Charles E. Brown

In general, I do not like to endorse particular products on this site. However, every once in a while a product comes along that is such a good idea that I have to mention it. This is one such product:

LilyPad Solar

Having a solar powered charger built right into a carrying case means that you no longer need to worry about carrying chargers, finding sockets on planes, worrying about international adapters, etc. is a huge plus. Also, without sunlight, this case will provide you with enough power to last 10 – 12 days.

Great product. Kudos to the designers. As I work with this device I will keep everyone posted on the results.

I spent the better part of yesterday, 7/20, installing Mac OS x Lion. Overall, while long, it was a very smooth process. The download, which was 3.75 GB, took about 2-hours. I have a pretty high-speed connection. I suspect Apple’s servers were on overload. The actual install on my 3.06 GHz duel Core 2 Dual machine was about 40 minutes. Everything went without a hitch. Once that was installed, I got hit with a number of other updates. For instance Apple, as a separate update, updated iTunes and iWork. I also had to update Parallels and several smaller programs. But then I had to update XCode; which, interestingly, is now FREE in the App Store. That is another 3.75 GB download. Bottom-line, about 5-hours in updates.

I will go on record now as saying that I like Lion. At first look, it does not look like there were a lot of changes. However, once you dig into the nuts and bolts you see some substantial differences. Gestures take some getting used too because it is the opposite of past gesture patterns. The Launchpad feature is really nice and, combined with gestures, is a fast way to get to apps. I do not like the fact that the dashboard is on its own panel. I liked the clear popup in Snow Leopard. Email looks really nice now. I am happy to report that all of my programs seem to be running fine in it.

I will post here as I come across features.

I am off to update my Macbook Pro today.