Apple is obsessed with BLUE! (and power)

Yet they don't like Blu-Ray?? Oh well.

Apple announced today the release of their new MacBook Pros featuring new Intel processors and a new I/O interface. (I/O, for those who don't know, are just ports on your computer like USB and HDMI.)

This isn't the first time Apple has invented completely new technology.
They invented firewire all the way back in 1995. THis was their first original I/O invention. They where also one of the first companies to support the USB standard, starting in around 1998. They were the first company to get rid of floppy disks (remember those? 1.5 mb of storage!!) and replace them with CD drives (circa 1998).

Apple has done more than that, however. They were the very first to utilize a mouse and a graphical user interface (GUI). although they did not invent these technologies, they where the first to get it right, put them together and was the first commercial success. This was in the early '80's.

Click to check out a quick look at Apple's
various GUI's over the years.

Click to check out Apple's history of Mice.

1994, they invented and popularized another input method for computers - the trackpad, which has been a standard feature in laptops since. Of course 1995 they brought us FireWire, And in 2001, they revolutionized the music industry with the first digital music player: the iPod. While they did not invent MP3 players, they were the first to get it right. 1,000 songs in your pocket was only the begging.

The current family of iPods (as of February 2011)

As if the mouse, trackpad, and clickwheel (iPod) weren't enough, Apple invented a new technology for a new device. The technology was Multi-Touch and the device was the iPhone. Why was this such a big deal? Check it out here.

Since Multi-Touch on the iPhone in 2007, that technology quickly spread to other Apple devices, like a new iPod and their latest trackpads and mice.

That brings us to today: The introduction of Apple's NEW I/O called Thunderbolt, and, like many Apple icons, is blue, and round.

What is thunderbolt? Thunderbolt replaces the likes of USB, FireWire, and even display I/O's like VGA, DVI, audio and HDMI! All in one port that's like a bajillion times faster!

And that is the main point to this post: Thunderbolt, and Apple's extreme liking of blue icons. Their latest smattering of computer will still include usb and firewire, as Thunderbolt is relatively new (yes, even in the computer industry, one day old is very new).

Check out some Thunderbolt stats below: 

Update: 3/4/11: Part 2

Day of Boredom (Happy President's Day!)

I left my dorm room a total of 13 times today. 10 times to help people into their rooms who got locked out, (I work for the Head Resident of the Dorms, so that's part of my job), 2 times for bathroom breaks, and one time to go the cafeteria to buy a delicious 12" sub. :)

So basically, I was in my room the entire day. So what was I doing? It all started with my frustration that my copy of Teen Titans season 3 arrived on Friday, but the mail place closed early, isn't open on Saturday or Sunday, and would not be closed Mondy (today) because of the holiday. Grrr.

I heard that Pokémon had started up its 14th (!!) season based off of the Black and White game coming in March. Now, I love the DS/Gameboy Pokémon games, though I haven't really cared about or watched the show since i was 11 or 12 (2002-2003) So its been a while. I searched for (and found) the first 3 episodes of season 14 on YouTube, and watched them all. (I was bored, ok!)

There are a few things that frighten me. Aside from the great animation, to my horror, I discovered that Ask (the main dude) is still 10 years old! Ash was 10 years old when the show first started. 14 years later, and he's still 10?? That means the show is older than the main protagonist! (Although, I can see why nintendo/pokemon would want to keep him younger. if he had aged normally, he would now be 24 years old-give or take.)

All three of my episodes had Team Rocket, yet again, trying to catch Pikachu. Seriously?They were doing this 14 years ago in every episode when the show first started, and they were still doing this 8 years ago when I stopped watching the show. (This was the main reason I stopped watching - because they did the same thing over and over and over again in 98% of all the episodes.) Pokemon may have more episodes (and movies) than the Simpsons, but if you've seen the first 40, you've seen them all, minus the new Pokemon.

The last disturbing thing, of which I will keep very brief, is the new theme song, which makes me embarrassed for all humanity. It's trash. and embarrassing. yikes.

Anyways, after the third episodes was done, that got me thinking into what new Pokemon I want to see that still don't exist. So i started writing my ideas down. I would like the 6th generation to be based off of the state of Washington, or just the general north west area. So that got me thinking, what kind of animals live there? That eventually got me to looking up what other people have done online, and that's how I spent my entire day; locked in my room glued to my computer and note pad.

My Favorites (that I drew):

A Tomahawk Pokemon.

A Lion fish Pokemon with a new type: Electric Poison
and a slew of 6 Sea Urchin Pokemon (3 male, 3 female)

A new line of 'digital' Pokemon, to complement Porygon and
Rotom. Based of off All-in-one Mac computers of the ages.

Jellyfish. Jelly-fish. There's a difference.

Way cool new fossil Pokemon!

Click here to see everything I drew/conceived.

Here are some of my favorite (That I did not draw):

I'm glad that I got all of my homework done on friday!

Photo Depth of Field

One of the Topics for Photo Journalism: Utilizing depth of field.

What do you think?

Giant fern plant.

Cute Cacti

Zoomed in - Using good composition

Caution: Sharp!

Tiny orange tree!

Parrot! (or some other kind of bird)

Which one is your favorite? Sound off in the comments!

Grenades = Happiness

Fun fact about me: I actually read. A lot. just not so much with theta giant 800 page newels. Most of this reading takes place on the internet, on various technology and video game sites like Engadget.com, IGN.com, New York Times (nyt.com), YouTube.com (oh wait a sec...), and Bungie.net. These don't count, you say? Save it for my lawyer.

Unfortunately, Some of these sites are blocked from my school's campus servers most of the time, which means I have less time to read everything I's want to. Unfair? Sure, but whatever, I guess I'm supposed to be doing homework or something, and not reading. Oh well.

Today, I actually did get a change to completely catch up with pretty much everything, including Bungie.net. Don't know who Bungie is? I forgive you. Don't know what Halo is? YOU'RE DEAD TO ME! I'll save my love for that game for some other time; I have something else to say today. 

Recently, Bungie has been hosting weekly events calling all Halo fans to participate in what they call "Bungie All Stars." This is where fans can submit screenshots or other artwork for a contest (of sorts) based on certain criteria for that week. Bungie will then post the best submissions onto their next website update. 6 weeks into the "All Stars", I finally had the opportunity to read the criteria and also have time to make something fantastic!

For week 6, the criteria were as follows:
"Using Halo assets or your own original art, create a forum avatar measuring 90 x 90 pixels"
We all had until February 17th (today) to submit our results. I went to work.

The first thing that came to mind was the classic "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" phrase. Hmmmmm. How could this apply to the halo universe? What keeps the Covenant (the bad guys) away?

Oh, of course! GRENADES! Here's an initial concept sketch:

The whole page.

Close-up. Original slogan was "On 'Nade at a Time"
Do you think that's Better? Worse?

About half way through the creation process, I decided to screen capture it, so show progress and my process of making my Halo avatar. Check out the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXvlGFS9Qbo

And here's the final product. What do yo think?