Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Thursday, February 21, 2008
MacBook Pro Penryn Update Imminent?
MacBooks - To Deploy Or Not To Deploy
Power Your Recycled Laptop with a Rebuilt Battery
Restoring a Crashed Mac with an Install Disc and Time Machine
Apple, Others Blasted For Software Licensing Agreements - Accused Of Misleading Customers
Nvidia Opens Up Development To Mac OS
iTunes + "American Idol" = Flop?
iSuppli Warns of NAND Flash Slowdown in 2008
Apple's Keyboard Update Brings Back The First Key Press
A second look at Apple's MacBook Air
Apple MacBook Air - We've Been Messin' With The Ultimate Version And Make No Mistake; This Is True Engineering Genius
Apple Gives Xsan File System A Sequel
The Mac Night Owl: The Leopard Report: Another Perspective on Troubleshooting Issues
Gene Steinberg meets tech commentators David Biedny and Andy Ihnatko, MacWindows.com's John Rizzo and Mariner Software this week on The Tech Night Owl LIVE
MacBook Pro Penryn Update Imminent?
The Apple Core's Jason D. O'Grady says:
In reading the Apple teas leaves it appears that a MacBook Pro update is imminent. A source tells me that it's within-the-next-30-days imminent.
Let's look at a few of the other hints....
Intel chief executive Paul Otellini says that 45nm Penryn is up to a 20 percent performance increase over 65nm chips, more energy efficient, and uses halogen-free packaging which is better for the environment....
You can check it out at:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1324
MacBooks - To Deploy Or Not To Deploy
ZNet's Christopher Dawson says:
Most of you know that I just got a new MacBook and really love it. On a personal level, it's darned close to perfect for what I do. Writing; systems administration; creating movies, presentations, and websites; and otherwise getting my jobs done come very naturally (and come in a lightweight package that easily slips into my messenger bag). Everything really does just work. The ads, to this point, seem quite accurate.
However, what works really well for me may not make sense for a large-scale deployment in a public school.....
...Does the Mac add enough value in OS X and it's bundled applications to justify its cost (I know comparably-configured Windows machines don't have much a price differential - I'm talking about low-powered cheap machines for my low-powered users)?
For the full commentary visit here:
http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1535
Power Your Recycled Laptop with a Rebuilt Battery
Low End Mac's John Hatchett says:
When you're reviving an old laptop, you face one issue that you don't when you rehab a desktop computer - power......
Batteries - if you want to go mobile, you got to have 'em. Again, I was very lucky. My Pismo had two batteries - one still has about 3400 mAh out of the original 4400 mAh. The other was deader than a doornail. If I wanted to unleash the full potential of both of the Pismo's battery bays, I would have to buy another battery.
Or would I?
Charles Moore has an excellent column, Are Extended Life Laptop Replacement Batteries Worth The Extra Cost? over in MacOpinion, on after market batteries for your Pismo (and probably other iBooks and PowerBooks). I agree that if you're going to get a replacement battery, the more milliamps, the better....
In the past, I've had a lot of luck rehabbing batteries for the PowerBook 500 series and the PowerBook 5300......
The Pismo, like almost all modern laptops, uses Li-Ion batteries, and once they are gone, they're gone...
Battery Refill, a firm out in California. Battery Refill supports almost every Apple notebook since the PowerBook 500 series. This firm breaks open your old battery box, takes out the old cells, and replaces them with new, oftentimes more powerful cells. All for the reasonable price of $85 (plus $10 shipping).....
For the full report visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/ed/hatchett/08jh/rebuilt-laptop-batteries.html
Restoring a Crashed Mac with an Install Disc and Time Machine
Low End Mac's Alan Zisman reports:
There's an urban legend that Mac's don't crash. That's not entirely accurate. Mac hard drives, for instance, are identical to those in Windows systems and suffer the same sorts of physical failures with the same frequency. And the Mac operating system, while based on a solid industrial-strength Unix core, can suffer from problems from time to time.
Recently I had a scary experience on my Mac. I was poking around in its Applications folder (analogous to the Windows C:\Program Files folder) getting rid of applications I'd installed but rarely (if ever) used. The Mac doesn't have anything like Windows' Add-Remove Programs feature, and it doesn't need it. Just drag a program's file or folder to the Trash, and it's gone.
Perhaps I mistakenly removed too much, because after emptying the Trash, my Applications folder was nearly empty......
The good news: I make regular backups of my entire system using Time Machine, a user friendly feature of Apple's new OS X 10.5 "Leopard" operating system version.
The bad news: The Time Machine application was one of the missing ones. I couldn't start it up to restore my backup.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/zisman/08az/restoring-mac-time-machine.html
Apple, Others Blasted For Software Licensing Agreements - Accused Of Misleading Customers
Macworld UK's Chris Kanaracus reports:
UK consumer watchdog the National Consumer Council (NCC) is accusing Apple, Microsoft and 15 other major software companies of misleading and unfair practices related to end-user license agreements (EULAs), and has asked for an investigation by the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
For the full report visit here:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/business/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=20494
Nvidia Opens Up Development To Mac OS
The Inquirer's Ambrose McNevin reports:
Application developers can now download CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) for the Mac.
The firm has made its Beta CUDA for Mac OSX 10.5.2 toolkit ready to download from here.
The web site says: This code is released free of charge and can be used to create derivative works, whether academic, commercial, or personal. Please download a driver, Toolkit and SDK.
To read more, click here.
iTunes + "American Idol" = Flop?
Motley Fool's Anders Bylund says:
Apple and the producers behind American Idol have teamed up to sell clips from the show in Apple's iTunes store. And the people at Fox don't like it at all.
The Idol partnership gets top billing on iTunes.com, but barely gets a news blurb on the show's homepage. Presumably, News Corp. is none too happy to see the goose that lays its golden eggs roosting in other nests, but FremantleMedia and 19 Entertainment don't seem to care. The time to monetize Idol is now, before the audience tires of annual William Hung wannabes, and before there are fewer of the entertaining Sanjayas and more of the flat-as-a-pancake Elliott Yamins.
Of course, I won't be surprised to see this particular media partnership fizzle out quickly......
[Editor's note: Ryan Seacrest has done prominent plugs for Idol on iTunes on both top-24 performance episodes of American Idol this week, and there is no indication of the talent pool thinning out. This year's field of finalists is much stronger than last year's, IMHO. Ratings have remained strong as well.]
For the full report visit here:
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2008/02/20/itunes-american-idol-flop.aspx
iSuppli Warns of NAND Flash Slowdown in 2008
iSuppli reports:
Amid troubling signs of order reductions and weakness in consumer spending, iSuppli Corp. is cutting its outlook for global NAND flash revenue growth in 2008 to the single digit percentage range, down from our previous outlook of a 27 percent rise. Global NAND flash revenue is set to rise marginally in 2008, up from $13.9 billion in 2007. NAND flash is used heavily in consumer-electronics applications—including flash storage cards, MP3 players and USB flash drives— that are driven by retail sales to consumers. With consumer confidence taking a dive due to the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, the NAND market outlook has diminished considerably in 2008.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.isuppli.com/news/default.asp?id=8805
Apple's Keyboard Update Brings Back The First Key Press
Ars Technica's Justin Berka reports:
Although they often haven't been highly-publicized issues, MacBooks and MacBook Pros have been plagued with a number of keyboard bugs for some time now. In December, Apple issued a software update to deal with frozen keyboard problems, but some users reported that the update hadn't squashed the bugs they were experiencing. Luckily, Apple is taking another crack at keyboard issues, and has released Keyboard Firmware Upgrade 1.0 for MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
To read more, click here.
A second look at Apple's MacBook Air
Electronista's Tim McAnaney reports:
After posting my initial first impressions of Apple's new MacBook Air, I put this notebook through two weeks of use to getter a better sense of its capabilities and limitations....
The Air's screen, an incredibly bright 13.3" LED-backlit display, was a distinct pleasure to work on. The incredibly thin and lightweight form factor comes with distinct tradeoffs - the Air lacks an internal optical drive and many of the peripheral ports standard on other notebooks...
For the full review visit here:
http://www.electronista.com/reviews/a-second-look-at-apples-macbook-air-1.html
Apple MacBook Air - We've Been Messin' With The Ultimate Version And Make No Mistake; This Is True Engineering Genius
T3.com reports:
At the start of the year, the T3 gossip machine leapt into pre-Macworld overdrive, forecasting a 12.1-inch lappy or iTablet. What we actually got was the world's slimmest notebook. Not too far off, then...
....Considering this notebook measures just 40mm at its thinnest point and weighs under 1.5kg, it's a miracle this thing actually made it off the design table.
But Apple has left a few blueprints behind, for the Air lacks FireWire, Ethernet, an optical drive and no more USB ports. A USB to Ethernet adapter costs an extra Ł19 and the deficiency of FireWire will madden those with compatible digital camcorders or peripherals....
the Air is strictly for high-flyers. It's a show-off's dream and the shape of things to come in the lap-sector but don't expect it to replace your family 'pooter.
For the full report click here.
Apple Gives Xsan File System A Sequel
The Register's Austin Modine reports:
Apple is offering the first major upgrade to its Storage Area Network (SAN) file system today, while kicking its RAID storage hardware out into the cold.
Xsan2 is a Leopard Server-tailored file system that ties into several of the operating system's features. For example, iCal Server, Mail Server and Podcast Producer can use Xsan2 for accessing clustered file systems.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/19/apple_xserve2_release/
The Mac Night Owl: The Leopard Report: Another Perspective on Troubleshooting Issues
So I set up a brand, spanking new second-generation Mac Pro for a client the other day. This is the super duper Apple workstation that incorporates the new Harpertown or Penryn versions of the Intel Xeon processor, with more onboard cache, faster memory throughput, higher bus speed, improved onchip support for multimedia and similar goodies.
To read more, click here.
Notes: You can also access our RSS feed, available at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/rss
Or our Atom feed at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/atom
Gene Steinberg meets tech commentators David Biedny and Andy Ihnatko, MacWindows.com's John Rizzo and Mariner Software this week on The Tech Night Owl LIVE
During this week's all-star episode, the Night Owl explores the end of the high definition DVD war, the return of Director to the Mac platform and other hot topics with our Special Correspondent David Biedny.
Did the recent Leopard 10.5.2 update fix problems with Macs and cross-platform networking? You'll get the answers from networking guru John Rizzo of MacWindows.com.
Tech pundit Andy Ihnatko will regale us with the latest news and views on Apple and other subjects, and he'll also deliver his fearless Oscar picks.
You'll get an update on Mariner Software's newest products with company CEO Michael Wray.
You can tune into the broadcast Thursday night from 6:00 to 8:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 to 11:00 PM Eastern, at:
http://www.techbroadcasting.com/
Our new chat room will also be open for listener participation. An archive of the show will be available for downloading and listening at your convenience within four hours after the original broadcast.
You can also access our show's Podcast feed, now available at:
http://www.techbroadcasting.com/nightowl.xml
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