MacBook Air Update Update:
Still haven’t gathered enough courage to run the update since I love CoolBook too much. Seems like Apple has limited the proc speeds to 800MHz during heavy load to prevent overheating and eventual core shutdown. Can’t say that solution sounds too appealing to me.

Olevia Woot
The Olevia 65″ LCD HDTV for $2300 from Woot looks like such a sweet deal. Do want. Badly. Just not sure about the support… The whole bankruptcy thing kind of scares me. Still, I’ve heard nothing but good things about Olevia and was seriously considering picking up an Olevia back in the day. Not enough time for me to do adequate research. I’ll have to pass and wait for maybe a woot-off or a super deal at Sam’s Club.

iPhone 3G battery life…
…sucks. Yes, I do have bluetooth/wifi/3G turned on which does drain the battery, but isn’t that the point? “Hey, my iPhone 3G with 3G/wifi disabled gets 1,000,000 hours of battery life.” After about 9 hours, I drop down to 20% battery life. The dreaded red. From there, it just gets worse. And that’s with pretty normal usage. No videos, no music. Just occasional web surfing. The bluetooth connection must be staying active and just killing the battery…
UPDATE 11:09PM: I must say, the iPhone 3G has charged pretty quickly. I went from the dreaded red (10%) to fully charged in around 2 hours. I was using it during that time, too (voice calls). I’m GTG for my flight which is taking off in one hour. Maybe it’s time to look at a battery pack.

Dial-a-human
Saw this on Lifehacker today. It’s just a list of phone numbers and the key prompts to press to connect to a real-life operator. I’m just throwing this link on here to bookmark for myself. Hopefully you’ll find it useful, too.

Dial A Human via [Lifehacker]

That’s all for today.

I discovered the problem after playing YouTube videos (or any videos, really) or just using my computer on my bed, thus blocking the air vent on the bottom of the computer. Basically, one core out of the two would shut down to prevent overheating and as a result, my MBA would become super slow, as in unusable. To remedy this problem, I picked up CoolBook which undervolts the processor. I used Rob Randtoul’s (via Paul Stamatiou) settings to undervolt the MBA. Since that time, I’ve experienced no core shutdowns. Seems like Apple has fixed the problem, while also recommending the uninstallation of CoolBook. While not mentioning it by name, Apple does include this tasty morsel:

Third-party software that modifies processor operating characteristics such as frequency and voltage is not supported and should be removed before installing this update.

Normally, I love playing guinea pig and trying out these new updates, but since CoolBook has been so effective, I think I’m going to wait this one out and see what the other MBA owners have to say.

I walked in to the AT&T store on Monday and ordered an iPhone for my sister and an iPhone for me (one white 16GB and one black 16GB). My sister’s white iPhone arrived the next day (yesterday) and my black iPhone arrived today.

Both came loaded with the 2.0.1 firmware. Now I have to get rid of the N95… Sling, please release an iPhone client ASAP!

This is a nice gesture to hopefully appease some of the users who have been more seriously affected by the rocky MobileMe launch.

The Apple Knowledge Base article is located here.

I’ve copied the FAQ after the jump, if you’re feeling lazy.

This is from the Apple KB article.

Why is Apple granting a 60-day subscription extension?
The transition from .Mac to MobileMe was rockier than we had hoped. While we are making a lot of improvements, the MobileMe service is still not up to our standards. We are extending subscriptions 60-days free of charge to express appreciation for our members’ patience as we continue to improve the service.

Am I eligible for the 60-day extension?
You are eligible if you are a MobileMe member whose account was active as of August 19, 2008 at 0:00 Pacific Daylight Time.

What if I am currently in a free trial period?
If you were in your free trial period on August 19 at 0:00 Pacific Daylight Time, your free trial will be extended an additional 60 days.

I already received an extension recently. Am I still eligible for the 60-day extension?
Yes. As long as you meet the conditions stated above, you will receive an additional 60-day extension. Read this article for more information about prior service extensions.

When will the 60-day extension be applied to my account?
Your 60-day extension will be applied to your account within the next few days. You can check your account page on me.com to verify the change when it occurs.

My account is going to expire in the next few days. What will happen to me?
A 60-day extension will be applied and your account will not expire until you have reached your new expiration date. If you recently received an email stating your account will expire soon (or you saw similar messaging while using MobileMe), please ignore it.

My account is up for automatic renewal in the next few days. What will happen to me?
If your account is set to renew before the 60-day extension is applied, it will renew as normal and you will be charged the applicable amount. When the 60-day extension is applied, it will be added to your new subscription period free of charge.

I have purchased an upgrade. Will my upgrades also be extended?
The 60-day extension applies to any purchased upgrades, such as additional storage or a Family Pack upgrade.

I want to buy an upgrade. Will that also be extended?
Yes, any upgrades you purchase before your extension period begins will be extended to your new contract date. However, you will not be able to purchase upgrades during your extension period.

I have an activation key. Will I lose my extension if I apply the key now?
If you are currently in your trial period, you will lose the remainder of your trial period —including any extensions— as soon as you apply your activation key. If you already have a paid subscription, you can enter your key at any time and Apple will automatically apply the key to renew your subscription after your extension period expires.

Stopped by Jim Neely’s Interstate BBQ and ordered a chopped pork shoulder sandwich. I thought “pulled” was the way it was supposed to be, but who am I to argue? This place knows BBQ. You can choose to get coleslaw on the side or on the sandwich (I went with on the sandwich.) I was really tempted by the BBQ spaghetti which is apparently pasta topped with chopped pork.

The sandwich was huge. Seriously, it was one of those sandwiches where half the meat falls off the sandwich and you still feel like the sandwich in its half-meated capacity is still hearty enough. The only complaint I had was that the bread had started to soak up some of the BBQ sauce, making it a bit soggy, but maybe I didn’t eat it quickly enough. I would have taken a picture, but I was too hungry. Sorry. Next time. It looked something like this picture from the website, only better.

Neely's Interstate BBQ MMmmMmm

Next time I’m in Memphis (knowing Northwest, it will be too soon), I also plan on stopping by Corky’s, which is also in the airport and supposedly has amazing BBQ as well. Where’s the best BBQ you’ve had?

I buy a crapload of stuff from Amazon. I have an Amazon Prime subscription and most of the stuff that I ship two-day (free with Prime) usually comes the next day. Prices on Amazon fluctuate quite a bit. Only recently did I realize that Amazon has a 30-day price guarantee. The downside is that you have to track the price yourself over the 30-day period. However, there are two sites that will track the price for you. One is RefundPlease, the other is FlamingoWorld’s Amazon Price Drop Tracker.

At both sites, you just enter the ISBN/ASIN number, the price, the date you purchased the item, and your email address. If you’re worried about spam, you can just use a throwaway email address. Just make sure you check it!

Once you receive an email notification that the price has dropped, then go here: Amazon’s Return & Refunds Contact Form.

Log in with your user/pass and your recent orders should pop up. Let’s take my awesome recent purchase, the ice cream maker, as an example. Check the order whose price has dropped then click the Email button under customer service.

Now, under the issue dropdown box, select refund inquiry.

Then in the message box, just explain that the price of your item, <ITEM NAME HERE>, that you purchased on <PURCHASE DATE HERE> has dropped from $XXX.XX to $XX.XX and that you would like a refund of the price difference. You should receive an email from Amazon issuing the refund. I’ve recently used this to recover $20.00 from the price of my A/V receiver.

Easy peasy.

It appears that the deal has returned, albeit not as good as the last one.

Now you can save $100 from the $449.99 retail price. Still an awesome deal, considering right now the 60GB Xbox 360 Pro is selling for $350. So basically for the same price, you get the black 360, a 120GB HDD vs a 60GB, two games (of questionable value, but hey, they’re free and Forza 2 is great), and two faceplates (also of questionable value, but again, they’re F-R-E-E).

Head over to Dell Home and enter coupon code V8Q199$GCXJWL$ at checkout. The code expires on 8/20. This makes me wonder if the Elites are being cleared out for a new model. Supposedly price cuts are coming in September on all models, but even then, the Elite is rumored to be dropping to $400, which is still $50 more than this deal. Doesn’t matter, if you need a 360 now, this is a sweet deal.

Xbox 360 Elite bundle [Dell Home] via Fatwallet
Use coupon code V8Q199$GCXJWL$ at checkout (EXP 08/20)

This one is electric and apparently, all you have to do is freeze the container for about a day, then pour your ingredients in and start the machine. My machine just came in yesterday so I’m waiting for it to freeze completely before testing it out.

For recipes, I settled on the highly rated Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book, which has a few recipes for sweet cream (the base on which most ice cream flavors are built upon) as well as some of their more popular recipes, including my favorite, Cherry Garcia. Now I just need to figure out how to make Americone Dream…

I’ll let you know how my ice cream experimentation goes.