New toys

I'd been tracing my recent Apple Store order and was frustrated to see that my order had shipped and was in a depot in the UK. The assigned courier company was TNT, and I finally established that delivery was due this morning. I contacted them, and they phoned back at 10.40 to say delivery would be within half an hour. Sure enough, the door bell rang just after 11.00.

I'd been planning a change for some time from my old reliable iBook G4, but had been waiting for the announcement of a new model MacBook. When the announcement came and the new model MacBook turned out not to have a Firewire port, I decided then and there to order the previous-generation MacBook instead. I maxed the spec to 4GB RAM and a 250 GB drive, and ordered a wireless keyboard for my iMac while I was at it.

I went through the usual excitement of unpacking everything, and then set up the MacBook. I was surprised at how many software updates needed to be installed (7 on a first run, 4 on a second one, and another two after that). Then it was time to connect it up to the iMac and to use Firewire Target Disc Mode to transfer my iTunes library and music files from iMac to MacBook. All this took quite a while to complete, and when it was all done I was immediately faced with the realisation that I really need to get a decent-capacity external drive to store my music on. Actually, I really need to think long and hard about just what function the new machine will serve in the scheme of things. Basically it's intended to be the new entertainment hub for the house, with the iMac moving upstairs to become my work machine, replacing my old swan-neck iMac.

What I need to sort out once and for all is the whole question of music storage and how everything comes together on my wireless network.