Over the next couple weeks I’ll be sharing my favorite things from 2010. These items weren’t necessarily new in 2010 but they were either new to me, extra awesome this year, or on my own holiday shopping list or wish list. The lists will be grouped by different personality traits I would use to describe myself so that you can use them as holiday gift inspiration as well.
These are a few of my favorite Apple things from this past year:
27″ Core i7 iMac
After I switched back to a desktop from a laptop, I had a lot more hard drive space, computing power, and USB ports so peripherals made a lot more sense again. This year I stocked up on some new games and accessories.
- The Sims 3: World Adventures Expansion
- The Sims 3: Ambitions
- World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
- Fujitsu ScanSnap Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Scanner for the Macintosh
- USB Extension Cable
iPhone 4
After a few weeks of hassle from AT&T, I did get my iPhone 4. I outfitted it with:
- Agent18 Flowervest
- Powersupport Crystal Film Set for iPhone 4
- Belkin Mini Surge Protector/Dual USB Charger
- Car Charger for Apple iPhone
iPad
I didn’t get an iPad this year (yet – here’s crossing my fingers for Christmas) but I do plan on getting myself one when the iPad 2 rolls around in Spring 2011. When it get’s here I plan to outfit it with:
Apps
Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links.
I’m on a cycle of upgrading to a new computer every 3 years. Once I’m sure I’m satisfied with the new one, I sell the old one on eBay.
I got my current MacBook Pro in fall 2007 so it’s about that time again. I’ve decided to switch back to an iMac (I had a 17″ G5 iMac as my computer before the MacBook Pro) for a couple reasons.
- I want (I’d call it need but I know it’s really a want) a gigantic hard drive. In the iMac I can get a 2tb hard drive which is 4 times as big as I can possibly get in a laptop.
- I complain whenever I take my laptop anywhere with me because it’s heavy and I hate lugging it around so if I’m going to leave it at home all the time anyway, I can get massively superior tech specs at a cheaper price.
The beautiful 27″ Quad Core i7 iMacs I’ve been anticipating were released today and since I’ve been plotting for several months now to get one, I went right ahead and ordered it. For options in addition to the i7 processor, I got the wired keyboard with numeric key pad, iWork, 2tb hard drive, and the new Magic Trackpad to tinker around with.
And before completing my order, I made sure to click through eBates which offers 1% cash back on purchases from apple.com so I’ll get over $20 cash back on this order I’d be placing anyway.
Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links.
I was popping a few new contacts into my Mac Address Book and while doing so I discovered a few new handy features that I hadn’t used before.
Synchronize with Google
Click on Address Book in your top menu bar then Preferences then go to the Accounts tab and check the box that says “Synchronize with Google”. Enter your Gmail account information and all the information from your Mac Address Book is automatically imported (and synchronized so it’s always up to date) to your Gmail contacts list. Since I do all of my emailing in Gmail, everyone’s email address is now ready to go.
I was a little worried this might make a giant mess of my Address Book when it imported my Gmail contacts back but it wasn’t too bad. I did have to do a little clean up but Look for Duplicates and Merge Selected Cards options in the Card menu made that quick and easy.
Smart Groups
The contacts I was entering into Address Book on this go were all people I met at a recent event. In the notes section, I typed the name of the event and the year so that later when I wonder where I met them I have a reminder. Now, I could drag and drop them each into a manual group but since I already had the note in place a smart group was quicker and easier. Go to File > New Smart Group and select your criteria like you would when setting up a Smart Playlist in iTunes and you’ve got a quick and easy group.
Apple could still make a lot of improvements to Smart Groups. Since my iPhone is my only phone, it tracks all of my calls. I’d love for that data to be imported back to Address Book so I could create Smart Groups based on the statistics of who I call the most, talk with the longest, or when I last called them. By layering Groups and Smart Groups you could narrow down, for example, relatives you haven’t talked to in at least 3 months and then you’d easily be able to see a list of who you needed to call and catch up with. The options could also be a little smarter: rather than what their city or zip is or is not, I’d like to be able to make a “local” group of all my contacts within a certain distance of my home.
Shared in Works for me Wednesday.
While discussing our computer uses the other day, my brother said, “You can learn a lot about somebody by looking at what’s in their dock.”
Let’s take a look at mine:
My interests span media, the internet, graphic design, and gaming (strictly when those games are well designed with the Mac in mind) and that is clearly reflected in my dock.
I’m currently running Snow Leopard and I make good use of several of the programs that come on all Macs:
- iTunes
- iCal
- Address Book
- iChat
- Text Edit
- iPhoto
I also frequently use some free software including:
- Firefox
- TweetDeck
- Amazon MP3 Downloader
My software picks in terms of what I needed to buy to are:
- Microsoft Office
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Illustrator (I’m still using Adobe CS2 since that’s what I bought with the educational discount while in college and haven’t needed to upgrade badly enough to pay full price yet)
- World of Warcraft (geeky as it is, this is the best designed game for Mac)
- Spore
- The Sims 3
- Turbo Tax (this doesn’t actually make it into the dock since I only need it for a few days each tax season but I buy it every year)
So tell me, what’s in your dock?
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