MacBook Prose

Friday, May 26, 2006

MacSaber Duel

Following on from my last post about the MacSaber app, here is a clip of a present day Darth 'n' Luke duelling it out with their MacBook Pro - Sabers (not quite as catchy a name as 'Light Sabre'...)

Watch the YouTube video here


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Sunday, May 21, 2006

Turn your Mac into a Light Sabre

If you are a Star Wars fan (as many of us are) and have always wanted to know what it would be like to hold a real light sabre, this little program from iSnoop may take you one step closer.

"Introducing MacSaber 1.0 Beta. Using your Mac’s sudden motion sensor, this software turns your computer into a Jedi weapon almost worthy of taking on the real thing by making authentic lightsaber sound effects. It senses speed for the lightsaber movement sounds and acceleration for different levels of striking sounds."

You can download MacSaber 1.0 here


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Friday, May 19, 2006

New Apple Store - New York, 5th Avenue

While slightly off topic for this blog, having seen pictures of the recently unveiled Apple Store on 5th Avenune, I could not resist the temptation to post something about.



After being covered up for alomst a year, Apple unveiled the impressive 3-storey, 32-foot-high, Glass Cube that forms the entrance to their latest NYC store. Building on Apple's almost un-paralleled reputation for product design, largely thanks to design hero Joanathan Ives (Apple's British SVP of Industrial Design), the new store succeeds in looking as slick and covetable as the notebooks and iPods that they sell inside.



Comparisons between this striking glass cube and the Apple PowerCube (one of Apple's rare recently commercial failures - although a sought after collector's item) have already been made in several articles.

The retail store itself is underground with access via an impressive glass staircase from street level. Once inside the 10,000 square foot store, customers will be able to play with over 200 iPods and over 100 Macs.



Once opened later today, the lastest Apple store will remain open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year!


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Thursday, May 18, 2006

Apple Intel MacBook

Since it's release earlier this week, a number of Mac sites and blogs have published reviews on the new Apple Intel MacBook notebook. Here is a selection:

Justin Jaffe's review at CNet

Hands on with the Apple MacBook at Engadget (with a lot of great pictures of the new notebook in both white and black...)

MacWorld: Apple's New MacBook: first impressions after a day with Apple's new consumer laptop


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Tuesday, May 16, 2006

The New Intel MacBook.....

After all the rumor and speculation, Apple have today unveiled their latest Intel based notebook, the MacBook, as a replacement for their iBook line.



As widely reported all the models sport a 13-inch screen and range in speed from 1.83 to 2.0 GHz powered by the Intel Core Duo chips.

Prices for the new MacBook start at £749 at the UK Apple Store (1.83 GHz, 13.3 -Inch Screen, 512MB Mem, 60 GB & Combo Drive) going up to £1028.99 for the top of the line, black 2.0 GHz, 512 MB, 80GB HD with a SuperDrive.

In addition there is a mid level model in white at £899, also with a 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo chip, a 60GB HD & the SuperDrive.

All three models also benefit from the integrated iSight camera and the MagSafe Power adaptor that were launched with the MacBook pro line earlier in the year. the MacBooks also ships with Apple's FrontRow software package and the accompanying Remote Control, Mac OS X Tiger and iLife '06

All in all, these notebooks sounds pretty good and based on the pictures available, the new black Macbook looks very slick.....


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Friday, May 12, 2006

MacBook Pro Battery Issues

It seems that there may be a problem with some of early batches of MacBook Pro notebook batteries according to various sources on the net. As detailed in a post on The Apple Core (one of the ZD Net blogs) there is a problem with some of the early batteries produced for the MacBook Pro. Those MacBook Pros with a serial number up to W8608 could potentially be affected.


To check the serial number on your MacBook Pro, remove the battery, and the details on a label inside.....


According to Jason D. O'Grady's post....."Symptoms of a MacBook Pro battery problem include: power level going from a full charge to 90 percent, then immediately off. The battery usually either goes straight to one blinking LED or won't respond at all. Some may experience a significant loss of battery capacity as well."


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Wednesday, May 10, 2006

New Apple MacBook - iBook Replacement

Having launched the Pro line of their new Intel-based notebooks earlier this year, it seems that Apple is now poised to unveil their replacement for the consumer targetted iBook any time now.

Believed to be called the MacBook, according to AppleInsider the new machines will be powered by Core Duo Intel processors, as well as sharing the Pro line MagSafe (clever magnetic power cable connector) and the integrated iSight camera. In terms of size, the new MacBook will com in with a 13-inch screen as a replacement for both the 12- and 14- inch iBooks and will initially be available in white, although there have been rumours that other colours (including black) will be produced.

The Macbook is reported to be due this month.....


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Thursday, May 04, 2006

MacBook Pro: BlackBerry Update 2

A quick update on this for the BlackBerry users out there, Pocketmac have produced an updated version of their Pocketmac for BlackBerry software.

Version 3.13 includes the update dealing with issues related to the Intel Macs. I have installed the software on my MacBook Pro and everything works just as it is supposed to. It took all of 2 minutes to confirm my preferences and get my BlackBerry synched up with my notebook. The contacts on my BB transferred over to my my Address Book and the BB calendar updated iCal with my schedules. You can also synch up your To Do lists, notes etc.

There is also the option to synch up with other apps (like Entourage if you are running it).

You can downloaded the updated software here


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