The Core i7 iMac is going for just $1849, a savings of $350, while the Core i5 iMac is going for $1699, a savings of $300.  Keep in mind these are both refurbished machines but they do carry the full Apple warranty as if they were purchased brand new.  

Considering just how many of the 27 inch iMacs had video problems I figured that the quad-core machines would start to show up soon in the refurb section of their website, I just wanted to see what the discounts would be.  Now that I know, I can be patient and wait for the right moment to make a purchase of one of these babies!  I figure that between now and the window of opportunity I forecast in my budget around the May/June time frame there should be more available.  For some savings like that I'll wait until I have the right combination of saved cash and the model I want showing up there.

I got stuck downtown waiting for my bus which had broken down so I decided to take some night shots with the new camera.  Here's the link.

Last week I finally got my third replacement drive from Western Digital and today I finally got around to opening up the box it came in and found something that just burned up the last little shred of good will that WD may have had with me.

They shipped me a refurbished hard drive!

If it's not bad enough that the first drive failed in less than three months and I had to pay to ship the defective drive back to Western Digital.  Then I had the replacement drive fail in less than four months and AGAIN had to pay to ship that defective drive back to them.  Now I get my third drive and they ship me one that failed on someone else!  This is very much a WTF moment!

There are some things I do not mind buying refurbished, but I buy it knowing it's been refurbished.  In this case I paid for a NEW hard drive.  Not a retread from someone else!  I NEVER buy refurbed hard drives for a very good reason.  I use hard drives to store data, pictures, videos, music, and what not.  This means I want something that is reliable, hence not purchasing refurbished hard drives.  And frankly, based on my experiences with Western Digital drives recently getting a refurbed drive is not instilling a whole lot of confidence in me right now.

I've ordered an external hard drive enclosure that is due to arrive this week and my plan was to install this replacement drive into that as I'm tired of having to open up my computer case to yank out defective drives.  At this point I do not even know if I'll bother with this one.  I may call Western Digital tomorrow and let them know just how unhappy I am with them at the moment.  I'm already planning to research Lemon Laws here in North Carolina to see if I can seek any sort of relief on that front.

What really frustrates me about this whole deal is that up until last year when I started having problems with this model drive I was a fan and frequent buyer of Western Digital products.  At this point I cannot imagine buying from them ever again.

Here's a link to most of the pictures I took today with my new Sony H-20 digital camera.  For many of the shots I left the camera in "Intelligent Scene" mode while switching to complete manual to compose a few of them.  The picture above is probably my favorite out of all the pictures I took today.  I also shot a one minute video at 720p but I've yet to look at it, much less upload it.  Look for that later on.

I am really liking this new camera!

Oh, be sure to let me know what you think of the pictures!!!

I'm heading to downtown Raleigh in a few minutes to do some picture taking with the new camera for a few hours!

Of course you can expect the mega upload when I get home.

Over the past few years Apple, and probably Steve Jobs, have taken a more "strident" tone in the competitive tech space that seems counter to the image that the company was founded upon.  I know that it has started to turn me off to the company and their products.  Based on a reading of various tech news and blog sites I'm not the only feeling this way.  Something that Apple needs to be worried about is the world of public perception.

For over a decade Apple enjoyed an almost mythical fan base that practically worshiped their products.  For a long time I counted myself as an Apple "Fanboy" for the simple reason they were innovative and offered a better computing experience compared to that from Microsoft.  Their hardware was top notch and Mac OS X was the best personal computing platform since it came out in 2000 making the premium one paid for Apple hardware worth it.  Further many people rooted for Apple as they took on the Microsoft giant!  Always hovering in the single digit PC user base they were the classic underdog, and we Americans always love the underdog.

Over the last ten years though some things started to change.

When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPod in October 2001 it singled a change in Apple that would turn out to be bigger than the introduction of the iMac in 1998.  Traditionally a computer and OS company Apple was entering into the consumer electronic space in a game changing way.  Once the iTunes music store launched with its 99 cent music downloads they began to cement their position as THE go to place for digital music downloads.  Everyone can probably agree that it took everyone else the better part of ten years to offer compelling and competitive products.  The introduction of the iPhone in 2007 was yet another iconic launch into the consumer electronic space quickly coming to dominate the nascent smartphone space with everyone else looking to bring to market the "iPhone Killer".

Along the way Apple seems to have lost itself in the process.  Once the company that railed against such large monolithic entities, with Microsoft being the main culprit, they now find themselves in a reverse role being the first to drag out the lawyers.  This HTC lawsuit is just the latest, and most visible, example of this new mentality.

Here's the problem for Apple.

Unlike in the past there are now compelling products from other companies that can fill the space that Apple currently enjoys.  The recently launched Windows 7 PC operating system is the best thing to come out of Redmond, Washington.  Ever.  This OS is probably the most stable, feature filled OS out there next to Mac OS X.  It's not perfect but it does get the job done.  Another innovation from Microsoft is their line of Zune portable media players and the Zune Marketplace.  Sure, it took three generations for Microsoft to "get it right" but there is no doubt that at this point the Zune has become a compelling product/ecosystem, especially the $14.95 "all you can listen to" subscription service that also gives you three free DRM free tracks per month.  The recently announced Windows Phone 7 that completely revamps the Windows Mobile nightmare of past also includes Zune capabilities.  Indeed, Microsoft has stated that every single Windows Phone 7 device will also be a Zune device.  That right there is a pretty darn compelling lure!

Throw in the Android phone operating system from Google and how they are continuing to find ways to innovate this platform and we have what many consider to be the main threat to iPhone dominance over the next five years.  Apple is putting the iPhone OS into the iPad for tablet computing.  Well, Android has been showing up in tablet computers for two years now and their are some pretty compelling products coming down the pipeline. 

Will it work for Apple?  Probably not.  Google also sits on a nice, tidy little cash war chest and has already stated that they are standing behind their hardware partners in this coming fight.  And Google has much deeper pockets than Apple for something like this.  Instead of Apple versus Microsoft it looks to be Apple versus Google through their proxies.  And lets not forget Microsoft in all this.  This is a company that is undergoing a very significant change in the post Bill Gates era in that they are developing some nice products in a timely fashion and no longer seem to be the slow behemoth of past.  Apple and Microsoft seem to be both out to bring Google down a few pegs and if the two of them working together doesn't make your hair stand on end I don't know what would in the tech sector.  No doubt about it, this is a big mess waiting to unfold over the next couple of years.

My guess is that the HTC lawsuit is more designed about publicity AND scaring other device manufacturers in to second guessing their support of Android and that makes it a sad day for Apple and fans of the company.

Today I took the camera to work with me to do some test shots.  Basically I left the camera in "Intelligent Scene" mode where it decides which settings to used based on the scene being shot.  The idea is to get a good base line on what the camera can do on its own before I start digging into the manual settings.

Here's a link to all the test shots from today.

Okay, this is the first week of March and in North Carolina we're not supposed to be dealing with snow any more!!!  I don't know about anyone else from the area but I for one am getting pretty darned tired of winter weather!

This afternoon I went out in the backyard to do some more test shots with my new digital camera before the clouds rolled in.  Basically I was wanting to test various settings and give the zoom lens a test out.  Here's the link to the uploaded pics.  Overall I am very impressed with this camera!  This is the first Sony camera I have ever owned and I based my purchase decision on a combination of price point, customer reviews, photos I viewed via the camera finder on Flickr, and features.  I am one happy camper with this thing!

Here are a couple of more test shots...

And this one is very impressive as it's a picture of a birds nest near the top of a rather tall tree taken using max zoom.

I went out and did some test shots with the Sony Cybershot DSC-H20 that I got Saturday.  Yesterday morning I went out and took a walk just before sun up so I could get a few different lighting scenarios to get a handle on how the camera works and I'm fairly happy with the results.  Granted, I have only begun to scratch the surface of all the many setting options that the camera has but so far, so good.  Over the next week or so I'll keep "playing" with the camera and by the weekend my plan is to try out the 720p video recording.  Here's a link to the photos I took yesterday morning.  And here is another link to a few test shots I took of Boo once the sun was up.