MACIFIED.

I thought it would be a sacrilege to the MAC CULT if I didn't show appreciation of such a wondrous moment in my life., so here I am, blogging (mostly still FLAILING) over my new toy.

And as with most great stories, I'm going to FLASHBACK.

.HSALF

My poor (and stupid) HP swivel notebook imploded around 3 months or so ago. Since then, up until last Friday, I was having the laptop-less nightmare every single night. Worst, I woke up and saw my self in the same nightmare-ish reality every single day. Of course, I wanted to have it fixed, if possible, but the cost of having it done would basically equal to a similar-spec'd lappy so I decided to wait.

And that was the most difficult part.

WAITING.

Well, the wait was outrageously longer than this part of my story, but I wouldn't want to use up all the space in this post, do I? So let me fast forward.

After weeks and months of convincing my Dad he should get a Macbook (so I could have his 3gig ram, 500gig hd lappy), he finally set a date to give it a chance. WEDNESDAY, he said. We would be going to PowerHub to check the macbooks out.

Wednesday came, BUT we never went there. I ranted, naturally. I FLIPPIN' NEEDED A LAPTOP already! Buy a new one so I can have yours and I can get this agony over with!!!!!, I was furiosly thinking to myself. WHY AM I NOT THIS WORLD'S RICHEST UHMM ... TEACHER????? GEEEEEZZZZZ.

Thursday afternoon, he sent me an sms saying, Let's go to Chimes (where PowerHub is) at 5pm. I was caught in between UHM OKAY and OKAYYYYY!!!!!! but I didn't want to keep my hopes high, just in case. True enough, something came up and we weren't able to go. Good thing he moved the PowerHub visit to Friday.

Friday, at last. Today's the day, yes.

ticktockticktock...

My half-day class couldn't take any longer! I was so anxious, happy, nervous... I can't even explain how I was feeling, and WHY I felt that way. You're not getting a new laptop, it's the hand-me-down you're getting, why on earth are you all giddy???, I asked myself. So I tried to calm down as we finally left for the store.

When we got there, It felt all sorts of awkward. We were heading towards a store filled with the most GOSHDANGDROOLWORHTY gadgets ever made on this earth, and I needed to convince him to get one so I could have his, when at the back of my mind I was crying AHHHHHHHHH I WANT THAT ONE TOOOOOOO OMHECKKKKK WHY ARE THEY SO PRETTY STOP STARING AT ME YOU BRIGHT GLOWY THINGGGGGSS I HATE YOUR PRETTY ALUMINUM CASES AND BRILLIANTLY FLASHING APPLE DRAWINGS! AND YOUR SMOOTH FLOWY ICONS MOVING LIKE SUGAR ARE INSANELY CAPTIVATING, I WANT THAT AHHHHH!!!!

So, which is it?, My Dad's voice woke me up from the trance. Oh! This one, I told him, pointing to the 13-inch Macbook Pro. The tech guy told him about the specs, and I demonstrated moving the cursor about the screen AND I WANTED TO ROLL MY EYES AT HOW RIDICULOUSLY HANDSOME THE MACBOOK PRO WAS OMHECK ARGGH. I couldn't even remember what I was telling him at that point. I was in my own MAC-ADORING moment, LOST IN THE SEEMINGLY SWOOSHING MOTION OF ITS ICONS. GAHHH.

OKAY, THAT ONE. He said.

WOW, HE'S GETTING A MACBOOK. YES.

Wait, I told my Dad. You're getting a macbook pro? You didn't even touch it.

THEN THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENED.

No, its YOURS, he told me.

*JAWDROP*

*TONGUE-TIED*

*DEAD*

Well, not really, but OMGGG I JUMPED AND HUGGED MY DAD AND SQUEEEEEEEEE'D LIKE HECK, all the people at PowerHub were laughing at me. I DIDN'T CARE! HOLYMOTHEROFBATMAN A MACBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK.

Crazy moment.

Closing this first blogpost from my pretty MBP, I'm still in awe. This toy is such a sight to behold. It could take a little getting used to, but with a few days of adjusting, I couldn't explain anymore how much I FREAKING LOVE THIS THING. GAH. AND MY DAD.

Omheck, indeed.

Tech Buzz: ayePhone vs nayePhone

I was all giddy to receive this email from Apple. It's been, what, like just a month or so ago when I was more than determined to buy the 1st generation iPhone, only to be stopped by my psychic boo. I'm still amazed at how he predicted Apple was going to release a new version at this stage of the year. You should be the marketing manager for Apple, Robbi!

And now that my wishful thinking has been translated into reality, Apple releasing a newer version of the iPhone, that is, I'm actually going to list a few reasons on why I should keep on waiting for a better - per Robbi's calculations - release. Although this may sound like sourgrapes, it's not.

Reasons Why Kricket Shouldn't Shell Out for iPhone 2, Just Yet.

No Philippine release until September, 2008: I've been to an Apple-licensed distributor store at the mall today, and the lady matter-of factly told me this not-so dream phone of mine wouldn't see Philippine grounds til Fall, not that we have that season here. I don't want to risk having it shipped. Precious glass surface.

2 megapixel camera: Uhh..my 2 phones as of now are above 3 megapixel, so I don't quite understand how Apple tolerates a camera resolution that was popular when I was in my freshman year of law, or senior year of college for that matter. I have a feeling their engineers have forgotten that camera phone resolution is supposed to, at least, go with the year ending. 2007 had phones released with 5, 6 and 7mp. It's 2008, do the math. Oh, and did i mention no self-portrait mirror nor flash?

Multimedia Drought/Insufficiency: 3G, MMS, TV? Yes, i know the phone actually has 3G but video-conferencing being the best feature that comes with this technology, they should have seriously considered adding a forward-faced camera, am i correct? 3G without video-conferencing just doesn't make sense. I feel all nostalgic, trying to look back at my college days, with a Nokia 6630 (2.5G - for whatever reason they left out .5) when I actually had to face the mirror to fully appreciate a video call with my dad. I forgive Nokia knowing that was years ago. Back then, I also remember my local service provider advertising their latest Live TV service, at 30P/day which leaves me wondering why Apple couldn't support such feature at this time of the century? Then I remembered, Itunes! Yes. I'd have to blog separately about that. Then again, the inability to send/receive MMS. Okay, so maybe you can send multimedia thru email, but it would be a pity not to be able to open a mms message from other phones, considering you're supposed to have the coolest phone on earth.

Price: Heh, half the price my arse. Check the tiny speck on the picture, yes that one I pointed with a lamely-drawn arrow (What? you reckon i'd actually photoshop it?). It's 199$ for a two-year contract. I need to get my facts straight, but it's 5am here, so I'd just say I am shocked to learn it's actually still 600$ outside the plan. Locally, Globe Telecom is said to be the official carrier. I wonder how much they will offer a prepaid package for? I asked them about 2 weeks ago, and all the lady could say was "Info will be out by late September but it surely will be available for prepaid users". Apparently, they're still conducting trainings for those who will be assigned to the iphone department. I just stood there with an "oh, okay" face even though my brain was screaming "Hear this, i'll email you a video tutorial and FAQ page from the internet on how to use an iphone, heck i'll even gladly write one for you cause as far as i know, even my 5-year old sister knows how to surf the web, much less figure out how phones work so just give me that darn info right now, cause I need to save up, lady!". P9,000 won't be to too big of an amount to save, but it's getting past Globe's hypocritical and oozing with superiority complex plan-approving team that I'm worried about.

Memory/Expansion: What "advanced" phone doesn't have MMC/SD/MS etc slots? It's insane. Not as half as crazy as Apple saying there won't be a 32gig release though. Of course there won't be, for now. Not until the Holiday bells start jingling and the 8/16gig ones are out of stock, that is. I need to find a good eye-rolling icon.

What's the verdict, then? Naye. I'll tarry. And hope that Apple won't give me another set of reasons to "just wait for iPhone 3" by then. It would go on forever. But who knows, when that pretty glass surface glistens before my eyes come September, i'll be salivating and rendering this post moot and academic.

Tech Buzz: All Hail Firefox 3

The Mighty Red, Yellow and Blue

The Internet World treats Mozilla Firefox as if it were the Second Coming of Internet Browsers. That, of course, leaves me guessing that majority of the webbing world is now saved and glorified, with the latest release from the Moz team, Firefox 3. It is set to break a world record, and be the devoted follower that you are by getting yours and being a part of the Guinness World Record Effort. After doing your duties as a devotee, be sure to flaunt it, as soon as you get your nifty badge (just like the one I so proudly wear!).

This wonderful news, has me all excited and eager to experience the 15,000 new improvements the team has added. I am only in my blissful first 5 minutes of appreciating Firefox 3, and is sure to report back on the awesomeness of this all. One thing's for sure, this latest release will make Internet Explorer look like a puny, sucky, lousy and worthless browser. More than it already is, to be exact. All Hail Firefox 3!

Tech Buzz: iPhone Deux?

Wishful Thinking, Much?

The dilemma of getting an iPhone or an iPod Touch has been driving me insane for the past few weeks. Robbi has been pushing me to get the iPod Classic, or better yet just wait for the next iPhone release.

Lo and behold, I stumble across "leaked" images of the iPhone 2 at Crunchgear. Reportedly now with 3G, front-facing camera + iChat, a slimmer body, and more color/s (red). And that Apple would release it soon? (Wow, now i know how giddy gossip sites *cough*tmz*cough* feel about "reporting [slash]made-up[/slash] news" even before it happened! It's exciting!) Boo, you're psychic! Think what mess I would've been had I bought out of impulse?

Anyway, there have been a bunch of fake "iPhone 2" images surfacing lately, and I am powerless to say this isn't so or otherwise. But you be the judge. Besides, with all the fangirling experience, speculating has always been fun!

Oh well. Yet another reason to save up. I can't wait til the holidays! And yes, I am officially and shamelessly retracting my "Who needs an iPod/Phone when there's the PSP" statement (See PSP Gushing).

Go Apple!