Posts Tagged ‘iPod Touch’

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Cutting the cord, as well as expenses


10 Mar

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Cable Clutter

Image courtesy of meddygarnet

     Four months. That’s how long it’s been since we cut the cord and pitched the cable box out of the house. Did I ever think that day would come? No. Cable was my friend, confidant, stress reliever, entertainer, babysitter, etc. Why would I exile an important member of the family? A few months after the birth of my son, things began to come into perspective and I realized that someone had to go, and it wasn’t my wife or the baby.

     After the little guy got here, all I did on a daily basis was wake up and turn on ESPN and sit with him watching it. It was not only his babysitter but mine as well. Not making the money I used to (not that it was much to begin with), we started having to look at ways to cut back expenses.
  • Cancelled cable TV service.
    • Canceling this saved us roughly $100 a month. At one point we were spending around $300 a month for cable, phone and internet.
  • We canceled the local paper, which I really only read for the Sunday paper but was forced to get 2 other days as well.
    • I read all of my news on my iPad. Plus I only read the news that interests me.
  • We got rid of recycling pickup.
    • Honestly, I can drive 10 minutes and drop it off myself. Besides, curb side wouldn’t even take my glass so I had to make the trip anyways.
  • We reduced our Netflixservice.
    • We went from multiple DVD’s at a time to only one.

I think we ended up saving roughly a few hundred dollars at most, but every little bit helps. The next step we took after cutting the cord was wondering how we were going to bring content to our TV’s in the house. This seemed like an easy fix but proved to be a little more daunting than I had originally planned.

     The first step was to get local channels back in the house. Seems easy right? Wrong. When we cut the cord, it was in the middle of football season. The only channel that I wanted, neigh, NEEDED to have was the local CBS affiliate so that I could watch our local NFL team. So I went out and purchased an indoor antenna hooked it up and…..what?! I can’t get it?!  Many obscenities and other such phrases were muttered. Suffice to say, I had to purchase an outdoor antenna a few months later and now have my channel, albeit too late, but still happier than I was.
     We had AppleTV‘s in the bedroom and bonus room so that was easy to bring Netflix and all of our local content from iTunes into those rooms. All of our media is stored on 2 Drobo’s in the bonus room and are part of the decor now. They are connected to a MacMini which acts as a media server. While I was spring cleaning and looking for items to sell or donate, I came across 2 little USB sticks that I had purchased but never used. I’m glad I hadn’t sold them yet because now I have even more possibilities presented to me.
     I purchased an Elgato eyeTV a few years ago when I was trying to hook up an older TV to the internet. The plan didn’t work out, so it just sat in a flash drive holder. I also purchased a Turbo.264HD from the same company for video encoding but detected no real difference and shelved it as well. What I discovered was that if I installed the TV software on the Mac Mini and hooked up the eyeTV, I now had a makeshift DVR for my OTA HD channels. After more research, I learned that if I plugged up the Turbo.264 to the Mini as well, I could stream local TV(and it’s recorded shows) not only to my iDevices, but I could also do it from ANYWHERE that had WiFi or 3G.(with the accompanying iOS app) The Turbo.264 acts as a secondary processor to relieve the MacMini processor from having to deal with the streaming.
     Suffice to say, I am much happier without cable. I don’t feel like I HAVE to be watching TV all the time. The only thing I really miss is ESPN and NFL Network. If I absolutely HAVE to watch it, I can stream it online from various sources around the net. There are over various apps that I have downloaded that stream media to my TV’s but that’s a post for another time. Have you cut the cord or made efforts in reducing your cable addiction? We’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

One Device to Rule Them All


16 Aug

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Burned Out Room

Something Lost, Something Gained

On July 6, 2000 my parents house caught on fire. It was during construction of an addition being made to the house and was blamed on faulty wiring. The fire destroyed the bonus room and half of the new construction that had been built on top of it and to its sides. Not only destroying the contents of the bonus room, it began to sweep through the attic before it was brought under control on the hottest day of the year (so far at the time). The event was so prolific, that it even made it to the front page of the local paper that day. Looking back on that moment in my life, I have never been the same; both the good and the bad.

Way back in 2000, there were no such things as iPods and iPhones. All I had was a Palm Pilot V and a ‘brick’ Motorola cell phone. On that hot July day, I was no longer living at home, but away at college a mere 40 minutes away. At that point in time I was speaking with my parents nearly on a daily basis. To make a long story short, the phone had been busy at their house for hours and I was starting to get worried. After getting in touch with my grandmother, I learned of the terrible incident. My father who is legally blind (but by no means disabled) was the only one home at the time it started seeing as all the construction workers had left for lunch. Somehow he managed to get out safely and get the cats to safety as well as have enough foresight to go outside and film the disaster. (Proud of him for that.) Once I made it back to my parents I was just at a loss for words. My mother was working and hadn’t found out about it yet when she arrived back at the house, so I was going to be the brave one to tell her what had happened, but only managed to break down into tears as I told her.

A part of me burned up with that room in July. What was it? Have I managed to regain it? I don’t quite know. My wife has always said I was never the ‘same’ after it happened, so I’m not quite sure what burned up in there. Innocence? Childhood? However, I did gain something from this disaster; the sense for a need to backup my life.

In previous posts on this blog, here and here, I have discussed about living in one suitcase. The idea is that you can fit your life into one piece of luggage. After one loses something, they tend to have a greater appreciation for that which they have. We all have ‘stuff’, and lots of it. Things that we ‘need’ that wind up being thrown in a closet or room only to gather dust. That’s part of what this room was not only for myself but my parents as well. Trying to go through the debris and remember every little item that was in there is nearly impossible. What made matters worse was that the construction workers started shoveling stuff into the dumpsters before we even had a chance to go through it. Which brings us back to the point of this post. What good came from this disaster? I started making inventory lists of all my belongings, more importantly, I started converting my life over to a digital lifestyle. Remember, we’re talking about 2000, not 2011. I had account numbers, Quicken files, inventory lists, etc. all accessible on my Palm Pilot. I took pictures of my apartment and all its belongings so that if the unthinkable or something else were to happen…again, I would be ready, or at least better prepared. Pictures were scanned and saved to Zip disks. (Remember those?) It was a small feeling as if I was in control. Fast forward to 2011.

To be quite honest, I don’t know how I survived without my iPhone all this time. I’m sure that sounds pathetic, but it’s the way that I am and a lot of others are these days. My entire life in my pocket. No matter where I am, I can access crucial information on my device. As I mentioned, the fire brought the need to backup everything in my life and that’s just what I’ve done….maybe to an extreme. Let’s break this up into aspects of my life; how I’ve backed them up and how I can access them with an iDevice. (more…)

Time to Think


21 Jun

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Time to Think

Another peaceful morning on the deck

**Disclosure- This post is a little off the wall. I pretty much started writing whatever came to mind, so it isn’t necessarily going to flow very well. You’ve been warned.

It’s amazing what time can do for a person. Having graduated over a month ago and still on the hunt for a job, I’ve had a lot of ‘free time’ to do some other things. The majority of that free time has been spent getting ready for the baby, but I try to make time for some other plans as well.

Every week or so, I’ve made it a routine to go to Bongo Java and do my #Trust30 writing on one of my off days. Sadly, I have been falling a bit behind on them and have been writing multiple posts a day. Other than that though, I find it to be a fresh and invigorating change of venue. Sitting back enjoying the music while I feast on a Salmon Plate (best thing on the menu) and an iced Mochahontas, I also find the time to do my writing, whether it be on paper or laptop. People watching is also an enjoyable past time while I spend my hour or two there, imagining some new idea that more than likely will remain that; an idea.

The past few days, I’ve been looking at out finances, trying to figure out how to pay down debt and where to trim costs. I’ve scaled back Netflix, cancelled my Evernote Premium membership, looked at getting only the e-version of the paper (if at all) and am now looking at cutting cable altogether. For what we pay, we don’t really watch all that much TV to begin with. If I cut us down to the bare minimum or go to OTA HDTV, am I really missing out? Maybe ESPN, but other than that, all the things we watch are either on Netflix or AppleTV. If Boxee can get there game together and make a deal with Hulu, then I will definitely be purchasing one and cutting the cord.

Not being in school anymore has afforded me the opportunity to begin reading what I enjoy again. This week alone I have finished off 3 books that I began reading last semester. Without the requirement of ‘pointless’ reading, I now have all the time in the world. It’s a good feeling to be reading for enjoyment or self improvement again. At least I can take those instructional books in stride now. Gotta work on the skills in the off season.

In this world that we live in, we are constantly connected. Whether that is a good or bad thing is a mixed bag, but as of late, I’ve been less connected. Ever since I had my Palm Treo 650, I was in love with the fact that I could get email out in the wild and not have to be tied to a desktop computer. Every time you got a message, you’d get a notification, and an interruption in routine would ensue. Fast forward 5 or 6 years and we now have the iPhone. Texts, tweets, email, notifications, calls, voicemails; it’s a wonder our phones don’t go dead more often. I always had Push notifications turned on because I ‘needed’ to know what was happening, when it happened, immediately if not yesterday. So how in his uber-connected world have I disconnected? I turned off the ‘Push’. So simple. I get emails now only when ‘I’ check for them. Surprisingly, it seems to have affected my social networking as well. I’m not checkin Twitter or Facebook nearly as much as I used to. Having my iPad packed up to leave for the hospital, I have been consuming less media in general from it and moving to other outlets and devices. My Kindle, which I have barely used in a few months, is what I have been doing all that aforementioned reading on. I have been listening to TED talks during my commute and have been catching up on all the latest podcasts that I used to subscribe to. It’s not that I’m consuming less media, I’m just consuming it in another manner. Funny how that seems to have worked.

In my battle to de-clutter my life, I had been selling DVD’s and books to Amazon. After upgrading to the iPhone4, my wife and I had 2 useless phones for the most part. I, being the ultimate repurposer, wanted to keep them thinking that they wouldn’t have much value. After mulling it over for awhile, I decided to list them on eBay…..and my 1G iPod Touch, my old 3G iPod Nano, 4G iPod Photo, and the list goes on. Needless to say, everything sold but 1 item, which I’m going to relist, and that has basically added up to almost a months salary for me. Yeah commerce! It really goes to show that one man’s junk is another’s treasure. But why stop there! Next I’m going to try and sell my old camera, Griffin Powermate, etc, etc, etc.

So perhaps this down time has been good for me. I haven’t done any editing, but I have taken care of something else that’s more important; myself.

WWDC Thoughts


07 Jun

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The Holy Trinity

My Holy Trinity, minus the Bastard Child

WWDC had just gotten underway yesterday and I felt that I should point out a few things that I am looking forward to in these software revamps. *Disclaimer- I am an Apple fanatic, but just shy of fanboy.

I guess the main thing I am excited for is the iCloud. You’re probably thinking that I am excited for the music streaming ability of the service, which is a plus, but you’d be mistaken. It’s the fact that all of my devices will be in sync. My main devices, or the Holy Trinity, are an iPad, and iPhone 4 and a MacBook Pro. I do also have a Mac Pro (the workhorse) and an iPod Touch that I use mainly for games and randomness. Being able to make sure all of my data is synced AND correct with all of them is what I have been needing for quite awhile. I have been a MobileMe user for several years now and it has been less than stellar. The main reason I started to use it was the ability to use iWeb and to keep contacts and email synced across all of my devices. As of late, I had been using it as backup for archived documents, but it’s been giving me trouble…lots of trouble.

As we delve deeper into the iOS update, we see that Apple has taken notice of a lot of complaints and workarounds that App developers have been using these past few years. The updating of the camera app along with notifications are two big improvements that will surely run well with users. Having an actual ‘shutter’ button makes me extremely happy as well as the option to edit and tweet from within the app. Another plus is that the camera app is available even from the lock screen making for quicker shots. That is an issue I always had with my old iPhone 3G; you couldn’t take a picture if it was spur of the moment. You had to wait at least 30-60 seconds to take a photo and another 30-60 for it to save. FAIL. Notifications that don’t interrupt me and at a glance is something that Android users have enjoyed, but I believe it will be taken to the next step with this update. Being able to see your notifications at a glance should be a pleasant change to the monotonous windows popping up constantly.

So with all these new enhancements and apps built in, where do my previously purchased apps fit in? Apps such as Camera+, Things and SplashShopper; are they now doomed to obscurity? Part of me could swing either direction on this. I love the customization of Splash Shopper and Things along with the desktop integration of both. If the interface is as accommodating as they claim it to be, then I might be ditching those apps…..but I highly doubt it.

As far as Lion goes, I don’t feel as excited about it as everything else. Perhaps since I haven’t seen the entire keynote yet I’m not getting the gist of it. About the greatest thing I can say of it is that it only costs $30, but is that per device or like other apps that you can download for each of your machines? Time will tell I suppose.

A lot of great enhancements that are moving in the right direction for our digital lifestyles. Not to brag, but I predicted this at least 4 years ago. Just saying.

The Minimalist Geek


20 Mar

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Coffee Cup with shadow

A New Day Dawns

As some of you may know, I have a little boy on the way; which has put my perspective on possessions in a new light. Trying to make room in the nursery and the house for the little guy, the wife and I have gone through and started giving away things to family, friends and Goodwill. One of the biggest things I am starting to find in the “Box of No Return” is a bunch of tech. Books, laptop bags (man purses), keyboards, cords, etc. As I start to prioritize the things I actually ‘need’ versus the stuff that I actually use, I find that I have made a lot of impulse purchases over the years.

Living the life of a minimalist, after years of living life as a materialist, has proved to be daunting. I have started to get rid of books I never read and download others for use on my Kindle. That old kitchen laptop that rarely gets used-going away. Parents old CRT iMac in the garage that the display doesn’t work on-getting recycled (after being wiped clean first). Clothes we never wear anymore- donated to Goodwill. It’s just amazing how much we accumulate over short periods of time. Being a bit of a tech-hoarder who tries to repurpose old tech has been proved to be an enlightening experience. Granted, you would never see me on one of those shows like that, but there doesn’t seem to be that same attachment to the devices that there was before. Growing up? Maturing? Nah. Who’d want to do something foolish like that. Priority shift would probably be a better description. I suppose it had to happen sometime. (more…)

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