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Apple Drops 23" Cinema Display |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Monday, 17 November 2008 |
 Apple has officially dropped the older 23" Cinema Display (which by chance I am using right now). Some people have complained because the new displays are all glossy, and the 23" was the last matte display from Apple. But change does happen, whether we like it or not. If you had been planning on picking up one of the displays you better act quick and get over to Apple's refurbished store and pick it up, or see if your local Apple Store is willing to cut you a deal.
from tuaw.com
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Mini definitely not dead. |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Thursday, 06 November 2008 |
 Like all of the Apple operating systems, the Mac mini also seems to have some cat like qualities by going through a few lives so far. Rumors come up once or twice a year now saying the Mac mini is on its death bed. Of course the rumors have been all false, but now we have a rumor about the Mini that I hope is true.
According to AppleInsider, a representative from Apple contacted a Mini advocate and assured them that the Mini is not at the End Of Life, and to sit tight while they "exercise patience." This is good news for all Apple users, especially for the modders, as the size and strength of these small machines lends it to modding.
While Apple says no updates before the holidays, let's hope for Macworld 2009.
from AppleInsider
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Thursday, 23 October 2008 |
So the rumors has been going crazy for the past few days. Two European
resellers can't order MacMini's anymore and the entire internet thinks
that the MacMini is finally being dropped from the Apple line-up. I
don't buy it. Basing the rumor off of two European stores isn't a
strong enough foundation for me to believe that Apple is killing off
it's most affordable computer. Granted it hasn't pulled in the numbers
that they wanted it to, and it doesn't fit in to the Apple Matrix
(consumer x professional x desktop x laptop). So it is still the odd
Apple of the bunch. But I just can't accept the fate that it is gone. Maybe to many people are making Hackintoshes, so Apple doesn't need the Mini anymore. But it doesn't make much sense. It is the perfect little machine for so many tasks.
What gives me real hope is the manufacturing process that Apple is
blowing their own horn about. The single piece of aluminium thing that
is pretty cool honestly. The MacMini was also the green Apple of the
bunch. Until the uni-body notebooks came out it was Apple's most
environmentally friendly computer. With the new manufacturing process
that was used for the notebook line, Apple could make the Mini even
smaller (at least I think so). So if small is in, then the Mini could
be really, really mini.
Bottom line, don't count the Mini out yet. They aren't dead yet. Apple is still selling them. When Apple pulls them off the store, then they are dead. Keep an eye on the Apple Store, but I think that the Mac Mini isn't leaving any time soon. Let's all hope for an updated (over 400 days old now) and leave all this morbid talk of killing the Mini in the past.
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Wednesday, 22 October 2008 |
 Apple had their fourth quarter financial meeting and a few interesting things have come out of it. First (to me) is that over half of all of Apple's Mac sales have been to first timers. Holy cow. Think about that compared to 10 years ago. 10 years ago Apple had just released the iMac and had it's first full year of profit and a 4% total market share. The year before they were at a financial loss and had sunk to just 3.1% of the world wide market share. Today Apple has 21% of the US Market and 10% of the international market. Profiting Billions each quarter, and still has the hottest tech product on the market that few have duplicated.
But the big interest for me is the money. Apple has 24.5 billion dollars and no debt. Really good news for any company in the economy as it is, but great for Apple. Steve's mentality of investing in rough times has paid off in the past, and I'm sure that they are investing even now. Today's investing may be more purchases like they did with P.A. Semi (which was a steal for only a few hundred million). Apple will definitely be looking for other sub-billion dollar companies it can bring under the Apple umbrella.
There were plenty of other interesting points to the fourth quarter conference call (read more at AppleInsider ), but the final interest was in the mini-notebooks, the netbooks. Steve considers the netbook to be a nascent category. And he's right, but they are so cute! (nascent = just came into existence). Steve also says that a sub $500 netbook is made from cheap parts, and for the most part he is right, it usually comes with the lower end parts, I wouldn't say cheap though. Could Apple make a $500 netbook? Yes. It would require them to cut their profit margin on the device, but they could do it.
Read the Apple press release on the Q4 meeting at Apple.com
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A bit more about the MacBook |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Thursday, 16 October 2008 |
 So I got the chance to play with the new MacBook outside of the Apple Store, and so far it's looking pretty sweet. Granted the lack of firewire has me a bit saddened, but the overall feel and look of the MacBook has extended Steve's reality distortion field far enough to make me forget for a while. I'm sure the first time I have to service one I'll remember why I disliked them, but until then I will just live in MacBook never never land.
Seriously thought the MacBook is an interesting turn for Apple. Over at APCmag.com they have an interesting article about the 10 things you may not have known about the new MacBook. Of course number one is the no-firewire. i really wish someone asked them about it at the Q & A, but since no one did we'll take it as the response APC got, that the Firewire Target Mode was no longer needed due to improvements in migration assistant. We'll see how that goes, but that does bring up some other points in APCmag's article.
The version of OS X that comes in the MacBook is not the same version that comes with all other Macs. It also has a more advanced version of Migration Assistant. There are some other jems in the article so head on over and take a quick read.
10 Things you didn't know about the new MacBook from Apple (on APCmag.com)
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New MacBook & MacBook Pro tear downs |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Wednesday, 15 October 2008 |
 iFixit has done it again. They were the first to get their hands (and screwdrivers) on the iPhone 3G and they are the first to take apart the new MacBooks & MacBook Pros as well. The coolest part is that all you need to take apart a MacBook Pro is ... 1) A MacBook Pro, 2) a few phillips head scredrivers, 3) two torque wrenches, 4) a spudger (funny name, I know).
Anyways. It looks wicked easy to take apart the entire machine. 24 steps from start to finish (really more like 18 actual take apart steps). The hard drive comes out easy it looks like and replace the RAM should be as easy as it has been.
Head on over to iFixIt.com to see the MacBook Pros take aparts for yourself.
MacBook take aparts are also available here.
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No FireWire on New MacBook |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Tuesday, 14 October 2008 |
So perhaps the biggest news (for me at least) that came out of the Apple Event today was the lack of FireWire on the new MacBooks. The MacBook Pros all have an FW800 port, but the MacBooks only have two USB ports. What does this mean for the future of troubleshooting? Booting into firewire target mode had always been a sure fired way to get a hold of your hard drive if it would not boot as usual.
So what is going to happen now? Is Apple brewing something up for USB or are they dropping the firewire target mode all together? Apple pushed firewire for a long time, but few other computer manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon. Is Apple ditching firewire? Will they promote USB to have the USB target mode? Is that even possible due to the difference in architecture between USB and FireWire?
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iPhone NDA dropped, sorta. |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Wednesday, 01 October 2008 |
 The Non-Disclosure Agreement for the iPhone developers has been dropped for released applications. The iPhone NDA has caused multiple headaches and bad PR for Apple ever since Apple extended the NDA to rejection letters. The lift of the NDA applies to only released software for the iPhone, but the wording does not specify if that is only Apple software that has been released or if it is all software (including 3rd party apps).
From MacMod's own Josh Long ...
Looks like the NDA was *not* completely dropped. "We have decided to
drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software."
The full article seems to indicate that by "released software" they're
referring to software that Apple has released, i.e. features and
functionality of the iPhone's built-in OS and software applications,
and (I guess) the SDK itself.
However, the supposed Apple e-mail also says "Please note that
unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are
released." It's still very unclear whether the NDA applies to a
third-party developer's "unreleased software." Does that mean that if
Apple rejects your app for inclusion in the App Store (thus your
software is "unreleased"), you still won't be allowed to tell anyone
about the rejection notice? If you missed that story, just *last week*
Apple extended its NDA to App Store rejection letters: http://is.gd/31v6 [MacRumors]
I'm not an iPhone developer, so I may never see the agreement referred
to. ("Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering
released software within a week or so.") It sounds like they're
*almost* completely dropping the NDA with the exception of "unreleased
software and features" but until the new agreement is out, it's unclear
whether the new Rejection Letter NDA (and whatever goes along with it)
is still in force.
From chockenberry via TUAW
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