From CNet:

Now Cingular is confirming that the release date will be June 11. A customer service manager at Cingular (we called 800-947-5096 and were transferred to sales) gave us that date late Thursday, but, alas, said he didn't have any additional information beyond that.

While I hardly call Cingular's customer service a reliable source, June 11th is the first day of Apple's World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. Many are speculating that the conference could also be the launching point for Leopard, the newest operating system. If true, June could be a VERY expensive month (but at least I'll be graduating!)...

EDIT: Just noticed there has been a lot of Tech postings here... I promise I'll put something else up sooner or later.

From IESB.net:

Duchovny says X-Files fans will have their second film after all! He revealed to the IESB that they were in final negotiations for the second X-Files film and should wrap this week. Plans are to start shooting in '08 or sooner!

They've been talking about this for years now, but it finally seems like another X-Files movie will begin production soon. Later in the interview, Duchovny stated that it will center around his character, Mulder, and Scully (Gillian Anderson). Because so much time has passed since the series ended in 2002, he also believes the movie will focus more on the supernatural than the aliens and the conspiracy arc that was, in my opinion, horribly resolved. Regardless, if and when this project makes its way to theaters, rest assured I will be anxiously waiting in line opening night!

From AppleInsider:

Apple on Friday began offering iTunes Store customers a new service called Complete My Album that allows them to turn their individual tracks into a complete album at a reduced price by giving them a full 99 cent credit for every track they have previously purchased from that album.

“Music fans can now round out their music collections by upgrading their singles into complete albums with just one click, and get full credit for those songs they have previously purchased from iTunes,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “Complete My Album is a wonderful new way that iTunes helps customers grow and enjoy their music collections.”

Complete My Album offers customers up to 180 days after first purchasing individual songs from any qualifying album to purchase the rest of that album at a reduced price. When users buy any song on iTunes the corresponding album will immediately appear on their personalized Complete My Album page with the reduced price listed.

For example, Apple said a user who’s already purchased three 99 cent singles and decides to buy the corresponding $9.99 album would be able to download the remaining songs to complete the album for just $7.02, without having to buy the singles again.

I've got to say, this is a pretty nice addition to the iTunes Store and a nice incentive to buy the rest of the album after purchasing a couple single tracks. If you have installed iTunes, you can click here and see all of the albums you are eligible to purchase under this new plan.

Last Thursday, I received quite a surprise when a package from Apple was delivered for me at the office. My AppleTV had arrived a day early all the way from China and I had the unbearable task of looking at the box sitting on my desk all day, and then having to work on two papers at Beaners before going to class. Thankfully, class got out early and I was able to go home and finally open up the box and see exactly what Apple had sent me. As some people may be aware, this product was supposed to be released back in February; I was hoping it was worth the wait.

The setup process was classic Apple; very simple. In less than ten minutes, I had it connected via HDMI to my television and the initial setup done. In order to stream content, you must first authorize the AppleTV unit from within iTunes through a simple process of typing in a four digit code when you have iTunes open. Once open, anything stored within iTunes (that meets specifications) is instantly available on AppleTV through a very simple and clean interface.

While my impressions have generally been good, I have had a few issues. First, you cannot stream photos from iPhoto; you must sync your library to the AppleTV's internal hard drive for them to be viewable on your TV. While a small annoyance, it isn't a huge issue for me as I'm not planning on using the hard drive for anything else. Also, while the ATV is promoted as a high-definition product, Apple has yet to add any HD content to the iTunes Store. While I believe this will change soon, I've already taken it upon myself to find alternative sources for the HD programs that I want. Furthermore, the ATV will not output discrete 5.1 audio, despite having the hardware necessary to do so. Like the HD content, I believe this will soon change via a software update after a Steve Job's keynote. Finally, while streaming works extremely well, I did run into some issues when trying to stream HD videos between my iMac and the ATV. When both devices were using 802.11n, I would get an occasional video freeze; however, connecting my iMac directly to my router completed solved this issue.

All in all, I think the AppleTV is an excellent device that has already revolutionized the way people get content from their computers to their living rooms by providing a simple, easy-to-use interface that everyone can use. There is definitely room for improvement, and if their past is any indication, Apple is already hard at work on the next software update.

Yesterday morning, I received an email from Apple letting me know that my AppleTV was finally shipping after a one month delay. Coming straight from China, FedEx's website states that I should have it in my hands no later than Friday at 10:30am. In preparation, I've started converting some videos over to an AppleTV-compatible format using the recently updated Quicktime Pro and VisualHub programs. Both of these titles added presets to encode files to meet the specifications required by Apple for playback on the device through iTunes. Unfortunately, the encoding process takes a very long time, especially when dealing with high-definition files. Needless to say, I will be rushing home Friday to get this installed so I can play around with it over the weekend. Expect my initial impressions here soon!

While I'm not one to talk a lot about myself, I thought it would be a good idea to post this up here so all of my friends and family that actually visit the page could see it. Yesterday, I received a letter from the Safety Council of Northwest Ohio congratulating me on being selected to receive their Good Samaritan award for my actions during the apartment fire at my complex last December. What's even better is that, along with the honor, myself and a guest are invited (and anyone else who wants to pay $25 per ticket) to attend a banquet in honor of all of their selections. The banquet will take place at The Pinnacle in Arrowhead Business park on April 19th, and will be recorded for playback on the local cable stations at a later date.

Needless to say, I'm pretty honored to even be considered a candidate for this award. Oh well, it won't get me out of writing these papers, so I guess I'll get back to it. Oh, check out twitter.com when you have a chance; it is the website that provides the What Am I Doing? box on the left side of this page.

Since UT and BG were on spring break this week, Cheryl and I decided to take a break from Toledo and headed down to Cincinnati Wednesday morning for the night. It was the first time I had been down in that area since my swim team days, and we went by a lot of the places that I remembered as a kid. For lunch, we stopped at one of my favorite barbeque places named Burbanks. There used to be a number of them in southern Ohio, but as far as I know only the original exists. The food was just as good as I remember; I had the pulled pork platter and sampled all of their unique sauces. The cornbread that tasted like a sweet cake was just as I remembered. Our next stop before checking in at the hotel was the Franklin Town Centre to visit the Apple Store and do a little shopping. I should note that I did not buy anything... yes, I'm amazed too. For dinner, we ventured downtown and eventually found Rock Bottom Brewery and had an awesome dinner and desert.

On Thursday, we went down by the river to the Newport Aquarium to take a tour of the largest aquarium in the midwest. I was very impressed with just how much they had on display, and aside from the little kids running around, it was a pretty enjoyable visit. I took a ton of pictures, all of which are available on the photos page. They pride themselves on their shark and penguin exhibits, but they had a ton of different aquatic species. After lunch at Johnny Rockets, we had a little time to kill so we went across the street to the Hofbrauhaus Newport; an authentic German restaurant styled after the Hofbrauhaus in Munich. It is interesting to note that while there are other Hofbrauhaus buildings across the United States, this is the only one that brews all of their beers on-site and to the exact specifications of the Bavarian recipes. The other locations are required to import all of their beverages directly from Germany. After a quick trip to Cheryl's sisters and a stop by the outlet mall at Jeffersonville, we made it back to Toledo around 10:00pm or so.

As if that wasn't enough fun, the first annual Glass City Brew Fest was held at Erie Street Market in downtown Toledo on Friday. After dinner at the Maumee Bay Brewing Company, Cheryl and I made our way over to the festivities. There were a number of breweries present, and I was kind of surprised at the turnout. For the price of admission, you received a 3oz glass and twelve tokens. Each tasting cost one token and we quickly found out that twelve tokens were more than enough. While I had expected a lot of the brewers to bring some of their bigger (i.e. higher alcohol by volume) beers, I was suprised when the majority of them were all 6.0% and higher. Needless to say, Cheryl didn't get through all of her tokens, and I think I even had one or two left over before we left. Plus, Cheryl bought me a event t-shirt which made me pretty happy. =)

This next week is going to be a tough one... I have four papers due between Monday and Thursday, and our technology consultants from Buffalo are coming down on Thursday to begin reworking the phone system at the office. Saturday is St. Patricks Day and this will be the first time in a couple years that I won't be snowboarding up at Boyne. I guess I should probably get to working on those papers...

Pictures from Cincinnati & Glass City Brew Fest

Matthew James Large was born on Sunday, March 4th at approximately 1:35AM and weighing 8.1lbs. Everyone is doing fine, and they should be home Tuesday. Congratulations to Brian and Trisha!

In other news, this weekend was most likely the last weekend of snowboarding for the season. Saturday morning, dad and I drove up to Mansfield to visit Snowtrails. This resort was the first to open in Ohio and has been labeled "the best in Ohio" numerous times. While it was better than Boston Mills/Brandywine, I'm still going to have to say that Mad River Mountain is where you should go if you want to experience the best resort in the state. They did have logo shot glasses though; are you listening Mad River?!?! Anyways, we've already started talking about next season's trips; right now Park City, Utah is the prime candidate. And Vancouver in 2010 would be an awesome adventure.

I took a couple pictures over the weekend which I'll upload to my Flickr account once I get home tonight. Speaking of tonight, its going to be a busy one for me as I really need to get my haircut, SSX Blur for the Wii was waiting for me on my desk this morning, I have some papers that I need to work on, and the last Heroes for a couple weeks is on tonight.