GoRedwings19's Computer Help Hotline

There doesn't seem to be one specifically for general chitchat that I could see? Doubtless will be heavily shoveled-upon if in error in this matter. Anyway, nice update of the 13" Macbook -- now Pro -- today I thought. $100 price cut and FireWire makes a comeback, adds LED backlit display, support for 8GB of RAM, and the new uber-permabattery (OK, not unmixed blessing). Also thought $30 for Snow Leopard upgrade was pretty fair. Leaner, faster and (allegedly) fixed fucking finder would be well worth that to me.

Okay, the rumors are getting pretty hard to ignore at this point. I guess we'll know in the next month or two, but here's the latest. "Secondary screen/touchpad?" Hmmm.

As Flash and Java aren't supported, we'll likely to need App Store and web-based alternatives to some apps. Thought it might be useful to have a separate thread from the iPad discussion itself in prep for the iPad arriving. Here are a couple... SketchPad Harmony And 'strech just posted...

Might as well start a separate thread for this.

According to MacRumors, it is a neutral time to buy a macbook. That said, with the release of Montevino last week, we can expect a macbook refresh relatively soon. I'm not really looking for answers here, but more of opinions: should I just grab a penryn macbook? Is it really worth the wait?

Figured I'd start a thread devoted to the updated gizmo. Mine still has a shipping date of October 15. Anyone get theirs yet and any impressions thus far?

Ok, so as I sit here at my now 6 year old computer and listen to it randomly beep and squawk I'm forced to realize that I'm probably going to have to replace it sooner rather than later. I'm done with desktops for home computers so laptop land here I come. Requirements for the lappy: 1. Does not need to be portable, only transportable and fit on my lap. 2. Must be capable of running games like COD2 (and 4 when it comes out). 3. 17" screen for occasional movie watching. 4. Budget is ~$2500, tops. Clearly it wouldn't hurt my feelings to spend less. Dell seems to have some pretty decent deals on business class laptops right now (the Precision M6300 in particu…

I have been planning to get the new Microsoft Surface Pro when it comes out to replace my again Motion Computing slate tablet pc. It seems to have a decent stylus digitizer (although not a Wacom digitizer) and it a good price. However, I just saw this (from http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/tablet-pcs/1297429/microsoft-admits-surface-pro-128gb-storage-limited-to-83gb). "Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet, which is due to launch with a headline-grabbing 128GB of storage space, will only have 83GB of room for users' files. According to a statement from the company given to Softpedia, the 128GB Surface Pro device - ... - a chunk of its 128GB capacity is taken up by the operat…

Looks like Acer might have leaked the release date Slashdot | Windows 7 Launch Date Leaked — 23 Oct. 2009

Just thought I'd get a pulse on how Mac fans handle their digital music libraries. For example, do you ALAC + iTunes, or do you FLAC + some heretofore unknown program to postjack, or do you bypass all of that with a Squeezebox, etc. Currently on the PC I'm finding the Squeezebox to be the best thing since peanut butter since I don't have to screw with clunky buggy slow foobar (just my experience) or ASIO. Its my understanding that Macs don't need ASIO because Core Audio > kmixer, is this correct?

Please, talk amongst yourselves.

Need some help putting together a parts list for a desktop machine needed for editing photos. Will have a macbook air for everything else. The air struggles with D800 and XT1 files frequently and I can't blame it as that is not the intended purpose for that machine. I'd love to stay in the apple ecosystem but the mac mini's have the same graphics card as the air so not much in the way of performance improvements there. Intended usage for this new computer will be Lightroom and Photoshop and any other random photo editing software. Don't care about video. Will never be doing anything with video in the foreseeable future. Can anyone suggest a parts build for <$1000 …

I would like to rip my parents' CD collection and "share" mine with them. They already have a multi-room setup, so I wouldn't need to put wireless speakers, etc. all over. Unfortunately, it's a B&O setup and you know how friendly they are with non-B&O gear. Regardless, I figured out a way that I can hang a network audio player off the B&O system and make it work. But here's the thing, I want to get my parents something like a Sonos or Duet (or anything else people can recommend) and set it up such that they don't have to use the computer. Can this be achieved via NAS, so that the Sonos or Duet or similar would just talk to the NAS and we could elimina…

Thin Discuss

My current home pc has been good to me over the last 6-7 years but i feel it's time to update to a newer a more robust machine. i have been waiting for Windows 7 to come closer to retail till i start to look into the pieces more seriously and i feel the time is now. this time around i want to build my own instead of buying an off the shelf. my current pc is a hp Media Center M370n with an upgraded Video card (nvidia 256), 3.24gigs of ram, and a 250gb hard drive. my use's for the current machine: keeping up with my music library (main use) watching movies via dvd or itunes downloads or from hulu as i use a Vizio 32 lcd as a monitor. net browsing of course. using …

Guys -- I could use some help putting together a new living room computer. This started out as thinking a mac mini running win32 would be OK, then thinking that new Dell thing would work, and as always happens, has devolved into building a system myself. I am basically looking for small and silent -- totally fanless if possible. Probably a solid state drive, though the dvr already makes enough noise that this might be an unnecessary luxury. This will get used for watching Netflix and other downloadable TV, playing music, and RMAA testing. It will also be used as a headless workstation via remote desktop -- in order to avoid digging through and updating 100K lines…

I thought it would be great to have a thread that has new or cool tech products. I'll start off with the new touchscreen Sonos CR200 remote control. I've had a Sonos for many years and that music system just works and I've been very happy with it. Now they have a new touchscreen controller which looks very cool. Sonos CR200

My regular PC, which I built and have re-built along the last 10 years, is ageing and giving signs of a soon-to-happen crash. Not sure if it's the SCSI Adaptec board, one of the SCSI discs, one of the USB ports in the mobo, even the AGP card... whatever, it freezes, refuses to reboot and I'm afraid that while I've managed to get it booting, it won't in a few days. With this computer I have a 21" CRT Philips monitor which besides being a behemoth filling most of my desk, works great and offers excellent image quality. I'd feel kind of guilty getting rid of it, so any solution which allows to keep it has some bonus points. Options I'm considering keeping budget under …

Nice spec bumps and, to the delight of Duet fans everywhere, they kept Firewire. The addition of a discrete graphics card should now make this a decent video, as well as audio, server.

I think I'm going to. Usually I'm suspicious of new versions of Windows, since there have been a few missteps in the past, but the reviews I've read of 10 are very positive. I've never used 8, so I'll be going straight from 7 to 10. And the price is right as well!

My Asus Eee PC arrived yesterday. This is my first post from it. Impressions so far are ok. It's tiny. The keyboard is tiny. Probably easier to use for a "hunt & peck" typist like me. I'm still using the Linux based OS it comes with, but on Monday when I have access to a USB DVD drive will probably load XP. I'll do some pics later to give an idea of this little thing. For now it's a cool toy, I'll just have t see how much I use it.

I've been eyeing the slick all in one NAS boxes like QNAP TS-639. I wish it were able to do RAID 10, but I think I might just end up with two volumes (work stuff in RAID 1, media files in RAID 5). I really like the slick UI and ease of use. Of course it's not cheap. Otherwise, I could upgrade my old server. It's a Pentium M based mobo with an old 3Ware PATA 7410 RAID card with 4x 400GB Seagates in RAID 10. (OS is on the Mobo RAID 1 with 2x 2.5" drives) It's been pretty much rock solid reliable for years. Unfortunately, Windows 2000 as a server is a PITA to deal with, and not quite as rock solid as the hardware. I'm thinking of rebuilding it with adding a …

I'm tired of paying rent on my cable modem, want to get my own. What should be my criteria? Also, my router seems to be on its last legs anyway. Also I'd like something somewhat slightly secure-ish. (Read: as secure as is possible without writing my own OS.) Right now I'm on cable, but FIOS is an option. Does that make a difference? I.E. if I switch, is there a router that I can get that I will still be able to use? The lady on the phone said "Arris". Yes/no/disagree/agree-but-with-qualifications? She actually said the one she would recommend isn't even on the list yet, it has a dual-band router, which tells me they can make it work. Yes/no/disagree/a…

Is it possible to rip HDCDs using iTunes such that you get the extra preciouss bitses? I understand that you can rip it as a regular CD, but HDCD is 20-bit, right? If iTunes can't do it, is there a way to rip HDCDs while preserving the "HD" portion? EDIT: Assume a Mac, but I also have a PC.