Today's Apple Event

No new Macs. No new Google integration. No happy Mr. MacGoog.

Google Chrome is on the way

{Today's Update - September 2, 2008 -- Mac users, and their kissing cousin Linux users, will have to wait. Only the Windows version was released today}

Mr. MacGoog was very curious when he came upon the following blog post on this Labor Day 2008:

Official Google Blog: A fresh take on the browser

Seems Google has a new browser headed our way as early as tomorrow. The new browser is called Chrome and is based on the same WebKit engine that powers Apple's Safari browser. The new browser is being billed as the first browser to be programmed from scratch taking into account new web based apps. It will also include Google Gears and take advantage of multiple processing. Be sure to read the Google Created Comic (yep...you read that correctly...comic) to get the full tech low-down.

Now the real question is, "will there be a Mac version out of the gate?" Mr. MacGoog guesses, YES. Look for this new browser sometime tomorrow at http://www.google.com/chrome.

Top 10 conspiracy theories for the recent fire at Apple's Cupertino headquarters

Mr. MacGoog was a bit loopy today and came up with these 10 theories. Some of them will require a bit of thought and possibly research to understand. They say if you have to explain a joke, it doesn't work. That's be the case here!

10. Someone tried to fire up an old Lisa using an Apple II floppy disk.

9. Climate-conscious consumers torch Apple for their low Climate Counts Company Scorecard rating, ironically causing further harm to the environment.

8. Google Android developers seize the opportunity to further damage Apple's iPhone reputation after the iPhone 2.0 launch.

7. iPhone 2.0 users, tired of iPhone crashes, decide to show Steve what it feels like to reboot after a phone call.

6. Vegans discovered that Steve uses plastic to manufacture products.

5. Newton extortionists riot and demand new Newton...or else! Steve refuses.

4. Mac Cube in basement, running the A/UX Operating System for the past 7 years, overheats, causes fire and melts down the remaining stock of Mac hockey puck mice. 20th Anniversary Mac brought in to take the cube's place.

3. Gil called. He wants his job back. NOW!

2. Green lasers!

1. Video camera revealed a man who looks like Bill Gates dressed in a black turtle neck and jeans ranting, "I'll show you I'm a PC!"

Keep the conspiracy theories running. Add your theory to the comments section.

New iPhone update 2.01 available

Time to tether your iPhone to iTunes readers as Apple has just released a “bug fix” update. Mr. MacGoog is downloading now and hopes that this update will correct his forever crashing iPhone. Mr. MacGoog is interested to hear how the update goes for you as well. Post your comments of any weirdness or goodness to be had from said update.

Mr. MacGoog recounts his Genius Bar visit

You'll have to forgive ole Mr. MacGoog if he seems a bit cranky while you read this post. You see, he had typed all of this before, during his visit to the Genius Bar last night, using LifeCast when true to Apple Firmware 2.0 and the new apps, Blam! All that finger work was gone in a flash due to an application crash. Come on Uncle Steve, ya know Mr. MacGoog loves ya, but really...let's get this fixed! Now, on with the visit.



6:20pm: Mr. MacGoog arrives at the Apple Store about 10 minutes before his scheduled appointment and checks in. He also notices his name on a video board displaying how many other folks with broke Macs and iPhones are ahead of him. First time Mr. MacGoog has seen his name in lights, so to speak.



6:22pm: Mr. MacGoog is told his appointment will be a bit later than scheduled. Hmmmm. That doesn't bode well. The place is packed though and this store has just received a new shipment of iPhone 3Gs. 3G stands for Good Gosh it Crashes a lot. No wait...that doesn't work does it?



6:23pm: Mr. MacGoog decides to look around the store a bit to kill some time. Ohhh...Awww....Look at all the shiny new Mac stuff.



6:25pm: Mr. MacGoog decides to quit looking because he wants to purchase one of everything including a new iMac.



6:26pm: Mr. MacGoog closes his eyes and says to himself 100 times, “I will not buy anything.”



6:30pm: Time for his appointment...nope...not gonna happen, the board says there are four more folks before him. Mr. MacGoog looks around and see two people clutching their MacBooks against their chest. They're probably next.



6:31pm: Mr. MacGoog finds a seat and rests his weary bones. It's been a long day.



6:32pm: Mr. MacGoog uses his iPhone, connects to the free wifi, browses Google Reader (had to get a Google reference in there), checks his gmail, checks out the new apps in the apps store that can assist in crashing his iPhone every few minutes (which it does while he is browsing the app store) and makes a phone call.



6:50pm: The board shows that Mr. MacGoog is next!



6:51pm: An Apple Genius comes over to Mr. MacGoog, who is sitting at one of the training benches, and says, “so what's a matter with this one today?” Mr. MacGoog explains his problem while noticing that the Apple Genius, a young man named Zach, is wearing his Apple Shirt and some red flannel shorts that appear to be the same shorts he was wearing when he woke up in the back room just minutes ago! Heck, they are probably the same shorts he wore to bed in Middle School, last year. Mr. MacGoog is getting old he thinks.



6:52pm: Mr. MacGoog explains that “MacBook Pro broke...you fix?” Mr. MacGoog also explains that he has performed all the magic ninja keystrokes for resetting this and that. Zach laughs. Mr. MacGoog isn't sure if he is laughing at the joke or at Mr. MacGoog and thinking, “Silly old guy.”



6:57pm: Zach explains that he's seen this problem before and it will require an archive and reinstall of the operating system. Zach breaks out his handy dandy firewire drive, hooks it up and says, “do you have about 30 minutes to hang out with us?” Mr. MacGoog shakes his head in agreement.

Mr. MacGoog's computer gets an OS reinstall.

7:00pm: Zach tells Mr. MacGoog that's he's going to help some other customers while we wait.



7:01pm: Mr. MacGoog breaks out his iPhone, opens the LifeCast app and begins to create a blog post while waiting.



7:09pm: After about eight minutes of finger typing, Mr. MacGoog is ready to submit his account of the visit so far. He hits submit.



7:10pm: Mr. MacGoog considers hurling his iPhone at one of the Geniuses after LifeCast crashes and sends his entire finger typed post into iPhone 2.0 Firmware purgatory, never to be posted.



7:11pm: Mr. MacGoog breaks out his Kindle (which doesn't crash) and continues reading 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance by Gavin Menzies. Good read.



7:20pm: Mr. MacGoog looks at MacBook Pro screen and sees that the install is reporting less than a minute left. Yee Haw!



7:30pm: Still less than a minute left. Huh? Mr. MacGoog waves Zach down and Zach explains that it's normal. It's normal for a minute to last 10 minutes? Zach, maybe you should go back to bed in the back room and look for your pants.



7:35pm: The longest minute ever is over, computer reboots and MacBook Pro has been restored to version 10.5. That means Mr. MacGoog is due for some updates once he gets home. Looks like everything is working, now where is Zach?



7:40pm: Zach returns, shuts down the computer and says, “There ya go!” Mr. MacGoog considers knocking him down and stealing his firewire drive. Would be a very handy addition to his laptop travel bag. Mr. MacGoog decides against harming the Genius since he is very happy his Mac is operational again. Zach will live to assist another customer. Probably an iPhone customer.



7:43pm: Mr. MacGoog packs up and thanks Sir Zach the Genius in the Red Flannel Shorts.



7:48pm: Mr. MacGoog buys a new bluetooth speaker phone for his car...so much for repeating to himself 100 times, “I will not buy anything.”



8:45pm: Mr. MacGoog arrives home, starts up his computer and begins updating his OS.



9:45pm: After all the downloads have completed and are installed, Mr. MacGoog is too tired to make a blog post; however, his MacBook Pro is back in working condition and all is right with the world.



In conclusion, Mr. MacGoog can really make no grips about his visit. Zach was personable, friendly and helpful. As the Genius, he diagnosed the problem almost immediately and was able to get Mr. MacGoog out the door in around 40 minutes. Not bad when a reinstall of the OS was the solution. Yes, Mr. MacGoog is going to give a tip of the hat to Sir Zach the Genius in the Red Flannel Shorts and to his first ever Apple Store Genius Bar visit. Mr. MacGoog knew there was a reason he only purchased Macs.

Mr. McG To Visit An Apple Genius

Mr. McG is very sad today. His MacBook Pro died. He's tried all the reset this and that finger twisting PRAM/PMU stuff, but to no avail. So tomorrow he visits his local Genius Bar at the Apple Store at an unknown location.

This is his first trip to a Genius and he plans to use his iPhone to document the visit and his service. As a matter of fact, he used the Google Mobile app to locate the closest Apple Store and even verified his AppleCare coverage and reserved his appointment using mobile Safari. The iPhone is definitely a great communication backup for a full fledged Mac. Now if Apple would release firmware 2.0 and get rid of these application crashes!

Its also a good thing he downloaded Lifecast for the iPhone yesterday or he would have no way to post to Mac 'n Goog comfortably. Of course his fingers are getting tired punching out this post on the iPhone keyboard, so he's calling it a night. Stay tuned tomorrow for updates. Let's see if the Genius gets a hat tip.

Posted with LifeCast

Perform Site Searches with the Google Mobile App

One of Mr. MacGoog's favorite sites is LifeHacker and they recently posted a great tip on how to use the Google Mobile app to perform site searches. Mr. MacGoog was going to write this one up himself, but no need to reinvent the wheel and Mr. MacGoog knows he can't compete with the good folks at LifeHacker. Go get the tip using the link below. Tip of the hat to LifeHacker!

Perform Site Searches with the Google Mobile App

Sent From The LifeCast iPhone App

Mr.MacGoog is trying out this new iPhone app so he can post on the go. Anyone else trying this app?

Posted with LifeCast

gCal and iCal now Sync...and the crowd goes wild!!!

Mr. MacGoog noticed today that Google released instructions to sync iCal to gCal using CalDAV. This is a big deal for Mr. MacGoog as he has been searching for a calendar syncing solution for some time now. You see, Mr. MacGoog is very cheap. He tries his darndest to stick to free apps and has resisted Spanning Sync and the other pay alternatives.



Back in the day when he was running Tiger, he had much success with GCALDaemon; however, when he upgraded to Leopard, syncing ceased. Well lo and behold, today his Mac ‘n Goog prayers have been answered by none other than Google. Oh how Mr. MacGoog loves the Google. Use the link below to learn how to implement gCal to iCal syncing bliss.



Learn how to sync iCal and gCal for free using CalDAV.



Now, some caveats:



1. You can only sync one Google Calendar for each account. Not a big deal for Mr. MacGoog but might be for you and you can setup multiple calendars.

2. ToDo items are not supported since Google Calendar does not support ToDo items.

3. Mr. MacGoog isn't sure how this is going to work with MobileMe. He is trying to push information to his phone now by deleting his main calendar (after copying all items over to his Google Calendar Sync calendar - that'll make sense once you complete the setup yourself). Since MobileMe push isn't so pushy lately, Mr. MacGoog will have to report back on this issue.



{UPDATE: Mr. MacGoog has been unsuccessful in getting his gCAL content to push to his iPhone sense MobileMe doesn't have an option to choose which calendar to sync. At least mMr. MacGoog couldn't find one. Any suggestions out there?}



{UPDATE 2: Click here to view some other caveats. It's still a work in progress, but Mr. MacGoog is going to hang with this syncing option. After all, he is Mr. MacGoog!}



Even if MobileMe push doesn't work, Mr. MacGoog prefers entry and view of events to gCal using the mobile version of Google Calendar. And he has his fingers crossed that Google will add native iPhone functionality to their Google iPhone App.



Mr. MacGoog has to give a tip of the hat to the Google Calendar team for this one. Mr. MacGoog would love to hear your experiences with this feature and if you have any tips for him.

Google Notebook Bookmarklet now available

Mr. MacGoog likes Safari but is often jealous of Firefox and Flock users’ Notebook add-on. Well, Google has a new tool available to put a smile on Mr. MacGoog’s face, the new Google Notebook Bookmark. Simply follow the preceding link and drag the Note This bookmarklet to your Safari Bookmarks Bar and Safari will now have many of the same Mozilla add-on features. 

To use the tool, simply click the bookmark to view your notebook (your Notebook will appear in a smaller seperate window in the lower-right hand corner of your screen as shown below) or select text/images/both and then click the bookmark to clip from the page and add as a new note. Sweet!

A Mr. MacGoog tip ‘o the hat to the Google Notebook staff for this one.