When I first read a rumor about Apple converting the 13″ unibody MacBook into a Pro model, I was worried, assuming that meant the price point would be going up. Surprisingly, the price dropped!  Within 7 hours of last week’s announcement mine was on order.

It should go without saying, but I love it!  It was well worth the wait.  This thing feels so solid and has some great features.  The glossy screen actually doesn’t bother me, but I was already accustomed to a glossy iMac and Samsung TV.  I’ve also quickly gotten used to the multi-touch trackpad.  For the first day or two I kept wanting to use my thumb to click, but now I have the new gestures and click methods down.  Also, the battery lasts a surprisingly long time on a single charge (Apple advertises 7 hours which seems to be quite accurate).  It’s also supposed to have a longer life, which would be much appreciated.  I know my iBook battery got pretty bad by the end.

I bought an Incase Neoprene sleeve for it (thanks to Devin for the review). This way I’m able to reuse my excellent Brenthaven bag that was intended for the 12″ iBook.  I found that the 12″ section collapsed quite well after I removed some padding from inside the bag.

Now I just need to think of a name as good as iTramp…

After returning from vacation last week, I noticed that a portion of the screen on my iPhone was not responding to touch. It covered the whole width of the screen, but less then a quarter of the screen height. It made certain funcitons impossible, like starting apps that were in the second row of the home screen.

I tried a number of things in an attempt to resolve the problem (including reseting and restoring), but couldn’t fix it. It was obviously a hardware problem. As a last resort I asked Apple for help. Using their online support tool was super easy, and I was actually able to have them call me! This was perfect considering I was unable to dial the top row of numbers on the phone keypad.

The Apple Support Rep was awesome. He was extremely knowledgeable, and was even in the US. Right away he apologized for my problems and told me they were going to make it right. Even though my phone was 100 and some odd days out of warranty, they were going to replace it for me. The only catch was that I’d have to wait about 5-7 days until they got my phone and shipped me another. This wasn’t a great option for me, since my mobile is my only phone. It turns out that for only $29 Apple was willing to rush me a new phone, as long as I shipped mine to them afterward.

Within 2 days I had my new phone (potentially refurbished internals, but looked brand new). The packaging was awesome, nothing short of what I’d expect from a new Apple product. It even contained the packing tape needed to seal up my broken phone in the same box. I also got the special SIM card removal tool – a pseudo paperclip.

This experience was awesome, and definitely the best that I’ve had with a technology company. I’ve also had a great look at a refurbished Apple product and am very impressed. I’m now definitely leaning towards a Macbook for my new laptop. I may even get a refurbished one with AppleCare.

Thank you, Apple!

After taking a spill, the internal display no longer works, which some certified repair technicians tell me would probably cost one half to two thirds the price of a new MacBook.  That rules out the repair option.  I’m thinking about getting a cheap netbook (running Linux of course, no Windows) to satisy my couch web surfing needs.  More research is needed on that matter.

• 5 stars: my favorite songs at the given moment – these are usually ones that I could listen to over and over again
• 4 stars: great songs
• 3 stars: good songs
• 2 stars: mediocre songs – ones that I want to hear infrequently
• 1 star: songs that I don’t have any interest in listening to again, or tracks that I wouldn’t want placed into a music mix, like a stand-up comedian or skit from Dr. Dre’s The Chronic.
• 0 stars: not rated – doesn’t mean I don’t want to listen to it, but I just haven’t listened to it at all or enough to rate it

When I first started rating my music, my rating spectrum was much more symmetrical. I quickly realized that I needed more variation for the music that I liked, and I’ve been using this modified rating structure since. After the break, I’ll discuss some smart playlists I’ve created.

As you’ll see below, some of my playlists build upon one another. I’ll discuss them in the following order: Good New Music, New Selections, Good New Selections, Automagic Mix, and Highly Rated Mix.

Good New Music

In this smart playlist, I have the following criteria:

What I’m doing with this playlist is trying to capture music that is new to me and I already enjoy. I’ve added the comment rule as a way to get rid of an old song that I just added to my iTunes library. I just need to add the %old% tag to the comment field of a song to keep it from entering the list.

New Selections

I’ve found a number of situations where I got some new music, but didn’t really listen to it much at first. Later, I release I want to listen to the CD but it’s no longer in my Recently Added playlist. For these instances, I have the “New Selections” playlist, which is static and not smart. I can add the tracks to this playlist and be sure that they’re tranferred to my iPod.

Good New Selections

As you might assume, this playlist builds off of the previous one. It’s goal is to capture the songs I like from the New Selections list. This smart playlist has the following conditions:

Automagic Mix

This playlist is my favorite because it incorporates my favorite music at the moment and the fresh music that I like. I find myself listening to it at least once a day. As the 5 star songs get old, I simply reduce the rating. Here are the conditions:

Highly Rated Mix

This playlist is a good revolving list of great songs. As you can see below, it includes the 4 and 5 star songs that I haven’t listened to in some time:

That concludes the example playlists. You may find that certain aspects of this configuration don’t work for you. I realize that people can have very different music listening habits. If anyone has some iTunes techniques that they enjoy, please share them in the comments.