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MacBook Pro Retina Display A Bit Fuzzy

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The latest version of the MacBook Pro from Apple features a retina display screen that crams 5.1 million pixels into a 15.4 inch display with a max resolution of 2880 x 1800, which looks absolutely stunning. This is the kind of technology that makes you wonder how you ever used any other display.MacBookRetina

However, once you get your new MacBook Pro home and unboxed and once you finish choosing your picture for your desktop as you drool over how much detail you can see in each image, you decide it’s time to move on and start browsing the inter webs. You open Safari and see the ever-so familiar Apple website appear and of course it looks amazing but as you begin to navigate the web, you start to see something a bit unsettling, you notice that things look a bit blurry.

Yes, it sucks but its true, much of the web just isn’t made for a retina display. Sometimes it can be bad enough to make your eyes water and that’s no fun at all, but what makes things worse is that as you begin to install and work with your favorite applications, you notice that they don’t look so good either.

There is a solution, albeit temporary but nonetheless, a solution. You can adjust your display settings by going to System Preferences->Display, then choosing “scaled” instead of ” Best For Retina Display”. Once you choose scaled, you can choose to work with larger text or more space in order to accommodate your needs. This does work well enough to get you by in most cases but it’s really only a temporary solution.

When you first run into this problem you might tend to look at this as an Apple problem but as you step back and look at the big picture here, it’s really more about the display it self being a bit ahead of everything else. Let’s not get too frustrated here, as most likely your apps will get an update to work correctly with the new display and sooner or later your favorite sites may follow, but by no means do I think that this puts the new MacBook at any disadvantage. Overall, the Retina display MacBook is designed with the future in mind as it moves away from optical drives, replaces the old hard disk with a new solid state drive, and adds in one of the clearest displays we’ve ever seen.

Windows XP Usage Starting to Drop

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Windows_7_Horizontal_Logo_Web

Ever since it’s release Windows XP has dominated the PC landscape and when Windows Vista came around, XP users wouldn’t budge. If you ask most XP users why they haven’t upgraded you’ll get a variety of answers but most will likely point toward XP’s solid track record as a stable well performing operating system that works on older and newer hardware with ease. It really is that simple, it works well, and it works well on most of the hardware out there.

Another point to take into consideration here is that most of the people who have tried to upgrade from XP did so while Windows Vista was around and this left a bad taste in their mouths. With what I would call one of Microsoft’s worst operating system releases, I can understand why you would return to your old friend XP, which even on it’s worst day was better than Vista.

However, with the web becoming more media rich, and with more and more people trying to edit videos and photos taken with their favorite mobile devices, the need for better hardware beckons us. Our 512mb of RAM and our old processors, (yes,people are still using these) just aren’t cutting it and PC users are going out and buying new hardware with Windows 7 pre-installed.  Once consumers get a chance to try Windows 7, most are surprised at how nice the operating system is and how well it works with your new hardware.  Windows 7 has been patched, re-patched and optimized over the years to a point to where it just works and that is exactly what XP users wanted the last time they tried to upgrade.

Let’s not forget forget that consumers are not the only important factor when considering operating systems, there are vendors too. Vendors now have more faith in moving on as well. Take Adobe for example, they have indicated that the next release of Photoshop will not support Windows XP. If we look at some statistics, Wikimedia indicates that 38.58% of OS usage belongs to Windows 7 while XP holds out around 21.75%. Windows Vista holds on to a slim 6.98%.

What turns out to be kind of strange and well, a bit of a problem for Microsoft, is that these users are just now starting to catch on to Windows 7 when Windows 8 is about to make it’s big debut and not just any debut, this is going to be a huge change for Microsoft. We will just have to wait and see what develops and I think it will be interesting to see if people can connect with Windows 8’s primarily touch-based interface.

Free My Apps!

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I was browsing the web and tinkering around with apps when I stumbled upon this little gem.

FreeMyAppsLogo

FreeMyApps.com is a site that allows you to try out free apps and in return you get some points. Each app you download needs to be ran for at least 30 seconds and each app will offer a differing amount of points for using it. Once you accumulate enough points you can then turn them in for gift cards. Sound to good to be true? Yeah, I though so myself until I recieved my first gift card of $25 for Amazon.com. Yep, it really is that simple and you can access FreeMyApps through your favorite mobile iOS device (iPhone,iPad, iPodTouch).

What’s nice about this site is that quite often I find I actually enjoy some of the apps I try out. Some apps that I really like I may not have ever found or thought of trying, but did because I wanted the points. So, this actually works out really well for both you and the software developer. In fact, if you are a developer you can work with FreeMyApps to get your app put on their site. Simply head here to add your app to the list.

Test driving apps isn’t the only way you can earn points. If you can get a friend to use FreeMyApps on their iOS device and try one app from the list of apps to download, you will get rewarded even more points.

The website is offering iTunes gift cards in $10,$15,$25,and $50 amounts along with Amazon gift cards in amounts of $1,$2,$5,$10,$15,and $25. You can also get a $4 Postagram Gift Card.

All you need to do to get started is visit FreeMyApps on your iOS device then install the device profile for FreeMyApps, then start downloading and using free apps to earn points.

Asteroid Gets Very Close To Earth

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Eros Asteroid
Eros Asteroid (NASA)

On September 13th a fairly large asteroid came within 1.8 million miles of Earth, that may seem quite far way but that’s only about 7.5 times the distance that the Moon is away from Earth. The asteroid is named 2012 QG42 and was only recently discovered on August 26, 2012. Classified as being a PHA or potentially hazardous asteroid, the asteroid itself is estimated to be about 625 to 1,400 feet long but posed a minimal threat to Earth as it flew by. However, it is predicted that the asteroid will be making another trip near our home planet in the distant future that we will have to keep a close eye on.

As recently as March of 2012 we had another asteroid fly by us that was even closer, it was approximately 40,000 miles away which is very close considering the Moon is about 239,000 miles away. That asteroid was about 200 feet wide and had it hit Earth, it would have released about as much energy as one atomic bomb. Obviously it’s extremely important to keep an eye on the large debris that is floating around our solar system and we need to continue to research ways to defend our selves against these giant rocks. NASA claims to know where about 90% of the large PHA category asteroids are in our solar system, but just like 2012 QG42 you never know when one will sneak up on us.

Near Earth Asteroid Chart

Near Earth Asteroid Chart (NASA)

The largest recorded impact in recent history  was the Tunguska event which occurred in Siberia, Russia around 7:14 am local time. The large 220 million-pound asteroid hurdled through Earth’s atmosphere before finally breaking up under tremendous forces and basically exploding causing a massive amount of energy to be released. The explosion was said to be about 1000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, which destroyed about 80 million trees in an area around 850 square miles.

Natives in the area near the impact described seeing light as bright as the sun and experiencing shock waves that knocked them off of their feet. Over the next few days after the impact the skies above Asia and Europe continued to glow as ice particles that were forced high up in the atmosphere reflected sunlight down on Earth from beyond the horizon.

Get Ready For The WiiU

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Nintendo will be releasing the Wii U on November 18th, 2012 and it looks pretty awesome. The Wii U will come with the all new WiiU game pad which has a 6.2″, 16:9 aspect ratio, LCD touch screen which has developers coming up with some pretty unique ways for you to interact with your favorite games. The handheld device also has a front facing camera and motion control. The new gamepad controller is a mini gaming powerhouse on it’s own that will allow Wii U owners to play their favorite games even when you can’t use your TV. With TVii you will be able to watch movies, TV shows and more right on your Wii U gamepad.

WiiU Controller

The Wii U console it self  is similar to the original Wii but with a more rounded look which comes in both black and white. Nintendo also has released a new Wii U Pro controller that looks similar to another well known controller on the market and should be useful when more precise controls are needed. Of course, the new WiiU just wouldn’t feel new unless it was capable of delivering HD graphics, which it does at 720p,1080i,and 1080p. What about your old Wii games? Well most all of your Wii games will work just fine with the new console, though I’m not sure how they will look with an HD output.

WiiUProControlWhite

 

The Wii U will be available in two versions, the Deluxe Set which will have 32GB of internal storage along with a Nintendo Land video game, Wii U Game pad Stand, Wii U Game pad Cradle, and Wii U console stand, Wii U Game pad with stylus and a Digital Promotion that will allow gamers to accumulate points for future downloads on the Nintendo eShop. The Basic Set will include 8GB of internal storage, Wii U Game pad with stylus, sensor bar, and power adapters and both versions will include an HDMI cable.

The Deluxe Set will be priced at $349.99

The Basic Set will be priced at $299.99

I personally am glad to see the return of Pikmin which looks absolutely amazing in HD on the new Wii Console. The new console will really help Nintendo match up with other gaming console features and not only that but I think in many ways, with the new gamepad, I think it should really stand out. The idea of bringing a mobile concept and merging it with the WiiU I think is really smart. The timing of the release feels right too and I think it should sell well in the U.S. Again, the console goes on sale 11-18-2012.

Want the full rundown of WiiU information? Head on over to Nintendo’s official page.