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General Apple and Mac desktops is covered in The Mac News Review. iPod, iPhone, and Apple
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Review.
News & Opinion
Apple Updates
Tech Trends
News & Opinion
What Do You Want in the Next MacBook Pro?
My latest The 'Book
Mystique column on PBCentral muses about the next MacBook Pro:
"By any measure, the MacBook Pro form factor is getting long in the
tooth, essentially dating back to January, 2003 and September, 2003
respectively for the 17 into and 15-inch models, since Apple pretty
much just rolled over the previous PowerBook G4 aluminum case designs
with the switch to Intel chips. There are some small differences,
notably to accommodate the iSight camera in the Macintel version, but
the casual observer would be hard-pressed to detect the difference.
Five years as is an epoch in computerdom.
"So, the Pro 'Books are overdue for a major revision, and now that
the "Air" has been cleared, so to speak, as to Apple's subnotebook
plans, the logical next candidate for attention in the notebook line is
the MacBook Pro....
"Now, I know what I would like to see in the next generation Pro
'Books, and it doesn't include a thinner profile. In my estimation the
current models are already thinner than they ought to be. My (fantasy)
MacBook Pro wish list would include a return of the removable device
expansion bay last seen in the 2000 PowerBook Pismo, and increased
component modularity and ease of servicing, building and expanding on
the MacBook's simple hard drive access. I would like more - not fewer
-I/0 ports, for example a third USB port in the 15-inch model, and
while I'm dreaming, cooler running, perhaps facilitated by a less
cramped (i.e.: less thin) case would be nice. I'd like an internal
modem too, but the chances of that are virtually zero, so that third
USB port is the next best thing."
Link: What
Would You Like to See in the Next MacBook Pro?
Are Extended Life Laptop Replacement Batteries
Worth the Extra Cost?
In The Road Warrior
on MacOpinion this week, I discuss extended life replacement batteries
for laptops:
"I've had generally pretty good luck with Apple laptop batteries.
The Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery in my PowerBook 5300 lasted through the
machine's useful life span (six years, counting the three years my
daughter used it in high school and college) and at 11 years plus now
will still hold a bit of a charge. The original lithium-ion battery is
also still in my 1998
WallStreet PowerBook, although it will only hold a charge for a few
minutes work, but is still good enough to keep the memory alive for a
day or so of sleep time. Not a problem for an old machine that stays
mostly plugged in when it's used at all. The original battery in my 65
month old G3 iBook,
now handed off to my wife, is still in fine fettle, still accepting a
charge to an astonishing 97 percent of its original 4200 mAh capacity
according to the Coconut Battery utility. Ditto for my 17" PowerBook G4, whose
battery (manufactured in 2004) still shows 4,888 mAh of its original
5,400 mAh capacity (90 percent)
"The exception has been my Pismo PowerBook, whose original
battery died around its 3rd anniversary in 2003....
"I'm very satisfied with the performance of . . . extended
life batteries . . . You can find cheaper replacement
batteries, but not all that much cheaper, and the extra capacity is the
clincher. With two of the 7xxx mAh units, you should be able to go
10-12 hours or more unplugged from AC power. Pretty cool."
Link:
Are Extended Life Laptop Replacement Batteries Worth the Extra
Cost?
A Good Way to Reinstall the System on a MacBook
Air
Hardmac's Lionel
reports:
"Given the limited size of the hard disks of MacBook Air, the
majority of owners will certainly want to reinstall its system, so that
unused languages and printers drivers can be purged.
"If you have bought the external DVD unit, it is very simple....
"If you did not get the DVD unit, you will have to do the
installation using CD/DVD sharing....
"Another easy way is to use WiFi...."
Link: A Good Way to Reinstall
the System on a MacBook Air
MacBook Air Diary: Installing 10.5.2
ZD Net's Jason D. O'Grady
says:
"I generally wait at least 72 hours before installing any operating
system updates from Apple but yesterday's announcement of 10.5.2 made
me throw caution to the wind. I figured that I had a solid backup (as
Apple recommends) and I wanted to see if the new update from Cupertino
would play nice with the MacBook Air."
Link: MacBook Air Diary-Day 13:
Installing 10.5.2
MacBook Air's Multi-touch Is All Soft
Ars Technica's Chris
Foresman says:
"Turns out all those fancy multi-touch gestures seen on the MacBook
Air, by way of the iPhone, are all soft - software, that is. An Apple
spokesperson told T3 - the article there has since been taken down, but
not before being quoted by MacNN - that magic is actually entirely
software-based, indicating that it could be added to other Macs pretty
easily."
Link:
MacBook Air's Multi-touch Is All Soft
I Gave Up My MacBook for an Eee PC
Laptop Mag's Jeffrey L.
Wilson says:
"So this is it, the final day of the grand experiment. Over the
course of the 5 days that I'd abandoned my Apple MacBook for the Asus
Eee PC 4G Surf, I learned how to repair the system's wonky Wi-Fi
connection, create a more work-friendly typing experience, and tweak
the Xandros operating system so that it would display in full desktop
mode - with a little assistance from the helpful and passionate Eee
User community. Much thanks to all involved."
Link: I
Gave Up My Notebook for an Eee PC: Day 5
Getting Testy with the MacBook Air
Macworld UK's Brian Chen reports:
"The words 'There's something in the air' at Macworld Expo made the
MacBook Air sound like a
paper-thin gift descending from Apple's heavens. And after testing
several incremental upgrades to pre-existing Macs, I was looking
forward to the Air - something brand new, a breath of fresh air, if you
will. But, after spending some time testing the MacBook Air, the only
thing in the air around the Macworld Lab were words one can't reprint
in a family publication....
"...we most definitely learned one thing this week: the MacBook Air
is a different kind of beast, and it's going to take a little while for
us to learn all its idiosyncracies. (Right now would probably not be
the best time to ask us if that's a good thing or not.)"
Link: Getting
Testy with the MacBook Air
What the MacBook Air Gets Right (and What It Gets
Wrong)
PC Magazine
says:
"I've long been a fan of ultraportable computers, those lightweight
laptops that are maybe a little less powerful than the big notebooks,
but much easier to carry. So I've gotten a lot of questions about
Apple's MacBook Air, which was first announced at MacWorld last month
and is just now starting to ship. PC Magazine has a complete review
here, but I've spent some time with the machine over the past few weeks
and wanted to share some thoughts about the machine and how it stacks
up to other lightweight machines.
"Like every designer of lightweight machine, Apple had some
tradeoffs to make, and overall the company got a lot very right - and a
few things very wrong - in designing the MacBook Air, its first
ultraportable."
Link:
What the MacBook Air Gets Right (and What It Gets Wrong)
MacBook Air 'Compelling'
MacInTouch's Robert
Mohns has posted a very thorough review of the MacBook Air:
"Stunningly thin and lighter than any Apple laptop ever made, yet
missing ports and expandability expected of laptops, the MacBook Air
has been a topic of intense discussion in the Mac community.
"The MacBook Air is not a traditional Apple pro model, lacking the
requisite raw power and expandability. Yet, at $700 more than the basic
MacBook (which is much faster), it's clearly not positioned as a
consumer laptop, either....
"Apple says they designed the MacBook Air's 'form factor' - its
shape and size - and then figured out how to fit a computer into
it....
"Sleek elegance is the first impression of the MacBook Air, and
touching it is pure pleasure. It's the most visually and tactilely
compelling Mac laptop since the black PowerBook G3 series.
"And everything about the MacBook Air exudes precision. The screen
opens more smoothly than any Apple laptop's in recent memory....
"The MacBook Air is remarkably sturdy, too....
'Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing
more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.'
- Antoine de Saint Exupéry, 1939, Terre des Hommes
"Apple appears to have taken the poet and aviator Antoine de Saint
Exupéry to heart...."
Link: Major Review: MacBook
Air
LG: Laptop Batteries Won't Explode Under Normal
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Apple Updates
Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.5.2 Update
The 10.5.2
Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and
includes fixes and enhancements for Stacks, Time Machine, bundled iLife
apps., and Safari, enhanced camera RAW support, Mail bugfixes, and
general operating system fixes that enhance the stability,
compatibility and security of your Mac. For a more comprehensive list
of changes, see below.
The updater file is a whopping 343 MB and requires Mac OS X 10.5 or
later. To update to Mac OS X 10.5.2, use Software Update or the
standalone installer which can be downloaded from Apple.com
It is recommended that you back up your system prior to installing
any updates.
Choose Software Update from the Apple menu to automatically check
for the latest Apple software using the Internet, including this
update. (Software Update might have linked you to this article to learn
more about the update.) If your computer is not up-to-date, other
software updates available for your computer may appear that you should
install. Note that an update's size may vary from computer to computer
when installed using Software Update. Also, some updates must be
installed prior to others, so you should run Software Update more than
once to make sure you have all available updates.
You can download the update installer and run it manually if you
don't want to use Software Update. The standalone installer is a useful
option when you need to update multiple computers but only want to
download the update once. The Mac OS X 10.5.2 Update standalone
installer is available from Apple Support Downloads.
Link: About the Mac
OS X 10.5.2 Update
Download
page
Leopard Graphics Update 1.0 for OS X
10.5.2
Adding another 48.9 MB to
the already humongous OS X 10.5.2 update is the somewhat mysterious
Leopard Graphics Update, which Apple is recommending for all users and
says improves the stability and compatibility of your Mac. This update
requires Mac OS X 10.5.2 to be installed first, and wants a second
reboot.
Reportedly, the Leopard Graphics Update contains mainly graphics
drivers it contains graphics drivers, including an AltivecDVDDriver,
IntelGMA drivers, ATI drivers, GeForce and NVDANV drivers, and a new
OpenGL framework.
System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.5.2
You can download the update from Apple.com.
Link: Download
page
Apple Security Update 2008-001 for Mac OS X
10.4.11
About Security Update
2008-001 (Universal)
Security Update 2008-001 (Universal) is recommended for all users
and improves the security of the following components:
Security Update 2008-001 (Universal) SHA1 Digest:
SecUpd2008-001Univ.dmg=
f572a0e29df4b44e124a92d5601ba45772818e02
For explanation of what a SHA1 digest is, visit this website:
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n75510
File Size: 28.8 MB
About Security Update 2008-001 (PPC)
Security Update 2008-001 (PPC) is recommended for all users and
improves the security of the following components:
Security Update 2008-001 (PPC) SHA1 Digest:
SecUpd2008-001PPC.dmg=
bf3ebc69e094000d48d94e997a4d51f25c4824e0
For explanation of what a SHA1 digest is, please visit this
website:
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n75510
File Size: 16.7 MB
Link:
Security Update 2008-001 (Universal)
Security
Update 2008-001 for PowerPC
Tech Trends
Windows XP for OLPC is Almost Here
Desktop Linux's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols says:
"It's not like anyone has asked for Windows XP to run on the
Linux-powered One Laptop Per Child XO laptop, but Microsoft is getting
ready to deliver it to us anyway.
"In an eWEEK news story by Peter Galli, Orlando Ayala, senior vice
president of Microsoft's Unlimited Potential Group, said Microsoft is
conducting field trials to make sure that a modified XP Service Pack 2
will run well on the XO. According to Ayala, 'We are encouraged by what
we have seen of Windows on the XO machine so far, and field trials
started at the end of January involving about 200 XO machines running a
customized version of Windows XP SP2 with a reduced footprint
image.'"
Link:
XP for OLPC is Almost Here
Bargain 'Books
Bargain 'Books are used unless otherwise indicated. New and
refurbished units have a one-year Apple warranty and are eligible for
AppleCare.
There are two different versions of WallStreet running at 233 MHz,
the cacheless MainStreet version and the
later Series II with
a level 2 cache. It's not always possible to determine from the
vendor's listing which is being offered, so we've included links within
this paragraph to the two models. The same goes for the PowerBook G4/667 (VGA) and
G4/667 (DVI), the
titanium vs. aluminum 15" PowerBook G4 at 1 GHz, and 1.25 GHz to 1.5
GHz 15" PowerBooks.
PowerBook, iBook, and MacBook profiles linked in our Portable Mac Index.
Refurb 2.2 Ghz Santa Rosa 15" MacBook Pros are available again late
in the week, in my estimation a better value than the older 2.16 GHz
models for $200 less and 2.33 MHz Core 2 Duo models that are offered for
$200 more. The higher-spec. 15-incher has never seemed to me to be much
of a deal. cm
- refurb 2.0 GHz Santa Rosa MacBook, white, 1 GB/80/Combo, $949
- refurb 2.0 GHz Core 2 MacBook, white, 1 GB/80/SD, $1,049
- refurb 2.16 GHz Core 2 MacBook, black, 1 GB/160/SD, $1,249
- refurb 2.2 GHz Core 2 MacBook, white, 1 GB/120/SD, $1,099
- refurb 2.2 GHz Core 2 MacBook, black, 1 GB/160/SD, $1,299
- refurb 15" 2.16 GHz Core 2 MacBook Pro, 1 GB/120/SD, $1,499
- refurb 15" 2.2 GHz Core 2 MacBook Pro, 2 GB/120/SD, $1,699
- refurb 15" 2.33 GHz Core 2 MacBook Pro, 2 GB/120/SD, $1,899
- refurb 15" 2.4 GHz Core 2 MacBook Pro, 2 GB/160/SD, $2,099
- refurb 17" 2.4 GHz Core 2 MacBook Pro, 2 GB/160/SD, $2,299
- 15" PowerBook G4/400, 256/20/DVD, $499.99
- 17" PowerBook G4/1 GHz, 512/60/SD, $999.99
- 12" iBook G3/500, 128/10/128mb RAM /CD, $169.99
- 12" iBook G3/600, 128/15/128mb RAM/CD, $249.99
- 12" iBook G3/700, 128/20/128RAM/Combo, $329.99
- 12" iBook G3/800, 256/30/256mb RAM/Combo, $399.99
- 15" 1.83 GHz MacBook Pro, 512/80/SD, $1,179.99
- 15" 2 GHz MacBook Pro, 512/80/SD, $1,239.99
- 15" 2.16 GHz MacBook Pro, 1 GB/100/SD, $1,399.99
- 17" 2.16 GHz MacBook Pro, 1 GB/120/SD, $1,499.99
- 17" 2.16 GHz MacBook Pro, 1 GB/160/SD, $1,529.99
- 17" 2.16 GHz MacBook Pro, 1 GB/200/SD, $1,619.99
- 12" iBook G4/800, 640/30/Combo, $399
- 12" iBook G4/800, 640/30/Combo, APX, $439
- 1.83 GHz Core Duo MacBook, white, 1 GB/80/Combo, $879
- 2.16 GHz Core 2 MacBook, black, 1 G/160/SD, $1,259
- MacBook 2.0 GHz Core 2, white, 1 GB/80/Combo, $999
- open box 2.16 GHz Core 2 MacBook, white, 1 GB/120/SD, warranty
started $1,199
- open box 2.16 GHz Core 2 MacBook, white, 1 GB/120/SD, $1,229
- open box 2.16 GHz Core 2 MacBook, black, 1 GB/160/SD, $1,379
- MacBook 2.16 GHz Core 2, black, 1 GB/160/SD, $1,439
- open box 15" 2.2 GHz Core 2 MacBook Pro, 2 GB/200/SD, $1,899
- open box 15" 2.4 GHz Core 2 MacBook Pro, 2 GB/160/SD, $2,439
- open box 17" 2.4 GHz Core 2 MacBook Pro, 2 GB/160/SD, $2,599
- 12" iBook G3/500, 128/10/CD, $199.95
- 12" iBook G3/500, 256/10/Combo, $399.95
- 12" iBook G3/600, 128/20/CD, $219.95
- 12" iBook G3/700, 256/20/CD, $229.95
- 12" iBook G3/800, 256/30/CD, $249.95
- 12" iBook G4/800, 640/40/Combo, $479.95
- 12" iBook G4/1 GHz, 768/40/Combo, $529.95
- 14" iBook G3/800, 256/30/Combo, $349.95
- 14" iBook G3/900, 256/40/Combo, $369.95
- 12" iBook G4/1 GHz, 256/40/Combo, OS X 10.4, $589.99
For deals on current and discontinued 'Books, see our 13" MacBook and MacBook Pro,
MacBook Air, 13" MacBook Pro, 15" MacBook Pro, 17" MacBook Pro, 12" PowerBook G4, 15" PowerBook G4, 17" PowerBook G4, titanium PowerBook G4,
iBook G4, PowerBook G3, and iBook G3 deals.
We also track iPad,
iPhone, iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, and iPod shuffle deals.
