Blurts

Cindy purchased one of the new iPads and I am interested in the option that is available for using the device as a mobile wifi. I have a mifi now that costs us $50 a month. Man, the cost for the hardware really is not the main issue when you begin to look at the amount of you pay for a data plan.

Here are some price quotes provided by GigaOm. I see the speed advantage as really only relevant to video and what is the point of the speed at these costs. I still can’t see the educational value in the 3G/4G/LTE devices. Who besides old guys like me can afford monthly fees at this level – certainly not the kids who might put an iPad to an educational use. Consider what it might cost to ask that a middle school student watch Kahn Academy videos at home on an iPad.

This Slashdot post claims the tablet reading experience is inferior. The logic is kind of strange – a true tablet (not the old Kindle) offers alternatives and we are too easily distracted to concentrate on the book. The limitations of human nature back to haunt us again.

NY Times has an interesting report on ISP throttling of your web access. “In the United States, throttling was detected in 23 percent of tests on telecom and cable-television broadband networks …”

I have a lot of music. I cannot stop buying it now that it is as easy as pushing a button and you do not have to hand anyone money or your credit card. My wife says that the bills come to her – hmm.

Anyway, music and photos are starting to fill up the hard drive on my all in one Mac (iMac). I have wanted to move my music to a different drive. My office machine is the old style machine that allows you to install more drives. Moving music to this location made sense, but I could not figure out for sure how to do it. I kind of knew, but the uncertainty of playing with thousands of dollars of stuff I might lose was a bit of a concern. I thought iCloud might provide a safety net, but I was not sure.

Anyway, this MacWorld article and this article provides instructions. Now, am I brave enough?