The new MacBook Pro announced during the Apple WWDC 2012 is a whole new breakthrough.
Here's a couple of reasons:
1. Retina display for a laptop
I don't know how many of you would appreciate the 'retina' display, but it certainly marks the point where the future of Retina Display begins. Also, this is very crucial to Photo and Video editing, with the big screen AND high resolution! If you're thinking, well I don't do any Photo or Video editing, you should be better off with other laptops at the moment as this is kind of the 'prototype' and only photo/video editors would buy a laptop with this steep price tag at this point. But again, it's going to change in the near future.
2. Double Thunderbolt port
Thunderbolt definitely beats USB 3.0 hands-down. The only problem it has is that the Thunderbolt hardwares seems to be expensive (due to its difficult software controls). But many are coming out and low priced Thunderbolt products are coming out (especially the external drives) such as Elgato Thunderbolt SSD. Again, this (at this point) is only useful for professional editors (especially video editors) because you normally won't need a dual 10Gbps connection for your everyday tasks. But for video creative editors, this is a godsend. Especially with the Double Thunderbolt ports since they don't need to buy extra hardware adapters of some sort to extend their Thunderbolt connection. These Thunderbolt ports turn this into a mobile Powerhouse!
3. Newly designed efficient fan
These so-called high-efficiency fans cools this mobile workplace. Not much to say about this one, but this definitely would help reducing the noise generated from the fan while increasing air flow efficiency (with the introduction of unbalanced fan gap - yep).
4. Long battery
Of course, it would last barely 1~2 hours when you're topping its max and the fan goes off to its max, but from the experience I get from Macbook Air, 7 hours roughly translates to 5 hours of normal work. Now, I recommend you to plug in the power when you are doing some heavy-duty tasks such as video-editing (it's always video editing, isn't it?) because the battery life will shorten by a bit. But other than that, with all that spec, 7 hours is amazing although I suspect that with switched graphics (to a more powerful one) and/or mid to mid-heavy workload would literally squeeze the juice out of the pack.
5. Thinness and portability
My god, you have no idea why having a thin laptop is important. Own a Macbook Air and you'll know right away. Or this laptop. Now I was able to get my hands on the new Macbook Pro and before I talk about its weight and its feelings, I want to describe my experience with the Macbook Air. My MBA (Macbook Air) is very, very light and I can carry it around with only 1 hand, completely balanced, and it feels like just a book. I wouldn't consider doing this with other hefty laptops, but this was lightweight and portable enough so that I carry this around everywhere, even to my bathroom. *cough. Macbook Pro 15" Retina Display have the weight of the 'normal' 13 inch laptop (something like 2 inch thick, just normal Dell or Samsung laptop) but have the size of 15 inch laptop. Now, the thickness of this laptop is great (although not perfect). But you do need to hold it with 2 hands (both by weight and by size) and the size will feel uncomfortable to carry it around. It is designed to be a powerhouse, so heck, why not just put it in one place and not move it? That's what it's designed to be anyway. Not really portable, I must say.
6. Flash storage
I'm going to say only one thing about flash: I've been using Macbook Air, and I have no idea how you could use a laptop without flash. It's so slow! Fortunately, this Macbook Pro comes with a Flash storage, so you can rest assured that you won't bore yourself right at the loading screen. In fact, it's even faster than the one in Macbook Air and is so fast that you don't even see the spinning wheel on booting (it's probably the same as Macbook Air, by experience). This IS the future. You can't live without it. Period.
That's about it! I would recommend this 'thin' laptop (I'm not too sure as to put this in the 'ultrabook' category or not. Of course, this IS an Ultrabook but since I've got so used to Macbook Air...) to anyone who needs some serious power and/or fast and powerful expansion. Mainly for professionals, I wouldn't recommend this for normal users due to 1. high price tag 2. its big size 3. its overly powerful computing power (it won't be in a couple of years).
If you are a normal user though, I would recommend waiting for a bit until Apple applies the same to the 13-inch Macbook Pro (because this IS the future) or they hugely bump the specs of Macbook Air (which is highly unlikely).
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Friday 15 June 2012
Wednesday 13 June 2012
Why blog?
Why blog?
Blog, as a verb. The 'action' word.
It is of a human's nature to want to express their feelings and thoughts. And out of all the other communication method, here's the reason I chose blog:
There are many choices. Facebook, Twitter (a micro-blogging site, technically), Reddit, Youtube, Blogger, WordPress, and all the web services there to provide you with a way to express yourself and broadcast your thoughts to the whole world (hence, the Youtube's motto, 'Broadcast Yourself').
Why do you need to express yourself? It's just the human nature! A human being cannot live by him/herself and we know we all have the tendency to talk to our friends whenever possible and we do quite enjoy it. In fact, we can't live without others! But sometimes just friends and family doesn't cut it, due to some restrictions, which might include the fact that there are only a few people, they might not share your opinions, they might be stubborn, or you just want even more people to communicate with / broadcast to! That's why we're here in the internet. Welcome to the 21st century (that line is 12 years old now).
So we cleared off why we need some sort of a service that lets us talk to the whole world of the internet. Now it comes down to which service you should choose. Before you get into anything, let me tell you: all those services have different purposes, 'feelings', and 'audiences'.
Facebook is for your actual social life. Where you can chit chat with your friend, send wedding photos to your mom, dad and your friends. Basically, it just stays within your friends (normally).
Twitter, like I mentioned before, is a micro-blogging service that allows you to write what you want in less than 140 words. But in reality, Twitter is just an 'announcement platform', you know? Where your person of interest 'announces' something that you might not want to miss. It has a more 'official' feeling than Facebook.
Reddit is actually the Jack out of all these services. This website is sort of a 'popularity contest' website, so to say. There's no real way I can explain this, but the website allows you to post link, picture, funny or awesome status, etc that might get attention of other people and get 'up voted' by people. It's all about popularity in Reddit. Some place you might not want to go if you're just looking for friendly place where you can broadcast yourself.
Youtube, 'Broadcast Yourself', is a video streaming platform that allows you to upload a video and watch other videos. This is a very, very, versatile web service. There are just so many ways people use this website. Blogging, blogging (video blogging), gameplays, announcements, humour videos, funny & cute videos, activism videos, ideas, and all those other things are possible on Youtube. In the form of video. There is no general audience or feeling about this website. It becomes whatever you would like it to be, because there are just so many contents and people who create contents out there in Youtube, that you would see only what you want to see in Youtube. That's the case even if you are creating videos. You see videos, interact with viewers / content creators of your interest only. Be aware though, as there are many 'trolls' and mean people who sit behind monitors and attack others. Also, join this website if you are able to manage all your thoughts and blogs in the form of videos.
And there's WordPress. Simply put, this website IS your personal blog, but it doesn't have the feelings of it. Quite often it doesn't work, and while it is designed for simplicity, it is quite not so if you're trying to surpass the 'basic' layout and customize or make the blog more friendly. Yes, this website has no friendliness, at least in my opinion. This is mediocre in my opinion compared to others. Why use it? is the first question you'd ask.
Last but not least, there's Blogger, the 'traditional' blog site. Keep in mind that other form of blogs are also included in explaining my thoughts on Blogger. Blogger is basically like any other blogging sites (and you can even create your OWN blog! For a cost though). But Blogger is managed by Google. This comes with a few good extras: NO fee to host & serve the blog, NO ads (unless you become popular and want to monetize your blog), very good customization (you have direct access to HTML code of every post you create. That's a lot of freedom), and nice, easy, and clean interface to use and learn! If you haven't already, check out my other two posts on my opinions on Blogger: here and here. It's good to check those out if you're new to blogging (or the internet)! Also, Blogger comes with free, pre-installed analytic tool provided by Google, the Google Analytics. It gives you pretty much ALL the information you need. How neat is that? Other blogs (that you create yourself and pay for it) may have all or some of these features depending on what you want, but Blogger is the most friendly, easy, and best to use for your personal (and not so personal) blogs, for the purpose of broadcasting your ideas, thoughts, and so on.
If this helped on deciding what blogging service to use, then please subscribe to my blog!
Blog, as a verb. The 'action' word.
It is of a human's nature to want to express their feelings and thoughts. And out of all the other communication method, here's the reason I chose blog:
There are many choices. Facebook, Twitter (a micro-blogging site, technically), Reddit, Youtube, Blogger, WordPress, and all the web services there to provide you with a way to express yourself and broadcast your thoughts to the whole world (hence, the Youtube's motto, 'Broadcast Yourself').
Why do you need to express yourself? It's just the human nature! A human being cannot live by him/herself and we know we all have the tendency to talk to our friends whenever possible and we do quite enjoy it. In fact, we can't live without others! But sometimes just friends and family doesn't cut it, due to some restrictions, which might include the fact that there are only a few people, they might not share your opinions, they might be stubborn, or you just want even more people to communicate with / broadcast to! That's why we're here in the internet. Welcome to the 21st century (that line is 12 years old now).
So we cleared off why we need some sort of a service that lets us talk to the whole world of the internet. Now it comes down to which service you should choose. Before you get into anything, let me tell you: all those services have different purposes, 'feelings', and 'audiences'.
Facebook is for your actual social life. Where you can chit chat with your friend, send wedding photos to your mom, dad and your friends. Basically, it just stays within your friends (normally).
Twitter, like I mentioned before, is a micro-blogging service that allows you to write what you want in less than 140 words. But in reality, Twitter is just an 'announcement platform', you know? Where your person of interest 'announces' something that you might not want to miss. It has a more 'official' feeling than Facebook.
Reddit is actually the Jack out of all these services. This website is sort of a 'popularity contest' website, so to say. There's no real way I can explain this, but the website allows you to post link, picture, funny or awesome status, etc that might get attention of other people and get 'up voted' by people. It's all about popularity in Reddit. Some place you might not want to go if you're just looking for friendly place where you can broadcast yourself.
Youtube, 'Broadcast Yourself', is a video streaming platform that allows you to upload a video and watch other videos. This is a very, very, versatile web service. There are just so many ways people use this website. Blogging, blogging (video blogging), gameplays, announcements, humour videos, funny & cute videos, activism videos, ideas, and all those other things are possible on Youtube. In the form of video. There is no general audience or feeling about this website. It becomes whatever you would like it to be, because there are just so many contents and people who create contents out there in Youtube, that you would see only what you want to see in Youtube. That's the case even if you are creating videos. You see videos, interact with viewers / content creators of your interest only. Be aware though, as there are many 'trolls' and mean people who sit behind monitors and attack others. Also, join this website if you are able to manage all your thoughts and blogs in the form of videos.
And there's WordPress. Simply put, this website IS your personal blog, but it doesn't have the feelings of it. Quite often it doesn't work, and while it is designed for simplicity, it is quite not so if you're trying to surpass the 'basic' layout and customize or make the blog more friendly. Yes, this website has no friendliness, at least in my opinion. This is mediocre in my opinion compared to others. Why use it? is the first question you'd ask.
Last but not least, there's Blogger, the 'traditional' blog site. Keep in mind that other form of blogs are also included in explaining my thoughts on Blogger. Blogger is basically like any other blogging sites (and you can even create your OWN blog! For a cost though). But Blogger is managed by Google. This comes with a few good extras: NO fee to host & serve the blog, NO ads (unless you become popular and want to monetize your blog), very good customization (you have direct access to HTML code of every post you create. That's a lot of freedom), and nice, easy, and clean interface to use and learn! If you haven't already, check out my other two posts on my opinions on Blogger: here and here. It's good to check those out if you're new to blogging (or the internet)! Also, Blogger comes with free, pre-installed analytic tool provided by Google, the Google Analytics. It gives you pretty much ALL the information you need. How neat is that? Other blogs (that you create yourself and pay for it) may have all or some of these features depending on what you want, but Blogger is the most friendly, easy, and best to use for your personal (and not so personal) blogs, for the purpose of broadcasting your ideas, thoughts, and so on.
If this helped on deciding what blogging service to use, then please subscribe to my blog!
Monday 14 May 2012
Funniest comments on the web #3
This time on funniest comments on the web, where we cover the funniest comments and other Google and Youtube related stuffs on the web, we got a comment on Kaoma's Lambada official music video that still has the highest rated comment or the top comment page.
 |
| Right. Brazil video, a guy saying he's going to Brazil, and a need for Brazil condom! |
So this guy says he's going to Brazil, connecting his personal experience that is going to happen with the video, which is really inspiring and soul-crying and it just feels like you need to cry and you get so nostalgic and stuff!
But guess who ruins the fun by commenting a totally unexpected comment?
'have fun, but remember to use condoms'
sure it just adds more fun to it.
In fact, it was so funny that I laughed on the floor, and everyone else in my apartment was pretty pissed off that I was screaming and laughing, just rofling.
What is this, use condoms? Brazil condoms?
Wow. The total lol comment and best of all the series!
So that guy thinks the other guy is going to go there and just get a few prostitutes, get laid, and have some sexy time? xD
Even if he does, why are you then telling him to use a condom as if you were his mom or dad?
So funny... :D
Join me next time, where I'll cover even more funny comments.
I really hope you remember the first video ever and the funniest comment on it...
Share this with your friends! They'll love it!
Apple News - New Mac Pro 2012?
Now that Intel had released their newest line of Xeon processors, all of them designed with 23nm CPU, Ivy Bridge is now targeting the low-end server, also known as microservers, and some for the high and mid range processors.
What this means is that Apple is likely to renew their product line of Mac Pros (for professionals) that hadn't been updated since 2009. Ever since 2009, Mac Pros were using the Intel Xeon 3000 family or the Intel Xeon 5000 family - which is adequate enough and still packs some punch today, but getting behind the technology improvements and breakthroughs.
This might be it. After a long time, Apple might release the new Mac Pro, working closely with Intel behind the scenes, ready to launch as soon as Intel updates their processor line and broadcast it to the world. This has been Apple Inc's strategy and it's just how they roll. This allows for maximum profit, partly by the buzz of Intel Ivy Bridge 23nm architecture.
This would be awesome. After being anticipated for a long time, they are really likely to refresh their Mac Pros. I am definitely looking forward that, and it would mean to the other video/graphic professionals that they could get back to Mac, being ensured the highest performance and lowest electricity consumption, with the connectors designed for future, more long-term improvements and enhancements that would allow for long time use of these Mac Pros. Maybe even a motherboard that could house the next generation CPUs. That would be awesome.
Some of the features expected/wanted:
Even more fully customizable interior
Updated software (OpenCL, OpenGL, etc) that would allow maximum use of the newest CPU and GPU
Intel Ivy Bridge CPU line from variety of ranges (high end to low end)
A Nvidia GPU - this is LARGELY needed due to release of Adobe CS6 and all their applications taking advantage in hardware and software acceleration with the implementation of Adobe Mercury Engine or stuffs like that in basically all of their Master Collection CS6 application suite. Also the newest AutoCAD and Maya would benefit hugely from faster hardware and updated software and firmware to support it!
A Thunderbolt port - this one's a bit too obvious!
Hopefully an addition of Blu-ray disk reader!
Everything else should be the same - similar prices, similar specs of other parts (maybe even more efficient power regulation), same disks, same RAM, and all those other factory parts that comes with the Mac Pro.
Hopefully you get an idea of what the new Mac Pro will be capable of along with its expected specs and features, and when it's going to be released/announced! (hopefully soon)
Add me to your RSS feed!
What this means is that Apple is likely to renew their product line of Mac Pros (for professionals) that hadn't been updated since 2009. Ever since 2009, Mac Pros were using the Intel Xeon 3000 family or the Intel Xeon 5000 family - which is adequate enough and still packs some punch today, but getting behind the technology improvements and breakthroughs.
This might be it. After a long time, Apple might release the new Mac Pro, working closely with Intel behind the scenes, ready to launch as soon as Intel updates their processor line and broadcast it to the world. This has been Apple Inc's strategy and it's just how they roll. This allows for maximum profit, partly by the buzz of Intel Ivy Bridge 23nm architecture.
This would be awesome. After being anticipated for a long time, they are really likely to refresh their Mac Pros. I am definitely looking forward that, and it would mean to the other video/graphic professionals that they could get back to Mac, being ensured the highest performance and lowest electricity consumption, with the connectors designed for future, more long-term improvements and enhancements that would allow for long time use of these Mac Pros. Maybe even a motherboard that could house the next generation CPUs. That would be awesome.
Some of the features expected/wanted:
Even more fully customizable interior
Updated software (OpenCL, OpenGL, etc) that would allow maximum use of the newest CPU and GPU
Intel Ivy Bridge CPU line from variety of ranges (high end to low end)
A Nvidia GPU - this is LARGELY needed due to release of Adobe CS6 and all their applications taking advantage in hardware and software acceleration with the implementation of Adobe Mercury Engine or stuffs like that in basically all of their Master Collection CS6 application suite. Also the newest AutoCAD and Maya would benefit hugely from faster hardware and updated software and firmware to support it!
A Thunderbolt port - this one's a bit too obvious!
Hopefully an addition of Blu-ray disk reader!
Everything else should be the same - similar prices, similar specs of other parts (maybe even more efficient power regulation), same disks, same RAM, and all those other factory parts that comes with the Mac Pro.
Hopefully you get an idea of what the new Mac Pro will be capable of along with its expected specs and features, and when it's going to be released/announced! (hopefully soon)
Add me to your RSS feed!
Friday 11 May 2012
Funniest comments on the web #2
This is a series of compilation of extremely funny Youtube and Google comments and videos/pictures.
To see all, click here:
As THE first video ever uploaded to Youtube, this video gets many comments, including this one:
Click on the image to see full size photo.
The usual spam comment saying 'Like if your watching this in 2012' pisses one guy off, and he becomes sarcastic. Really sarcastic so that it's funny (really funny...I rofl'd for 5 minutes)
To see more funniest youtube comments, subscribe to this blog so you get the post whenever you want.
smalltechtips.blogspot.ca
Leave a comment on what you think!
If you have funnier comments (which I doubt you do), comment with the link to that.
To see all, click here:
As THE first video ever uploaded to Youtube, this video gets many comments, including this one:
 |
| This guy claims to be watching this on iStone after some idiot pissed him off by posting one of those 'regular' spam comments. Hilarity insues. |
The usual spam comment saying 'Like if your watching this in 2012' pisses one guy off, and he becomes sarcastic. Really sarcastic so that it's funny (really funny...I rofl'd for 5 minutes)
To see more funniest youtube comments, subscribe to this blog so you get the post whenever you want.
smalltechtips.blogspot.ca
Leave a comment on what you think!
If you have funnier comments (which I doubt you do), comment with the link to that.
Thursday 10 May 2012
What Microsoft's New Bing Enhancement Inspired By Facebook Means For You!
Microsoft just revamped their Bing search engine not too many hours ago, and this time, they've learned something: although it might be extremely irritating and annoying for the users, the social integration works. So, inspired by Facebook, they made the Bing search socially integrated. From all the Google's posts, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Quora, Foursquare, and more, Bing search engine now depends heavily on the socially optimal search results. I repeat, Bing now depends on socially optimal search results.
First you need to know how this system works. Basically, just like Google's "Page Rank" system where the individual pages are ranked by how important it is, how much back links it has, etc, Bing search engine relies on page "rankings" to search and show the results correctly. But this time, instead of how many links or how much it is approved all around the web/net, Bing now depends their search results in how people from social networks rated each page and how much each page has been recommended, shared, liked, etc.
So on to the part where I talk about what it means for you! It's simple, all leading to one point: unless you are big right now and you have much buzz around all the social networks, especially Facebook, your pages/contents are going to be rated less importantly than others and traffics to your contents, let it be blogs, videos, etc, will definitely decrease. But the popular pages with lots of backs in the social networks, will get more views.
Of course, Bing takes up only like 20% of the all search results, but it's firing a signal - it is highly likely that Google and Yahoo will follow this. In fact, Google already was doing this with the Google+ and the page rank, but this shows that unless you are prepared to take social networking as a big part of creating your content, you are going to be screwed. Big social networks, big fame, enormous amount of fans/likes, more backtracks/backlinks, many, many views, and deep social integration will be critical. Only the 'big' ones got it, and they are the ones with all or some of these criteria.
But you are in hope - I will tell you how you can optimally take your chance to increase views to your channel, blogs, pages, sites and stuffs. You should share all your contents with your actual friends. That way, more friends will see it, more friends will share it to even more people, and that just goes on like a chain reaction, where your contents' popularity rise fast. But of course, there are costs for everything. In this case, you really need to give up your privacy and grow some extra layers of skin on your face. I know it's hard, because I run a small Youtube channel and I have to constantly share my videos with 'real' friends on Facebook where they will see me, and me as a content creator, which is extremely embarrassing. I know. But you need to do it. That is the next trend.
Some of the really good websites to share your contents are Facebook, Twitter (especially if you have a large amount of followers - if you don't, then start today by '#' ing every single word in your tweet!), Reddit, Foursquare, and Google+. Google plus is a virtual ghost town, but many people visit regularly even if they don't spend much time there, so they will stay up to date with your contents and they will share more. Google+ is all about being empty. But the 'socially viral' method works well in Google+ because it's all about sharing, Google, contents, and profiles.
So yes, build a good profile, make many social networking accounts, share with your 'real' friends and just random people, get lots of back links, get lots of shares, get them to share your contents because it is so awesome, share portion of it by yourself, keep putting lots of tags, with ample amount of description, continued effort and scheduled release, and all those strategies are now required, or mandatory in order to survive in this digital web world. It was a perfectly competitive market to begin with!
First you need to know how this system works. Basically, just like Google's "Page Rank" system where the individual pages are ranked by how important it is, how much back links it has, etc, Bing search engine relies on page "rankings" to search and show the results correctly. But this time, instead of how many links or how much it is approved all around the web/net, Bing now depends their search results in how people from social networks rated each page and how much each page has been recommended, shared, liked, etc.
So on to the part where I talk about what it means for you! It's simple, all leading to one point: unless you are big right now and you have much buzz around all the social networks, especially Facebook, your pages/contents are going to be rated less importantly than others and traffics to your contents, let it be blogs, videos, etc, will definitely decrease. But the popular pages with lots of backs in the social networks, will get more views.
Of course, Bing takes up only like 20% of the all search results, but it's firing a signal - it is highly likely that Google and Yahoo will follow this. In fact, Google already was doing this with the Google+ and the page rank, but this shows that unless you are prepared to take social networking as a big part of creating your content, you are going to be screwed. Big social networks, big fame, enormous amount of fans/likes, more backtracks/backlinks, many, many views, and deep social integration will be critical. Only the 'big' ones got it, and they are the ones with all or some of these criteria.
But you are in hope - I will tell you how you can optimally take your chance to increase views to your channel, blogs, pages, sites and stuffs. You should share all your contents with your actual friends. That way, more friends will see it, more friends will share it to even more people, and that just goes on like a chain reaction, where your contents' popularity rise fast. But of course, there are costs for everything. In this case, you really need to give up your privacy and grow some extra layers of skin on your face. I know it's hard, because I run a small Youtube channel and I have to constantly share my videos with 'real' friends on Facebook where they will see me, and me as a content creator, which is extremely embarrassing. I know. But you need to do it. That is the next trend.
Some of the really good websites to share your contents are Facebook, Twitter (especially if you have a large amount of followers - if you don't, then start today by '#' ing every single word in your tweet!), Reddit, Foursquare, and Google+. Google plus is a virtual ghost town, but many people visit regularly even if they don't spend much time there, so they will stay up to date with your contents and they will share more. Google+ is all about being empty. But the 'socially viral' method works well in Google+ because it's all about sharing, Google, contents, and profiles.
So yes, build a good profile, make many social networking accounts, share with your 'real' friends and just random people, get lots of back links, get lots of shares, get them to share your contents because it is so awesome, share portion of it by yourself, keep putting lots of tags, with ample amount of description, continued effort and scheduled release, and all those strategies are now required, or mandatory in order to survive in this digital web world. It was a perfectly competitive market to begin with!
Monday 7 May 2012
Funniest comments on the web #1
 |
| I don't know if you can see this, but look at the top comment. |
"Don't breathe this!"
Hope you know what it means *cough will it blend *cough
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