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| Monday, January 31, 2005 |
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Apple Launches Faster PowerBooks With Drop-Protection Jan. 31, 2005
Apple beefs up its business-class PowerBook notebook line by adding more memory and faster processors.
Apple on Monday beefed up its business-class PowerBook notebook line by adding more memory, faster processors, and an airbag-style feature that protects the hard drive if the computer's dropped.
The five new PowerBooks -- available with 12-, 15-, and 17-inch displays -- all come with 512MB of memory standard, a doubling from the previous minimum in the machines. Apple touted other performance and productivity enhancements, including faster hard drives, Bluetooth 2.0 and a brighter backlight for the keyboard in the 15- and 17-inch notebooks.
Also, the line, which earlier topped out with a 1.5GHz processor, now can be equipped with 1.67GHz PowerPC, and the low-end, once 1.33MHz, is now 1.5MHz.
Apple's introducing its scrolling TrackPad in the new PowerBooks -- touching the pad with two fingers rather than one scrolls or pans within the active window -- and its Sudden Motion Sensor technology that detects sudden movement, such as a fall, and then locks down the hard drive. The latter's not new to notebooks: IBM has boasted a similar feature in its ThinkPad laptops for some time.
The PowerBooks will be this week in retail and direct from Apple at its online store, at prices ranging from $1,499 to $2,699. The 15-inch model equipped with a 1.67MHz PowerPC, 512MB of memory, and a 80GB hard drive, for instance, prices out at $1,999, identical to the earlier 15-inch model that sported a 1.33MHz processor, 256MB of memory, and a 60GB drive.
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| posted by Perimbean @ 8:00 AM |
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PowerBooks Gain Faster CPUs, Scrolling Trackpad
by Adam C. Engst
Apple today pulled the wraps off an update to the PowerBook line that increases CPU speeds to 1.5 GHz and 1.67 GHz, bumps all hard drive speeds to 5400 rpm, adds an 8x SuperDrive, and introduces a pair of interesting new technologies - the scrolling trackpad and Sudden Motion Sensor - the latter of which you hope you'll never need.
Faster PowerBook! In a not unexpected move, Apple bumped up the clock speeds of the PowerPC G4 used in the current PowerBook line. The end result is a $2,700 1.67 GHz 17-inch PowerBook that comes with a 100 GB hard disk, an 8x SuperDrive (CD-RW/DVD+-RW), an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics processor with 128 MB of video memory, Dual Link DVI support that can drive Apple's 30-inch Cinema HD Display, and internal Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. Other specs remain the same: 512 MB of RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, 56 Kbps v.92 modem, built-in 54 Mbps AirPort Extreme, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 400 and 800 ports, optical digital audio input and output, and an illuminated keyboard with the ambient light sensor.
The addition of the backwards-compatible Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) is somewhat notable, given that Apple is the first major company to build the technology in by default. Bluetooth 2.0 triples the maximum data rate from 1 Mbps to 3 Mbps and in doing so, thanks to the side effect of transmitting for shorter periods of time, reduces power consumption. Of course, nothing else supports Bluetooth 2.0 right now, but that will undoubtedly change soon. The final Bluetooth 2.0 specification was ratified in November 2004, with the first ratified chips appearing in December, meaning that Apple turned on a dime to build them into these new PowerBooks.
The 15-inch PowerBook comes in 1.67 GHz and 1.5 GHz models ($2,300 and $2,000, respectively). Compared to the 17-inch PowerBook, the 15-inch 1.67 GHz model includes only 64 MB of video memory (128 MB and Dual Link support are optional), comes with an 80 GB hard disk, and lacks digital audio input and output; the 1.5 GHz model also trades the SuperDrive for a Combo drive (CD-RW/DVD-ROM) and loses the option of Dual Link support.
With the 12-inch PowerBook, Apple offers a pair of 1.5 GHz models. The $1,700 model includes an 80 GB hard disk and an 8x SuperDrive; the $1,500 model instead provides a 60 GB hard disk and a Combo drive. Both models also rely on an Nvidia GeForce FX Go5200 graphics processor with 64 MB of video memory, and they offer only 100Base-T Ethernet and FireWire 400 instead of the faster ports sported by their larger siblings. As with previous models, the 12-inch version does not offer the illuminated backlit keyboard.
All models come with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, iLife '05, Art Director's Toolkit, QuickBooks for Mac New User Edition, GraphicConverter, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, and a variety of trial versions of other programs.
Scrolling Trackpad -- Raging Menace Software's $15 utility SideTrack has long simulated scroll-wheel capabilities on PowerBook and iBook trackpads, but it does so by devoting a side of the trackpad to scrolling. Apple's new scrolling trackpad technology, which is built into all the new PowerBooks, takes a different approach that may work better. Drag two fingers on the trackpad simultaneously to scroll horizontally, vertically, or to pan around the active window. You can customize the settings or turn off scrolling entirely, presumably in the Trackpad tab of the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane.
The scrolling trackpad technology is built into the trackpad hardware and thus won't be available to owners of older PowerBooks or iBooks, though I would expect to see it migrate to the iBooks with the next minor update to that line.
Sudden Motion Sensor -- Dropping your PowerBook is a bad idea. A really bad idea. But as much as breaking the screen and denting the case in ways that might prevent the lid from closing or the optical drive from working are terrible, horrible, awful, rotten, no-good things to have happen, even worse is damaging the hard drive and losing all your data. (Unless, of course, you have cleverly followed Joe Kissell's advice in "Take Control of Mac OS X Backups" to ensure that you can restore everything with a minimum of fuss and downtime.)
Apple still hasn't built any sort of automatic backup capabilities into the Mac, but the entire line of new PowerBooks feature the new Sudden Motion Sensor, which detects changes in axis position and accelerated motion (as will likely happen when you accidentally pull the PowerBook off your desk while messing about with the cable nest on the floor). When the Sudden Motion Sensor activates, it instantly parks the heads of your hard drive to lessen the chance that they'll scratch the disk surface, reducing the likelihood of data loss. Once the Sudden Motion Sensor notices that your PowerBook is level again, it unlocks the drive heads automatically.
As much as the Sudden Motion Sensor is a useful technology, it's by no means a panacea. Even ignoring all the other damage that comes with dropping a PowerBook, the Sudden Motion Sensor is relevant only if you drop the PowerBook while it's running; when the PowerBook is sleeping or shut down, the drive heads are already parked. So don't assume that the Sudden Motion Sensor will provide any protection beyond what you already have in many situations. As always, focus on prevention: be careful when handling your laptop, use a well-padded laptop bag (TidBITS sponsor Matias has a video of dropping a laptop in their Laptop Armor bag onto concrete from a high of 10 feet (3.05 meters)), and set up your working environment to reduce the risk of people tripping over cables and other accidents.
Nice Updates -- These minor revisions to the PowerBook line are welcome, particularly given that they don't come with increased prices - no one will ever complain about a CPU speed bump, and the faster hard disks should improve performance with disk-intensive work. The Dual Link capability will be particularly appreciated by those who use a 15-inch or 17-inch PowerBook as their primary Mac, but who also need the massive screen real estate of a 30-inch Cinema HD Display. And the addition of Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, the scrolling trackpad, and Sudden Motion Sensor sweeten the deal beyond what normally happens with a speed bump update. The new machines will be available later this week.
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| posted by Perimbean @ 8:00 AM |
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| Wednesday, January 26, 2005 |
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Mac Mini might inspire buyers in mass quantities
By Jefferson Graham / USA TODAY
Matthew Williams started thinking about switching to an Apple computer after he fell in love with the company's iPod digital music player last year, but he found them too pricey.
That has all changed now. The release this week of Apple's new $499 Mac Mini computer, "is finally the kicker that's going to bring me to the other side," says Williams, 21, a student at Morrisville State College in upstate New York.
"After seeing pictures of the Mini, everything else looks bloated," Williams says of the 2-inch-tall computer.
Demand for the Mini and Apple's hard-to-come-by new iPod, the $99 Shuffle, has been high at the company's retail stores.
At the Apple's Web site, orders are three to four weeks behind on the Mini and Shuffle.
It won't be the first time Apple has rolled out cool-looking products that are initially hard to get. When the 4-gigabyte iPod Mini hit stores last spring, it took the company four months to meet the demand, Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller says.
Once Apple gets its manufacturing into gear, the launch of the Mac Mini -- its first budget computer -- is expected to pay big dividends for the company, which has been transformed by success of the iPod. Apple has sold 10 million of the trendy digital music players in the last three years, and recently announced its best quarterly performance ever. But in the computer world, Apple is an also-ran.
A mighty Mini?
While creative professionals -- designers, photographers, architects and much of the entertainment industry -- and other devotees have flocked to Apple computers, 97 percent of personal computer users in the United States prefer Microsoft's Windows platform.
One big reason is that Mac computers are more expensive. A 15-inch Powerbook laptop starts at $1,999, for instance. A similarly featured Dell sells for about $1,600.
The PC industry is so competitive that many computers sell for slim profits -- or even a loss. That creates great deals for consumers.
Office Depot last week advertised a Compaq PC with monitor for $300, after rebates. Dell also advertised a PC with a 15-inch flat-panel monitor for $349, after rebates.
The Mini is being sold without monitor, keyboard and mouse, under the assumption that most people already have them.
Dell Vice President Mike George says his January door-buster prices are not a response to the Mac Mini. "We've been on a pretty steady path," he says. "We don't see any need to respond to that product."
By dropping the Mini to $499 for a bare-bones computer, Apple CEO Steve Jobs says customers will now have "no excuse" not to buy a Mac.
Apple executives and Wall Street analysts talk of a "halo effect" that has invigorated the company, with iPod purchasers switching to Macs in greater numbers.
In the recent holiday quarter, Apple's computer sales were 26 percent higher than the same time the year before.
Longtime computer industry analyst Roger Kay of market research firm IDC predicts that the Mini will help boost Apple's computer shipments this year by 50 percent.
But he says the overall impact so far has been minimal. The PC industry shipped 176 million PCs last year, 3.5 million of which were Macs.
Gene Munster, an analyst with securities firm Piper Jaffray, agrees.
"This is the first time Apple has gotten into the mass market game, and it's going to make a dramatic difference for them," he says. "The computer hits the sweet spot of what people want -- Internet, e-mail, music and digital photos."
A computer and more
Already, the Mini has hit a real chord on the Internet, where bloggers see it as more than just a device the size of a Cheez-It box. Fill the 40-gigabyte hard drive with music, put it in the trunk and use it to run your auto stereo.
Hook the Mini into a home stereo system, make a few alterations, and you've got a digital hub that can tie the TV, music, photos and DVD together.
"I'm really excited about its potential," says Tom Yager, the technical director for InfoWorld magazine's test center. "By the time you add the options needed to do these things, you come in at under the sticker price of existing technology."
Microsoft, with partners Hewlett-Packard, Dell and others, sells the Windows Media Center PC, which has similar goals. But they tend to be big, clunky and sell for about $1,500.
"What's so appealing is that the box is so small and self-contained," Yager says.
"The capabilities are limited only by your imagination."
Apple's Schiller cautions consumers not to think of the Mini as anything but a small, second computer or first Mac.
"It's great that the Mac Mini is inspiring people," he says. "But that's not the primary purpose we're designing it for."
He thinks the talk of using the Mini as an entertainment server is not something most consumers would care about.
"Home stereos already have too many wires," he says. "We're about simplifying your life."
Make Mac Mini master of multimedia
With a few tweaks, Apple's tiny Mac Mini could be transformed into a multimedia powerhouse to run a home entertainment center.
Look to spend slightly more than $1,000 to turn a Mini into a combo DVD, digital photo and music player, TiVo-like TV recorder-and-playback unit and home video editor.
Souping it up wouldn't require big tech skills -- most of the add-ons can be ordered through Apple's Web site when purchasing the computer.
Internet sites are abuzz with possibilities. Here's a rundown of what you'd need:
-- Add $75 to increase internal memory from 256 megabytes to 512 (for better operation of video and photo programs); $50 to increase the hard drive from 40 gigabytes to 80 GB (music, photos and video take room -- you'll need as much as you can get) and $100 for a DVD burner.
-- Fork over another $50 for Bluetooth capability, needed to run a $99 wireless keyboard and mouse combo, which will fit on your coffee table next to the remotes.
With the tab at $873, InfoWorld magazine's Tom Yager suggests adding one more $149 item -- Elgato's ( www.elgato.com) EyeTV device. With that, you can use your computer as a video recorder for TV shows, and burn them to DVDs. Of all the devices mentioned here, this is the only one that would require wiring -- to connect it from the computer to the TV. Plug in speakers, and you're all set.
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| posted by Perimbean @ 8:00 AM |
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| Tuesday, January 25, 2005 |
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MIKE WENDLAND: Apple tempts PC users with the Mac mini
January 25, 2005
BY MIKE WENDLAND
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
The designers at Apple Computer have come up with another mini that's going to be huge.
If you've never been tempted to switch from the Windows PC platform, the inexpensively priced Mac mini may be hard to resist. It's the gutsiest move yet for Apple, a company that built its reputation on innovation and, up to now, high prices.
Like Apple's iPod mini digital music player, which was my choice for the hottest high-tech gadget of 2004, the Mac mini is sleek, simple to use and distinctive to look at. It's much less prone to viruses and the other hack attacks that harass Windows computers. It comes with easy-to-use software that makes a variety of digital tasks, from editing photos to downloading music, simple and intuitive.
Best of all, it's a great value. Though you'll probably need to buy some extras to get the most out of a mini, the base model sells for $499. Unlike full-sized Macs, which have always sold at a significant premium, that's only about $50 more than a similarly equipped Windows computer.
To be sure, the Mac mini doesn't come with a display, mouse or keyboard (causing some geeks to call the Mac mini a headless computer). But now that most people already own a computer -- and many of us have parts left over from old ones stashed in the basement -- Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs thinks many users don't need to buy those things.
Apple doesn't see the mini as anybody's first computer. It's designed to be a replacement for, or an addition to, the PC you already own -- and a lure to get you to change the way you use and think about personal computing.
There is something different about a Mac. Some say it's a Zen-like quality. Others say it's just friendly. Others use words like elegant and intuitive or charming. Mac fans -- zealots by the millions -- often even give their computers names.
I'm not that rabid, though in full disclosure, I must say I switched from being all-PC to all-Mac two years ago and would never go back.
I've had a mini to try out since Friday, and it's impressed me greatly. This is no weakling computer. It's a full-fledged Macintosh that can do most everything I can on my $2,000 PowerBook, despite its small size. Measuring 6.5 inches wide by 6.5 inches deep by 2 inches high, the mini weighs just 2.9 pounds.
The $499 model has a 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4 processor, a 40 GB hard drive, a slot-loading DVD/CD drive that can also record CDs, and all the standard USB, FireWire, Internet and telephone jacks and ports. There's also a $599 model that has a slightly faster processor (1.42 GHz) and larger hard drive (80GB).
I unpacked the mini, plugged in an old 17-inch flat-screen Dell monitor, attached a keyboard and mouse I had lying around in a junk drawer and, in less than two minutes, was up and running. No configuration, no tweaking. Just one button pushed, and the Mac mini booted up and was good to go.
The mini runs on Apple's rock-solid OS X operating system, the most secure and efficient operating system you can find anywhere for the average personal computer user. There has never been a successful worm or virus attack on OS X.
But it's what comes with the mini that cinches the deal: Apple's upgraded suite of iLife software --the sweetest, most seamless and easy-to-operate bunch of programs you've ever used. There's video editing with the amazingly easy iMovie program. You can play and create and -- if you install the $100 optional SuperDrive -- burn DVDs with iDVD. The iPhoto application organizes and cleans up your digital pictures and works automatically with most cameras.
For music, you get iTunes to manage your music library playlists and an addictively fun Apple program called GarageBand, which lets you actually compose your own music with a huge library of music loops.
On the mini, iLife is the secret weapon, the entryway into that nirvana of the Mac lifestyle.
Then there's Safari, Apple's Web browser. Internet Explorer -- the fading Microsoft product that most PC users still click to surf the Web -- is notoriously insecure and getting long in the tooth. The sprightly Apple browser is not only noticeably faster but much less attractive to hackers.
As good as the mini is, though, few people are going to be satisfied with the $499 basic model. The standard mini ships with just 256 MB of memory. Apple insists that's enough. I think it's inadequate.
Moreover, the mini doesn't come with a word processor. Microsoft Word, the industry standard, has a Mac version that sells for $229. Apple just came out with a new highly graphical word processing application called Pages that offers bare-bones compatibility with Microsoft Word for $79.
So that attractive $499 price can edge upward pretty fast, and the total for a fully equipped Mac mini can quickly approach $1,000 -- especially if you need to buy a monitor ($250 or so at most computer stores for a flat-screen 17-inch model). That's not so mini anymore.
I wouldn't recommend the mini as the principal computer in your house. But for a second or third one, it's perfect.
I warn you, though: If you buy one, you just may become one of those Mac zealots.
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| posted by Perimbean @ 8:00 AM |
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| Monday, January 24, 2005 |
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Mac mini hits the shops
January 24 2005
But iPod Shuffle shortage leaves many disappointed...
They arrived with high hopes of landing the latest iPod, but, in the end, they shuffled home disappointed.
About 60 people lined up outside Apple's retail store in San Francisco on Saturday, many arriving more than an hour before the store's 9 a.m. opening. Although the shop did have a supply of Mac minis and the company's latest software titles, there were no iPod Shuffles to be had.
Among those who went away empty-handed was T.C. Watanasoponwong, who was in San Francisco on a business trip from his native Thailand. He planned to buy an iPod Shuffle for his girlfriend, but said now he would have to buy her something else.
"I'm very disappointed," he said, walking away from the store just minutes after it opened.
The iPod Shuffle went on sale in the US last week, but Apple's retail stores quickly sold out of their initial supply of the music players, which sell for $99 or $149 in the US, depending on how many songs they hold.
Many San Franciscans thought that Apple would surely have more of the devices on Saturday as part of a promotion in which all of the retail stores opened an hour early to start selling the Mac mini and two new software titles.
Not everyone who arrived early was disappointed, though. Among the happier campers was mobile device consultant Russell Beattie. He already had his iPod Shuffle, having bought one the first day they went on sale. On Saturday, Beattie came to buy a Mac mini -- his first Mac.
"I'm going to do a switch," Beattie said, who said he had been considering the move for a while, but had been put off by the Mac's high prices. The mini will allow him to use the monitor and keyboard he already has, he said. "I'm exactly the market they are aiming for."
Also in line was investment banker Peter Morrissey, who was picking up the higher-end Mac mini.
"This would be my first Mac," he said, noting that he has been the holdout in the family, with his brother, sister and parents all avid Mac users.
Interest has been high for the iPod Shuffle and the Mac mini, two products Steve Jobs introduced at the recent Macworld Expo.
With both products, Apple is aiming to offer less costly versions of existing products in an effort to gain more mass appeal. The effort has shown early success, with multiweek waits for online orders of both the Shuffle and the Mac mini.
Michelle Au, a 22-year-old student from San Jose, said she has wanted an iPod for a while, but said the devices were "kind of expensive".
"The iPod Shuffle meets my needs," she said. "And because I'm a student, I get a discount."
In addition to newbies, there was another crowd of people hoping to buy the iPod Shuffle on Saturday -- those who already had an iPod or iPod mini in hand.
Josh Beckmann, a student and iPod owner, arrived at 7:45 a.m. in hopes of picking up a couple of iPod Shuffles. One was to be a gift for his brother, but the other he planned to use when running, snowboarding or working out. In the past he had used non-Apple flash players, but said the results had been less than satisfactory.
"The user interfaces on the other MP3 players I've used at the gym just don't cut it," he said.
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| posted by Perimbean @ 8:00 AM |
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