1/15/2008
Macworld: MacBook Air
I hope you didn't buy a new Apple laptop recently. Steve Jobs announced the MacBook Air at Macworld today.
The MacBook Air is the "World's Thinnest Notebook" - even thinner than the Sony TZ, which is 0.8 to 1.2 inches thick. It's so thin it fits in a manila envelope. Seriously. See the image below! Apple's goal was to make a high performance 3 pound laptop, with a full size keyboard, and large display.
The MacBook Air is so thin, it only has 4 ports: USB 2.0, Micro-DVI, headphone jack and a MagSafe 45w power adapter plug.
So what did Apple leave out? An optical drive. If you really want one, Apple is selling an optional external USB powered SuperDrive for $99. So how do you install software or get files off of CD/DVD? Apple has a new piece of software called Remote Disc which can be installed on any Mac or PC on your wireless network and will let you borrow that machine's optical drive.
MacBook Air features:
You can pre-order the MacBook Air today. Apple starts shipping them in 2 weeks.
In addition to the MacBook Air, Steve Jobs also made the following announcements at MacWorld today:
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The MacBook Air is the "World's Thinnest Notebook" - even thinner than the Sony TZ, which is 0.8 to 1.2 inches thick. It's so thin it fits in a manila envelope. Seriously. See the image below! Apple's goal was to make a high performance 3 pound laptop, with a full size keyboard, and large display.
The MacBook Air is so thin, it only has 4 ports: USB 2.0, Micro-DVI, headphone jack and a MagSafe 45w power adapter plug.
So what did Apple leave out? An optical drive. If you really want one, Apple is selling an optional external USB powered SuperDrive for $99. So how do you install software or get files off of CD/DVD? Apple has a new piece of software called Remote Disc which can be installed on any Mac or PC on your wireless network and will let you borrow that machine's optical drive.
MacBook Air features:
- Magnetic latch
- 5 hour battery
- multi-touch gesture trackpad
- 13.3-inch widescreen
- LED-backlit display
- built-in iSight for videoconferencing
- full-size keyboard
- 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
- 2GB RAM standard
- 80GB drive (1.8-inch hard drive. Same as in iPods.)
- 64GB SSD option
- 802.11n standard WiFi (N is the most advanced wireless on the market).
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
You can pre-order the MacBook Air today. Apple starts shipping them in 2 weeks.
In addition to the MacBook Air, Steve Jobs also made the following announcements at MacWorld today:
- Time Capsule - a wireless backup hard drive companion to Time Machine
- iPhone & iPod Touch 1.1.3 software update - adds cell tower and WiFi location triangulation data amoung other things
- iTunes Movie Rentals - ability to rent new movies in HD
- Apple TV Take 2 - new Apple TV software allows you to instantly start watching movies you rent from iTunes
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Macworld: Apple TV - Take 2
Steve Jobs announced an update to the Apple TV at Macworld San Francisco this week as well as iTunes Movie Rentals, which were already rumored to be part of his Macworld keynote speech.
Jobs admitted that Apple's online video plan had been a disappointment and that users didn't take to watching online video the way Apple had expected. When Jobs first announced the Apple TV last January, Apple's initial video plan was too complicated for many people. Getting a movie or TV show onto your Apple TV required customers to buy the video from the iTunes Store, download it to their computer, then sync/stream the file using an Apple TV.
Although Apple has already sold 7 million movies, Jobs said: "That’s more than everyone else put together, but it did not meet our expectations."
Apple plans on overhauling their strategy by making 2 major changes:
Jobs thinks that viewers would prefer to rent movies, not buy them. As a result, the new Apple TV software will allow users to rent first run films from every major movie studio including Fox, WB, Paramount, Universal and Sony in HD. Jobs called it "A better way to provide movies to our customers." Blockbuster and Netflix can't be happy right now.
1000 films ready for rental will be available on iTunes starting in February. Going forward, movies will be available to rent 30 days after they are released on DVD. Broadband users won't have to wait for these giant movie files to download. Moments after you rent the film using your Apple TV, it will be watchable immediately via streaming. How much are movie rentals? $2.99 to rent older titles, $3.99 for new releases. Add one more $1 to those prices if you want to rent the movie in HD.
Thomas Lesinski, president of Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment, joined Jobs on stage at Macworld and called the rental service a "defining moment" for the distribution of digital video content. "This is really going to take things to the next level," he said.
The new Apple TV software features will be included in a free Apple TV update scheduled to be released in February. You can update your Apple TV by selecting "Update Software" from the Settings menu.
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Jobs admitted that Apple's online video plan had been a disappointment and that users didn't take to watching online video the way Apple had expected. When Jobs first announced the Apple TV last January, Apple's initial video plan was too complicated for many people. Getting a movie or TV show onto your Apple TV required customers to buy the video from the iTunes Store, download it to their computer, then sync/stream the file using an Apple TV.
Although Apple has already sold 7 million movies, Jobs said: "That’s more than everyone else put together, but it did not meet our expectations."
Apple plans on overhauling their strategy by making 2 major changes:
- Adding a new online movie rental service
- Updating the Apple TV's software so that viewers can stream movies direct from the internet sans (that's Middle English for without) computer.
Jobs thinks that viewers would prefer to rent movies, not buy them. As a result, the new Apple TV software will allow users to rent first run films from every major movie studio including Fox, WB, Paramount, Universal and Sony in HD. Jobs called it "A better way to provide movies to our customers." Blockbuster and Netflix can't be happy right now.
1000 films ready for rental will be available on iTunes starting in February. Going forward, movies will be available to rent 30 days after they are released on DVD. Broadband users won't have to wait for these giant movie files to download. Moments after you rent the film using your Apple TV, it will be watchable immediately via streaming. How much are movie rentals? $2.99 to rent older titles, $3.99 for new releases. Add one more $1 to those prices if you want to rent the movie in HD.
Thomas Lesinski, president of Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment, joined Jobs on stage at Macworld and called the rental service a "defining moment" for the distribution of digital video content. "This is really going to take things to the next level," he said.
The new Apple TV software features will be included in a free Apple TV update scheduled to be released in February. You can update your Apple TV by selecting "Update Software" from the Settings menu.
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Macworld: iPhone 1.1.3 Update
It turns out that Andru Edwards from GearLive.com was right about the iPhone 1.1.3 update.New features include:
- location data via cell tower triangulation (via Google) or WiFi triangulation (via Skyhook Wireless)
- Webclips - ability to make sections of web pages into widgets
- custom icon layouts for home screens (up to 9 total)
- SMS multiple recipients
- Chapters for video and subtitle/audio language options
- Karaoke mode (Lyrics displayable)
All these new features are available today as a free software update for every iPhone.
But what about iPod Touch owners? You can add Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes, Webclips and Weather... but it's a $20 upgrade! Come on Steve. That wasn't very nice.
You can watch the leaked iPhone 1.1.3 video here.
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Macworld: Time Capsule
This morning at Macworld 2008, Steve Jobs announced a new hardware companion product called Time Capsule for Apple's Time Machine backup software. Time Machine is part of the newest Apple operating system OS X Leopard 10.5.If you are already familiar with Apple's current products, Time Capsule is basically an Airport Extreme with a hard drive.
Time Machine can now backup multiple Macs on the same network wirelessly to the same Time Capsule hard drive.
The Time Capsule hard drives come in 2 sizes: 500GB ($299) and 1TB ($499). Pretty aggressive pricing. Apple must be serious about helping people backup their computers.
Time Capsule starts shipping in February. You can read more about Time Capsule here on Apple.com
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YouTube
prevents viewers from downloading files off their site. But there
are ways around this. Here's a step-by-step tutorial on how to
rip video files off YouTube.com and convert them for your Video
iPod.
After such a high profile career spanning over 3 decades, Hasselhoff has partaken in many a cheesy photo shoot. In Hoff's defense, most of the embarrassing photos below were taken during the 1980's or in Europe. That almost provides a loose excuse for most of these photos. But many of them are still very questionable and a few actually are quite disturbing. 
Want
to upgrade the RAM in your
Mac Mini? You can definitely save a few bucks by buying a stripped
down Mac Mini and upgrading the RAM yourself. But before you
can install that extra RAM, you'll need to take a walk down to
your local hardware store and grab a couple putty knives.
Need
something to watch on your iPod or iPhone? Here's a tutorial that
explains how to use a program called Handbrake to rip DVD's
into iPod compatible MPEG-4 video files.
Framing Hanley have certainly come a long way in a very short time. First formed in 2005, the band posted demos of their songs on MySpace.com. Two years later thier debut LP, The Moment, was released August 2007. Not bad for a bunch of guys barely out of high school.
Like to smack penguins with baseball bats? Should your Yeti
catch the penguin at the right moment and angle, you might just hit
one out of the park, or arctic continent.
Put
on an anti-viral panty liner and let the battle between the
spoiled rich blonde bitches begin! It's Paris Hilton, heiress
to the Hilton Hotel empire vs Lacey Underall from the movie
Caddyshack. 
Our interview with Ryan was just like his lyrics, honest and articulate. Ryan was very forthcoming and spoke openly about everything from his break with No Knife to his freaky cats.
When it comes to so-called heavy metal supergroups, a lot of them usually don’t last long. But for New Orleans’ Down – made up of Ex-Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown, Corrosion of Conformity guitarist Pepper Keenan, Crowbar guitarist Kirk Windstein, and Eyehategod drummer Jimmy Bower – there has been something special that has kept them unified for over 15 years.
What’s
the point of downloading your favorite songs on iTunes if they
sound like crap on your computer’s built-in speakers? The
sound quality and volume these little babies emit, much to the
chagrin of my neighbors, is truly phenomenal.
Are
you trying to eject your iPod from your computer but the "Do
Not Disconnect" won't go away? Don't worry, this is a common
problem with a fairly easy solution.
So
Napster's gone pay, KaZaA is chock-full of viruses and spyware,
and you need someplace to get your file sharing on. Luckily
for you, there's BitTorrent! Here's a
tutorial to get you started. 
