All Apple All Day

It's been an incredibly busy summer at the AAAD household. And all told, things are going great.... and we're making some good progress on our slate of projects.

Remember how I was going to DIY the expansion to our home theater? Well.... that plan's out. This project is going to be one of the most, if not THE most, visible items in our home. Now that I really think about it, I should probably engage someone who knows how to calculate molding angles with a miter saw.

At long last, HBO has decided to make their HBO GO service directly available on the AppleTV. It's not a perfect situation - you still have to be a cable/satellite subscriber in order to access HBO GO - but it's a good first step.

It's vacation season.  And like many people with 7 year old kids, we're off to Orlando this August for a long weekend at Walt Disney World. I knew it was going to be on the expensive side, and we were ready for that. I had no idea how much was required in terms of comparison shopping, advance planning, and dinner reservations. Fortunately, Disney and Apple are ready for that. Meet the My Disney Experience website and (more specifically) the iOS app.

There were a LOT of new iDevices introduced at WWDC yesterday. iOS 7, OSX Mavericks, iTunes Radio, new (non-Retina) MacBook Airs, a new Mac Pro that looks kind of like an updated 20th Anniversary Macintosh... But here at AAAD, we're focused on how this stuff integrates with our home. So I'm focused on the new Airport Extreme and Airport Time Capsule . After all, that's the device that's going to be beaming our music and movies around the house.

It's been a long, boring winter in Apple-World. But our eight-month vigil ends today, with the WWDC Keynote! We can DEFINITELY expect to see iOS 7 - and it will be a departure from the first six iterations of the mobile OS. But what else will we see?

I know I've written about it a LOT, but today's news indicates that iRadio is finally, finally going to be a real thing. Probably as soon as Monday. According to a wide range of reports, the last of the major labels (Sony) has signed on, just in time for WWDC. But what's the big deal, really? Don't we already have plenty of streaming music services? Spotify, Pandora, and several dozen others? Heck, Google just announced one last week, and nobody really cared. So what gives, AAAD? Why does iRadio matter? Here's why.

It's only 5 days until the WWDC Keynote.... Only 4 shopping days left until Keynote Eve! I've written at length on this site about the importance of the Apple CEO Keynotes in fostering the unique relationship between Apple and its fans. Today's High Five lists the 5 Greatest Keynotes that Apple has ever given us:

It's been a long, long wait, Apple fans. But the end is near. Next Monday, at about this time, we'll be settling in for the first Apple Keynote in about 8 months. What can we expect?