My few weeks with the MacBook Pro.

As a creative person in advertising, attempting to do anything remotely 'creative' on a Dell Optiplex was counterproductive to say the least. WIthout Quark, I would spend hours designing layouts in Word; and without Photoshop I would waste even more time using a five year old version of Photoshop Elements. I spent four years pestering the DDB IT department for a Mac, so imagine my surprise when they finally agreed to equip me with the latest 15" MacBook Pro (I would have preferred the 13" MacBook for it's portability but, after that long, who was I too argue?)
Well, exactly a week after I'd been given it, I was made redundant. Four years I'd waited! Four years!! I used the notebook during my notice period as I rushed to get get my book (advertising lingo for portfolio) together and update the website. Yes I did consider not giving it back, or at least nicking the hard drive or a strip of RAM, but as I was hoping to get some freelance work from my soon-to-be past employer, I wasn't going to risk it.
From my two weeks of using the MacBook Pro, I conclude that it's far too heavy to lug around in your bag all day - a precision aluminium unibody enclosure isn't so light when you're also carrying the adaptor, a phone charger, a couple of magazines, a jumper, a wooly hat, a wallet and an 'old-school' Black and Red notebook... the back ache was a killer; it also had an annoying habit of not connecting online to the internet - probably due to the over-cautious firewall settings.
On my last day I returned it to the IT Department (even they said 'but you've only just received it!') along with the Tucano sleeve and lock and key. It was a short and bittersweet affair but I've come to realise the purpose of the slightly underpowered, port and drive deficient but 2.5Ib lighter, MacBook Air.

Who needs a display when your iPod can talk to you?

At the push of a button, Apple's new 4GB iPod shuffle can tell you all sorts of things; the title of the song that's playing, who the artist is, the name of your playlist, etc. But, I hear you ask, how can you do all of that with just one button? Well, you use the controls that are integrated into the headphone chord. Now this could take a lot of getting used to (see Appleinsider's explanation here) as there's only three buttons. For example, to switch playlists you "click the Centre button until you hear a tone and then release to switch the playlist menu. You'll hear the current playlist, all songs, and then remaining playlists in alphabetical order followed by audiobooks and podcasts. you can click + or - to move quickly through the playlist menu. When you hear the name of the playlist you want, click to select it." OK, that doesn't sound quite as intuitive as your usual iPod controls, so I'm sure most people will just use the new shuffle the same as the old one.
Look at the pros: It's half the size of the previous generation, with twice the storage (1000 four minute long, 128kbps tracks); It's very minimalist; You can use playlists; and it talks - 14 languages too, albeit in a Stephen Hawking voice.
The cons: (As mentioned) the advanced controls will take getting used to. It's more lose-able than the last shuffle - best keep you headphones attached. Completely useless if you wish to use your own headphones.
It comes in silver and black and costs £59 but the 1GB 2nd-generation shuffles are still available - 2GB shuffles are so yesterday.

Oh dear Woz...

What is he doing? Remember: this man invented the Apple Computer.

Apple netbook rumours reappear.

Apparently a Taiwan-based company called Wintek are all set to supply Apple with touch panels for a new netbook. Digitimes have reported that shipments of the new portable will start in the third quater of this year. Wintek's official position is that they working with Apple to develop some new products but they don't know what applications the new products are for.
Sounds promising, doesn't it?
The design above is by Isamu Sanada.

World first for new Mac Pro

Apple have beat the rest of the PC industry to use the new Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processor, which boosts performance to twice the power. The new Mac Pro has also been rearranged under the hood. A completely new interior makes it even easier to add up to 32GB of memory, four PCI Express expansion cards and up to 4TB of hard drive storage. Powerful AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards provide the fastest-ever Mac graphics, while a new Mini DisplayPort gives you more display options.
Quad-core starts at £1899 and 8-core from £2499.

New Mac mini? Also new iMac and Time Capsule details

Mac Mini 2009 Edition - video powered by Metacafe

This doesn't look like a hoax (from Gizmodo).
If it is real, we can see that the new mini has an Alu case, n Ethernet port, Firewire, Mini DisplayPort and the old style mini DVI Mac display port. Looks like it's been updated to run the new Apple LED Cinema Displays.


Also the new Time Capsule is rumoured to have the ability to support 802.11b/g devices while also broadcasting 802.11n wide signals at the same time.

One More Thing has leaked the spec of the new Macs too:

Mac mini
- 5x USB
- 1x FireWire 800
- 1x mini DVI
- 1x Display port
- Nvidia chipset (like the newest MacBook)
- starting at Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghz
- 1 of 2 GB DDR3 memory (max 4 GB)
- 120 GB hard disk (max 320 GB)

iMac
- one 20" model, three 24" models
- Intel Core 2 Duo (not a quad core): 2.66 Ghz, 2.93 Ghz and 3.06 Ghz
- 1x Display port
- 20" 2 GB DDR3 memory, 24" 4 GB DDR3 memory (max 8 GB)

Rumour also has it that these new Macs will be here sometime today.

Missing Pop Stars.

I've just fired-up my new '09 version of GarageBand, looking forward to a guitar lesson from the likes of Sting or a piano lesson from Ben Folds. Then I get this message. WTF?! This was one of the main reasons I bought the damn update.
Apple even have the cheek to feature the artist's lessons on the their UK site.
Look, what's this fly shit type at the bottom of the GarageBand webpage?
*Artist Lessons are sold separately through the GarageBand application and only available in select countries.
Fuckers!

MobileMe members rejoice!

All MobileMe members should have got this good news in their inbox today.

Here's what it said:

An important service message for MobileMe members.

Dear MobileMe member:

Over the past few months, we have been working hard to make MobileMe the best service it can be. Here is a summary of the improvements and performance enhancements that have recently been completed.
Easy file sharing. iDisk now makes it even easier to share files that are too big to email. Simply select a file in the iDisk web app and click the Share File button to generate an email with a download link. You can also optionally add password protection and set an expiration date for the link. For more details, view this tutorial.

Faster syncing with Mac and PC. Changes you make to contacts and calendars on your Mac (Address Book and iCal) or PC (Microsoft Outlook) are now automatically pushed up to the cloud every time you make an update. Likewise, changes you make on me.com, iPhone, or iPod touch are automatically pushed to your Mac or PC. As a result, your contacts and calendars update faster across all your devices. To take advantage of faster syncing, be sure you're running Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6 (Mac) or MobileMe Control Panel 1.3 (Windows).

Improved notifications and sync on iPhone. Reliability of new email notifications and syncing of contacts and calendar with MobileMe have both been improved. To get the best MobileMe experience on your iPhone or iPod touch, you should be running iPhone Software 2.2 or later.

Better web app performance. We have also improved the overall performance of the web apps at me.com including faster start time in Calendar and searching in Contacts. For more details, see this support article.
Remember, to take advantage of these improvements, your computers and devices must be running the latest software versions indicated above.

We are committed to making MobileMe the easiest way to sync, access, and share what's important to you. That's why we're constantly working to improve our service. You can stay up to date on upcoming changes by checking out MobileMe News. And thank you for being a MobileMe member.

Sincerely,

The MobileMe Team

Someone call 999!

A MacBook user at London consultancy Branded became a victim of Apple Battery Burnout yesterday. Presumably it was one of last year's recalled batteries that got away; that's what happens when you don't have an IT department. I do hope the unfortunate lady didn't singe her fingertips as she rushed to save her documents in the dying seconds.
(Thanks to Giles for letting me steal his photos off Facebook without asking).

Apple introduces Safari 4

It must be quite a breeze working for the software department at Apple. What shall we improve today? Forget iWeb and iDVD, let's put CoverFlow into something else... what about...Safari! Now you can 'flip through your site history or bookmarks like you flip through albums in iTunes', and view your top sites all in one window with a simple click. It's now also the world's fastest browser again (unless you're using it on a PC, I guess) with the Nitro Engine. Hell, they've even made the Windows version look as clunky as the rest of Windows so Windows users don't feel like they're using a non-Windows app. It's available now as a Public Beta.