Tag Archives: iThings

Fear of change

Posted by on October 14, 2011 Comments Off on Fear of change

So, iCloud, huh?

I finally applied the software update to Lion this morning, which came in as one undifferentiated package, and I found once I restarted that I had the new iCloud thing, as well as an upgraded iTunes. I didn’t expect individual software to be upgraded without being warned, but I guess that’s the Mac way, huh?

Anyway, now that’s done on the MBP (Ariadne) I should probably upgrade the iTouch (Arthur), and perhaps the iPhone 3G (Eames) to iOS5? I’m a little scared of losing apps and/or data, as some have reported losing.

I’m not scared to lose purchased data (music, video, apps) because I’ve never yet paid for anything on the iTunes Store – I’m planning to buy a couple of apps soon, but yeah, so far, nothing.

I do fear the big iTunes transfer, though. Remember how I hadn’t decided if the PC was going to remain the ‘master’ to the iDevices, and that one iTunes my main music/podcast DB? Well I’m not completely sure yet but I think I want the Mac to be the hub. Except that means moving my iTunes library across (not the files, that’s easy, they’re on en external drive) – and I am *terrified* it won’t work.

I don’t want to lose all my play counts and smart playlists and all that. Anyone knows how to move an iTunes Library wholesale from a PC to a Mac? Please, please chime in. I haven’t gotten a move on this because I’m basically paralyzed by fear. That’s not a good state to be in.

Nesting

Posted by on September 21, 2011 2 comments

Let’s put this on the table right away: I haven’t yet solved the big questions.

* Which iTunes becomes the “master” iTunes for my iDevices (staying as is, with the PC as my main computer, or bestowing that privilege to the Mac?)

* How do I rejig my storage and backup strategies to include the Mac in the plans?

These remain unanswered for now.

Now, what’s been going on…

° I still have these two blog posts open in tabs, trying to make a decision:

– John Gruber on getting rid of Flash & cheating w/ Chrome
– Lex Friedman on reinstalling it

° I found Fluid, a wrapper to allow you to make any web-app into a ‘standalone’ app.

° It is with relief and not a small amount of joy that I installed Firefox & my trusted/necessary extensions, as well as my favorite download manager, jDownloader. Even though for a mysterious (non-mac) reason, I haven’t managed to “connect” the FlashGot FF add-on to jDownloader like I have on the PC (which allows me to select a link on a page and automatically trigger a download for it), I’m still pleased to have my usual tools at my fingertips. :)

° I’m still pining for a text editor I like, but since I haven’t tried anything but the pre-installed TextEdit I can’t honestly say I haven’t found anything – I just haven’t dealt with the issue. In the meantime it means I’m doing my blog-post writing either inside the WordPress editor (for this blog) or on the PC (for my other blogs / my journals / fic beta-reading, etc unless I edit in WordPress and then CP out of there, which has happened). This can’t continue very long. note to self: get yourself a proper text editor.

° I’ve started using Evernote on the iTouch a little more, which makes me think I need to install the Mac version and see how I like it.

° Not mac-specific: I’ve discovered and starting using ifttt.com, which I’m a little too addled at the moment to describe – the domain name stands for ‘if this then that’ and their tagline is ‘put internet to work for you’. You should read the about page, which has a lovely, direct URL: http://ifttt.com/wtf

° I’ve been doing recording and sound-editing on the Mac and I am floored every time anew by the quality of the built-in mic for voicework, as well as the pleasure and ease I experience doing editing with my fingers on the trackpad. Plus now my new Snowball mic arrived, whee! There is a LOT of podfic work in my future. <3 That's it for today, I think.