The next tech item to grace my Favorite Things of 2009 list is the Macbook Pro. If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you know that this summer I purchased the newly redesigned 13” Macbook Pro. I have also been fortunate enough to have hands on experience with the 15” model, which my boyfriend purchased a few weeks ago. Overall, I can say with certainty that the Macbook Pro line leaves nothing to be desired. What Apple had introduced with the aluminum unibody in 2008, they practically perfected with the new builds in 2009. These machines are fast, beautiful, and full of functionality, and after more than 6 months with mine, I can say it is still as fast as ever, and in this time hasn’t given me any grief. It was such a step up from my old 2006 white Macbook in every way. The screen resolution is amazing, the processor, hard drive capacity and ram make it a phenomenal machine, and the redesign to the ports make the Macbook Pro the perfect notebook computer- and that’s without mentioning the operating system!
Now that the holiday season is finally here, it is time for The Pink Mac’s Holiday Gift Guide. This year has been groundbreaking in many ways in regard to consumer electronics, and especially Apple products. We have seen some amazing bumps in product standards and at the same time some big price drops which have made gadgets and accesories even more affordable! So, I have put together a list of some of the best and most interesting Apple related accessories and products out on the market today, taking into consideration quality and price to ensure that you are giving only the best and most unique gifts this season!
Gifts for Mac’s
Hu2 Design Laptop Decals: These vinyl laptop decals are unique and durable; a sure way to brighten up any Mac user’s holiday!
Fabrix Laptop Cases: The usual brand of laptop cases can get boring, so instead, consider Fabrix cases; they’re handmade and made from unique fabric designs that are sure to spread the holiday cheer!
Apple’s Magic Mouse: For any mouse using Mac user in your family, Apple’s Magic Mouse has all the familiar gestures of a trackpad with the functionality of a mouse!
Gifts for iPod’s
iSkin Nanovibes: Give the gift of unique iPod protection with these interesting patterned cases!
Richard Solo 1800 for iPod: For the avid iPod user in your life, consider this backup iPod power source- small and compact- perfect for the ipod user on the go!
Belkin Rockstar: Does your ipod lover like to share their music? Then this is the perfect gift for them, allowing for up to 5 users to experience the tunes!
Apple Sidekicks
Nook: This well designed e-reader looks the part of the Apple lineup, and with it’s simple touch screen design, it puts other e-readers to shame!
Canon Powershot: There is no doubt that Canon makes some of the best compact digital camera’s out on the market, and this compact design is the perfect gift for any photo lover!
Bose Headphones: What is all the great audio technology good for if you can’t experience it full throttle? These bose headphones are compact enough for use at home or on the go and will surely strike a chord with any music or movie lover in your life.
Stocking Stuffers
Monster Screen Cleaner: Keeping your gadget’s LCD screens clean is always important for frequent users, so stuff some of this in their stockings to keep all their gadets looking new!
Pogo Sketch: Whether it is the touch screen of a iPod or trackpad of a Macbook, this inexpensive accessory is a perfect stocking stuffer for your gadget lover, and cheap enough for you to splurge on yourself!
Netflicks Gift Subscription: Who needs on-demand movies and expensive extra channels when, for less than the price of a single DVD, you can have access to an entire movie library and streaming DVDs online?
For my Weekly Tech Roundup I decided to give a review of Apple’s new White Macbook and discuss the rest of the updates that were announced on Tuesday. In the video I discuss some of the things I like about the new Macbook and some of the things it lacks.
To begin, I really love the new shape of the machine. I am a big fan of the unibody and I am very glad they were able to bring it to the polycarbonate Macbook with such style. If you have ever used one of Apple’s unibody Macbooks/Pros before, you know that they are so solid and lightweight at the same time- a feeling one wouldn’t normally get with any other notebook computer. The unibody gives the computer a sleek silhouette with very few visible screws and now with the non-removable 7-hour battery the notebook looks so flush with just a few breaks for ports and the superdrive. I also like the fact that the unibody allows the high gloss polycarbonate to cover the hand rest as well, so there should be no issues with yellow or oily hand rests from now on. In that same area, the Macbook now has a full glass trackpad with all the multi touch functionality of the Pros and a bright LED backlit display comparable to the Pros as well. One final touch I am obsessed with is the full rubber bottom of the Macbook, which to me is an amazing incorporation into the design, as we all know the polycarbonate is prone to scratches and nothing attracts them more then the bottom of the notebook.
Now, a few things missing from this machine that really draw it apart from the Macbook Pro line are the lack of an SD slot, lack of Firewire, and lack of a battery indicator light. Perhaps the first two are not big surprises as it looks as though Apple was trying to remove Firewire from their low end consumer driven Macbook, setting it apart from the high performance Macbook Pros. Again the SD slot missing from the design isn’t a big surprise as it seems as though Apple is drawing a clear line in the sand between the Macbooks and the Pros. However, I am shocked that there is no battery indicator light on these new Macbooks, especially since they also use the new 7-hour built in battery. I am not sure if it was a conflict with the design or the materials, but there certainly is plenty of white space on the sides of the machine where Apple could have put an indicator. My guess is that the polycarbonate might be difficult to work with and a series of pin-sized holes may have been difficult to achieve without compromising the solidity of the unibody enclosure. Again, just a guess that has no real basis in any sort of knowledge of polycarbonate!
There was one final thing I wanted to touch on in regard to not just the new Macbooks, but the new updates as a whole. I was quite surprised that Apple did not hold an official press and media event around the announcement of the new products. I guess we can speculate the reason for the lack of an official announcement, like the health of Steve Jobs, but I think that this level of secrecy around announcements might become more of a trend for Apple. Usually, when they make small adjustments to specs or pricing, we don’t hear anything big directly from Apple, but this recent update did bring some pretty new changes to their computer and accessory lineup that you would assume they would want to celebrate. So why not yell it from the rooftops? Well, I think for one, the ever spinning rumor mill of suspected and impending Apple products puts a dark cloud over the Apple events that usually leaves people feeling cheated or underwhelmed. Even with this update, we knew something was coming, and although many rumors of an updated Macbook, iMac and Mac Mini did come true, some fans are still waiting out that Apple Tablet that may never arrive. The pressure of an event also inevitably causes Apple stock to fall- I assume because of the build up leading to the event and the broken hearts that are left when every desire or rumor isn’t fulfilled. It is most likely our fault as obsessive consumers that demand so much from Apple and their products, that we end up ruining it for ourselves. But then again, if it weren’t for the obsessive consumers Apple would have no one to try to impress!
So, I have been noticing this weird issue my Macbook Pro has been having- basically, every once in a while when I am on battery power and I leave my computer idle for a while, when I get back the colors on the screen are messed up. This doesn’t happen every time I leave the computer unplugged and out of use, but it has happened a few times and so I wanted to make you guys aware of how to quickly fix it!
Almost forgot to post my Weekly Tech Roundup from last weekend. This week I talk about organizing your Mac for the hustle and bustle of Fall, the HP Envy 13 aka the Macbook Clone, and the newly released BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac!
Today I finally received my Vaja case in the mail!! It came out beautifully and I absolutely love the color! Here is an unboxing and short review of the product!
One of my blog readers asked me to do a speed test to see the download and upload speeds I get when I am connected to my blackberry, so here are the results. They were rather low tonight, and I confess, I did test the speeds on my blackberry before and I got a 3 Mbps download and about .5 upload, so not as bad as today’s results. I think I will have to revisit this speed test another day to see if the numbers change. Enjoy!
To be honest I don’t care for the new iPod Nano. I know it just received a video camera and FM radio built in now, but I could really care less. What good is video capability if you can’t take still pictures? Unless you’re talking about a device devoted to video capture, but that would mean higher video resolution and greater storage capacity, and if you are looking for that the Nano is certainly not the device for you. Okay, so what is the still picture-less video camera in the Nano good for then? Well, not much honestly. The quality is comparable to that of a video recorder you would find in a cell phone, and not even the iPhone for that matter as video testing has proven that the iPhone 3GS has better video quality than the Nano 5g. So, basically you most likely already have a device in your pocket with a similar low resolution video recorder that also multitasks as a phone and, depending on your cell phone, a gaming system, web browser and even music player.
So why the iPod Nano 5g? I can’t really answer that question, I guess only you can if you are interested in the new device. Personally, I prefer a simpler Nano like the 3g which to me is the perfect miniature iPod- truly tiny but also packed with useful components. All a Nano is really good for is (1) music, (2) video, and (3) games, due to it’s minimal storage capacity. Think about it, adding recorded video is just another way to eat up space on your device- space that you probably would prefer to use for capabilities the iPod Nano is actually good at like playing small but high resolution video movies and tv shows.
To me the addition of a video camera is pointless on a device that has no real use for it. At least if Apple had put the video recorder on the iPod touch you could perhaps upload video to YouTube or email said videos without having to upload the footage to a computer first, and then you would have a real vested interest in using up precious space on your iPod to make short, low resolution videos. The Nano has no wifi internet connection and therefore you are forced to download the video to your computer before you are able to share it, and again I am drawn to the comparison of a cell phone video camera, where at least you can do something with the video you have taken immediately, rather then once you sync to your iTunes. So, that is my opinion! Take it or leave it but I am not a fan of the iPod Nano 5g. What about you?
This weekly tech roundup I discuss the Apple Rock and Roll Event, my preference in hard shell cases, and how I successfully played World of Warcraft on my laptop, in my car while driving (I was a passenger of course!), using Tetherberry!
