Okay The new MacBookPros came out today and three of the four models sport the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 512MB graphics card. and I say card because these reportedly use the NVIDIA MXM graphics card connector. I remember a while back that I read in a Gizmodo article that the new 24″ iMacs used the MXM connector and were theoretically upgradeable. Do you see where I’m going with this?
Hardware-wise the Apple TV is super-fly. 802.11n, component and HDMI or even DVI (with an adaptor) video output, Toslink digital audio, and USB 2.0.
Lets take a look at the new features:
Prices are $2,799 for the 17-inch Pro, $2,499 for the high-end 15-inch Pro, $1,999 for the low-end Pro, $1,099 and $1,299 for the MacBooks and $1,499 for the black MacBook. All of the models, except the lowest-end MacBook have a superdrive (Writes CDs and DVDs). The lowest-end only writes CDs, but can read DVDs.
The Apple Store online appears to have all models in stock, listed as shipping in either 24 hours for MacBooks, or 1-3 days and 2-4 days for MacBook Pros.
At the center of rumors about new MacBook Pros this week is the Penryn processor, a new Intel processor. What this will mean is a smaller, cooler, slightly faster processor that is a little easier on battery life as well.
The Penryn processor is already in other machines, such as the HP Pavilion.
There is something new in the Penryn, something called “SSE4”. This is a set of instructions built to improve performance when encoding audio, video and images. There is also a speed boost for the Level 2 cache.
There is also a mode where the processor almost completely shuts down an requires almost no power while sleeping, though we don’t know how well new MacBooks would take advantage of this.
For most of us, this just means that the MacBooks will get a little faster, and maybe the battery will last a little longer.
Gary Rosenzweig looks at ways to protect your MacBook from being stolen, and how to prepare for the worst. Methods include: cable locks, security software, backing up and insurance.
The rumors are pretty strong that we’ll see three new models of MacBook Pros tomorrow as well as Time Capsules shipping.
The Time Capsules are reportedly in this weeks Best Buy printed flyer, and the stock numbers for the new MacBook Pros have been entered into Best Buy’s Point of Sale system, according to multiple forum posters on the MacRumors website.
The rumored features of the new Macbook Pros include multi-touchpads ala the MacBook Air and LED backlighting on the 17″ Models. Also Penryn processors are anticipated, one hopes that the Penryns run cooler than the current processors, which seem to run just below the melting point of the Macbook Pro’s Aluminum case.
Don’t hold your breath for iPhone SDKs tomorrow, most are saying that the SDKs wont ship for another two weeks.
I was drooling over the features of the 32GB iPod Touch, and thinking to myself that it may be the most perfect portable media device in the world. At 32GB it can hold most of my music and a couple movies. I was dreaming of kicking back on my next plane flight and watching a widescreen movie in widescreen with stereo sound in my Bluetooth wireless headphones… but wait, the iPod Touch doesn’t have Bluetooth? This has me scratching my head. When they were stripping down the iPhone to make the Touch, I can understand why they didn’t put a camera in it, but why did they leave out the speaker, the mic and the Bluetooth? I can believe it’s a cost issue, the 8GB Touch is a hundred bucks cheaper than an 8GB Phone, and the 32GB Touch is the same price as the iPhone 16GB.
I still can’t justify getting an iPhone myself, but for most I can see why they would spend their half a grand on an iPhone over a Touch. I would consider a Predam iPhone, but as of firmware update 1.1.3, no A2DP stereo Bluetooth on the iPhone either.
I know I could just buy a $49 iCombi stereo Bluetooth adaptor for the Touch or the iPhone. But that is just plain ugly and ruins the elegance of the device. C’mon Apple, have the Bluetooth fairy bring us A2DP Bluetooth in the next iPod touch and implement A2DP in the next iPhone update, please.
If you believe the rumors, the iPhone SDK is going to be delayed until March. But the SDK is more than just a “development kit,” it will most likely also come with a distribution method.
Two worlds collide here: the mobile phone world and the computer software world. In the mobile phone world, you get your application on a phone by making a deal with the phone company. And you need to have money and power to do that. They are the gatekeepers, and act as the distributors of the applications, collecting money and paying royalties to the developer/publisher. They only allow a few applications at a time, and have no direct way to contact them. It is all back-room deals.
On the other hand, computer software is a complete open distribution. Anyone can make a Mac application, distribute it, and collect money, keeping it all. Apple even gives us the tools to make applications, right down to an installer builder. Tons of 3rd party application companies, from Microsoft and Adobe to single-person shops in spare bedrooms offer great software. Apple also seems to be happy to feature everyone on the Apple.com Web site.
So which of these two extremes will be the model for 3rd-party iPhone applications? Will Apple insist that approved apps be downloaded only through iTunes store and then pay royalties? Or will Apple just open it up? Maybe something in between?
If Apple follows the path of the mobile phone companies and keeps a tight reign on distribution, then that is bad news. This has only lead to the stifling of innovation. For instance, the mobile phone companies favor boring game clones featuring licensed characters over innovative play. A single person with a great idea can’t hope to see their app on a phone unless they have the time and money to deal with business issues.
No matter how great the SDK is when it comes out, and how excited developers are about it, look for the distribution model to predict how successful 3rd-party applications will be.
My Plantronics .Audio 910 completes me. I cannot say enough about this magical little device. I’ve owned nice headsets before, but all have been wired. If I had known the joyous sense of freedom a Bluetooth headset provides, I would have gotten one a long time ago.
The .Audio 910 is so light weight I forget I’m wearing it. And in my humble opinion, it has a much sexier form factor than most of the Bluetooth headsets out there. And if the flashing blue light makes you feel more like a dork than a power-user, there is a setting that will turn it off.
Perhaps most importantly, this single ear piece does the work of two: the .Audio 910 will sync with both your computer and your Bluetooth enabled phone, letting you switch channels between the two with the touch of a button. According to the manual, it lasts for 6 hours of talk time, which may be ample for a typical user, especially if you are primarily using it to talk on your mobile. However in a perfect world, I’d like a longer battery, since I enjoy listening to various streaming media from my computer through the day. To remedy this problem, I intend to purchase another and alternate charging the two.
Why? Because this headset completes me. I would have it surgically implanted if I could, and perhaps it could draw bio-energy from caffeine consumed. Attention Plantronics: if you happen to be looking for human test subjects, I’d happily volunteer to be transformed into the first Bluetooth Bionic Woman. But until science opens the door to cyborg-dom, the current off-the-shelf version of the Plantronics .Audio 910 makes my world a better place to live and play. You can pick yourself up one for an MSRP of 150 dollars, but with only minimal cyber-sleuthing you can bag one for under $100.
My friend Dave Taylor posted his list of critical Mac software at his blog today. While I like his choices of Firefox and SnapzPro, and agree that the rest are all useful, my list would be quite different.
First, I wouldn’t recommend Microsoft Office to anyone, unless they had a critical need for something that was 100% compatible with other Office users. Otherwise, iWork is far cheaper and will get you where you need to go. Office is $400, which is a lot to spend for the casual Mac user.
Dave recommeds 1Password, and I hear good things about it, but I have been using Password Retriever for years and love it.
GraphicConverter makes a lot of people’s lists, but it always seemed a little buggy to me. For a little more money, I’d get PhotoShop Elements.
My favorite FTP program is Transmit. It works well with another critical piece of software for me: BBEdit. But more casual users may want to get TextWrangler instead.
I still use StuffIt as my main compression tool.
Dave seems to be much more into IM and Twitter than I am, so iChat and Twitter’s Web interface are fine for me.
But I’ll have to add Audacity to my list as an audio editor, and a free one at that. Also, I love VoodooPad, a small but powerful Wiki application that allows me to take notes and keep track of things in ways that calendars and to-do lists can’t.
Okay, say you’re NOT an Idol fan, but you’re a Mac fan, Why should you care that the iTunes store is selling the performances from this years American Idol?
It means there are going to be about a bazillion PC users that are going to be installing iTunes and Quicktime on their PCs. And they will be setting up purchasing accounts in iTunes And after they’ve purchased and downloaded all their favorite performances. They are going to be buying a lot more music in iTunes. in other words Idol is going to be the Gateway drug to iTunes, iPods and eventually all things Apple.
It means the stock will go up and the reality distortion field will widen and we’ll have iTablets in no time.
It means that iTunes could become the Tivo in the Cloud, where people will drop their cable subscriptions and get all their TV shows ala carte on iTunes.
It means that rabid Idol fans are going to mob Apple stores demanding more Apple TVs, So they can keep the next Carrie Underwood’s performance immortalized in HD.
It means that Simon and Steve will be Kings of the world!
Okay, I’m blowing this out of proportion but isn’t that the stuff that dreams are made of, just like American Idol.
Maybe it it’s the geek in me, But I like dials, gauges, graphs, and blinking lights. Whether it’s my car or my computer I like to pretend I know what’s going on with it.
I like deciphering the blinking lights of my OBDII reader to learn that, yes, I am going to have to buy an O2 sensor for my car soon. That’s why I like The Activity Monitor on my Macs.
I’ve read in a few places how the “Xbox 360 Live Vision Camera” might be a good replacement for the no-longer-sold stand-alone iSight camera. With Leopard (and Tiger 10.4.9) you can now use a variety of standards-based Web cameras with Macs. Just plug-and-play. And at $33 at Amazon.com, this Xbox camera seems like a bargain, and people are reporting excellent quality.
But after getting one, I was very disappointed. First off, the camera is manual focus. That puts it down a step from most other Web cameras. It is 1600×1200, which is nice, but the resulting quality at 640×480 is poor compared to the built-in iSight in iMacs and MacBooks.
It does plug-and-play, but I couldn’t get it to work with iMovie or PhotoBooth, as it only wanted to use the built-in iSight. I did get it to work with WireCast and QuickTime Pro.
The big show-stopped for me was the color quality. Very poor. The color was way off and no amount of lighting seemed to fix it.
So, this might be a good, cheap Web camera for chatting or having fun, but not for making any video.
The Web browser market is starting to look like the stock market. Currently Firefox’s stock seems to be going down and Safari’s is going up. Opera seems to just hang in there and IE for Mac is trading as a penny stock.
It’s got to the point that I have both Safari and Firefox open most of the time, just so I can navigate sites that don’t support one or the other. Maybe, I’ll have to have yet another browser open now. Flock is a new web Browser whose raison d’être is to consolidate your Web 2.0 rock and roll lifestyle.
Flock uses tabs to keep tabs on your various social networking sites. Your Facebook ,Twitter , Flickr, and You Tube friends and timelines are all under the People tab and your Flickr, Photo Bucket and You Tube photos and videos are under the Media tab, and You can sort all of your RSS and other feeds under the Feeds tab. Other cool features in Flock are an accounts tab to keep track of all your web accounts and passwords, and you can post to your blogs and upload photos all within the browsers interface.
All this stuff is cool, but maybe it’s just shyness, but I’m not quite ready to make Flock my default Web browser… yet.
First, it takes about an hour just to configure the thing to work with all your sites and once you’re done with the ordeal, you kind of wonder if you could have done the same thing in Firefox with tabs and an add-on. Secondly, I’ve got to put it through it’s paces as a plain ol’ web browser to see how compatible and fast it is before I trust it as my main browser.
I have run into one snafu trying to get it to log onto my blogs to post, but I want to figure it out a bit before I declare it a bug.
If you are heavily social networked, Flock may be your new browser, Saving you time logging onto all those sites, so that you can waste more time networking.
Flock is available as a free download at flock.com.
