Stan's List

While my dad is busy watching the moving crew break all his precious knick-knacks I will be filling in to give you a wrap up of today’s announcements.

To start we have the announcement of the new Macbooks and Macbook Pros. Apple takes this opportunity to bring their visual style in line with the iMac, sporting a glossy black border around the screen. More importantly, they much rumored new aluminum case was unveiled making the laptop even more sturdy than before. The guts have also been given a large upgrade with a single NVIDIA chip in the Macbook and duet of chips in the Pro model allowing for tiered use of the chips to meet workload and power demands. Fans of the iPhone and Macbook Air will be glad to know the laptops also have gained a buttonless glass trackpad with multi-finger gesturing.

Among the other changes, Firewire has been dropped from the Macbooks, as well as the full size DVI port on the Macbook Pro. MiniDVI will be used through out and is also seen on the new Cinema Displays.

Now for the specs:

Macbook Pro

• Standard Model: $1999
- 15.4-inch screen
- 2.4GHz processor
- 2GB DDR3-RAM
- Geforce 9400M and 9600M GT
- 250 Gig HDD
- Super-Drive

• Better Model: $2499
- 15.4-inch screen
- 2.53GHz
- 4 GB RAM
- 512 MB on 9600GT
- 320 GIG HDD

Macbook

•$999 (Last generation), $1,299, and $1,599

- 13-inch Screen
- 2.0, 2.1, 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 2GB SDRAM
- 160,180, and 250GB Hard Drives
- NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

In a nutshell that about wraps it up. For all the dirt Gizmodo has given some great hands on reviews of the machines.

http://gizmodo.com/5063271/hands-on-with-macbook-pro-2008

http://gizmodo.com/5062885/hands-on-the-new-silver-macbook

http://gizmodo.com/5063291/hands-on-with-the-24+inch-apple-cinema-display

Ted Landau describes why “smart” flash drives give Mac users trouble. The drive includes special features in the form of software that only work with Windoze. These are contained in a separate partition and the .exe file is locked, thus preventing re-formating of that partition of approximately 60 MB. Read what not to do.

It is the reader’s comments that provide the solution. Mount the flash drive and open the 60.4 MB U3 System. Trash the LaunchU3.exe file and hold down the option key while emptying the trash. The entire flash drive can now be reformatted. The ’smart” flash drive comes in 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 GB sizes. Shop smart.

The ML-1630 is a laser printer and the SCX-4500 is a laser print, copy and scanner. While the features are not new, the form factor is. Samsung is advertising these as the smallest printers or 3-in-1 anywhere. Also they are very quiet, only 45 db. Soft melodic low toner and paper alert tones. If you are at Macworld I suggest you stop over at booth 1237, or visit them at their web page.

I really liked this style, unlike most printers, who look like the box they came out of, this style is a new approach. The web page above has not only a picture of this printer, but some of their other printers which look like every other printer.

The new standard promises to deliver up to 4.8Gb/s, as Techworld reports. USB 3.0 would be ten times faster than 480Mb/ per second USB 2.0. That would make USB 3.0  on paper, considerably faster than FireWire 400 and 800. FireWire 1600 and 3200 standards, that have been in the works for some time, are stalled. Even though USB 3.0 is to have a speed advantage, the present and next generations of FireWire would still have an advantage of peer to peer networking, as well as its ability to communicate to digital video camera. USB 3.0 has no such abilities. More …

As USB 2.0 stated 480 Mb/s is considerably slower than FireWire 400, it would not be a surprise that FireWire 3200 (assuming 3.2 Gb/s) is equal to or faster than USB 3.0. Any possibility of testing this idea is much in doubt.

Install this software to take advantage of your aluminum Apple Keyboard’s special features. Download page.

Apple has today released Keyboard Software Update 1.1.

Install this software to use your aluminum Apple Keyboard and take advantage of the special features.

The software is necessary to have access to special function keys for Mac features such as brightness, volume, eject, play/pause, Exposé.

With all the attention on the iPhone, and previously the iPod, there was thought Apple might consider getting out of the computer business. The truth is more likely the halo effect and Apple making the Mac an excellent bargain, comparatively. Just get the consumer to think about it. The Associated Press, carried by The Arizona Republic, reports on how impressed the market is about the Mac’s contribution to the bottom line. More …

MarketWatch reports DRAM makers ramped up to meet the huge expected demand for more memory needed by Vista. Sale of Vista has been lukewarm. This has resulted in very low RAM prices, as a result of vendors having to dump their over supply. More …

Check your favorite RAM supplier, you will find prices have fallen dramatically.

TrustedReviews tests whether the high price of original manufacture is justified by comparing the output from HP, Epson, Cannon and Lexmark, by comparing original manufacturer with third party ink and paper. Paper played an important part in the results. The article is in 12 parts, with multiple ways of going forward and back. More …

Patrick McFarland,goes into great detail on CD/DVD media over at the Ad Terras Per Aspera site.

From the article: Unlike pressed CDs/DVDs, burnt CDs/DVDs can eventually fade, due to five things that affect the quality of CD media: sealing method, reflective layer, organic dye makeup, where it was manufactured, and your storage practices (please keep all media out of direct sunlight, in a nice cool dry dark place, in acid-free plastic containers; this will triple the lifetime of any media). More …