All Apple All Day

It probably goes without saying, but Apple's naming conventions don't follow much of a pattern. For the iPhone, we had the original iPhone (#1), iPhone 3G (#2, but with a "3" in the name), iPhone 3GS (#3), iPhone 4 (#4, makes sense!), iPhone 4S (#5, with a "4" in the name), and so on. iPods were generally just called "iPod", with new names for the different lines (i.e. "Mini", "Nano", "Shuffle"). Different lines - and different generations within each line, looked so different that they could be easily differentiated, and were often referred to by nicknames. (i.e., "Nano Fat"). Then we had the iPad, the iPad 2, and the.... iPad. Obviously, Apple doesn't want to get stuck in the "X+1 Integer" naming convention for succeeding generations of the same product. Eventually you have the "iPad 17", and it gets difficult to follow. But when it comes to the used market Apple's netw

We don't own a videogame system. We do, however, own a 6-year-old who WISHES we owned a videogame system. So, every so often, he and I go to Best Buy to try out some games on Kinect or Move, and to look at electronics. Tonight, the little guy needed a break from his packed-away house, so inbetween Star Wars Kinect sessions at BBY, we noticed a large in-store display for home automation products, among which were Smarthome's Insteon line, which were running full "Lutron RadioRA2" style lighting control (granted, with a little less style ) from an iPad. With a central controller costing $99, keypads at $49, and dimmer switches at $29. I don't think I could have been more sold. It was, essentially, what I'd been looking for in a pro-install system, but designed to be added to existing homes, and controllable via iOS. And keypads, for full "scene" control! This is absolutely essential to Project 1 - overhead lights fade out, front-wall sconce

We close tomorrow afternoon, and we'll be furiously packing today, and furiously unpacking on Friday. I'll probably be occupied with moving through the weekend.  Starting Friday, Project 1 kicks into gear. While it will be a series of "good-enough" half-measures at the start, we should be able to review WOW Ultra TV by Saturday, and (if I get the coding right) have a static page for Project 1 (Home Theater) started shortly thereafter, which will have photos of the space and a mockup of what the final design will look like, a checklist of items to be completed, and links to the various posts detailing each stage of the project.  In other news: The Apple Store is now selling the Nest Thermostat .  I love the look of this thing, but it's the functionality that sets it apart. It's iOS controllable, and completely self-learning and programming. Plus, it looks like a Star Trek control panel for your house.  Sony sells their 3D glasses on the

Back from the long weekend, and sprinting to the finish line. Only three more days to get our condo ready for the tenants - today, sadly, the TV comes down from the wall mount. I will update this post throughout the day with step-by-step photos of the takedown and drywall rebuild. Today also brought a ton of rumors from Cupertino- iOS 6 with a non-google Maps app, a new taller iPhone with a metal back, and news that the keynote for WWDC will be at 10 AM pacific on June 11. I assume that the aforementioned iOS 6 and iPhone (and potentially Mountain Lion) will be the primary focus - but I'll be watching at Engadget and Gizmodo, just in case Apple unveils something new and wonderful that will alter my project plans! UPDATE: TV and mount removal went as well as could be expected. The wall repair will be the primary issue. Seriously, this was a great-looking TV wall mount. It had to be preserved for posterity. Our living room was at the end of a hallway, and the TV woul

Hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend. As I mentioned in my last post, we've opted to go with WOW for TV in the new house, while we figure out where we'll be able to mount a DirecTV satellite. And when we do switch to DirecTV - probably in the next 2-3 months - we'll be getting the HR34 Home Media Center, despite the fact that it costs an extra $100 at signup, and the fact that message boards around the internet are calling it a "work in progress". First off, it's (generally) only available to new customers at the present time, and I don't want to miss the boat on a 5-tuner whole-home DVR. Second... well... the original HD DVR from DirecTV was once a work in progress, too, and these days it's an absolutely rock-solid experience, with the absolutely gorgeous new DirecTV HD UI. (The new DirecTV HD UI is everything I'd always imagined TiVo would eventually achieve... but these days they seem to spend more time and energy on patent litigation t

After some deliberation, we went with WOW for all three services - cable/internet/phone. At least at the outset. I'm eventually going to go with DirecTV - probably this summer - but I don't want it installed until we have a better understanding of where the dish would go. (Potentially, on the pergola we're going to be building off the back of the house.) Despite the odd holes in the channel lineup, UltraTV does have some serious advantages, and I'm looking forward to providing a full write-up after it's installed next week. Now, it's time to start looking at how all this stuff is going to work together. At the outset, we won't have our built-in shelving to the left and right of the fireplace. That's going to come later. For now, we're working with the same AV cabinet we've used for the last few years, which will sit to the left of the fireplace. The space above the fireplace has a power outlet, and a cable connection. No HDMI. Off to M

At the moment, I'm strongly leaning towards WOW for all services, at least initially. Primarily because I'd like to see the new house in person for a few days, and plan out how a DirecTV dish could (or should not) be attached, prior to having an installer show up. Were it not for the installation issue, I'd be going with DirecTV and WOW in an unbundled group. Regardless, WOW works without contracts, so I should be able to make that change if/when we choose - (have to confirm that the $70 phone/internet is available to current customers as well as new customers, however... or it's back to Comcast as a "new" customer.)  With one week to go, our energies are strongly focused on fixing up the city condo - got to make it nice for our tenants. Painting all the walls, filling nail holes, that sort of thing.  However, it's also time to talk about TV mounting and installation .  We have a Sony gorilla glass 55" LED TV. It basically looks like