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The iPad Advantage

A common question I get from people seeking my “tech recommendation” if they need an iPad – as if it were a difficult choice to make between a touch device or laptop. That is to say if they have an iPhone/iPod touch, the iPad seems redundant. If they have a laptop, the iPad will also seem redundant. It looks like they feel that if they get an iPad, they’d have to let go of one or the other.

But everyone who has talked to me about the iPad knows that I don’t believe this to be the case – far from it. They know I’m a fan of the iPad, and that I would even recommend it over a laptop – which is partly true.

The truth is that whenever a person asks “what would be a better buy: an iPad or a laptop,” my first question would always be if they already have a primary machine (desktop or laptop). If they do [have a primary machine], unless they’ve got special needs, I’d easily recommend an iPad over a laptop any day.

Why is that you ask? Read on. Read More

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MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro

One thing I wasn’t able to to when I got the MacBook Air (Air) was to make a video of it going head to head with my old 2.4GHz 15″ MacBook Pro (MBP) w/ 4GB RAM and 250GB HDD. The reason I got the Air was precisely because I had already sold [and given away] the MBP – so it was good as gone. Another reason was because the MBP was a 1st Generation unit. While it did have the comparable specs to compare the Air with, I also didn’t want to leave “room for doubt” because of its age.

Luckily, I was able to help a friend out in sourcing a brand new MBP. What’s better is that the MBP had the exact same specs as my old MBP – the only difference was the 13″ native resolution [was smaller than the 15″]. But other than that, it’s exactly the same… and it’s from the newest line of MBPs Apple released.

My previous post just showed a video of the general impression I had of the Air on it’s own, but now I present to you a legitimate head-to-head comparison video of how the Air stacks up against what’s supposed to be a more powerful MBP of the same “generation.”

Read More

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MacBook Air: Hands-on

Okay, how about a post where I’m not talking out of my ass? Let’s talk technology, people. I replaced my 1st gen 15″ 2.4GHz Unibody MacBook Pro with the new 13″ 1.86Ghz MacBook Air and I’m going to share my thoughts on the matter.

Now for those who know me, you may be wondering why I would get such an underpowered machine to replace a MacBook Pro. In a nutshell, I’ve always liked the concept of the MacBook Air; that is to say that as much as I’m a power user, it being underpowered was never the “deal breaker” for me. I didn’t really mind compromise because I had a desktop for the real heavy lifting. So the question was never “How powerful is it?” but rather “Does the power/experience it offers justify the price tag?”

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MiFi initial experience

In yesterday’s post, I only touched on physical impressions I had on my E583C. Because of my excitement (understandably so), I wasn’t able to hold off the post till I actually got to put the thing through its paces. Instead, I just ended it with a cop-out statement:

The only thing to really evaluate with gadgets like these is how powerful/reliable their antennae and WiFi beacons are. So I’ll be using this unit quite a bit and compare it to how my broadband account would perform when stuck directly into the iPad.

But assuming the thing actually does what its advertised to do, even if it doesn’t do it spectacularly, I really can’t find any reason why it wouldn’t be a worthwhile investment for anyone who wants connectivity on the go.

The logic of the statement is obviously sound, but in this post, I’ll confirm what we’ve all been wondering: Will it blend?

Just kidding, I meant “how does it perform?” Read More

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Wow-huawei!

Not sure if I got the pun accross effectively; the title’s supposed to be like “Wowowee!” (better to be safe and explain – than to risk looking like an idiot)

Anyways, while pretty late in the game, I finally succumbed to the temptation of buying myself a MiFi. As Manu Sandejas told me once while shopping for bike parts;

The best way to get rid of temptation is to give in. Then you wouldn’t be tempted anymore; problem solved 😉

Kidding aside, the reason I was considering getting a MiFi despite having unlimited internet with my iPad 3G – was because there would be times that the iPad would run out of juice, and I would’ve wanted to continue whatever I was doing on the iPhone. There were even times that I wanted to get online specifically with the iPhone 1 like IMing, or simply checking Facebook through the mobile app – which is much faster than accessing the full webpage as the iPad was too cumbersome to pull out.

And of course, the more “internet-enabled” devices you have, it will make more and more sense to be able to share a single connection between them. Much like why most households now have routers. 2 When was the last time you saw a person subscribe to two DSL lines because he wanted two computers connected? Probably never, because it’s absurd. Read More

Notes

Notes
⇡1 like IMing, or simply checking Facebook through the mobile app – which is much faster than accessing the full webpage
⇡2 When was the last time you saw a person subscribe to two DSL lines because he wanted two computers connected? Probably never, because it’s absurd.