Apple: Cool enough for your granny
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Report says that nearly half of Mac owners are 55 and older--almost double the share for average home PC users.
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âWhen it comes to marrying form and function in computers, no one does it better than Apple Inc.,â says Ken Mingis (Computerworld). âUnboxing and setting up the iMac is a case of ease-of-use incarnate. There were the usual ooohs and aaahs in the office when I pulled it from the box â âQuick, get a video camera,â someone yelled â and in five minutes, I was online and ready to go. (I could have been up and running faster except that several office mates wanted to see the new keyboard.)â Mingis concludes by saying that the iMac, along with the iLife â08 software, âyields a fabulous combo that will make almost any user happy.â
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During his Macworld Expo keynote address on Tuesday morning, Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the MacBook Air Tuesday, a computer that the company billed as the world's thinnest notebook -- small enough to fit inside an interoffice mailing envelope. It's priced starting at $1,799.Sporting a silvery finish, the MacBook Air features a 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display -- it saves power and provides "instant on" response from the moment you turn it on, according to Jobs. The device has a slightly wedge-shaped profile that runs from 1.2 inches down to 0.8 inches high. It weighs about 3 pounds, and sports a thickness of 0.16-0.76 inches.The MacBook Air also features a built-in iSight webcam and a full sized MacBook-style black keyboard. The keyboard is backlit, similar to MacBook Pros, and has an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts brightness. The trackpad is also capable of recognizing multi-touch gestures, similar to using an iPhone or iPod touch.The MacBook Air features a 1.8-inch hard disk drive with 80GB of storage capacity standard. A 64GB SSD drive is also an option. The laptop is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo chip running at 1.6GHz with 1.8GHz available as an option. Jobs noted that Intel was willing to engineer a new version of the Core 2 Duo specifically to Apple's specifications -- it's 60 percent smaller than others.Like the MacBook and the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air features a MagSafe connector for power. It comes with a 45 watt power adapter. A flip-down door on one side reveals USB 2.0, Micro-DVI (to connect an external display) and a headphone jack. The MacBook Air also includes 802.11n-based wireless networking support and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.Apple estimates that with wireless networking turned on, the MacBook Air can get about 5 hours of battery life.No internal optical drive is included, but Apple will offer a $99 USB 2.0-based add-on. For users that opt not to get the optical drive, Apple is offering a new software feature on this machine called Remote Disk; it enables you to "borrow" the optical drive of another Mac or PC on the same network as the MacBook Air, to use for installing software, for example.Apple's frequently been in the crosshairs of environmental group Greenpeace in recent years. Jobs offered information about the environmental goals behind the MacBook Air -- it has a fully recyclable aluminum case, and is "the first" to have a mercury-free display with arsenic-free glass. All the circuit boards are BFR-free and PVC-free, and the retail packaging uses 56 percent less material than the MacBook packaging.
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Calling the new iMac a âdesign benchmark for the industryâ, Joel Santo Domingo (PC Magazine) remarks, âIts aluminum and black appearance can work in the home, next to your iPhone, or in the office next to your Aeron chair.â He adds that the new iMac with iLife â08 âis a perfect choice for managing and enjoying your digital life (photos, music, movies, and more). No other software suite is so integrated, making it dead simple to use your digital music and photos in your video projectsâ. Domingo concludes, âThe newest iMac proves you can buy a computer that makes few compromises on design and performance.â
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A sleek home-media PC looks creamy delicious; a carry bag becomes a chair storing laptop; and more. By Brian Lam from Wired magazine.
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&#147;If a new desktop computer is the object of your holiday hopes this season, look no further than the new G5 iMac from Apple,&#148; writes Mike Wendland for Billings Gazette. &#147;I said it when I first tested it and I&#146;ll say it again after two months of use: This is the finest personal computer I&#146;ve ever used, hands down. Nothing comes close. If you have ever thought of switching from a Windows-based PC to a Mac, this is the deal-clincher. It is a stunning machine to look at and to use.&#148; [Dec 21]
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Sporting a brushed metal case, a crisp, wide touch screen and wireless Internet capabilities, the latest portable media gadget from Archos sounds like a match for the newest iPods.
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Cross an iPod and an eMac and what do you get? The new iMac G5, the third generation of Appleâs trendsetting desktop design for the home and school.
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Editor's note: This story was reprinted from Computerworld. For more of Computerworld's coverage of the Mac, visit its Mac Knowledge Center.
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Lately, I&#39;ve written extensively about Apple Computer&#39;s moves in the connected home, and certainly some of the company&#39;s well-designed productsâespecially its best-selling iPodâare hits with users.
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Bob Levitus writes for the Houston Chronicle, âI love when Apple introduces a product like the new AirPort Extreme Base Station, which is significantly faster and more capable than its predecessor and cheaper to bootâ
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Is Apple Computer Inc fine-tuning an enhanced iPod with roughly 50 percent more storage and a colour screen to display photos? The Internet sites that follow Appleâs coming product releases are buzzing with
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Reg review Does colour screen + touch-sensitive control pad = iPod killer?
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&#147;It has been a good year for Apple,&#148; writes Wilson Rothman in naming the iMac G5 TIME Gadget of the Week. &#147;Since the beginning of 2004, I&#146;ve discussed GarageBand, AirPort Express and the latest iPod. If you go back 12 months, you can probably even throw in iTunes Music Store, the original G5 and the official release of iChat AV. This isn&#146;t favoritism, I&#146;m just impressed. Rather than spend money on its silly &#145;Switch&#146; ad campaign, the company has spent it inventing actual reasons for people to switch from Windows to Mac, not least of all personal style. The iMac G5 is super suave, but it&#146;s also a pretty good deal.&#148; [Sep 22]
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TechRepublic's Mark Kaelin opens up another popular item this week--an old favorite Mac laptop.
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âFor a lot of people,â says Ken Mingis , âsmaller and lighter is better when it comes to their laptops.â  He considers MacBook Air âone of the coolest-looking laptops to appear in years â both in terms of size and hipness.â It has âa gorgeous display that looks sharper and brighter on the Air than it does on the regular MacBook.â And, he says, âwaking it up from sleep mode took about 2 seconds, and the LED backlighting means the screen hit full brightness as soon as it was awake.â As for performance: âThe Air feels just about as snappy as my MacBook Pro in day-to-day use doing the kinds of things most users will be doing: surfing the Web, firing off e-mails, text editing and light graphics work.â
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Portable media players and related accessories are among the hottest gift items this holiday season. People can now carry thousands of songs in their pocket, and many of the sleek gizmos can display photos and videos as well.