Will Adobe Flash 10.1 Improve Mac Performance

Adobe has promised better flash performance in the upcoming version of Flash 10.1, which is currently (since Nov 2009) been available as a beta for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. This information, from Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch comes just a few weeks after Apple’s introduction to the iPad and Steve Jobs rather aggressive reasoning to why Apple are not to fond of the Flash platform, calling Flash “buggy” and Adobe “lazy”. This is definitely not one persons opinion of Flash, many have complained to Adobe for still not shipping a 64-bit version of Flash for Apple’s Snow Leopard, as many believe that is one of the reasons why Flash is becoming a major processor staler. As a Mac user myself, it isn’t too difficult to express my own opinions of Flash on the Mac, just a few consecutive YouTube videos and your processor is huffing and puffing (MacBook Pro) and ‘Activity Monitor’ goes berserk reporting insane use of the CPU of well over 100% on ‘Flash Player (Safari Internet Plug-In)’. Flash is even quite the processor pusher on a 3.06GHz brand new iMac, although the fan noise is luckily a lot quieter on the iMac and based on the specs it can deal with it that bit better.

But in all fairness Flash is a plug-in not a high profile application like Adobe’s own Photoshop for example, which is why I have to agree with Steve Job’s rather ‘straight to the point’ opinion of Flash, as it is buggy, and saying Adobe is lazy is also true as the only platform you can get 64-bit Flash, oddly, is Linux.

However, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch also stated that Adobe Flash is around the same performance wise on Windows as it is on Mac OSX, which I have to state right now is not true, simply based on using Task Manager whilst using the Flash on a 1.8GHz old DELL, and the performance (Windows Vista) wasn’t suffering by Flash at all, compared to a Mac with much higher CPU and graphics power.

But overall we will all have to wait and see about Flash, am I looking forward to Adobe Flash 10.1, well, not really, if I knew it was going to do exactly what Adobe said it will, then yes I’m looking forward to it, this is Adobe’s chance to prove Flash is worth it to Apple and maybe, just maybe, Flash may enter devices like the iPhone OS which will of course effect devices including the iPhone, iPod Touch and the soon to be released iPad, which itself has had a bit of a Flash headache.

Adobe say Flash 10.1 is expected later this year (2010), I just hope for Adobe’s sake that its good on Mac OSX, just like it was when Macromedia was the brand around Flash, oh good memories.

Ben

Try the beta of Adobe Flash 10.1 if you dare here: http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html (this is meant to be buggy as its just about got to Beta stage)

http://rkukmedia.ning.com

Blog Friday 5th February 2010 – Birthday bash, Oops, and more!

Not to start the day on a low note, but is it me or was everyone either missing today, or just extremely moody, have no idea why, I know it rained but thats just taking the mik, anyway, back to a more exciting subject eh!

Birthday Bash
On Wednesday, been February 3rd was of course my birthday, thanks to who sent messages you know who you are, how?, well basically if you don’t know what I’m talking about then … it wasn’t you. Now we’ve got that sorted out let us move on. As you know, I did something I’ve never done before, wrote a 10-day review of something I got for my birthday the same day and that was of course the iMac, makes my Christmas present look pretty rubbish actually, HAH, beat that Jesus, anyway, now we’ve lost all christian audience I’ll continue, ps Hello foreigners and atheists. The only downside in having the iMac early which trust me I couldn’t think of anymore than one, was the fact that on my birthday it didn’t feel like my birthday, to top that it well, basically nothing happened, although it did snow … for some reason.

Thursday arrives my day off, and guess what? Now the party starts, ugh, bluddy hate that, Wednesday was so perfect as I could of got wasted and arrived in at home whilst my Mums walking to work and wake up at 4:30PM as if it was a normal Thursday, but no. Nah, wasn’t that bothered actually, turned out to be a very good night to be honest. We didn’t do much out of the ordinary, me, Rob, Caddy, Grandad (lee) and Jordan, Jordan is who I met during the Rob and Beth fiasco … I mean scenario … obviously, did I just type that out loud? Annoyingly for Rob the night started by automatically foiling one of his birthday plans, for everyone to wish Happy Birthday at the doorstep, but my Mum answered and said to Rob, come in, LOL! (Oh my god I said LOL in a blog) But as soon as I left I was greeted by a sound of low-key vocals singing happy birthday emerging from a dark alleyway with a brand new camcorder, not your average walk to the front gate of your garden! Anyway, “and the night, goes on …”. We ended up trailing round Cleckheaton starting at the good ‘ol Weatherspoons, then touring far and wide, well we went to another pub then back again, but it was at that other pub where it all started to kick off. All I’m gonna say is, drink + free shot from manager + every pack of Bacon Fries (including the Card Board) = Happy Ben. Turned out Kai worked at the bar which made it kind of a bonus to be honest. Rob kept getting his video camera out, all I’m gonna say is I’ve no idea what they’ve filmed but its gonna be bad isn’t it.
Then it kinda of got weird, had my bacon fries, saw the sky had turned purple after the shot I’d had, but both Ben (Hunter) and Kai both never returned, apparently they were supposed to meet us later but they never arrived, weird.
So, we arrived back at the Weatherspoons after Jordan found out he’d missed his last bus, which of course had to go for last resort being a taxi. In the Weatherspoons I don’t know what we played, oh yes, 3 people, sh*g, marry or holiday, all I remember is picking Cheryl Cole for sh*g, by the way the others chose the 3 to chose from, then it just got weird, I’m sure its all on bluddy video.
I was going to go straight home when it reached 12, but y know what I decided to stick to it to the end and you know what I’m glad I did, we had some chips, the kind that are only nice if your pi**ed or very close to being, so at the time they were lovely, whilst ordering we stared at a newspaper with a woman in it, say no more, we’re male and human. Then we went to what had to be a very silent visit to Grandads due to his parents been asleep and we went in to the cellor, don’t judge, its been done out, its now more of a drunken courtyard now, thats actually not a bad name for it to be honest, I’ll have to remember that. Jordan was not impressed with Robs homemade brew, as was many apart from Rob to be honest, oh and Lee, but to be honest he can’t tell the difference between Vodka and Water. Oh yeh I didn’t mention, Caddy went home after Weatherspoons incase you were following wondering. During the walk to Grandads, Ben rung and well, I don’t know to be honest, Lee said he wanted us to meet him or something, the answer was definitely a no if for anything been we went to the Weatherspoons for him to meet us in max 30 minutes.
Had a ride on Lee’s exercise bike, yes you read right, actually it was the only seat I could find. Jordan left in a taxi and Rob mentioned something he’s probably forgotten about but kinda hope he hasn’t, he said he’s going to re-write Dr Conrad and you could be seeing more of Dr Conrad by Q3 2010, look out for that then! We’ll see.

Anyway, I think that’s all, probably remember something else, I’ll post it in a future blog if I do.

E-Ya Later

Ben

http://rkukmedia.ning.com

Apple 21.5″ iMac (late-2009) 10-day Review

Welcome to my 10-day review of the 21.5″ iMac. All I can say very quickly is, wow how fast this is compared to my aluminium MacBook, that just amazed me, although the specs do reflect this, its just awesome.

Specs
3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB DDR3 RAM (up to 16GB)
500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
NVIDIA 256MB
Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Mouse
+everything else iMac.

First Impression
Unboxing this thing was epic, the box is huge and Apple don’t half make unboxing exciting, seriously when you unbox a PC you get a tatty cardboard box and … well its just extremely boring, even if you’re really looking forward to it, a PC unboxing just isn’t exciting. And as all iMac owners, their is nothing more beautiful than the first time you take the plastic off the screen, you’re forced to say “that looks beautiful”, why I don’t know, it controls you.
So, boot it up “DUNNNNNN”. Then, wow. I was amazed by the quality of the speakers, they truly shocked me, still using dedicated speakers though. All I can say that I didn’t say in my previous iMac blog was its a fantastic computer and I can’t recommend it anymore ……. oh yeh, I did say that.

10 Day Impression
OK, rather than overviewing what I’ve already said I’ll get to the points. The display is absolutely amazing, I have a 21.5″ HP display, which I was planning on using with a Mac mini before deciding on an iMac, but the iMac just shoots it down, I tried dual-monitoring, but it is to me an offence to the iMac to have a display like that plugged in, so I’m just iMac, thinking of selling the HP Display so if anyone wants a 21.5″ HP display (1080P, VGA, supports HDMI) then get in touch, for a small monitory contribution.
The machine is lightning fast, I can’t imagine the 27″ model with the i7, I bet its an absolute blast on that! All I’m gonna say is I’ve used a Windows 7 (64-bit) machine (won’t embarrass PC manufacturer) with 8GB of RAM and this iMac is soooo faster and with half RAM for a start, although … thats Windows for ya.
I really can’t explain how much I love this machine, I cannot recommend a better desktop to anyone, although I do understand a few problems are occurring with the 27″ but happy to report they’ll be sorted very soon, but the 21.5″ ya can’t go wrong.
The new SD Card reader is also very very quick, transfer rate I mean, I’m actually using an SD card as my primary storage instead of a USB stick just because of how quick the transfer rate is, love it.
The only thing that got me at first is the Superdrive, on a MacBook its easy, but on an iMac you just need to take a bit of care when inserting discs in the drive, do it wrong and you’ll scratch your disc viciously with the surrounding aluminium, but ones you’ve got the hang of it your fine.

Apple Wireless Keyboard VS Apple Wired Keyboard
Seen as I was planning to get a Mac mini I bought a Mighty Mouse and Apple’s Wired Keyboard with Numeric Keypad, but the iMac came with the wireless keyboard and here’s what I think of it. Firstly, had the machine for 10 days and the keyboard hasn’t even left 100% battery (2x AA batteries, included) and because its Bluetooth, the iMac only has the AC adapter plugged in, neat. Have to admit, I thought I’d miss the numeric keypad, but seriously haven’t approached a time when I’ve even accidentally gone to the right looking for it, but if you need a numeric keypad it is no further expense to customise the iMac and get that instead, same with the Magic Mouse, or Mighty Mouse (or as its known as now simply ‘Apple Mouse’).

Apple Magic Mouse VS Apple Mouse (Apple Mighty Mouse)
I, like pretty much the entire planet, was unsure about the Magic Mouse, but have to say its fantastic, but don’t get me wrong I can see many people not liking it and I can also see many good reasons why, but you can always plug another mouse in.
Using the Magic Mouse is alot better than I thought, though like Apple’s Trackpads on the MacBooks you go on the PC side and look like an idiot when you try to scroll on a PC mouse like on the Magic Mouse, but its seamless and like the video for the iMac says, you just do it like its always been that way.
But, out of everything I do think the Magic Mouse you’ll either absolutely love, or absolutely hate, so try one out for a while in an Apple Store just to check.

Overview and score!
Performance : 
Design : 
Included Peripherals = 
Value for Money = 

Overall =  price: £969 (Apple UK Store)
price paid: £732

Apple Event 2010 – Come See Our New Creation … the iPad!

We all saw it coming and today it came, the all new Apple Tablet was launched today by Apple are their special event today. I have to say its nice seen as Apple pulled out of Macworld last year to see an Apple Event in January, even they must know it feels right now!

iPad Introduction
In my eyes the only downside to the Apple Event today was there was only one thing announced, but it is indeed a cracker, of course we are talking about the tablet, or “iPad”. The iPad is a tablet based machine running a larger version of the iPhone OS, but don’t cry now, it does have some exclusive features, this isn’t just a larger iPod Touch. All main applications that come with an iPod Touch have been completely changed to make them exclusive in functionality on the iPad, very easy to see why that is and thats the amazing growth in screen size, I mean 9″ is alot bigger than 3.5″ any day.
At this moment in time full details apart from hardware specs are very shady around the iPad and somethings at the moment don’t add up and contradict themselves when you go from source to source. What we do know is the tablet (if we can call it that) has a 9″ LED backlit display, which looks about the same as an expanded iPod Touch. It also has a Apple A4 processor … a what? Apple have created a processor/graphics processor bundle for the iPad which supports 1Ghz of processing speed which compared to the 3GS is a massive improvement in speed which can only be a good thing when you run applications through this device.
Speaking of which…

iPad Applications
I know what your thinking oh great, start from the beginning with the iPad, can’t be bothered, got apps on my iPhone/iTouch that I love. But don’t fear, person who can’t do a sentence correctly, the iPad will actually run pretty much all apps on the App Store designed for the iPhone/iPod Touch as is, or you can view them in full screen. Of course this won’t look picture perfect but the fact is its 9″ gameplay of an iPhone game, atleast its backward compatible.
But, like the iPhone, Apple have released a whole new SDK for the iPad so that developers can create applications for iPad alone meaning incredible graphics and performance, I mean, come on its got 1Ghz processor power, it’ll “scream” as Steve Jobs would say. At the conference Gameloft, WSJ and EA demoed work in progress games on the iPad (games apparently created in 2 weeks, though was doubted abit when one of the developers said he’d had it for 3) which looked amazing given the time they had.
One last interesting thing Apple have done to the iPad is create iWork for it, oh yes, no iWork ‘10 for Mac, but iWork for iPad yes, based on what we’ve seen it seems to work great. Still not sure what happens at the File > Save As stage of the game though.

iPad and iBooks
Go on, tell us your surprised, yes, Apple have indeed done something rather obvious when it comes to Tablets and thats added Books to the proceedings and if you know Apple you’ll find it no surprise they’ve made a store, the iBook Store. I’m not really a reader of any books, may try it with magazines if they come around. Apple have, like when movie rentals came to iTunes, partnered with big name companies in the er … book world. So yeh, all this will be in a new app exclusive to the iPad called iBooks, not to be mistaken for the predecessor to the MacBook brand notebook called the iBook. Call me fussy but $14.99 seemed a bit pricey for a book, but hey, its Apple. One thing I will say is the iPad definitely is probably the best device so far at reading books, every other device I’ve seen including the Kindle (Amazon) seems a bit awkward or fake to read. Anyway, so thats iBooks.

iPad Accessories,
KEYBOARD DOCK
The iPad like more or less all Apple devices apart from the Mac (and thats only because they have USB ports of their own) charges using the good ol’ iPod Dock Connector, but how the hell are you going to charge this product elegantly, well Apple have introduced a Keyboard Dock, basically its a plug-in keyboard, more or less identical to the Apple Keyboard (without Numeric Keypad) and looks the same, with a spot at the front where the iPad sits. If anything this is fantastic for typing alot of information, based on just a few minutes of typing on the iPhone (remember doing a blog on it) your fingers start to feel weird. This is just one of the many reasons I don’t think touch is completely ready to take over, don’t get me wrong what it does now is amazing, but no one so far has thought of a perfect 100% solution.
A CASE
Well I say a case, more of a sleeve, but no doubt millions of manufactures will create their own and they’ll hopefully be more exciting to look at.
SD READER
This is also apparently an accessory, this plus iWork integration makes file storage one of the interesting parts of this, can you store just everyday files on the iPad

Price
The iPad actually starts at only $499 (UK prices not announced yet) which sounds alot (it’ll sound alot soon) but for a tablet thats not bad. Here (below) are the full US pricing.
Standard
16GB = $499
32GB = $599
64GB = $699
3G Option
16GB = $629
32GB = $729
64GB = $829

Basic known Specs
Display = 9″ (9.7 inches at 25cm) with IPS LED backlit LCD (1024×768) 4:3
Processor = 1Ghz Apple A4 custom-designed chip
Storage = 16GB, 32GB or 64GB flash memory.
Wireless = 802.11b/a/g/n with Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
3G Internet = Unlocked 7.2Mb/s HSDPA 3G connectivity (only on 3G version)
OS Version = iPhone OS (Custom)
Size = 9.56 inch (24.3cm) x 7.47 inch (19cm) x 0.5 inch (1.3cm / yes that thin!)

Overview
Yes we’re over already, have to say I would of preferred it if it wasn’t a complete iPad show as I do think alot of things were dragged out a bit. Apart from the classic status update at the start, iPod, Mac and iPhone weren’t really mentioned.
I personally don’t think this tablet will do as well as Apple are promoting it, yes its good but even I whos trying to promote it is struggling not to refer it as a large screen iPod Touch, apart from the 3G connectivity (open to all networks) option their really isn’t too much differences. So, sorry Apple but not impressed. But I actually don’t blame Apple, I blame rumour sites, we’d love it 10x more if no one had gone on rumour sites and spread information posted there as true. But oh well.

http://www.apple.com/iPad

Ben

http://rkukmedia.ning.com

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*60 days of Blog date.

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VIDEO OF THE APPLE iPAD.

Blog Sunday 24th January 2010 – New iMac and more

Well this has been a rather exciting weekend to be honest, well lets face it I’ve had an exciting Sunday. First of all I’ve got a 21.5″ iMac for £732, more on why it was that much in a minute. The iMac I’ve got has a 3.06Ghz Intel dual core processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive and … well the specs are here aren’t theyLINK. It also can be upgraded to 16GB of DDR3 RAM in the future. My basic first impressions of this system is, fast, beautiful and well I just love it. The 3.06GHz processor naturally puts my MacBook’s 2.4GHz to shame but you expect that, I just love everything. The wireless keyboard is awesome, and because its Bluetooth I can actually type a sentence upstairs whilst the iMac is downstairs, call me sad but I’ve tried it! I’d always had my doubts about the Magic Mouse but I have to say I absolutely love it, it looks amazing and is amazing to be honest. My favourite thing about the Magic Mouse is when you scroll you can scroll slowly, then woosh, your on the bottom of the page based on the speed of your scroll … you have to have one to understand.

Any problems with the iMac?
I can honestly say I haven’t had a single one, everything is working par so far! All you need is to look at it to love it. In fact my Dad’s just upgraded to Windows 7 on his Dell and he’s admitting the iMac is alot better so much for ‘I’m a PC’ on his part.

What? £732 … how?!
I got my iMac from Argos and that is exactly the reason why, to be honest I think I’m the last one to get it from that amazing bargain price. The price was not meant to be that much, all I’ve got to say is look in the Argos Cat. page 557, whilst Argos have noticed their mistake online by updating the Argos website displaying the iMac at £949, which in itself is £20 less than the standard Apple UK Store price, because its advertised as £732 in the Argos catalogue even the ones at the store its against the law for them not to sell it at that price, which they did. However before you run to the Argos stores to get yourself a £220 cheaper iMac, just be informed by me purchasing it, which was done by an Argos manager, now means it will be £949 no matter what, despite new catalogues still been given advertising the same price. They are also sorting the problem out with the 3rd party company that prints the catalogues. But for me, and wouldn’t surprise me, quite a few others, happy days. I now don’t have an empty bank balance on my birthday!

Best features of the iMac!
Apart from everything, by the way I’ll be upgrading it to 8GB DDR3 RAM soon, just to give it abit more grr, I was gonna do it to the max 16GB, but hey whats the point, put it this way 4GB that comes with its fast, 8GB will scream, 16GB will prob blow it up, well y know, plus there is the whole part of affording it. Anyway, best feature of the iMac to me is actually the speakers, seriously they are better than you’d expect, and I bet some people are reading this going, wow, the iMac has speakers! Don’t get me wrong speakers are better but I challenge you to find speakers better than the iMacs that are built in to a computer. And the screen is just to die for, whilst I wanted the 27″ model, based on the fact thats been having a few issues that are, slowly but surely, getting solved as time goes by, I’m glad I didn’t because with an iMac, or any PC attempt to copy it all-in-one, a 21.5″ display isn’t a 21.5″ display, it feels and is alot better than just a display and because its also a computer feels bigger. So yeh, speakers and display! I’ve heard the 27″ models speakers are even better!

Worst features of the iMac!
What worst features, seriously its all good, the only problem I had with it is I think the aluminium edges are a bit too sharp, but hey who touches desktops a lot, only when your moving it and thats rare.

Overall first impressions!
I keep forgetting I’ve only had it a few hours, love it, easily networked my MacBook to transfer files. I cannot anymore recommend the 21.5″ iMac, it just rocks at all you throw at it. I’ll have a 6 month review for you in … well, 6 months.

And that my first impressions of the iMac

E-Ya Later

Ben

http://rkukmedia.ning.com

Blog Monday 18th January – Week Blog, Apple News and more!

Well here we are in another blog, have to apologise for taking nearly two weeks, annoying thing for my typing hands is I’ve alot for this blog, argh they’re aching knowing whats coming up.

Since my last blog an individual of the UK other than me has become single, I’ve got some awesome Apple news that doesn’t involve me but involves some tablet thingy apparently. But we’ll get to the Apple News later.

Year of Jeremy Kyle in less than 15 lines!
So, think back a long time, it was the 6th my last blog, god I make this hard for myself. Anyway Rob broke up with his girlfriend which to be honest I’ve publicly shown kinda got on my nerves and he seemed to be diminishing as a person so be nice to see the old Rob back, welcome unmonitored Rob. Am I been harsh? Absolutely not, I don’t want to get too far into it but seriously she (un-named not for legal reasons like on the news just … actually I dunno why?) took the absolute mik, this was a year of Jeremy Kyle in 30 minutes, oh yeh! Anyway, the night took a while to end but it eventually did.
It all happened on yet another one of the days where people had off due to the major snow recently, we started sledging which was actually alot more fun that I thought it was gonna be, had my doubts. Then in the evening we decided to go to the pub then the night went from ‘notta bad night’ to, well. I knew something was up before we even started to be honest, something was bothering I’d say both sides, but anyway, long story (too long story to be normal) short, its over and thank god.

The Snow Incident
Speaking of the snow, this is the first week where it hasn’t started covered in snow, seriously I’ve had more or less a month off College due to the snow, which is good until you realise they aren’t gonna change due dates for work not even set yet, so expect tough catch up soon. Last Wednesday was kinda the only funny one, because after all the times it was closed when I had taken the journey their (just) because the site said it was open (useless that) on Wednesday I thought, well this is worst than ever, I’ll tell EMA I’m not going and I did, guess what College stayed open, but seriously that was the worst we’ve had, you were moving whilst standing still if that makes sense. I think the big most important reason not to go to College after the reasons I’d mentioned was I was just at the bottom of my street and a Transit van skidded and was literally (no lie) 5 metres away from me when it stopped skidding, and I don’t know about you but err… Life or College, I took Life so yeh walked back then.
But looks like the snows gone now right. …? … To be Continued.

Apple News
January 27th has been officially announced as the date of an Apple Event. Now unlike the 2007 MacWorld where it said ‘There’s Something in the Air’ for the MacBook Air, Apple aren’t giving anything away for this one, just colours and ‘Come see our latest creation’, its intriguing to say the least and we all can’t wait can we. Personally and I think everyone else thinks the star of the show is the tablet, because what other new product are they making. If the heading is to go by, they are introducing a new Apple product, not an update. Having said that a keynote is pretty dull just having one thing so I’d expect some iPhone 4.0 Software news, possibly the Intel advert that got axed could be brought back with a MacBook Pro update to give it Core i5 and i7 Quad Core processors maybe?
All anyone can say is lets wait and see, and we all can’t wait!

RKUK News
VEVO
VEVO is a music video site created by both YouTube and Universal Music Group to host high quality videos online for everyones enjoyment. Well, we have partnered with VEVO and so content on RKUK Selection DVDs will have help from VEVO. But don’t put VEVO aside, it may have had a shaky start on YouTube but trust me the player is fine now and if the content keeps coming this could be the end of music television and hello music on demand, NICE!
So, yeh don’t take VEVO lightly if they get it correct you’ll be loving it like hell, and we can’t wait till vevo.com comes to the UK as well.

But thats all for now, E-Ya Later

Ben

http://rkukmedia.ning.com

Sidenote: Yes I’ve forgot quite a few things probably all come back in a future blog.

Blog Wednesday 6th January 2010 – Longest Day Ever = Adventure, iMac and more!

I’m going to arrange this blog out a bit as there’s quite a lot to add. Expect, College … kinda again! Well, you’ve read the title, anyway!

Longest Day Ever = Adventure
Tuesday, the day after my day off from College due to not really the weather, more the heating, was here, and by god had it snowed alot! According to pretty much all news channels including ours (ho ho ho ho) its the most snow since the 70s, now unfortunately I can’t back this up but lets believe them because, well, there is a lot, most I’ve seen. Annoying to me was the fact that Dewsbury College on the website was open as usual, so I had the challenge of getting to College relying on public transport, Woo! Anyway when I got to College I noticed a bit of DeJa Vu from last year, only me and this time two more people were their and guess what, they decided last minute to close, IDIOTS!!! Let me explain. I wouldn’t be calling them idiots if I got home safely on the bus back, which arrived about 5 minutes after getting to the stop, yes I know, it was on time! So, got on the bus, I was still rather stressed that for whatever reason I had forgot me headphones, Damn Crows, anyway. So, the bus was going as coming, a bit slower than usual but moving, then we got to the halfway spot (Heckmondwike) and the bus driver came, “We’re stopping from here, we’re off t depot” (yes I meant the T by itself) so I was stuck in Heckmondwike, around 2 – 3 miles to where I wanted to be, according to a sign post, anyway. Well, I was pretty tired and annoyed, so I went to pay a visit to my Grandmas, if she didn’t live in Heckmondwike I would of either committed suicide or … well I haven’t actually thought that far, but ya know what I mean. Arrived on my Grandmas street fearing that they’d gone out but thank God (even though I’m atheist) they were in. Stayed their for around 2½ hours expecting it to get better, the weather by the way, but it didn’t so I went back out and risked it, and luckily one of the not many buses that were still running, because some drivers hadn’t turned up and the other reason been the weather itself, arrived, caught it and finally got home, all this had happened and it was only about 2:30PM when I got home, over a days events happened in half a day, phew! So, got in and that was that really. Had a nap, or so was planned, at 7;30PM as I was shattered, woke up at 11:30PM, yeh, just a small nap, I’m telling ya my iPhone has been terrible alarm wise recently, might as Susan Boyle to it, trust me that’ll wake me up “I dreamed a dream ….-” WAKING UP!!!!.

Wednesday (today)
I checked the useless Dewsbury College site last night and it was confirmed it is closed today, so this morning I didn’t wake up in the morning, if that makes sense, so today is kinda as Thursday in a way, which is another advantage, tomorrow even if they re-open as they are planning, its my day off anyway, so yeh quite a nice comeback week this isn’t it! So, unless ought happens, College only on Friday, I can deal with that! Bring on next week eh!

Mac mini or the iMac Ben?

Now in case you don’t know, March will be my ‘Year on a Mac’ as it were after the purchase of my MacBook Aluminium last year, this year I was planning to get a Mac mini, but I’ve been having a look at Apple’s site, (the lower price RKUK one) and it turns out if I want the 2.6Ghz Mac mini (2.53 configured) it would work out as £110 less than the first iMac, OK lets think about this. For an extra, call it £100 I can get an actual full blown computer with 21.5″ screen, bigger hard drive (320GB to iMacs 500GB), bigger processor (2.6Ghz to iMacs 3.06Ghz), wireless Apple Keyboard and new Magic Mouse (which come to nearly £100 themselves) and more ports (OK one, the SD Card Reader). So, yeh in the week off in March this year, its iMac purchase time, cannot wait!!! Plus seen as I already have a 21.5″ HP 1080p monitor due to my plan to get a Mac mini (which I’ve been using with my MacBook) I’ll also have dual monitors, oh yes. Also the Mac mini can only be upped to 500GB Hard Drive (iMac accepts 2TB), 4GB RAM (Both Come With / iMac can take up to 16GB) do I need to continue! Full specs of the iMac are athttp://www.apple.com/uk/imac/specs.html however that will show the standard prices rather than the RKUK Discount Price, see RKUK Media > RKUK > RKUK Promos for that link, UK Only!

…More!
OK, I’ll admit it, I don’t have much more to talk about, but I’m just too overexcited about getting an iMac, which lets be honest kicks the behind to the Mac mini, Woo, finally something to look forward too. Also in March I’ll be getting me a copy of the English version of Soul Silver which is released March 14th in North America (meaning English) if its not in Europe by end of March I’m importing a copy. Based on my gameplay of the Japanese one, apart from a few emulator issues (which everyones getting) I’m extreemly impressed plus the second generation was always my favourite even though I loved Team Galactic, and if Mars was human she’s be pretty … ya know what I mean.
Anyway, adding more Selection DVDs this week, Galactic Battle episodes are now been added to RKUK Media although you’ll have to refer to the Dailymotion links as their embed player doesn’t seem to be working, typical, or go to dailymotion.com/RKUKPokemonVids

But thats all for now, E-Ya Later with probably more weather news!

Ben

http://rkukmedia.ning.com

(Sidenote : Nokia are jealous idiotic b******s, get a life Nokia, you despise me > LINK)

Blog Monday 4th January 2010 – First Blog of 2010

Welcome to my first blog of 2010. Since my last blog, Christmas has happened, my less than epic new year celebration and my first day of College … kinda.

Christmas
Christmas Day was always going to be a bit less of a Christmas Day based on the fact this is the first year I’m not getting something big for Christmas, but I actually still had a sack full. I got 5 deodorant sets, OK gonna take the hint, that was quite offensive, although at the same time I was running out, some clothing and some shoes, oh and of course some chocolates. My main present was my Apple Care for my MacBook which was happily very easy to install, insert disc, load site link, enter box code and Mac serial number, WA-LAH! It also comes with a piece of software called ‘TechTools Deluxe’, which checks and diagnoses any hardware problems, which is always useful to have, might as well install that once the disc is in, part from that, once you’ve done that you probably literally will never need that disc ever again, seriously. And that was it really, part from some boring Christmas Dinners which is to be expected.

New Year
New Year in my opinion is the most pointless celebrated thing ever, woopty-du, a new year. So, as you can imagine I never really pull out the stops throughout the countdown, in fact I didn’t pull out any stops, although I did do something which is quite extraordinarily awesome, I’ve added all the YouTube videos from RKUK Entertainment to RKUK Media, but no not a boring embed to experience the bad YouTube player on another site, oh no, you can use our player, nice!

First Day of College … kinda
Well, today, being Monday, was the first day of College. I actually woke up rather well this morning considering the fact its a Monday and I’d a full day ahead of me, but oh well. I was surprised how warm it was, then I realised it was still inside, outside it was -5ºc, which is quite cold y’know. After I found my things I set off. Have to admit I have been missing my music listening on the bus, my music listening, ie through earphones, not normal bus noise that just makes you sick. Anyway, arrived at College, did the 50/50 guess to which of the only two rooms I ever go in for College, then found out that we weren’t going in that room because the heating wasn’t working in certain rooms and we maybe going home. Talk about giving us hope, we were then sent in to what was apparently a heated room, yeah right, then in an hours time, we were sent home, so at 10:20 (ish) I was on the bus home, this was after heading to Dewsbury to get a months pass, oh and check if anywhere in Dewsbury sell Bacon Fries, its my new obsession, why, cause they are for whatever reason, rare!
But that was it for my first day at College, hopefully the rest of this term are like this, as I hate College, I’d rather work from home to be honest anyway!

Selection DVDs
Oh and I’m going to be filling in the gaps in 2010 to put all the rest of the older Selection DVDs on RKUK Media, April is the expected finishing time, so far, as of this blog, 1-21, 27, 28, 29, 59 – present are currently on, we’re filling in the gaps. Selections 20 – 26 are to be done this week, 20 and 21 have been done so far.

Anything Else…
Er.. No.

Well thats it for now, E-Ya Later

Ben

http://rkukmedia.ning.com

Blog Christmas Eve … Eve December 23rd 2009

Welcome to the eve of Christmas Eve, oh yes, its almost Christmas, as in its only 2 days as of writing this, but to be honest I’m actually not looking forward to Christmas this year, I’m not saying I’m a Scrooge, although I do hate snow, which the weather has definitely been delivering rather worldwide in that department. Basically I’m not getting ought for Christmas, I think everyone gets to that age of where Christmas is basically like the 25th November or something just more decretive.

What are you getting for Christmas then?
Well, nothing really, my main present if you would call it that is Apple Care for my MacBook, which whilst is good meaning I will be covered till March 2011, which is awesome, y know its always best to have something that you can actually carry around with you, and carrying a disc and a box with you kinda isn’t really that good.

Did you want something for Christmas but couldn’t?
I’ve been wanting a Wii for quite a while, although based on the fact that my sister has one and I’m yet to see a game better than Wii Sports for the Wii kinda makes it less tempting, although the new black one would be nice! Everything else kinda isn’t out yet!

If those else were out what are they?
What a poorly laid out question, anyway. Basically next year I’m planning on getting things as soon as they come out. Basically the next iPhone, which will be Vodafone for me when the new one comes out for June/July time. Since 1997 I’ve been a constant fan of Pokémon and Heart Gold and Soul Silver are to be released in March in North America, basically meaning, in English, so I’ll be ordering a copy of that. The good thing about Nintendo games (apart from TV consoles) is they have no regions to there’s no PAL and NTSC to worry about.
And lastly, something I think I’ve already mentioned is a Mac Mini, the main reason I haven’t got one yet is based on how much I’ve got for it at the moment, probably get it just before my birthday then get some money for my birthday which I will then spend to improve the Mini, so woo! I had a close look at the Mac Mini when I recently went to the Apple Store and whilst its surprisingly heavy, still love it completely.

–

Life in General
Well seen as my last blog was 21st, nothing much can actually happen in two days especially when its the holiday season, basically I’ve got all my Christmas presents, all sorted now which is good, the only thing I haven’t rapped up is my Mums as its so small, but yeh!

Trip to Apple Store, Bacon Fries and more!
Lastly, yesterday I went to the Apple Store, well more precisely to Meadowhall in which has an Apple Store, I went with Rob, which after an unexpected visit with Ben ended up being a visit to the Apple Store with Rob, Ben and his GF. Whilst this wasn’t really ideal as only me and Rob care about Apple gear and understand how much better an Apple Store is rather than going to lets say, Comet or something, so the time in the Apple Store was alot less than was planned originally. So I had a look at the new massive 27″ iMac, which is massive! Also had a look at the new white MacBook, which really is the same as the previous one but thinner. Then I had a look at my future baby, the Mac Mini, to be my second Mac, well whilst having a tour of the Mac Mini was a lot quicker than the other two based on its actual size that was kinda over quickly, so yeh!

A cold wintery end to the day!
Due to the fact we had more joining us in the journey, we had more hassle, lets be honest was expected, so apart from finding multiple places that sell Bacon Fries, which is absolutely awesome, had 3 packs in one day and loved it! But one thing that I did find annoying, well based on the fact we ended up getting there when we actually would of preferred to get home, that was the first annoyance, baring in mind we set of at around 11:30AM, and we got there in mids hours of 4PM and based on the fact there was no late traffic, just based on hassle with extra people. But asiding that, when we eventually got to leaving, got train back, FINE, then we caught a bus to get home, go figure, then suddenly to find out that we were going to Dewsbury!!! OK, its freezing, we’re hours later than expected, its getting dark and we’re heading further away from home, so yeh I was not impressed. So, when we arrived in Dewsbury after an insaine phone call Rob had about buses, we found out Rob was coming to get his GF. So, completely and utterly pissed off I was about that, why? One, I would of 100% of gone home if I knew that we were going for that reason, Two, all I could do was stand around while Ben and Rob comforted their GFs, I’m sorry but anyone else would say “F*** it” and gone home on the next bus before them. So, when the time arrived when we were all going home we did and I had the most boring bus journey of my life, then when we got home, we stood in the minus temperatures as they continued with what they were doing at Dewsbury, and I just couldn’t stand any longer of it so I went home! And ya know the worst thing about this, they’ll read this and call me unreasonable, unbef***inglievable

Summary
So, a day with the potential to be my favourite day in December ended being the worst, thanks guys! Although I do now have alot of Bacon Fries stockests. Ooo, and I didn’t mention the Magic Mouse at Apple Store, I found it awesome, guess some people have weird hands!

Anyway, thats all for now, probably next blog will be next year so err. Happy 2009 and Merry Christmas from me and all the team at RKUK Media, E-Ya Later

Ben

http://rkukmedia.ning.com

Blog Saturday 19th December 2009

Well, its the holidays, more precisely, the Christmas Holidays, oh yes! Whilst I may have made that last sentence sound like I’m totally exited about the christmas holidays well quite frankly I’m not this year, why? well because of the children meaning of christmas isn’t really that effective this year, ie. the presents. This year my main present for christmas is Apple Care, not that I don’t want it, of course I want an extended warranty up to 3 years meaning it will end March 2011 for my MacBook, also with additional add-on tools to help me diagnose any issue I have along the way, but y’know, its more exciting when you get something you can feel, touch, take out etc.
However, next year I’m going to be getting quite a lot of cool stuff anyway so thats fine, I’m going to be getting a Mac Mini for my birthday, well, I’m saving up for it, so I’ll be getting stuff for it, Soul Silver a month after then a new iPhone when it comes out, oh yes, me is all planned. The funny thing is my parents think I’m very un-controlling with my money, yeah.
Anyway, whilst Joe won the X Factor last week I can confirm based on reports of the Saturday sales that he is more or less guaranteed to be number …. 2 tomorrow, based on reports today, unless a miracle happens which could only happen with the X Factor. Yep a song that was crap in 1992 is beating actually not a bad song, as I said before, pity it had to be a Miley Cyrus, who is the second worst thing to come from America to our country after black music.
Anyway, on a lighter note, I’ve added a wallpaper to RKUK Media to add to the white RKUK Media logo, and trust me that is as Christmasy as we are getting, I mean, come on, we’ve got a christmas section featuring pretty much all Christmas Songs we can think of what more do you want!
One thing that is cool that I’ve added to RKUK Media is a Mac version of No$GBA, we are currently the only place that has this, seriously, feels good to be exclusive, check it out by going to the RKUK tab at the top and selecting Downloads from the tab, this is on RKUK Media by the way.

But that all thats mattered to me since my last blog, so errr E-Ya Later

Ben

http://rkukmedia.ning.com