fuji, granny smith, delicious. . .

this isn’t my usual kind of post, but at the request of my brother, and the fact that i haven’t written in a long time. . . here it is. a tech blog interim.

(i am neither a technophobe nor a technophile. i am fond of my apple products and recently upgraded to a desktop model with lion, in part to keep up with mobile technologies. my 12” powerbook g4 is about 8 years old and still functioning. however, now it tends to hang out in my closet.)

my dad recently clued my brother and i in on a gift idea for his birthday. the man rarely asks for anything, so getting him something he actually wants is a pretty big deal. he asked for a new laptop battery since his was dying. dan and i started asking equipment information to track down the right battery. . . about a week later we got a new message.


from dad:

OK....so the macbook battery runs down faster than it used to ...not too big of a problem as I don't really take it anywhere and I can plug it in easily.

I am getting emails from apple reminding me that mobileme will no longer be available soon and I should switch to Icloud......don't really understand it all...but it seems my mail accounts email address are on on mobileme right now. I tried to switch....but it seems I need OS X Lion to get the Icloud....not too sure why it won't go with leapord...but I tried to get Lion for about $30 and was informed ...not enough GB....ram I assume...said a minimum of 2 needed..

not very sure how to proceed from here or how big a deal it is.....I think I have a bit of time to figure it out as they have extended the mobileme  time a bit.
There may still be some simple way to switch over to cloud using what I have....don't know

Mom is thinking it may be time to consider another mac.....

any thoughts out there?? Ipad and phones would link to cloud...ipad and my phone run off of itunes on this macbook.

another hiccup


my brother’s initial response:

Looks like this Apple is

...
[sunglasses]
...

rotten to the core.


YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

(missing picture of horatio from csi miami)




mom responds:

LOL, Dan! Great photo too! We are thinking of replacing it for Dad's birthday (he got the one he now has 5 years ago when he retired. I have a discount through SLU that we may use. We just don't know how the transfer of memory will work and the maintenance of his email account and his iTunes  - for the iPad and his phone. We're waiting to hear Erika's input too. LOVE, HUGS, SMILES, Mom


brother again:

I'd also be interested in Erika's input, this is out of my scope.

Does Apple really make you migrate from one cloud service to another or risk losing stuff, and does that move necessitate buying new hardware because the 5yo generation can't handle the more recent OS? Crap.

I wasn't sure if a replacement would be necessary, but it sounds like it might due.



and now my turn (and the reason my brother thought this might be a good idea to post):

damn you horatio!

i kind of agree with dan.  i think that this set up is crap.  i'm seriously lucky that i upgraded my system.  one of the first things it had me do was move to iCloud. . . . but the truth is that my old computer is still completely functional, it just can't do all the new crazy mobile syncing. . . but that's why i got the new machine- in order to be able to sync with new mobile technology.

it seems you have three options.

1- upgrade your machine

here are the requirements for the iCloud shift.
Core2Duo, Core i3, i5, i7, and Xeon Intel CPUs with 2 GB of RAM in a Macintosh computer with 2 GB of RAM, and 4 GB for downloading from the Mac App Store (Available in 10.6.6 and later).  Unofficially, past upgrades have arbitrarily also required an additional 15% of the hard drive to be free for data.
A USB Flash Drive version is available that will erase and install on any machine whose hardware meets the above requirements, but will only upgrade and install over a 10.6.6 installed system.

2- acquire a new machine-

if you do go that way, i suggest you go to a mac store.  make an appointment (probably necessary) and the people there will sync your old machine to your new one.  i suspect that since your machine is newer than mine you will run into fewer problems.  

if you have the time, you might want to have them introduce you to their updated applications. . . iPhoto is all new and i still don't really understand how it works.  iTunes doesn't really change much. . . and the mail doesn't look much different.  but it might take an hour to sync the computers anyway, so might as well use your time wisely. . . since most likely you will be frustrated with any applications that don't run or look like the old ones. . . acquaint yourself with the new ones.

3- go rogue

what do you need your mac account for?  you use it for mail. . . do you use any of the other online services like their memory storage or sharing capabilities?

i like the mac mail because it syncs all of my other 6 mail accounts into one place where i can read and send mail easily. … i also use some of their online storage and sharing functionality. . . i doubt that i will use the cloud to store and share my iTunes everywhere i go. . . but it's nice that i can download an app for the iPad and it will automatically sync to my computer or iPad. .. . i do have my address book there too, so even if i am mac- less. . . i can access that information from any computer connected to the internet.

if you only use the mac account for the mail. . . truth is, you could switch to google for free. . . 


however. . . .you are running an iPad. .  . and iPhones.  the syncing becomes easier with lion and iCloud. . . i could probably do a little more research since the whole thing goes down in june or july. . . till then. . . i will be drafting a letter to apple.  i think that this is forcing more unnecessary purchases. . . and that they should have a little more pride and allegiance to their equipment that has durability and longevity.  


the players are recognizable. . . you’ve got people who eat from the apple tree, people who don’t, people who wonder how long there’s been a worm in their apple, and people who were once English teachers who now use LOL as a response and leave open parenthesis unclosed! but i digress.

the dialogue is probably familiar. . . but this is specifically how it goes down in my family.