Fresh Apple: The Apple Blog (20 сообщений)

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The Apple Blog
The Apple Blog, published by and for the day-to-day Apple user, is a prominent source for news, reviews, walkthroughs, and real life application of all Apple products.
http://theappleblog.com
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Om Reviews the Google Phone
Om Malik has been testing the new Google Phone for the past few days. His take? This isn't an iPhone competitor. If you look at it, you can very quickly see that G-1 is a Honda to iPhone's BMW. After a few days of usage I have become increasingly convinced that for people who like the Apple iPhone, will find Google-based G-1 aesthetically lacking. Read his full review on GigaOm.com →

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TAB Welcomes: Darrell Etherington
Hi folks, here’s another addition to the ongoing role call. I started writing for TAB a little over a week ago, and so far I’m really enjoying myself.

As far as I know I’m the only Canadian in the current roster, so I had to fight the strong influence of Waterloo-based Research In Motion when I purchased my 3G iPhone. If I lived an hour or so south of where I do now, that’d virtually be grounds for treason.

The first Apple I owned was an eMac, which I purchased second-hand for $500 and sold two years later for $500 (I still regret selling it at all, but at least it went to a good home). My current computers are a black MacBook purchased in early summer 2007 and a 20″ aluminum iMac I bought in late summer of this year. I use my Macs mostly for writing, but also for digital photography (Canon Rebel XT, though the new 50D has me drooling for an upgrade) and digital art (Wacom Cintiq 12WX).

My set-up and interests might give you an idea of the type of topics I’ll be covering here at TAB, but I’m always hungry for the latest news. Which means you should tweet me anytime you hear anything, but I won’t believe you if you say Apple’s bringing copy-and-paste to the iPhone.

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Byline 2.0 iPhone Feed Reader Now Available

Amidst all of the hubaloo around Apple’s announcements, one of my favorite iPhone apps was updated to v2.0 today. Byline, by Phantom Fish is an RSS reader application. It’s big claim to fame is the synchronization/support of the Google Reader API. However, 2.0 has some other great new features.
- A new interface and icon
- Syncs with folders (tags)
- It now has a built-in web browser (more below)
- Allows note creation and deletion
- Allows you to email links
- Archives starred items immediately, with no refresh required
- No longer affects the performance of iTunes backups
- Pages archived for offline browsing no longer displace feed content
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Apple's New Manufacturing Process
Along with all the other technology that Apple announced today, there was quite a bit of time devoted to showing off the innovative manufacturing process in the new 15″ MacBook Pro. Previous versions of the MacBook Pro were made from pressed aluminum parts held together with screws and fitted with plastic gaskets to cover the seams. The new MacBook Pro enclosure is milled from a single “brick” of aluminum. This approach allows for a seamless enclosure with no visible screws and a few other innovative features.

Apple is referring to this new approach as a unibody enclosure. They employ CNC machines to carve the unibody from a solid block of metal that starts out weighing 2.5lbs and ends up as a .25lb top enclosure. The other 90% of the original piece is recovered during the manufacturing process and recycled to make new aluminum blocks. The result is a thinner and lighter enclosure that is simultaneously stronger and stiffer.

The aesthetics are affected as well. Gone are the screws along the side and the opening for the sleep light to shine through the case is actually perforated by laser so that it’s virtually invisible to the naked eye. The only breaks along the edge of the new MacBook Pro are from the various ports on the left, the superdrive slot on the right, and the IR port on the front.

The screws holding the top case and the bottom together are found along the back edge and underneath the new access door along the front. The new access door covers the battery and the hard drive. The battery is not part of the bottom case anymore and is entirely covered by the access door. Because the battery is otherwise covered by the access door, the battery indicator lights are visible through perforations in the side of the enclosure. This gives the new MacBook Pro a very clean look along the bottom as well.

Improvements to the manufacturing process go beyond the new unibody construction. Apple has also dropped a number of harmful chemicals by using LED backlighting (no Mercury) and removing BFR and PVC from the logic board, cables and connectors. The unibody enclosure also means fewer extraneous bits and pieces to hold the enclosure together that would have gone to a landfill before. The packaging has also been reduced by 37%, which means less paper products and decreased environmental impact from transportation. The significance of all these changes is a new laptop that is almost entirely recyclable and has earned the highest rating of EPEAT Gold.

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New MacBooks: The Rumor Mills Were Right, Mostly
As much stick as the Mac Web rumoristas and “insider” channelers take from advocates of “serious journalism,” over the years they have proved to be right more often than not, and leading up to yesterday’s new Apple MacBook announcements, it’s now confirmed that they’ve been batting a pretty high percentage this time.

Let’s take a look at the various rumors that were passed around about the new MacBooks and see how they fared.
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MacBooks Selling Out Worldwide

Reports are coming in that Apple’s new MacBooks and MacBook Pros are selling out in retail stores around the world.

Apple’s flagship San Francisco store reportedly had no stock as of this morning, and our own David Appleyard apparently scored the last new MBP at the Manchester Arndale store. The London Regent Street flagship store is also announcing that they are out of stock, and calls to the Toronto Eaton Centre Apple Store confirm that they also have no stock and aren’t sure when they’ll be receiving any.

With flagship stores in three different countries already experiencing stock shortages, it’s clear that Apple’s new notebooks are being fairly well received by consumers, even if analysts are disappointed in the high price points of the new notebooks. It’s not clear from these reports whether sales have been exceptionally high, supplies are short, or some combination of the two. Another possibility is that Apple is taking a page from Nintendo’s playbook and short-stocking in order to drive up demand. Whether real or orchestrated, the same tactic worked well for them when the iPhone 3G initially launched.

If you’ve run into any stock shortages or outages at your own local store, or if you were lucky enough to get your hands on one, let us know.

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17-inch MacBook Pro Will Be Late, Not Absent
Many noticed (and lamented) the lack of a 17-inch version of the updated MacBook Pro at yesterday’s notebook event. For those interested in Apple’s Pro line of laptops, screen real estate is a valuable commodity indeed. Designers need the space for working on large documents and layouts, and creative professionals need to be able to convey to potential and actual clients the true scope and quality of their work easily on the spot. Depending on your work product, both of these needs are hard to meet on 15 inches.

Which is why it’s good news that AppleInsider is reporting this morning that the 17-inch version of the aluminum-glass MacBook Pro is not, as some speculated, going the way of the dodo. Rumors of optical drive and display issues on the bigger MBP delaying shipment appear to be correct, and will delay its arrival until after the holiday season. Meanwhile, Apple is offering improved specs on the existing 17-inch MBP. A high-resolution 1920×1200 display, 4GB of memory, and a 320GB hard drive now come standard, with the option available to switch in a 128GB SSD.
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Adobe CS4 Shipping, Welome to Obsolescence CS3

According to John Nack, Principal Product Manager for Adobe Photoshop, the entire Creative Suite 4 is now shipping.

Announced in September, the release date itself was not initially specified. Those looking to test out the new programs before deciding whether or not to upgrade will have to wait, as trials are not yet available for download on Adobe’s site. You can however sign up here to be notified when the downloads do go live.

All products in the suite have received some nice feature additions, including the Application Frame for Mac versions, which allows users to opt for a a single window display if they prefer, rather than the floating pane configuration of CS3 and earlier products. The new mode addresses the complaints of some users regarding accidentally clicking through to background applications, and the visual distraction and clutter of the independent pane UI.
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Window Management With Afloat

One of my ‘pet peeves’ about OS X is the inability to force a window to remain on top of all the others. Several years ago, when using Windows, this was a functionality that I found invaluable for watching videos and keeping certain web pages or applications at the forefront of my display. Certain Mac applications offer this functionality built in (VLC for instance) but most don’t.

I was thrilled to find Afloat, a simple piece of software which adds the above collection of menu bar items to an application. It allows you to perform a whole new set of operations on a window such as keeping it on top, increasing transparency, and creating ‘overlays’.
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MacBook Pro Unboxing Photos
We’ve managed to get our hands on a brand new 15″ MacBook Pro and have a collection of photos of the box, packaging and accessories.

Initial Impressions

The look and feel of the new MacBook Pro is one of luxury. The aluminum shell has clearly enjoyed hours of planning, thought and tedious design work before being unleashed. It’s hard to fault the physical make-up of the new machine, with the only arguable exception being the glossy display. From the short time I have spent using the MacBook Pro so far, the screen really doesn’t seem to pose a problem — it is by far bright enough to offset any reflection or glare.

The packaging is clearly reduced from the predecessor, but there’s still plenty of room for all the box contents. It goes to show the amount of wastage which is common in computer packaging.

We’ll spend a little time getting to grips with the new machine, and will follow up shortly with a full review.

Check out the full gallery below.
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Bento 2.0 Review

Filemaker announced Bento 2.0 yesterday. It’s been a while since we’ve seen any updates to Bento (1.0v2 was released in February) but version 2.0 shows some big improvements.

I’ve had a chance to spend a few days with this latest update and it looks like a solid step in the right direction. Bento remains focused as a personal database that does three things: delivers the full OS X Leopard experience, is highly accessible, and looks good. Version 2.0 stays true to this vision but adds some important new functionality to make it even better. Here’s what’s new…
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TAB Welcomes: Tom Reestman
This is where I’m supposed to write a bunch of stuff about who I am and why you should read my articles until your eyes bleed.

You can read something about me on my author's page, but here is much more detailed and specific information:
- I live in a house.
- The house is in a big city.
- The big city is in an even bigger state within the US.
- I have a cat.
- The cat is fat.
- I work in some sort of technical capacity with software.
- I write quite a bit for work, for fun, and now on the Apple Blog.
- Got my first Mac in ‘89. There is currently an iMac, MacBook, Time Machine, Airport Express, two iPhones (original), iPod touch, and three iPods in the house.
- The cat is still fat.
- I like to work on computers and read numerous news feeds.
- Until last January I'd had at least one PC in the house for 15+ years; I know Windows quite well.
- My daughter has a fish. The fish is not fat. It's the cat that is fat.
- My daughter has her own bedroom. It's a wreck. Actually, I've seen wrecks that look better.
- I have an office. It's spotless.
- My daughter is a good student.
- Did I mention the rather copious amounts of poundage the cat has accumulated?
Perhaps there will be more later. Honestly, though, after the way I just bared my soul to you how can you not want to come back and read my stuff again and again? I welcome, appreciate, and enjoy any and all comments on what I write.

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Whither the 17″ MacBook Pro?
Notably absent from today’s laptop announcements regarding the new MacBook line was the 17″ MacBook Pro. Well, it wasn’t truly absent, because it was refreshed.

The new configuration is definitely sweeter than before; for the same price as yesterday’s base model ($2,799) you now get:
- A 320GB drive
- The full 4GB of memory,
- The formerly-optional 1920×1200 resolution.
Those of you that waited until today are getting very nice additions for the same price as yesterday. I believe they were an additional $350 until today.

This model already has a backlit keyboard that is very well thought of, and you can still get a matte or glossy screen (your choice) as well. And, unlike the 15″, it still has both FireWire 400 and 800 ports. In short, this is a great machine at a better price than before.

Still, the question remains what will become of it, and why wasn’t it updated with the other models. Daring Fireball seems to think it’ll be history:

I don't know if the 17-inch revision is simply forthcoming, or whether it's being phased out. My hunch is that it's being phased out.

I disagree.

Apple is going to go with a 15″ as their maximum laptop screen size? A 15″ will be the flagship of the “pro” series? No way. It seems to me that by offering the 1920×1200 resolution option (and today making it standard), Apple has already acknowledged that there is most definitely a market where resolution is king.

I believe this model will get all the advancements from today in a future update. I suspect the reason it wasn’t part of today’s announcement was simply because it made sense to start with the volume machine (MacBook) and most popular pro model (15″).

I’d be surprised if a large-screen step up from the 15″ pro model disappeared from Apple’s lineup.

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Dear Analysts: The White MacBook is NOT Apple's First Sub-$1K Laptop

When I wrote about the MacBook earlier, I mentioned that Apple’s strategy to make it more of a MacBook Pro “lite” was rather amazing.

Rather than bring down their laptop’s entry level, as everyone insisted and expected it would do, Apple chose to dramatically bring down the laptop’s “pro” level instead. The smaller screen (actually an advantage in terms of size and weight), lack of FireWire, and less powerful (but still greatly improved) graphics are the main differentiators. Well, except for that $700 price difference!
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Comparing New to Old, Apple MacBook is Killer; MacBook Pro Less So

I’m not going to dwell on the base MacBook that’s now $999. It was a fine machine yesterday, and for $100 less it still is. The lower price may also appeal especially to schools, etc. that may be buying in bulk.

No, the real action today is in the rest of the MacBooks and of course the new 15″ MacBook Pro as well. When comparing these models, it’s clear that the new MacBook is a huge improvement over the older model, but that the MacBook Pro is not as significant a change. Let’s take a quick look…
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Mac By The Numbers: Apple's Market Positioning

Apple front-ended their notebook event today with a look at the business side of things. Their reported sales figures were impressive, having moved 2.5M Macs last quarter alone, and continuing their trend of growing at two to three times the rate of competitors in the same sector.

COO Tim Cook listed a number of reasons why Apple continues to put up impressive numbers:
1. Hardware quality (all Mac computers, basically)
2. Software quality (Leopard, iLife, iWork, etc.)
3. Compatibility (Boot Camp, virtualization software makes it easy to switch and/or integrate with existing infrastructure)
4. Vista (Microsoft’s poorly received OS scaring people to OS X)
5. Mac vs. PC ads (heightened brand recognition)
6. Brick-and-mortar retail growth (new Sydney, China stores; 400,00 visitors a day across all locations)
Cook then went on to talk about growth, where Apple has done better than their market for four years running, raising their market share from less than 10% to 17.5% in the U.S. While that represents a significant gain, Apple’s most impressive figures are in the educational market segment, where they saw an improvement from 15% to 47% market share at one major university, and enjoy a 39% share overall, surpassing PC provider Dell.

Overall, Apple has already matched their sales figures for all of FY2007, moving 7.1M Macs between Q1 and Q3 2008. The holiday season and today’s introduction of new models could see Q3’s numbers exceeded, despite the mostly depressed consumer electronics market, and will likely see Apple nearing or even passing the 10M mark by end of year.

Following today’s announcment, the price of Apple’s (AAPL) shares initially dropped, due likely to the absence of the $800 laptop predicted by some analysts. Share price has gradually recovered since, and has stabilized at 104.08 at the time of this writing, down 5.60% from opening.

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Apple's Laptop Line Gets a Graphics Boost

Apple has updated their laptop line (sans the "white MacBook") with NVIDIA's new GeForce graphics chips: the 9400M for the MacBook and MacBook Air, and the 9600M GT for the MacBook Pro.

The 9400M contains 16 parallel graphics cores offering 54 Gigaflops of graphics performance. This translates to, according to Jobs, a "5x faster graphics than the chips [Apple's] been using". The 9600M GT doubles the amount of graphics core to 32 and offers dedicated 256 / 512 MB of dedicated GDDR3 memory at the cost of only an hour of battery time (down to 4hrs from the 9400's five). The 9600M comes in addition to the 9400M on the Pro line for a dual configuration allowing you to switch between processors depending on your needs.

Not only is this great for performance in general, but this is a also huge win for gamers as the integrated Intel chip on the MacBooks have made gaming close to non-existent, as I'm sure many would-be fans of Spore can attest to.

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MacBook Air Updated: Spec Bumps All Around

The new MacBook Air, announced this morning, is a significant upgrade to the ultralight portable from Apple. The machine retains the same appearance, but the technology inside has been updated with some of the new features of the all-new MacBook and MacBook Pro.

The MacBook Air continues to come standard with 2GB of RAM and remains at the same price points of $1799 and $2499, but the specs at those price points are much improved. The exciting changes are in storage options, CPU bumps, and the dramatically improved graphics capabilities of the new MacBook Air. The updated Air will ship in early November.

The new MacBook Air comes with either a 120GB SATA drive or a 128GB solid-state drive. The drive performance is likely to be the same as the original MacBook Air, but the 50% bump on the SATA drive option and the 100% increase on the solid-state drive is welcome news. In my opinion, hitting 120GB is a minimum for any laptop that you plan to use on a daily basis.
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MacBook: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Nothing Blu

As predicted, Apple today introduced two new models of MacBook, featuring all-aluminum cases constructed from a solid block (or “brick”) of aluminum. The new models much more closely resemble their Pro siblings than did the previous white and black plastic MacBooks. The entry-level ($1099) white MacBook will also continue to be offered, but receives a discount of $100, which, combined with the education discount, makes it a very attractive first laptop for students.

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Apple Announces New 24-inch LED Cinema Displays

Much to the delight of Cinema Display users of years past, today Apple announced their new 24-inch LED Cinema Displays that will be shipping in November for a smooth $899. For a normal display, even if it is 1920×1200 resolution, that is a lot of money.

Apple sweetens the deal by offering something closer to docking options. It is not the hoped-for slide-your-MacBook-into-the-side display that Tom wrote about yesterday, but it does offer some good features.

The LED backlight will provide higher contrast which leads to better colors. If you compare a MacBook Air screen to a screen from a MacBook that is a couple years old, you can see how much better the LED-backlit screens are. They are so vibrant and rich. The old cinema displays are pretty good, but these will be gorgeous.
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