Google's Nexus 5

I would love to be able to recommend this device wholeheartedly, but I can't do that until Google sorts out the issues with the Nexus 5's camera. If the company can make software changes large enough to materially and noticeably improve the performance of its shooter — to make it competitive with other top-tier phones — then this becomes a different story. Even now, Google's working on fixing its issues, and someday we might see the Nexus 5's camera upgraded from problematic to usable, or even good. When that day comes, the Nexus 5 will be a killer package I'll happily recommend. But that's not today

If you're going to compete with the iPhone 5s, you're going to have to release a phone with a camera that can at least take pictures.

Still a solid release by Google with a great design. Has potential and the pricing is just right. Don't buy it for more than $349 or $399. Best Buy is pricing it at $100 over MSRP. Be careful.

via The Verge

T-Mobile's iPad Air Selling Out!

Already out of stock in one of San Diego's Apple's Stores (UTC), the iPad Air Wi-Fi+LTE running on T-Mobile is quickly becoming the choice of new iPad users due to their ability to download and access 200MB of data completely FREE! No overages either!!! Here's a screenshot of T-Mobile's pricing on their website for checkout. Once again, if you ask me, I'm grabbing the Space Gray 32GB Wi-Fi+LTE on T-Mobile. Also, in other news, if you only want the plain jane model iPad Air 16GB Wi-Fi, then make sure you get Apple and Best Buy or Staples to price match WalMart's Roll back pricing at $479!

X-Men: Days of Future Past Trailer!

So many movies are coming out but this one excites me! It already looks different than the comic book plot but I'm definitely interested in seeing the cinematic twists. Seeing Professor X is always a plus. Both Professors at that! Bishop makes an appearance too! So awesome! http://youtu.be/pK2zYHWDZKo

Virgin America Ups the Competition

Virgin America one upping the safety video category with this amazing and truly entertaining video directed by none other than Jon M. Chu http://youtu.be/DtyfiPIHsIg

Victory!

I'll admit that I was a fan of the show. It was entertaining often too short and if you didn't mind the slow plot at times, it was great. Plus, it was fun to watch with the guys. Gave us something to look forward to during downtimes and the easier days. To those that are fans, Entourage is hitting the big screen! It became official with director Doug Ellin tweeting today, "It's a go. love you all." We'll know more once it starts filming in January but we do know is that it's set six months after the series finale. As Johnny Drama would say it, "VICTORY!!!"

https://twitter.com/mrdougellin/statuses/394990818919849984

via Deadline

Which iPad Am I Buying?

Both the new iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina Display are set to debut three weeks apart with the iPad Air going on sale this Friday, November 1st. Available for pre-order online and available for "in-store pickup", if you want it same day with no lines, reserve it online and pick it up. If you ask me, I'm doing just that. If I didn't make it clear already, I'm grabbing the 32GB LTE, T-Mobile option, leaning towards 51% space gray. You can't beat 200MB free of data and they'll have various one time plans available too. Just incase you go over 200MB, they'll just cut it off and reset it the following month so no overages! During this afternoon's Apple earnings call, CEO Tim Cook mentioned that he believes the iPad mini with Retina Display is going to be hard to come by this Christmas / Holiday season primarily due to manufacturing constraints. So yes, I too will be pre-ordering a mini and make my decision on which one to keep after I've handled both new iPads. While we're at it, if you must know, I'm also opting for the 32GB LTE, T-Mobile option in space gray… maybe. Or maybe white. Darn it!

"In terms of the retina or the iPad mini with Retina Display, we'll start shipping later in November. Uh…i t's unclear whether we will have enough for the quarter or not. We know how many we will have but we really don't know the demand until we start shipping, so we'll see how that goes. I think we'll do fairly well with with iPad as i'd mentioned before. we felt like its gonna be a great holiday season." - Tim Cook

Helping me with which size to pick, here's Jon Gruber's take on the iPad Air.

Calling the new full-size model the iPad Air says it all. In one year, the iPad Air has dropped 30 percent of its weight, narrowed considerably, and doubled in performance. A weight drop like that is significant for any product, but especially so for a device that is primarily used while being held in your hands. It’s startling when first you hold one.

I’m an iPad Mini convert. After just a few weeks last year, my Mini became my one and only iPad. My iPad usage is mostly for reading, and not much for typing. The smaller size and lighter weight just fit my usage better. I went into this year’s event assuming I’d walk out wanting to buy the new Mini. But the new Air is so much lighter, and thus so much more amenable to holding it in just one hand, that I walked out of the event completely unsure which one I want. In fact, the new Air (469 grams) is closer in weight to the new Mini (331 grams) than it is to the old iPad 3/4 (650 grams) that it replaces. (Those weights are all for the Wi-Fi-only models.)

The Verge posted their hands-on glimpse of the iPad Air last Tuesday during the Apple Event. In case you missed it:

http://youtu.be/6XunU-iXwyc

I'm excited, none the less, to once again have a full-sized iPad so that I can enjoy my comics, magazines and movies on my commute or while I sit in the pilot lounge during prolonged stays.

For further reading, iMore's Rene Ritchie offers his advice on which color to get and which model to get. I stand by it and agree with him. It didn't make it necessarily easier for me but I'm sure that you might be able to take something away.

Also if you want to read an edited transcript of Apple CEO Tim Cook Macworld has you covered. He also goes on record saying, "I think it’s going to be an iPad Christmas." If you ask me, exciting times ahead for Apple especially with the mention of new product categories.

I'll leave you with Apple's awesome pencil commercial. Take a peak. What do you think? Which one are you going to buy?

http://youtu.be/o9gLqh8tmPA

Four Player Co-op CoD: Ghosts Extinction

Four player co-op versus a bunch of aliens?!?! Yea, another reason for Call of Duty: Ghosts. Although it comes out on November 5, looks like I won't be playing till the PS4 version comes out a couple of weeks later. I'll see you online then! http://youtu.be/eNm5CmnYBzU

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Trailer!

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire just dropped its latest cinematic trailer: take a peep! What do you guys think? It's been a while since I read the book. Maybe I'll have to re-read it again. http://youtu.be/zoKj7TdJk98

Mavericks May Be Free but Incompatibility Comes at a Price

I've spent more than $300 on various aviation logbook programs since the start of my career. It's actually quite ridiculous but when I started an electronic logbook, I was on a Windows PC coupled with my trusty Palm Treo 650. I had my Powerbook Titanium G4 as well, but there was no mobile solution so I looked the other way. Fast forward a few years later when I converted to the better program called LogTen Pro. Since then, I've become a HUGE fan of their creator Coradine Aviation Systems. I love great software and theirs has always been top-notch. It's always been far more superior and ahead of all the other logbook programs and when it comes down to it, it really is a polished Apple-like program. It's one of those programs that I'd like to think would make people switch over to a Mac because of the refinements within. I've even beta tested for Coradine when their mobile products were just coming out back when I had the iPhone 3G and iPhone 4.

When Apple released Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks last Tuesday as a free upgrade, I happen to be out on day three of a four day trip. The plan was to come home the next day, backup my MacBook Air and upgrade as soon as I set foot in my house. Good thing I didn't do it sooner because if I had, I would have had to pay, yet again, $99 to upgrade to version 6 which, by the way, is just over two years old.

There have been periods where discounts were given to upgrade to version 6 but I never felt compelled to continue the 18 month subscription. In this case, I would have been forced to upgrade because there is no fix in the near future nor will there ever be. If I went the high road and didn't pay, I would have been stuck with an awesome operating system and broke logbook. This is not the time either to have a broken logbook with airline applications and captain upgrade. Bad timing all together.

Is it bad programing that an older piece of software can't be made compatible with a new operating system? I'd like to think not, but what is it really? Coradine was very vague in providing details about which APIs or what it was that had changed to make my version of LogTen Pro 5 incompatible. Taken right from their Mavericks Release Page:

What changed?

Changes in OS X Mavericks APIs required us to rewrite a number of core functions within our apps. LogTen Pro 6.0.14 will be a free update!

It's always a free update within version numbers. Nothing new there. I'm glad they had a fix out immediately but now this is where I come in.

What about LogTen Pro 5?

Unfortunately, because of the changes in OS X Mavericks, LogTen Pro 5 cannot be made compatible. Much has changed since OS X Lion (10.7), which was the current Mac OS when LogTen Pro 5 development was completed in 2011. LogTen Pro 5 is supported on OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) and earlier.

What I'm trying to say is that even though Apple was kind enough to provide a huge upgrade to their operating system for free, it does come at a price after all. Unfortunately, I will not be upgrading any time soon to OS X 10.9 Mavericks until Coradine comes out with LogTen Pro 7 or maybe I'll just end up stuck. It's actually quite maddening really.

update: There have been others that were not as fortunate to hold off on upgrading to Mavericks and this is Coradine's response.

Just found out that LogTenPro 5 is not supported by OS Mavericks. Just updated too, now it doesn’t work. Thanks for the heads up @coradine

— Ian Taggart (@TaggartIan) October 23, 2013

@TaggartIan we've had knowledge base articles, FB and twitter tweets, blogs and newsletters explaining that mavericks doesn't work w/ LTP5

— Coradine Aviation (@coradine) October 23, 2013

@coradine did not explicitly mention it. Have received no newsletters. Must be my fault then. Nice customer service response.

— Ian Taggart (@TaggartIan) October 23, 2013

And here's a not so nice, in what I read sarcastic, response. Poor form Coradine.

@TaggartIan if the FAA allowed us to issue NOTAMs on our software we would have done that too. Just saying we tried everything we could

— Coradine Aviation (@coradine) October 23, 2013

And here's yet another conversation:

@coradine you may think to offer a discount to upgrade to LTP 6...we are hand tied too. I'm not gonna miss Mavericks because of LTP

— Christian Staiger (@staigernav) October 22, 2013

10 Seconds of Fame for Theodolite Creator Craig Hunter

A beautiful app gets it's 10 seconds of fame during Apple's Keynote this past October 22nd. You can read Craig Hunter's reaction to the awesomeness here. If you're an architect or engineer, this app is for you!

I imagine every developer sees these videos and hopes their app shows up; I know I always have. But in this case, something felt different. In addition to the usual feel-good stuff Apple always shows, they were demonstrating serious uses of the iPad, in settings ranging from medical to industrial, to hard-core sports and the outdoors. A couple minutes into the video, I was shocked to see my signature app, Theodolite HD, being used atop the Great Wall of China as an iPad user surveys the mountain scenery and architecture around him. Wow!

Theodolite (iPhone, iPod touch) and Theodolite HD (iPad, iPad mini) are augmented reality navigation apps that overlay information about position, altitude, bearing, inclination, range, and other geographical data on the device's live camera image, creating a sophisticated viewfinder (the name "theodolite" comes from a centuries-old surveying instrument that has become a "go-to" device for all types of land, sea, air, and space measurements; Lewis and Clark famously took one along while exploring the American West).

Tweetbot 3.0: Still My Favorite Twitter Client

If you're up to date with iOS 7 and a huge twitter user, once again, Tapbots comes through with a gorgeous twitter client in Tweetbot 3.0. Download it now while it's on sale for $2.99! I'm just glad twitter hasn't bought them yet and ripped into its soul! =) MacStories Federico Viticci on Tweetbot 3.0:

And here’s where Tapbots’ new skills are revealed: when you tap, a tweet turns dark gray and the drawer folds down from “behind” the tweet and into the timeline with a delightful 3D transition that I still can’t stop looking at.

For me, Tweetbot’s feature set is still unparallaled and the additions that have been brought to version 3.0 make the app even faster and more reliable when it comes to loading timeline gaps, opening web views, or using the URL scheme. Tweetbot 3 is the most powerful Twitter client I have on my iPhone.

Shawn Blanc has a beautiful video review too. Check it out! Here's his review.

Tweetbot 3 for iPhone from Tapbots on Vimeo.

The New MacBook Pro with Retina Display

Bottom line: I can't wait to buy this beast of a computer. With reviews trickling in, the best of the best it here. If you ask me, I'm all for the MacBook Pro w/ Retina Display 15" with maxed out CPU (+ $200) that also includes the dedicated graphics card. So yes, $2799 total. Then there's Apple Care Plus too. It's getting expensive!

The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is probably the best all-around laptop on the market. It checks every box, from “portable enough” to “insanely powerful” to “beautiful trackpad” to “reasonably priced for its market.” At $1,999 it’s a mile from cheap, but compared to other laptops with its capability that price tag isn’t so bad. This is the most versatile laptop I’ve used, one of only a couple that’s at home in any situation, simple or complex, personal or professional. Rated: 9.1

via The Verge

Best Halloween Costume Ever

This is just simply beautiful and well done. Bravo to the dad for pulling this LED suit off. When it comes to safety and being seen at night, this wins it outright! Best Halloween costume ever! http://youtu.be/GkBDRUO8hAo

Quick preview of the LED light suit I made for my daughter. She is 22 months old and loves wearing the suit. I'll be uploading a video of her in different locations running around and doing her usual funny stuff.

When you have Nest CEO and ex Apple Engineer Tony Fadell tweet about it, you know you've done it right!

https://twitter.com/tfadell/status/393203199240196096

via Royce Hutain/Visual Burrito

note: The creator will be uploading more videos displaying the awesomeness in the next few weeks so stay tuned!