Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Monday, April 7, 2008
The Top 25 Overlooked And Underrated Features In Leopard
Latest Mac Performance Benchmarks (April 2008)
iTunes Store Top Music Retailer in the US
Mother of the MacBook Air
Intel demos 'Nehalem' chips clocked to 3.2GHz
'Diamondville' to shine as Intel's next Atom
Money Lost To Internet-related Scams Hits New High
The Tech Night Owl Newsletter: When is the Best Time to Buy New Apple Hardware?
The Tech Night Owl: A Look at The Night Owl's 2008 Toolbox
The Top 25 Overlooked And Underrated Features In Leopard
Computerworld's Ryan Faas says:
About five months ago, Macintosh lovers finally got their hands on Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard," which boasts more than 300 new features spread across its interface and underpinnings. Some of those features are well-known - the Dock's "stacks" function, Spaces, Time Machine and Screen Sharing, to name some of those most talked about by users and columnists alike.
But many others are buried just beneath the surface, unknown or ignored by users even though they've had Leopard installed for months. These "hidden" features may be things you never heard of or noticed, or even used without realizing their presence or scope - but they're too good to miss.
Here are our picks for the top 25 undervalued Leopard features.
For the full report click here.
Latest Mac Performance Benchmarks (April 2008)
Primate Labs says:
Back in February Apple released new MacBooks and MacBook Pros which means the previous Mac Performance chart is out of date. Time for an update!
Results were collected from the Geekbench Result Browser for Macs with standard processors (i.e., no processor upgrades, overclocked processors, or Hackintoshes) with at least 512MB of RAM running Leopard.
You can check it out at:
http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/2008/04/mac-performance-april-2008/
iTunes Store Top Music Retailer in the US
Apple has announced that the iTunes Store ( http://www.itunes.com ) surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number one music retailer in the US, based on the latest data from the NPD Group*. With over 50 million customers, iTunes has sold over four billion songs and features the world's largest music catalog of over six million songs.
"We launched iTunes less than five years ago, and it has now become the number one music retailer in the world," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "We are thrilled, and would like to thank all of our customers for helping us reach this incredible milestone."
(*)Based on data from market research firm the NPD Group's MusicWatch survey that captures consumer reported past week unit purchases and counts one CD representing 12 tracks, excluding wireless transactions. The iTunes Store became the largest music retailer in the US based on the amount of music sold during January and February 2008.
Mother of the MacBook Air
Low End Mac's Ruffin Bailey says:
The recent debate over the viability of the MacBook Air as someone's primary portable machine reminded me of another Mac 'Book that underwent similar scrutiny - the original iBook. The list of things that the original iBook didn't have seems to far outstrip what it did.
Here's an excellent rundown from Charles' Miscellaneous Ramblings from August 2006:
No PC Card slots
No video out
No expansion bay
No SCSI or FireWire ports
Only one USB port
No microphone or sound-in port
No IrDA
No stereo speakers
No DVD support
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The Air includes two on the list (mike/sound-in port and video out), but misses another huge one: Any sort of optical drive, as we're all aware.
Yet the iBook clamshell remains one of my favorite portable Macs. The great battery life, AirPort, rugged feel, and, yep, even the handle are all reasons it still often makes the WiFi coffee house run though I have an iBook G4 and Vostro 1400 sitting in the stable. Even with only 192 megs of RAM, it does pretty well with OS X 10.2, where I usually edit RTF with TextEdit and run the latest version of Firefox without too much lag.....
[Editor's note: Of course, the clamshell iBook did eventually get FireWire and DVD support, which made it a much more satisfactory machine. CM]
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/myturn/0803my/bailey-clamshell-ibook.html
Intel demos 'Nehalem' chips clocked to 3.2GHz
The Register's Tony Smith reports:
IDF Intel's next-generation processor, 'Nehalem', will be made available running at 3.2GHz - if demos of the chip at Intel Developer Forum this week are anything to go by.
Officially, the chip giant won't comment on the clock frequencies it will release the initial desktop and sever Nehalems - codenamed 'Bloomfield' and 'Gainestown', respectively - when they ship, an event scheduled for Q4 this year.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/04/03/idf_nehalem_demo_clock_speed/
'Diamondville' to shine as Intel's next Atom
The Register's Tony Smith reports:
Having launched the first batch of 45nm Atom-brand processors yesterday, Intel today began touting the next set, these ones aimed at sub-laptops and small form-factor desktops rather than Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs).
Codename watchers will be wondering where 'Diamondville' fits into Intel's Atom family, and now we know for sure. It's the part that will become the Atom N series, leaving the Atom Z series - aka 'Silverthorne' - for MIDs.
Diamondville and Silverthorne are based on the same microarchitecture, developed from the ground up under the Silverthorne codename since that was the first chip of the family to be developed. Both versions are fully compatible with the 'Merom' Core 2 Duo, so they're limited to SSE 3 rather than SSE 4, part of the 'Penryn' Core 2s.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/04/03/idf_inside_silverthorne/
Money Lost To Internet-related Scams Hits New High
The Associated Press reports:
Money lost in Internet-related crimes hit a new high last year, topping about $240 million, according to a government report showing increases in scams involving pets, check-cashing schemes and online dating.
The number of reported Internet scams dropped slightly from previous years, but the total lost jumped $40 million, according to the report released Thursday by the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center.
The report, based on data from the Internet Crime Complaint Center, shows men lost more than women on average -- $765 compared to $552 for women.
For the full report click here.
The Tech Night Owl Newsletter: When is the Best Time to Buy New Apple Hardware?
Let me tell you a true story. On a Monday earlier this year, I went to the local AT&T factory store and bought an 8GB iPhone. Well, the very next day Apple introduced a 16GB version for $100 more.
To read more, click here.
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The Tech Night Owl: A Look at The Night Owl's 2008 Toolbox
I don’t want this article to seem self-serving, a place where I can boast about the great Macs I have. I’m quite sure, in fact, that some of you have far more powerful systems, with banks of large displays, multi-terabyte RAID drives and maxed out memory.
For the full commentary, click here.
http://macnightowl.com/newsletter/2008/04/newsletter-issue-436/#toolbox
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