When Apple introduced the iPhone 3GS, they added a new piece of hardware: a magnetometer. That little do-dad can pick up magnetic field lines, and basically act as a virtual compass. While kind of a neat feature, I don't think it's very practical. I mean, pretty much every iPhone 3G user I know has the data plan, which basically means they can access Google Maps whenever they want. Yes, you can't get a real time indication of your direction using Google maps, but if you move around you can obviously watch what happens and see which direction you ...

The first order of business with my new iPhone is picking up a decent case to keep it from being scratched. I called around town, but unfortunately nobody has any stock for the 3G iPhone cases yet. So basically the only place left to buy one from was on Apple's store. I originally went over with the intent to buy one case. However, it appears that one case wasn't enough to qualify me for free shipping. Since I like free stuff, I decided to buy a few more things. Since I wasn't sure if I'd ...

Apple announced the official iPhone developer program a while ago. Unfortunately at the time they also indicated it would only be open to people in the United States at first. I decided to just sign up for it at the time anyways, assuming they would open up to Canada at some point as well. Turns out they did. I got my official email last night saying I was accepted, so today I went and paid my $99 and can now develop iPhone applications (if I want to). So, maybe I'll mess around with XCode on my ...

It's official -- Roger's has made what they call a public statement regarding just that: TORONTO, April 29 /CNW/ - Ted Rogers, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rogers Communications Inc. today issued the following statement: We're thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year. We can't tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned. Not very informative, but I guess it dispels the myth that it's not coming. Although, most people thought it would get here eventually. I also read that Rogers ...

This morning I had the pleasure of swinging by MacStation in Yaletown on my way to work and picking up a brand new MacPro computer for work. I could sit here and quote technical specs until the cows came home, but I'll just say that this sucker completely rocks. It basically has two of everything: Two CPUs, each of which has four 2.8 GHz cores A dual-head video card capable of doing 1080p video on each port Two network cards, so in theory you could put one on a private network and one on a public one I've spent the ...

For all of you who have been waiting patiently for the new 10.5.2 update, the wait is over. 10.5.2 is now available on software update. I'm installing all 350 MB of it right now. For all of you about to update, I salute you. Oh, and for all you people on shitty broadband, you should know I just downloaded 352 MB in 4 minutes here.

Tomorrow I should be getting a brand new 8-core MacPro for my desk at work. In honor of that, I did up a little Mac desktop last night for anyone who likes to laugh from time to time. Enjoy. digg_url = 'http://www.digg.com/apple/The_MacPro_When_Seven_Cores_Of_Porn_Doesn_t_Quite_Cut_It';

I woke up to my phone ringing basically non-stop thanks to Hesty and Sean at work. There's a big career fair out at UBC today, and I guess they are all going and wanted me to go too. I woke up with a nasty sore throat though, so I'm going to leave the recruiting to those guys. I'm going to pass around a bit of link-juice this morning. First, we have Rebecca and Keira, who are packing up and heading to the island for some licking and snowboarding. That means John is currently wifeless, so I think him ...

As of October of 2007, Apple has sold approximately 120 million iPods worldwide. At approximately $250 each, that's $30 billion dollars in revenue. It is without a doubt one of Apple's crowning technical achievements, both for the ingenuity of the hardware and for the revolutionary integration with software on several platforms. And yet lately, as I've trekked the 30 minute walk between my home and work with my iPod blaring away, I've started to wonder what the impact of this technology really is. For starters, those of us who listen to iPods frequently are subjecting ourselves to potential ...

Eight easy steps: 1. Toss and turn all night 2. Fall asleep at 5am 3. Get up at 9:30am and try to head to work 4. Call a cab, and tell him to take you to work 5. Pay cab driver. Drop money all over the cab and look dumb. 6. Exit cab and close door, making sure to slam your iPod touch in the door 7. Stand there looking at iPod touch drive away with cab driver, only to fall off a half block away 8. Pick up iPod touch on the concrete, now without headphones