Filed under: apple

Hard Drive #FAIL

I love Western Digital hard drives for one reason. They rarely fail on me. Well, they last a long, long time before failing. Except for this one. This one made it about a year before glitching. Granted, it goes everywhere with me, so it gets abused.

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This is the little 500GB I use as an external for my laptop. It's a "working" drive... When I'm on the road, large video files or photo dumps sit here until I get home. Once I'm home, photos and videos get dumped onto my main hard drives where they are properly backed up.

But I've been lazy.

I now have 400GB of video and photos just sitting on it, dating back to October of 2010. Bad geek.

Today I needed some of that data, and as I was organizing photos into folders to copy over to my main drives, the drive glitched. OSX informed me that it could read the drive, but couldn't write to it. Damn. So my laptop is tied up for the next 8 hours or so, copying files from the little 500GB drive to one of my 2TB drives.

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Let that be a lesson to y'all. Don't get lazy on the back ups. Especially on these little drives that you pack around everywhere. They're subject to more abuse than the drives that just sit in your office. I know I beat the crap out of mine.

Just for the record--I still love my Western Digital hard drives. One premature failure out of 100 or so drives is pretty good.

Apple Allows Camera+ Back onto App Store After 4 Month Removal

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Apple Allows Camera+ Back onto App Store After 4 Month Removal

Wednesday December 22, 2010 12:37 AM EST; Category: iPhone
Written by Arnold Kim

App store developers TapTapTap have re-released their popular iPhone camera utility Camera+ after an involuntary four month absence from the App Store.

Anyone using this app? I thought I had it, but apparently don't. Will be trying it out soon, though.

Hidden Finds Your MacBook and Snaps the Thief, Free Until January

Hidden Finds Your MacBook and Snaps the Thief, Free Until January (Normally $20)

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Mac OS X only: That new MacBook Air? It's easy for a thief to hoist. Install theft tracking solution Hidden and you'll know your MacBook's coordinates, screenshots, webcam pictures, and other incriminating data—and the app (normally $20) is currently free.

Unlike some other device-tracking services (like the Prey service we detailed in a video drama), Hidden doesn't constantly ping back, or do anything, really, until you mark your device "Stolen" through the webapp. When you do pull the trigger, Hidden gets to work, collecting location data pulled from every source it can, snapping pictures of the thief or screen regularly or on-demand, and capturing all kinds of nerdy network use data.

The Hidden team does a lot of things right, beyond data collection. They state that they work with police if you file a claim, they offer a 50% discount if you're upgrading from another loss-prevention package, and they offer lots of advice on their support page about setting up your Mac to best take advantage of their service (hint: having a "Guest" account can be a good idea, in this case).

Hidden, normally $20, is free until January through Hidden's web site.

Figured I'd give it a shot and see if it works. Has anyone else tried this with their Mac?

Apple updates iOS Remote app to version 2.1

Filed under: iOS

Apple updates iOS Remote app to version 2.1

by Erica Sadun (RSS feed) on Dec 22nd 2010 at 2:25PM

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An update to Apple's popular Remote application just went live in the App Store. Version 2.1 brings several new features to the table including AirPlay video support and Internet radio control. I'm not entirely sure what Apple is getting at with their "AirPlay video support to control iTunes on your computer to stream videos to an Apple TV" feature. It sounds a little Rube Goldberg but I look forward to giving it a spin.

Here's a complete list of the new 2.1 features, courtesy of Apple:

  • AirPlay video support to control iTunes on your computer to stream videos to an Apple TV
  • Internet radio control to play thousands of internet radio streams in iTunes on your computer
  • The ability to control iTunes on your computer to play Movies and TV shows that are rented from the iTunes Store
  • Addresses issues connecting to an iTunes library or Apple TV
  • Includes stability and performance improvements

Apple - App Store

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I'm actually really looking forward to the App Store for Mac. The App Store model for mobile devices has taken off, so it only makes sense to bring it to the desktop as well.

Mac owners, what do you think? Will you buy more software if it's available in a store format similar to what you use on your iPhone or Blackberry or Android device?