Naked Eyes - Promises, Promises

12 11 2008

Apple rumor headlining a blog is so cliche. So here is some old, new-romantic pop from the eighties instead.


Comments : No Comments »
Tags : , ,
Categories : Opinion

Rumor: Apple to Cut Notebook Production?

11 11 2008

If this is true, then I told you so :) Releasing over-priced notebooks when most of your customers fear losing their homes is a bad idea.

Maybe this will prompt a price cut to sensible levels (base models):

MacBook plastic - 799

MacBook unibody - 999

MacBook Pro unibody - 1499

… but probably not.


Comments : No Comments »
Tags : ,
Categories : Opinion

MehBooks, Proof of an Apple Netbook?

22 10 2008

John Markoff, well respected journo at the NYT has some interesting evidence on a Mac Netbook.

When you consider the insane prices Apple are asking for the two notebooks announced last week, a netbook strategy makes sense. Particularly if Apple wants to crack 10% marketshare, that sub-$1,000 market is going to be the key. Apple have an OS that runs great on just about anything faster than a calculator and all kinds of web services that would make a netbook really useful, not just some dumb toy.

If Apple liked the taste of subscription revenue it got from iPhone year one, imagine what a popular netbook tied to Me.com and its web-iLife experience would be like. Close to a million netbooks are sold every month. A Mac powered version at a competitive price would do very well. Imagine if those were bundled with a year of a killer web service like Me.com that people would come to depend on, and that only costs $99 year? Even a 25% conversion would be a $100 million in new subscriber revenue per year.

It seems clear to me that everyone is going in that direction. Maybe Apple will be first to the party.


Comments : No Comments »
Tags : , , ,
Categories : News

Apple MehBook and MehBook Pro Announced

15 10 2008

It’s taken me a few days to shake off the disappointment and post about how bad these new Apple notebooks are. In particular I feel an obligation to point out the poor value compared to their predecessors.

Maybe it was the talk of lower margins in Q3 (you remember, during Apple’s August investor conference call) that had me primed for a value priced Mac portable. Clearly neither of these two new notebooks is going to deliver Macs to the masses. Even worse, the remaining last-gen units on the Apple store are barely marketed down and this is more than a little insulting.

Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : No Comments »
Tags : , , , , ,
Categories : News

Apple’s Brick to Smash Windows?

29 09 2008

I like to take stabs at guessing what Apple has in the pipeline as much as anyone else. Although I can’t claim to have any degree of accuracy it’s still fun. Very few people read this site so it spares me from embarrasment when I miss the mark.

My prediction: Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags : , , ,
Categories : Opinion

Shopping for a MacBook Air? Beware the ‘Mac Guy’

8 09 2008

Sure they look friendly, lingering in the Best Buy Mac section but it’s all just a ruse.

Recently, on one of my many notebook shopping junkets I stopped in to Best Buy to have a gander at a MacBook Air. Knowing that Apple’s notebooks sometimes suffer from heat I checked the base. It was cool to the touch.

I clicked the power profile and it was ‘Custom.’ I set it to normal and decided to come back a little later to see what the temp was like. The store was quiet and I could see that apart from the black shirted Apple guy the area was clear. About 30 minutes later I came back to check on my project but the power was set back to ‘Custom.’

Apple guy was watching me with a smug look on his face. Maybe he thought I was some misguided Windows apologist here to sabotage his display unit. I told him what I was trying to do and he stated tht there is no heat issue. I could tell that if I repeated my experiment he would again foil my efforts so I bought something else instead.

My unsubstatiated opinion is that the memo is out re: MacBook Air heat issues and he was doing his duty to conceal the notebooks heat issues.


Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags : ,
Categories : News

Dell and Lenovo: Setting the Bar High

19 08 2008

I covered the great new product introductions from Dell last week, and if I ever get review samples of these great new notebooks expect to see a detailed write-up here and/or on www.techreport.com. Highlights were the very distinctive and well thought out industrial design, LED screens, Centrino 2 and great battery life.

Lenovo has been busy too. NBR has previews of the T400 and T500 - the 14″ and 15″ follow ups to the T61. A quick look at pricing shows a LED backlit T400 for under $1,000.00 CDN. Wow!

This is a solid Centrino 2 notebook with 4-5 hour battery life (longer with a bigger battery). I’ll need to get my hands on one.

I wonder what Apple has in store for us. Will they wait until 30 days after BTS season is done, or can they get their refresh out in time? There is about a month left before we’ll know.


Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags : , , , ,
Categories : Opinion

55° Celcius is Too Hot

18 08 2008

That is 131° F for you imperial types. Right now my undervolted and underclocked MacBook is that exact temperature (measured on the bottom). This is poor engineering and form over function - sorry Jonathan the truth hurts.

Many people think that the term notebook was introduced to discourage people from using their portables on their laps. It is a plausible theory. A few years ago there were stories in the press reporting of severe burns from using laptops as the name would suggest; on a lap.

Looking back at the iBook G3 and PowerBook G3 introductions, those notebooks lasted 4-5 hours and temperatures were reasonable. Since then we have developed a need for far more power - that means heat and more power consumption. While Intel’s Centrino promised cool and long lasting portable performance we are still behind where we were 10 years ago in a couple of important metrics.

How do you solve it? I would argue that ULV processors in the 1.0-1.5 Ghz range, coupled with lots of RAM could keep most users happy.


Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags : , , , , ,
Categories : Opinion

iPhone or Notebook? What about Netbook?

12 08 2008

Answer:

An iPhone is no match for a notebook of course. It’s not so easy call it if you are comparing the iPhone to a netbook though. But I am basing this on the 700 series ASUS Eee - a device whose novelty outweighs its utility.

An Eee’s 7″ screen is not very useful. It’s storage is lower. A tiny little keyboard is not really any better than a virtual one - especially one as good as the iPhone’s (keep in mind that the Eee does not auto correct). Although powered by a basic smartphone CPU, the iPhone does not really feel any slower than the Eee. App store is more accessible and cloud computing applications work great on it because of its full browser.

But the real point of this post - allow me to be the millionth blogger to mention the iPhone WordPress app. Very cool. But landcape mode would be appreciated.


Comments : No Comments »
Tags : ,
Categories : Opinion

Spy Pictures of New MacBook? Not!

4 08 2008

At least I hope not.

Macrumors has the scoop on an set of pictures showing us the alleged new MacBook case in a new material; heat dissipating aluminum. Those of us previously burned (literally) know that first-gen Apple products are  better avoided. For every iPhone there are TiBooks (hinges), iBooks (logic boards and batteries) and Aluminum PowerBooks (heat, sodimm slots, screens).

Now that MB and MBP thermals are sorted out - BAM! we get a new form factor. Why not a subtle tweak? A MacBook with LED backlit 16:9 screen, HD iSight (2 MP, big deal), HDMI port, Blu Ray option and a x4500 graphics would be sweet enough. Call it the MacBook HD.

Likewise, give me a similarly bumped MacBook Pro HD with similar (but beefed up) specs and I would be happy. No need to re-invent the wheel especially as your competitors are still scrambling to catch up on design and are shut-out from teh true Apple gem; OS X.

Intel’s delay on Montevina has screwed all the PC makers up. BTS selling season is either going to be late if consumers wait, or folks will just take advantage of great deals on Santa Rosa books. Besides, its all small bumps until next summer when Nehalem mobile platform is shipping in notebooks.

Now is not the best time for a new form factor. Next year brings a computing revolution in Nehalem and (maybe) Larrabee. Better to wait.


Comments : No Comments »
Tags : , , , , ,
Categories : News

« Previous Entries