All Apple All Day

This weekend wasn't ALL home disasters and fire department visits. We also did a bunch of spring yard work (and completely transformed the dining room with new fixtures, paint & wainscoting, but that's another post.) And in doing our spring yard work, we happened across one lawn gadget that I can recommend for weekend warrior non-pros like me - the Scotts Snap Spreader.

I thought that spring had arrived in Chicago. And then I attended Saturday's Cubs game. I've been to 46 Cubs games in the last 5 years, and I have NEVER been that cold at Wrigley.  38 degrees is bad for baseball. It was, however, a great weekend at the AAAD household. We had a full house this weekend - my parents and my wife's mom were in town from Iowa. Which is a great thing, because we needed all of the help we could get around here the last few days.

As you know, I'm a fan of DirecTV's HR34 Genie.  From its interface, to its 5-tuner functionality, to its online and iOS capabilities, I think it is the best DVR I've ever used. Well... it's getting better.  DirecTV's HR44 is right around the corner, and I'm going to be pulling every possible string to get one. 

Is Apple really going to make us wait until June for the WWDC keynote?  If so, that would be an unprecedented eight-month span between keynotes... and as I wrote in a previous post , it's my opinion that this lack of "Apple events" is one of the primary factors in Apple's perceived doldrums. 

iCloud takes a lot of criticism. Some of that criticism is well-earned - there have been outages, and occasional issues with functionality.  A lot of the criticism, however, seems to be the result of misplaced expecations. This criticism is usually along the lines of "iCloud doesn't live up to the hype", or arises from the sentiment that "iCloud didn't   really change anything", or even "I don't understand this." iCloud can do a lot of things very well. Most of the time, you don't even notice that iCloud has been doing those things, until you need one.  This post will briefly discuss some of the issues and limitations of iCloud, and then will give a few examples of how you can integrate it into your routine.  We'll follow up with a deeper dive into each of these iCloud features in later posts. 

It's Opening Day (at Wrigley!) Rainy around Chicago, but they should find a way to get the game in.  I'll be using the MLB At the Ballpark app throughout today's game, and I'll have a full review tonight. (UPDATE: It worked more or less as expected. Foursquare-style check-in, followed by the ability to share photos with other people at the game. Great app!) Before the game, I'm off to the city to make some repairs around the old house, as the (fantastic!) tenants are approaching the end of their lease. New LED bulbs, and some general maintenance. Landlord stuff.

This is pretty great.  Remembrum has created a website in the style of a System 6-era black & white Mac interface, telling the story of Steve Jobs.  I don't want to spoil it too much - here's the link .