
I have been playing with the iPad and exploring some of its features. Actually, I’m blogging on it right now. I would suggest that if you can, go to your local Apple Store and play with one.
Be sure to see the photos below:
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Labyrinth 2 is the latest version of Illusion Lab’s Labyrinth iPhone/iPod Touch game. Way back in August of 2008 I compared the original Labyrinth with Jirbo’s Marble Mash and Labyrinth won. So, let’s get to the review:
What: Labyrinth 2 (iTunes Link)
Price: $4.99
Age Group: 9+
Difficulty Rating: 1-10 Depending on Rating of Level Pack
Fun Rating: 9.5
Good:
Lots of new items to make levels more challenging and fun.
More levels can be downloaded.
Different level packs with varying difficulty.
Bad:
Some levels are hard.
Multiplayer requires Wi-Fi.
A little expensive.
Overall, this is a great game and gets a five out of five.
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I have been going to Macworld in San Francisco for many years now. In past years, it has been a huge show, but this year it was much smaller. I was there in my MacKids T-Shirt, and I thought I would summarize the event for those of you who couldn’t come.
The show floor, which used to be in Moscone Center’s big room and small room was only in the small room this year. It was smaller because Apple wasn’t there this year. There were less than half as many booths, and since so many companies went to CES this year, there were less new products.
Of all the products I looked at, I only bought one thing:
A company called Scosche was selling a solar-powered battery that can power any USB device. More info is at http://www.scosche.com/products/sfID1/210/sfID2/318/productID/1905
Targus was having hourly raffles at their booth, and at the final raffle, where they were giving out their display models, we won a Bluetooth mouse, which I am using now. More info is at:
http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.aspx?sku=AMW51US
Fastmac had a cool wall outlet that had built-in powered USB ports for powering your devices. My dad bought one and I will let you know when it comes. More info: http://store.fastmac.com/product_info.php?products_id=458
If you got to go to Macworld and found anything interesting, post a comment!
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Sorry about the long gap between posts, but now I have a lot of content coming up in the next few weeks. Here is the next computer poem.
I’ve got the Windows blues,
Oh yes I doos,
I ‘ve got the Windows blues.
A thousand times it’s froze,
So I feel so lows,
Oh my PC has froze.
Windows 7 looks no brighter,
So I feel no lighter,
About this new update.
I’ve stayed up so late.
I’ve gone through a thousand hard drives,
Each one no longer alives.
My computer is discontinued,
The only parts I can get are used.
I’ve got the Windows blues,
Oh yes I doos,
I’ve got the Windows blues.
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Merry Christmas! If you haven’t checked out last year’s Christmas post, you should, it is very funny. You can find it here.
Skee-Ball is an iPhone/iPod Touch game. This is our MacKids review of it.
We’ll start with some explanation.
Skee-Ball is that classic arcade game where you roll a ball up a ramp and try to get it into a cup. This game is just like the real game, complete with the tickets. You can buy custom balls and other things with your tickets.
And now for our review:
Good: The graphics are good, the controls are easy, and it is a lot like the real game. I really like that you can buy balls that you can use. This is one of my favorite games.
Bad: The only bad thing I can say about this game is all of the prizes, except the custom balls, are useless, but that isn’t a big deal. You don’t have to buy them.
Difficulty Rating: 7
Fun Rating: 9
Age Range: 8+
Price: $0.99
Where: (iTunes store link) Skee-Ball
Overall, this game gets a five out of five!
Enjoy!
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I recently got an iBook G4 for school stuff from the Low End Mac swap group. When it arrived, it turned on after a couple of tries. The previous owner had installed 10.4 on it, so I started using it. During the second set of updates, it froze while installing a security update. After that, it would boot up to the Apple logo with the spinning ball and froze there. I tried booting it off of all the discs we had (10.2, 10.3, 10.5) but it wouldn’t turn on. It wouldn’t read 10.2 or 10.5 and gave me a circle with a line through it for 10.3. We got 10.4 CDs and started it from them, but Disk Utility said the hard drive was bad. So, I pulled the 100 gigabyte drive out of my PowerBook G3. We took the iBook apart (last week’s InsideR Secrets) and put in the new hard drive. We had to remove about 50 screws to get the hard drive out. Once the new drive was in, we booted it back up from the 10.4 disc, and it worked. We installed 10.4, and it has worked since. I am blogging on it now.
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Today’s InsideR Secrets photo is the inside of my new iBook G4. It doesn’t work yet, but we will be replacing the hard drive soon, and then hopefuly it will. Enjoy!
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Sky Burger is an iPhone/iPod Touch app.
My dad bought Sky Burger a while ago, and he let me play it on his iPhone. It seemed like fun, so I downloaded it. Now I can’t stop playing it! I thought it deserved a review.
We’ll start with a little background:
Quote from app description:
Sky burger puts you to work stacking burgers to order! Catch the right ingredients as they fall from the sky, and don’t forget that top bun when you’re done!
Good:
Fun and addicting!
Starts easy, gets harder.
Perfect for passing time when you’re bored.
Bad:
Makes me hungry!
Higher levels are hard!
Age group: 8+
Difficulty Rating: 1-10 depending on level
Fun Rating: 10
Price: $1.99
Where: (iTunes store link) http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=311972587&mt=8
Overall, this is a great app! In fact, it is our first review to get a five out of five!
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Posted by mackidsblog
You may be asking, “What? Twoey? What are you talking about?!?!” I can explain. When I was in fifth grade (last year), we did reports on famous Americans. I got Steve Wozniak. I barely knew who Steve Wozniak was, so I did some research. He was co-founder of Apple with his friend Steve Jobs. He designed the Apple I, II, and III, and built the Apple I.
Back to my report. For my report, I really wanted to have an Apple II. I managed to get a non-working one to show for my report, then I had to give it back. I still wanted one of my own. That was almost a year ago, and just a few days ago, an Apple IIe arrived. I had bought it on eBay a few days before.
It included the IIe, a Disk II floppy (really!) drive and its manual, some software, and the original manual for the IIe. The eBay listing said that it was from 1983, but the motherboard said 1982. We had an old monitor out in the garage that my dad said he used with his Apple II. Turns out I heard him wrong, and the monitor was for a Mac II, not an Apple II. Oops!
The hookup for a monitor on the computer is the same as a standard TV video cable, but we didn’t think it would work with our modern (sort of…) TV. It worked! I played a few games, then turned it off. I put it in my room with the monitor for display and another Disk II I had bought for $5 at Weirdstuff in Sunnyvale.
The picture below shows it on display. The monitor is the one that doesn’t work with it (the only one I have). The Disk II on top is the one I had. Enjoy!
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I still have the first generation iPod Touch. I never bothered to upgrade to the second generation. The only new feature was a built-in speaker. Big deal! So when I heard about the September 9th Apple event, and the chance of a new iPod Touch with camera, I got really excited. I really wanted an iPod Touch with a camera! The day of the event came, and I couldn’t wait to see what had happened. My teacher let me use a computer in class (PC) to look it up. I was amazed at what I saw. Here are the facts:
iPod Touch:
• Larger sizes: The third generation only comes in 32gb and 64gb sizes. The 8gb model is still the second generation. There’s no 16gb model.
• Faster processor: Games play faster. What else is there to say?
• Voice memos: You can now use the iPhone earbuds with microphone. They are included with the iPod Touch.
• Bluetooth 2.1: Faster Bluetooth
• NO CAMERA!!!
iPod Nano:
• VIDEO CAMERA!!! Video, but no still photos. Cool video effects.
• Larger screen: 2.2 inches (diagonal).
• FM radio: FM radio tuner with pause.
Other stuff:
• iPhone OS 3.1: Rearrange icons from within iTunes.
• iTunes 9: Interface changes. Home sharing.
I hope you found this interesting. Sorry about the big gap between posts.
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Here’s my new hobby: amateur radio (ham radio). To do amateur radio, you must get 26 or more questions correct on a 35 question test. Tests have to be given by three General class or higher amateur radio operators. Tests are given from time to time by local clubs. If you pass the test, a few days later you will get mail from the FCC (in the USA) with two copies of your license. Your license will tell you what your callsign is. For example, I’m KI6ZON. Now that you have your callsign, you can get a radio and get on the air.
For my information on amateur radio, visit the amateur radio relay league at ARRL, or Google amateur radio.
If you live in the Sonoma County, California area, try contacting me on the local repeaters.
If you are an amateur radio operator or want more information, post a comment, or email us at mackidsblog@donaldlaird.com
Have fun!
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