09.15.08
Posted in Announcements, Apple, Applications, Apps, Leopard, Mac OS X, Mac Pro, MacBook, Media, News, Resources, Tech, iMac at 8:09 pm by Administrator
Apple is expected to release new Mac models for the next few weeks. This October would be three years to the last PowerBook G4 model released before the switch to Intel processors. The first Intel-based Macs were announced in January at MacWorld San Francisco 2006, and the first batch of MacBook Pros were shipped a month after.
We are getting close for the first Intel iMac and MacBook Pro AppleCare to expire. That would be sometimes in January/February 2009. Since its introductions, the Intel iMac has gone through one significant design. Gone are the plastic fronts, replaced with Aluminum and Glass. Meanwhile, the Macbook Pro design still borrows a lot from the Aluminum Powerbook G4. The 15-inch MacBook Pro resembles the 17″ PowerBook G4 than its 15″ counterpart.
Apple has been looking into the redesign for its Macbook and MacBook Pro line. Rumors have been circulating and loudly whispering that the next MacBook will clad Aluminum enclosures instead of Polycarbonate. If so, what would the MacBook Pro new design be?
Based on the incoherent chatters, Apple’s patent applications and many others, The new MacBook Pro would have an easily accessible hard drive bay, tapered bezel, and Intel’s new Quad-Core mobile CPU. This is the necessary upgrade that Mac users have been waiting for. A few months back, we received some unconfirmed information regarding the struggles that Apple engineers were facing with thermal issues. There is no denying that the MacBook Pros can get really hot. Thanks to the CPU, GPU, power supply and its heat-conducting Aluminum body. We will see what kind of design Apple engineers would use for the new MacBook Pro line.
Meanwhile, on the iMac front there wouldn’t be any major changes with the body design, but it will sport Intel’s Quad-Core CPU.
Mac mini might see a major redesign, since the current model is a little bit underpowered by comparisons. Apple should reconsider the “lower-end” market, and price the Mac mini more competitively. Even better if Apple would release an intermediate Mac desktop, larger than Mac mini and definitely smaller than the Mac Pro. A “consumer” Mac with upgradeable hard-drive, optical drive, etc. It will still have the same Mac core, but priced competitively with the rest of PC-market. A sub $1,000 Mac desktop that is still powerful. Apple could see a huge boost in Mac adoptions if they’d release such model.
Mac Pro models should see more powerful CPU, GPU, faster hard drive and higher capacity optical storage option. It might not see a new design anytime soon unless Apple has the need to do so.
All in all Apple must refresh their product line with some new innovations. In the time when most if not all technology pundits think that computers have reach its maturity, companies must innovate and improve their products.
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03.01.08
Posted in Announcements, Apple, Applications, Apps, Leopard, Mac OS X, Mac Pro, MacBook, Media, News, Resources, Tech, Vista, Windows, iMac at 11:27 am by Administrator
I picked up Time Capsule on Friday at the Apple Store while my friend is still waiting for his pre-order to arrive. Take that Vondiggity!
I bought the 500GB version because:
- I didn’t see the 1 TeraByte version in the particular Apple Store.
- I don’t want to spend $500 + sales tax for it.
Time Capsule comes with AirPort Utility 5.3 for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista. Mac OS X 10.5.2 Leopard AirPort utility has version 5.2.2 included.
The Time Capsule I have is using Seagate Barracuda® ES SATA 3.0Gb/s 500-GB Hard Drive, model number ST3500630NS.
From Seagate:
The Seagate® Barracuda® ES enterprise hard drive is the industry’s most reliable, highest capacity 7200-RPM hard drive for 24 x 7, multidrive, business-critical applications. The Barracuda ES hard drive is built with perpendicular recording technology for maximum capacity, reliability and cost-effectiveness.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog reported that one user’s 1 TeraByte Time Capsule is equipped with HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000 HDS721010KLA330 (full tech specs here in pdf format).
From Hitachi:
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000
Applications
- Internal and external storage for consumer
- computers
- Networked storage servers
- Extreme gaming machines
- Video editing arrays
Is it possible that the 500GB model has a better hard drive, or there are a lot more variations on the installed hard drive models?
UPDATE:
The highest capacity for Seagate Barracuda ES is 750GB. Meanwhile, Seagate Barracuda ES.2 is available in capacity up to 1 TeraByte.
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02.12.08
Posted in Announcements, Apple, Applications, Apps, Leopard, Mac OS X, Mac Pro, MacBook, Media, News, Pictures, Resources, Tech, iMac at 5:35 pm by Administrator
Along with Aperture 2, Apple also releases Aperture Compatibility Checker. The apps will check if your system and graphic cards meet the minimum requirements for Aperture 2. Download it here.
Minimum System Requirements
One of the following Mac computers:
- Mac Pro
- MacBook Pro
- MacBook Air
- MacBook
- Mac mini with an Intel Core Solo or Duo processor
- iMac with a 1.8GHz or faster PowerPC G5 or Intel Core Duo processor
- Power Mac G5 with a 1.6GHz or faster PowerPC G5 processor
- 15- or 17-inch PowerBook G4 with a 1.25GHz or faster PowerPC G4 processor
Memory requirements
- 1GB of RAM
- 2GB of RAM for Mac Pro
One of the following graphics cards:
- ATI Radeon X600 Pro, X600 XT, X800 XT Mac Edition, X850 XT, X1600, X1900 XT, 9800 XT, 9800 Pro, 9700 Pro, 9600, 9600 XT, 9600 Pro, 9650, HD 2400 XT, HD 2600 PRO, or HD 2600 XT
- ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 or 9600
- ATI Mobility Radeon X1600
- NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra, 6600, 6600 LE, 6800 Ultra DDL, 6800 GT DDL, 7300 GT, 7800 GT, 8600M GT, or 8800 GT
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 or FX 5600
- Intel GMA 950 or GMA X3100
Minimum operating system requirements
- Mac OS X v10.4.11 Tiger
- Mac OS X v10.5.2 Leopard
DVD drive for installation
5GB of hard drive space for the application and sample projects
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01.29.08
Posted in Announcements, Apple, Applications, Apps, Leopard, Mac OS X, Mac Pro, MacBook, Media, News, Resources, Tech, Vista, Windows, iMac at 1:13 am by Administrator
VMware releases VMware Fusion 1.1.1 (for Intel-based Mac OS X)
Read the release note here.
VMware 1.1.1 | 01/24/08 | 72241 | 171 MB
VMware-Fusion-1.1.1-72241.dmg
http://www.vmware.com/download/download.do?downloadGroup=FUS-111
VMware user account is required.
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01.15.08
Posted in Announcements, Apple, Applications, Apps, Entertainment, Leopard, Mac OS X, Mac Pro, MacBook, Media, Movies, Music, News, Pictures, Resources, TV, Tech, iMac, iMovie, iPhone, iPod, iTunes at 3:09 am by Administrator
January 15th, 2008
Time Capsule
iPhone Software 1.1.3 - read more here
iPod touch upgrade - ($19.99 upgrade cost) - editorials/rants coming soon
iTunes Movie Rentals
AppleTV (New Software - Free Upgrade)
MacBook Air
——-
Here we go again.
Steve Jobs is taking the center stage at MacWorld San Francisco 2008, delivering his keynote. Many has speculated what he will say, and the rumors are running wild. What’s with the “air”? What’s in the air?
Take all the rumors with a boulder of salt. In short time we all will find out.
Live coverage of MacWorld San Francisco 2008 Keynote starting at 09:00AM Pacific Standard Time:
Mac Rumors Live
Engadget
Ars Technica
MacScoop
LoopRumors
The Mac Observer
MacDailyNews
MacWorld
The Unofficial Apple Weblog
CNET - Live
Mac360
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01.13.08
Posted in AVCHD, Announcements, Apple, Applications, Apps, Cat, Leopard, Mac OS X, MacBook, Media, Movies, News, Resources, Reviews, Tech, iMac, iMovie at 2:30 am by Administrator
Thanks to my friend I get to use the Canon HG10 AVCHD 40GB High Definition Camcorder and write about it. I posted a short video clip from this camera a few days ago. The first clip doesn’t really represent the quality of the video captured by this camera, since I show mostly “Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory” on the LCD screen. I’ll post the review for this camcorder in the near future.
Check out another video clip taken using Canon HG10 AVCHD 40GB High Definition Camcorder here.
- 22.1MB
- Encoded in H.264
- 960×540
- 29.97fps
- Auto setting in camera
- The game in the clip is “Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory”
Notes:
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01.08.08
Posted in AVCHD, Announcements, Apple, Applications, Apps, Leopard, Mac OS X, Mac Pro, MacBook, Media, Microsoft, Movies, News, Resources, Reviews, Tech, Vista, Windows, iMac, iMovie at 11:24 pm by Administrator
UPS delivered the Canon HG10 AVCHD 40GB High Definition Camcorder just a few hours prior to this post. Thanks to Amazon.com for prompt service and UPS for actually delivering the camcorder one day early.
The price @ Amazon.com is $761.60 at the time of this post.
I use iMovie ‘08 and Sony Vegas to import the videos.
I need to spend more time using this camcorder to write a more thorough review. In the mean time, check the pictures below.
The other camcorder is Panasonic HDC-SD5.
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12.31.07
Posted in Announcements, Apple, Applications, Apps, Comedy, Entertainment, Humor, Leopard, Mac OS X, Mac Pro, MacBook, Media, Movies, Music, News, Resources, Security, TV, Tech, iMac, iMovie, iPhone, iPod, iTunes at 7:17 pm by Administrator
Despite all efforts to hack the flow of time, the “year 2007″ expires on December 31st at midnight. Teams of hackers are still working on cracking the encryptions to prevent “year 2007″ from expiring. Unfortunately, their efforts so far bear no fruits.
If you are affected by the expirations, please do not panic. Upon the expiration of “year 2007″, “year 2008″ will automatically activate and resume any tasks carried over from “year 2007″. If for some reasons, you found out that other people in different part of the world were already upgraded to “year 2008″, please do not panic. That’s because you’re living in a different time zone that is a little bit behind the time. As a matter of fact, numbers of part of the world have already had “year 2008″ activated at the time of this writing.
Q: Would I need a new serial number to upgrade from “year 2007″ to “year 2008″?
A: No. You don’t need any serial numbers at all.
Q: Is “year 2008″ backward compatible with “year 2007″?
A: Generally yes. But remember to date anything with “2008″ instead of “2007″. Let alone using “2009″.
Q: Where do I sign up for “year 2009“ beta testing?
A: Unfortunately such beta program has not been announced yet.
Q: I love “year 2007″, and I refuse to upgrade to “year 2008″. What can I do to stay with “year 2007“?
A: In a way it is a mandatory upgrade. You can pretend that it’s still “year 2007“, but it’s going to be hard to interact with everyone else. There is one other extreme solution, but I won’t get into that; let alone recommending or condoning it.
Q: Will “year 2008“ performs better than “year 2007“.
A: Results may vary. It also depends on what happened in “year 2007“.
Q: Will my love life be better after upgrading to “year 2008“?
A: Can’t answer that one. You’re on your own, buddy!
Q: What kind of warranty does “year 2008“ come with?
A: “Year 2008“ comes with a limited lifetime warranty; the lifetime of “year 2008″. It’s guaranteed to run until December 31st, 2008. It also comes with guaranteed upgrade to “year 2009“.
Q: Can I get full refund if I don’t like “year 2008“?
A: You’ll get full refund of the amount you paid for purchasing the “year 2008“. Basically you’ll get refund in the amount of nothing.
Q: I think I like “year 2008“. But can it run Linux?
A: You dirty unbathed Linux Hippie!
Q: Should I buy an iPhone along with “year 2008“?
A: Should you? Buy it if you want it. I’d suggest to wait until Steve Jobs is done with his annual Keynote at MacWorld San Francisco. If you’re recently given a T-Mobile Dash after you dropped and broke your Treo, just wait and listen to me!
Year 2008 is expected to be the time of many events, which some of them are carried over from year 2007. In the world of technology, many events are scheduled to take place in year 2008. Confirmed events to take place shortly after year 2008 activates are CES and MacWorld San Francisco.
According to many rumors, speculations, analysis, and pure imaginations; the followings are expected to be announced at MacWorld San Francisco 2008:
- iPhone announcements. Second Generation iPhone with 3G network support?
- New Mac announcements. New MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, and Mac mini?
- Updates to Apple TV with more features.
- iTunes movie rental.
- More DRM-free music on iTunes Store.
- New Apple software. What could it be?
- iPhone software updates.
- More news on iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK).
- Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard update. (10.5.3)
- A new device from Apple. OK, this one can be classified “made-up”. Take that, Apple!
to be continued.
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12.04.07
Posted in Announcements, Apple, Mac Pro, MacBook, News, Resources, Tech, iMac at 3:45 am by Administrator
Just purchased 2GB DDR2 667MHz RAM Module from Fry’s Electronic. Tested the module with iMac, MacBook, and MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo.
Corsair Value Select VS2GB667D2
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11.21.07
Posted in Announcements, Apple, Applications, Apps, Comedy, Entertainment, Humor, Leopard, Mac OS X, Mac Pro, MacBook, Media, Movies, News, Pictures, Reviews, TV, Tech, iMac, iMovie at 1:16 am by Administrator
I finally finished the first project involving Carlos Alazraqui, AVCHD, Panasonic HDC-SD5, Macs, and iMovie ‘08. I learned a lot from this project, from using the Panasonic HDC-SDC camera, importing AVCHD movie clips, using iMovie ‘08 even further, and the hardware requirements for this project.
First, I’d like to thank Hollywood Improv for giving the permissions to film Carlos Alazraqui’s stand-up sets.
I do realize that my personal MacBook Pro Core Duo is a little bit underpowered in handling AVCHD movie clips. For certain, it took a long time to import the AVCHD clips, and it took even longer to export the HD clips.
I do learn a lot of tricks in using iMovie ‘08. I originally was going to use Final Cut Pro to edit the clips. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to install Final Cut Pro on my MacBook Pro, after I clean installed Mac OS X Leopard on it. In addition to that, I have yet to acquire Final Cut Express 4 which now supports AVCHD format.
I will post my review on Panasonic HDC-SD5, my experience with iMovie ‘08, and what I learn about AVCHD format.
As a preview, please take a look at the following screen capture taken using Panasonic HDC-SD5.
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