MacBook Air

I’ve already done details about MacBook Air in my previous article.

Time Capsule

Gone will be the days of the hassle of plugin in a USB/FireWire drive just to get your Time Machine working. At the MacWorld Expo, Apple unveiled Time Capsule, a hardware companion to Time Machine which will automatic backup of your whole drive wirelessly.

Time Capsule combines an 802.11n network access point and a hard disk drive. Time Capsule is a Full Airport Extreme Base Station plus a server-grade hard drive.

With Time Capsule, users will be able to go back through archived backups to find lost files, photos, digital media, and other data. Once the missing file is found, users can restore it wireless from Time Capsule; they can also restore an entire system from a Time Machine backup stored on the device.

The Time Capsule sports some amazing features –

• dual-band antennas for 2.4GHz or 5GHz frequencies
• one USB 2.0
• one Gigabit Ethernet
• three Gigabit LAN ports
• built-in power supply
• can connect to print wirelessly from a USB printer

In addition, Time Machine offers Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA/WPA-2), 128-bit WEP encryption, and a built-in NAAT firewall that support NAT-PMP for Leopard’s Back to My Mac feature. Apple will start shipping Time Capsule in February and will initially be available in two capacities — 500GB model for $299, and a 1TB version for $499.

iPhone – powerful maps, multi-person SMS

Apple CEO Steve Jobs also unveiled the latest iPhone features. Apple expanded the iPhone’s capabilities with a free software update that adds a location finder to the Maps feature, customized home screens, multi-person SMS chats, and the ability to add Web sites to the home screen. In addition, video playback on the phone has been enhanced, with support for chapters, subtitles and languages, and lyrics support has been added for music tracks.

Read more details of the new iPhone features at MacWorld.

iPod touch – add more apps for a price

Just as iPhone users were getting new capabilities via an iPhone software update announced during Steve Jobs’ Macworld Expo keynote, iPod touch users will get new features for their handheld device, too. But unlike the free iPhone update, iPod users will have to pay for their new capabilities, to the tune of a $19.99 fee.

So, what new features do you get for the upgrade fee?

You’ll get five new mobile apps that match those already on the iPhone. With the update, the iPhone touch adds Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather, and Notes features—essentially giving the music player the same capabilities as the iPhone, with the notable exception of calling features.

More about iPod Touch features and updates at MacWorld.

Apple TV – price drop and untethers from the Mac

The new and improved Apple TV software will be available in about two weeks as a free update to existing Apple TV devices. The entry-level 40GB model had its price dropped to $229, while the 160GB version now costs $329, a $70 price reduction for both. The Apple TV will sport a completely changed and enhanced interface adding numerous new features — most notably the ability to rent movies and purchase music and TV shows directly via the device.

The upgraded Apple TV operates as a standalone device. While it will still synchronize content with your computer, no computer is required to operate it. Once it’s connected to your television and your computer network, you can rent movies directly on your widescreen TV, using Apple’s new iTunes Movie Rentals feature, navigating using the Apple TV’s remote. iTunes Movie Rentals cost $4.99 for new high-definition releases, $3.99 for older high-definition films and new standard-definition releases, and $2.99 for older standard-definition releases.

Apple TV will be able to play at HD – 720p resolution with many available Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Standard-definition films purchased on the Apple TV are of “DVD quality” and will not play back on Macs, PCs, or iPods. However, the Apple TV is also able to play back rentals purchased on a Mac or PC, albeit at reduced “near-DVD quality.”

The Apple TV can also now be used to directly purchase TV shows and music, which will also automatically sync back to a Mac or PC via iTunes. A new podcast browser allows users to browse Apple’s podcast directory and pick certain podcasts as “favorites” for quick access at a later time.

iTunes Movie Rentals

Apple also introduces iTunes Movie Rentals, a new feature of the iTunes Store that enables users to download movies and watch them for a short time rather than having to buy them.

The new feature is dependent on iTunes 7.6, a new release of Apple’s jukebox, music, TV and movie software that’s available for download from Apple’s Web site. It also requires an update to QuickTime.

Apple is supported by all the major movie studios — Fox, WB, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Sony, along with Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, New Line and Lions Gate. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that the new service will launch shortly, and by the end of February will contain over 1,000 movies. Movies will become available for rental on iTunes 30 days after they are released on DVD.

Movie rentals will be priced at $3.99 for new releases and $2.99 for older films. High Definition (HD) movies will be downloadable only via Apple TV and will cost $4.99 for new releases and $3.99 for older films.

Apple unveils “the thinnest notebook in the world” – the MacBook Air. Apple went and looked at most of the thinnest notebooks – Sony TZ series, for example and tried to distill the best of all of them –

• ~3 lbs
• 0.16 to 0.76 inches thin, 12.8 inches wide and 8.95 inches deep
• 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display that has a 1280 × 800 pixel resolution
• full sized MacBook-style black keyboard with Ambient light sensor
• built-in iSight
• multi-touch trackpad (Move a window by double-tap and move. Rotate a photo by pivoting your index finger around your thumb)
• 80GB drive as standard, 64GB SSD as an option
• 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo as standard chip which operates with 4MB of on-chip shared L2 cache running at full processor speed, and uses an 800MHz frontside bus (1.8 GHz as an upgrade)
• 45w MagSafe
• 1 USB 2.0 port
• Micro-DVI
• 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1/EDR
• 5 hour battery life
• 2GB of 667MH DDR2 SDRAM

The MacBook Air runs from 0.76″ to 0.16″. The thickest part of the MacBook AIr is thinner than the thinnest part of the Sony TZ series. So thin it fits in a manila envelope. This crazy thin MacBook is silver, got a camera with more rounded edges.

Fullsize, 13.3″ widescreen display. LED-backlit display saves power, gives bright display, instant-on the minute you open it. There’s a built-in iSight camera, and a fullsize MacBook-style black keyboard. “Perhaps the best notebook keyboard we’ve ever shipped.” And it’s got a backlit keyboard with an ambient light sensor (previously a MacBook Pro-only feature). Multi-touch gesture support on the trackpad. There’s a preferences pane that lets you turn on a bunch of different gestures and it gives you a video that shows you what things do. Double-tap and then you can drag the cursor around. Pan around a large photo with two fingers. Rotate with a two-finger interface, like turning a dial. Three fingers lets you pan through photos, and of course there’s a real pinch interface for zooming in or out.

Hard drive is a 1.8″ 80GB (with an option of a 64GB solid-state disk). It’s about the length of a pencil. Amazing feat of engineering and there is no compromise on performance. Core 2 Duo chip on the board at 1.6GHz standard with an option to go to 1.8GHz. They asked Intel to consider something: Apple wanted the chip, but needed the same die on a smaller package. So Intel engineered the same chip but made it 60% smaller.

What do we do with optical drive?

Movies, install software, backups, burn music CDs. Here’s why we don’t need to do that: wirelessly rental movies, most of us have iPods instead of CDs, for backups Time Machine and Time Capsule to wirelessly backup.

So what about installing software?

Going to do that wirelessly too. New feature built into MacBook Air OS called Remote Disk, under Devices. It’ll show you all the Macs and PCs in the area with special software (Macs or Windows machines). You can ask to borrow a machine’s optical drive. Once they’ve accepted, you can see what they’re disc is. A PC can even read a Mac disc with this special software. Click on it, and it’s just like having a local optical drive. “That’s how we’re going to install stuff. Wirelessly.” Don’t think users will miss optical drive.

They didn’t want to compromise on battery life. With wireless turned on, they still eked out 5 hours of battery life. So, a 3 lbs., 0.16″-.76″ thickness, 13.3″ fullsize display, fullsize keyboard (backlit), multi-touch gestures, iSight camera, 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of memory, 80GB hard drive (64GB SSD optional), 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and Magsafe connector — price starts at $1,799.

Apple is taking pre-orders today onwards and will ship them in two weeks.

The MacBook Air has a fully recyclable aluminum case. It also has the first mercury-free display with arsenic-free glass. All the circuit boards are BFR-free and PVC-free. And the retail packaging is 56 percent less volume than MacBook packaging. Helps with energy for transporting and disposing of materials. MacBook Air joins MacBook and MacBook Pro, “best note books in the industry.”

Visit;

• MacBook Air
• MacBook Guided Tour
• View the MacBook Air Ad
• Image Gallery of MacBook Air at Gizmodo
• MacWorld’s details on MacBook Air

More power with less power
Inside the new Mac Pro is the latest technology from Intel – Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Harpertown” processors. These processors run at blazingly fast speeds up to 3.2GHz.

Cache count
A huge amount of L2 cache — 12MB per processor — keeps frequently used data and instructions close to the processor cores and improves overall performance. 6MB of cache is shared between pairs of processor cores, allowing an individual core to use all the available shared cache at any one time.

Built at full tilt With the fastest Xeon architecture available, the new Mac Pro features 1600MHz dual independent frontside buses. These 64-bit buses give each processor a direct connection to the system controller and deliver improved processor bandwidth of up to 25.6GB per second — 20 percent greater than the previous Mac Pro. With a new system architecture, speedier system buses, and fast 800MHz DDR2 fully buffered DIMM memory, Mac Pro memory throughput is up to 1.6 times faster than before. Every Intel Xeon processor features an enhanced SSE4 SIMD engine. Capable of completing 128-bit vector computations in a single cycle, SSE4 is ideal for transforming large sets of data, such as applying a filter to an image or rendering a video effect.

Smarter memory
The Mac Pro incorporates a 256-bit-wide, fully buffered memory architecture with Error Correction Code (ECC), which corrects single-bit errors and detects multiple-bit errors automatically. These features are especially important in mission-critical or compute-intensive environments. Apple designed a more stringent thermal specification for the Mac Pro FB-DIMMs, so the internal fans spin at slower speeds and keep the system quiet.

Prices for the Mac Pro start at $2,799 for a machine running two 2.8-GHz quad-core Xeons with 2GB of memory, the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card and a 320GB SATA drive. At the top of the configuration line, a machine tricked out with two 3.2-GHz processors, 32GB of memory, the Nvidia Quadro FX 5600 graphics card, a RAID card and four 1TB internal drives prices out at a whopping $18,199. The extra RAM alone adds $9,100 to the bottom line of that machine. The Mac Pro comes with Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard”, Apple’s newest client operating system.

Xserve

Along with the new Mac Pro announcement, Apple also refreshed its Xserve server to include the same 45nm Penryn-family Xeon processors, the first time since August 2006 that it has punched up its 1U rack-mounted server. The Xserve, which starts at the same $2,999 as its base-line predecessor, comes with an unlimited client license edition of Leopard Server, boasts three drive bays and can be equipped with up to 32GB of memory. For $2,999, buyers get a server running a single 2.8-GHz quad-core Xeon, 2GB of memory, an 80GB SATA drive and dual Gigabit Ethernet on board.

The new Xserve is actually the more important of the two systems, argued an analyst at Technology Business Research Inc., because it “draws attention to the Leopard Server operating system’s capabilities as a small-business or departmental server for organizations with limited IT support.” While both new models significantly improve on characteristics of the machines they replace, the analyst said the Xserve and the Leopard Server operating system make a more compelling case.

Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard features a stunning new look across the entire system including a sleek new Dock with Stacks, a simple way to quickly organize and access your files. You can use Cover Flow to see your files in the Finder and browse through them like you browse through album art in iTunes. Quick Look gives you instant, full size previews of your documents, images and movies without opening an application. And Time Machine provides an effortless way to automatically backup everything on your Mac. These innovations plus Spaces, Boot Camp and major enhancements to Mail and iChat, make Leopard and its more than 300 new features the richest release of Mac OS X yet.

The program ends on January 26, 2008. Orders must be postmarked or faxed January 26, 2008, so order your upgrade now.

Happy Holidays! Get a Mac

Apple have released a MacBook Pro Software Update 1.1 which fixes the responsiveness issue on MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook computers.

The Mac OS X 10.5.1 update is required before installing the MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.1.

Quicksilver: Universal Access and Action

Recently, Google launched the Google Mac Developer Playground, where Google Engineers can showcase their Mac-related projects. We all know of the Google Engineers 20% time where they are allowed to work on projects of interest to them. Many spend their time working on open-source Mac projects and this new site is a place where these projects can be shared with one and all.

It may be recalled that Google once focused predominantly on the Windows platform; they however seems to be paying more attention to the Mac lately. They’ve also very recently, unveiled a customized search interface for the Apple iPhone. We already have the Google Desktop for Mac OS X, which allows us to run Google Gadgets as Mac Dashboard widgets.

Currently, the Mac Developer Playground is stacking up Tools and Applications – Statz, GData, MacFuse, Disk for iPhone, CoverStory, etc.

Visit the Google Mac Developer Playground.

Photo from USA Today

An Apple StoreDisplay of varied Apple Products

USA Today have a nice article – Thinking of switching to a Mac? Here’s why you might – which is worth a read if you’re planning to switch to a Mac or just love the Mac. The author, Edward C. Baig is a Mac guy but he do not believe in bashing Windows being a prerequisite for a Mac user. So, the article is a primer on switching to the Mac. He promises to come back next week with advice for folks who plan on sticking with Windows.

Here is what Edwards remarks;

It’s like explaining the difference between a Buick and a BMW. Both get you from here to there, only the ride is generally smoother and more fun. Put another way, Windows users tolerate their computers to get stuff done. The Mac crowd enjoys its machines, whether managing music in iTunes or pictures in iPhoto.

More from the article and I’ve no guts to add anything to such beautifully crafted article, as beautiful as the Mac. So, here are the excerpts;

Mac hardware is beautifully designed; the strikingly thin all-in-one iMac desktop, for example, has an anodized aluminum frame and glossy glass cover. The underlying software is polished, robust and secure, with see-through menus and fanciful icons that spring to life when you click on them. Indeed, Apple’s computers to date have been immune from the scourge of viruses and malware that have long plagued Windows.

Are there things I can’t do on a Mac?

Occasionally. You may work for a company or take a class whose software requires Windows. But Microsoft has long produced an Office suite for the Mac — a new version is coming — with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and an Outlook-like program called Entourage. So you can read and edit Word files, say, on a PC that were created on a Mac and vice versa.

Aren’t Macs pricier?

Well, you won’t find sub-$400 bargains. The cheapest Mac, the 6.5-inch-square Mac Mini starts at $599 — without monitor, keyboard or mouse. Among consumer desktops, the iMac line starts at $1,199 (and goes way up from there). It’s sold with a 20- or 24-inch screen.

Among notebooks, entry-level MacBooks have 13.3-inch displays and cost $1,099 on up; they’re terrific consumer or student notebooks. The MacBook Pro comes in 15- and 17-inch versions and starts at $1,999. It has superior graphics, among other enhancements.

How do I run Windows on a Mac?

Macs with Intel chips — Apple converted all its models over to Intel in 2006 — can run a program called Boot Camp, which comes with Leopard. It lets you boot up into Windows or OS X, but not both simultaneously. And you’ll have to buy your own copy of Windows XP or Vista.

Through so-called virtualization software, available from third-party companies such as Parallels or VMware, you can run the two operating systems at the same time.

Apple owners heap lavish praise on Macs for good reason. These are solid and elegant computers that are well worth your consideration.

Live demos and a chance to be among the first to test-drive the most impressive Mac OS X version yet. Visit selected Apple Authorized Resellers to experience Leopard Demo Days.

• 23 – 25 November, 2007
• 30 – 02 December, 2007
• 07 – 09 December, 2007

Here are the Apple Authorized Resellers in India where the All Leopard – All Day demos will be held.

• Imagine F-58, Level 1, Inorbit Mall, Link Road, Malad (W), Mumbai – 400064
• Imagine 306, Level 3, Atria Mall, Dr. Annie Besant Road, Worli, Mumbai – 400018
• Imagine Shop No.1 Ground Floor, MGF Megacity Mall, MG Road, Gurgaon 122002, Haryana
• Imagine C Block Ground Floor Shop 01 Ansal Plaza, Hudco Place, Khel Goan Marg, New Delhi, 110049
• Imagine G-3, Sector 18, Noida 201301
• Imagine Store No: A201, City Centre, Salt Lake, Kolkata – 700091
• Imagine 210, Level 2, Forum Mall, Hosur Road, Koramangala, Bangalore
• Imagine 21, Level One, Mariplex mall, Kalyani Nagar, Pune
• Imagine Nr Hotel Fidalgo, SV Road, off 18th June Road/ MG Road, Panjim – 403001
• Imagine ABM Towers, Ground Floor, #38/721-82, Next to Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Gandhi Nagar Road, Kadavanthara, Cochin – 682020
• Imagine 214, Himalaya Mall, Drive-In road, Gurukool, Ahmedabad
• I Store No 87 Almas centre, MG Road, Bangalore 560 001

Note: Space for Demo Days is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

I’m very likely to be at the Imagine store, InOrbit Mall, Malad, Mumbai, the second preference is the Imagine Store at Atria Mall, Worli, Mumbai. I’ll give you a disappointing tip – don’t expect it to be big in India. The Imagine stores are exceptionally small and they sell mostly iPods and not Macs. Most people still look at Macs as some expensive, glassy, sleek machines and is used mostly for movies with view-angle emphasis to the glossy Apple logo.

UPDATE

I just got info from Imagine Store – the Indian Demo dates are 23 – 25 November, 2007. Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) is expected to retail for Rs. 6,200 in India. At the time of this article, that should be around US$ 157.

Disclosure

I’ve already got my copy of Leopard at the cost of $109 from Amazon about a week back.

Anyway, it was just one of the stupid sales-girl unaware of enough facts about Apple despite being stationed at an Apple Products Retailer/Store. It was later confirmed that Leopard is nowhere releasing anytime soon in India.

While Apple sold 2 million copies of Leopard during the first weekend, I decided to order mine from Amazon. However, they won’t ship to India!

So, here are the steps I did to get my copy of Apple Mac OS X 10.5 aka Leopard;

1. Order the best bargain available at Amazon at that time – Apple Leopard DVD for $99.99 from J&R Music and Computer World.
2. Ship to a Friend’s address in US of A.
3. Let him ship it (along with few other of my orders, of course) as an educational DVD for review purposes to my place in Mumbai, India.

If you do not wish to read in details but glance through a review table-of-sort, then Gizmodo has a handy review matrix from the full reviews of NYT’s David Pogue, USA Today’s Ed Baig and WSJ’s Walt Mossberg. Gizmodo also has a Ten Things You Should Know Before You Upgrade to Mac OS X Leopard, which highlights many “reasons to upgrade to Leopard”.

Here are the few features, according to me, which are super-cool from the whole 300 New Features that Apple added to Mac OS X 10.5 (code-named Leopard).

• Finder: View > Show Path Bar.
• Front Row: Movie Previews, DVD Playback, Streaming Content.
• iChat: Good enough reasons to give this app a try alongside Adium.
• Screensavers: A good way to impress your girlfriend or wife by doing the Mosaic Display ScreenSaver of her Pictures.
• Spaces: One good way to worked in an organized manner.
• Trash: While browsing your Trash folder, you can empty it right there – “Empty” (look at the top-right corner).
• Leopard brings you a new more human voice – Alex. I just heard him when Little Snitch disturbed my Front Row.
• Boot Camp: I’ve read good reviews about Boot Camp and some Mac user even claim that Windows is way faster on a Macbook Pro than on any other PC. Well, I’ve not yet coaxed myself into using Windows on my Mac and is very unlikely to happen anytime soon.

MAIL

I can live without the stationary but this should be a good addition for many people. I love the “Duplicate Smart Mailbox”. I’m going to do away with few more third party apps as Mail has its own “NOTE” and “TO DO”. Mail comes with an RSS Reader this time, however, it will be unwise to move all your RSS feeds if you’re like me who have more 1000+ feeds. I’m going to use it to watch over important ones and let Google Reader handle the remaining. Last but not the least, it comes with its own backup mechanism – “Archive Mailbox”.

PREVIEW

I like the new subtile features added to Preview – Crop, rotate, resize. Its new ability to cut-paste to other Applications is a good addition along with the “Send Photo to” iPhoto or Aperture. Preview’s capability to do Batch Operation is another cool feature which I would seriously like to thank Apple for. I can do away another third party tool here.

TIME MACHINE

This is one awesome piece of Application and NO Mac user should NOT be NOT using it. It backs up everything on your Mac hourly. Let it do its job and don’t even bother looking at it. Time Machine is more stackable archives of your works and you can archive your disk as it gets bigger and never lose anything from now on. For instance, you might keep a disk for each year and keep them as Time Machine enabled disk. You can come back later and browse the Time Machine discs on your Mac. Time Machine backed-up disc are recognizable on any Leopard or newer Mac. I’ve to say good buy to Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper. I suggest getting a Time Machine Disc at least thrice the size of your Mac Disc, perhaps something five times the size would be an ideal one to have all – hourly, daily, weekly and monthly backups. You can manually do a back-up anytime you wish by Holding down Control Key and initiating the Time Machine.

Misc

• Here is a blow-up of the PC Windows depicted by the notorious Windows Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) as seen in Leopard. Here is how to Remove the Windows BSOD icon in Leopard if you want to show some love and respect to your friends, relatives and colleagues who uses a PC.
• Engadget’s Leopard vs Vista – feature chart showdown

References

• MacWorld’s review of Apple Leopard
• Engadget’s run-down of their experience with Leopard.
• AppleInsider’s Review of Leopard
• Apple Gazette Review of Leopard
• Top Ten Leopard Tips from Guy Kawasaki

Trivia

• Leopard’s login wallpaper is not that cool, but I’m OK with it for now. If you don’t like it, here is How To Change Leopard’s Login Wallpaper.
• Of course, many people don’t get along well with the new Dock, so here are the replacements – High Contrast, Browse More Docks.
• While the developer of Letterbox plugin for Mail is still working on Leopard compatibility, here is an alternate way to get widescreen format to Mail – WideMail.

For Adobe Software Users, it would be worth looking through the Adobe Leopard FAQ (pdf).

UPDATE

It looks like Apple Leopard have reached India.