I wrote the app because I don’t sync my iPad with the computer where we store all of our photos, but from time to time I like to grab a photo from the iPhoto library without having to sync.

I just submitted a new point release that fixes a few crashers and other bugs to the App Store, but go ahead and take a look at this one and let me know what you think.

Free Promo Codes!

Just for the readers of this site! If you’re interested in the app, send an email to promocodes at cimgf dot com with the subject line PhotoGrab Promo Codes. I will send an email containing a promo code to the first 50 I receive (since the Apple only issues 50 of them per version). Be patient with me as I will be responding manually as I receive the messages. It will be first come, first served. Otherwise, check it out in the App Store. Promo codes are only valid in the US App Store.

Update on Promo Codes

I have received a lot of email requests for promo codes and will be sending them to the first 50 by the end of the day today (06/23/2010). If you do not receive a code by the end of the day, you were not in the first batch. When the next release hits the App Store, I will have another 50 at my disposal and will send those to the next group. Thanks for your interest.

I normally post my nighttime plans on twitter (@mzarra) so if you are interested in having a chat then that is the best way to track me down. I will also be tweeting which sessions I am going to throughout the day.

I look forward to seeing everyone there, it should be very interesting as always.

Last year I wore t-shirts for Zarra Studios and got quite a few compliments. These days I am becoming more known for this blog than anything else. Therefore, I am doing different t-shirts this year to celebrate this blog. As a reader of this blog you have an opportunity to purchase one of these shirts. They will only be run for WWDC so they are limited edition! :)

While the design is not complete yet, here is the first public draft of the T-Shirts:

Currently, the plan is to take them with me to WWDC and hand them out to those who have purchased one right after the keynote on Monday. If you are not going to WWDC but would still like to order a T-Shirt, that is also doable but naturally shipping costs will be involved.

The price per shirt will be $20.00 US. If you are interested in purchasing one or more, please contact me at marcus at cimgf dot com and I will work out the details. Right now I am processing orders manually but if they get too crazy then I may set up an actual shopping cart. Quantities are limited so act now! ;-)

Lastly, to follow Justin’s great idea. I am interested in trading T-shirts with other WWDC attendees. If you have a NEW shirt that you would like to trade for a CIMGF shirt, please contact me at marcus at cimgf dot com to plan a swap.

All Orders must be received and paid for by the 19th of May, 2008. Any orders received after that date can be shipped but cannot be delivered to WWDC.

Legal Junk

It is not my intention to make a profit on these t-shirts. I am offering them to readers at the approximate production cost. It is not my intent to mass produce these t-shirts with the goal of making a profit. If the production run comes close to or exceeds 500,000 t-shirts (wouldn’t that be amazing!) then the artwork on the back of the t-shirts may change due to restrictions in the license agreement.

For those who are also interested in our development environments, hardware, etc. then please read on.

First Impressions

While I was at Mac World 2008, I was very tempted to purchase a MacBook Air immediately. Every day that I was there, I would stop by the table full of MBAs and play with them. I tried desperately to find something that I didn’t like about the MBA that was strong enough to stop me from buying one. By the end of the week I decided that after 30 days, if the impulse was still there, I would buy one.

Two weeks ago, I purchased the 1.6Ghz HDD model.

For the past two weeks I have been using the MBA exclusively as my primary machine. Fortunately I do not have a large video collection or music collection that I carry around with me so that space was not an issue. I do not work with iMovie, Garage Band or any of the other applications that make hard drives cry. I moved my entire development space over to the MBA with close to 30GB to spare.

My impressions? This is a great machine. I think at the very least it is a perfect second machine for when you are not sitting in your office coding away. For me, I like to be mobile. I have a hard time working in the same physical space for more than a couple of days at a time so ultra portable sings a very persuading song to me. As a development machine I have almost no complaints. My only complaint is discussed in detail below. When it is working correctly it is more than fast enough to develop on and the screen size is plenty.

So what is wrong?

There is one issue with the MBA that might be a manufacturing defect, might be a firmware issue or may very well be something else entirely.

In some situations, the second core of the CPU goes away. I don’t mean slows down, becomes dumb, I mean completely goes away to the point that iPulse shows all of its stats as ‘nan’ i.e. Not A Number — GONE.

Sometimes this happens when it gets very hot (over 70c); sometimes this happens when I am doing huge file transfers over USB (initial Time Machine backups); but mostly it happens when I am dealing with video or trying to play a video game (I love Reaction). When I first discovered the problem, I immediately went to the Apple Discussion Forums to see if anyone else had run into the issue.

After reading a few posts I discovered that this is indeed a known problem and most of the posters thought it was a manufacturing defect. Since this is the first version of a totally new product, that made complete sense to me and I breathed a sigh of relief. A quick trip to Denver would cure the issue.

So, I backed up the machine via Time Machine (which took forever due to the above mentioned problem), and headed to Denver. After a rather long wait and an interesting time convincing the head genius that I was not an idiot, a hardware diagnostic confirmed that there was an issue and my MBA was promptly replaced.

Upon returning home and starting the Time Machine restore, the problem immediately returned. The backup started with an estimated 55 minutes and ended up taking close to 4 hours due to the second core intermittently shutting down. Another trip to Apple was required.

Since my experience at one store was less than stellar, I decided to hit another store (Denver is fortunate enough to have 4 stores), to get a different Genius and hopefully get an MBA from a different lot. After a shorter period of time the MBA was replaced a second time. This time I was smart though — I went to lunch in Denver and tested the machine while I was still close to the store. This third machine performed perfectly, no issues at all even while playing WoW, watching two quicktime videos and copying 8 gigs off a backup drive. Definitely appeared to be a manufacturing defect.

Alas, when I returned home and plugged the machine, the issue returned. My guess is that the CPU automatically steps down when on battery and never hits the “crash point” of shutting down a CPU. This really makes me think that the issue is in the firmware. At that point I decided that three MBAs was enough and decided to keep this third one for the present.

So that is my one issue with the MBA. An issue that I am confident will be resolved either via firmware or by another swap with a revision B model later this year.

Conclusion

Knowing what I know now, would I still have purchased it? Without a doubt. Once they get this issue resolved the machine is going to be very close to perfect for my needs. Even with the issue I am loving this little machine. The weight and form factor make it a joy to work with.

Am I saying this is the perfect machine for everyone? No. I am an early adopter. I like to play with technology that is so new that it has a high chance of not working perfectly right away.