PhotoTrackr for Mac Quick Review
I just received my pre-ordered PhotoTrack Mini DPL900 from GiSTEQ and I must say that I’m quite disappointed.
This device is a portable GPS which will, in theory, track your movements while you’re out shooting with its very sensitive GPS receiver. Then, when your back at your computer, you sync your images with the GPS tracking data recorded on the device. The end cap of the Mini DPL900 is removable and it has a USB connector. The idea is to plug it in, load up GiSTEQ’s proprietary software and use it to sync the images to the GPS tracking.
The problem is is that it doesn’t work. Either it’s the hardware (which I think is working) or the crappy software (which is a confused mess) or a combo of both (which is what I think is the actual problem).
I’m waiting on a customer service email I sent to the company this past weekend, but since they’re in California, I suspect I won’t see a response for a little while. Also, maybe they got swamped with other complaints.
Anyway, I’ll report back when I can get this thing to actually work. For now I’d say to hold off purchasing one.
No Posts Lately
Sorry that it’s been so quiet here for a bit. The computer I use for blogging is in repair and that’s been a big distraction for me.
What happened was a total hard drive failure in my Mac Mini. Time Machine, which was doing regular backups, did not back up all my data for some strange (and bad) reason. More about that in future posts. I needed to use Disk Warrior to salvage all my data off the dead hard drive and onto an external one. That seemed to work fine. I’ll post my experiences about this whole process in the next month. Hopefully you’ll be able to learn something from my experiences. I sure did!
So, with my Mac Mini sent off to repair at OWC, I’m left to blog on my PowerBook, which is not ideal. I’m making a few posts today and in the next few days, just so you don’t think I’m dropping this blog as well. Maybe I’ll post some pix for y’all to see.
Give me more storage!
Western Digital is upping the ante. Their new WD Caviar Green 2TB (that’s 2 terabytes!) drive is out and retailing for $299. That’s a bit more expensive than two 1TB drives, but prices should drop soon.
WD is touting them as “Green” drives because they supposedly “use less power and support quieter, cooler-running desktop PCs and external storage devices.” Well, I’ll wait until the reviews come in before I totally believe that. Still, these drive would allow me to have less external HDs on my desk (for the time being) and I suppose that’s a good thing.
Now remember, this could lead to the old “all the eggs in one basket” situation. If you buy one of these drives, how are you going to back it up unless you buy a second one. And let’s hope that these Western Digital drives don’t suffer from an issue like the Seagate 1TB drives.
Oh, and for those old fogies who remember Zip® Disks, just one of these new 2TB drives is the equivalent of, oh, just about 20,000 (!) Zip® Disks. Zips® used to cost about $10 per disk when they first came out, so that’s about $200k worth of Zips®.
Now, remember floppy disks….?
Large amount of Seagate 1TB hard drives dying
If you own any Seagate 1 terabyte hard drives, your data may be living on borrowed time.
Since the beginning of the year, a number of Seagate customers have been reporting that their drives are failing, leaving them with no access to their data. The data is not destroyed, but retrieving it is impossible for the user and the drive needs to be sent back to Seagate for recovery.
Fixing this yourself is something that I don’t recommend unless you have an Intel Mac and some technical cojones. Me? I’d rather have someone else do it, or even get Seagate to exchange what I have for new ones. If you try the firmware update yourself and fail, then your data is at risk of being lost.
Of course, this is going to affect those of you who are using these drives as backups and/or RAIDs. My only suggestion at this point is to find out whether you have drives that could be affected and contact Seagate at 1-800-732-4283.
I’m thinking that I may physically trash the affected drives after backing them up on a different brand HD. I’ll probably do this to the drives that contain my archive as I cannot risk them at all. Also, this is going to make me think twice about Seagate drives. I guess other companies could run across the same problem, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. For now, Seagate is the problem and they don’t even support PowerPC Macs with their firmware update. How shitty is that? Just what we need now in this stupid economy.
Click on to see my instructions as to how to determine if you have an affected drive (Mac users only). … Continue Reading
Who is Tim Cook?
Tim Cook will be filling in for Steve Jobs at Apple while Jobs recovers from whatever is ailing him. Macworld has posted a little profile of Mr. Cook here.
Excerpt:
“While Cook has maintained a low profile since becoming Apple’s COO nearly four years ago, he has a strong reputation in the business press for keeping the company running smoothly outside of the limelight. A 2006 Wall Street Journal Profile called him a “low-key operator” who helped fix the manufacturing inefficiencies that dogged Apple in the mid- to late ’90s. Cook, 48, also has a reputation for being detail-oriented.”
Fortune magazine has posted a much longer article about Tim Cook here.
Too early for me to tell whether this guys has the chops to fill Steve’s shoes (which, really, cannot be done). But Jobs picked him and that says a lot about this guy. Apple will be fine and, if anything, will come out stronger when this is over.
Go buy APPL now!
Pogoplug makes a NAS device from any USB drive
The Pogoplug is a nifty little device that attaches to both your router and any USB hard drive (or thumb drive) and turns the drive into a NAS (Network-attached storage) device. Then you can share files with any computer hooked to your network, or even over the Internet, for those times when you need to download files on the road. There’s even an iPhone app which can be used to shuttle files back and forth. Looks incredible easy to set up. You can pre-order one here for $79 (ships in March).
Google releases Picasa for Mac
If iPhoto drives you nuts, you might want to give Google’s Picasa a spin. Watch the video above for a great overview.
This looks like a decent (read: free) replacement for iPhoto 08, but you may want to take a look at iPhoto 09. It has some rocking features.
New Modbook Pro Mac tablet
Axiotron has just released their new ModBook Pro, based on the 15″ MacBook Pro. If you’re dying for a Mac tablet (and I know at least one person who is), this might be your best option for the time being, until, of course, Apple decides to come to its senses.
It uses both touch-based and pen input and includes all the ports and connections that you’d expect from a MacBook Pro, including an iSight camera. Click here for the down and dirty.
Expect to pay about $5k for the privilege.
Me like.
Newertech brings out quad interface drive dock
Newertech has introduced their new Voyager Q, a quad-interface hard drive dock. This will connect using USB2, Firewire 400/800 and eSATA. It’ll retail for just under $100 and it’s available now for order.
This thing is great for all those storage mongers amongst you. C’mon, you know who you are!
Click “more” for the specs.
… Continue Reading