Sunday, October 8, 2006

Apple said it plans to launch a product called iTV, a device that attaches to a television and can wirelessly receive and play digital content from any computer running iTunes software. Jobs said iTV, which will be available in the first quarter of 2007, will sell for $299. This reminds me of Microsoft's pre-announcements. Coming soon to a computer near you! Don't buy anything until then! First Steve needs to release a new Airport base station that will be able to handle the video bandwidth and have the IR connections to let you remotely direct all this data (which by the way I have been waiting a year for.) So as soon as you see this appear, the iTV should be coming up quickly. In the last couple months, Apple has introduced the Mac Pro (a new Core 2 Duo tower that is very nice) and a 24 inch iMac that I feel got a low key announcement. I'm hoping that Macworld Expo will be the place of announcing some of the finishing touches that are needed to complete the product lines. Here are all these wonderful video computer devices and no easy way for me to connect them to my TV. Yes, I really do want my video TV and oh yeah, I want it now! 8:15:01 PM    comment []

Apple announced iTunes 7 on Sept 12th adding movies and games to what you can purchase and download in addition to music, audiobooks, TV shows and PodCasts. The "biggie" was that you can download movies from Disney, Pixar, Touchstone and Miramax. The new iTunes features better organization than the old iTunes; but even better you can build your libraries of iTunes data over several hard drives, splitting up the risk of losing it all if a hard drive fails. A new "back up to disk" feature will allow you to back up your entire iTunes library to CD or DVD.  Do keep in mind Apple wants you running OSX 10.3.9 or higher to use iTunes 7.0 so you might want to stick to what you have if you are running an older System. Of course no Apple iTunes introduction should ever go without a new iPod so Apple introduced a new 80 Gigabyte iPod with a 60% brighter 2.5 inch screen to watch all these movies on. (Sorry Apple, but going blind trying to watch a movie is not my cup of tea) even at $349. New price for the 30 gig is $249. Adding games to my iPod does not sweeten the deal even at $4.99 a game, but then I[base ']m not a 17 year old with text message thumbs. Also renewed were the Nano and the Shuffle. The Nano will be coming in bright colors and sizes as large as 8 Gigabytes with 40% brighter screen. The redesigned, smaller, more lose-able Shuffle has a [base "]thumb-friendly, circular control pad that puts the 'go' in ergonomic.[per thou] But at least we are talking 1 Gigabyte for $79, a much better value than the old Shuffle. Please note that if you see this called the 2G Shuffle, it means Second Generation, not 2 Gigabytes. You need to plug in to a dock to sync with your computer. More bad news is, that like the new iTunes, you need to be running 10.3.9 in order to use these bright shiny new toys with your computer. If it sounds like I'm not a big fan of iPods, it's because I have never really been a big fan of earbuds and headphones. I know there are lots of people out there who are and these new announcements can be a big deal for them. So you know who you are, just ignore me and be happy. 8:14:11 PM    comment []

The iMac 24 inch is the best of both worlds-you get an all-in-one computer with a screamingly good looking monitor (note it is 40% brighter than the 20 inch model.) It has all the right stuff: an Nvidia 7300 GT video card that offers 60% faster performance than the 20-inch model. Faster processors, FireWire 800 port for high-end hard drives and video transfer, double the L2 cache for a total of 4 Gigabytes of RAM shared between the two chips. If the words BIGGER, BETTER, FASTER show up a lot, it's because this model is top of the line good. Many users will choose this over a Mac Pro Tower because it[base ']s that powerful and comes with a monitor that will make all your PC friends turn green with envy. So if you have been dreaming of a new machine, this is the one. After all that raving, as far as I can tell the only real changes in the 20 inch and 2 GHz 17 inch iMacs is that the processor chip is 64 bit rather than 32 bit, so you will get a speed update, but they are still using the ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card with 128MB of video RAM. Watch out for the bottom of the line iMac (17 inch but only 1.83 GHz); this one is a "do not buy" if you ever want to do any video work or if you want to run any of Apple's high end applications. The Intel video card that is in these is just not up to snuff. With only 64 Megs of shared memory, it will not run Final Cut Pro. This unit does not come with a DVD burning drive, so backups of your information can only be done on external hard drives or 700 meg CDs. Also this 17 inch iMac does not include the Apple Remote, nor does it have built-in Bluetooth. If all you need/want is a unit to surf the web and do text files, this one will fill your needs; however I would suggest the next model up that at least has the ATI video card. 8:13:06 PM    comment []

Another problem with MacBooks or MacBook Pros is they may suddenly shut down under normal use. According to The Inquirer web site www.theinquirer.net this intermittent problem is caused by a matching logic board and heatsink set, and dealers are instructed to replace this combo part. Other sources report bad sensors as the reason of the shut downs, but whatever the cause Apple has admitted to the problem and is requesting all users to report these problems to Apple so they can be resolved. Please note Macintosh consultant Michael Peace is awaiting his second replacement motherboard on his black MacBook, so don't feel like it's only you getting picked on-it can happen to any of us. 8:11:25 PM    comment []

You may have heard about the bad press Apple is getting for the battery recall. Yes, it is true Apple has Sony build batteries for some of their products (but not all.) These batteries under certain conditions can get very hot and start a fire. Dell also purchased these batteries and has the same problem. Apple has issued a recall on all the batteries, some even from the G3 and G4 portables. If you are really, really paranoid, you may want to remove the battery from your portable and run only connected to the charger. However, for most people, monitoring their equipment until the replacement battery arrives from Apple will do you just as well. Be sure during this time that you do not store your portable on flammable surfaces as a just in case measure. 8:10:29 PM    comment []