MR News 146 - Jan 08

On Tues it was the Expo keynote. As always Steve left the best till last. And the best was.....the MacBook Air. This is being touted as the thinnest laptop with a depth of just 0.76" at its thickest point and 0.16" at the thinnest giving it an aerodynamic look. From the start it was designed to be a wireless only device so don't go looking for an optical drive or even an ethernet connection since they aren't there. It doesn't compromise though on the full size backlit keyboard or the display which is a 13.3" wide screen. The large trackpad borrows multiple touch gestures from the iPhone so now you can pinch and zoom, rotate, navigate as well as scroll just using your fingers. Inside is a Core 2 Duo processor running at 1.6Ghz with  1.8Ghz available as an option; it seems that somehow Intel managed to shrink the packaging of this standard chip by 60% so it would fit inside the MBA. It uses the same 1.8" hard drive found in the iPod with an 80Gbyte capacity though there is an option of having a 64Gbyte solid state drive if you have the money; the standard memory is 2Gbytes. External connections are minimal - a flip down cover gives access to USB, micro DVI and Head Phone port. Power is fed in via a MagSafe connector (with the  lead coming out at a right angle) running off a 45watt adapter. Oh - must not forget the built in iSight camera. No Firewire port so what about Target mode I wonder. The battery has a claimed life of 5hrs which is exceptional but it is not user replaceable so you can't carry a spare with you. To get a replacement you'll have to have it done by Apple. Just in case you are worried about installing software without a built in DVD then worry no more since you can now put the install disk in any Mac or PC - Yes PC - on the wireless network and do it remotely, I'm not sure this applies to any other DVD or only those you need to install. If you want to watch a movie then there is a plug in DVD drive available and for those who absolutely have to be on a wired network a USB to Ethernet dongle can be purchased. With all this the MBA weighs in at 3lbs and will fit inside an A4 envelope. It will be shipping, in the US at any rate, within 2 weeks. As an aside the thinness and overall design lends some credence to the rumour that it could dock into an iMac style case though given the position of the ports I don't quite see how this would be achieved.

As you would expect a load of new features were announced for the iPhone including maps showing your location. This doesn't use GPS but rather a triangulation method based on wireless hot spots and the position of mobile phone masts. You can now customise the screen and have up to 9 home screens where you can display links to web clips or, when they arrive, other applications produced by third party developers for the iPhone. Multiple SMS is now possible the lack of which was a criticism of the initial iPhone release. This software update is free though a similar one for the iPod Touch including a firmware update and giving location, stocks, notes and weather will be charged.

We now know why Time Machine wasn't set up to backup to a wirelessly connected drive. Its because Apple has introduced the Time Capsule which is a full Airport Extreme base station with an integral 500Gbyte or 1 Terrabyte hard drive - all in a Mac Mini like enclosure. Using Time Machine you can now backup to this drive over the wireless network as can any other Mac on the same network making it ideal for home use.

The Apple TV has been given a make over and does not have to be synchronised to a Mac in order to work. Now you can connect it to a TV directly and control on the TV screen using Front Row. With the new Movie Rental feature in iTunes you can then snuggle back on the sofa and watch the movie in either DVD or HD quality. Alternatively you could watch podcasts, Flickr, You Tube, TV shows or whatever. The Apple TV Take 2 has either an 80 Gbyte or 160 Gbyte hard drive and obviously needs access to your wireless network. Still no tuner, no recording software and no improvement in hard drive size.

So what didn't we see? Firstly a new range of MacBooks, though I think these must be imminent as Steve made a great play on how environmentally friendly the new MacBook Air was with its aluminium body. A lot of people were expecting a 12" MacBook or MacBook Pro - the so called compact - well maybe the MacBook Air will fit this category for the laptop warriors. Then there was the tablet, or touch screen portable, but no sign of that though the new trackpad goes some way towards it with its multiple gesture trackpad. It was also felt that the Cinema displays should be revamped as too should the Mac mini. As Steve reminded us there are still 50 weeks left in this year so watch this space.

Prices and availability in the UK of the new kit will need to be confirmed as will some of the software features such as location and movie rentals.

Figures

Steve Jobs revealed that 5 million copies of Leopard were sold in 90days and that 20% of the OS X user base has now upgraded.

He also informed us that in the 200 days iPhone has been shipping 4 million have been sold and that its market share was 19% compared with RIM's (Blackberry) 39%. Not bad for a newbie.

Decks cleared

Rather than overwhelm our receptors for MacExpo news Apple announced upgraded MacPro's and XServes based on the new Intel 45 nanometer chip technology last week. These chips replace the existing 65nm ones and allow around double the number of transistors on the same area of silicon with the added advantages of lower power consumption and higher speeds. On the near horizon are the next generation of chips based on 32nm technology - to put this into perspective all these sizes are less than the wavelength of light which is around 200nm.

The new MacPro/Xserve have two, 4 core processors giving a total of 8 cores and Apple claim they are twice as fast as the previous models. On the MacPro you can have a choice of video card and since there are 4 PCI Express slots you could, if you so wanted, drive up eight 30" displays - awesome! No mention of Blu-Ray optical drives though. Unfortunately, in some respects, Apple has stuck with the now dated MacPro enclosure which doesn't differentiate the newer machines from older ones - at the very least they could have put go faster stripes on it. All the designers I know like to boast about how fast their Mac is, how much memory and disk space it has......maybe its a macho thing but being able to pee higher and further has a certain kudos. On the Xserve the Firewire port on the front has been replaced with a USB one which is helpful but you still have to crawl round the back to get to the Firewire (now only 800) and the video which is not easy when the Xserve is in a cabinet.

Full specs can be obtained from

www.apple.com/uk/macpro/

...but will it make the trains run on time?

The new database building tool from FileMaker is now available for £29.00 which looks good value. I had a quick play with the preview version and thought it had potential. I can see people using it for a variety of purposes both in the home - tracking wine cellars, keeping recipes - or in the office to manage contacts and produce simple invoices. It would be even better if it was included with iWorks 'cos then Apple would have a real Office suite.

The name gets me though. Originally I thought it was BENITO but it is BENTO which is a Japanese takeaway equivalent to our fish n chips but without the fat.

Shame about the name

If you are wanting to get to grips with Leopard and explore all its spots then "Mac OS X Leopard for Dummies" by Mark Chambers could be ideal. (ISBN 978-0-470-05434-5). For some reason they classify it as 7 mini books in one which take up over 700 pages for what is a fairly comprehensive coverage of the features. There is an introduction to the basics of running OS X, networking and sharing, using the included apps such as iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand and the rest. If you fancy becoming a real geek there is a bit on AppleScript and Unix.

Like most Dummy books (a name I hate and which stopped me for years from buying any) is the contrived and unnecessay aattempts at humor. The spelling is deliberate since its American humor or rather what they think is funny and it grates on our more refined palates. However if you manage to blank out every time you come across an instance then I'm sure you will find the book useful, especially if you are relatively new to Mac OS and want to delve a lot deeper.

If your preference is for a more focussed and task orientated approach without the waffle and humor have a look at "Mac OS X for Leopard - Just the Steps for Dummies" by Keith Underdahl (ISBN978-0-470-10967-0). This covers much the same material as the first book but in a 'do this, then do that' fashion which I found preferable. A few little niggles in that it didn't show how a dock icon could be removed by just dragging it out and the index was a bit arbitrary in that, for example, Spaces and Stacks weren't listed.

My slight concern - and its just a feeling really - is that the majority of these books were written without reference to the final shipping version but I suppose this is only to be expected.

I can see clearly now

Whilst QuickTime is great it does have its limitations. You can extend its capabilities by using Perian which has codecs that play most cross platform formats

http://perian.org

And if you insist on wanting to watch Windows Media files (WMV) then the answer is Flip4Mac

http://flip4mac.com/wmv_download.htm

though you may find some useful info at

www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/mac/default.aspx

Should you come across DivX videos - or want to make your own - the browse over to

www.divx.com/dff/index.php?version=mac

DivX is a means of compressing video to a fraction of its original size in much the same way as MP3 compresses audio.

If you want to burn DVDs which you can use to show on TV etc and don't fancy iDVD then an alternative is Burn

http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/

Gain 4 years

Reaction to the new Microsoft Office 2008 has been rather lukewarm, sure its faster on Intel Macs and the interface has been spruced up but some of the features in the Windows 2007 version have not been carried across notably Ribbons for access to tools and Visual Basic for macros. Sure, if you are a corporate user you can most likely justify the cost but the average home user will be served just as well by the cheaper and more instinctive iWorks. Microsoft has also done its usual trick of offering multiple versions in order to maximise its revenue stream and its worth noting that the Student/home edition won't work with an Exchange server.

Remember that if you purchased a copy of Office 2004 after 25 September 07 you are eligible to receive the corresponding 2008 product for £15.90. You will though need to download the form from

http://download.microsoft.com/documents/uk/mac/downloads/UK_Tech_Guarantee_Redemption_Form.pdf

Rip off UK

Its official. We've been ripped off by Apple. The European Commission has decided that it was wrong of Apple to charge UK customers some 10% more for iTune downloads than the rest of the community. Apple has said that it will harmonise pricing within the next 6 months when we will pay around £0.66 a track. Being cynical I wondered initially whether they would raise the prices in the euro-zone to the UK level! No details were given as to whether customers who have been ripped off can expect a refund.

Vulgar Bulgar continued

Following on from the last MR News if you want to include a Unicode character (which has replaced the extended ASCII we had in OS9) then a double click on the required character showing in the Character palette will insert it into the document you are working on. An improvement on the drag and drop I originally described.

Speed check

The Gadget Show on Channel 5 is running a campaign to get ISP's to be truthful about the Internet speeds you can expect. The headline grabbing 8Mbytes is always preceded by "up to" so it should come as no surprise to find that you are getting a miserly 1Mbyte. Speed is determined by a number of factors the main one being the distance you are from the Exchange though other factors can affect it. For example I've just signed up with O2 (great value just £7.50 a month, no connection charge and a wireless router) so that I can do remote access testing using my existing Eclipse account in the Office using side by side Macs. I found the O2 speed was approximately twice that of Eclipse and I wonder if this is because they have installed their own kit in the exchange.

As part of the campaign they have set up a speed tester which can be accessed at

http://gadgetshow.five.tv/jsp/speed_test.htm

which should give a baseline when comparing speeds. This site can get busy and may not respond - if so I find

www.speedtest.net

good since it allows you to select different servers across the world.

Off the Shelf

I've some surplus memory modules which need to go

1Gbyte MB667 suitable for the MacBook Pro and Intel iMac...............£20.00

1Gbyte PB533 suitable for Power Book G4 1.67Mhz 15" & 17"..............£22.00

When ordering let me know the serial number of your Mac so I can check suitability.

And Finally

"Saying Windows 95 is equal to Macintosh is like finding a potato that looks like Jesus and believing you've seen the Second Coming."

Guy Kawasaki

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