Sometimes I forget what it was like years ago before smartphones were affordable and everywhere. Today you have the internet in your pocket, and you are able to check or look-up anything within minutes or even seconds. Before this you would actually have to... wait! Wait to look up movie times, train times, the cost of something, the meaning of something, etc. Now thanks to affordable iPhones, Androids and Blackberry phones (with semi-affordable data plans) it's easier than ever to stay connected... whether you'd like to or not.

I remember about six years ago I got my first cell phone, an N-Gage QD. While this model didn't require you to hold it like a taco to talk (like it's earlier model), it did give me something I never had before. An internet connection in my pocket, anywhere I went.

My data limit was 1 Megabyte. Yep, very, very tiny by today's standards. But at the time that was pretty big for me. There were some "mobile" editions of web sites and I remember checking MacRumors and a few other web sites when I was bored or waiting for dinner at a diner, etc. I remember seeing the Star Wars Episode III poster for the first time on my phone, the quality was crap, but I could see it. The internet connection was slow, unreliable, and you had no quick way of knowing if the page would load well or not at all. Finding if you went over your data limit was a pain as well. But I managed. If I wanted to find out something quick enough I'd sit there and be patient.

Now smartphones are common everywhere with built-in 3G or 4G networks providing quick access to the web from anywhere. In fact it's hard to get a cellphone that is not a smart phone with web access. Today's phones have beautiful high resolution displays, stereo sound, gigabytes of storage available, built-in Wi-Fi, and loads of applications to do more than just gather information and view content, but play games, take pictures/videos, control other devices, upload information, create content and more.

I would have never imagined that years ago the internet would be so accessible and easy to access on your phone. Then again six years ago the screen for viewing the web was heavily condensed at an LCD displaying only 127x208 pixels with a limit of 4096 colors.

What was your first experience with the internet on a mobile device. Do you like having access to the web instantly? I can see it being a pain to be available all the time, especially for work. But most of the time it's unobtrusive if you have the will to leave the phone alone.

So we all like having the latest and greatest. But what about the oldest? What is your oldest computer or electronic gadget? Why do you still hang onto it? Sentimental reasons... or maybe it still performs a useful task. Let's hear it!

For me my oldest computer age-wise is the Macintosh 512k I have. I bought it for under $20 years ago, it came with the carrying bag, printer, disks, keyboard, numeric keyboard, and mouse. It was a steal. It still works actually. I don't use it regularly, I'm more fond of my Mac Classic and Color Classic since they have hard drives and a SCSI port. But it's still a very neat machine.

The oldest computer that we've had since it was new is my Dad's Macintosh IIcx. I've had to replace some parts in it but, it still works. Great little machine. We all have very fond memories of printing out banners in Print Shop Deluxe, playing games, and using that great old Mac. We can't toss it out, especially since at the time it cost over $11k for the 13" color monitor, system, graphics card, and such. Yes I found the receipt haha. Plus it's fun sometimes to boot it up just to play an old game or two.

Apple today announced that they are discontinuing their XServe series of servers. A note appears on Apple's XServe site stating:

"Xserve will no longer be available after January 31, but we’ll continue to fully support it. To learn more, view the PDF."

They will continue to service the systems, sell parts, and even systems themselves until their stock runs out. They will stop selling the systems themselves until January 31st, 2011.

To help "ease" the transition Apple has added a $2,999 'Server' configuration for the Mac Pro. So if you want your own Mac server you have two choices, buy a Mac Pro or buy a Mac Mini Server. Your third option is to buy an XServe while they're still available. True both solutions don't fully replace the features of the existing XServe models, but it's the closet thing Apple is offering at this point.

While this won't effect most Mac users it's sure to anger XServe users who rely on these products. So do you use an XServe or other Apple server system? Even if you don't let us know what you think about the loss of the XServe from Apple's lineup.

So some interesting news was posted this morning on Macrumors.com, I'll quote some of the article instead of attempting to explain it better.

So in other words information is stored on your iPhone or in the cloud and was copied from your Mac at home. Using your iPhone or other device as a key you are able to unlock the content instantly and start using any Mac just as your own, with all your files, passwords, documents, and maybe even applications.

Now that you have a picture of that this can do... let's think a bit more and dream. Apple has this big data center they've built and it's probably going to double in size. Apple just released a MacBook Air with flash-only memory. This technology could be used as a "digital passport" and unlock your preferences/files/programs and more from the cloud to the computer you use.

I think it would be amazing if you could store say a copy of Photoshop on your iPhone, walk up to a Mac and run your program and your files with your preferences without hassle. Sure downloading items may be slow, but if it's stored on the iPhone it'll be quick. And what you couldn't fit on there maybe you could download from Apple. Maybe MobileMe can integrate with this for some more advanced uses.

That's what I'm thinking about... what do you think? Do you think cloud computing will be useful in such cases like this? Would you like to carry around the key to your Mac in your pocket? Or do you stay at home and see no use for this at all.

I think this would be wonderful, but I do see it limited if not all macs have this NFC chip in them. Why can't this be done with Wi-Fi? It probably can especially with 802.11n. However the NFC may not require handshaking and passcodes to ease the process... but how fast is it? It would be interesting to see if you need to plug in a USB cable to the Mac or if it relies on just wireless to work it's magic. Then again this is all a 'What if" situation.

Hello everyone! Well as promised here is my second video in my Old Computer Project series. This one is more interesting than the last. Instead of seeing a "it runs okay but it's slow" version of Mac OS X I'd like to treat you to a video of Mac OS 9. Version 9.2 to be exact.

In this video I go over many of the same websites I tried to load in the Mac OS X video. Things don't go quite as smoothly at all. The specs of the machine are the same as last time, a 400MHz G3 iMac with 256MB of RAM - this time with Mac OS 9.2 and Internet Explorer 5.1. This video was recorded on my iPhone 4 so forgive the shakiness. Please note that the video quality will improve once YouTube processes it.

Enjoy the video!
-Steve

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/13/a...be-there-live/

Hells yeah it's about time!

From the looks of the image it looks like a Lion or some other type of big cat. Definitely a Mac OS X related event. I forgot what a non-iOS driven event was like... this will be very nice.

Any of you hoping for a hardware / software update? I hope iLife gets an update soon, maybe they'll mention it. A Core i3 MacBook Pro 13" would be nice, but I'm still not ready to buy one just yet.

I promised I'd do this and I finally got around to it! So now I present to you "The Old Computer Project: iMac G3 Web Browsing (Mac OS X)", exciting isn't it? Well sort of. I'd first like to apologize for me almost mono-tone voice and lame jokes in the video. I now realize after editing this that it is a bit boring to see how fast web pages load on an older computer. I've skipped ahead some parts but the total is still a tad past 7 minutes long. Feel free to skip around.

Personally I found the video with me attempting to browse the web in Mac OS 9 more interesting, for reasons you'll see soon. But for now this is just a video of an old G3 iMac with OS X attempting to browse the content-heavy sites of the modern internet.

The specs of the computer are: iMac G3, CPU @ 400Mhz with 256MB of RAM, running Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger"

Comments and feedback are more than welcome. I'm sorry for any jumpy editing, but editing 720p video on an old '06 Core Duo iMac isn't the funnest thing to do. Especially when rendering and importing videos…

Enjoy! And let me know what you think or what you'd like to see in the future. (If anything )
-Steve

Please note: Video quality will improve once YouTube processes it.

After 16 painful years of the semi-fun to the horrible 3D titles, odd werewolf adventures, and various games that just weren't fun, Sonic returns to his 2D side-scrolling glory!

Teased as Project Needlemouse a bit over a year ago Sega revealed they were working on a brand new Sonic game, this one wouldn't be filled with dozens of buddies to choose from, it didn't give you a gun, and it didn't force you to be a werewolf. Finally it's been released, first today for the iPhone. Next week the title is being released for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii - all via their own downloads store.

So this morning I picked up my iPhone 4 and downloaded the game right away after redeeming a gift card I had. The game weighs in at a bit over 80MB so you need to be connected to wi-fi to download it.

My first impressions are strong. The game opens with the classic "Sega" tune from the early 90's Genesis games followed by a familiar splash screen. I haven't had much time to whiz through too many levels too far, but the game feels great. The iPhone gives you two control styles, tilt mode or d-pad mode. In tilt mode you tilt the phone to move Sonic to the left or right. In D-pad mode you get a virtual directional pad on the screen. I prefer the D-pad mode, however the pad is a bit tiny, I often found my thumb slipping away from it. I know they don't want a huge virtual button, but maybe only display half the range? It works but for me I may need to get used to it.

This game feels, looks, and almost sounds just like it's previous brothers from the Sega Genesis. Despite the enhanced graphics and addition of the homing-attack the formula is pretty much unchanged. You race through the level a few times and at the end of the zone you fight a boss. Being an episodic game the full game will be spanned out. Episode 1 includes 4 main levels, special stages and bosses to fight. Episode 2 will continue with this of course. While 4 levels seems okay I was hoping for at least 5 for the first episode, especially for it's $9.99 price point.

The iPhone version is fun, maybe I'll try it on the iPad to see if the D-Pad is easier, but I am really anxious to see how the Playstation 3 version of this game feels with an actual controller. I can't wait to get home and take some time to enjoy the game, it looks like a lot of fun and I'll be excited to play it with an actual controller. Sega finally learned their painful lesson and has released a fun 2D Sonic game to the masses.

Pros:
- Classic Sonic gameplay and level design worth of the number 4
- Easy to pickup and play with an additional Level Select mode
- Emeralds and Super Sonic return
- No annoying "friends" from previous Sonic titles!

Cons:
- No retina displays support
- No Game Center support
- Touch controls could use a bit of work
- $9.99 USD is a bit steep for an iPhone game. Considering the HD version will be $15 or so when launched on consoles. It wouldn't have killed them to put it on sale for launch.

This is good news for Mac users who love to get their zombie killing thing on. I'll still be playing it on my PC but it's great to have the option out there. Of course however, when Valve says something will come out Tuesday, it usually means three weeks from now.

This is nothing but a good thing for the Mac. Maybe some more game developers will start making their games for the platform after seeing Steam gaining a lot of attention and sales. Maybe.

On September 9th 1999 Sega would launch it's last home console - the Sega Dreamcast. Call it a flop or a disappointment, but there were many games for the Dreamcast that made the console shine before it's early death. Sonic Adventure was Sonic's full launch into the 3D world despite the mixed bag that was Sonic 3D Blast. Power Stone was a fun fighting game that included power-ups and destructible objects. And Sega Bass Fishing made us all buy those silly fishing controllers so we could feel like we were actually reeling in a fish! (Sorta )

So if you ever had a console, played one, or even if you ditched it to buy the DVD-playing PlayStation 2 shortly after it's release, it's time to celebrate it's 11th Birthday.

Did you have a Dreamcast, if so what was your favorite game?

My brother Tom constantly begged for the Dreamcast as a gift. For my birthday I asked for one but I didn't get it of course. When Christmas finally rolled around my brother saved up and bought a Dreamcast. But he couldn't afford a game. We were stuck with demo discs and a crappy 3rd party controller for a long, long time.

Later we bought a used copy of Sonic Adventure on eBay for a steal and continued to eventually get a few more games and a decent 2nd controller. I remember not being able to find a Memory card (VMU) shortly after it's launch (Similar to the GameCube). Most of them you bought were Japanese models, they worked fine but, when it was in stand-alone mode it was all Japanese text. We always wanted the Broadband Adapter, which is still a rare item today. I remember using the dial-up service a few times. Later in it's life I remember playing Bomberman Online and Unreal Tournament online via 56k. UT was always laggy but Bomberman was fun, it seems we would always be battling from people from Brazil. So the keyboard accessory wasn't always as handy.

I still have my Dreamcast and I actually picked up the Black Sports Edition a bit back just in case mine dies. Along with a bunch of controllers from when GameStop was liquidating them. We still have a lot of games for it, those that have cracked or scratched have been replaced by CD-R copies, one "flaw" of the console which may have lead to it's demise. However it's great for homebrew apps and import titles. It may not have lasted long or have sold as well as Sega would have liked, but I still like my Dreamcast and have fond memories of playing it in front of my TV with my brothers 11 years ago.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/25/a...l-be-there-li/

So, let the rumors fly! What do you think will happen?

I think we're all pretty certain, since the even is music related and the free iPod offer ends the 7th, that Apple will introduce or announce some new iPod models. A safe bet is probably an iPod Touch with a FaceTime-capable camera. I'm hoping for a cheap new iTV or whatever they end up calling it. Whatever happens I'm sure there will be some new gadgets for us to look at.