Blog Entries for Philip Roy

What a sad day!

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:00:00 +0100

What a difference 24 hours (or less) can make.

* I’m Phil.
* I’m a Mac user
* I’m around wireless networks virtually all the time (at work and at home).
* I love music and have it running non-stop...at work and at home
* I’m not an iPod owner
* I’m not an iPod Touch owner
* I miss not having music with me all the time, but I can easily take a break from it

In fact, I’ve not bought many of those things above b [...]

What a great day!

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:00:00 +0100

I emailed a friend about a technology I introduced into the University today that looks as though it is going to be centralised and available to everyone in the institute. I said that “my baby” was all grow’d up and learning to walk by itself and that it was time for me to cut some of the apron strings....even though that’s a tough thing for me to do.

It’s funny how a piece of technology can become ingrained in to your life so much that you feel like you [...]

Wow Adobe - Part 2

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:00:00 +0100

I was under a Non-disclosure agreement so couldn't say much about what I saw in Kuala Lumpur related to Acrobat 9, but the big emphasis with the next version of Acrobat (announced yesterday) is multimedia...without a doubt!

In particular, the digital ePortfolio functionality of their Acrobat Professional product is staggering...considering this is all delivered in a PDF...just writing that staggers me...I never saw PDF as a multimedia delivery platform at all.

I wo [...]

When Windows is actually useful

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:00:00 +0100

I think I've probably gone through 3 cheap scanners in my time as an OS X user. Not so much that I use a scanner a lot (the one next to me hasn't been turned on in over a year)...but because the fact that many of the previous scanners would only work up until a certain version of OS X.

So tonight I desperately needed to scan something. The drivers would only run in 10.3 and below...so the answer? Boot into Windows, where the drivers for this old scanner continue to be maintained [...]

Wow Adobe !!

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Greetings from Singapore. I started this post on a fairly state-of-the-art bus just outside of Kuala Lumpur, with my laptop plugged in to the power adaptor provided at every seat...and am finishing it in a hotel in Singapore with free wi-fi access. Why is it that when you go to amazingly expensive hotels they charge you for broadband, but drop down to a cheaper location overseas and access is often free!?

I'm on a 5-day holiday in Singapore, after being invited to attend and prese [...]

Thank you so much for your survey responses! Truly!

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:00:00 +0100

I just wanted to say Thank You so much for those that took the time to complete the site survey. The results confirmed many of the things I had in my own head about the site and also the fact I hadn't communicated other things clearly.

It also pointed out the dilemma web designers face daily...more news/less clutter...more functionality/simplified pages...more news/less text....etc etc....you get what I mean? I've always said that NZMac.com is a work in progress and 5 years on, [...]

2007 - The year two words took over

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 11:00:00 +0100

There are two words that for me will forever sum up 2007 on the NZMac.com website. I know you're probably expecting me to say something like iPhone and Leopard, but the two words I'm about to use couldn't be any further from the Mac or Apple-related field. 2007 will always be about two words I never expected to utter on this site - Russian Porn!

It has been a heck of a year (more on the porn later) and an amazing struggle financially, with NZMac.com never coming closer to b [...]

The timeline - 2 out of 3 apps agree!

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 12:27:21 +0100

OK, Darryn and I have been having a bit of a discussion about iMovie 08 and Final Cut Express within the blog area. I wanted (through the use of state-of-the-art images...I joke!) explain what I mean about the issue related to the way of working (note - I had a habit of saying 'anology' when I should have said 'metaphor' in my last post).

There's one phrase in Darryn's reply that really struck a chord. And for me, it sums up my surprise and concern at what Apple has done....
[...]

The timeline does matter - to me and Apple!?

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0100

I'm only just starting to get to play with the copy of Final Cut
Express 4 that Apple recently sent me. I decided to start by taking a
quick look at the Apple site to find out what had changed, and one page
really caught my eye. Take a look at this page...

http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/

On the page about what is new is a movie showing how you can import
iMovie '08 projects into FCE. Take a good look at it and what struck me
the most was how [...]

I see Leopard

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:00:00 +0100

Many of you might assume, given the fact that this is New Zealand’s largest Mac website, that I get my hands on a few Mac goodies now and then. So it might surprise you to learn that today (November 29) I finally got to see two things I hadn’t seen in action at all....the new(ish) slimmer iMac....and a new(ish) operating system called Leopard.

Yep...I finally saw a new iMac today, whilst trying to set it up for a client. I say trying, as we seem to be having issues w [...]

Brmm, Brmm...it's Macguide!

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 00:19:17 +0100

I don’t know what made me do it, but I typed in the old www.macguide.co.nz address a few moments ago...and got a pleasant surprise...and then got confused....and then got angry...and then got spam.

It’s great to see the Macguide site finally come alive, although the redirection to a domain called “woop.tv” had me freaking out a bit. On the surface, this looked like the Macguide site I was expecting....Apple and Mac news etc.

Obviously even th [...]

First Blog - Onwards and upwards!

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 11:00:00 +0100

Today sees the start of user community blogging functionality at NZMac.com - Welcome!

I wanted to take a moment in this very first blog to explain a few things in terms of how I see the blog fitting into the site...and also stress, once again, that this is all a learning experience for me, so please have patience as the blog grows, adapts and refines itself.

Registered users are able to blog and comment - Please login to get access to the Blog dashboard in the left menu [...]

NZMac.com - Thanks and please keep supporting the site

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:00:00 +0100

It's not been a great time for NZMac.com over the past month or so. More often than not, you've experienced a message that the site is offline. It's also meant hours of work, lack of sleep (Palmerston North is very quiet at 3am by the way) and new additional costs for me in order to get the site back up and running to the standard that I set for myself and that is required for site users. Things are going really well with the move to a Virtual Private Server system, but it's [...]

2006 - Not a bad year for us Kiwis!

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 11:00:00 +0100

Completely ignoring the launch of the New Zealand iTunes Store and online Apple store for a moment...2006 was an impressive year for Apple. With the smooth launch and transition to Intel Macs (it seems so much longer than 12 months ago that the first was released) and the promotion by Apple of products such as Parallels on your Mac, Apple is (as ever) evolving beautifully.

Then factor into the mix local news in the December launch of an iTunes Store (finally!), lower prices than we [...]

2005 in review - More "Wow!" than "Oh"

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 11:00:00 +0100

My title for this commentary is a reversal of my slightly lacklustre review for Tiger during the year that still rates highly on the site, which I make some amends for later (I hope).

I've had a very sort of odd start to writing a review of the Mac year the past two years. When I sit back and think "OK, did much happen at all?”, the answer often feels like it should be "No". However, 2005 was in fact a very busy Mac year, but it just didn’t seem like [...]

2004 - The Year That Was

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 11:00:00 +0100

I've been thinking about what to write for this summary of the NZMac.com 2004 year for some time. I had convinced myself that I'd be writing an article about what a quiet year it was. But then I looked back.

Thanks to the great Apple History site, flicking through issues of NZ Macguide and the pages of this site and forum, I realised that 2004 wasn't as quiet a year for Apple (or for me for that matter) that I had been telling myself. It was just a long, long year... [...]

Where were you Renaissance?!

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 11:00:00 +0100

Well I've just got back from the eXpo Conference for Macintosh Computer Users in Auckland and on the flight back to Palmerston North, two simple thoughts ran through my head...

Good on you Peter Mellow!!Where the heck were you Renaissance?

For those unfamiliar with who Renaissance is, you'd probably (and incorrectly) refer to them as Apple New Zealand. In fact, there isn't an Apple Computer New Zealand, but Renaissance is referred to as "Renaissance Ltd, Apple Com [...]

2003 - The Year That Was

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Tue, 30 Dec 2003 11:00:00 +0100

Well this time a year ago I was working furiously without sleep (well it felt like it) to make sure that NZMac.com launched spot on midnight of the New Year. My head was swimming with thoughts of "this has to work", which weren't only about technical issues with the site, but a hope that the Mac users of New Zealand would hook into the site and start making use of it. I needn't have worried!

It's been a funny old year in many Mac-related ways for me. The speed (or [...]

Apple Roadshow - The after-match

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Wed, 19 Feb 2003 11:00:00 +0100

I had no intention of writing a piece about the Apple Roadshow, other than the report that you see on elsewhere. But having taken a days leave from work to travel down to Wellington and having had the opportunity to meet a lot of great people that knew about the site, the two questions I seem to have been asked the most have been "What did you think?" and "Was the trip worth it?". So here goes...

A show of hands near the beginning of the Wellington presentation re [...]

Apple NZ - Are we going to

philip.roy@nzmac.com — Sun, 06 Jan 2002 11:00:00 +0100

As the owner of a site dedicated to Mac users, you'd think that I spend all my time convincing friends to buy Mac. Well, I'd love to say that that's true, but more often than not, I end up helping them choose the right PC for their needs.

"Traitor!" I hear you scream? Well, it's never a pleasant experience, but for friends that are first-time purchasers, trying to explain the difference between what we all see as the "Mac experience" and using a PC [...]