New Ultra-slim MacBook rumours

Rumour has it that new Alu ultra-slim MacBooks will be released to world on the same day as Mac OS X 10.5. HEre's the lowdown from 9to5Mac.com:

What we know:

* Black aluminum and silver aluminum (like MacBook Pros) have been seen
* They are considerably slimmer than current MacBook and even a bit more than MacBook Pros
* The screen reaches much closer to the edges than current MacBooks but is the same size as current MacBooks - indicating a somewhat smaller footprint
* The keyboards resemble Apple's new Bluetooth Keyboard
* There is something strange about the touchpad (more on this to come)
* They are set to be priced extremely aggressively
* While they are dense, overall they are lighter than the current MacBooks

What we are wondering:

* Will there be colors like the Nanos? (Red) would be hott.
* Will the hard drives and memory be easily upgraded?
* Will they be in the Pro or Consumer lineup?
* Will they be released with the Leopard announcement? Before Christmas? Macworld?
* Is Apple over White?

O2 named as official UK iPhone carrier

O2 seal the iPhone deal. From 9th November, you'll be able to buy the 8GB version for £269 on either a £35 tarriff (200 mins, 200 texts), a £45 tarriff (600 mins, 500 texts) or a £55 tarriff (1200 mins, 500 texts). All tarriffs include free data calls, visual voicemail and access to 7,500 wifi hotspots. I think I'll wait for the price to come down before I upgrade. Anyway, I'm sure it'll be at the top of all UK mugger's wishlists this Christmas.

iPod touch photos

AppleInsider have just posted some photos of an iPod touch being unpacked... and doesn't it look nice? It's gonna be one of those products that, once you seen it, you'll want one - NOW! But £200 for an 8GB iPod? No, it's not just an iPod - it's an ultra-portable Mac. Well, as long as you're in a wifi-zone. I slowly warming to it's little brother, nano. Probably because it's half the price, made of metal and my 1st gen nano isn't as shiny as it used to be after I took it to the beach.

Peter Petrelli's ad past catches up with him

How could they let an exploding man onto a plane? Yes, it's everyone's favourite hero (apart from Hiro and ahem, Clair Bear, of course) Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) in an old ad for the iBook. You wouldn't be able to fit a MacBook onto one of those narrow fold-down tables, now would you?

Upgrading iMac RAM is the easiest ever.

I just upped the RAM on my new iMac to 2GB and in all of my 15 odd years of being a Mac owner, it was the easiest thing ever. There was a slot waiting for my 1GB RAM strip (bought from Crucial for £25.99), unlike previous times when I had to remove the pre-installed RAM (and thus throwing it away) to make room - aren't Apple being eco-friendly? The whole process to about 10 minutes and now I have an even faster Mac. Jurassic Park!

New Logic Studio

Today "Apple has unveiled Logic Studio, a comprehensive suite of professional tools that gives musicians everything they need to create, produce and perform in the studio and on the stage. Logic Studio features Logic Pro 8, a major upgrade that combines an intuitive new interface with Logic’s renowned sound quality and rock-solid timing, and introduces MainStage, an innovative new application that turns the Mac into a streamlined live rig. In addition, Logic Studio includes SoundTrack Pro 2, Apple’s professional audio post production software; Studio Instruments, made up of 40 pristine quality instruments; Studio Effects, with 80 professional effect plug-ins; a vast Studio Sound Library; and a powerful set of production utilities. Logic Studio sells for just £319."

Regent Street special event set for the 18th

According to MacUser, Apple have planned a special event at the Regent Street store on the 18th September. The tilte on the invite reads 'Mum is no longer the word'. What the duck does that mean?! I though 'grease' was the word? Could mean that they've been keeping 'mum' on which mobile phone giant will get the iPhone contract and will announce the winner? (Please, 02! Please, O2!). More than likely, yes.

Get your free MacExpo tickets now

Register now for you free MacExpo ticket. You'll have to pay £15 if you don't and free ticket numbers are limited to the first 5000, so don't hang about. The expo runs from Thursday 25th to Saturday 27th of October at the National Hall, Olympia in Olde London towne.

Mmmmm. iPod touch

What a beauty! Even if it is and iPhone without the phone bit.

iPod launch event webcast uploaded

Watch the new iPods being hyped-up in a way on Steve Jobs can do. Also KT Tunstall makes a hash of it at the end.

Does your current iPod look a little dated?

Today the iPod range was completely updated with a new iPod touch (wirelessly capable like the iPhone without the phone bit), iPod classic (a thinner 160 GB all metal version of the old iPod video), Ipod nano (the iPod classic's fat little brother) and a new set of colour for the (still) 1GB player.
Here's the finer details:iPod shuffle now available in range of pastel colours (silver, light blue, turquoise, green, and a PRODUCT (RED) version. All at 1GB.
iPod nano offers a larger, brighter 2-inch display, supports Cover Flow, iPod games and offers larger capacity. Battery life: 24 hours audio, 5 hours video playback. Available in 4GB and 8GB capacity.
iPod Classics are metal and thinner than before. Capacity starts at 80GB with 30-hours audio playback and six hours of video playback. Slightly thicker iPod Classic also available featuring 160GB capacity. Offers 40-hours audio playback and seven hours of video playback.
iPod Touch offers same (3.5-inch) size screen as an iPhone and is just 8mm thin. "The new iPod touch. It's one of the seven wonders of the world," says Jobs. iPod Touch has built-in WiFi, supports CoverFlow and more. Apple's WiFi iteration means a version of Safari is built-into the device, which is used by iPod Touch users attempting to access a WiFI network. This also means you can use iPod Touch to browse the web - and the device will play YouTube video content or browse Facebook. Battery life for iPod Touch is 22 hours audio, five hours video playback. The device features a touch-sensitive contextual keyboard. Two models are available - an 8GB and a 16GB. Should ship worldwide this month.

Apple also introduced the WiFi iTunes Store. Where you can buy music with your iPod Touch. Song previews, purchased songs sync with iTunes, searchable too. The WiFi iTunes Store is going to be made available in all countries that have iTunes. Ooh-err!

Touch-screen iPod predicted

AppleInsider predicts that there will be a touch-screen iPod launch tomorrow. It'll sport a 3.5" screen and a hard drive (not a flash drive) as 1.8" drives now have capacities of up to 120GB. It may alsohave wireless connectivity.
A new iPod nano (probably the one in the leaked photos) will do pretty much the same as the current video iPod, including video playback and have a 320x240 pixel display. This one is staying flash-based, with a max of 12GB or 16GB. It could even have sexy cover-flow (as above). Oh look, there's a Beatles album.

iLife '08 only £9.99 to recent Mac customers

Recently bought a Mac that didn't have iLife '08 pre-installed on it? Apple will sell you a copy for just £9.99 as part of their Up-To-Date program.

Doh, I've only gone and bought one!

I popped along to Regent Street on the way home from work last week, initially just to have a look and a play with a new iMac. Malcolm, the Mac guru designer at work had been telling me how fast and lovely his 24-incher was all week and I needed to check one out for myself. Did I manage to get on one? No. Every Mac in the shiny shop was in use. The world's freeloading students, tourists and immigrants were checking their email. It was either queue up for half an hour or buy one - so I bought one (I still had to wait half an hour for one to be fetched from the store cupboard).
It's a beautiful machine and very fast compared to my old G4, even though it is (only) the 2GHz entry-level model. I say 'only' as if 'entry-level' is a dirty word. But I checked to specs and the difference in price and concluded that another £150 for another 0.4 of processor power, 100GB storage and 128MB of video RAM wasn't worth it. I'm not a gamer and I can always upgrade the HD later on. It's way fast enough for me. I can't wait to see what another GB of RAM will do to the CD ripping time. I will be moving my desk so the shiny screen doesn't face a window though. The increase in power has opened up a who new world of Mac OS that was impossible with the G4 - I can use widgets without having to wait minutes for them to load, CDs rip in a minutes rather than half an hour, PhotoBooth is a fun thing to do with kids (as well as the new 'auditions' in GarageBand), I can now upload web galleries, Handbrake can rip DVDs in hours rather than days and I can switch my iLike plug-in on iTunes again without it slowing everything down to a snails pace. I'm also very impressed with FrontRow, even though it's just a media player. All in all, everything works the way it should. I can waste the hours away more quickly than ever before! That must be a good thing, surely?