Apple computers are not exactly know the ultimate platform for games. For this reason, it is even more remarkable that publisher Ubisoft's announcement makes it seem more and in publications in the segment would like to set.With Prince of Persia and Shawn White Snowboarding "the company now has two relatively high-Ports announced. Once more with the implementation of the operation of the port experts TransGaming, which with its Cider technology already frequently referred to with such tasks - including for Ubisoft, but also for EA - were finally. The two titles are already in the next month, including on-line Ubisoft Download Store is made available."Ubisoft has an exceptional portfolio of titles that spans an assortment of genres. The availability of their titles on the Mac is a great catalyst for Mac gaming," commented Vikas Gupta, CEO and president of TransGaming.
Current Mac titles from Ubisoft available via download include CSI: Hard Evidence(TM), Petz(R) Catz(R) 2, Petz(R) Dogz(R) 2, Petz(R) Sports, Prince of Persia The Two Thrones(R), and Rayman Raving Rabbids(R).
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WD (Western Digital), one of the world leaders in external storage solutions, has introduced two new external hard drives - the My Passport for Mac portable drive and the My Book Mac Edition external hard drive. Pre-formatted for Mac and offering a simple USB interface, these drives offer the Mac community reliable, easy-to-use storage. WD's latest Mac-ready drives work seamlessly with Apple Time Machine or other popular Mac backup software to provide protection for digital photos and media.My Passport for Mac portable storage devices like the ‘Studio’ that we’ve reviewed, feature a sleek design in a shock-resistant enclosure and are available in capacities of 320GB and 500GB. The new My Book Mac Edition drives areequipped with power-saving WD hard drives with GreenPower technology, USB 2.0 interface and 1TB of capacity."WD listened to the Mac community who wanted the simplicity of a USB external drive that complements the design of their Mac computer. Now our users can choose from a full range of storage solutions that are ready to use with their Mac computers right out of the box," said Sharad Srivastava, Director Sales (India & South Asia), and Western Digital. "From the sleek design of the new My Passport for Mac, to the use of the eco-friendly hard drive technology on the My Book Mac Edition, WD continues to deliver what Mac users are looking for."
My Passport for Mac portable drives feature:
* Compatibility with Apple Time Machine;
* A shock-resistant enclosure designed to guard valuable data from the bumps and jars of everyday life;
* USB-bus powered, which eliminates the need for an external power adapter;
* Mac-ready out of the box formatted HFS+ Journaled;
* 3-year limited warranty; and,
* Sleek and stylish design that complements other Mac products.
The new My Book Mac Edition external hard drives feature:
* A sleek, elegant matte-black finish that complements other Mac products;
* Smart, eco-friendly design that utilizes WD hard drives with Green Power technology and energy efficient power saving feature that turns on and off with user's computer;
* Designed without a fan to run quietly;
* Fully recyclable product packaging;
* Shock-resistant enclosure designed to provide maximum shock protection to guard valuable data;
* Mac-ready out of the box, the drive is formatted HFS+ Journaled;
* Easy, plug-and-play set up; and,
* 1 year limited warranty
My Passport for Mac portable hard drives and My Book Mac Edition 1TB external hard drive are available at select retail stores, online retailers. The MSRP for My Passport for Mac with 320GB is Rs. 6,500 and Rs. 9,000 for 500 GB. The MSRP for My Book Mac Edition 1 TB hard drive is Rs. 16000.
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Great news for those planning to upgrade to fit the requirements of Snow Leopard and wanted to save a buck in the process - Apple has secretly beefed up its low end notebook, the White 13-inch MacBook with a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo (1066MHz frontside bus) processor, double the original memory and better graphics, keeping the ports intact, as well as the price: $999!Is this the sweetest offer Apple has made this year, or what? The processor has been updated from 800MHz frontside bus to the 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo model with a 1066MHz frontside bus. Old MacBook models used to ship with 1GB of memory; the same money can now nab the customer 2 gigs of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory standard on the polycarbonate MacBook. Apple has also updated the graphics to NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, the standard on the 13-inch unibody MacBook (Late 2008). A smaller update,but worth mentioning nonetheless, is Bluetooth 2.1.Undoubtedly the upgrades are in anticipation of Apple releasing Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard, the newest version of OS X that Apple is actively working on, as far as we know. The changes were first spotted by the eagle-eyed folks over at Engadget. However, although quiet, Apple does mention the upgrades on the Apple Store page, where customers can order a 13-inch aluminum or polycarbonate MacBook (pictured left).
“Starting at just $999, MacBook has everything you need to do everything you need. Advanced NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics, a fast Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and more memory standard deliver power and performance,” Apple says. “And MacBook offers a slew of innovative features, including a built-in iSight camera for video chatting on the go, fast Wi-Fi so you can work from anywhere, and a glossy 13-inch widescreen display that makes graphics and video come alive,” the description ends.
For a closer look at the new white MacBook, visit Apple here.
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Apple is expected to refresh its line of mini desktop computers sometime around March this year, NVIDIA insiders have confirmed to the folks at tom's hardware. The device is allegedly smaller in size, thanks to the Ion platform it employs. Apple is also believed to have gained preferential treatment from NVIDIA, who allegedly has sent out mere blue prints of Ion to the rest of its partners.“A large portion of the Apple Mac community is waiting for Apple to refresh the Mac Mini line. We learned today that the next generation of Mac Mini computers will be based on Nvidia's Ion platform,” the source reveals. “An Nvidia partner confirmed to us that Apple was the first to receive samples of Nvidia's Ion platform, which we covered extensively during CES. In fact, Apple received prototype units long before Nvidia partners who opted to work on Ion. We're told that some partners still only have blue prints of Ion,” the report shows.
Being considerably smaller in size, the Ion platform may well lead to the reduction in size of the new Mac mini, the site pointsout. Undoubtedly, Apple will not only beef up the mini inside, but will also add a redesigned case to the unit(s) launching in March, around CeBit.
As far as pricing goes, the new mini is expected to cost no more than $700, for a high-end model, and around $500 for the low-end SKU. This could well be the case with the new minis, as NVIDIA itself stated in the past that it expected Ion products to start at roughly $400, the same source points out.
Older Mac mini rumors said that two port versions were expected to show up on the device, one for use with Apple's old monitors, the other (MiniDisplay Port) for use with the company's new Cinema displays. A new firewire 800 port is also rumored for the new-generation Mac mini.
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After much anticipation and a series of articles surfacing on the web, prior to the debut of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, Dell has finally introduced its latest portable computer system, the Dell Adamo. Claimed to be the company’s response to Apple’s thin MacBook Air, or to the Envy notebook from HP’s Voodoo PC, the Adamo appears like yet another sleek-looking 13-inch notebook waiting to be embraced by all those tech fashionistas out there. There aren’t any specific technical details, but the laptop is expected to become available later this year.A number of blog sites have managed to grab several pictures of Dell’s new pride and joy, which can also be seen in the gallery below. As you’ll be able to appreciate for yourself from these images, the Adamo appears to have combined just the right design elements, allowing it to appeal to those consumers out there that are looking for a PC response to Apple’s MacBook Air.
Despite no specific details on the part of the Round Rock, Texas-based PC vendor, the Adamo is expected to come out with a rather expensive price tag, specifically due to its unique design. Additionally, Dell has said that in the development of the new Adamo it has made useof high quality materials, yet another reason for which the upcoming thin laptop is probably aimed at those with more “generous” pockets.
Dell’s Adamo is undoubtedly thinner than most notebooks on the market, but given these early pictures, it doesn’t appear to be a real competitor for the MacBook Air. However, Adamo’s design features could also set the system as a real challenger for Apple’s MacBook Pro.
The device has been showcased at CES, which is where Dell has also introduced a couple of other new products, including the new Mini 10, another of the company’s portable computer systems ready to take advantage of Intel’s successful Atom platform. The fellows over at engadget were lucky enough to get a hands-on experience with the new Dell laptop, also providing a photo gallery and a video.
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As was speculated prior to Macworld Apple announced the availability of the 17-inch MacBook Pro based on the unibody enclosure design revealed in October 2008.The 17-inch MacBook Pro features a aluminium unibody enclosure, and a revolutionary new built-in battery that delivers up to eight hours of use and up to 1,000 recharges for more than three times the lifespan of conventional notebook batteries. The new 17-inch MacBook Pro has a high resolution LED-backlit display and the same large glass Multi-Touch trackpad introduced with the new MacBook family in October. In addition, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes state of the art NVIDIA graphics and the latest generation Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processors. As part of the industry’s greenest notebook family, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro is made of highly recyclable materials, meets stringent energy efficiency standards and is made without many of the harmful toxins found in other computers.
“We’ve developed new battery technology that is better for the user and better for the environment”, said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Apple’s advanced chemistry and innovative technology deliver up to eight hoursof use on a full charge cycle and up to 1,000 recharges”.
Apple uses advanced chemistry, intelligent monitoring of the system and battery, and Adaptive Charging technology to create a revolutionary new notebook battery that delivers up to eight hours of wireless productivity on a single charge and up to 1,000 recharges without adding thickness, weight or cost to the MacBook Pro’s incredible design. The longer battery lifespan equals fewer depleted batteries and less waste, which is better for the environment.The new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes an ultra-thin, widescreen glossy 1920 x 1200 display with 78 percent more pixels than the 15-inch MacBook Pro and a 60 percent greater color gamut that delivers desktop-quality colour in a notebook. The LED-backlit display has brilliant instant-on performance, uses up to 30 percent less energy and eliminates the mercury found in industry standard fluorescent tube backlights.
Measuring just 0.98-inches thin and weighing 6.6 pounds, the 17-inch MacBook Pro is the world’s thinnest and lightest 17-inch notebook. The 17-inch MacBook Pro is the most powerful Mac notebook yet with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors available up to 2.93 GHz, up to 8GB DDR3 main memory and a graphics architecture that allows users to switch between the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor for better battery life and the powerful NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics processor for higher performance. The new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes a 320GB 5400 rpm hard drive standard with a 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive and 128GB and 256GB solid state drives as options. As with the rest of the new MacBook family, the 17-inch MacBook Pro includes a next generation, industry-standard Mini DisplayPort to connect with the new Apple LED Cinema Display featuring a 24-inch LED-backlit widescreen display with a built-in iSight video camera, mic and speakers.
The new 17-inch MacBook Pro joins the aluminium unibody MacBook family in setting new standards for environmentally friendly notebooks with every model achieving EPEAT Gold status. Each MacBook unibody enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminium and comes standard with energy efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. The new MacBook family meets stringent Energy Star 4.0 requirements, contains no brominated flame retardants, and uses internal cables and components that are PVC-free. The battery in the new 17-inch MacBook Pro provides additional environmental benefit because its extended lifespan means fewer depleted batteries resulting in less waste.
The 17-inch MacBook Pro is available from $2799 (£1949) by the end of January.
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Apple(R) today announced that this year is the lst year the company will exhibit at Macworld Expo. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the opening keynote for this year’s Macworld Conference & Expo, and it will be Apple’s last keynote at the show. The keynote address will be held at Moscone West on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. Macworld will be held at San Francisco’s Moscone Center January 5-9, 2009.Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com websiteenable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.
Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.
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Storage demands are not getting any lower by the day and hard drive manufacturers keep increasing the capacities to cope up with all our digital data usage such as pictures, movies and audio files. We take a look at two drives today- the Western Digital Caviar Black with 1000GB of unformatted space and the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 which has the largest capacity for a single drive at the moment- 1500GB of unformatted space.As you can see, both the drives support all the standard features such as NCQ, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring and Power Management. Not listed above is the amount of cache which is 32MB on both the drives. Temperatures reported by the WD are lower than the Seagateaccording to HD Tune and we saw this at both Idle and after a full run on PC Mark Vantage.One little “ouch” is the amount of capacity that is lost after these drives are formatted. With Vista NTFS, the actual usable space of the Caviar is 931.5GB and the Barracuda is 1397.3GB. To put things in perspective, my MacBook Air drive is 80GB in size- pretty much the capacity these drives lose when formatted.
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Pictures of a MacBook nano based on the MSI U100 netbook have surfaced on the web. The 1.6GHz Atom-based machine sports a 10" display, 2GB DDR 2 RAM, a 320GB hard drive, and weighs just 2.2 lbs.Had someone told us this was an actual netbook coming from Cupertino, we probably wouldn't have rushed to dismiss the allegation. Still, the fact of the matter is that an MSI is still an MSI, even with a beautifully crafted, custom made shell with a backlit Apple logo and everything.
The pictures appeared on Flickr this week, and were spotted by various eagle-eyed tech-based sites. Mickphoto's picture set tries to show the MacBook nano as the real thing, all boxed and sealed up neatly and tidily. The box even contains all the software needed to run Windows XP Pro or Mac OS X 10.5.5. At least two models have been created, according to the photos – a white MacBook nano and a black model. Both have the neat Apple logo on the back, as well as the name MacBook Nano stamped on the front of the display, in a very Apple-like way.According to Gizmodo, specs include:
- MSI U100 MacBook Nano
- Windows XP Pro + Mac OS X 10.5.5
- Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz
- 2G DDRII
- 10" WSVGA LED (1024x600)
- 320GB SATA
- 1kg
- MMC/SD/MS 4
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A small group of Maximum PC readers (and editors) tend to glaze over at the mere mention of the Eee PC. For those of you that fall into this category, I’ll do my best to keep it interesting and you’ll be glad to know, this isn’t an ordinary netbook announcement. The now household name that spawned a generation of inexpensive PC’s have unveiled a new form factor that brings the Eee product line closer to being a desktop solution than ever before. First impressions of the product are obvious, it is clearly intended to appeal to the budget conscious crowd who can’t afford an iMac, or simply don’t care to pay the Apple tax. Asus isn’t the first to take on the iMac, but the Eee brand name, and touch screen interface gives it an interesting advantage over its competitors.The Eee Top will come in two variations, the ET1602 and the ET1603. Both models feature a 15.6” touch screen display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of Ram, and a 160GB Hard Drive. Other less critical features include 802.11n networking as well as a built in card reader and web cam. The two models are almost completely identical with the one exception being the ET1603’s inclusion of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD3450 for graphics. The ET1602 by comparison will only sport Intel integrated. No pricing has yet been announced for either model, and both systems will feature Windows XP Home with a custom touch screen GUI.So, is this the form factor of Eee PC you were waiting for?
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PLEASE NOTE: The features described below revolve around the concept of dual GPU chipsets. As such they are only applicable to the new MacBook Pro range of notebooks. The MacBook and the MacBook Air do not have dual-GPU chipsets.Apple made a worthy inclusion to its MacBook range via addition of the NVIDIA 9400M and 9600M GT graphics chipsets. However, it is a known fact that Apple has restricted attractive features of the chipset such as the Hybrid SLI -- which would otherwise leverage the power of both the graphic chipsets as a tag-team; furthermore, Apple has also disabled on-the-fly switching between its two graphic solutions -- this requires a needless logout/login process.
So are the NVIDIA chips themselves incapable? Not from what we were told. Further confirmation also comes from a demo shown by NVIDIA to Gizmodo, wherein they confirmed that these graphics chips will soon be heading to different notebooks and also their hardware is very much capable to do all the aforementioned tasks which have been disabled by Apple.The question then is why were the features disabled? Let's take the Hybrid SLI feature -- a likely reason could very well be battery life. Note that the new MacBook's battery is actually lower-specced than the one inside the older MacBooks (the old ones are rated at 5600mAh, while the new ones are rated at 4700mAh). As the notebooks stand, their battery-life isn't that great and it could have been worse under a Hybrid SLI scenario. That could be one possible reason for not including Hybrid SLI. The other -- and this one is more conspiracy theory than plausible -- Apple will enable the feature under Snow Leopard and would like a clear path to encourage users to upgrade to their upcoming OS upgrade.
Of course, it could well be that Apple will enable Hybrid SLI through a free software upgrade program, and in the near future.
As to the login/logout requirement for switching chipsets, the reason we feel is more clear: lazy programmers. Yeah, no reason why this shouldn't have been included right out of the MacBook box. Seriously guys, get working on it already.
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Although Steve Jobs has decided to skip the use of Blu-ray for Apple MacBooks, accessory makers still consider the high-end drive as an important peripheral for the Macbook family.Amex Digital has announced the launch of the Portable Blu-ray Super Multi Drive to allow MacBook users to watch or play Blu-ray disc.This external unit connects easily to MacBook products through a USB 2.0 cable. The Blu-ray is compatible with the BD single and double-layer media along with DVD±RW discs.
It is said that the BD-RE / -R (single-layer) discs can burn at 2x, while dual-layer versions would burn at 1x and the blank DVDs burns at a rate of 4x to 8x.To charge the Blu-ray system, users need to use a USB cable or a power adapter.
The BDP-2 Blu-ray player carries a price tag of $289 (approx. Rs. 14,078) and the BDR-2 Blu-ray recorder costs $389 (approx. Rs. 18,950).
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While Apple's older iMacs (Late-2006) boast an impressive pair of stereo speakers (considering the all-in-one design and their small size), the same thing cannot be said about the company's 20-inch and 24-inch aluminum iMac (Mid-2007).However, both Apple's Late-2006 and Mid-2007 computers have their speakers placed at the bottom of the system, facing down. This leads to a considerable loss in sound quality, as the sound hits your desk and bounces off in all directions. Given this, some high pitched sounds (but not only) barely make it to your ears. There is a way to capture all the sound coming from your Mac's speakers, and direct it all towards your ears.
Buy a pair of headphones! Just kidding. No headphones. You do, however, need two extra items on your desk to make this happen. A couple of ashtrays, for instance. Just place them underneath each of your iMac's speakers. What happens is this:Channeling the sound (click to enlarge)
The sound waves hit the two hollow-shaped objects, becoming trapped inside the round walls for a short period of time. In a fraction of a second, the now-channeled sound bounces back out, upwards, since there's no other place to go. Simple, isn't it?
Go ahead, give it a tray… er, try! You don't necessarily have to use ashtrays. For once, they're not that aesthetic; second, we don't encourage smoking, and third, you can use some nicely designed pottery or something like that. You'll have to see what suits your room best, so the objects don't attract too much attention. After all, you don't want folks thinking that your all-in one computer actually needs additional hardware to work well, now, do you?
Notes
· You will see (hear) a significant difference in sound quality only when the volume level is above medium. The effect still applies even on a low volume level, only it's not so observable;
· For this to work, the sound first has to hit one of the inner-sides of the object, not the bottom directly. Check out more pictures below, to see exactly how you want to place your objects of choice.
Good luck and let us know how this trick worked for you.
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Normally, when we see an Apple rumor, we look the other way. Barely anything that "leaks" from Apple has any truth to it, so we scroll down on our RSS feeds and look for something else to care about. This time, however, it s different. The last rumors came true to an alarming degree, so we'll attach some credence to this one. That is, unless it turns out to be bollocks.AppleInsider now tells us that in the next month or so, we might see Apple updating the iMacs as well. Obviously, the idea would be to have a spanking new product line ready for the traditional blow-your-savings-on-cool-stuff festival (also known as Christmas).
However, the updates won't just be driven by business--there will be technology reasons as well. For one, since the last update in April this year, Intel has developed the Centrino 2 platform, which is already featured on the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Secondly, there s the shift to NVIDIA's graphics solutions--it is quite likely that the new iMacs will ditch the ATI chipsets.There may be more news on October 21--though not likely--when Apple holds a conference to announce its quarterly results.
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As gamers, video enthusiasts, designers, and now creative professionals require optimized PC solutions, the new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M GPU promises to offer a 5x performance increase over integrated core-logic to today's notebook designs."With this new GPU, NVIDIA is able to expand its market footprint from gamers and design professionals to the creative generation of users, as well as firmly establish us at the heart of the fastest growing PC market?the notebook PC," said Jeff Fisher, senior vice president, GPU business at NVIDIA
Apple has adopted this new GPU for its new Apple MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air, announced yesterday.
The NVIDIA GeForce 9400M is a single chip, highly integrated design that is ideal for notebooks and smaller computing devices. It features 16 parallel processing cores that deliver a 54 GFLOPs of processing power. It also delivers up to 5x faster graphics performance than Intel Centrino 2, according to Nvidia. The GPU alsohas low power requirements allowing consumers to watch a full-length HD movie on a single charge.The integrated chip supports the Intel Core 2 family, Pentium D/4, and Celeron D with LGA775. It has 16 graphics cores each one clocked at 580Mhz, with shaders to be clocked at 1400MHz. The supported FSB is 1,333MHz, while the supported memory is DDR2-800/DDR3-1333.
DirectX 10,PureVideo HD, Hybrid SLI, CUDA, and PhysX are also supported.
Below you can see the basic specifications and the block diagram of the Nvidia 9400M GPU.
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Apple today officially unveiled an all new MacBook family that feature all-metal enclosures and pro-performance with prices starting from $700.The new MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro both have a precision unibody enclosure crafted from a single block of aluminum, resulting in thinner and more durable designs. In addition, every member of the new MacBook family includes NVIDIA graphics, instant-on LED-backlit displays and new large glass Multi-Touch trackpads that offer almost 40 percent more tracking area and support more Multi-Touch gestures.
"Apple has invented a whole new way of building notebooks from a single block of aluminum. And, just as important, they are the industry?s greenest notebooks," said Steve Jobs, Apple?s CEO. "The new MacBooks offer incredible features our users will love ?like their stunning all-metal design, great 3D graphics and LED backlit displays?at prices up to $700 less than before."
The new MacBook line features the new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, a new 3D integrated graphics processor that features 16 parallel processing cores and delivers up to five times the 3D graphics performance as previous MacBook and MacBook Air designs.The new smooth glass Multi-Touch trackpad on the MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro gives users almost 40 percent more tracking area than before, making it even easier to use Multi-Touch gestures like pinch, rotate and swipe. New gestures allow users to activate Expos? or switch between applications at the touch of a fingertip. The entire trackpad surface is also a button, allowing users to both track and click virtually anywhere on the trackpad. Users can easily enable multiple virtual buttons in software, such as right-clicking.
Every member of the new MacBook family features an LED-backlit display for instant-on performance that uses up to 30 percent less energy than its predecessor and eliminates the mercury found in industry standard fluorescent tube backlights. Every display in the new MacBook line uses completely arsenic-free glass.
The new MacBook delivers the top three features that MacBook customers have told us they want in a new MacBook?an all metal enclosure, high performance 3D graphics and LED-backlit displays?at an entry price that is $700 less than the $1,999 price of the MacBook Pro. At only 0.95-inches thin and weighing just 4.5 pounds, the new 13-inch full featured aluminum MacBook is a compact and durable notebook starting at just $1,299. Featuring the new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor, MacBook delivers outstanding 3D game play on a consumer notebook, with up to five times faster graphics performance than the previous generation. The new MacBook is available in two models: the 2.0 GHz MacBook with a 160GB 5400 rpm hard drive, and the 2.4 GHz MacBook with a 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive and a backlit keyboard.
The new 15-inch MacBook Pro at only 0.95-inches thin and weighing just 5.5 pounds. Starting at $1,999, the MacBook Pro uses the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors available, running up to 2.8 GHz, and a new graphics architecture that allows users to switch between the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor for better battery life and the powerful NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics processor for higher performance. The new MacBook Pro is available in two models: a 2.4 GHz model with a 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive and a 2.53 GHz model with a 320GB 5400 rpm hard drive.
Today Apple also updated MacBook Air and the 17-inch MacBook Pro. MacBook Air, measuring only 0.16-inches at its thinnest point, 0.76-inches at its maximum height and weighing just three pounds, now includes new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics and a faster architecture. Starting at $1,799, MacBook Air is available with a 120GB 4200 rpm hard drive, a 50 percent increase from the previous generation, or a new 128GB solid state drive. The updated 17-inch MacBook Pro keeps its original aluminum design, and now comes standard with a high resolution 1920 x 1200 LED-backlit display and a larger 320GB hard drive or an optional 128GB solid state drive.
The new MacBook, 15-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air include a next generation Mini DisplayPort to connect with the new Apple LED Cinema Display featuring a 24-inch LED-backlit widescreen display with a built-in iSight video camera, mic and speakers in a thin aluminum and glass enclosure. Part of the next-generation DisplayPort industry standard, the new Mini DisplayPort delivers a pure digital signal that can drive up to a 30-inch widescreen display. The Mini DisplayPort is ultra-compact at just 10 percent the size of a full DVI connector, perfect for the sleek design of the new MacBook family. Adapters are available for using the MacBook?s Mini DisplayPort with older generation VGA, DVI/HDMI and Dual-Link DVI displays.
The new MacBook, 15-inch MacBook Pro and 17-inch MacBook Pro are now shipping and the new MacBook Air will be available in early November through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple?s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. An updated 13-inch white MacBook featuring 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, a 120GB 5400 rpm hard drive and a slot-load 8X SuperDrive is now available for $999 (US).
For more information visit Apple
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The unfortunate saga of Nvidia's mobile GPU and chipset failures just keeps on going. Today, several blogs are pointing to a new article in Apple's support knowledge base article that doesn't paint Nvidia in a very favorable light. Here's what the Mac maker says under the "symptoms" header:
In July 2008, NVIDIA publicly acknowledged a higher than normal failure rate for some of their graphics processors due to a packaging defect. At that same time, NVIDIA assured Apple that Mac computers with these graphics processors were not affected. However, after an Apple-led investigation, Apple has determined that some MacBook Pro computers with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor may be affected. If the NVIDIA graphics processor in your MacBook Pro has failed, or fails within two years of the original date of purchase, a repair will be done free of charge, even if your MacBook Pro is out of warranty.Apple says potentially affected systems include 15" and 17" MacBook Pros with GeForce 8600M GT GPUs made between "May 2007 and September 2008." MacBook Pro users with failing GPUs should witness either video distortion or a complete lack of video on the screen, Apple adds.
As an interesting side note, this knowledge base article has popped up just four days before the launch of Apple's next-gen notebooks. Several reports and analysts have suggested that the systems will feature Nvidia MCPs instead of Intel's Centrino 2-flavored chipsets.
In July 2008, NVIDIA publicly acknowledged a higher than normal failure rate for some of their graphics processors due to a packaging defect. At that same time, NVIDIA assured Apple that Mac computers with these graphics processors were not affected. However, after an Apple-led investigation, Apple has determined that some MacBook Pro computers with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor may be affected. If the NVIDIA graphics processor in your MacBook Pro has failed, or fails within two years of the original date of purchase, a repair will be done free of charge, even if your MacBook Pro is out of warranty.Apple says potentially affected systems include 15" and 17" MacBook Pros with GeForce 8600M GT GPUs made between "May 2007 and September 2008." MacBook Pro users with failing GPUs should witness either video distortion or a complete lack of video on the screen, Apple adds.
As an interesting side note, this knowledge base article has popped up just four days before the launch of Apple's next-gen notebooks. Several reports and analysts have suggested that the systems will feature Nvidia MCPs instead of Intel's Centrino 2-flavored chipsets.
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It was only a matter of time before new alleged spy shots of a next-gen MacBook Pro emerged. This time around, new specs are being dished out as well, such as a black casing, and a more square-ish appearance, two aspects not at all consistent with MBP expectations.Reportedly, Techno Minds is the source of these images. Submitted to modmyi to be made public, the shots allegedly come from an Apple staffer, close to the company's design team.
“We just received an email from a tipster Techno Minds who grabbed some pictures/images of the new Macbook Pro from a claimed Apple Employee working on Apple's design team,” writes cash7c3. “According to the source the above picture is the new Macbook Pro grabbed with a camera phone. Some interesting details about the Pro were also included,” the post reads.Those tidbits include a new magnetic opening/closing system, a glossy top “shell” (similar to the iPhone's), an aluminum bottom, keyboard that is similar to the MacBook Air keyboard, while the iSight built-in camera is hidden in the glossy frame. Another important piece of information the modmyi poster reveals is that the “Touchpad Dock” rumor is false. “If this picture is real the 'TouchPad Dock' rumor is killed, although the touchpad in the picture does look like it may be made with a different material than the past,” the poster explains.Also worth noting is that MBP does not sport curved edges, a feature widely believed to be implemented in the new designs – an aspect borrowed from Apple's ultra thin laptop, the MacBook Air.
But then there's always the possibility that these images are fake, which is why Engadget finds the promo mockup (image #2) “amazingly [...] less plausible,” suggesting that “rendering and photoshop artifacts [are being] unobscured by cameraphone fuzziness.”
And, while the publishers of these shots urge readers to “remember the source is on Apple's design team,” we sincerely hope this is not just another complete forgery, since we too noticed the missing power button on these babies. Source : softpedia.com
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Mac rumor sites had been talking about it for weeks. Fans expected it. Yet the new MacBook Air didn't fail to amaze when Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced it during his Macworld keynote in San Francisco this morning. Looking at the machine itself, it's not hard to understand why:The MacBook Air is just 0.76" (19 mm) thick at its thickest point and only 0.16" (4 mm) toward the front, and it weighs only three pounds (1.36 kg). Nevertheless, Apple was able to outfit the machine with an LED-backlit 13.3" 1280 x 800 display, a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo processor (1.8GHz available as an option), 2GB of RAM, either an 80GB hard drive or 64GB solid-state drive, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an iSight camera, a full-sized backlit keyboard, and a five-hour battery. Apple has also tossed in some extras, such as a track pad with support for some of the same multi-touch gestures popularized by the iPhone, keyboard backlighting, and a Micro-DVI connector to hook up an external display or TV. There's no DVD drive, but Apple offers an external $99 optical drive as an option, and it has pre-loaded the MacBook Air with a new application called Remote Disc that can connect to a properly configured Mac or PC and "borrow" its optical drive.
The MacBook Air is available for purchase on the Apple Store at a starting price of $1,799—not outrageous for an ultraportable with that kind of hardware and form factor. Apple plans to ship the machine in two weeks.
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