Anjasaurus

I’m such a fangirl

You know why? I can’t wait to get my hands on an iPad, Apple’s newest toy. It’s not something I need. It does not solve any problems I think I have. It’s just.. tempting.

I could make up tons of reasons why I should and why I shouldn’t buy an iPad, but seriously, both you and I know I will buy one. Eventually. The iPhone was a hard choice, it was really expensive and I didn’t know if it would be for me. It was, I still love it even though it has its flaws. I don’t think I could find a better mobile device anyway, at least not at that time.

Buying the Macbook was easier, now I was already introduced to the Apple fandom. The overpricing bothered me less, since I knew what I was paying for. Lots of status and prestige (and taunts) and a device that works in a beautiful way.

Something about Apple and its products makes me happy when using them. It could be the design, or it could be the air surrounding their products. It’s a bit like a cult, the Apple fanbase. Somehow it makes me enjoy the products even more. I think the fascination is based on a bit of both design and air. Apple products, just like Nintendo products, scream “We loved to make this!”, and in turn, you really want to love to use them.

So, me buying an iPad is no surprise. I knew I would. :)
Hopefully, Apple will set a Swedish release date soon.

My darlings

A few days ago, I read on Deep Edition about his favourite gadgets, and I got inspired to write my own gadget list :) Just like him, I generally care more about buying new gadgets than travelling or buying clothes. I love design and usability, and the possibilities that come with new tools :)

MacBook My main gadget right now has to be my Macbook, which I bought sometime in August or September. It’s a 13” white MacBook, and the old non-unibody version too. It’s shiny and reliable, and follows me everywhere now, more or less. I has made my love keyboard shortcuts for some reason, maybe they’re just more convenient and consistent in OS X. I’m also using Snow Leopard now, upgraded just a few days ago.

It’s my main chat computer, since it has Tweetie and Adium, wonderful applications, but I also write a lot on it, mainly essays for uni. It has a nice keyboard and the screen is ok, almost too small but it works fine. I use it since I prefer to write away from home, it makes it a lot easier to focus :)

iPhone My second favourite, although I’m not sure I dare to say second because it’s so close to being a favourite, is my iPhone. (I have a feeling I sound more and more like a Mac nerd..) It contains my life, more or less. Calendar, contacts, notes, to-do-list etc, it has all the things I need in my everyday life. Plus, it’s a dream to use, most of the time. Before I got my Macbook, I used it a lot more for Twitter and email, but now I carry my Macbook almost everywhere so I don’t need it. I have to admit it’s a lot more convenient to use a real keyboard, even though the iPhone keyboard is ok :P

Although I don’t give this baby as much love as it deserves (no screen protector and I forget to polish it all the time..), it is a key to keep my life going. Going to uni and working in a uni environment doesn’t really mean you’re away from computers that often, so my iPhone isn’t used for mobile browsing a lot. And I don’t know why, but iPhone games never caught me. I know some of my friends play vampire games and other multiplayer games, but I just can’t be bothered. My iPhone is my quick information channel, not a relaxation toy :)

PC Thirdly, of course I have to include my PC. It’s not hip, it’s not cool, it’s not awesome, but it lets me play games, which I love. I recently reformatted it and upgraded to Windows 7, and it’s working better. It’s still very noticeable it’s not a very new computer, especially compared to the Macbook (it’s making me spoiled already), but it gets the job done and that’s the main thing.

Of course I have a lot of other gadgets and stuff, but these are the ones I use every day. I used to play with an Asus Eee 900, but since I got my Mac I don’t have any need for another laptop, and the Eee is so slow in comparison I dread doing anything on it at all. I think it’s mainly because the OS is a resource hog, but I can’t be bothered to experiment with it. Poor thing. :)

This post got really long, maybe you can tell I love my computers and gadgets :D

Themes for mobile devices

I’ve installed a new plugin called WPTouch, which checks if you’re browsing from a mobile touch device, such as an iPhone or Blackberry. It will then ignore my standard theme and apply its own, more easily accessible theme. If you have an iPhone or similar device, tell me what you think :)

Google Sync for iPhone

I read a post about a new beta feature at Google, Google Sync. It would sync your calendars and contacts with your iPhone without the use of iTunes. Right now, I’m doing the same thing already, but through iTunes, and also through Outlook for the calendar. A bit of a workaround but so far it works.

But I thought I would give this new sync feature a try, even though I don’t have an unlimited data plan. It might not use so much data, I thought. Plus, as the sync feature would be Google’s, I believed it would have better featuers and work better together with Google stuff. Like, no contacts from “suggested contacts” are added and it can handle multiple calendars (<3 color).

So I tried.

It was easy and nice to set up. A bit scary to delete all my contacts but it synced up nicely after a little loading time. The calendar also synced fine, I only had one so far since I use Outlook. According to Google’s help files, Google Sync should be able to handle several calendars, I would just need to log in through Safari. Yeah right. I tried, iPhone is obviously “not supported”, which is not what the help files says. So I could just use one calendar, it needs to use wifi/3g everytime I want to browse or change my contacts/calendar and it’s a beta feature. Which means it can fail more often (though Google use a lot of beta without problems..). No, this was a disappointment. :P I’ll keep to my workaround ways until this Google Sync is more well-tested and I feel a real need for colors in my calendar.

Stupid technology

I’ve been using Google Calendar as my primary calendar for quite a while. Then I got an iPhone, which means I’d rather have my life on that one that I actually bring with me everyday. But I realised now that I’m so used to Google Calendar that I get really irritated when I can’t use the big screen and proper keyboard, and I need to find my phone when I want to check something.

I tried an application/service called NuevaSync, but the problem is that it syncs over the 3G network, and I don’t have an unlimited data plan. It would cost too much in the end.

So, now you can guess I’m quite irritated. Google Calendar doesn’t want to sync with iPhone natively, NuevaSync is great but too expensive in the long run.. Apple doesn’t like Windows/Microsoft.. (ok, maybe they do, I don’t know).
Google ftw though. I finally found out that Google has made their own little application to sync with Microsoft Outlook. And iPhone can sync with Outlook! Now I have a beautiful workaround with three-way-syncing. I’m sure something will go wrong with this three-company-solution, but for now it works, and I’m glad. :)

Minor detail: Outlook can’t handle several Google calendars, so I’m back to monotone calendar :( And I loved the colors!