Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Thursday, May 15, 2008
Up To 1 Terabyte Of Storage Now Available Inside Your MacBook Pro, MacBook, or PowerBook G4
Build a 1TB MacBook
Leopard Is the Way to Go, Even on Most Old G4 Macs
Windows on Macs: Three Paths for Integration
Leopard Tamers: 9 Terrific Interface Tweaks
Macworld Lab Compares New iMacs To Older Models
Benchmarks: Psystar v. Mac mini (and all three MacBooks)
Apple Retail Store Website Gets A Complete Overhaul
An Apple May Grow Downtown
Is Apple Eating Into Vista?
iPhone And Leopard Take Centre Stage At WWDC
Tablet PC, Mac style: a review of the Axiotron ModBook
Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide
Do You Use The Same Password Everywhere?
Vendor Touts Notebook As Desktop Server Replacement
Up To 1 Terabyte Of Storage Now Available Inside Your MacBook Pro, MacBook, or PowerBook G4
In his The Agenda on PB Central Charles W. Moore reports:
A terabyte is an awful lot of data space. It blows me away that the 500 GB Maxtor 7200 RPM hard drive in my SimpleTech Pininfarina SimpleDrive external hard drive has 1000 times the storage capacity of the 500 MB drive that I thought was pretty roomy in my first Apple laptop - a 1996 PowerBook 5300....
And yet, there are users for whom even 500 GB is not adequate - people who work with video or just like to collect movies, for example, and the relatively limited capacity ceiling has been an inhibitor to them working with notebook computers rather than desktop machines, but now long-established Apple laptop storage media specialists MCE have addressed that limitation with their new MCE OptiBay Hard Drive, which was created for users who want as much hard drive space as possible inside their MacBook Pro, MacBook, or PowerBook G4... period.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.pbcentral.com/news/viewnews.cgi?id=EkEplyFyuVnKHCgOch
Build a 1TB MacBook
The Register's Chris Mellor reports:
MCE Technologies has a dual 500GB hard disk drive kit to produce 1TB MacBooks by using the SuperDrive optical disk drive bay.
The kit uses two 2.5-inch drives spinning at 5,400 or 7,200rpm and with capacities of 100, 120, 160, 250 or 500GB. One replaces the standard drive whilst the other replaces the SuperDrive optical disk drive in its bay. It connects to the MacBook's internal ATA bus and is seen by the Mac OS X operating system as just another hard drive which can be managed with Apple's Disk Utility.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/05/14/1tb_macbook_mce/
Leopard Is the Way to Go, Even on Most Old G4 Macs
Low End Mac's Carl Nygren says:
When a screen shot of Leopard first reached my hard drive, I was stunned at that new interface. How pretty!
But I thought Leopard just had a new UI and nothing else. So I stuck with Panther and Tiger on my Macs.
But when I saw Leopard "live" in the local Apple Store, I simply couldn't say no. An hour later, Leopard was installing on my Dual 533 Power Mac (using LeopardAssist).
Nice UI! Leopard had tons of new features, but sadly the stock nVidia GeForce2 MX video card in my Power Mac couldn't handle them all. I had to go back to Tiger (which runs at incredible speeds).
Two weeks passed. When I was offered an eMac with 512 MB of RAM (now upgraded to 1 GB), a 40 GB drive, and Radeon graphics for $105, I got out my checkbook. Now that very eMac, which shipped with Mac OS X 10.2.8, runs Leopard at awesome speeds. It is now my main Mac, and I will never regret that purchase.
Anyway, with the eMac's Radeon chip, I was able to use every cool feature of Leopard.... LeopardAssist makes it very easy to install Leopard on most unsupported G4 Macs, and it always works fine. I've used it on a 350 MHz Power Mac just fine. I did have the Radeon card, though.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/myturn/0805my/nygren-leopard.html
Windows on Macs: Three Paths for Integration
Low End Mac's Jason Packer says:
Running Windows applications on a Mac has long been seen as the holy grail of acceptance in the workplace. These days there three ways of ways to make that integration happen. Between Crossover Mac to run individual applications, Parallels and VMWare Fusion to run Windows itself under emulation, and Boot Camp, which lets you dual-boot your Mac into OS X or Windows at need, there are fewer reasons than ever not to make the switch in your office or school.
For the full report visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/ed/packer/08jp/windows-on-macs.html
Leopard Tamers: 9 Terrific Interface Tweaks
Computerworld's Ryan Faas says:
When Apple shipped Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" in October, Macintosh users were divided about some of the interface changes Apple had made from prior Mac OS X releases. Chief among these love 'em or hate 'em, changes were the newly translucent menu bar and the 3-D, shelf-like Dock, as well as the new Stacks feature, which, when you mouse over a folder in the Dock, displays the folder's contents as a column of icons or a rectangular grid.
It didn't take long for power users and shareware developers to find ways to tweak the new user interface. At first, modifying Leopard required a level of comfort and experience using the Mac OS X command line and/or modifying system files. Over the past six months, however, the options for tweaking Leopard have become more sophisticated and easier to manage.
Today, most changes can be done easily by any Mac user without trepidation. Here, we'll highlight ways to make Leopard more Tiger-like, customize its look and feel to reflect your personality, and show you how to improve certain Leopard features.
You can check it out at:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/05/14/Leopard-tamers-9-terrific-interface-tweaks_1.html
Macworld Lab Compares New iMacs To Older Models
Macworld's James Galbraith reports:
Macworld Lab benchmarks serve a couple different purposes. First and foremost, we're attempting to chart the progress of each new Apple hardware release against the previous generation. That way, we can determine if a new desktop or laptop represents a big step forward, modest progress, or no measurable difference at all.
Take the new iMacs, which we reviewed last week at Macworld.com. Our review of the 2.4GHz, 2.66GHz, and 2.8GHz machines contained benchmarks comparing these new systems to their predecessors, released in August 2007. By running those tests, we could point out that the new iMacs improved on the performance of the previous generation without a corresponding increase in price.....
Even today's entry-level iMac - the $1,199 2.4GHz, 20-inch Core 2 Duo - earned a 69-percent higher Speedmark score than the fastest G5 iMac ever released. .....
For the full report visit here:
http://www.macworld.com/article/133467/2008/05/imaccomparison.html?lsrc=top_1
Benchmarks: Psystar v. Mac mini (and all three MacBooks)
The Apple Core's Jason D. O'Grady reports:
I've completed some initial Benchmarks of the Psystar Open Computer. The results below are from Xbench 1.3 running on the following systems....
In short, the Psystar pretty much trounces the closest price Mac available from Apple – the Mac mini – in both overall results and the CPU test.
You can check it out at:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1736#more-1736
Apple Retail Store Website Gets A Complete Overhaul
MacUser's Aayush Arya reports:
With the grand opening of the largest Apple Store in the United States scheduled for tomorrow, Apple has spruced up the retail store section of their website to make it easier to navigate and find information.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.macuser.com/internet/apple_retail_store_website_get.php
An Apple May Grow Downtown
The New York Post reports: Alliance for Downtown President Liz Berger said she wished that computer maker Apple would come downtown.
She may yet get her wish.
Sources tell us that Apple is seriously negotiating for the entire 12,500-foot building at 23 Wall St.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05142008/business/an_apple_may_grow_downtown_110830.htm
Is Apple Eating Into Vista?
InfoWorld's Zack Urlocker reports:
Interesting to note that Apple recently posted 51% growth year-over-year in their computer business.
While Apple still has a modest 6% market share in the computer business according to IDC, that's double what it was a few years ago. Under Steve Jobs, Apple has defied analyst predictions who left the company for dead years back. For open source developers, the recent growth of the Mac may be less of a surprise. I've noted for several years that open source developer conferences appear to be a sea of Apple laptops. (Not that Apple's OS is open source, but it's based on BSD, an excellent Unix implementation.)
No doubt much of Apple's growth in the PC business is coming from the so-called "halo effect" of buyers who get an iPod or iPhone and then decide to make the Mac their next computer. Apple was smart to switch over to the Intel platform in 2006, thereby enabling users to run Windows apps on the Mac.
But I can't help wonder if some portion of Apple's growth isn't coming as a result of Microsoft's Vista debacle.....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2008/05/is_apple_eating.html
iPhone And Leopard Take Centre Stage At WWDC
VUNet's Shaun Nichols reports:
Apple plans to showcase a 3G iPhone and a new Leopard operating system to developers in San Francisco next month.
The company revealed today that development tools for the smartphone and the OS would be the focus of the company's annual World Wide Developers Conference in June.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2216553/iphone-leopard-center-stage
Tablet PC, Mac style: a review of the Axiotron ModBook
Ars Technica's Jacqui Cheng reports:
The rumors of the Modbook's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Introduced in January of 2007 at the Macworld Expo, Axiotron's modified MacBook caught the attention of many Mac users who had been waiting for Apple to introduce its own tablet-like machine—particularly artists and graphic professionals.
Unfortunately, Axiotron encountered a number of setbacks throughout 2007 that ultimately caused the ModBook to be delayed for a year, causing some to write off the ModBook as vaporware. At Macworld 2008, Axiotron CEO Andreas Haas spoke with us about what caused the delays, why the company chose to go ahead with a Mac-based tablet, and what the future looked like for the ModBook.
With Axiotron fulfilling all of its backed-up preorders and catching up on orders from Macworld, the company is finally on track and has a shipping product. Without any official tablet-like product from Apple, the ModBook is the only machine of its kind that runs Mac OS X, and it's the perfect time to put one through its paces.
For the full review visit here:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/modbook-review.ars/1
Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide
iLounge's Jesse David Hollington reports:
Probably the single most frequently-asked question of our editors here at iLounge is "How do I copy music from my iPod back to my computer?"
Although Apple's iTunes program is very good at keeping a computer-based library synchronized to an iPod automatically, or for manually transferring tracks from your computer's iTunes library onto your iPod, it provides extremely limited functionality for transferring information in the opposite direction - from your iPod back to your computer....
In this tutorial, we will begin with a background on how music is stored on the iPod in the first place, and then look at the options available for copying music and other media files from the iPod back to your computer, both on an individual basis and en masse for a complete disaster-recovery scenario.
You can check it out at:
http://ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/copying-music-from-ipod-to-computer/
Do You Use The Same Password Everywhere?
David Alison says:
My assumption is that if you are reading this blog it says you are someone that spends a fair amount of time on the web. Yeah, I know, brilliant observation Dave. If my assumption is correct then you have probably visited sites that require you to sign in so that you can contribute posts, download applications or in some cases even read their content. When you do that, do you use the same password on every site you sign up for?
I really love simple things and I'll try to distill my password strategy into a single line:
Don't use the same password everywhere....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/copying-music-from-ipod-to-computer/
Vendor Touts Notebook As Desktop Server Replacement
The Register's Tony Smith reports:
We've all heard of laptop computers that have been designed to replace desktop PCs, but this is the first time we've come across one that's intended a server replacement.
Notebook specialist Eurocom this week unwrapped the Phantom-X, a machine equipped with an quad-core, 95W, 12MB of L2 cache Intel Xeon X3360 processor running at 2.83GHz; three 3Gb/s SATA hard drives in a 1.5TB RAID configuration; and 8GB of DDR 2 memory.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/05/13/eurocom_server_laptop/
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|
|
|
|
| |