Had a pleasant surprise on Saturday morning when I received a SMS text from my brother who was on business trip in the US – “Bought u 64GB iPad” – I had to rub my eyes just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. But a day later, the iPad is real and in my hands.
So how is it so far? Continue Reading →
Following Apple’s announcement of their most profitable quarter ever, they announced a whole range of new products just in time for the upcoming holiday season.
The all-in-one iMac is updated with a new enclosure as well as internals. You will immediately notice the screen is bigger compared to the previous generation. The iMac now comes in two new sizes, 21.5 and 27-inch displays. The most obvious change is the screen size. The 21.5-inch version features a high resolution 1920-by-1080 pixel display (which is full HD), and the 27-inch features a staggering 2560-by-1440 pixel display.
Internally, the iMac is refreshed with a faster processor, topping off with Quad Core i5 and i7 chips for as a custom option for the 27.5-incher. The graphics card, RAM and hard disk is also upgraded. And now, the iMac ships with wireless keyboard and the new Magic Mouse as standard.
The iMac is available in Singapore at the Apple Store on 28 October for the Core 2 Duo version, starting from S$1,788 and the i5 and i7 iMacs will begin shipping in November.
The Mac mini also saw an update. It looks the same as the previous generation’s and comes in 3 configurations. First is a 2.26GHz Interl Core 2 Duo with 160 Gb hard disk, the second is a 2.53GHz with a 320Gb hard disk but the last one is a nice surprise.
Apple configured a new Mac mini with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server loaded inside. This incarnation of the Mac Mini will not include a DVD drive, but instead houses 2 × 500 Gb hard disks as server storage. The entire line of Mac minis are available from the Apple Store now from S$948.
The Macbook also saw a much needed update. It now sports an entirely new unibody polycarbonate enclosure. Like her bigger Pro cousin, the Macbook now comes with a built-in rechargeable battery, which boasts up to seven hours of wireless productivity with each charge. It comes in one flavor, clocking in at 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and only at S$1588 if you add any additional extras.
The new Macbook will be available in Singapore from the Apple Store at the end of October from S$1,588. Â Do note that the Macbook, unlike the Macbook Pros and iMacs, does not have a SD card slot.
The Magic Mouse is a refresh to the Mighty Mouse. The name change is due to legal reasons, but “magic” is also a much better descriptor. It is the world’s first Multi-Touch mouse which can recognize gestures very similar to the trackpads on their laptop range. This means you can two-fingers swipe to advance through pages on your browser and you can use one finger to scroll and pan through your documents just by touching any part of the surface.
We will be posting an in-depth review of the Magic Mouse very soon. Stay tuned, but if you are interested in a new mouse for your mac, the Magic Mouse should set you back about S$98 and is available end of October.
The Airport Extreme and Time Capsule also saw a minor but significant update. With the approval of the 802.11n standard, the new wireless stations now come standard with dual-band support. Under the hood, the antenna used is improved and now boasts 50% better Wi-Fi performance and up to 25% better range than the previous generation.
Overall, this update is a significant one and in my opinion, there’s never been a better time to get a new Mac. We will be posting a buying guide very soon, so check back here soon for some buying tips this holiday season.
I think Mac fans live and feed on rumours to sustain our insatiable appetite to be the first to know about new product launches, features etc. Many times, such rumours originates from factories in China where most of the products are manufactured – like how we knew about cameras appearing in the recently released iPod nanos because some leaks from certain iPod nano case manufacturer.
Another good source is from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filings that regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable – thus companies that produce products that has such features – like say a BlueTooth mouse and keyboard, they need to be submitted and as such filings are available to the public, they will quickly be spotted by the eager eyes from sites like Engadget and AppleInsiders. These two filings are supposedly for the MightyMouse replacement that again will push the boundaries of mouse-technology.
See more details at AppleInsider
Also running through the Interweb are Google ads that supposedly leaked the release of new iMacs, MacBooks and Mac minis. As these are pretty hazy thin in rumour land, do keep a look out for the upcoming festive period if you are planning to make a purchase soon as both the iMacs and MacBooks are nearing the end of their product cycle.
If you are a student, faculty or staff member of any qualified Education institution in Singapore, or even parents of a student studying there, between now till September 8, 2009, you can buy a Mac at Apple’s special price for Education purchases, and at the same time, get an iPod touch for free!
With not much fanfare, Apple updated the specs for the most affordable laptop – the 13-inch White MacBook, coming close to the mid-range unibody MacBook.
TechCrunch posted an article saying that Apple might release a large form iPod Touch for 2009.
We’ve got this from three independent sources close to Apple: expect a large screen iPod touch device to be released in the Fall of `09, with a 7 or 9 inch screen. Prototypes have been seen and handled by one of our sources, and Apple is talking to OEMs in Asia now about mass production.
Many were speculating that Apple will come up with a small size MacBook like those NetBooks available out in the market, but don’t you think the iPod Touch is just like one, sans the keyboard.
With Apple having such success with the iPhone, iPod Touch, paired with the iTunes and App Store, having a large form iPod Touch will satisfy fans’ craving for 1) a Tablet and 2) a NetBook.
If priced attractively between the MacBooks and iPod Touch, it might carve out a niche like how the iPods did back when it was launched. Schools will be a good target market for such a device.
As it is, these rumors of a tablet/netbook/big-ass-Touch almost always surface before a MacWorld, so take it with a Touch-ful of salt. I wonder whether that Tech Crunch source that held it was a friend of Big Foot.
TUAW brought to attention this knowledge base article on how to reset the SMC chip on your Intel-based MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
The System Management Controller is an integrated circuit (computer chip) that is on the logic board of the computer. As the name implies, it is responsible for power management of the computer. It controls backlighting, hard disk spin down, sleep and wake, some charging aspects, trackpad control, and some input/output as it relates to the computer sleeping.
So some possible symptoms when the SMC becomes unstable are your machine not turning on, waking from sleep, not charging or like the article from TUAW, the battery not showing the correct run time even though it was freshly charged.
But do note that resetting the SMC should be your last resort after restarting the machine to clear the problems. It did solved the problem posted in TUAW, hopefully it will solved yours next time.
(via TUAW)
If you own the recently released MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, there should be a notification to download two firmware updates for your machine. These include the EFI and SMC Firmware updates that improves stability and improves the sensing and accuracy of the MagSafe Power Adapter indicator light and the battery charge indicator lights respectively. Not much details from Apple, as usual, about such updates. But always good to apply them.
As always whenever you do such updates, make sure you are connected to the AC Adapter and remove any external devices that are connected to your machine. Lastly, close all applications and ensure you have your data backed up before you do the updates.
During the EFI Firmware update, do note the following:
For the MacBooks:
For the MacBook Pros:
For the MacBook Airs:
Do let us know if you observed any improvements or problems doing this firmware updates.
When Greenpeace came out and put up a site denouncing Apple’s less than green effort in their manufacturing process last year, Steve Jobs was quick to announce a greener policy to help save the Earth.
Apple has been criticized by some environmental organizations for not being a leader in removing toxic chemicals from its new products, and for not aggressively or properly recycling its old products. Upon investigating Apple’s current practices and progress towards these goals, I was surprised to learn that in many cases Apple is ahead of, or will soon be ahead of, most of its competitors in these areas. Whatever other improvements we need to make, it is certainly clear that we have failed to communicate the things that we are doing well.
Check out the new ad
The new line of MacBooks and MacBook Pros are a good example of this earth-friendly policy. Some of the improvements in the new fabrication process includes the following:
Apple also recently just released a new ad about the new line MacBooks hailing them as the Greenest Family of Notebooks. Not sure who or what they compared with but with Apple, making big claims are not unusual.
So when you do buy the new Apple, besides doing yourself a great favour, you are also doing a part for the Mother Earth by buying a Greener Apple.
Apple released updates to fix trackpad issues for new laptops, QuickTime compatibility with iChat and kills 23″ Cinema Display. Just a few non-earth shattering news for today.
