Kyle LeBoeuf

It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to write, but things have been so busy and I haven’t really had that chance. There’s some exciting developments around the corner though that I hope to be writing more about soon.

I recently accepted an offer to return to The Orchard, working in their IT division, and started my new job last week. I love it. I am once again working with a platform and group of products that I have come to know and love.

I am also going to be assisting in the rebirth of the Lafayette-area MacMeetings, known now as the Lafayette Area Macintosh User Group (LAFMUG). I’ll be running the blog there and flexing my social media chops through Facebook and Twitter, so keep an eye out!

You can follow me @Kyleleboeuf and I’ll also be tweeting occasionally through @lafmug.

You can also keep up with me here of course. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be working a complete site redesign, so be on the lookout!

Thanks for reading,

Kyle

Twitter just announced that it acquired Atebits, maker of the popular Tweetie app for iPhone and Mac.

I wonder what this means for other Twitter application developers, like Tweetdeck (which is what I use). Before, Twitter simply owned the platform that these applications were built upon. Now, Twitter actually has a vested interest in this application space and will move to increase it’s exposure amongst the users of Twitter.

Is Twitter going to restrict or possibly even ban other applications in this space?

As Ryan Block tweeted, “As of today, if your app depends on Twitter for anything other than identity or content syndication, you are officially on notice.”

It will be interesting to see how Twitter moves forward with this acquisition.

Apple sent out media invitations to a private event showcasing the 4th version of the iPhone OS this past Sunday.

Typically for these events, the bigger tech media outlets such as Crunchgear, Engadget, and gdgt will have live blogs of the event. I personally plan on using gdgt’s live feed. It’s the cleanest and least cluttered. Good pics too.

Link to gdgt’s live feed for tomorrow is here. Check it out.

Wonder what’s next for the iPhone?

Guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

In case you live under a rock, Apple released some new products today:

Re-designed Macbook: Polycarbonate unibody design, borrows design elements from the MacBook Pro line, but still maintains its low-end feel. Also contains the 7-hour battery. Multi-touch trackpad, mini-displayport. Specs: 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD. $999. Competitive and awesome.

Re-designed iMac: Two new models: 21.5-inch display and a whopping 27-inch display. Wow. Minimum 3.06 GHz dual-core processor, quad-core options available on the 27″.  These things are legit. 16:9 Widescreen resolution. 21-inch model comes with a 500GB HDD, 27-inch comes with a 1TB HDD, upgradable to 2TB. Oh, and get this, it comes stock with a wireless keyboard and the new “Magic Mouse“. Oh, and the 27-inch sports input support! So you can plug in your HDMI source directly into the iMac. Nice. Starts at $1199 for the 21.5-inch, and $1699 for the 27-inch. Quad-core 27-inch models starting at $1999.

Updated Mac Mini: The Mac Mini saw some speed bumps, featuring a 2.26 GHz processor for the low-end, and 2.53 GHz processor for the high-end models. Both models also saw a bump in memory capacity, 2GB and 4GB  for the low-end and high-end, respectively. Interestingly, Apple also introduced a Mac Mini Server, a 2.53 GHz, 4GB Mac Mini, which substitutes its built-in super drive for an additional hard drive, allowing it support 1TB of storage (through its two 500GB hard drives); it ships with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server. Users who need optical disk capabilities can either use the Remote Disc feature pioneered by the MacBook Air, or use the MacBook Air USB superdrive. The Server model sits at $999.

Magic Mouse: Apple replaces its wireless Mighty Mouse with the multi-touch sensitive “Magic Mouse” (name change likely resulted from the patent recently granted to another company on the “Mighty Mouse” name). Its hard to explain its features in text, but there’s a video on Apple’s features page, to hit the link on this paragraph to check it out.

There were other updates that were supposed to be dropped today (including new Airport products) but they haven’t shown up yet. Apple could’ve pulled them at the last second. We’ll see what happens. (Update: Apple did, in fact, update the performance in the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule by adding a better antenna).

Kyle

Update: Most of the internet has yet to catch on to the fact that Apple released a new Apple Remote. Not very big news, but its worth noting.

Hey guys,

Over the past week, I’ve been working on implementing a new look for the site (if you are viewing this post in a feed reader or email, please go here and see the new design for yourself). After a few hours of tweaking code, I have finally finished and activated the new design.

I received inspiration for the look of the site from Ryan Block, former editor-in-chief at Engadget and co-founder of a new gadget review site (appropriately named “gdgt“). I began to look for a theme that had a single column for content and a wide sidebar but couldn’t find anything I really liked until I came across Grid Focus, a three-column website designed for publishers seeking a minimalist theme that is easily customizable. Having found my perfect theme, I then messed around with it bit, removing one of the columns and widening the remaining two, as well as adding my own buttons to the navigation bar.

So, have a look around. This is the new Kyleleboeuf.com. Hope you enjoy it

Kyle [at] kyleleboeuf.com