I’ve read iPad rumors like a hound. It’s been one of my few tech industry predilections. Most things with Apple generally are, considering how much of an Apple fangirl I’ve become following the purchase of my iMac.

Now, I like the name of the device, and initially I was very impressed with the surface, just like I am with all of Apple’s products. I’ve always had a huge amount of respect for Apple’s interface design team (considering that it’s their interface I’m most rabid about), but as I dug into the technical specifications… I kind of took a step back. It certainly wasn’t what I expected, which was exactly what Apple had promised, but I don’t think they really meant it in the sense that I found it to be “unexpected.” Read more »

So, this week I began writing my first application with Cocoa in Objective C. To say the least, it was an experience.

I began first by checking out Apple’s Reference Library and Cocoa tutorials, found here, which gave me a decent understanding of how Objective-C in particular works and gave me a real preview of XCode. Truth be told, however, I’ve already learned a fairly decent amount of programing (having have started learning C at some point around 2005). So, to be fair, this tutorial is not for beginners; if you lack this amount of experience, however, This PDF tutorial (PDF linked) will get you started – it’s one I’m currently browsing, mostly because, while I have programming experience, I’m honestly no expert. Read more »

Life is a river; it is always changing and moving with rhythm and time. It’s not always refreshing, but it certainly has plenty of rocks along the way.

Lately I’ve been looking back a bit, at the same time as forward. I’m enjoying the present one day at a time, but there are moments during which I am reminded of something from childhood. Today, someone I’m following on Twitter linked some older pictures from the original (and best) Star Wars. What a great piece of history, I thought to myself. I remember watching the original movies when I was really young. At the time, we didn’t have DVD players, and music came on casette tapes. We didn’t have Black Eyed Peas, and rock was still the major form of music style – there wasn’t really much in the way of “rap” that took the mainstream until much later.

I remember that my mom practically raised my brother and I on real originals. Things like The Neverending Story, The Labyrinth, and a mess of other Jim Henson movies – and alongside those, like a great sage in and of itself, the original Star Wars trilogy. What she didn’t realize at the time was that she had just made the recipe to create a daughter who grew to be an absolute technology junky and a geek to the core. I bear these titles with pride. Read more »

I was one of perhaps millions disappointed this year when the Apple 3G S was introduced. Why? Because I so happen to use Verizon, and I so happen to not like Apple well enough to change to AT&T.

I like my Verizon plan. I like my 450 any-time minutes and free calling for in-network numbers (the majority of my contact list also happens to utilize Verizon). Now, granted, I’d like a new cell phone – I’ve been looking in the market – and I really wish that I could say that the phone I plan on purchasing within the next year will be an iPhone. However, instead, I will most likely purchase an LG Dare or something similar when the time comes.

In addition, Apple has stated that they will not be introducing netbooks and that their lineup will remain as it is – that is, very high-price computers that most normal people perhaps would not purchase because of the tag on the machine. This slices out the sector of the market which cannot possibly afford this type of computer.

So my question is, is Apple genius in choosing to cut out parts of their market, or are they making a big mistake? Read more »