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>>> iPad Arrives
Friday, January 29, 2010 After months of rampant speculation Apple's iPad has arrived. It doesn't run OS X and it doesn't have a webcam, but it's still an amazing device. For starters, it's priced at about half what Apple pundits expected. It also introduces new functionality to the iPhone OS in the form of iWork. And don't forget it doesn't require an AT&T contract to get wireless service either. That is possibly the most revolutionary idea behind it. So what is the iPad? It's basically an iPod touch on steroids. It fits somewhere between the iPhone/iPod product line and the Macbooks. It is, in essence, Apple's reply to the "netbook" phenomenon. It can best be described as the everyman's gadget. No, it won't replace your iPhone or likely your laptop if you need specific applications. It promises to be the ultimate in traveling light, however. So why are people griping about its release? Its not fully customizable, but what Apple product is? It lacks support for Flash. It doesn't have a webcam. And don't forget the biggest complaint of all, it's made by Apple. In spite of this techno-whining, it will still sell by the millions. Yes, I do plan to get one. My Macbook will be three years old this summer. I'm sure when it dies, be it a year or three years from now, I'll replace it with an iPad. Truthfully, I don't need all of OS X when I travel. Sure, I'll miss having some favorite games, but when I travel all I really need to do is check e-mail and do some research on where I'm at or where I'm going. That can easily be accomplished on the iPad, or even my iPod touch for that matter. But the iPad is just so cool! It doesn't do anything that my iPod or Macbook don't do now, but if my experience with the iPod is any indication it will do them very, very well. With an iPad I can carry a digital portfolio of my photography, play games, read a book, catch up on news, or update my blog. I can do it from anywhere in the house, anywhere in the yard, and, with the AT&T wireless setup, anywhere I travel. Going to Chicago for a long weekend? The cheap data plan will be perfect for trips like that. Having a keyboard dock makes it even more useful at home; if the rumored compatibility with a Bluetooth keyboard comes true it will be very appealing for travel. This year will be very interesting for Apple. The company is poising the iPhone OS to be a dominant player not just in the smartphone category but also for personal entertainment and now even productivity. It's shaping up to become more relevant than OS X even. That development would truly be interesting. Posted by Brian at 1:20 PM >>> Henry Ford's Railroad Thursday, January 07, 2010 This past week the Indiana & Ohio moved what are presumed to be their last auto racks out of Flat Rock, Michigan. The road that Henry Ford (re)built is now out of the automotive business. It should come as no surprise, however, with the two-year long shake-up of the domestic automotive business that is still playing out. It's only natural for contracts to be reevaluated and awarded based on new business projections. It will be strange regardless of the circumstances to see only covered hoppers and gondolas moving north of Lima on the road formerly with all the connections. Posted by Brian at 12:52 PM >>> All is Quiet on New Year's Day Friday, January 01, 2010 There was a time, not too long ago, when railroading was a 24/7/365 operation, when only the postal service (Neither rain, nor sleet...) had greater fortitude. Today, however, all is quiet on the rails. Only "essential" trains are running, those of Amtrak, commuter agencies, and, of course, UPS. What happened to the mantra that railroading is a year-round and essential operation? Labels: railfan Posted by Brian at 12:31 PM >>> A Railpictures Gem Wednesday, December 30, 2009 I don't normally call attention to Railpictures.net, but this series of photographs is worth the trouble. Chuck Schwesinger has been posting some amazing photos from the Upper Midwest, and now the Pacific Northwest. They're definitely worth a visit to the site, even if you're normally put off by the flashy ads and pop-up windows. The pleasure is very much worth all the pain. Labels: photography, railfan Posted by Brian at 7:29 AM >>> Decline of Hobby Retail Friday, December 04, 2009 I visited a local hobby shop last weekend and was greatly disappointed with what I saw. The shop I visited was one of two under common ownership in a medium-sized city. The store largely survives off RC hobbies and paint ball supplies but there are a couple aisles dedicated to model railroad equipment. I stopped by after a modular layout exhibition in town looking to get some supplies and maybe a couple new freight cars. What I was really after was a bulk pack of Micro-Trains 1015 couplers. (For the uninitiated those are the #5 couplers of N scale, a universal standard of sorts.) Unfortunately I only found a couple pairs of assembled 1015s mixed in with a ton of Micro-Trains and Kadee (!) coupler conversions for obscure out-of-production locomotives. In other words, stock that should've been marked down and moved out the door fifteen years ago. Ten bucks for two pairs of assembled couplers? No thanks! I'd have paid retail for the bulk pack, if they had it, but certainly not two stinkin' pairs of couplers. How a shop can survive without stocking the most basic items is beyond me. They lost another sale with their (lack of) freight car selection. If there were 200 N scale freight cars in their inventory 185 of them were Micro-Trains and half of those were the special edition state cars. In other words, junk. There was not one single Atlas Trainman edition on the shelves. I'd have probably picked up two or three of those, at retail price no less, if they were available. What I wasn't going to do was shell out thirty bucks for a Micro-Trains hopper or auto rack. The clerk offered to order anything I wanted from Atlas or Micro-Trains, at retail price plus tax and with over an hour drive to pick it up. No way, sir. So instead of getting forty to fifty of my hard-earned dollars this store got nothing. Whoever does the ordering needs to get a wake-up call. Micro-Trains cars don't move at retail price and nobody is still looking for a coupler conversion for their Rivarossi steam engine. Now it looks like N Scale Supply will be getting another other this winter... Labels: model Posted by Brian at 10:54 AM >>> Shelf Life: Bootlegger's Haven Monday, October 26, 2009 Another Monday brings another installment of Anime News Network's Shelf Life. One feature of Shelf Life is "Shelf Obsessed" where viewers send in photos of their anime shelves. This week's edition is fraught with bootlegs. Have I been to the fan's house and looked at or watched his DVDs? No. But I've yet to come across a legitimate North American release that used a frosted slipcover on a digipack. Using just that as a guide I see at least seven bootleg releases in one photo. There are also a number of questionable titles in regular keepcases and and digipacks without slipcovers; some of those figures don't look up to snuff either. Now it's possible these are legitimate "Region 3 imports" but given the trouble of obtaining legitimate releases from overseas I seriously doubt that's the case here especially when the bootlegs are so easy to come by on eBay. I'm throwing out a challenge to Anime News Network here and now to only feature serious collectors with legitimate releases from here on out and to purge older editions of shelf life of bootleg photos as well. Somehow I think my challenge will fall on deaf ears, however. Labels: anime Posted by Brian at 2:56 PM >>> The Real Value of Magazines Sunday, October 25, 2009 I was digging through a friend's sash of railroad magazines last night helping him catalog his collection and give it some semblance of organization. For my troubles, we were working until after 1:00am, he let me take home a small stack of magazines. I ended up taking twenty issues of various titles including Rail Classics, Railway Quarterly, Railfan & Railroad, Trains, Railroad Model Craftsman, and Passenger Train Journal; the oldest issue is from 1960, the newest from 1995. In spite of that each issue has something in common: at least one article I'm interested in reading. But what about the rest of each issue? Surely I can enjoy more than a dozen pages out of each, right? Sure I can! That is the real value of reading and collecting magazines, I will eventually read and learn about something I don't have a strong interest in. The Internet has bred a generation of self-centered railroad enthusiasts, for lack of a better term. Everyone follows the same message boards with the people they like and there's no cross-talk of ideas or interests. Modelers rarely seem to understand how railroads actually work. Steam fans can't fathom how anybody finds a diesel to be interesting. Simply put, Internet railfans are too focused on their own interests to form a broader knowledge of railroading. How are magazines different? Each issues will undoubtedly have "good" and "bad" articles, that is, those we find of interest and those we don't. We will eventually read everything in the magazine, however, even the "bad" articles. We have paid for all the content, we might as well read it, right? As individual bits these extra articles don't seem like much at first but after reading a decade's worth of magazines a greater pool of knowledge is formed. I still find the 1960s and 1970s obsession with steam in Trains magazine to be incredibly boring, but at the same time I have learned a great deal about railroading in another generation. I still believe that the best railroad education comes from printed media. User-generated "Web 2.0" content can only take us so far. There are literally tens of thousands of old magazines floating around at train shows and swap meets for pocket change each. Maybe next time spend ten bucks and pick out a couple that look interesting and give them a try. What you learn from them will be greater than a night spent on The Gauge. Labels: railfan Posted by Brian at 1:16 PM |
>>> About Me Brian M. Schmidt is a freelance writer and photographer from northwest Ohio. View my complete profile >>> Links Cafe Unknown Last Otaku Standing Rambling West route99west.com/addendum Under the Weather Blog World Scott >>> Previous Posts
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