Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Balanced Life Weekly.

Healthy

Great news, I am back to my walking routine in the neighborhood. Going to try and be more consistent with it and I’m starting off with a mile and a half walk and I will gradually build that up. Listening to Cliff Ravenscraft’s Pursuing A Balanced Life has really motivated me on the health front. Of course he is in the inspiration for me starting this particular blog in the first place.

Wealthy

On the job front still waiting to hear back from places I have applied at. Good news is my brother’s girlfriend did land a job so that is awesome news and encouraging to me.

Wise

With the extra time I have between jobs I have been using that time to catch up on the podcasts I listen to. You can learn so much by listening to podcasts and the great news is they are mostly free. A few of the ones I listen to are of course Pursuing A Balanced Life, Help, I Got a Mac, Social Media Serenity, Family from the Heart and these are just the ones from GSPN. In addition I also listen to The Break with Fr. Roderick, Catholic Pilot, Catholic in a Small Town, iPadre, and the SaintCast. These are all from SQPN. Of course there are the tech podcasts This Week in Tech (TWiT) and MacBreak Weekly both hosted by Leo Laporte and MacOS Ken which is a daily podcast ranging from 10-15 mins of Apple related news. I can’t go through the whole list, but if you go to any of those sites, you will find awesome content!

Faith

Next week I will be starting my duties as a sponsor in my parish’s RCIA program. I look forward to this as it allows me to give back to the Church for what it gave to me when I converted back in 2001.

Well that is going to do it for this edition of Balanced Life Weekly. See you all next week!

Thanks to Nekogal for posting this. If you downloaded the new iTunes 10 and hate the colorless look to the icons in the sidebar, there is a fix for it here.

Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of Googling Friday. This week I will be talking about the Google Chrome browser. First, lets see what has been going on this week in the world of Google.

Google rolls out Priority Inbox

Google announced on Monday a new way filter Gmail that identifies priority email over regular email and places them in a Priority Inbox. If it makes a mistake in misidentifying priority email you can mark it as so and will learn as it goes along. Users should see it roll out this week.

Google purchases Angstro

In another move that shows Google is setting up to challenge Facebook in the social networking world, Google has bought Angstro and hired its founder to help out with its social networking product Google Me. Google Me…that sounds like something familiar.

Google Chrome browser

Now time for this weeks Google app review. Unlike other apps this one is not a web based application. Google Chrome is a desktop based web browser just like Firefox, Safari, and that one browser made by the evil empire from Redmond.

So what stands Google Chrome apart from the others? In a word…speed! The browser opens up fast and launches websites fast. When you think of Chrome vs Firefox, think of a cheetah racing against an elephant. I no longer use Firefox and just have Chrome and Safari on my Macs.

Another cool function is the extensions. Google Chrome has quite a selection of available extensions that sit to the right of your search/web address bar. Speaking of which when wanting to do a search in Google Chrome you use the web bar to search. It is smart enough to determine searches from web addresses.

When it comes to bookmarks, Google Chrome will sync them across multiple computers. This is great if you use Google Chrome at work and at home as whatever you bookmark on one, will be on the other as well.

So go check it out, I highly recommend Google Chrome and if you are using Firefox you will soon find you no longer need it.

Little iPhone video I did on my new Logitech Harmony 300 remote and its features.

Not sure if Apple made this intentional but it certainly caught my eye today.

Greetings everybody, yes I’m back with an extra installment of Triple T. as I wanted to talk about the Apple Special Event today. So lets dive right into things. My comments are in italic. Please excuse the notes form of the post but I decided for the sake of a timely release it was best to just keep it the way I wrote my notes.

iOS 4.1

Proximity, Bluetooth, iPhone 3G bug fixes- Glad to see the proximity censor issue finally addressed here.

High Dynamic Range photos-uses algorithm to enhance photos So basically a built in software function to enhance photos

HD video upload over WiFi

TV show rentals

Game Center-Multi-player games Challenge friends, auto matching, Compare scores

Will be out next week for the iPhone and iPod touch

iOS 4.2 sneak peek iPad

Everything in 4.1 plus

Wireless Printing – Finally! This is going to be awesome and make working with Pages a whole lot easier

AirPlay- stream audio, photos, and video formerly called AirTunes

Out in November free update to iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch – Although I was hoping the iPad would have multitasking earlier, for wireless printing, I can wait.

iPods

Shuffle

Buttons and voiceover

Multiple Playlists

Genius mixes

15 hours of music

2GB available in 5 colors

$49

iPod nano

Smaller no wheel multitouch has a clip on the back to wear

24 hours of music battery life

Square looking

voice over

radio

Nike+

Pedometer

screen rotates

Photos

7 colors

$149 8 GB, $179 16 GB

iPod touch

Slightly thinner than the previous iPod touch

Retina display like in iPhone 4

Apple A4 chip also like in the iPhone 4

3-axis gyro

iOS 4.1

FaceTime with front and rear facing camera – This means if you have an iPod touch and a friend or family member has an iPhone 4 you can talk to each other using FaceTime. I’m guessing this will be tied via an email address since the iPod touch is not a phone.

HD video recording

40 hours battery life

8GB $229

32GB $299

64GB $399

Available next week

This is great if you wanted the iPhone features of HD video capture, FaceTime and the retina display but don’t want to sign up for an AT&T contract. They will sell a ton of these!

iTunes

iTunes 10 – dig the new logo…the CD is gone!

Ping- Social music discovery, see what your friends are listening to. Connect with your friends and favorite artists. I think MySpace has a problem!

available today Free

AppleTV

The new AppleTV is a fourth the size of the original AppleTV and it fits in your hand!

On the back:

HDMI

Optical audio

Ethernet

802.11n WiFI

Comes with a remote

streaming- no syncing so don’t have to worry about HD space

HD movie rental $4.99 for first run titles

HD TV shows 99 cents commercial free

ABC & FOX signed on to deliver content Please CBS sign on so I can get my NCIS episodes in HD since my local channels are not offered in HD by DirecTV yet.

Netflix – I finally got to see how Netflix streaming on a TV looks after going down to Hattiesburg and seeing it stream via the Nintendo Wii to my in-laws TV. I can’t wait to get this device.

YouTube – Love that my wife and I can browse our TV for YouTube content.

Flickr & MobileMe – Cool to show off pictures on the TV without hooking up a computer to it to do so

$99 Available in 4 weeks – Keep in mind it was $299 so they are dropping $200 on this and it does so much more now. I will be getting one!

Well, that is what Apple came out with today. Lot of cool stuff that made my eyes as big as saucers. What really stands out to me is the new AppleTV. I think the price point and its features is really going to turn it around in sales. Also the new iPod touch is going to be big for those that want the FaceTime and HD video shooting but not the expense of a 2 year AT&T contract.

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. For this edition of Triple T. I am writing it from my iPad using BlogPress. It was recently updated with the ability to insert links more easier.

For this edition of Triple T. I am going to deviate from the regular format. I wanted to share my initial review of my new Apple Bluetooth keyboard I am using with the iPad. Plus I will have a Triple T. extra out on Thursday regarding the Apple event on Wednesday.

Bluetooth keyboard Initial Review

I am using the Apple Bluetooth keyboard with my iPad to write this.

I went with the regular BT keyboard over the dedicated iPad keyboard incase I ever wanted to pair it up with my iPhone or one of my Mac’s. The benefit of using it on the iPad is it allows me to write more naturally like I would on my MacBook and less finger smudges on the iPad where I would type. The keyboard is so light, it makes it easy to carry around with my iPad (I carry them both around in my laptop bag).

So why not just use my MacBook? Well the iPad even with Bluetooth turned on, has an incredible battery life as compared to my 2+ year old MacBook. The newer MacBook’s do have a much better battery life but I am not in the market for one yet as my MacBook is running fine and quite honestly, the iPad probably puts a MacBook upgrade several more years down the road for me.

Pairing it up is a snap. Press the power button on the right hand side of the keyboard and open up the Bluetooth setting on the iPad to pair the 2 and type in a code using the keyboard and your off to the races.

It also gives you the ability to be away from the screen, so you can sit back in your chair for example holding the keyboard however you wish.

BlogPress 2.0

Now for the second half of the mobile blogging setup. BlogPress just updated to version 2.0 and it brings some much welcomed features with it. It has an HTML button in the right hand side that brings down a drop down menu that allows you to change fonts and colors, insert links, bold and italic, insert middle-line text, and insert quoted text.

It also allows you to set a time and date for the blog to be posted which is nice if like me, you blog a day or 2 ahead of the time it posts. It also works on the iPhone and iPod touch as well giving you the ability to blog right on the spot if you are away from an iPad or just don’t have one.

BlogPress sells for $2.99 and it is great. I am looking forward to when the iPad gets iOS 4.0 so I can switch apps to make it even easier to add in links.

Well that’s going to do it for this edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. Look for a Thursday special edition where I will discuss what Apple announced on Wednesday.

Little video I shot from my iPhone when I got the Apple rechargeable batteries this weekend.

Greetings everyone and welcome to another edition of Balanced Life Weekly. I had a lot going on last week so please excuse me for the lack of an update for that week. So let’s dive right into things.

Healthy

I really do need to work on this part of my PABL plan. Slacked off on the fitness part, but the good news is I am finally waking up at my targeted wake up time of around 7am. I managed to achieve it 2 times last week so hopefully I can improve on that this week by adding an extra day or 2 on that goal.

Wealthy

On the job front I continue to apply at several jobs but no calls as of yet. The good news is Toyota is now taking applications for their plant opening here next year so I have applied for that as well.

Wise

Been catching up on podcasts over the last few days as my wife and I drove down south this past weekend. We listened to Family from the Heart with Cliff and Stephanie Ravenscraft, Catholic in a Small Town with Mac and Katherine Barron, and SaintCast by Dr. Paul Camarata among others. We had a great time seeing Kristen’s family this weekend so not being able to catch up on my readings was worth it for the time spent with them.

Faith

Of course I mentioned how we listened to several Catholic podcasts on our drive. I loved Mac and Katherine’s talk about their Pentecostal background before converting to Catholicism. Sunday we attended St. Thomas Aquinas church in Hattiesburg, MS. It was a fully packed church and was great to see. But we missed going to St. James so we look forward to being there Sunday and I’ll probably go to a few weekday Masses this week as well.

Well that is going to do it for this edition of Balanced Life Weekly. See you all next week.

Rob’s Rule #2. Never be afraid to make a career change if it is for the best interest of your family.

Just testing out the updated version of BlogPress on my iPad.

Hello folks and welcome to another installment of Googling Friday. Lets look at some Google news before we dive into this weeks Google app review.

Google brings Google Voice to Gmail

Google announced on Wednesday the ability to dial a phone number from within Gmail. It will appear on the right hand side within the chat list. As shown below:

Course what this means is you will no longer have to visit the Google Voice page directly to make a call and you can now directly talk to someone right from your computer and don’t need it to dial one of your phones first.

Now for this weeks Google app review, Google Calendar

Google Calendar

With Google Calendar, you can view your events and tasks from any computer connected to the internet. Also BusyCal has a desktop based calendar application that can interface with Google Calendar, iPhone, and iPads. Google Calendar has pretty much replaced iCal for me as my default calendar application. It is pretty straight forward and is part of your Gmail account with its own link at the top of your Gmail page. So check it out, I really like it.

Well see you all next week for more cool stuff from Google!

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Tuesday Thursday Tech Talk. I apologize for the late arrival this week but I was busy the early part of this week. Well lets see what is going on this week in technology.

Facebook says Places everyone

Last week Facebook introduced a new feature that allows you to check in at places on your mobile phone that has the Facebook app. The one feature of it I find questionable is the ability to tag others at that place. That being said it will alert that user if they have been tagged and gives them the option to remove the tag. The difference between it and Foursquare is you don’t get to be mayor of a place on Places like you do on Foursquare and Foursquare doesn’t have tagging.

Intel buys McAfee

News from out of the blue last week as the big chip maker purchased the anti virus software maker for $8 Billion! Wonder if AMD will now look for a dance partner?

Couple uses iPad to marry them

Ok as someone that loves both technology and marriage, this article caught my eye. A couple used the iPad to read their vows and the bride even used the iPad to compose her vows and then the wedding official (not a priest as the linked article states) read it as well to officiate it. All that being said, to each their own but no way would I have done that at my wedding in 2001 even if an iPad existed then. Full disclosure, I used Mac Office PowerPoint to propose to my wife back in 2000 on my beige G3 desktop that ran on a 266 MHz processor.

Verizon bringing FiOS TV to mobile devices, DISH goes online

The world of mobile TV viewing continues to evolve with Verizon announcing it will soon offer an app that will allow you to view FiOS programming on your iPad, Android, Blackberry Storm, and Windows Mobile 6.5 devices but ONLY from within the home. Which kind of makes no sense. I mean really the purpose of such an app would be if you are not at home. In other content provider news, DISH Network is bringing a handful of channels to its Dish Online service.

Western Digital introduces HomePlug device

Western Digital is making a plunge into home networking by allowing you to extend your WiFi connection to electrical outlets allowing you to connect your HDTV for example to the internet. The Livewire will sell for $140.

Apple negotiating $1 TV show rentals

Ahead of the expected AppleTV revamp next month, Apple is in negotiations with FOX, ABC, and CBS to allow consumers to rent TV shows for a 48 hour window for a dollar each episode.

Jail breaking your iPhone won’t send you to jail

I have never really felt the need to jail break my iPhone. Believe it or not I am a happy AT&T customer since 3G arrived in Tupelo. Don’t get me started with Comcast though. But if one wanted to, well #1 you are on your own if you want tech support from Apple but #2 it is legal.

This Week’s iPhone/iPod touch/iPad apps

Madden NFL 11 ($12.99 iPad, $7.99 iPhone/iPod touch – I have to admit I have never really used my iPad or iPhone as a gaming device beyond using Farmville or Solitaire. But I am really enjoying playing Madden on my iPad. There is a learning curve to it especially on defense, but once you play a couple of games it gets pretty easy (hint: rush the quarterback on defense to force incomplete passes or even interceptions and the possible sack). I don’t have the iPhone version but my friend Dave does and he tends to love it. So far my Chargers are undefeated and winning by 35 or more points, I even beat the Seahawks 76-21…in Seattle.

We Rule (FREE) – I have heard Fr. Roderick, Cliff Ravenscraft and Leo Laporte all mention this app so I finally downloaded it. The best way to describe it is English village meets Farmville. You have a castle that you can expand the more levels you go up and plant crops, collect taxes from the citizens, and continue to expand your landscape as you advance in levels. My username is tupelogeek if you want to add me as a neighbor.

Well that is going to do it for this edition of Triple T. See you all next week back on our regular schedule.

Hello folks and welcome to another installment of Googling Friday. Last week I was quite busy so I do apologize for not having one out. Let’s get into this week’s Google news and review.

Google to launch Chrome OS-based tablet on 11/26

Looks like HTC is making a tablet similar to an iPad but based on the Google Chrome OS. It will be sold by Verizon with an on-sale date of November 26th aka Black Friday. Below is an artist rendering of what it may look like.

Chrome Web Store in October

Google’s Chrome based web store will be rolling out in October. It will allow users to purchase web apps from the store using Google Checkout and Google will only take a 5% of revenue from the apps sold in contrast to the industry standard 70/30 split (developer/store operator).

Now for this weeks Google web app review

Google Reader

I have been reading RSS feeds for a few years now using different applications. For a long time I used NetNews Wire as a desktop app until they decided to synchronize with Google Reader which I started to check out. Ever since then, I have not used the NNW desktop and strictly use the Google Reader web app as one of my tabs on my browser. I do use the NetNews Wire app on the iPhone and iPad though and the layout on them is very professional, more than I can say for an app like Reeder. Using Google Reader you can create folders for your different subscriptions for example Sports, Tech, News, etc. If you see something you like and want to save for future reference say like something to include in a blog post, you can star the article. Also if you have an Instapaper account, you can save the articles there for later reading. I will have more about Instapaper in the next edition of Triple T.
So if you are looking for something to streamline your RSS feeds on I would really recommend Google Reader. It works great with third party apps like the ones mentioned above.

Greetings everyone! Apologies for the delay on this edition of Balanced Life Weekly but had a lot going on yesterday.

Healthy

Biggest thing on the health front this week is I am trying to establish a sleep schedule. With my previous job being a second shift that ended at 11pm, my body got used to going to bed around 1 or 2 am. The new goal is getting to bed by 11, no later than Midnight and getting up by 7am. It has been quite the challenge thus far. I can go to bed at 11 but can’t fall asleep until 2ish. If anyone has any hints on how to establish a sleep pattern, let me know.

Wealthy

Still doing good on this front but in terms of a job, I really have nothing new to report on that front. I know that God has a job in mind for me so I am not discouraged at all right now.

Wise

I have decided to setup some rules to live by. I got the idea from watching NCIS and the rules Special Agent Gibbs is quoting a lot. At the conclusion of this post I will share my first rule.

Faith

Last week I received some awesome news. I am going to be an RCIA sponsor this year for a candidate coming into the Church. I am excited about this opportunity to share my faith and knowledge with someone coming into the Catholic faith as I back in 2001 was also a candidate that joined the Church.

Well, that is going to do it for this edition of Balanced Life Weekly. See you all next week!

Rob’s Rule #1. Never be too arrogant to admit when your wrong.

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Triple T. Quite a few diverse things going on this week so lets dive right into things.

Star Wars goes Blu-ray in 2011

YES!! Last week George Lucas announced that all 6 Star Wars movies will be available next year in a single pack. Start saving your money now kids (young and old). Keep in mind it will only be the special edition of the movies not the original due to cost.

Booking flights through Facebook…on Delta

If you travel a lot on Delta and are a Facebook user then your in luck. You can now book your flight with them without even leaving Facebook. Now lets see how soon Southwest and AirTran jump on board.

What happened to Yahoo?

I read a great article on why Yahoo stalled while Google surpassed it as the lead search engine. It is a great read from a Yahoo insider on what went wrong. I personally don’t use many Yahoo features these days. The only one I do use from time to time is Yahoo Messenger and that is to chat with mom. With Facebook having chat most of my friends that were on Yahoo are now on Facebook chat.

New iPods in September?

More speculation pointing to an iPod refresh next month. One of the items mentioned is an iPod touch with 2 cameras similar to the iPhone 4 and would offer FaceTime. This makes perfect sense as FaceTime as of now is only available over WiFi and the touch is strictly a WiFi device. We shall see though.

Majority of Verizon customers would buy iPhone

According to a recent survey, 51% of Verizon customers said they would have an interest in buying an iPhone if it was available on the CDMA based carrier. Things may get interesting if per the rumors the iPhone becomes available on Verizon in January.

Certain Pink Floyd albums disappear from iTunes and Amazon

Per the terms of the contract between the band and EMI, certain albums by the British based rock band are no longer available. Most notably The Wall and Wish You Were Here.

Well that is going to do it for this edition of Tuesday Tech Talk, see you here next week.

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. I have quite a few things to talk about this week and not all of them are Apple related so hope you enjoy!

Google Wave shutdown

Google announced last week it will be ceasing updates to Google Wave and will shut it down at the end of the year. For those that don’t know, Google Wave is a online collaboration web application that had a lot of buzz initially but faded fast. I haven’t used it in months.

Android update

There appears to be an update on the way to the Android OS in early September. While I’m on the subject of Android, I’m not getting into the whole iPhone vs Android “battle” anymore. You have 2 great mobile OS’s that are NOT using Windows and that is a win for almost everyone.

Microsoft Office for Mac release date

Microsoft has finally set a release time for Office 2011 for Mac. It will become available in late October and will be available in 3 flavors. A Student & Home edition for $119 which will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Messenger, a Home & Business edition for $199 ($279 for a 2 computer install) that will include all the above plus Outlook, and an Academic version for $99 that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Messenger but will only be available in authorized academic channels and from Microsoft directly.

Verizon to get iPhone in January?

Stop me if you heard this one before. According to a source Apple has apparently ordered millions of Qualcomm CDMA chips from a January launch. What I don’t understand though and correct me if I’m wrong but the CDMA doesn’t allow you to both talk and use data at the same time so to me a CDMA based iPhone would lack the feature found in the GSM based iPhone available from AT&T. Personally I would love to see it happen, this is America and the iPhone should not be tied down to a single carrier.

Google now allowing switching between multiple accounts

If you happen to have more than 1 Google account, you can now switch between them without having to log out and log in. Yes I do admit, I have 2 Google accounts. Why? Because their free and why not.

Bill Gates on the future of education

Bill Gates has some interesting ideas on how in the future the dynamic of learning will be turned on its head. No longer would there be an X amount of students in a classroom, instead students for free will be able to watch lectures online. He envisions higher learning as not place based and how no matter how you learn you should get credit for it i.e., watching an online lecture.

This Week’s iPhone/iPod touch/iPad apps

Instapaper ($4.99) – This app which works for both the iPad and the iPhone and iPod touch allows you to read stories you choose to read later off websites. The cool thing about it is you can read them while offline. Here are a couple of screenshots.

Vonage Mobile for Facebook (FREE) – This awesome app allows you to talk for free with other Facebook friends who have the app on their iPhone, iPod touch, and Android devices (iPad coming soon). I tried it out with my friend Dave in California and the quality was excellent! Dave lives in an area where his 3G is not the best so a lot of times his calls will drop or fade but with the WiFi connection on the Vonage Mobile app it was excellent. Which leads to my next point with Vonage and Skype having apps for the iPhone, how soon until Apple allows the Google Voice app into the store?

CellTower ($2.99) – This handy little app will show on a map the nearest cell towers to you and who owns them. So if you are ever in an area with low bars, now you can find out why that is.

Friendly ($3.99) – This is a nice iPad based Facebook browser. Although for the price I would like to see a few more features like chat and attaching links with a status post. That being said there is a 2.0 version coming soon so hopefully it will offer such features.

TuneIn Radio ($1.99) – My friend Jeremy was telling me about this app. It allows you to listen to radio stations all over the country on your iPhone or iPod touch. It also allows you to record them within the app as well.

Well, that is going to do it for this edition of Triple T. Tune in Friday for another Googling Friday post about all things Google. Take care!

Hello everybody and welcome back to another edition of Balanced Life Weekly. Here is what has been on my mind this week.

Healthy

I decided to join a gym. Kristen belongs to one already so we are looking at a family membership package. With the weather being so hot, it has made it impossible to go for a walk around the neighborhood like we have before. Plus it will offer equipment where I can work on muscle toning and such.

Wealthy

Nothing really new to report here. Applying for jobs every week but still waiting to hear back from employers. Still doing Ok on the financial front though as I had quite a bit saved up before leaving my job.

Wise

Haven’t been able to dig into any books over the last week but instead have been polishing up my resume and focusing on my skills set and what I really want to do going forward the next 20-30 years.

Faith

This past weekend was the SQPN Catholic New Media Celebration in Boston, MA. Unfortunately I was not able to attend in person but I watched it via uStream with other folks that couldn’t make it to Boston. I hope to attend one next year or go to CatholiCon in Houston. I am also in the process of working on something new media related with my local parish so hopefully soon I will be able to expand more on that but for now that is all I can say.

Well short and sweet this week but I’ll be back next week for another edition of Balanced Life Weekly.

Hello and welcome to what may become a weekly or bi-weekly blog on all things Google.

Brief history

Google started out as just a search engine way back in 1998. Today instead of saying “I did a web search” many people say “I googled (said topic)”. Today Google offers its own free email service known as Gmail, a photo sharing site known as Picasa, its own RSS Reader web app, and Google Voice which allows you to set up 1 phone number to ring multiple phones and the ability to place calls through it. It also owns YouTube which it purchased in 2006. Google is valued around $42 Billion with revenues of $23 billion as of 2009. So with a background done lets dive right into this weeks Google feature.

Google Voice

One of my favorite Google apps is Google Voice. This service recently went public to everyone, but my wife and I have been using it for quite sometime. What it allows you to do is have one phone number which you get to choose when setting up an account and use that number to be your primary contact, in turn you can choose which phones (home, work, cell) for it to ring based on which groups you set it up for.

Example, say you want your family to call the both the landline and the cell you can do that, you can also have your friends group contact your cell phone only. You can also text message from your desktop using your Google Voice number to other peoples cell phones.

But the biggest feature at least for my wife and I has been the ability to use Google Voice to call out using which ever phone you want at no cost within the United States and Canada. What this basically means is we can use our landline for Google Voice to call, once answered it immediately contacts the phone number you specified on the Google Voice app. Even though you are on your landline, you are not being charged for the call because of course Google called you first.

You may want to inform your family and friends of your Google number cause when it calls them and they have caller ID, it will show that number and not your landline or cell #. The quality of the calls are awesome! I can’t say enough about this service and if you are reading this directly from my website you will notice the Google Voice icon on the right side to leave me any feedback.

Well, that will do it for this first edition of Googling Friday. See you next week for another Google feature. Have a great weekend!

Greetings everyone, hope you all are having a great week and depending on where you are in the country, staying cool. Lets dive right into things.

Healthy

I set out to go a month of not eating red meat, I made it 2 weeks. Yesterday I needed a cheeseburger which I had and as a result my stomach was queazy so it’s back to no red meat. Subway and Chick-fll-A have got a lot of my business lately. Mostly tuna sandwiches and chicken dishes. So why no red meat? To sum it up..age. My stomach can’t handle hamburgers and burritos every day. As a result I have really laid off the Tums tablets although a lot of that probably stemmed from my former job being so stressful. I am really trying to figure out how to exercise when it is in the 100’s outside. Being I am currently out of work a gym membership is out of the question as well as the cost of buying a treadmill and the lack of space to put one. Any ideas would be great in this area.

Wealthy

I am really controlling my finances quit well. With not knowing when I will have my next job I am being conservative on my funds. Listening to Pandora instead of buying tunes on iTunes for example and eating Lean Cuisines instead of going out for lunch. Nonetheless, I am optimistic about landing my next job and it being one I will like and not just hang out at for 1-2 years.

Wise

I have really been captivated by Glenn Beck’s newest novel “The Overton Window”, it is suspenseful as well as a bit scary as some of the things happening in our country now appear in the book or is that vice-versa? Any how, it is quite the read and I highly recommend it.

Faith

This week Kristen went to reconciliation and we both went to Mass on Sunday so that was nice. I have done a much better job of keeping a daily prayer time and for praying for the things I have in life both personal (family) and material (house) before petitioning my wants and needs (job and children). I also pray for the children we have foster cared for previously in particular Gabriel, there is not a day that goes by that I still don’t think about him. He turned 2 recently and I just imagine how he must be running and talking now. But I know God has a plan for us as adoptive parents and the child or children he wants us to have.

Well that will do it for this edition of Balanced Life Weekly. See you all next week.

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Triple T. Excuse the late edition but yesterday was Kristen’s last day of Summer before starting back with the schools so we wanted to hang out. This week is going to be about the new Apple product announcements from last week. So if your not an Apple fan or if tech specs bore you then I’ll see you next week…otherwise enjoy!

New Apple hardware and accessories

As expected Apple announced some goodies last Tuesday. New iMac’s, Mac Pro’s, and a new Cinema Display. Also a multitouch Magic Trackpad and Apple’s own battery charger with 6 AA batteries.

iMac

Start with the new iMac line it has 2 models a 21.5” display and a 27” one, it now sports a dual core processor from 3.06 GHz up to 3.6 GHz and quad core processors from 2.8-2.93 GHz. On the hard drive side it now comes in up to 2 TB of space and can support a 256GB solid state drive option. On the RAM side it comes with 4GB of 1333 MHz and with 4 SO-DIMM slots, it can support up to 16GB of RAM. Graphics wise it comes with an ATI Radeon HD 4670 with 256MB of GDDR3 memory and has a custom option for a Radeon HD 5670 with 512MB of GDDR3 memory (also 1GB GDDR5 option on the 27” model). Price ranges from $1199-1999 for standard models.

Mac Pro

Two models here, a Quad-Core and an 8-Core model. The Quad-Core comes with a single 2.66GHz Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processor (8MB Level 3 cache) with options for a 3.2 GHz Quad-Core or 3.33 GHz 6-Core (12MB L3). The 8-Core comes with a dual 2.26 GHz Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processors with options for dual 12-Core processors ranging from 2.66GHz-2.93GHz. All 3 have 12MB of L3. Hard drive wise they have 4 bays each ranging between 640GB-2TB 7200-RPM Serial ATA drives so you could have a machine with 8TB of drive space if you wanted to. RAM wise the Quad-Core supports up to 16GB while the 8-Core can support 32GB. Graphics it comes with an NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB but has options for a 2-4x and an ATI Radeon HD 4870 with 512MB. Price ranges are $2499-3299 for standard models.

Cinema Display

Shipping in September will be a new 27” Cinema Display with 2560 x 1440 display. Also comes with a iSight camera, speakers and a microphone as well as a 2.0 USB powered hub for 3 USB ports and a MagSafe connector to charge any MacBook model. $999.

Magic Trackpad

As expected, Apple announced a multitouch trackpad that supports the same multi gesture controls the MacBook Pro does. If you use an iPhone, iPod touch, or an iPad then this will be an easy transition as you use the same gestures on the Magic Trackpad. It goes for $69 and connects via Bluetooth and requires 2 AA batteries.

Apple Battery charger

Yes Apple has now entered the battery business! For $29 Apple will ship you a charger along with 6 rechargeable AA batteries. What makes their charger different is its energy use. Once it is done charging it goes into a lower usage of electricity in standby power (Vampire draw). Apple also states with the charge on the batteries expect these batteries to last up to 10 years. Bargain!

Well that is going to do it for this edition of Triple T. See you all next week!

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. Lets see what has been going on over the past week.

New Mac hardware

You do remember that Apple also makes these great computers call Mac’s right? Well we could be seeing some updated Mac Pro’s, iMac’s, and Cinema Display’s later today according to John Gruber of Daring Fireball. I’m pretty much set on the Mac hardware front for a while myself but I always love to see the new stuff come out and what it is sporting under the hood.

iLife ’10 with mysterious new application

We could also be seeing a new version of iLife next month and according to a site called Mac 4 Ever from France, it may be adding a new application and doing away with iDVD. Also iLife will be written in 64-bit and the iDVD will be available as a download if needed. It will also have improved integration with social networks. It also states an August 7th release date (Saturday), it is unlikely for Apple to release a software application on a weekend as it usually a Tuesday release or sometime during the work week. Stay tuned!

Microsoft to give employees free Windows Phone 7 devices

Call it a perk, I call it Microsoft’s attempt inflate its mobile phone market. Course we all know how well the Kin did.

Google Image Search now with Ads

Google announced last week a new way for advertisers to push their products via Google’s Image search. Like it does with link searches, photos of similar things you search for will pop up at the top. For example if you typed in “Converse” then a link for Converse Shoes will be below a picture of their latest shoes. I haven’t tried to search for “lower intestines” yet to see what that will pull up though.

Verizon going to limited data plans

Boy these cell phone companies remind me of the airline industry, when one company makes a change in their data plans, the other follows. Course with AT&T and Verizon being the 2 biggest out there, look for them to set the industry standard on data plans. Yes, the all you can eat data plan is going the way of airlines not charging you for bags unless you fly on Southwest of course.

Joss Whedon to Direct The Avengers

The biggest announcements to come out of Comic-Con in San Diego this week was that Joss Whedon of Firefly fame will indeed direct The Avengers movie and that Mark Ruffalo will be playing the Hulk in it and not Edward Norton.

Sorry but no app reviews this week. Just haven’t really played with anything new in the past week. Thanks for coming by and see you all next Tuesday!

Greetings everyone, it has been quite an eventful week for me so with that in mind I’m going to deviate from the usual flow of BLW and just right into things.

I Quit my Job

After moths of not being happy where I was working and it causing me to become a different person that I knew, I decided last Monday to call it quits there. For those that don’t know, I worked at a call center for DirecTV handing customer complaints basically. After nearly 2 years of doing it I had just had enough of the day to day nagging by customers. It wasn’t just the customers there were other policies that I am not at liberty to mention here that was causing me even more stress.

As a result of leaving I have felt a great relief, I had a lot of heartburn issues and looking back it appears that was more stress induced than diet. I haven’t had to take a nightly Tums tablet like I did before. It also has helped my Tinnitus a bit but when your on a headset for 8 hours that can have an effect on the ears I imagine.

Faith

Saturday I went to confession at my parish for the first time in 3 months. I had a lot to get out and so that helped me out a lot to purge that baggage of issues I had been carrying around with me that caused me to sin. Sunday I went to Mass which is something I had not done in a few weeks. As a Catholic I had really let things go but I am going to do a lot better on these things and be more disciplined in my daily prayer life.

Going Forward

As I move on with my life, I look at the blessings I have as part of it. I have an awesome wife that supported me in my leaving my job, supportive parents and brother and a great house with 2 dogs. Also I belong to a great church with an outstanding priest. I am totally at peace with myself, something that has not been the case in a long time. I do have some irons in the fire as it relates to a new job as well so I am not just sitting back and watching TV while eating bon bons all day, I’m being proactive in making sure my period of unemployment is a brief one.

Well that is what I wanted to share with you all. Next week I look forward to getting back on to the Healthy, Wealthy, Wise, and Faith theme. See you all next week!

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Triple T. Excuse my absence last week, just had too many things in the hopper to get a post out. This week Apple held a press conference about the iPhone 4 so lets get right into things.

iPhone 4 bar issue

Apple held a press conference on Friday to discuss the signal and bar issue on the iPhone 4. Apple did announce the iPhone 4 has dropped more calls than the 3GS but it is less than 1 per 100 calls. They also announced that until 9/30, they are offering free bumpers for the iPhone 4 purchases and if you bought one already you get a refund. Also they are accepting iPhone 4 returns for full refund within 30 days of purchase. So if your not happy with your iPhone 4 then you have no excuses but for the most part this story is blown out of proportion.

AT&T and the free 3G MicroCells

Not only can you score a free bumper with your iPhone 4 purchase but you may also get a free 3G MicroCell tower from AT&T if your lucky enough to receive one of the golden tickets..err…I mean orange envelope with a letter stating so from the blue stripped Death Star itself.

MacBook saves late night!

So you have a popular late night talk show, your set to do a show and the set has a power outage affecting the control room and broadcast areas. What do you do? Well in Jimmy Kimmel’s case you whip out your MacBook and film the show using its webcam. Now that is genius! If it were Jay Leno or David Letterman they would just call it a day and put on a best of episode, but not Jimmy! Kudos to Kimmel for his creativity!

More thoughts on iPad

So it has been a few weeks since I have had my iPad and I continue to enjoy using it. Right now I am blogging from my MacBook but it is one of the rare times I am also using the MacBook lately. For the most part my MacBook is used to sync up my iPhone and iPad every few days but other then that it stays on my desk plugged in mostly.

Which leads me to my next point, what I would love to see in a blogging app for the iPad. I really want something that allows me to create a link simply by highlighting text and clicking a link icon to create a drop down link box that makes the text a clickable link and of course the ability to drop a photo in the blog post and resize it while writing it. That being said Mariner Software the makers of MacJournal is preparing an iPad version so hopefully my dream blogging app will be here soon enough.

The battery life is incredible on it. On average I can go 2 days without charging it with normal use. I enjoy using the NetNewsWire app for my RSS feeds and HelloTxt for posting my updates to Facebook and Twitter. HelloTxt also allows you to schedule a post much like HootSuite which at this time doesn’t offer an iPad version of its app but you can run the iPhone version on the iPad. But HelloTxt has won me over, I no longer use Ping.fm for my daily updates.

So those are my thoughts of the iPad so far and will continue to share more about going forward.

This Week’s iPhone/iPod touch/iPad apps

Navigon MobileNavigator ($49.99) – Yes, Navigon has at last got the update out for the iOS4 and with a nice price drop as well. Of course it now supports multitasking but it also has live weather updates and has a feature called CleverParking which shows you parking areas around your destination. I haven’t used it since the update since I haven’t been out of town to use it. But it is nice to take a call now or play Pandora on the iPhone without losing your directions.

Netflix (FREE) – This is the iPad version and I finally got around to using the features of it including watching the movie Moon on it. In-fact I even capture a screenshot while watching it.

Well that will do it for this edition of Triple T. See you all next week!

Over the past week or so, I have been having a pretty constant ringing in my ears. It can be higher at times then others. My brother who also battles it has said Niacin tends to help it in addition my doctor has given me a prescription to Prednisone and Allegra. Reading up on it, I was amazed at some famous people who have also had it. Mostly musicians which is not a surprise since they are around loud noises like Bono, Eric Clapton, and Pete Townsend among others. But others like Ronald Reagan, William Shatner, and Leonard Nimoy.

The good news is it doesn’t appear to be affecting my hearing in normal conversation. The bad news is trying to fall asleep has become a chore for me and I pretty much have to fall asleep to nothing but a constant ringing in the ears. That is the worst part about Tinnitus for me at this point. Hopefully some of the meds will help reduce it.

Hello all and welcome to a long overdue Balanced Life “Weekly”. This post is going to be much more introspective than usual so please bare with me if the post seems more like a rant at times but I believe it has a good conclusion. So here goes!

I turned 38 a few weeks ago. My wife and I went to Pensacola Beach for a quick getaway from town. As I approach 40, I am taking stock of what I have in life and what I could do better at. On balance I am at where I thought I would be at this age back when I was 20. I am married to the best wife a man could dream of having, we are home owners and no longer renters, we have experienced parenthood all be it as foster parents but now are ready to be full time parents.

Wealthy & Wise

I guess the one regret I do have was not finishing college and having more of a career life than just bouncing from job to job every 2-3 years. Over the past 10 years, my longest job has lasted 3 years. It has ranged from data entry work to office manager at an outpatient rehab center and now I get to listen to people gripe about their satellite TV not working. Needless to say the current job is getting old fast so here I am with my resume out and about again.

One thing I am looking more seriously at is the possibility of going back to college. In this day and age, more people are going to college in mid-life. My brother happens to be one and met his girlfriend there who is of similar age. The key thing is finding my area of interest, there is no sense in enrolling in college if you don’t know what you want to do for a career. Obviously I like to blog, enjoy all things tech, and follow news and sports, but I don’t know if I want to be a journalist by nature. The key thing is finding what I can see myself doing the next 30-40 years. So future life plan is second at the top of my list.

Faith

The last year has been a rough patch on the spiritual front. We fought for custody on a baby we foster cared for and lost out to a family who have lesser means to take care of him. We had another adoption situation go the other way as well. Needless to say the road to parenthood for us has been turbulent at best. I have been feeling as what St. John of the Cross would call a dark night of the soul. I need to get back on track with things in this area and just “Let go and let God”. Like working out to stay healthy, I need to maintain a spiritual exercise of daily prayer life so this will be the key area and of course at the top of my list.

Healthy

I hate to say it but I have slacked off in this area. I need to get back to my walks and eating healthier. I have all the right apps on my iPhone to help me in this area its just a matter of user error and needing to get it done. So I need to set some goals in this area for weight loss.

PABL

So putting all of these things together is key to getting back on track with Pursuing A Balanced Life (PABL). If you haven’t done so as of yet you really should listen to Cliff Ravenscraft’s “Pursuing A Balanced Life” podcast which has served as an inspiration to me to publish BLW. I hope to get back to writing this weekly so as to keep me accountable which of course was the original intent for BLW. I look forward to your feedback and God Bless!