Gumball Tech | Gadget reviews, Tech News, App Reviews, and More! » iMac, MacBook, etc.

Apple Drops iTunes 10.1.2 for Windows and Mac!

admin — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 09:40:52 +0000

Apple has released iTunes 10.1.2 today which includes support for the future CMDA iPhones (Verizon iPhones), and of course some bug fixes and stability improvements.

Here are the release notes:

“iTunes 10.1.2 syncs music, movies, and more with iPhone 4 (CDMA model) and provides a number of important stability and performance improvements.

iTunes 10.1 came with several new features and improvements, including:

• Use AirPlay to instantly and wirelessly stream videos from iTunes to the all-new Apple TV.

• Sync with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 4.2.”

This is not a required update but if you are one of those people planning on getting a shiny new Verizon iPhone 4 next month, then this update is definitely an update for you

This update is not confirmed that it is safe for jailbreakers at the moment. Check back here for future updates on this.

**UPDATE 1 – ITUNES 10.1.2 IS CONFIRMED TO BE SAFE FOR JAILBREAKERS AND UNLOCKERS**

AirFlick-AirPlay for your Mac

admin — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:44:43 +0000

In case you happen to be an owner of the new AppleTV then this news may interest you. AirFlick is a new hack from Erica Sadun that allows you to send video feeds from your Mac. This is basically just like AirPlay for the Mac.

You enter in a URL and it will play the video from that site. Or you can drag a video file from the computer itself and begin to stream it to your AppleTV. It is very simple to use, but it is in alpha form and can often be a hit-and-miss. It is something new and for those of you afraid of jailbreaking your precious device – you don’t have to do anything to your AppleTV except turn it on. Enjoy and download here. It’s free!

Elgato eyeTV Hybrid USB TV tuner review

admin — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:32:15 +0000

The Elgato eyeTV Hybris USB TV Tuner is a nifty little device for watching live HDTV (or regular digital/analog TV, for that matter) on your computer. While it’s primarily geared towards Mac users, it will also work with Windows Media Center, either for Windows Vista or Windows 7. Not only will the eyeTV Hybrid pull in live TV, but it can also record external sources via its included S-Video/Composite video dongle. The best part? You can stream live video to an iDevice using the available eyeTV iOS app. The price is a bit hefty, though, at $150 (can be found a bit cheaper at a number of websites), but is it worth it? Read our full review to find out!

Included in the packaging is the eyeTV Hybrid, a remote control, USB extension cable, some software (CD), instruction manuals, and an S-Video/Compositie video dongle. This is basically an all-in-one kit for TV viewers!

Setup with your Mac is simple, and the software is really the heart of the operation. All you need to do is to use the included eyeTV software on the CD (you can also download it online fairly quickly, because copying the files from the disc can take over 15 minutes, while the download could take less than 5 for most people). Doing so will automatically detect all of the TV channels that are available to you from your TV service provider. eyeTV can also pull in TV Guide information, although you’ll need a subscription (you get 1-year for free) to do so. Also, eyeTV makes it easy to skip channels and start recording (since the software can act as a very good DVR). Don’t forget that you can use the remote to control most of eyeTV’s functions! Speaking of changing the channels, the eyeTV Hybrid is very fast at doing so.

Next, TV quality! TV quality will mostly depend on how well your TV service provider is bringing in the streams from various networks. For me, video quality was exceptionally good, especially when it comes to HD programming. I have a few dozen QAM HDTV channels, and some of them were in 1280x720p and 1920x1080p. The eyeTV software is able to detect the resolution, audio signal, video bitrate, frame rate, and a lot more. But, back to the quality. Some channels were pixelated, while others looked great. This wasn’t the fault of the eyeTV Hybrid itself, but more a problem of the TV provider (in my case, it’s Time Warner Cable). ESPN in HD looked fantastic (a 1280×720 channel), while HD Theater (a 1920×1080 channel) looks very pixelated. For a few raw video examples of what the eyeTV Hybrid can do with FOX HD and ESPN HD, click here and/or here.

If you’d like to use eyeTV to record TV programming, it’s a breeze to do. Recording of the video starts about 1 second after you click on the record button, which is considered to be very fast. Recording immediately stops when you tell it to. eyeTV also has the option to automatically convert your recordings (which are near-uncompressed MPEG files) for use on your favorite mobile device, such as an iPhone or Apple TV.

Overall, the eyeTV software is very simple to use and is the heart of the entire eyeTV Hybrid operation. It’s fully functional, feature packed, and is extremely easy to use.

Mentioned at the top of the post, you can use the eyeTV Hybrid to capture video from external devices when using the included S-Video/Composite dongle. You can use the eyeTV software to switch from the TV input to the external video input. This is useful for things like converting old VHS tapes to digital video, capturing video games from consoles, and a lot more.

The included remote control is most likely my least favorite feature of the package. It’s nice that they included one, but unless you have a perfect line-of-site to the remote control, it won’t work. If you’re using the eyeTV Hybrid on a Mac, such as a Mac Mini, where it’s stowed away in a cabinet or isn’t easily accessible, then you aren’t going to really be able to use the remote control. The included USB extension may help in some cases.

Optionally, you could use the eyeTV iPhone/iPad application from the App Store ($4.99, click here) to be able to watch live programming from your eyeTV onto any iOS device. It’s easy to setup, and is very feature-packed. You can schedule recordings, view the TV guide, and even watch video from either the Composite or S-Video inputs.

In conclusion, the eyeTV Hybrid is an amazing package for people who wish to watch TV on their Mac or PC. The eyeTV software is essential, and is easy and fun to use. While the price is a bit high ($150~), you won’t be disappointed with the quality and ease-of-use of the entire Elgato eyeTV Hybrid kit. Everything just works, and it works well. The eyeTV Hybrid is the best way to watch live television on your Mac.

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Stylus Pen by Hard Candy Cases

admin — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 14:00:41 +0000

Have you ever wanted a stylus for your capacitive touch screen device? Chances are that your answer may be a “no”, but what if you could get the features of a stylus combined with a ink pen? The Stylus Pen by Hard Candy Cases does just that and is priced at $34.95. Offering a top-notch design and replaceable ink, the Stylus Pen is great for writing on paper and for controlling a device, such as an iPhone.

Made of nice-and-shiny chrome, the Stylus Pen is a real high quality piece of work. It has a bit of weight to it (seems to weigh about as much as an iPhone 4), but I like to have weighted pens. You can pop off one end of the pen and it will reveal either the stylus or the ink pen. If untwist the grip portion of the pen even further, you can replace the ink. The stylus portion is made of some sort of rubber material, and is very sensitive when using it on a mobile device (which is a good thing). Casual scrolling of web pages and news articles is a breeze.

While there isn’t much more that can be said about something like this, I will say that this product has made our holiday gift guide. You get the best of both worlds: An ink pen for physical writing, and a stylus for use on a mobile device. It weighs more than the average pen, but the functionality overcomes that possible downside.

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Pogo Sketch review

admin — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 14:00:14 +0000

A stylus may sound like something that shouldn’t even exist anymore, but there are times when one might like to have one. A stylus could be used for casual web-browsing, sketching/art, and a lot more. The Pogo Sketch by Ten One Design would be the one to get. Priced at a reasonable $14.95, the Pogo Sketch (also available in multiple colors) will suit the needs of anyone who just so happens to want a stylus. Not only does it work on mobile devices (any capacitive touch screen device), but it also works on the trackpad that’s found on the MacBook Pro and Magic Trackpad.

Made of lightweight high-end anodized aluminum, the smooth surface appeals to anyone and provides an acceptable amount of grip. The shirt clip at the top of the Pogo Sketch makes it easily accessible from a shirt pocket.

The stylus itself is a pleasure to use. I’ve been using it on an iPhone 4, Samsung Focus, and my MacBook Pro’s trackpad, and it works beautifully with all devices. What’s really neat is that you could combine a stylus and use Ten One Design’s “Inklet” application for Mac OS X to turn the trackpad into a little tablet for pressure-sensitive drawing (a list of just some of the compatible programs are available here) and handwriting recognition.

Overall, this is a very nice product (albeit there’s only so much one can say about a stylus)! Its design will please everyone who would like a stylus, and is the go-to choice for a stylus.

If you’d like to save some money on the Pogo Sketch, visit Ten One Design’s website on 11/26 between 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. to save between 25-50% off all of their products, or on 11/29 between 12 a.m. and 12 p.m.

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Apple unveils the new MacBook Air – Thinner, faster, smaller

admin — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:24:23 +0000

Finally, Apple has unveiled an updated MacBook Air. It’s cheaper, faster, and thinner. It comes in 2 sizes: 13.3″, and 11.6″. They’re available today, and start at $999. More information, press release, and images are after the break.

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Apple Reinvents Notebooks With New MacBook Air

CUPERTINO, California—October 20, 2010—Apple® today unveiled an all new MacBook Air®, the first of a next generation of notebooks which will replace mechanical hard disks and optical drives with Internet services and solid state flash storage. These next generation notebooks are:

faster—solid state flash storage is up to twice as fast as hard drive storage
more reliable—hard drive crashes are eliminated
lighter and smaller—solid state flash storage is up to 90 percent smaller and lighter than hard drives

Available in 11-inch and 13-inch models and weighing as little as 2.3 pounds, the new MacBook Air is Apple’s lightest and most portable notebook ever. MacBook Air uses the same solid state storage technology as iPad™ to deliver instant-on responsiveness, up to seven hours of battery life and up to 30 days of standby time.* Starting at $999, the affordable MacBook Air defines the next generation of MacBooks.

“MacBook Air is the first of a new generation of notebooks that leaves behind mechanical rotating storage in favor of solid state flash storage,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve taken what we have learned with the iPad—solid state storage, instant-on, amazing battery standby time, miniaturization and lightweight construction, to create the new MacBook Air. With its amazing responsiveness and mobility, it will change the way we think about notebooks.”

With its precision aluminum unibody enclosure, the new MacBook Air measures an incredibly thin 0.11-inches at its thinnest point and 0.68-inches at its thickest, and weighs just 2.3 pounds for the 11-inch model and 2.9 pounds for the 13-inch. Like iPad, MacBook Air was designed from the ground up to use flash storage exclusively. Apple’s custom-designed flash storage is 90 percent smaller and lighter than a conventional notebook hard drive, contributing to MacBook Air’s mobile, featherweight design. MacBook Air’s flash storage also provides faster data access and is more reliable than notebook hard drives due to its solid state design.

MacBook Air features a full-sized keyboard for typing comfort and productivity, as well as the highly acclaimed glass Multi-Touch™ trackpad found on Apple’s MacBook® Pro, so you can scroll through web sites, flip through photos, and resize or rotate images all from the trackpad. The built-in FaceTime® camera, mic and stereo speakers are perfect for video calls with iPhone® 4, iPod touch®** and other Macs.

Flash storage combined with power-efficient Intel Core 2 Duo processors and NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics delivers an ideal balance of mobility, battery life and performance. MacBook Air features an 11.6-inch or 13.3-inch high-resolution LED-backlit display and Mini DisplayPort to connect your 27-inch Apple LED Cinema Display, projector or HD TV. Ultra-fast 802.11n Wi-Fi networking allows you to download music and movies from iTunes®, back up data to Time Capsule® and store or share files with MobileMe℠ and iDisk®. MacBook Air includes Bluetooth 2.1+EDR for wireless peripherals and two USB ports making it easy to sync and charge an iPad, iPhone or iPod® while using another device. The 13-inch MacBook Air also includes an SD card slot.

Apple makes the industry’s greenest notebooks and the MacBook Air is the latest Mac® notebook to achieve EPEAT Gold status and meet Energy Star 5.0 requirements.*** Each unibody enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and comes standard with energy efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. Mac notebooks contain no brominated flame retardants, are PVC-free and are constructed of recyclable materials.

Apple uses advanced chemistry and Adaptive Charging technology to create a MacBook Air battery that delivers up to seven hours of wireless productivity on a single charge and up to 1,000 recharges.**** The built-in battery design results in less waste, and depleted MacBook Air batteries can be replaced for $129, which includes installation and disposal of your old battery in an environmentally responsible manner.

Every Mac comes with Mac OS® X Snow Leopard®, the world’s most advanced operating system, and iLife®, Apple’s innovative suite of applications for creating and sharing great photos, movies and music. Snow Leopard builds on more than a decade of innovation and includes multiple features for portable computing such as Multi-Touch navigation, advanced wireless networking, easy file sharing, automated data backup and intelligent power management. The new iLife ’11 features iPhoto® with stunning full screen views for browsing, editing and sharing photos; iMovie® with powerful easy-to-use tools to transform home videos into fun theatrical trailers; and GarageBand® with new ways to improve your playing and create great sounding songs.

Pricing & Availability
The 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air are immediately available through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The 1.4 GHz 11-inch MacBook Air with 2GB of memory and 64GB of flash storage starts at a suggested retail price of $999 (US) with a 128GB model for $1,199 (US). The 1.86 GHz 13-inch MacBook Air with 2GB of memory and 128GB of flash storage starts at a suggested retail price of $1,299 (US) with a 256GB model for $1,599 (US). Configure-to-order options and accessories include faster processors, 4GB of memory, MacBook Air SuperDrive® and a USB Ethernet Adapter.

Additional technical specifications and configure-to-order options and accessories are available online atwww.apple.com/macbookair.

*Battery life and standby time vary by use and configuration. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information.

**iOS 4.1 required.

***EPEAT is an independent organization that helps customers compare the environmental performance of notebooks and desktops. Products meeting all of the 23 required criteria and at least 75 percent of the optional criteria are recognized as EPEAT Gold products. The EPEAT program was conceived by the US EPA and is based on IEEE 1680 standard for Environmental Assessment of Personal Computer Products. For more information visitwww.epeat.net.

****A properly maintained MacBook Air battery is designed to retain 80 percent or more of its original capacity during a lifespan of up to 1,000 recharge cycles. Battery life and charge cycles vary by use and settings. For more information visit www.apple.com/batteries.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

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All-flash storage. Big step. Small footprint.

What do you get when you build a notebook around flash storage? A computer that’s thing, light, fast, and wakes from sleep in an instant.

Multi-Touch trackpad. Tap into more than ever.

Multi-Touch meets MacBook Air in the best possible way. With a spacious, smooth glass trackpad that lets you tap, pinch, swipe, drag, rotate, and scroll with ease.

Long-lasting battery. Built to go. And go. And go.

A great portable computer needs great battery life. MacBook Air gives you up to 5 hours of power on the 11-inch model, up to 7 hours on the 13-inch model, and up to 30 days of standby time.

High-resolution display. Pixel perfect.

The MacBook Air display features a resolution so crisp and vibrant, it’s a big-screen feel in small-screen form. And even at a mere 0.19 inch, there’s room for a FaceTime camera.

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Apple announces iLife ’11 – New iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand

admin — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:11:19 +0000

Apple has also announced iLife 2011 (’11). With it comes updated versions of iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand. These new versions bring a number of new and interesting features. iWeb and iDVD, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have been updated. More information, images, and the press release are all here in this post.

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Apple Introduces iLife ’11 With Major Upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand

CUPERTINO, California—October 20, 2010—Apple today introduced iLife® ’11, a major upgrade that gives Mac® users even more great ways to create and share photos, movies and music. iPhoto® ’11 has a whole new look, with stunning full screen modes for Faces, Places and Events. iMovie® ’11 makes it easier than ever to edit videos and quickly transform them into fun theatrical trailers for easy posting online. GarageBand® ’11 introduces new ways to improve your playing and create great sounding songs with Flex Time and Groove Matching. Free with every new Mac, iLife ’11 is available as a $49 upgrade for existing users.

“iLife is widely regarded as the best suite of ‘Digital Life’ applications in the world, and iLife ’11 makes them even better,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iLife now makes it easier than ever to create books and letterpress cards, make amazing movie trailers from your personal videos and post them online, and make your band sound far better or teach yourself piano or guitar.”

iPhoto ’11 features stunning new full screen modes that take advantage of your Mac’s brilliant display for browsing, editing and showcasing your photos. Sharing your photos is easier than ever in iPhoto ’11, whether you send them by email using one of eight beautiful themes, post them to your Facebook wall with a single click, or play them in full screen with one of 12 professionally designed slideshows. iPhoto ’11 features a completely new approach to creating books and cards with a sleek carousel interface, intelligent book layout and a bookshelf that displays all your projects. New letterpress cards let you combine your photos and text with elegant imprinted designs to create unique wedding invitations, birth announcements, holiday greetings and more.

iMovie ’11 helps you turn your videos into captivating Hollywood-style trailers that are fun to watch and share. You can choose from 15 different genres including Adventure, Romantic Comedy and Epic Drama, each one complete with its own unique titles, graphics and cinematic soundtrack. Powerful new tools make it easy to selectively adjust audio levels and apply sophisticated visual effects like flash and hold, instant replay and jump cuts with a single click. People Finder analyzes your videos and marks sections containing faces, so you can quickly find the perfect clips for your trailer or movie. iMovie ’11 also adds exciting new themes that make your videos look like professional news or sports programs.

GarageBand ‘11 includes two new ways to fix or change the timing of your recordings. Flex Time lets you move, stretch or shorten individual notes by clicking on just the part of the audio waveform you want to change, without affecting the rest of the recording. With Groove Matching, you can select any track as the “Groove Track” and all other tracks will instantly match its rhythmic feel. GarageBand ’11 adds seven authentic-sounding new guitar amps, five fun new stompbox effects, and 22 new Basic Lessons for piano and guitar. The new “How did I Play?” feature listens while you play along with any lesson, highlights mistakes and tracks your progress to help you become a better musician.

Pricing & Availability
iLife ’11 is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $49 (US) through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The iLife ’11 Family Pack includes five licenses and is available for $79 (US) and the Mac Box Set which includes iLife ’11, iWork® and Mac OS® X v10.6 Snow Leopard® is available for $129 (US).

iLife ’11 requires Mac OS X version 10.6.3 or later, a Mac computer with an Intel processor, 1GB of RAM, a DVD drive for installation and 5GB of available disk space. iPhoto print products and GarageBand Artist Lessons are sold separately and are available in select countries. Full system requirements and more information on iLife ’11 can be found at www.apple.com/ilife.

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iPhoto ’11

Stunning new full-screen views.

Completely immerse yourself in your photos onscreen and in print. Browse, edit, and share them with new full-screen views. Then take your best shots and turn them into gorgeous photo books.

iMovie ’11

Starring Hollywood-style movie trailers.

Turn your home videos into epic movie trailers. Create TV-like sports highlights and news segments. Add special effects. And edit sound, too. iMovie makes you an indie filmaker instantly.

GarageBand ’11

Suddenly, everyone can have rhythm.

Now you have everything you need to make great-sounding-songs — including perfect rhythm, a good groove, and guitar and piano lessons. Are you ready to rock?

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Apple announces Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” – App Store, Release for Summer 2011

admin — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:59:52 +0000

Today, Apple has announced their next iteration to Mac OS X: 10.7 “Lion”. Apple’s goal with Lion was to sort of combine some elements of the iOS into Mac OS X. They’ve also created a Mac App Store (will also be available for Snow Leopard within 90 days), which is a decent solution for a centralized application market. There’s also “Launchpad”, which gives you home screens and folders, similar to iOS. Finally, there’s “Mission Control”, which lets you manage all of your windows and more. Pricing is unknown at this time, but is scheduled for a Summer 2011 release. More information, pictures, and press release after the break-o-clicko.

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Apple Gives Sneak Peek of Mac OS X Lion

CUPERTINO, California—October 20, 2010—Apple® today gave a sneak peek of Mac OS® X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system. Shipping next summer, Lion is inspired by many of iPad’s software innovations. Today’s sneak peek highlighted just a few of Lion’s features, including the Mac® App Store℠, a new way to discover, install and automatically update desktop apps; Launchpad, a new home for all of your Mac apps; system-wide support for full screen apps; and Mission Control, which unifies Exposé®, Dashboard, Spaces® and full screen apps into an innovative new view of everything running on your Mac, and allows you to instantly navigate anywhere.

“Lion brings many of the best ideas from iPad back to the Mac, plus some fresh new ones like Mission Control that Mac users will really like,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Lion has a ton of new features, and we hope the few we had time to preview today will give users a good idea of where we are headed.”

The Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to OS X, making discovering, installing and updating Mac apps easier than ever. Like on iPad™, you purchase apps using your iTunes® account and they download and install in just one step. App updates are delivered directly through the Mac App Store, so it’s easy to keep all of your apps up to date. The Mac App Store will be available for Snow Leopard® within 90 days and will be included in Lion when it ships next summer.

Launchpad makes it easier than ever to find and launch any app. Similar to the Home screen on iPad, you can see all the apps on your Mac elegantly displayed just by clicking the Launchpad icon in the dock. Apps can be organized in any order or grouped into folders, and you can swipe through multiple pages of apps to find the one you want.

Lion includes system-wide support for full screen applications. With Lion, you can enter full screen mode with just one click, switch from one full screen app to another with just a swipe of the trackpad, and swipe back to the desktop to access your multi-window applications.

Mission Control presents you with a unified view of every app and window running on your Mac, so you can instantly navigate anywhere. Mission Control also incorporates the next generation of Exposé, presenting all the windows running on your Mac grouped by application, alongside thumbnails of full screen apps, Dashboard and other Spaces.

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New products by Apple accidentally leaked [Updated]

admin — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:47:42 +0000

With a few hours left, people are trying to figure out exactly what Apple will be announcing today. On Apple’s discussion forum, it was noted that there will be 5 new discussion categories (all of which will change/have changed):

Apple quickly fixed this by replacing those names with generic characters, such as “a” and “ac”.

There’s some speculation as to what “Reserved 10 20″ will be. Rumor has it that Apple will either be discontinuing iWeb ’11 in favor of building it into Mac OS X, so “Reserved 10 20″ could be Mac OS X 10.7.

The world will know what Apple has in store in roughly 2 hours. Also, Apple will be providing a live stream so that users around the world can watch the event live on their Mac OS X 10.6 machine or their iOS device.

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UPDATE: Apple has removed all of those discussion categories except for “Reserved 10 20″, which of course is now named “a”.

Apple’s “Back to the Mac” rumor round-up (sort of)

admin — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:52:53 +0000

With Apple’s “Back to the Mac” event being less than

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away, there’s a lot of speculation about the next MacBook Air, and more obviously, Mac OS X 10.7. Contained in this post is a list of all of the rumors that have been floating around over the past year or so.

New MacBook Air? Most likely…

New redesign with a USB port on both the right and left side of the device
Integrated “SSD-card” for super fast startup and application load times
Upgradable RAM and SSD (2GB of RAM to begin with)
2.1GHz (with 2GB of RAM) and a 2.4GHz (with 4GB of RAM) configuration – Not sure if it’ll be Core i3/i5 based, so a Core 2 Duo seems more likely
Price to start at $1100 for the base model, and up to $1400
Possibly a 11.6″ display
Black power key

Mac OS X 10.7? Absolutely…

A slightly altered interface that resembles more of the iOS (iOS-like scrollbars, rubber-band style inertial scrolling, Quick Look updates, etc)
Supposedly will be even faster and slightly more slim compared to Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard”
Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” could be the name, indicated by the invitation that Apple sent out
FaceTime should be added to iChat
Speaking of iChat, it might be headed to Windows
FaceTime might also be integrated into iTunes 10.1

Small hardware changes to current Macs? Possibly…

Apple has been known for slightly altering the hardware in Mac computers
Usually happens every 6-12 months

Tablet Mac? Hmm…

Rather unlikely, but it’s interesting to think about
Notice the invitation. Behind the Apple logo reveals a lion
The silver material is obviously the aluminum housing for some sort of computer
The fact that the Apple logo is sort of cut-out like that could indicate some sort of tablet-style Mac, where the screen portion can flip out and act as a multitouch monitor
There have been some rumors of a multitouch display, so maybe this will be it

iLife 2011? Sure!

iLife hasn’t seen an update since 2009
Not much to say about it…

Basically, the 2 stars of the show will be the new MacBook Air and Mac OS X 10.7.

What do you think Apple will talk about? Think our list is stupid? Let us know! Leave your comment down below.

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How to overclock your MacBook Pro’s video card (ie. 9600M GT)

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 01:03:06 +0000

Being the geek that I am, I like to push my hardware to the limit. One way of doing that (when it comes to computers) is to overclock. You can overclock 3 different pieces of hardware: CPU, RAM, GPU. Overclocking a video card (GPU) is the easiest of the bunch, and that’s what I’ll explain how to do using 3 pieces of free software (actually, just 1 piece of software, but the other 2 provide some useful information and benchmarking tools).

Please be advised that I am not responsible for any damages that may occur to your computer. Although the risk of something going wrong is very low, you never know, so do this at your own risk!

For this post, I’ll be overclocking my MacBook Pro’s 9600M GT (256MB of dedicated RAM). The stock speeds are:

Core: 500MHz
Memory: 792MHz
Shader: 1250MHz

I’ll be overclocking the 9600M GT to the following speeds:

Core: 625MHz (additional 125MHz)
Memory: 825MHz (additional 33MHz)
Shader: 1573MHz (additional 323MHz)

I don’t know a whole lot about the different types of clock speeds, but the higher the numbers, the better something will perform, until it bursts into flames for being too hot, which brings me to one thing you’ll need to be concerned about: TEMPERATURES!

The MacBook Pro is really thin, and because of that, there isn’t enough room for a bigger heatsink and/or fan. So, you’ll really need to pay attention to your temperatures. More will be explained later. But basically, my 9600M GT runs at around 93C when doing something, such as playing a game. When overclocked to the above speeds, I reached about 102C.

So what do you need?

MSI Afterburner
MSI Kombustor (comes included with the Afterburner download)
GPU-Z

Oh yeah! You’ll need Windows to do this. So if you’re one of those anti-Windows Apple fanboys, you should go away.

After you download these three things, go ahead and install Afterburner, and then Kombustor. Finally, you can extract GPU-Z from its archive and place it on your desktop.

Go ahead and run MSI Afterburner. The interface is simple and straightforward. On the right side, you’ll get some graphs so that you can monitor all of your clock speeds and temperatures. The middle section is where you’ll be doing all of the tweaking. Adjust the numbers to whatever you’d like. I used the above speeds as a basis on where to start, and I think that it is a good place to end because of the temperature issue.

An overview of all 3 programs.

If you aren’t sure that you actual overclock worked, you can simply look at the graphs for the clock speeds to see that they’ve changed. You can also look at GPU-Z to see if your clock speeds have changed. It may take GPU-Z around 3 seconds to register the overclock.

You can now run Kombustor (or any other benchmarking application, or a game) to test out your new speeds to see how much of an impact that they have made. It’s best to do a before and after comparison.

In my little benchmarking, I ran the benchmark at 1280×1024 in DX10 benchmarking mode with a time of 10000ms (10 seconds). I was able to get 31-32FPS with the stock speeds, and 37-39FPS using my overclocked speeds. The performance increase is obvious and somewhat of a big one, but, once again, those temperatures are keeping me from running at these speeds for long periods of time.

So that’s it! You’ve now overclocked your MacBook Pro’s video card. Again, the high temperatures may become an issue should you decide to live with the higher clock speeds for quite some time. I personally have reverted back to the original clock speeds, as the performance advantage is just minimal, but this is overall a nice experiment to try.

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[How-To] Run ChromeOS on a Mac from USB

admin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:06:57 +0000

Running ChromeOS in a virtual machine was the only way to run it on a Mac, until now. After a bunch of Googling and trial-and-error with a bunch of different things, I figured it out, and it’s extremely simple.

So what we’re going to be doing is using an external bootloader to boot off of the USB key. Macs, even when holding ALT when you turn on your computer, will not display USB drives. rEFIt detects these drives, but you can’t actually boot from one. We’re going to be using the Plop Boot Manager to boot from the USB drive so that you can run ChromeOS natively.

Complete details after the jump!

There are two different methods:

Download/burn the ISO image to a CD, and boot from that to boot the USB drive.
Use Ubuntu & GRUB2 to boot the .BIN of the boot loader to use without a CD, but you need Ubuntu installed (natively).

.ISO DOWNLOAD

.BIN DOWNLOAD

We aren’t going to explain the second method. If you were able to install Ubuntu onto your Mac (natively), then you should know enough to get the bootloader to work from GRUB2.

The first method is very simple. You basically need to burn the ISO image to a blank CD, and boot from that.

Burning the .ISO to a CD

Download the above .ISO download.
Unarchive the downloaded .ZIP file.
Open Disk Utility.
Click on the Burn button (or press CMD+B).
Insert a blank CD.
Find the .ISO file.
Click Burn.

Booting the Burned CD

Insert the burned CD.
Insert your USB key with ChromeOS on it.
Hold ALT/Option while turning your Mac on.
Choose the disc.
When at the bootloader, select USB.

You should now be booted into ChromeOS (natively!) on your Mac!

AndroidLock – Android Style “Pattern” Lockscreen for iPhone & iPod Touch

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:34:36 +0000

AndroidLock is a brand-new lockscreen mod that’s available in Cydia for free. Yup, free! Things like this are usually $.99. What is AndroidLock? Well, if you’ve ever played with an Android-based device, you may have noticed the way you unlock it. You can have some sort of “slide-to-unlock” mechanism, or have a pattern that you follow with your finger to unlock your device. The later of the two is what this is.

Once installed, you must open up your stock Settings application, and look at AndroidLock.

You’ll then be presented with two options: Change pattern, Donate. The Donate button will close the app, and open up Safari, where it will then load a donations page. Change pattern will take you to a screen where you can change your lock pattern.

Once you’ve done that, exit out of the app or lock your device, and you’ll have a new way of unlocking your device!

If you have any sort of lockscreen mod already active, such as LockInfo, AndroidLock should be placed above it (as shown in the screenshots above).

If you’re someone who’s already trying to change the look of the dots and whatnot, you’re out of luck. When looking through the installed files for the package, all that’s installed is the MobileSubstrate .dylib, and some files related to the Settings app.

Apple Releases Magic Mouse Software

admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:24:01 +0000

Apple’s new mouse, the Magic Mouse has been selling with the new iMac models, which we presume have the needed software The standalone mouse, however, has yet to arrive in retail stores or begin shipping from the company’s online stores, although Apple indicated that it would become available at the end of October and is currently listed as shipping in 5-7 business days in Apple’s U.S. online store. On Apple’s website, two download links have appeared for the software:

Wireless Mouse Software Update 1.0 for Snow Leopard

Wireless Mouse Software Update 1.0 for Leopard

In the Magic Mouse user guide, it states that “Mac OS X 10.6.2 ” is needed to use the mouse. 10.6.2 Is expected to be out very soon, and to be fixing the issues left from 10.6.1 and this new software compatibility as well as Windows 7 support in Bootcamp.

Apple Unveils new iMac, MacBook, Mac Mini, and all new Multi-Touch ‘Magic Mouse’

admin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:49:24 +0000

Apple today has unveiled new iMacs, MacBooks, Mac Minis, and a all new multi-touch Magic Mouse. Quick rundown:

New and faster iMac with a bigger display, starting at $1,199.
All new MacBook with slightly better specs and a all new design, starting at $999.
New and faster Mac Mini with a Mac Mini Server Edition, starting at $599.
World’s first multi-touch “Magic Mouse”, shipping with all new iMac’s or by itself for $69.

Full details below!

First, with the new iMac. It has been redesigned and features a new LED backlit display. It now comes in two sizes: 21.5″, and 27″. They both come with a new wireless Apple Keyboard and the new Multi-Touch Magic Mouse. The 21.5″ starts at $1,199. A rundown of all the new iMac features:

21.5″ (1920 x 1080) – 3.06GHz OR 3.33GHz Core 2 Duo.
27″ (2560 x 1440) – 3.06GHz OR 3.33GHz Core 2 Duo OR 2.66GHz Core i5 (up to 3.2GHz), OR 2.8GHz Core i7 (up to 3.46GHz) – Can also be attached to a wall with a VESA-compliant mount.
4GB DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM, up to 16GB.
21.5″ get either the 9400M with 256MB shared DDR3, OR the 4670 with 256MB GDDR3 dedicated.
27″ with a Core 2 Duo get either the 4670 with 256MB GDDR3 dedicated, OR 4850 with 512MB GDDR3 dedicated.
27″ with a Core i5 or Core i7 get either the 4850 512MB GDDR3 dedicated.
27″ has a DisplayPort INPUT, AND OUTPUT.
1 FireWire 800
4 USB 2.0
SD Card Slot
21.5″ get 500GB or 1TB HDD, and an optional 2TB HDD.
27″ get 1TB HDD, and an optional 2TB HDD.

Next, the new MacBook. The line of MacBook Pro’s are the same. The new MacBook starts at $999. It has a unibody enclosure, 7 hour battery, and a multi-touch trackpad. Rundown:

13.3″ – 1280 x 800
2.26GHz Core 2 Duo
2GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM, up to 4GB.
9400M 256MB DDR3 SDRAM GPU
2 USB 2.0
250GB HDD, optional 320GB or 500GB HDD
4.7 pounds.

The new Mac Mini starts at $599. There is also a special version with Snow Leopard Server. Rundown:

2.26GHz Core 2 Duo, OR 2.53GHz, OR 2.66GHz.
2GB DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM, up to 4GB.
1 FireWire 800
5 USB 2.0
160GB HDD, OR 320GB HDD, OR 500GB HDD.
New Mac Mini Server Edition.

Apple has unveiled the world’s first multi-touch mouse. This new Magic Mouse comes with all new iMac’s and is available by itself for $69. The whole surface is a big button, similar to the Mighty Mouse.

1 finger click – Click or double click anywhere on the surface.
2 finger right-click – Use 2 fingers to right-click.
360 degree scrolling – Scroll in any direction.
2 finger swiping – Forward/backward commands.

So there you have it! All new Apple products. We’re really looking forward to the Magic Mouse. The $69 price tag isn’t too bad, either.

[How-To] Run Windows XP, Vista, or 7 Natively on your Mac

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:55:52 +0000

Running Windows on your Mac may sound like a very scary thing to do, but it’s really simple. If you want to run Windows on your Mac without a virtualization program (like VMware Fusion or Parallels), this is for you! It’s actually very easy and doesn’t take very much time, at all.

This tutorial will tell you how to install Windows, specifically Windows 7, on your Mac, using Apple’s ‘Boot Camp’ tool, which easily lets you safely partition your hard drive, and install Windows on to that new partition. I will be using Snow Leopard. The entire process should take between 20 and 60 minutes.

Before we start, you need to have a few things:

A copy of a Snow Leopard installation DVD – this contains the drivers for Windows which we will be installing last.
A copy of Windows – Windows XP, Vista, or 7 should work just fine.
30GB of free space – I recommend having at least 30GB of free space on your hard drive to make a Windows (NTFS) partition.

If you’ve got those 3 things, then we can get started:

1. Open up “Boot Camp Assistant” in Applications>Utilities.

2. Go through the series of menus to create a Windows partition.

3. When done, put in your Windows CD or DVD, and go to “Start the Windows Installer”. This restart your Mac into the Windows installer, where you would install Windows on to your hard drive.

4. Make sure you format the proper partition to NTFS. Don’t choose the wrong partition! Make sure you remember how big you made your Windows partition, since it’ll make formatting the right one easier.

5. Install Windows.

6. Once you’re at your desktop, pop in your Snow Leopard installation DVD.

7. Install the Boot Camp software and drivers.

8. Reboot.

That is just a quick overview of how to install Windows XP, Vista, or 7 onto your Mac. If you’ve installed Windows on a PC before, this is almost exactly like it, except making a partition is slightly different.

Snow Leopard removing users’ data

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:09:12 +0000

Many people who are using the Guest account on their machine running Snow Leopard are having odd data deletion and/or corruption. It happens when someone upgrades their Mac to Snow Leopard from Leopard, and logs in to the new account. When they switch to their normal account, their data is gone.

My personal advise/tip: never upgrade an operating system, no matter what it is. Clean installs are always the way to go. Also, only use the Guest account if absolutely necessary.