1 TB HD in a MacBook Pro

As we expected it as the 1 TB Western Digital Scorpio Blue is now available, a reader from XLR8Yourmac installed a unit in his MacBook Pro Unibody.

This allows us to remind some readers that:

1. Unlike previous models, one can install 12.5 mm thickness HD in a Unibody MacBook Pro. 
2. Despite using the new 4 KB block formatting technology, this new HD is working perfectly well in a Mac OS X-based computer and offer performance levels corresponding to its 5,400 rpm and 8 MB of cache.

Best integration could be the entry level SSD we were talking about and replace the optical drive by the 1 TB Scorpio Blue. 

New: Sonnet Tech D800P2 Fusion RAID

Sonnet Technologies' D800P2, a new addition to its line of Fusion RAID systems, features eight drive bays, dual eSATA port multipliers, capacities from 4TB to 16TB, and support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, and JBOD.
Read more [MacInTouch]

Sonnet introduces Fusion D800P2 Eight-Drive RAID storage system

Posted by Dennis Sellers

Sonnet Technologies has introduced the latest addition to its Fusion line of RAID storage systems: the D800P2.

Product News: HP Announces New Officejet 4500 All-in-One Printer

SAN FRANCISCO - On Thursday, Hewlett Packard announced its new Officejet 4500 All-in-One series at Macworld with professional quality color printing, wired or wireless connectivity, and four-in-one functionality.



Read more [The Mac Observer]

Expo Notes: Walking the storage beat

James Galbraith reports on some of the storage products exhibited at Macworld Expo, including new offerings from Verbatim and Sonnet Technologies.



Read more [MacUser]

Attention: external USB disks from various constructors, continued

In October, we had spoken to you about the disappointment of a reader of XLR8Yourmac after buying an external Western Digital hard drive, with the thought of swapping it with the internal disk in his machine. 

The USB interface was integrated into the electronics of the disk, and there was no SATA connector.

Another reader of this site has raised a new problem of a similar type. He bought a 2,5" External Seagate and thought that he could install it in his portable. It had a SATA interface, however there was another problem. 

The disk does not have a standard size, as the photograph shows: 9,5 mm on the right and the 12,5 mm on its left. Thus, this disk is at least 15 mm, which makes it too large even for recent Macbook Pro. The market of external disks is now so developed that the manufacturers can allow themselves to manufacture specific products. A disk directly equipped with an interface USB allows the saving of some dollars. Other changes, such as in this case, allows an increase of the capacity by putting more platters, which is easier than increasing the density.

Parallels enhances virtualisation for Apple servers

Completes bare metal hypervisor range

Parallels has enhanced its bare metal offerings by launching its bare metal hypervisor for Apple XServe.

Parallels goes bare-metal on Apple's Xserve

New version of Parallels Server for Mac is aimed at companies standardizizing on Mac hardware and at cloud services providers eyeing Mac OS X capabilities.
Read more [News.blog: Apple]

Parallels goes bare-metal on Apple's Xserve

New version of Parallels Server for Mac is aimed at companies standardizizing on Mac hardware and at cloud services providers eyeing Mac OS X capabilities.
Read more [CNET News.com]

Parallels announces Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition

Posted by Dennis Sellers

Parallels says it’s extending its server virtualization offerings for Apple environments with the introduction of the world’s first bare metal hypervisor solution for the Apple Xserve: Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition.

Parallels intros Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition

Extends Xserve virtualisation offerings capabilities for businesses and cloud services provider

Parallels, a provider of cloud services automation and virtualisation software, has announced Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition.

February 10 in LEM history

93: LC III - Color Classic - PowerBook 165c - Centris 610 and 650 - Quadra 800 - 99: iMac flaws - 00: Plain old email - 03: Xserve, 1.33 GHz - 1993: Apple rolls out 6 new models at once - Cheerleading, misinformation, and moving ahead - Wacom Graphire2 - 05: Ultimate spam email - 06: TopXNotes Classic - PPC emulator adds Classic to Macintel
Read more [Low End Mac]

Hexacore Xeon-based Mac Pro Soon: Part II

To confirm our previous information, other sources indicate that the new Mac Pro would come around March, 16. Apparently only the high-end Intel Xeon Core i7-980X will initially be available. Clocked at 3.33 GHz, its TurboBoost mode will allow it to reach 3.6 GH. The Core i7-970X will be clocked at 3.2 GHz, with a 3.46 GHz TurboBoost.

If Intel only releases initially a single hexacore Xeon, then Apple will not have much choice and most likely only the high-end model of Mac Pro will evolve. So, the offer should then evolve to faster quad core CPU and lower price for entry level models.

We also suspect that Apple will take the opportunity of this "refreshment of the offer" to release a new design for the Mac Pro. We would love to have at least one 2.5" enclosure for installing a SSD where the system you be installed as well as applications, this is already possible on the Xserve.

Apple: Mac Pro, Xserve EFI firmware updates

Apple issued firmware updates for the early 2009 Mac Pro (MacPro 4,1) and Xserve (Xserve 3,1) that improve compatibility with virtualization products utilizing VT-d and system reliability during the boot process.
Read more [MacInTouch]

Obsolete Mac Models by March 2010

Below are the new models added to the list of obsolete Mac models by March 2010, meaning there will be no more spare parts available from repair centers.

• PowerBook G4 (15"1.5/1.33Ghz)
• PowerBook G4 (17" 1.5Ghz)
• Power Mac G4 (Quicksilver 2002ED)
• Xserve
• Xserve G5

.

Apple: Mac Pro, Xserve EFI firmware updates

Apple issued firmware updates for the early 2009 Mac Pro (MacPro 4,1) and Xserve (Xserve 3,1) that improve compatibility with virtualization products utilizing VT-d and system reliability during the boot process.
Read more [MacInTouch]

Apple releases firmware updates for Mac Pros, Xserves

Posted by Dennis Sellers

Apple has released Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.4 and Xserve EFI Firmware Update 1.2.

News: Apple Releases Firmware Restoration CD 1.8 for Intel-based Macs

Along with its firmware updates for the Mac Pro and Xserve, Apple released Firmware Restoration CD 1.8 for Intel-based Macs Monday evening. The restoration CD is designed to restore your Mac's firmware and restore the default settings for some preferences.



Read more [The Mac Observer]

News: Mac Pro, Xserve Firmware Improve Virtualization Support

Apple released Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.4 and Xserve EFI Firmware Update 1.2 late on Monday. The updates improve compatibility with virtualization products and improve system reliability when booting.



Read more [The Mac Observer]

Other Updates from Apple

Together with the EFI update for Mac Pro and Xserve 2009, Apple also released 2 additional updates:

The Firmware Restoration CD can restore the firmware of an Intel-based Macintosh computer. Note: Restoring your firmware will reset some of your computer's preferences to defaults.

You can only use this to restore the firmware after an interrupted or unsuccessful update. If your computer is already in this state, you'll need to download the software and create the CD on another Macintosh computer, or you can take your computer to an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider to restore your firmware. This CD can be created on either a PowerPC- or Intel-based Mac, but only works with Intel-based Macs.

Download the correct Firmware Restoration CD image

Different computers use different versions of the Restoration CD. Please reference the table below to determine if this version of the Firmware Restoration CD is correct for your machine. If you do not see your computer in this table you may need to visit the pages at:

Firmware Restoration CD 1.4:
Firmware Restoration CD 1.5:
Firmware Restoration CD 1.6:
Firmware Restoration CD 1.7:

This update addresses isolated reliability issues, especially when using multiple Unitors.
The Unitor driver supports the following MIDI interfaces:

• Unitor8
• AMT8
• MT4

EFI Update for Mac Pro and Xserve 2009

Apple offers an EFI firmware update for Mac Pro and Xserve 2009:

• Improves compatibility with virtualization products utilizing VT-d
• Improves storage performance under Windows XP for Boot Camp users
• Improves system reliability during the boot process

To complete the firmware update process, please follow the instructions in the updater application (/Applications/Utilities/MacPro EFI Firmware Update.app). The updater will launch automatically when the installation is complete.

For more information about firmware updates for Intel-based Macs, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1557

January 8 in LEM history

02: Lament for a budget iMac - Macs get the job done - 03: Big 'Book, little 'Book - Things I really like about Jaguar - 07: One thing OS X should learn from Windows - Shiira 2.0b2 - 08: Mac Pro (2008) - Xserve (Quad Core) - This old Pismo - DRM in OS X anything to fear? - G3 iMac upgrade resources
Read more [Low End Mac]

January 6 in LEM history

00: The new Apple - 02: Way beyond AirPort - 03: Jaguar on a 400 MHz PowerBook - iApps go from free to fee? - 04: Xserve G5 - DEVONthink and Boswell - 06: iPod changes - Mac treasure trove on Craigslist - PowerBook 1400 still very usable - 15" PowerBook RAM slot failure
Read more [Low End Mac]

January 5 in LEM history

00: Keynote address - 01: Why choose a PowerBook Duo? - Macs by mistake - 05: Xserve G5 2.3 GHz - The ill-fated Apple III - 07: Mac and Windows: Different but equally productive - Mac sales up for 2006
Read more [Low End Mac]

December 19 in LEM history

00: Leaving Wintel behind - SuperMac hard drive woes - 01: Linux lies - Windows on your Mac - Bible software for Macs - 02: Xserve for the classroom - 03: Missing Virtual PC updates - 05: Linux users coming to OS X, - Simple, cheap Mac backup - WallStreet keyboard problems - 06: Save those old Macs - Goldtouch ergonomic keyboard - 07: Vintage Mac networking and file exchange - It started with an Apple IIc
Read more [Low End Mac]

EveryMac’ updates info on new Mac Pro, Xserves

Posted by Dennis Sellers

The EveryMac site now features complete specs (and several Q&As) on the new Mac Pro and Xserve custom configuration options.

New BTO options for Mac Pro, Xserve

Apple lists new options at its online store for its professional desktop and rackmount Macs.
Read more [Insanely Great Mac]

Apple upgrades build-to-order Mac Pros and Xserves

Not six days after we reported on a rumor that the next Mac Pro would run dual Intel Core i9 CPUs, Apple has gone and quietly updated their Mac Pro… with 3.33GHz Quad-core Xeon Processor. (A meaty smack of the palm on the expanse of forehead above the pineal gland, and then the hand trails [...]

Apple quietly introduces new Mac Pro configurations

As was widely expected, Apple has introduced new faster CPU options for the Mac Pro, after recent benchmarks showed that the i7 Quad Core iMacs outperform the older Mac Pros.

When you configure the Mac Pro on the Apple Online Store, a new option offers a 3.333 GHz Nehalem quad core processor, or for the quad core models two 2.93 GHz processors. A 2TB drive option is also available, both for the Mac Pro and Xserve.

Mac Pro and Xserve go bump in the night

Apple speed bumped its Mac Pro towers and Xserves under the cover of darkness. Should you care?


Read more [The Apple Core]

Apple quietly adds new Mac Pro and Xserve configurations

In order to bring a little more parity to the Mac lineup, Apple has added new CPU and storage configurations to the Mac Pro and memory and storage configurations to the Xserve.



Read more [MacUser]

iPad Gaming Potential, Dan Bashur, Apple, Tech, and Gaming

Two years of developing games for the less powerful iPhone and iPod touch has prepared developers to unleash the iPad's potential.
Read more [Low End Mac]

Article: Ask iLounge 3-12-10

This week's Ask iLounge topics: Syncing iPod with new iTunes library, Excluding selected playlists from sync, Sharing iTunes content on multiple iPhones, iPad and iTunes sync options, Shuffle playlists on iPod classic, Creating iPhone ringtones
Read more [iLounge]

Apple.com adds iPad to menu; separates iPod and iTunes, buries Downloads

Apple.com has reorganized a bit with the arrival of iPad...
Read more [MacDailyNews]

Review: V-Moda Remix, Remix Remote + Remix Vocal

One point worth making up front: though there are actually three different versions of Remix in our photographs, we’re only reviewing the $100 Remote version, which includes both a microphone and a three-button Apple-authorized remote control that adds in-line volume and play/pause buttons to iPods and iPhones released at or after September 2008. A base model called just Remix ($80) omits both the remote and the microphone, and a version…
Read more [iLounge]

iPhone/iPod/iPad apps for March 12

Posted by Dennis Sellers

Here are the latest iPhone/iPod touch/iPod/iPad apps announced. You can find ‘em at the Apple App Store.

News: Plancast releases iPhone app

Worldly Developments, creator of the Plancast.com social networking site has released an iPhone app for users of its service. Plancast.com is a social networking service designed to allow users to share information about where they are planning to be in the future, as opposed to where they currently are. The new Plancast application allows users to create new plans and share them with their friends directly from their iPhone or iPod touch. Users can…
Read more [iLounge]

Daily Deals: 3.06GHz 22″ iMac $1,399, $1,193 MacBook,$189 iPod Classic

We close out another week we three hardware deals. First up is a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo iMac with a 22-inch screen and lots of extra goodies from ExperCom, including 8GB of RAM and three years of AppleCare – all for $1,399. Next up is a deal on a MacBook powered by a Core [...]

Review: Flip MinoHD

Like an iPod for video recording, the MinoHD combines friendly simplicity with effective media processing in a remarkably tiny device at an attractive price. [Includes HD video sample.]
Read more [MacInTouch]

Review: iPod Shuffle 3G

The new Shuffle has just one button: off/play. Everything else is controlled by earbuds, proprietary Apple controller chips and synthesized voices....
Read more [MacInTouch]

Review: iPod Nano 2009

We review the newest Nano, which brings the surprising additions of a video camera and microphone, an FM Radio (complete with "Live Pause"), and a pedometer, among other nifty features in the tiny device, priced the same as before. We include video samples for comparison (Nano 5G, iPhone 3GS and Flip MinoHD).
Read more [MacInTouch]

Update: SuperSync 3.5

The cross-platform music library synchronization tool adds access to iPhone and iPod Touch devices, faster Playlist loading when connecting to another networked SuperSync, improved metadata synchronization, and other changes.
Read more [MacInTouch]

News: iPodweek coming shortly, sign up now

The latest edition of iPodweek, our weekly newsletter covering all things iLounge, is coming later today. iPodweek is a weekly summary of the best news, reviews, and feature articles we’ve published, and it also features giveaways and iPod accessory discount offers from various companies. There’s still plenty of time to sign up and receive this week’s edition — just use the simple form below to submit your email address, if you haven’t…
Read more [iLounge]

News: iPhone OS 3.1 to 3.2 for iPad changes detailed

In the process of updating its website to include further details of the iPad, Apple has quietly provided some new information on the differences between iPhone OS 3.1.x, which currently runs on iPhone and iPod touch units, and iPhone OS 3.2, which will run on the iPad. Notably, the Maps application on the iPad will support Google Maps’ “Terrain” view, which is currently unavailable on the iPhone and iPod touch. The iPod application‘s…
Read more [iLounge]

GDC: Gameloft unveils new iPhone games

Gameloft, one of the leading developers for the iPhone and iPod touch, unveiled three new games to the assembled press on Thursday.


Read more [Macworld]

Reviewing Products They’ve Never Used

It’s nothing new. When the iPod first came out, bloggers and so-called tech pundits were busy complaining about the features it didn’t have, such as a built-in radio, or perhaps a working kitchen sink. None of that hurt actual sales of the product, of course, since it became a runaway best-seller and sales only began [...]
Read more [The Mac Night Owl]

Muzatach releases solar charger for the iPhone

Posted by Dennis Sellers

USA Solar and Digital Communications Technologies, aka Muzatch, have developed a 9.8 ounce solar power station specifically for the iPhone series as well as the iPod nano.

Groupon Launches iPhone Shopping Application

Buy, Manage and Redeem Groupons Directly from Your iPhone.......Continue Reading

Filed under: iPhone | iPhone Software | iPod | iPod Software |

Apple iPhone apps usage shifts into high gear at night, on weekends

Study was conducted by a Cambridge, Mass., company called Localytics

Maybe iPhone users aren’t wasting countless hours at work fiddling with their smartphone apps after all.

Novothink ships solar-powered iPhone, iPod Touch Case

Thursday company started shipping cases for the iPhone 3G/3GS and iPod Touch featuring a solar charging battery.
Read more [Insanely Great Mac]

Rumour: Next-gen Apple iPhone 4.0 software to add multitasking

With nearly five months until Apple is expected to release an update to the iPhone, rumours run amok

Apple's iPhone will finally support multitasking for third-party apps as part of its iPhone OS 4.0 release, according to one of many rumours surfacing as interest in what's next for the iPhone mounts.

iPhone/iPod/iPad apps for March 11

Posted by Dennis Sellers

Here are the latest iPhone/iPod touch/iPod/iPad apps announced. You can find ‘em at the Apple App Store.

News: Tweetie 2 update adds Foursquare integration

Atebits has released an update to its highly acclaimed Tweetie 2 Twitter client for the iPhone and iPod touch. The new update adds support for OS 3.2, Foursquare integration, Instapaper Mobilizer and video uploads to Vodpod. The new Foursquare integration identifies tweets that display Foursquare (4sq.com) links within users’ streams and allows Foursquare location information to be viewed from directly within Tweetie. Tweetie 2 is available…
Read more [iLounge]

Review: Tripod Camera for iPhone

This app add some nice options to the iPhone's camera -- most notably an anti-tilt feature that keeps your shot level no matter what -- and makes a nice addition to any shutterbug's tool-set.


Read more [Macworld]

Scosche reviveLITE II Charges iPods, Lights Nights [Chargers]

#chargers If you were comforted by the first revieLITE, an iPod charger/nightlight combo from 2008, you'll be even more thankful for the sequel: the ReviveLite II has a slimmer footprint, an additional USB port and still protects you from night terrors. More »

Read more [Gizmodo]

News: Namco Networks releases Pool Pro Online 3

Namco Networks has released Pool Pro Online 3 for the iPhone and iPod touch, incorporating Namco’s new UniteSDK technology to provide cross-platform online play with opponents on other mobile devices and desktop computers. Pool Pro Online 3 is a 3D pool game that allows players to compete against friends online in 8-ball, 9-ball and Snooker. Players can make in-game wagers against their opponents and use the winnings to upgrade their equipment…
Read more [iLounge]

Consumer Reports Rates Apple Tops, Macs Cost Less to Manage than PCs, 6 Core Mac Pro Soon?, and More, Mac News Review

Also dreaming of a Mac mini on steroids, focus on word processiong, Ubuntu ditches brown for more Mac-like appearance, and more.
Read more [Low End Mac]

Amazon Update

Save a bunch on MobileMe renewals at Amazon and get Aperture 3 updates at a discount. The iPod Touch is discounted, too, along with the Mac Mini, iMacs and MacBooks. (Save money on the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and MacBook Air, too.) Check the great selection of DRM-free MP3 music at very competitive prices (including free downloads!). Digital cameras and HDTV's get outstanding discounts, plus helpful reviews as well. *And*, while you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through any of our links to purchase!
Read more [MacInTouch]

Mini Server Review

We've added an addendum to cover some tips and questions brought up by readers in response to our in-depth review, which examines the $999 Mini Server product product from Apple, which combines a dual-hard-drive Mac Mini with a full version of Snow Leopard Server (unlimited client license). We look at everything from web services to performance, along with security, installation, admin utilities and more.
Read more [MacInTouch]

Amazon Update

Save a bunch on MobileMe renewals at Amazon and get Aperture 3 updates at a discount. The iPod Touch is discounted, too, along with the Mac Mini, iMacs and MacBooks. (Save money on the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and MacBook Air, too.) Check the great selection of DRM-free MP3 music at very competitive prices (including free downloads!). Digital cameras and HDTV's get outstanding discounts, plus helpful reviews as well. *And*, while you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through any of our links to purchase!
Read more [MacInTouch]

Amazon Update

Save a bunch on MobileMe renewals at Amazon and get Aperture 3 updates at a discount. The iPod Touch is discounted, too, along with the Mac Mini, iMacs and MacBooks. (Save money on the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and MacBook Air, too.) Check the great selection of DRM-free MP3 music at very competitive prices (including free downloads!). Digital cameras and HDTV's get outstanding discounts, plus helpful reviews as well. *And*, while you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through any of our links to purchase!
Read more [MacInTouch]

Amazon Update

Save a bunch on MobileMe renewals at Amazon and get Aperture 3 updates at a discount. The iPod Touch is discounted, too, along with the Mac Mini, iMacs and MacBooks. (Save money on the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and MacBook Air, too.) Check the great selection of DRM-free MP3 music at very competitive prices (including free downloads!). Digital cameras and HDTV's get outstanding discounts, plus helpful reviews as well. *And*, while you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through any of our links to purchase!
Read more [MacInTouch]

Amazon Update

Get Aperture 3 (including upgrades) at a discount from Amazon. Amazon also discounts the new Mac Mini models plus the new iMacs and new MacBook, not to mention the iPod Touch. Save money on the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and MacBook Air, too. Save a bunch on MobileMe renewals, or get TurboTax on sale (or the new version of TaxCut). Check the great selection of DRM-free MP3 music at very competitive prices (including free downloads!). Digital cameras and HDTV's get outstanding discounts, as well. *And*, while you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through any of our links to purchase!
Read more [MacInTouch]

Amazon Update

Get Aperture 3 (including upgrades) at a discount from Amazon. Amazon also discounts the new Mac Mini models plus the new iMacs and new MacBook, not to mention the iPod Touch. Save money on the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and MacBook Air, too. Save a bunch on MobileMe renewals, or get TurboTax on sale (or the new version of TaxCut). Check the great selection of DRM-free MP3 music at very competitive prices (including free downloads!). Digital cameras and HDTV's get outstanding discounts, as well. *And*, while you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through any of our links to purchase!
Read more [MacInTouch]

Amazon Update

Get Aperture 3 (including upgrades) at a discount from Amazon. Amazon also discounts the new Mac Mini models plus the new iMacs and new MacBook, not to mention the iPod Touch. Save money on the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and MacBook Air, too. Save a bunch on MobileMe renewals, or get TurboTax on sale (or the new version of TaxCut). Check the great selection of DRM-free MP3 music at very competitive prices (including free downloads!). Digital cameras and HDTV's get outstanding discounts, as well. *And*, while you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through any of our links to purchase!
Read more [MacInTouch]

A festival of Mac minis on the Refurb

It has been a long time sice there has been such a festival of Mac minis on the Refurb. 

There are 4 versions on offer. Attention, the model with 499 euros is less interesting than that to 469 (understand). Even the high-end server model equipped with two hard disks and Mac OS X server is on offer. Mac Pro are also very evident for some time. Apple seems to want to empty stocks of them. 

@ Le Refurb Store 

March 3 in LEM history

00: Who is self serving? - 03: Value and limitations of the beige G3 - Super capacity batteries for Lombard and Pismo - 04: Is iTunes best for artists? - 05: Search engines, page links, and the worldwide Web - 06: 12 months with a Mac mini - 08: OS 9 browsers
Read more [Low End Mac]

Amazon Update

Get Aperture 3 (including upgrades) at a discount from Amazon. Amazon also discounts the new Mac Mini models plus the new iMacs and new MacBook, not to mention the iPod Touch. Save money on the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and MacBook Air, too. Save a bunch on MobileMe renewals, or get TurboTax on sale (or the new version of TaxCut). Check the great selection of DRM-free MP3 music at very competitive prices (including free downloads!). Digital cameras and HDTV's get outstanding discounts, as well. *And*, while you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through any of our links to purchase!
Read more [MacInTouch]

Some advantages of HDMI on the Mac

Posted by Dennis Sellers

There have been reports that Apple will include a HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) on some upcoming Macs, at least the Mac mini. With Apple’s increasing dominance in the areas of digital media, that’s a good idea.

Amazon Update

Get Aperture 3 (including upgrades) at a discount from Amazon. Amazon also discounts the new Mac Mini models plus the new iMacs and new MacBook, not to mention the iPod Touch. Save money on the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and MacBook Air, too. Save a bunch on MobileMe renewals, or get TurboTax on sale (or the new version of TaxCut). Check the great selection of DRM-free MP3 music at very competitive prices (including free downloads!). Digital cameras and HDTV's get outstanding discounts, as well. *And*, while you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through any of our links to purchase!
Read more [MacInTouch]

HDMI in the next Mac Minis ?

According to AppleInsider, Apple would have among their prototypes of the Mac mini some where the DVI connector has been replaced by a HDMI connector in addition to Displayport. This product, never released, would have been manufactured on a basis identical to the current machines equipped with a 9400M.
It is probable that Apple would have proposed such a connector if they had succeeded in installing in this machine a Blu-ray reader (hardware and software). Such a Mac mini would then have had every right to be found under a television set, places already occupied per number of its "brothers".
Always according to AppleInsider, Apple would have prepared themselves for the day when they would have Blu-ray and to be ready to offer connectors to connect their Mac to the television sets with HDMI connectors that convey the image and also the sound.
We will try to find out where they are. Last reliable information that we had obtained on this subject goes back to December 2007.

Apple to introduce HMDI on some Macs?

Posted by Dennis Sellers

Apple plans to introduce HDMI connectivity on some of its personal computers this year, including the Mac mini, according to AppleInsider.

New Mini DisplayPort-to-HDMI dongle supports audio

Mac users wanting to output to an HDMI-equipped HDTV — whether to show a video or to take advantage of the large screen for a presentation — may want to take a look at TeleAdapt’s just-released Mini DisplayPort + USB Audio to HDMI Adapter.

Unlike many existing products, the TeleAdapt device incorporates a USB connector to handle the audio stream to the HDTV. The company said the adaptor’s firmware supports 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p resolutions.

Currently, only the Apple TV provides a fully-compliant HDMI port that can support both audio and video signals to the HDMI television. Most adapters require users to connect the audio with a separate cable.

For some reason, TeleAdapt sees this adapter being big in the hotel industry. But I have been swamped with messages from ordinary users who want to connect their MacBooks to their home HDTVs. And I see it as a good device for road warriors giving presentations to carry.

Meanwhile, Apple Insider offered an article today that speculates on HDMI arriving on some future Mac mini.

Rumor: Apple Finally Sees the HDMI Light [Rumor]

#rumor After years of Mini DVI and Mini DisplayPort, will Apple really give us HDMI? A bucketful of rumors from AppleInisider say HDMI is replacing DVI in the next Mac minis, and reveals a long lost audio/video Mini DisplayPort adapter. More »

Read more [Gizmodo]

Apple Preps Hi-Def Macs

Apple’s Mac mini could become the first line of general purpose computers to support high-definition video later this year, a report Monday suggests. A HDMI connector is located near a DisplayPort connector on prototype Mac mini units. The mini is often used to stream video to home theaters. The AppleInsider report cites two unnamed “people familiar [...]

Amazon Update

Get Aperture 3 (including upgrades) at a discount from Amazon. Amazon also discounts the new Mac Mini models plus the new iMacs and new MacBook, not to mention the iPod Touch. Save money on the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and MacBook Air, too. Save a bunch on MobileMe renewals, or get TurboTax on sale (or the new version of TaxCut). Check the great selection of DRM-free MP3 music at very competitive prices (including free downloads!). Digital cameras and HDTV's get outstanding discounts, as well. *And*, while you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through any of our links to purchase!
Read more [MacInTouch]

February 28 in LEM history

00: Aquard - 01: Lean word processor specifics - Hot swap or not? - 03: Apple is a solutions company - Pros and cons of automatic updates - iceBook hard drive upgrade tutorial - 05: 'Creaky Operating Systems' good enough for millions - 06: Intel-based Mac mini - Extending range and reducing WiFi interference - 07: Run Windows apps on Intel Macs without Windows - 08: Best version of OS X for your Mac? - 2008 MacBook value equation
Read more [Low End Mac]

Amazon Update

Get Aperture 3 (including upgrades) at a discount from Amazon. Amazon also discounts the new Mac Mini models plus the new iMacs and new MacBook, not to mention the iPod Touch. Save money on the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and MacBook Air, too. Save a bunch on MobileMe renewals, or get TurboTax on sale (or the new version of TaxCut). Check the great selection of DRM-free MP3 music at very competitive prices (including free downloads!). Digital cameras and HDTV's get outstanding discounts, as well. *And*, while you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through any of our links to purchase!
Read more [MacInTouch]

Amazon Update

Get Aperture 3 (including upgrades) at a discount from Amazon. Amazon also discounts the new Mac Mini models plus the new iMacs and new MacBook, not to mention the iPod Touch. Save money on the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and MacBook Air, too. Save a bunch on MobileMe renewals, or get TurboTax on sale (or the new version of TaxCut). Check the great selection of DRM-free MP3 music at very competitive prices (including free downloads!). Digital cameras and HDTV's get outstanding discounts, as well. *And*, while you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through any of our links to purchase!
Read more [MacInTouch]

Amazon Update

Get Aperture 3 (including upgrades) at a discount from Amazon. Amazon also discounts the new Mac Mini models plus the new iMacs and new MacBook, not to mention the iPod Touch. Save money on the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and MacBook Air, too. Save a bunch on MobileMe renewals, or get TurboTax on sale (or the new version of TaxCut). Check the great selection of DRM-free MP3 music at very competitive prices (including free downloads!). Digital cameras and HDTV's get outstanding discounts, as well. *And*, while you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through any of our links to purchase!
Read more [MacInTouch]

Amazon Update

Get Aperture 3 (including upgrades) at a discount from Amazon. Amazon also discounts the new Mac Mini models plus the new iMacs and new MacBook, not to mention the iPod Touch. Save money on the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and MacBook Air, too. Save a bunch on MobileMe renewals, or get TurboTax on sale (or the new version of TaxCut). Check the great selection of DRM-free MP3 music at very competitive prices (including free downloads!). Digital cameras and HDTV's get outstanding discounts, as well. *And*, while you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through any of our links to purchase!
Read more [MacInTouch]

Consumer Reports Rates Apple Tops, Macs Cost Less to Manage than PCs, 6 Core Mac Pro Soon?, and More, Mac News Review

Also dreaming of a Mac mini on steroids, focus on word processiong, Ubuntu ditches brown for more Mac-like appearance, and more.
Read more [Low End Mac]

Report: Mac Pro

display problems
Read more [MacInTouch]

Voyager Q Review

Robert Mohns examines the quad-port SATA hard drive dock, with detailed performance benchmarks across FireWire 400/800, USB 2 and eSATA on a Mac Pro, finding it fast and effective for backup, testing and many other storage tasks.
Read more [MacInTouch]

Report: Mac Pro

display problems
Read more [MacInTouch]

Apple Store: Yellow Sticker On

All Apple Stores seem down for maintenance or upgrade, but as we are Friday it would be surprising to get new models released.

So, it might be a technical test to prepare the introduction of new products next Tuesday, our the preparation for today's introduction of the Mac Pro with Hexa-core as the NDA on this CPU ended few hours ago, or it could just be maintenance...

Screaming Fast New MacBook Pros and Mac Pro Desktops Next Week? [UPDATE: Maybe No MacBooks]

UPDATE: Seth at 9to5Mac is now backtracking. While he says he’s received multiple tips that Mac Pros will be updated, he thinks the MacBook Pros tip might have been fake. “Shame on us,” he says. Our friend Seth Weintraub at 9to5Mac thinks MacBooks and Mac Pros will be updated within a week. Seth received a tip [...]

Rumor: Intel Core i7-980x Mac Pros to come next Tuesday?

It was as recently as December that Apple quietly bumped the specs of their Mac Pro line to use 3.33Ghz quad-core Xeon CPUs, but if ZDNet’s Adrian Kingsley-Hughes and his sources are to be believed, we could see the next Mac Pro as soon as next Tuesday, March 16th. According to Kingsley-Hughes, the next Mac Pro [...]

Rumor: “Gulftown” Processor Could Hit Mac Pro Line as Early as Tuesday

Intel this week previewed its 32 nanometer Core i7-980X processor, a six-core CPU known as “Gulftown” and fueled rumors that the CPU could make its way to Apple’s Mac Pro line as early as March 15th.

Per ZDnet, tips have been received from sources close to the store stating that the hexacore processor could be just around the corner.

“If you’re thinking of buying a Mac Pro, you might want to wait a few days,” wrote Adrian Kingsley-Hughes.

The new processor carries a speed of 3.33GHz, six cores capable of 12 threads, and 130W thermal design power. He also noted that he’s heard no reports of impending changes to the MacBook Pro line.

The new six-core Mac Pro with the Core i7-980X has been rumored for months, with the chip set to arrive on the open market sometime this month. The new 32 nanometer chips feature 12MB of L3 cache. Apple usually doubles the processors in its high-end professional workstations, so it’s possible the new Mac Pro system could have a total of 12 cores and 24 threads.

The “Gulftown” processor will be sold under the Intel Core i9 name, while the server version, which has been adopted by Apple in the past, will fall under the Xeon 5600 series.

The last major refresh to the Mac Pro equipped it with its Nehalem Xeon processors, with a high-end eight-core Mac Pro offering two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5500 chips. Last year, Apple quietly upgraded that to a potential maximum 2.93GHz eight-core system.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Intel Hexa Core CPU Core i7 Unveiled: Mac Pro Next Tuesday!?

After talking about those new hexa-core CPU over the last five months, they are finally unveiled as the NDA ended today. We are still waiting for the Xeon version of this hexa-core series to find its way in the future model of Mac Pro that should now be released soon. Several websites offer first benchmarking of those new CPU, including the flagship Core i7-980X, and as expected this high-end model is a real performer while remaining relatively sober on the energy consumption point of view. According to ZDNet the new Mac Pro to feature 6 to 12 physical cores should be available next Tuesday.

Rumor: Hexacore i7 Mac Pro Coming Next Tuesday [Apple]

ZDNet is receiving tips claiming Apple will upgrade its Mac Pro line with an Intel Core i7-980x chipset, which certainly isn't the first time we've heard Core i7-shaped gossip. Supposedly it'll all be unraveled next Tuesday, the 16th of March. [ZDNet via BGR] More »

Read more [Gizmodo]

Intel 'Gulftown' CPU announcement fuels rumors of new Mac Pro

Intel this week previewed its forthcoming 32nm Core i7-980X processor, a six-core CPU codenamed "Gulftown," and a new rumor has suggested the chip could find its way into Apple's Mac Pro line as early as next Tuesday.



Read more [AppleInsider]

RUMOR: Apple to release Mac Pro ‘hexacore’ Xeon Core i7-980x on Tuesday, March 16

Apple is set to revamp its high-end Mac Pro line, adding a ‘hexacore’ Core i7-980x model...
Read more [MacDailyNews]

Blu-ray Drives Never Been Cheaper

Digitimes announced that the price of Blu-ray drives dramatically dropped over the past weeks, reaching a price range of 70 to 80 USD. It remains more expensive than the DVD burner drive; however it could help computer companies to integrate such optical drive more often in their models, of course for Apple one would need a slot-in unit for all hardware models but the Mac Pro. This will take time as the website considers that the current price of BD movies is too high to efficiently compete with the DVD version. 

This is also true for BD burners, getting now cheaper as one can find some models below 150 €, however the main break to a real democratization of such drive is the price of media.

Oh the horror! Why is Microsoft pushing the hated Windows Ribbon for Office:Mac?

Last month, the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit announced Office:Mac 2011 and posted some screen shots of its future user interface. I finally got around to looking at them. Sorry to say, the productivity-killing Ribbon introduced with Office 2007 on Windows will make its way to the Mac. Sigh. But the silver lining is that we will get to keep our menus.

Office:Mac, like a number of other recent Mac OS X programs and especially Web-based apps, are making trade-offs in their application interfaces that ding power users and kowtow to the entry-level part of the market.

On the Mac Mojo blog, Han-Yi Shaw, the Macintosh Business Unit’s lead program manager, put a good Mac face on the Office:Mac 2011 introduction of the Ribbon, differentiating the Mac version from its Windows counterparts.

It’s called the “Office for Mac ribbon”, or as we refer to it internally, “MacRibbon”. The “Mac” part tells you that it was designed specifically for the Mac, with all of the recognizable attributes that Mac users have come to love; the “Ribbon” part signifies the shared lineage with the ribbon seen in Office 2007 and now Office 2010 for Windows.

What? So, the concept is that you say, “potato” and I say, “nobody likes the Ribbon, nobody, unless they work at Microsoft or have taken a deep pull on the draught prepared in the halls of Redmond for the brave heroes, aka the enterprise customers who have no alternative to using Office because Office is the standard and we all use Office here.” What does it matter that it’s called a Mac Ribbon because it’s running on the Mac? It’s still the Ribbon.

However, it was the very same Mac user community who expected a first-class ribbon implementation, who were at the same time crystal clear in their message: deliver a ribbon interface that’s built upon, not at the expensive of, the Mac user interface and native Mac OS X platform technologies. And as we at MacBU are Mac users ourselves, we empathized with this unequivocal request coming from our user community. Hence, the MacRibbon was born.

It began from user feedback — and every step of the way — we listened, iterated, and listened some more. And after two years of development — and having worked closely with our customers — we think we’ve landed in a happy place with the Office for Mac ribbon. And with that, here comes the exciting part: What is the Office for Mac ribbon?

Now, it is difficult for this longtime Mac user to believe that any Mac user (not on the Microsoft payroll) requested a first-class or even a second-class ribbon interface. While I am loath to doubt the word of Han-Yi Shaw, with whom I have had no word about this matter, perhaps we may infer that Microsoft bean-counters suggested that since the company owns the Ribbon interface and spent so much time and effort on it, naturally, all of its customers should gain the benefit of it, even on the Macintosh platform. And we should be happy for it.

Then again, out of the millions of Mac users, the ones who love the Ribbon would gravitate to Redmond or San Jose where the next version of Office:Mac is under development. Some of them, for example, newcomers to the Mac with fresh experience of Windows Office, might want the rest of us to share their pain.

Nadyne Richmond, a user experience researcher at Microsoft, explained this further on her blog Go ahead, Mac my day.  She says it’s an evolution from the Elements Gallery in Mac:Office 2008. And she explained that Office will remain a “good” Mac program, letting users see its menubar.

As we began our work on Office:Mac 2011, we had to make decisions about what the next generation of the Elements Gallery should look like. We made some great strides forward in improving discoverability, but there were still some improvements to be made. As we looked at our colleagues on the Windows Office team and considered what they had learned through their Ribbon work, we decided that we could do the Ribbon in a Mac way that works for our users.

Our single most important decision for the MacRibbon is that we’re still going to be a good Mac citizen. Our menus, not to mention the standard toolbar, stay. We knew that one concern that our users have is the availability of vertical screen real estate. As such, we quickly made the decision that our MacRibbon should be collapsible. If you’re using the MacRibbon, then you’ve got easy access to our features; if you’re not, then you can collapse it to get it out of your way. If you’re feeling particularly minimalistic, you can collapse the standard toolbar too, leaving you with every pixel on your screen below the menu bar to dedicate to your document.

We can all be glad that Mac users will still familiar access to tools via the menubar. However, even now, years after the introduction of Office 2007, I meet users who can’t find the controls and tools that they need with the Ribbon.

How bad is it? There’s a game called Ribbon Hero that is supposed to teach the interface. Here’s a post this week from Microsoft’s own Partners in Learning Network resource site:

When you install Ribbon Hero, it appears as an add-in inside Word, PowerPoint and Excel, and you get an icon for it – where else? – on The Ribbon. When  you click on the icon, you’re offered your first set of challenges, which you can attempt to complete with or without the helpful hints.

“Don’t hate the Ribbon, be a Ribbon hero!” To a longtime Mac user, this describes perfectly all over the Microsoft and Windows mindset and user experience. It’s the interface that eventually you will love to hate.

Another “advantage” of the Ribbon, according to Shaw, is how it gets rid of those nasty tool palettes.

And given that the Office for Mac ribbon is nicely anchored inside the application window, adjacent to the standard toolbar, gone are the days when you had to position and reposition the Formatting Palette to prevent it from covering your document contents or falling off the screen as it grows and shrinks during normal usage. The Office for Mac ribbon solves the common user complaint about “I like the Formatting Palette, but it can really get in the way” — and users who tested the Office for Mac ribbon overwhelmingly favored it.

This is part of an annoying trend over the past couple of years in the Mac community: the use of mono-screen applications instead of the longstanding use on the Mac of a “single document interface” (SDI) and floating tools in palettes.

In the SDI, the menubar and tools are always available on the top of the screen or on palettes, respectively. Each document has its own window.

Microsoft instead chose a multiple document interface (MDI) for Windows that presents a parent window containing both tools and multiple documents. Depending on screen real estate, the MDI can be useful. This approach makes it easy to show and hide windows relating to an application. If applications take over the full screen, as they almost always do on Windows, MDI works fine.

With Apple’s SDI approach, users can have many documents open on the desktop, which can become confusing. Apple has addressed this issue with a variety of ways to hide applications and related documents and palettes (Option + Click); Expose, which with a move of the mouse can provide various views documents as large “thumbnails” for navigation; and Spaces, which lets users group applications into a more narrow workflow. Expose always amazes Windows users with its elegance and simplicity.

Power Mac users have long taken to using large displays and multiple screens to expand their view of their documents and Apple has supported easy setup and configuration of multiple displays. They can group tools and documents across workspaces and create a sophisticated and power workflow.

Yet at the same time, Apple has undermined this interface strategy with an increasing number of applications that can only open one document at a time, such as iMovie and iDVD. Some other applications only have one window, including iPhoto, iTunes, and even the professional Aperture product. They function much like an MDI.

An excellent critique of this “one-window” approach was offered in a post by Lukas Mathis several years ago on his Ignore the Code blog. He says MDIs are bad for the Mac and looked at how Adobe mitigated its use of MDI.

Some implementations of MDI make it hard to remove palettes from the main window. This is bad because in a multi-screen environment, a typical setup is to move all palettes to one screen, while keeping documents on the other screen. Again, the CS4 UI allows for this, so no complaints here.

MDI takes away space on larger screens. After your screen reaches a certain size, it doesn’t make much sense to maximize windows anymore. Having an MDI means you always waste space with a ton of application chrome around your documents - space which could be used by other applications running at the same time. Again, CS4 has a solution for this; hitting tab removes the application chrome (although I wasn’t able to get it back easily - hitting tab again did nothing at all). Unfortunately, the application chrome is not hidden if the application is put in the background while in MDI mode.

I blame the influence of the browser for this trend. And the MacBook and the iMacs with smaller displays. Everything in a browser and browser-based app is contained within a single window. Over time we’ve gotten used to the browser being more than a content container. It’s made users comfortable with the MDI approach. At the same time, MDI appeals to computers with smaller screens, there’s not the expanded real estate of very large displays or multiple monitors.

So, Microsoft is moving its professional Mac suite to an MDI. I get it but don’t have to like it. There are many of us who find that tool palettes don’t “really get in the way.”

Check Out. Leopard’s Finder Cover Flow: Yuck!

Apple admits iMac product issues, says they’ve been addressed

Posted by Dennis Sellers

The Gizmodo site says that Apple has released a statement to them, admitting the production issues with iMacs.

10 Safari Tips, Opera 10.5 Fastest Browser, No USB 3.0 and 6 Gbps SATA for Macs, Office 2011, and More, Mac News Review

Also Mac backlash in Toronto coffee shops, 10 top free apps, Mac Pro Audio Update, USB 3.0 in the real world, and more.
Read more [Low End Mac]

News: Analyst: Low Inventory Levels Suggests MacBook Pro Update in March or April [Updated]

Kaufman Brothers analyst Shaw Wu told clients that low inventory levels of Apple's MacBook Pro suggest that an update is coming soon. He noted that the Mac platform has plenty of momentum, but said that an update of the MacBook Pro line, which was last updated in June of 2009, would help keep the line "fresh." [Update: The title was corrected to say MacBook Pro, instead of Mac Pro. - Editor]



Read more [The Mac Observer]

February 23 in LEM history

01: Free Internet for Mac users - PowerBooks for school - 04: WallStreet and Pismo processor upgrades - 05: Diehard OS 9 user makes the big leap - Apple does us a favor by not shipping a better mouse - 06: Control 2 or more computers with 1 Mac and no KVM - 07: 8-core Mac Pro benchmarked
Read more [Low End Mac]

A New Application from Adobe in April?

We recently reported about the on-going fight between Apple and Adobe, initiated around Flash but expanding to the entire catalog of Adobe. We were also mentioning that it was weird to see some "leaks" of the future CS5 appearing and already announcing most of the long time expected features (Cocoa, 64-bits, etC.) So, the buzz around Adobe applications for the Mac seemed to be rather active, maybe to fire-back against Apple its recent criticisms from Steve Jobs. Well, it seems that Adobe decided to fuel the buzz further and let another set of information leaked prior official announcements: a new rumor indicates that Adobe would launch a new application in April. there is no further details, despite it should be revolutionary and could complement the current CS.
We are ready to bet that it will be available on Mac, and maybe the demo will be running on Mac, probably the new Mac Pro...

Last Beta Version for Mac OS X 10.6.3?

Distorted Loop published details and changes of the last beta version for Mac OS X 10.6.3 seeded to developers end of last week. It still fixes some issues with special characters with Rosetta, windows file sharing, Exchange servers, etc... It is reported to improve performance in several aspects... According to Apple, there is no other reported bugs, so it could well be the final version before the release of Mac OS X 10.6.3, except if a last minute issue is identified... as the new Audio problem on the Mac Pro following the update of the audio drivers?

Apple: Mac Pro Audio Update 1.0

"This update reduces processor utilization during audio activities such as playing or recording music. "
Read more [MacInTouch]

Last Mac Pro Audio Update Solved Previous Problem But Created Need Issues

It happens relatively frequently that some system update might create conflict with drivers of third-parties peripherals or some other parts of the hardware. According to a report from Cédric, one of our readers, the recent Audio update dedicated to the Mac Pro and aiming to fix the CPU overload problem when playing audio files might have created a new conflict with Firewire audio interface. Indeed, when using a audio interface plugged on the firewire port, the computer will emit a constant and high pitched sound... a really serious problem when using such Mac Pro for audio recording systems...
A dedicated subject has been opened on the Apple discussion forum, and it seems that the problem is affecting at least 3 different Firewire audio interface: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2339757
It seems that Apple engineers will have to work again on the audio firmware of the current Mac Pro...

Mac Pro Update Soothes Audio Processing Issues [Updates]

The Achilles' Heel of the latest and greatest Nehalem-based Mac Pros seemed to be their trouble handling audio processing—even playing a song in iTunes reportedly caused overheating and sacked...
Read more [Gizmodo]

Mac Pro update cuts performance lag

Last week, Apple rolled out an update for recent Mac Pro models that tackles a performance issue for users running multiple applications in Mac OS X 10.6.2. Our tests found that Mac Pro Audio Update 1.0 effectively removes the performance lag you might see if you're trying to perform a task while also playing a song in iTunes.


Read more [Macworld]

ATI/AMD Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Right on TIme for the New Mac Pro ?

According to the last information available, the Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 should hit shelves on March 11. Just to refresh your mind, this card will offer 6 mini DisplayPort ports and could manage 6 monitors at 1920x1200 or 3 monitors at 2560x1600.

To manage such a large number of monitors, the card will feature 2 GB of RAM while other specifications will remain similar to a Radeon 5870. We would not be surprised that Apple decided to delay the release of the new Mac Pro to fit with the release of this new graphic card.

Newsletter Issue #535: When is a Story Not a Story?

Those of you who have been following the ongoing 27-inch iMac soap opera are aware of the reports about display defects. These include screen flickering and a yellowish tinge. Early on, some newly-minted owners, including Macworld magazine, got units with cracked screens. Worse, this hot-selling model was particularly difficult to get, unless you were ready [...]
Read more [The Mac Night Owl]

Newsletter Issue #536: The Silly Season Starts Early

Apple can’t stay out of the news, not that they’d want to. So in the past couple of weeks, you learned that all the known problems with the 27-inch iMac have been fixed, the iPad ships on April 3rd in the USA, and later that month in other countries and, by the way, Apple is [...]
Read more [The Mac Night Owl]

U-Board - USB Multiboard for your iMac

U-Board will give you a brand new experience. Whatever your job maybe, U-Board will simplify your working environment and help you to reduce the working time. Additionally, U-Board's simple and slim design will fit perfectly into your desktop.......Continue Reading

Filed under: Hardware |

iClooly Aluminum Stand for iPhone 3G & 3Gs

Enjoy using your iMac and iphone 3G & 3Gs at the same time.......Continue Reading

Filed under: iPhone | iPhone Hardware |

Oh the horror! Why is Microsoft pushing the hated Windows Ribbon for Office:Mac?

Last month, the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit announced Office:Mac 2011 and posted some screen shots of its future user interface. I finally got around to looking at them. Sorry to say, the productivity-killing Ribbon introduced with Office 2007 on Windows will make its way to the Mac. Sigh. But the silver lining is that we will get to keep our menus.

Office:Mac, like a number of other recent Mac OS X programs and especially Web-based apps, are making trade-offs in their application interfaces that ding power users and kowtow to the entry-level part of the market.

On the Mac Mojo blog, Han-Yi Shaw, the Macintosh Business Unit’s lead program manager, put a good Mac face on the Office:Mac 2011 introduction of the Ribbon, differentiating the Mac version from its Windows counterparts.

It’s called the “Office for Mac ribbon”, or as we refer to it internally, “MacRibbon”. The “Mac” part tells you that it was designed specifically for the Mac, with all of the recognizable attributes that Mac users have come to love; the “Ribbon” part signifies the shared lineage with the ribbon seen in Office 2007 and now Office 2010 for Windows.

What? So, the concept is that you say, “potato” and I say, “nobody likes the Ribbon, nobody, unless they work at Microsoft or have taken a deep pull on the draught prepared in the halls of Redmond for the brave heroes, aka the enterprise customers who have no alternative to using Office because Office is the standard and we all use Office here.” What does it matter that it’s called a Mac Ribbon because it’s running on the Mac? It’s still the Ribbon.

However, it was the very same Mac user community who expected a first-class ribbon implementation, who were at the same time crystal clear in their message: deliver a ribbon interface that’s built upon, not at the expensive of, the Mac user interface and native Mac OS X platform technologies. And as we at MacBU are Mac users ourselves, we empathized with this unequivocal request coming from our user community. Hence, the MacRibbon was born.

It began from user feedback — and every step of the way — we listened, iterated, and listened some more. And after two years of development — and having worked closely with our customers — we think we’ve landed in a happy place with the Office for Mac ribbon. And with that, here comes the exciting part: What is the Office for Mac ribbon?

Now, it is difficult for this longtime Mac user to believe that any Mac user (not on the Microsoft payroll) requested a first-class or even a second-class ribbon interface. While I am loath to doubt the word of Han-Yi Shaw, with whom I have had no word about this matter, perhaps we may infer that Microsoft bean-counters suggested that since the company owns the Ribbon interface and spent so much time and effort on it, naturally, all of its customers should gain the benefit of it, even on the Macintosh platform. And we should be happy for it.

Then again, out of the millions of Mac users, the ones who love the Ribbon would gravitate to Redmond or San Jose where the next version of Office:Mac is under development. Some of them, for example, newcomers to the Mac with fresh experience of Windows Office, might want the rest of us to share their pain.

Nadyne Richmond, a user experience researcher at Microsoft, explained this further on her blog Go ahead, Mac my day.  She says it’s an evolution from the Elements Gallery in Mac:Office 2008. And she explained that Office will remain a “good” Mac program, letting users see its menubar.

As we began our work on Office:Mac 2011, we had to make decisions about what the next generation of the Elements Gallery should look like. We made some great strides forward in improving discoverability, but there were still some improvements to be made. As we looked at our colleagues on the Windows Office team and considered what they had learned through their Ribbon work, we decided that we could do the Ribbon in a Mac way that works for our users.

Our single most important decision for the MacRibbon is that we’re still going to be a good Mac citizen. Our menus, not to mention the standard toolbar, stay. We knew that one concern that our users have is the availability of vertical screen real estate. As such, we quickly made the decision that our MacRibbon should be collapsible. If you’re using the MacRibbon, then you’ve got easy access to our features; if you’re not, then you can collapse it to get it out of your way. If you’re feeling particularly minimalistic, you can collapse the standard toolbar too, leaving you with every pixel on your screen below the menu bar to dedicate to your document.

We can all be glad that Mac users will still familiar access to tools via the menubar. However, even now, years after the introduction of Office 2007, I meet users who can’t find the controls and tools that they need with the Ribbon.

How bad is it? There’s a game called Ribbon Hero that is supposed to teach the interface. Here’s a post this week from Microsoft’s own Partners in Learning Network resource site:

When you install Ribbon Hero, it appears as an add-in inside Word, PowerPoint and Excel, and you get an icon for it – where else? – on The Ribbon. When  you click on the icon, you’re offered your first set of challenges, which you can attempt to complete with or without the helpful hints.

“Don’t hate the Ribbon, be a Ribbon hero!” To a longtime Mac user, this describes perfectly all over the Microsoft and Windows mindset and user experience. It’s the interface that eventually you will love to hate.

Another “advantage” of the Ribbon, according to Shaw, is how it gets rid of those nasty tool palettes.

And given that the Office for Mac ribbon is nicely anchored inside the application window, adjacent to the standard toolbar, gone are the days when you had to position and reposition the Formatting Palette to prevent it from covering your document contents or falling off the screen as it grows and shrinks during normal usage. The Office for Mac ribbon solves the common user complaint about “I like the Formatting Palette, but it can really get in the way” — and users who tested the Office for Mac ribbon overwhelmingly favored it.

This is part of an annoying trend over the past couple of years in the Mac community: the use of mono-screen applications instead of the longstanding use on the Mac of a “single document interface” (SDI) and floating tools in palettes.

In the SDI, the menubar and tools are always available on the top of the screen or on palettes, respectively. Each document has its own window.

Microsoft instead chose a multiple document interface (MDI) for Windows that presents a parent window containing both tools and multiple documents. Depending on screen real estate, the MDI can be useful. This approach makes it easy to show and hide windows relating to an application. If applications take over the full screen, as they almost always do on Windows, MDI works fine.

With Apple’s SDI approach, users can have many documents open on the desktop, which can become confusing. Apple has addressed this issue with a variety of ways to hide applications and related documents and palettes (Option + Click); Expose, which with a move of the mouse can provide various views documents as large “thumbnails” for navigation; and Spaces, which lets users group applications into a more narrow workflow. Expose always amazes Windows users with its elegance and simplicity.

Power Mac users have long taken to using large displays and multiple screens to expand their view of their documents and Apple has supported easy setup and configuration of multiple displays. They can group tools and documents across workspaces and create a sophisticated and power workflow.

Yet at the same time, Apple has undermined this interface strategy with an increasing number of applications that can only open one document at a time, such as iMovie and iDVD. Some other applications only have one window, including iPhoto, iTunes, and even the professional Aperture product. They function much like an MDI.

An excellent critique of this “one-window” approach was offered in a post by Lukas Mathis several years ago on his Ignore the Code blog. He says MDIs are bad for the Mac and looked at how Adobe mitigated its use of MDI.

Some implementations of MDI make it hard to remove palettes from the main window. This is bad because in a multi-screen environment, a typical setup is to move all palettes to one screen, while keeping documents on the other screen. Again, the CS4 UI allows for this, so no complaints here.

MDI takes away space on larger screens. After your screen reaches a certain size, it doesn’t make much sense to maximize windows anymore. Having an MDI means you always waste space with a ton of application chrome around your documents - space which could be used by other applications running at the same time. Again, CS4 has a solution for this; hitting tab removes the application chrome (although I wasn’t able to get it back easily - hitting tab again did nothing at all). Unfortunately, the application chrome is not hidden if the application is put in the background while in MDI mode.

I blame the influence of the browser for this trend. And the MacBook and the iMacs with smaller displays. Everything in a browser and browser-based app is contained within a single window. Over time we’ve gotten used to the browser being more than a content container. It’s made users comfortable with the MDI approach. At the same time, MDI appeals to computers with smaller screens, there’s not the expanded real estate of very large displays or multiple monitors.

So, Microsoft is moving its professional Mac suite to an MDI. I get it but don’t have to like it. There are many of us who find that tool palettes don’t “really get in the way.”

Check Out. Leopard’s Finder Cover Flow: Yuck!

Newsletter Issue #536: The Silly Season Starts Early

Apple can’t stay out of the news, not that they’d want to. So in the past couple of weeks, you learned that all the known problems with the 27-inch iMac have been fixed, the iPad ships on April 3rd in the USA, and later that month in other countries and, by the way, Apple is [...]
Read more [The Mac Night Owl]

Newsletter Issue #535: When is a Story Not a Story?

Those of you who have been following the ongoing 27-inch iMac soap opera are aware of the reports about display defects. These include screen flickering and a yellowish tinge. Early on, some newly-minted owners, including Macworld magazine, got units with cracked screens. Worse, this hot-selling model was particularly difficult to get, unless you were ready [...]
Read more [The Mac Night Owl]

iOpus Reveals Swiss Army Knife for Google Chrome

As Google prepared to open its Chrome Extensions Gallery in early December, iOpus Software was working behind the scenes, creating a virtual Swiss Army Knife for the streamlined browser: iMacros for Chrome. Now absolutely anyone can use this powerful, free software to automate the most common tasks performed within the Chrome browser.......Continue Reading

Filed under: Software Updates | Software News | Internet |

Report: iMac

Finder problems; optical drives
Read more [MacInTouch]

IDC computer market predictions look good for the iMac, Apple portables

Posted by Dennis Sellers

Many of the trends that influenced the worldwide computer market in 2009 will continue to resonate in 2010, but their impact will change as new market forces come into play. The news is good for Apple laptops and the iMac and, well, not bad for the iPad.

March 7 in LEM history

89: Mac IIcx - 00: Website organization - 01: Outlook Express 101 - Apple: The green computer? - 03: Beyond multimedia and megahertz - Upgrading your G3 iMac - 05: Apple's leaky ship - UPS Canada brokerage fees - 06: The great PowerBook 100 - 08: Trading up a week-old MacBook - Apple outsells Dell in education
Read more [Low End Mac]

March 6 in LEM history

00: Rescued Fat Mac - 01: The only computer worth using - iMac underpowered for MP3s - 02: Bring back the Cube - The upgrade option - Is your Mac secure? - 03: Defending the Mac in 3 minutes - Why you want an AGP Power Mac - 07: The $900 notebook: Where is Apple? - 08: Black MacBook a gem of a notebook - The Mac vs. PC debate
Read more [Low End Mac]

Report: iMac

optical drive problems, PRAM reset, Finder issues
Read more [MacInTouch]

Report: iMac

optical drive problems, disk noises
Read more [MacInTouch]

Apple's stealth TV patent

Is an Apple coming to your television soon? Maybe so. According to the Patently Apple site, a patent published on Thursday “insists that the company’s Apple TV remote is to work with a clearly defined television – beyond what we know as Apple TV - the set top box style unit.”

In one of the illustrations in the application, everything appears “normal.” It shows a remote that can manage a notebook computer, a set-top box connected to a display (what we would assume is the Apple TV box), and another mobile device sitting in a stand, which I assume to be an iPad. Each item is numbered and that’s where things get interesting the article suggests.

Author Jack Purcher points out that Apple makes a distinction in its filings between Apple TVs and televisions. And what appears to be a monitor or an iMac in the illo is called a television.

I’m just going to point out that Apple mentions “television” separately from Apple TV noted as a “set top box,” eleven times. What threw me for a moment is that Apple’s patent Figure 2 shows a computer display-like device and of course my mind paid no attention to their visual that they presented. Well, until Apple insisted that it wasn’t a desktop computer nor a computer display – that is. In plain English, they’re calling it a “television.” See for yourself in the opening cover graphic – it’s patent point 208. Looks like a computer display to me - but that’s what they wanted us to think.

Sorry, but that wasn’t an accident. Engineers who design Apple’s products aren’t going to call something a television that is clearly an iMac, a desktop or simply a Cinema Display. Sometimes a television is just that, a television. So while Apple’s executive officers do the right thing by denying interest in a future product – we who read and report on their patents will continue to show you the facts occurring in Apple’s labs – no matter how minute they may seem to be at the moment or how contrary they appear to be from public statements.

The application says the remote can control a variety of electronic devices for example, a laptop computer, a set-top box, a television and “mobile phone/portable music player docking station 212 with mobile phone 214.”

In some embodiments, the remote controller may communicate with the electronic devices other via communications network 216 or via a different communications network (e.g., an IR network). For example, the laptop computer, set-top box, television 208 and docking station can respectively include wireless receiver windows 218, 220, 222 and 224 for receiving wireless communications from remote controller 100 using communications network 216. In addition, each of laptop computer, set-top box 206, television 208 and docking station 212 may be inter-connected via communications network 216 such that the devices of system 200 may communicate amongst themselves (e.g., using a protocol supported by communications network 216).

Purcher points out that the communication with the television is broken out from the set-top box.

Apple executives keep downplaying the company’s involvement in televisions. Yet at the same time, the company stocks the iTunes Store with episodes and there are reports of discussions with content companies such as Disney, CBS and Time Warner over increasing the sales of TV shows.

So, will Apple work its interface magic through your television? Maybe. Still, it’s a mixed message.

For example, when I ran through the latest transcript of Apple’s quarterly financial conference call the only mentions of Apple TV were about how the changes in how its accounting was being reported. And if I remember Steve Jobs correctly at the iPad rollout event, the big new platform for viewing shows will be its tablet. Still, one doesn’t rule out the other.

Just as we have iTunes support in our cars, it’s natural to suppose an Apple interface on televisions.

Check out: Apple results: First look

Apple Tops in Reliability and Customer Service, OWC's Speedy SSD, SanDisk SSD Shipping, and More, Mac News Review

Also 27" iMac shipping normally, washing your keyboard, Matias keyboard has stand for iPhone, Belkin USB 3.0 products, and more.
Read more [Low End Mac]

Report: iMac Aluminum

optical drive problems
Read more [MacInTouch]

MacHeist, The Mac Sale offer new software bundles

For a limited time, MacHeist is offering a bundle of seven apps for $20, and the Mac Sale has ten apps for $50.



Read more [MacUser]

Update: Mactracker 5.1

The Mac technical info database adds the iPad, iMac (20-inch, Mid 2009), a compare function to highlight differences between models, a new search engine that queries all specification entries from the main window, and more.
Read more [MacInTouch]

Report: iMac Aluminum

optical drive performance
Read more [MacInTouch]

March 2 in LEM history

87: Mac SE - Mac II - 99: Promising new browser - 00: Don Crabb, I truly never knew you - 01: The gaming challenge - That 70s iMac - 05: The eMac: Where do we go from here? - 06: Replacing your iPod's battery - Low End Mac Media Center - 07: The First Expandable Macs - $25 802.11g card for PCI Macs
Read more [Low End Mac]

Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Monday, March 1, 2010

• PC vs. Mac: The Straight Scoop
• Apple Tops Consumer Computer Manufacturer Ratings Again
• Apple Once Again Tops The List Of PC Manufacturers, But Declines From 2008
• 15 iPad Mysteries Remain
• Everything You Need To Know About The iPad
• Inside Apple’s iPad: iPhone OS vs Mac OS X
• OS X Share Up 29% In Past Year, Slowly Chipping Away At Microsoft
• A Mac User & Windows 7 On An Intel i7 Laptop
• Ubuntu 10.04 Keeping Pace, Or More, With Windows 7
• Laptops Galore Await Show Attendees in Hanover
• Acer To Launch Ultra-thin Calpella-based Notebook Series In Q2 2010
• More Workers Poisoned By Supplier For Apple, Nokia
• Silicon Sweatshops: Another Black Eye For Apple Supplier
• iPod Battery Life: a Simple Test
• Apple Says 27-Inch iMac Display Issues Have Been Addressed
• Apple Admits To Yellow-tint iMac Issues
• Apple Should Ban Freebees From The iPad App Store Says Wilcox
• Apple Anti-porn Crusade About Image, Not Money Or Offended Ladies
• Seven Steps To Netbook Marital Bliss With Windows 7
• Five Tips to Prevent iPad Eye Strain
• Apple Admits Using Child Labour
• Apple Admits Using Factories That Employ Chinese Children Child Labour PR Nightmare Looms .......Continue Reading

Filed under: News | Tech-Industry |

Deal Brothers: Refurbished iMac 21.5-inch 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo:  $1299

The Deal Brothers noted that Apple is offering a refurbished iMac 21.5-inch 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo for $1299. It ships for free and includes one year of AppleCare.



Read more [The Mac Observer]

Apple admits iMac product issues, says they’ve been addressed

Posted by Dennis Sellers

The Gizmodo site says that Apple has released a statement to them, admitting the production issues with iMacs.

Report: iMac Aluminum

27" experiences, performance issues, troubleshooting tips
Read more [MacInTouch]

Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Friday, March 12, 2010

Apple's iPad Could Kill The Mac
• Why Apple Will (Eventually) Dump the Mac
• How To Survive Mobile Systems Stampede
• 4 Reasons Why Your Next Mac Could Be An iPad
• The Ultra-light Laptop Conundrum: Weak Processors
• OS X 10.4 Tiger Still Very Usable On 500 MHz G3 iBook
• OCZ Launches "Ultra-affordable" Solid State Drives
• Freescale Demos Prototype $200 Tablet That Runs Android, Chromium OS, Linux
• ClubMac Merging With MacMall
• Hard Drive Evolution Likely To Slow Windows XP Performance
• 'Law & Order's' Belzer: Choking Claim By Apple Employee Is Pure Fiction
• MacBook Pro: Display Issue Related To "Hot-plugging"
• Try Using Time Machine In Supported Programs
• iPad Gaming Potential
• Adobe Responds To Apple's Issues Regarding Flash On The iPhone and the iPad
• Intel Core i7-980X Extreme 6-Core Processor Review
• Banish Seven Bad Computer Housekeeping Habits
• Doritos iPad Ad Parody.......Continue Reading

Filed under: News | Tech-Industry |

Review: MacBook Pro 15" (LED)

We've added some benchmark results charts (with more to come later) in a thorough review of Apple's latest laptop from Robert Mohns, covering technical advances, the overall experience, and an audio quality issue.
Read more [MacInTouch]

It’s the Critics Versus the Users

Some of you may have read a report the other day that Apple was behind the curve because there were no recent updates to the MacBook Pro lineup. This despite the fact that Intel had recently upgraded its mobile processors. So what’s wrong with Apple? Don’t they want their customers to have the latest and [...]
Read more [The Mac Night Owl]

Report: MacBook Pro

defects and replacemenst
Read more [MacInTouch]

Screaming Fast New MacBook Pros and Mac Pro Desktops Next Week? [UPDATE: Maybe No MacBooks]

UPDATE: Seth at 9to5Mac is now backtracking. While he says he’s received multiple tips that Mac Pros will be updated, he thinks the MacBook Pros tip might have been fake. “Shame on us,” he says. Our friend Seth Weintraub at 9to5Mac thinks MacBooks and Mac Pros will be updated within a week. Seth received a tip [...]

Rumor: “Gulftown” Processor Could Hit Mac Pro Line as Early as Tuesday

Intel this week previewed its 32 nanometer Core i7-980X processor, a six-core CPU known as “Gulftown” and fueled rumors that the CPU could make its way to Apple’s Mac Pro line as early as March 15th.

Per ZDnet, tips have been received from sources close to the store stating that the hexacore processor could be just around the corner.

“If you’re thinking of buying a Mac Pro, you might want to wait a few days,” wrote Adrian Kingsley-Hughes.

The new processor carries a speed of 3.33GHz, six cores capable of 12 threads, and 130W thermal design power. He also noted that he’s heard no reports of impending changes to the MacBook Pro line.

The new six-core Mac Pro with the Core i7-980X has been rumored for months, with the chip set to arrive on the open market sometime this month. The new 32 nanometer chips feature 12MB of L3 cache. Apple usually doubles the processors in its high-end professional workstations, so it’s possible the new Mac Pro system could have a total of 12 cores and 24 threads.

The “Gulftown” processor will be sold under the Intel Core i9 name, while the server version, which has been adopted by Apple in the past, will fall under the Xeon 5600 series.

The last major refresh to the Mac Pro equipped it with its Nehalem Xeon processors, with a high-end eight-core Mac Pro offering two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5500 chips. Last year, Apple quietly upgraded that to a potential maximum 2.93GHz eight-core system.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Report: MacBook Pro

"three strikes" policy
Read more [MacInTouch]

1 TB HD in a MacBook Pro

As we expected it as the 1 TB Western Digital Scorpio Blue is now available, a reader from XLR8Yourmac installed a unit in his MacBook Pro Unibody.

This allows us to remind some readers that:

1. Unlike previous models, one can install 12.5 mm thickness HD in a Unibody MacBook Pro. 
2. Despite using the new 4 KB block formatting technology, this new HD is working perfectly well in a Mac OS X-based computer and offer performance levels corresponding to its 5,400 rpm and 8 MB of cache.

Best integration could be the entry level SSD we were talking about and replace the optical drive by the 1 TB Scorpio Blue. 

Always no portable Core ix

It is now more than two months since Intel announced its new mobile platform and since that time Apple seems to have turned their noses up. Oddly enough, this is not the first time that Apple delays renewing its range of portables. But within our memory, this is the first time that they have taken so much time.
During one moment, and perhaps even still today, we thought that they had decided to await the arrival of the Optimus technology of Nvidia, but unless there are still problems with this technology, the Apple portables should have been released by now.
Some think that Apple is trying to empty its stocks of machines before releasing new models. If this excuse is true, it would mean that Apple did not plan enough in advance the arrived of new products or worse, than the sales slowed down so much these last weeks that it would be bad news even if it could just be an effect of people waiting for the release of new portables (the snake eats it own tail).
One is thus still in total limbo having no reference mark to generate hope for the arrival of new MacBook Pros.  However one always lives in hope for next Tuesday midday…

The Future Is SSD, Freeing MacBook Pro RAM, Crucial RealSSD Pushes Performance, and More, The 'Book Review

Also why isn't Apple using Intel's latest CPUs?, notebook stands compared, new WD drives use e-paper display, and more.
Read more [Low End Mac]

KRCS offers up to £100 off a Mac when recycling any computer

The deal, which runs until 11th April 2010, is one of several green campaigns currently available

Apple Premium Reseller KRCS is offering up to £100 off a Mac when they recycle any computer.The deal, which runs until 11th April 2010, is one of several green campaigns currently being run by  Apple Premium Resellers."Now’s the time to upgrade your PC to a new Mac at KRCS," the company insists in a promotional email."Bring your old computer, regardless of manufacturer, to one of our high street stores and we’ll give you up to £100 off a new Mac. We’ll even recycle your old computer responsibly, using European recycling centres, for free!"The following KRCS discount deals are offered:£50 off 21-inch iMacUp to £70 off MacBook Pro 13-inch£100 off MacBook Air & MacBook Pro 15-inch/17-inchMore details can be found at www.krcs.co.uk or by calling the company directly.

Incase announce new Neoprene Sleeve Plus for MacBooks.

Encase announced Tuesday an update to its Neoprene Sleeve Plus for Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro. As one may suspect the sleeve case is primarily made of Neoprene material.
Read more [Insanely Great Mac]

Daily Deals: $1,573 MacBook Pro, App Store Price Drops, Lockngo HD Security

We start off with another deal on MacBook Pros. This one, from Expercom, features a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo with 8GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive for $1,573. Next up is a new passle of App Store price drops, including “Screen Heater,” a collection of warming apps. Our top trio is rounded out with [...]

It’s the Critics Versus the Users

Some of you may have read a report the other day that Apple was behind the curve because there were no recent updates to the MacBook Pro lineup. This despite the fact that Intel had recently upgraded its mobile processors. So what’s wrong with Apple? Don’t they want their customers to have the latest and [...]
Read more [The Mac Night Owl]

Report: MacBook Pro

optical drive problems; Airtunes
Read more [MacInTouch]

Best Buy Posts, Removes Intel Core i7 Logo From MacBook Pro Page

This could be a mistake, but it is interesting fodder for the rumor mill.

According to The Unofficial Apple Weblog, a recently published Best Buy web site displayed a MacBook Pro page with an Intel Core i7 chip logo.

The site has since been updated and the logo removed, though such a notebook is highly anticipated by many users.

Rivals such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell are now offering laptops in various product lines with the Core i5 and i7 processors. These Dell Studio laptops, for example, all sport Core i7 processors. Dell Alienware mobile systems come with both 45-nanometer quad-core Core i7 processors and the newest dual-core 32-nanometer i7-620M chip.

Report: MacBook Pro

optical drive problems; Airtunes
Read more [MacInTouch]

MacBook Pro sports Core i7 chip label at Best Buy

MacBook Pro with an Intel Core i7 label: Though likely a mistake, it's probably enough to jump-start the rumor mill.
Read more [News.blog: Apple]

MacBook Pro sports Core i7 chip label at Best Buy

MacBook Pro with an Intel Core i7 label: Though likely a mistake, it's probably enough to jump-start the rumor mill.
Read more [CNET News.com]

Report: MacBook Pro

hardware failures and repairs
Read more [MacInTouch]

Report: MacBook Pro

battery issues
Read more [MacInTouch]

Daily Deals: 22-inch 3.06GHz iMac, $849 MacBook Pro, Mac Pro Xeon

We close out another week with a trio of hardware deals. In the spotlight is a deal on 3.06GHz 22-inch iMacs from ExperCom. The desktop computers are outfitted with 8GB of RAM and AppleCare for $1,399. (There are other iMacs available in today’s deals.) Also on tap: MacBook Pro laptops, starting at $849. We round [...]

Hot Forum Topic: Predicting MacBook Pro Updates

With Intel's i5 and i7 processors available, TMO readers are talking about when they think Apple will update the MacBook Pro lineup again.



Read more [The Mac Observer]

Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Thursday, March 4, 2010

• Sync data with Macs, iPhones Using Google
• He's Seen The Future, And It's SSD
• A Writer Looks for the Right Word Processor (and Fails to Find It)
• Buying a Mac for Less and Spreading Apple Joy
• Another Ultrathin MacBook Air Clone Surfaces In China
• Penguin's Incredible Vision of Books on the iPad Doesn't Look Anything Like Books
• How Penguin Will Reinvent Books With iPad
• Taiwan-Based Component Makers Doubt iPad Production Delay Rumors
• MacBook Pro Running Low On RAM? Change Energy Settings
• Do You Need To Run Windows Software On Your Mac?
• How to Build a Kid's Desktop PC
• The Tech Night Owl: Now It's Inevitable: Flash is Dying!.......Continue Reading

Filed under: News | Tech-Industry |

Next Gen MacBook Pro to Have Intel 'i' CPUs and nVidia Optimus Graphics?, iPad Not a Laptop, and More, The 'Book Review

Also George Fox students will have iPad option, would you buy an iPhone OS laptop?, first 64 GB SDXC memory card, and more.
Read more [Low End Mac]

Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Friday, March 12, 2010

Apple's iPad Could Kill The Mac
• Why Apple Will (Eventually) Dump the Mac
• How To Survive Mobile Systems Stampede
• 4 Reasons Why Your Next Mac Could Be An iPad
• The Ultra-light Laptop Conundrum: Weak Processors
• OS X 10.4 Tiger Still Very Usable On 500 MHz G3 iBook
• OCZ Launches "Ultra-affordable" Solid State Drives
• Freescale Demos Prototype $200 Tablet That Runs Android, Chromium OS, Linux
• ClubMac Merging With MacMall
• Hard Drive Evolution Likely To Slow Windows XP Performance
• 'Law & Order's' Belzer: Choking Claim By Apple Employee Is Pure Fiction
• MacBook Pro: Display Issue Related To "Hot-plugging"
• Try Using Time Machine In Supported Programs
• iPad Gaming Potential
• Adobe Responds To Apple's Issues Regarding Flash On The iPhone and the iPad
• Intel Core i7-980X Extreme 6-Core Processor Review
• Banish Seven Bad Computer Housekeeping Habits
• Doritos iPad Ad Parody.......Continue Reading

Filed under: News | Tech-Industry |

MacBook vs. HackBook: You Get What You Pay For, Andrew J Fishkin, Best Tools for the Job

You can buy a used PowerBook or a hackable netbook, or you can buy a notebook with enough computing power to do real work.
Read more [Low End Mac]

Daily Deals: 3.06GHz 22″ iMac $1,399, $1,193 MacBook,$189 iPod Classic

We close out another week we three hardware deals. First up is a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo iMac with a 22-inch screen and lots of extra goodies from ExperCom, including 8GB of RAM and three years of AppleCare – all for $1,399. Next up is a deal on a MacBook powered by a Core [...]

Review: MacBook Pro 15" (LED)

We've added some benchmark results charts (with more to come later) in a thorough review of Apple's latest laptop from Robert Mohns, covering technical advances, the overall experience, and an audio quality issue.
Read more [MacInTouch]

Review: MacBook Air

Our MacBook Air review digs into details of its design, features, performance, compatibility and suitability for various customers. Includes benchmark test results.
Read more [MacInTouch]

Review: Aluminum MacBook

We have added photos and discussion about a matte screen film to our detailed review of the new, aluminum MacBook, which covers design, features, issues, performance, pros and cons, with links for more info, and a gallery of photos.
Read more [MacInTouch]

It’s the Critics Versus the Users

Some of you may have read a report the other day that Apple was behind the curve because there were no recent updates to the MacBook Pro lineup. This despite the fact that Intel had recently upgraded its mobile processors. So what’s wrong with Apple? Don’t they want their customers to have the latest and [...]
Read more [The Mac Night Owl]

Report: MacBook Pro

defects and replacemenst
Read more [MacInTouch]

Screaming Fast New MacBook Pros and Mac Pro Desktops Next Week? [UPDATE: Maybe No MacBooks]

UPDATE: Seth at 9to5Mac is now backtracking. While he says he’s received multiple tips that Mac Pros will be updated, he thinks the MacBook Pros tip might have been fake. “Shame on us,” he says. Our friend Seth Weintraub at 9to5Mac thinks MacBooks and Mac Pros will be updated within a week. Seth received a tip [...]

Rumor: “Gulftown” Processor Could Hit Mac Pro Line as Early as Tuesday

Intel this week previewed its 32 nanometer Core i7-980X processor, a six-core CPU known as “Gulftown” and fueled rumors that the CPU could make its way to Apple’s Mac Pro line as early as March 15th.

Per ZDnet, tips have been received from sources close to the store stating that the hexacore processor could be just around the corner.

“If you’re thinking of buying a Mac Pro, you might want to wait a few days,” wrote Adrian Kingsley-Hughes.

The new processor carries a speed of 3.33GHz, six cores capable of 12 threads, and 130W thermal design power. He also noted that he’s heard no reports of impending changes to the MacBook Pro line.

The new six-core Mac Pro with the Core i7-980X has been rumored for months, with the chip set to arrive on the open market sometime this month. The new 32 nanometer chips feature 12MB of L3 cache. Apple usually doubles the processors in its high-end professional workstations, so it’s possible the new Mac Pro system could have a total of 12 cores and 24 threads.

The “Gulftown” processor will be sold under the Intel Core i9 name, while the server version, which has been adopted by Apple in the past, will fall under the Xeon 5600 series.

The last major refresh to the Mac Pro equipped it with its Nehalem Xeon processors, with a high-end eight-core Mac Pro offering two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5500 chips. Last year, Apple quietly upgraded that to a potential maximum 2.93GHz eight-core system.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Report: MacBook Pro

"three strikes" policy
Read more [MacInTouch]

Rumor: Hexacore i7 Mac Pro Coming Next Tuesday [Apple]

ZDNet is receiving tips claiming Apple will upgrade its Mac Pro line with an Intel Core i7-980x chipset, which certainly isn't the first time we've heard Core i7-shaped gossip. Supposedly it'll all be unraveled next Tuesday, the 16th of March. [ZDNet via BGR] More »

Read more [Gizmodo]

4 Reasons Why Your Next Mac Could Be An iPad

  How many ways do you use your Mac? If you're like me or like many Mac users, there are dozens of practical ways we use our Macs. Do a quick and mental inventory of your Mac's apps. Could many or most of those uses we take for granted be supplanted by apps on an iPad? It's already that way with my iPhone. My MacBook gathers dust. Are there legitimate reasons why your next Mac (or, the one after that) could be an iPad instead?  •  Sponsored by NoodleMac, the site for Certified Mac Software Reviews and mini-Reviews.   •  Follow Mac360 on Twitter.
Read more [Mac360]

1 TB HD in a MacBook Pro

As we expected it as the 1 TB Western Digital Scorpio Blue is now available, a reader from XLR8Yourmac installed a unit in his MacBook Pro Unibody.

This allows us to remind some readers that:

1. Unlike previous models, one can install 12.5 mm thickness HD in a Unibody MacBook Pro. 
2. Despite using the new 4 KB block formatting technology, this new HD is working perfectly well in a Mac OS X-based computer and offer performance levels corresponding to its 5,400 rpm and 8 MB of cache.

Best integration could be the entry level SSD we were talking about and replace the optical drive by the 1 TB Scorpio Blue. 

Always no portable Core ix

It is now more than two months since Intel announced its new mobile platform and since that time Apple seems to have turned their noses up. Oddly enough, this is not the first time that Apple delays renewing its range of portables. But within our memory, this is the first time that they have taken so much time.
During one moment, and perhaps even still today, we thought that they had decided to await the arrival of the Optimus technology of Nvidia, but unless there are still problems with this technology, the Apple portables should have been released by now.
Some think that Apple is trying to empty its stocks of machines before releasing new models. If this excuse is true, it would mean that Apple did not plan enough in advance the arrived of new products or worse, than the sales slowed down so much these last weeks that it would be bad news even if it could just be an effect of people waiting for the release of new portables (the snake eats it own tail).
One is thus still in total limbo having no reference mark to generate hope for the arrival of new MacBook Pros.  However one always lives in hope for next Tuesday midday…

The Future Is SSD, Freeing MacBook Pro RAM, Crucial RealSSD Pushes Performance, and More, The 'Book Review

Also why isn't Apple using Intel's latest CPUs?, notebook stands compared, new WD drives use e-paper display, and more.
Read more [Low End Mac]

Daily Deals: $749 MacBook, 22″ iMac, 2.26GHz MacBook

We take a look at three hardware deals for Mac fans. Apple has 2.13GHz MacBooks for $749. A 22-inch 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo iMac is on sale for $1,363. A 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook, bundled with 8GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive is $1,573, rounding out our top trio for the day. As [...]

R.I.P. Dell Adamo XPS, You Died Too Young [Obituary]

#obituary We thought the Dell Adamo XPS to be a truly beautiful creation, an innovative challenger that one-upped the MacBook Air. It had potential. More »

Read more [Gizmodo]

KRCS offers up to £100 off a Mac when recycling any computer

The deal, which runs until 11th April 2010, is one of several green campaigns currently available

Apple Premium Reseller KRCS is offering up to £100 off a Mac when they recycle any computer.The deal, which runs until 11th April 2010, is one of several green campaigns currently being run by  Apple Premium Resellers."Now’s the time to upgrade your PC to a new Mac at KRCS," the company insists in a promotional email."Bring your old computer, regardless of manufacturer, to one of our high street stores and we’ll give you up to £100 off a new Mac. We’ll even recycle your old computer responsibly, using European recycling centres, for free!"The following KRCS discount deals are offered:£50 off 21-inch iMacUp to £70 off MacBook Pro 13-inch£100 off MacBook Air & MacBook Pro 15-inch/17-inchMore details can be found at www.krcs.co.uk or by calling the company directly.

Warpia Easy Dock Spearheads the Wireless USB Revolution [Wireless USB]

#wirelessusb Wires. Lame, right? Always getting tangled up, keeping you tethered to your desk. But! We've hit the age of wireless USB. Now Macbook and PC alike can connect cordlessly to any desktop setting through products like the Warpia Easy Dock. More »

Read more [Gizmodo]

Incase announce new Neoprene Sleeve Plus for MacBooks.

Encase announced Tuesday an update to its Neoprene Sleeve Plus for Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro. As one may suspect the sleeve case is primarily made of Neoprene material.
Read more [Insanely Great Mac]

Daily Deals: $1,573 MacBook Pro, App Store Price Drops, Lockngo HD Security

We start off with another deal on MacBook Pros. This one, from Expercom, features a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo with 8GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive for $1,573. Next up is a new passle of App Store price drops, including “Screen Heater,” a collection of warming apps. Our top trio is rounded out with [...]

Apple wins design patents for iPod shuffle, MacBook Air

Posted by Dennis Sellers

Apple has won three design patents from the US Patent & Trademark Office. They involve a power supply, the iPod shuffle and the MacBook Air

Oh the horror! Why is Microsoft pushing the hated Windows Ribbon for Office:Mac?

Last month, the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit announced Office:Mac 2011 and posted some screen shots of its future user interface. I finally got around to looking at them. Sorry to say, the productivity-killing Ribbon introduced with Office 2007 on Windows will make its way to the Mac. Sigh. But the silver lining is that we will get to keep our menus.

Office:Mac, like a number of other recent Mac OS X programs and especially Web-based apps, are making trade-offs in their application interfaces that ding power users and kowtow to the entry-level part of the market.

On the Mac Mojo blog, Han-Yi Shaw, the Macintosh Business Unit’s lead program manager, put a good Mac face on the Office:Mac 2011 introduction of the Ribbon, differentiating the Mac version from its Windows counterparts.

It’s called the “Office for Mac ribbon”, or as we refer to it internally, “MacRibbon”. The “Mac” part tells you that it was designed specifically for the Mac, with all of the recognizable attributes that Mac users have come to love; the “Ribbon” part signifies the shared lineage with the ribbon seen in Office 2007 and now Office 2010 for Windows.

What? So, the concept is that you say, “potato” and I say, “nobody likes the Ribbon, nobody, unless they work at Microsoft or have taken a deep pull on the draught prepared in the halls of Redmond for the brave heroes, aka the enterprise customers who have no alternative to using Office because Office is the standard and we all use Office here.” What does it matter that it’s called a Mac Ribbon because it’s running on the Mac? It’s still the Ribbon.

However, it was the very same Mac user community who expected a first-class ribbon implementation, who were at the same time crystal clear in their message: deliver a ribbon interface that’s built upon, not at the expensive of, the Mac user interface and native Mac OS X platform technologies. And as we at MacBU are Mac users ourselves, we empathized with this unequivocal request coming from our user community. Hence, the MacRibbon was born.

It began from user feedback — and every step of the way — we listened, iterated, and listened some more. And after two years of development — and having worked closely with our customers — we think we’ve landed in a happy place with the Office for Mac ribbon. And with that, here comes the exciting part: What is the Office for Mac ribbon?

Now, it is difficult for this longtime Mac user to believe that any Mac user (not on the Microsoft payroll) requested a first-class or even a second-class ribbon interface. While I am loath to doubt the word of Han-Yi Shaw, with whom I have had no word about this matter, perhaps we may infer that Microsoft bean-counters suggested that since the company owns the Ribbon interface and spent so much time and effort on it, naturally, all of its customers should gain the benefit of it, even on the Macintosh platform. And we should be happy for it.

Then again, out of the millions of Mac users, the ones who love the Ribbon would gravitate to Redmond or San Jose where the next version of Office:Mac is under development. Some of them, for example, newcomers to the Mac with fresh experience of Windows Office, might want the rest of us to share their pain.

Nadyne Richmond, a user experience researcher at Microsoft, explained this further on her blog Go ahead, Mac my day.  She says it’s an evolution from the Elements Gallery in Mac:Office 2008. And she explained that Office will remain a “good” Mac program, letting users see its menubar.

As we began our work on Office:Mac 2011, we had to make decisions about what the next generation of the Elements Gallery should look like. We made some great strides forward in improving discoverability, but there were still some improvements to be made. As we looked at our colleagues on the Windows Office team and considered what they had learned through their Ribbon work, we decided that we could do the Ribbon in a Mac way that works for our users.

Our single most important decision for the MacRibbon is that we’re still going to be a good Mac citizen. Our menus, not to mention the standard toolbar, stay. We knew that one concern that our users have is the availability of vertical screen real estate. As such, we quickly made the decision that our MacRibbon should be collapsible. If you’re using the MacRibbon, then you’ve got easy access to our features; if you’re not, then you can collapse it to get it out of your way. If you’re feeling particularly minimalistic, you can collapse the standard toolbar too, leaving you with every pixel on your screen below the menu bar to dedicate to your document.

We can all be glad that Mac users will still familiar access to tools via the menubar. However, even now, years after the introduction of Office 2007, I meet users who can’t find the controls and tools that they need with the Ribbon.

How bad is it? There’s a game called Ribbon Hero that is supposed to teach the interface. Here’s a post this week from Microsoft’s own Partners in Learning Network resource site:

When you install Ribbon Hero, it appears as an add-in inside Word, PowerPoint and Excel, and you get an icon for it – where else? – on The Ribbon. When  you click on the icon, you’re offered your first set of challenges, which you can attempt to complete with or without the helpful hints.

“Don’t hate the Ribbon, be a Ribbon hero!” To a longtime Mac user, this describes perfectly all over the Microsoft and Windows mindset and user experience. It’s the interface that eventually you will love to hate.

Another “advantage” of the Ribbon, according to Shaw, is how it gets rid of those nasty tool palettes.

And given that the Office for Mac ribbon is nicely anchored inside the application window, adjacent to the standard toolbar, gone are the days when you had to position and reposition the Formatting Palette to prevent it from covering your document contents or falling off the screen as it grows and shrinks during normal usage. The Office for Mac ribbon solves the common user complaint about “I like the Formatting Palette, but it can really get in the way” — and users who tested the Office for Mac ribbon overwhelmingly favored it.

This is part of an annoying trend over the past couple of years in the Mac community: the use of mono-screen applications instead of the longstanding use on the Mac of a “single document interface” (SDI) and floating tools in palettes.

In the SDI, the menubar and tools are always available on the top of the screen or on palettes, respectively. Each document has its own window.

Microsoft instead chose a multiple document interface (MDI) for Windows that presents a parent window containing both tools and multiple documents. Depending on screen real estate, the MDI can be useful. This approach makes it easy to show and hide windows relating to an application. If applications take over the full screen, as they almost always do on Windows, MDI works fine.

With Apple’s SDI approach, users can have many documents open on the desktop, which can become confusing. Apple has addressed this issue with a variety of ways to hide applications and related documents and palettes (Option + Click); Expose, which with a move of the mouse can provide various views documents as large “thumbnails” for navigation; and Spaces, which lets users group applications into a more narrow workflow. Expose always amazes Windows users with its elegance and simplicity.

Power Mac users have long taken to using large displays and multiple screens to expand their view of their documents and Apple has supported easy setup and configuration of multiple displays. They can group tools and documents across workspaces and create a sophisticated and power workflow.

Yet at the same time, Apple has undermined this interface strategy with an increasing number of applications that can only open one document at a time, such as iMovie and iDVD. Some other applications only have one window, including iPhoto, iTunes, and even the professional Aperture product. They function much like an MDI.

An excellent critique of this “one-window” approach was offered in a post by Lukas Mathis several years ago on his Ignore the Code blog. He says MDIs are bad for the Mac and looked at how Adobe mitigated its use of MDI.

Some implementations of MDI make it hard to remove palettes from the main window. This is bad because in a multi-screen environment, a typical setup is to move all palettes to one screen, while keeping documents on the other screen. Again, the CS4 UI allows for this, so no complaints here.

MDI takes away space on larger screens. After your screen reaches a certain size, it doesn’t make much sense to maximize windows anymore. Having an MDI means you always waste space with a ton of application chrome around your documents - space which could be used by other applications running at the same time. Again, CS4 has a solution for this; hitting tab removes the application chrome (although I wasn’t able to get it back easily - hitting tab again did nothing at all). Unfortunately, the application chrome is not hidden if the application is put in the background while in MDI mode.

I blame the influence of the browser for this trend. And the MacBook and the iMacs with smaller displays. Everything in a browser and browser-based app is contained within a single window. Over time we’ve gotten used to the browser being more than a content container. It’s made users comfortable with the MDI approach. At the same time, MDI appeals to computers with smaller screens, there’s not the expanded real estate of very large displays or multiple monitors.

So, Microsoft is moving its professional Mac suite to an MDI. I get it but don’t have to like it. There are many of us who find that tool palettes don’t “really get in the way.”

Check Out. Leopard’s Finder Cover Flow: Yuck!

It’s the Critics Versus the Users

Some of you may have read a report the other day that Apple was behind the curve because there were no recent updates to the MacBook Pro lineup. This despite the fact that Intel had recently upgraded its mobile processors. So what’s wrong with Apple? Don’t they want their customers to have the latest and [...]
Read more [The Mac Night Owl]

iPad: 50,000 sales in 2 hours, Apple TV bumped, mysterious app icon

The introduction of the iPad Friday morning sold an estimated 50,000 units in two hours, and also bumped Apple's "hobby," the Apple TV, from the front page of its online store. Also, a mysterious icon included in iPad promotional pictures gains attention, and Apple has expanded its site to explain features of the coming hardware in greater detail.



Read more [AppleInsider]

Review: Apple TV

We have updated our in-depth Apple TV review from Robert Mohns, who covers set-up, features, performance, compatibility, omissions, hacking, competition and the overall experience and value, with links to more resources.
Read more [MacInTouch]

Apple patent applications hint at great advances for Apple Remote and Apple TV

Hidden within Apple's latest patent applications was a little gold mine...
Read more [MacDailyNews]

Apple's stealth TV patent

Is an Apple coming to your television soon? Maybe so. According to the Patently Apple site, a patent published on Thursday “insists that the company’s Apple TV remote is to work with a clearly defined television – beyond what we know as Apple TV - the set top box style unit.”

In one of the illustrations in the application, everything appears “normal.” It shows a remote that can manage a notebook computer, a set-top box connected to a display (what we would assume is the Apple TV box), and another mobile device sitting in a stand, which I assume to be an iPad. Each item is numbered and that’s where things get interesting the article suggests.

Author Jack Purcher points out that Apple makes a distinction in its filings between Apple TVs and televisions. And what appears to be a monitor or an iMac in the illo is called a television.

I’m just going to point out that Apple mentions “television” separately from Apple TV noted as a “set top box,” eleven times. What threw me for a moment is that Apple’s patent Figure 2 shows a computer display-like device and of course my mind paid no attention to their visual that they presented. Well, until Apple insisted that it wasn’t a desktop computer nor a computer display – that is. In plain English, they’re calling it a “television.” See for yourself in the opening cover graphic – it’s patent point 208. Looks like a computer display to me - but that’s what they wanted us to think.

Sorry, but that wasn’t an accident. Engineers who design Apple’s products aren’t going to call something a television that is clearly an iMac, a desktop or simply a Cinema Display. Sometimes a television is just that, a television. So while Apple’s executive officers do the right thing by denying interest in a future product – we who read and report on their patents will continue to show you the facts occurring in Apple’s labs – no matter how minute they may seem to be at the moment or how contrary they appear to be from public statements.

The application says the remote can control a variety of electronic devices for example, a laptop computer, a set-top box, a television and “mobile phone/portable music player docking station 212 with mobile phone 214.”

In some embodiments, the remote controller may communicate with the electronic devices other via communications network 216 or via a different communications network (e.g., an IR network). For example, the laptop computer, set-top box, television 208 and docking station can respectively include wireless receiver windows 218, 220, 222 and 224 for receiving wireless communications from remote controller 100 using communications network 216. In addition, each of laptop computer, set-top box 206, television 208 and docking station 212 may be inter-connected via communications network 216 such that the devices of system 200 may communicate amongst themselves (e.g., using a protocol supported by communications network 216).

Purcher points out that the communication with the television is broken out from the set-top box.

Apple executives keep downplaying the company’s involvement in televisions. Yet at the same time, the company stocks the iTunes Store with episodes and there are reports of discussions with content companies such as Disney, CBS and Time Warner over increasing the sales of TV shows.

So, will Apple work its interface magic through your television? Maybe. Still, it’s a mixed message.

For example, when I ran through the latest transcript of Apple’s quarterly financial conference call the only mentions of Apple TV were about how the changes in how its accounting was being reported. And if I remember Steve Jobs correctly at the iPad rollout event, the big new platform for viewing shows will be its tablet. Still, one doesn’t rule out the other.

Just as we have iTunes support in our cars, it’s natural to suppose an Apple interface on televisions.

Check out: Apple results: First look

News: Fire Core releases aTV Flash 4.1, supports Apple TV 3.0.2

Fire Core has released version 4.1 of its aTV Flash software utility package for the Apple TV. aTV Flash allows users to install a number of different software packages—including the Couch Surfer Pro web browser, a RSS feed reader, and support for a much broader set of media formats—on their Apple TV units using a USB flash drive. New in version 4.1 is full 5.1 surround sound support for nearly all media types, including DVD (VIDEO_TS)…
Read more [iLounge]

aTV Flash for Apple TV sports full 5.1 surround sound

Posted by Dennis Sellers

Version 4.1 of aTV Flash—an US$49.95 USB flash drive that inserts into the Apple TV and will upgrade it to do various kinds of new things—has been released. 

NVidia has presented its new processor ION

NVidia has presented the new version of its Ion platform intended to accompany the Atom processors of Intel. It is intended for the new Atom processors which like the Core ix also include an integrated video chip.
Quite naturally, NVidia added to the ION the support of its Optimus technology that will allow the integrated video in the Atom to act as long as the required power is not too much. Then, the integrated video of the ION kicks in and would multiply, according to NVidi,a the 3D performances by 10.
The Duo Atom ION then becomes an ideal platform for many ultra portables and multi-media devices, able to decode without problem full HD and even to use Open CL. So for a long time we had thought that Apple would use this pair to update its Apple TV, we have since given up on this dream. The company seems now more inclined to leave it in its present state or more probably to subject it to the 'iPhoniser' and graft onto it in the future the iPhone OS associated with an in-house ARM processor. For them this would certainly be the best way of giving it a second life and also stop the Hackers enjoying this Atom-ION platform.

Editorial: Why the Apple TV is still a Hobby

Recently, Apple's COO Tim Cook spoke at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference.  He mentioned the iPad, but also reaffirmed the irritating notion, to some, that the Apple TV remains a hobby.  There may well be several good reasons to continue that apparently tiresome but useful label: a hobby.



Read more [The Mac Observer]

ATPM 16.02 - MacMuser: Frozen in Time Machine

MacMuser
Article Title: Frozen in Time Machine
Author: Mark Tennent

Mark Tennent wants a decent Apple TV box.
Read more [About This Particular Macintosh]

Hands on with Boxee beta on Apple TV

The Boxee beta has come to hacked Apple TVs...
Read more [MacDailyNews]

New Mini DisplayPort-to-HDMI dongle supports audio

Mac users wanting to output to an HDMI-equipped HDTV — whether to show a video or to take advantage of the large screen for a presentation — may want to take a look at TeleAdapt’s just-released Mini DisplayPort + USB Audio to HDMI Adapter.

Unlike many existing products, the TeleAdapt device incorporates a USB connector to handle the audio stream to the HDTV. The company said the adaptor’s firmware supports 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p resolutions.

Currently, only the Apple TV provides a fully-compliant HDMI port that can support both audio and video signals to the HDMI television. Most adapters require users to connect the audio with a separate cable.

For some reason, TeleAdapt sees this adapter being big in the hotel industry. But I have been swamped with messages from ordinary users who want to connect their MacBooks to their home HDTVs. And I see it as a good device for road warriors giving presentations to carry.

Meanwhile, Apple Insider offered an article today that speculates on HDMI arriving on some future Mac mini.

A new Atom from Intel

Intel has announced the release of a new Atom processor. The N470 sees its frequency increasing and now reaches 1,83 GHz. In spite of its increase in power it should nevertheless make it possible the ultra portables to gain with battery life.
There is not much chance that Apple will offer a machine using this processor. The company seems to have decided to divide its mobile ranges in two, on one side there are the portables with of Core 2 duos while waiting for the ix, and on the other side, the ultra products portable: the iPad, iPhone… with ARM processors. The latter has the merit to be able to be made to measure according to the specific needs of each product.
One can however think that Apple will one day update its Apple TV, in this case, the Atom with perhaps a Ion 2 chipset will be the best solution by far. But this hobby seems to remain as such as at least until the day when the ATA discs of 40 and 160 GB exist no more…

First look: Boxee beta on Apple TV

Good news: The Boxee beta has come to the Apple TV. Not so good news: It's very definitely a beta.


Read more [Macworld]

Remainders - The Things We Didn't Post: Breaking News Edition [Remainders]

#remainders In today's Remainders: news that's breaking. Boxee Beta is available on Apple TV; Symbian^4 rears its ugly head; analysts analyze things and predict cheaper iPhones; Carly Simon reveals who was so vain; and a nation-sized iceberg breaks free in Antarctica. More »

Read more [Gizmodo]

News: Boxee Beta Comes to Apple TV

The beta of the Boxee media center application is available for the Apple TV again, but like earlier versions, it's still a hack since Apple doesn't officially support adding extra software to its home media center appliance.



Read more [The Mac Observer]

Boxee beta updated for Apple TV install

The Boxee community has updated the process to install the popular video viewing Boxee app onto the Apple TV.
Read more [Insanely Great Mac]

Boxee Beta Is Finally Ready For Apple TV

The Boxee beta is finally available for Apple TV. Boxee is Apple TV done right. It’s a great, Net-connected, “social” media player that allows you to play video from all over the Web as well as files from file-sharing networks. It streams content from sites like Netflix, Pandora and Last.fm, and makes it easy to get [...]

Boxee back (again) on Apple TV

The Web software returns with a workaround making Boxee available on Apple TV once more.
Read more [News.blog: Apple]

Boxee back (again) on Apple TV

The Web software returns with a workaround making Boxee available on Apple TV once more.
Read more [CNET News.com]

News: Audio posted of Apple COO Cook at Goldman Sachs Conference

Apple has posted an audio webcast of COO Tim Cook’s recent comments made at the Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference 2010. During his talk, Cook made a number of interesting comments regarding the Apple TV, iPad, and iPhone. According to Cook, the reason Apple calls Apple TV a hobby is because it’s in a market that’s “very small today.” However, unit sales of the Apple TV grew 35% year-over-year in the December…
Read more [iLounge]

Boxee beta heads to the Apple TV

Boxee has added official supports for its new beta on the Apple TV.


Read more [Macworld]

Daily Deals: 1TB Time Capsule, 160GB Apple TV, Apple In-Ear Headphones

We start off with a deal on Apple’s 1TB Time Capsule. The 802.11n base station includes a hard drive and is designed for laptop users looking to use Time Machine. Just $270. Next up: is a refurbished 160GB Apple TV from the Apple Store for just $189. We round out our top trio with a [...]

Boxee Beta now on AppleTV

Posted by Dennis Sellers

Some Boxee users have teamed up to resurrect the ATV-Usb creator and craft an updated solution specifically for the Boxee Beta on the Apple TV. If you already have Boxee Alpha installed on your AppleTV, you should be able to just update Launcher and then update Boxee to install it, as...

Hot Forum Topic: Would You Buy an Apple TV/Game Console?

Today TMO readers are talking about whether or not they would buy an Apple TV if it was also a gaming console. Share your thoughts in the forum poll.



Read more [The Mac Observer]

Time for Apple to get serious about video

Apple TV is just a "hobby," says company's COO. But Netflix, cable operators, and now Wal-Mart appear to take digital video very seriously. Maybe Apple should look over its shoulder.
Read more [News.blog: Apple]

iPad Gaming Potential, Dan Bashur, Apple, Tech, and Gaming

Two years of developing games for the less powerful iPhone and iPod touch has prepared developers to unleash the iPad's potential.
Read more [Low End Mac]

Apple Now Sees Microsoft as Less Evil than Google, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz

With Android threatening the iPhone's dominance, Apple views Microsoft and Windows 7 Mobile as the lesser threat.
Read more [Low End Mac]

Microsoft employees hide their Apple iPhones from managers

Microsoft Corp. employees are passionate users of the latest tech toys...
Read more [MacDailyNews]

Article: Ask iLounge 3-12-10

This week's Ask iLounge topics: Syncing iPod with new iTunes library, Excluding selected playlists from sync, Sharing iTunes content on multiple iPhones, iPad and iTunes sync options, Shuffle playlists on iPod classic, Creating iPhone ringtones
Read more [iLounge]

Kaspersky: Apple is blocking third-party iPhone ‘security’ software

Eugene Kaspersky has claimed Apple is blocking attempts to bring third-party security software...
Read more [MacDailyNews]

This Week's Best iPhone Apps [IPhone Apps]

#iphoneapps In this week's bipolar app roundup: Foursquare, squared! Slow ISPs, tattled on! Videos, easily streamed! Street Fighter fans' high standards, met! Twitter apps, set free! Your entire life, documented! Your every plan, shared! And more... More »

Read more [Gizmodo]

Oh MGD 64 iPhone App, Guide Me to a Healthier Lifestyle! [Beer]

#beer I don't know about you, but I used to be the case a day type. You know, pick up a 24 pack in the morning, sort my cardboard and aluminum recycling in the evening. Then, one app changed my life. More »

Read more [Gizmodo]

Review: Power Cam for iPhone

Power Cam is one of many apps trying to make your picture-taking a bit easier, and while the $1 offering does add some interesting features, it doesn't measure up to similar photography apps.


Read more [Macworld]

iPhone App Magnets To Appify Your Fridge

If – like me – your fridge is black, then these shiny iPhone app fridge magnets from Jailbreak Collective will look very smart indeed displayed on the door. Just 13 bucks gets you a set of these icon almost-replicas. I say almost because if you look carefully, you’ll see they’re not identical to the Apple originals. [...]

News: Still time to enter the Schlage LiNK Giveaway

Don’t forget to get your entry in for our Schlage LiNK Giveaway. In our Giveaway of the Month for March, iLounge and Schlage are giving away five Schlage LiNK Starter Kits with Wireless Keypad Deadbolts, which are compatible with the Schlage LiNK iPhone app. To enter, simply fill out and submit the form on the giveaway page—the giveaway will end on March 31, 2010 at 11:59PM Pacific Time. Good luck! ...
Read more [iLounge]

Slacker Radio Planning On-Demand Music Service [Slacker]

#slacker Wired is reporting that Slacker Radio has secretly been prepping an on-demand music subscription service that will give users unprecedented control over streaming radio. More »

Read more [Gizmodo]

Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Friday, March 12, 2010

Apple's iPad Could Kill The Mac
• Why Apple Will (Eventually) Dump the Mac
• How To Survive Mobile Systems Stampede
• 4 Reasons Why Your Next Mac Could Be An iPad
• The Ultra-light Laptop Conundrum: Weak Processors
• OS X 10.4 Tiger Still Very Usable On 500 MHz G3 iBook
• OCZ Launches "Ultra-affordable" Solid State Drives
• Freescale Demos Prototype $200 Tablet That Runs Android, Chromium OS, Linux
• ClubMac Merging With MacMall
• Hard Drive Evolution Likely To Slow Windows XP Performance
• 'Law & Order's' Belzer: Choking Claim By Apple Employee Is Pure Fiction
• MacBook Pro: Display Issue Related To "Hot-plugging"
• Try Using Time Machine In Supported Programs
• iPad Gaming Potential
• Adobe Responds To Apple's Issues Regarding Flash On The iPhone and the iPad
• Intel Core i7-980X Extreme 6-Core Processor Review
• Banish Seven Bad Computer Housekeeping Habits
• Doritos iPad Ad Parody.......Continue Reading

Filed under: News | Tech-Industry |

GuitarBud Plugs a Guitar Directly Into an iPhone [IPhone]

#iphone GuitarBud is a $29 adapter that allows you to plug a guitar right into an iPhone. How is that useful? Well if I ever learned to play that guitar in my closet, I could: More »

Read more [Gizmodo]

Applelinks iPhone News Reader - Friday, March 12, 2010

• Apple's iPhone 4.0 Software To Deliver Multitasking Support?
• New Gestures Coming To An iPhone/iPad Near You: Triple Tap And Long Press
• Apple sees 98% iPhone Growth As Microsoft, Google Prepare For Battle
• Carrier Apathy Depresses Google Phone Outlook - Nexus One Estimates Drop 70%
• ModulR Case Liberates Your iPad From Your Lap.......Continue Reading

Filed under: iPhone | iPhone News |

Hearst jumps into the iPhone apps business

Hearst, best known as a publisher of magazines and newspapers, is jumping into the business of developing...
Read more [MacDailyNews]

Review: V-Moda Remix, Remix Remote + Remix Vocal

One point worth making up front: though there are actually three different versions of Remix in our photographs, we’re only reviewing the $100 Remote version, which includes both a microphone and a three-button Apple-authorized remote control that adds in-line volume and play/pause buttons to iPods and iPhones released at or after September 2008. A base model called just Remix ($80) omits both the remote and the microphone, and a version…
Read more [iLounge]

iPhone/iPod/iPad apps for March 12

Posted by Dennis Sellers

Here are the latest iPhone/iPod touch/iPod/iPad apps announced. You can find ‘em at the Apple App Store.

Smartphones spread slowly in China, despite 3G and iPhone

China now has the iPhone and more big-name smartphones are due in the country, but high prices mean few Chinese buyers overall are choosing smartphones.


Read more [Macworld]

News: Plancast releases iPhone app

Worldly Developments, creator of the Plancast.com social networking site has released an iPhone app for users of its service. Plancast.com is a social networking service designed to allow users to share information about where they are planning to be in the future, as opposed to where they currently are. The new Plancast application allows users to create new plans and share them with their friends directly from their iPhone or iPod touch. Users can…
Read more [iLounge]

iPhone Weekly Digest: Internet Radio, A Mowing Game, A Musical Toy, And More

It’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac. This time, we review Air Assault, Bad Apples, Fire Drop Free, Ghost Capture – Free, Heli Rescue, Internet Radio Box, Sunday Lawn, synthPond Lite, Tiki Totems, and Titanic Rescue. APP OF THE WEEK Internet Radio Box: [...]

Review: iPhone 3G

Robert Mohns's review of Apple's new iPhone 3G offers comparisons with the first iPhone, discussion of new features and enterprise support, a look at the new "ecosystem" Apple has built around the device, a screenshot and sample photo gallery and links for more information.
Read more [MacInTouch]

Review: Fastmac iV

We examine Fastmac's multifunction iPhone battery sleeve, which extends run-time, functions as a charger and even offers a fill light for the iPhone's camera.
Read more [MacInTouch]

Special Report: iPhone FAQ

reviews, basics, availability and pricing, networks and carriers, features, sync with iTunes, Internet, apps, widgets, tech specs, jailbreaking and unlocking, misc.
Read more [MacInTouch]

Review: iPod Nano 2009

We review the newest Nano, which brings the surprising additions of a video camera and microphone, an FM Radio (complete with "Live Pause"), and a pedometer, among other nifty features in the tiny device, priced the same as before. We include video samples for comparison (Nano 5G, iPhone 3GS and Flip MinoHD).
Read more [MacInTouch]

Review: iPhone 3GS

In this detailed review of the new iPhone 3GS, Robert Mohns covers everything from hardware chips to pricing, performance to photographic capability, features, issues and everything in between. The review includes visual tests and samples, a long list of related links, and much more.
Read more [MacInTouch]