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2880 by 1800 resolution on MacBooks like iPhone 3G to iPhone 4's retina display

Digitimes claims that Apple will release a MacBook Pro with a resolution of 2880 by 1800. That's more than quadruple the resolution of the stock 15 inch MacBook Pro. We can finally cram four times the amount of stuff on our screen right? Wrong. That's not what Apple would do. They will instead, just like the iPhone 4, keep the proportions the same but make things more crisp. I'm not against high resolution. In fact, I made sure my 15" MBP had the Hi-Res option of 1680 by 1050 pixels. I just couldn't stand buying a stock 15" pro with the resolution of the 13" MacBook Air. It seems like notebook manufacturers today get away with selling laptops with sub par resolution Apple included.

Apple already has a track record selling the Airs with Hi-Res screens. The 11 Air almost has the same resolution as the 13 MBP and the 13 MBA has the same one as the 15 MBP. With this logic, the 15" MBA should get the 17's resolution. I'd like to think that Apple will release quadrupled resolution all at once to one family of laptops. The MBP family. This could differentiate them more with the MBA. It's also more expensive to built really high-res screens, so it may not make financial sense to ship them in MBAs right now. Apple sells more Airs than Pros.

I'm looking forward to a MBP revamp, and they'd most likely get these screens then. The same Digitimes article claims that the display will ship in the second quarter of 2012.

Does a Macbook Air and Macbook Pro Combo Make Sense?

Does a person really need two laptops? I'd like to think not. It seems like such a waste, but I've been thinking about getting a Macbook Air 11" lately despite my 15" Macbook Pro. I've bought a used a Macbook Air 13" (2010) before and it suited me well for the most part. It's actually perfect for university and high school students. The problem came when I wanted to do projects involving professional applications like Final Cut X. I knew the 13 Air would have some trouble, and it won't handle everything I would throw at it. My biggest concern was storage. It was too slow and inelegant to put all your project in an external hard drive. I sold the 13 and bought the 15 Pro from the refurbished section of the Apple store. It would take a couple of weeks for the 15 to arrive, so I bought an 11 Air as my main machine for the meantime. Apple got rid of the restocking fee and also wanted to try out the 11 Air. I just simply loved the portability of the 13 Air, so the 11 would be better for that.

The 15 Pro arrive and I had to return the 11 Air. It was such a big difference going from the two. The 15 is this gargantuan beast of a machine with a large screen and a heavy body while the 11 is this small runt that can do most of what I needed it to do. It's been several months now, and I'm longing for that 11 Air. I've been checking out the Apple store and Craigslist for a good price, and I'm tempted on getting one. Why get one while I have a perfectly awesome Pro? I simply fell in love with the portability. Now that I have school to do, portability is key. I carry the 15 Pro with me everywhere I go, and it just weighs down my backpack so much. I also have a hard time using it on the bus because I'm too paranoid about the spinning hard drive, and it makes me a big target for theft.

How would the logistics work though? Would I carry both laptops at the same time? That would make my backpack even heavier. I'd end up using the 11 Air 90% of the time when school is in session, and then the pro would be used during the summer or winter breaks. In that case, won't it make sense to get a iMac and an 11 Air? I'll have plenty or real estate with the iMac, and I can be mobile with the Air. I've thought about this before i bought my 15 Pro. I consider myself a digital nomad. I don't spend a whole lot of waking time at home. The iMac would hardly be used. At least I can bring the pro with me and then use it.

The most elegant solution is thunderbolt. I could connect an external monitor for editing and a fast external hard drive for storage and backup. The weakest link to this setup is the computing power of the laptop. The most decked out 11 Air is just not powerful enough. The best 13 Air is getting there though, and I'm sure the 15" Macbook Air would be the best compromise to power and portability, but how portable could a 15 air really be? I liked the 11 because of it's small footprint. The 15 Air would still have a large footprint but small weight. It would solve my "backpack too heavy" problem, but I won't consider it portable. And how would the storage work with the 15 Pro? I expect it to be SSD with 256GB as a reasonable option, but that's still not reasonably large enough.

I still haven't made my decision. I might just end up getting an Air for school purposes and using the 15 Pro for larger projects. It just seems like a shame that my Pro would be under-utilized while I have school. That's really the main thing that's stoping me. I don't like inefficiencies, and a Pro and Air combo would be inefficient.

Should I get Jawbone's UP

I love data, so I would naturally be attracted to the fitbit or Jawbone's UP, but  I don't know if I can justify the purchase. At the moment, I don't keep track of my food and I don't really exercise much. I'm lucky enough to be able to eat anything I want and still stay slim. The main thing  I want from the UP is the sleep data. I want it, but there's an alternative out there. There are various apps on the app store that let you keep track of how well you sleep and wake you up at the best moment. I tried it once and it worked. The app is called Sleep Cycle alarm clock and it does pretty much what jawbone does.

At this point, I don't see much or a need to the jawbone UP if you have an iPhone and you're cheap, and seeing as you need an iOS device

Application "residue" after restoring iMac to factory settings

So I restored my 27" iMac back to default settings. I wipped the drive clean but there seems to still be some residue leftover.

For instance, when I made a video in iMovie and uploaded to youtube. My previous video description and tags were there. There were no other projects or events in iMovie.

Also, when I donwloaded the tweetie client for the Mac. It seemed to have remembered some of my credentials.

I won't claim to know everything that goes on in the OS level of my mac. The explanation to this might be simple. But I thought that by wiping my drive I wipped everything. But I think I might know the reason.

I did not actually zero-out the data on the drive, I just deleted the dirrectory for it was faster. Is it possible that there was some data leak from the previous dirrectory?

iPhone's battery

Did some basic search for the iPhone's battery. I wanted to know how many charges the iPhone can do until the battery is toast. 

How long until the battery needs replacement?

All batteries degrade with time and use. Apple says the battery is designed to provide 80% of its original capacity after 300 to 400 charge cycles. Its usable lifespan will depend on usage; heavy voice/internet users will require battery replacement sooner than occasional users. (See Apple Battery Info Page for additional information and the definition of a "cycle".)

Anecdotally, most original iPhones from 2007 seem to retain good battery performance two years later (summer of 2009).

via: http://www.macintouch.com/iphone/faq.html

How much does it cost?

Service arranged through Apple costs $89. A $10.77 shipping fee will be added if you arrange service online or by calling Apple Technical Support. All fees are in Canadian dollars and are subject to local tax.   

via:http://www.apple.com/ca/support/iphone/service/battery/           

it will take a week to get the battery replaced. Data on your phone will be wiped. 

So, what do I do to save on battery life? First, I have the screen at 30% brightness. Email is checked every hour, and I turn off all data on my phone when I go to sleep. 

Go to settings, general, network. Turn everything off there, including WiFi, cellular data, and 3G. I find that this saves me around 15% of battery charge on my iPhone4. 15% every night multiplied by a year is roughly 54 full charge cycles. 

Tethering with iPhone4 on Fido

SI decided to check out how fast teathering is via USB on my Fido iPhone4. I got the following:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/918049604.png

6.4 Mb/s Down
1.73Mb/s up