Tag Archive for 'apple'

What to think about the new MacBook Air

Ulysse Sabbag | October 30, 2010

Since it seems that Apple wasn’t clear enough while unveiling the MacBook air and explaining its purposes, if you feel curious today, here’s a batch of interesting reads to clearly understand its raison d’être.

Gizmodo thinks (and rightfully so) that the new MacBook Air is the death of the MacBook Pro.

No, I’m not trying to attract visitors by saying this (it’s not my headline) but I think that in the future, there will be a clear separation between portable Macs. We will have portable workstations and light notebooks. The 13-inch MacBook Pro will be radically changed and the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros will become the aforementioned workstations.

Marco Arment has another vision.

And if you want to know everything about these notebooks, just follow AppleInsider’s exhaustive review.

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Back to the Mac: Now what?

Ulysse Sabbag | October 20, 2010

Apple announced a new MacBook Air, a new version of Mac OS X and iLife ’11. But they also announced a new philosophy.

Their hardware vision of the future is the MacBook Air they made. Flash storage, (lighter, safer) high-resolution display, important graphics processor and so forth. My first impression is that it is great, but I don’t like the MacBook Air. They aren’t powerful. Steve, we didn’t ask for an iPad with an actual keyboard, we asked for a multitasking-capable machine. We’ll see. I don’t think that the next MacBook Pros are going to go through the flash memory treatment, but it’s just an early opinion.

Their software vision of the future is iOS. iOS meets OS X. Multi-touch gestures, on the trackpad and the Mouse—which has finally become useful. As you probably think, the Mac App Store is a broken promise. It’s not because Steve said that there won’t be a Mac App Store that only allows approved apps. So, the Mac App Store (MAS) will probably be a great experience and more certainly a place where you can buy quality software for relatively low prices.

The real thing is the trackpad. The future is there. Both hardware and software use it and this is where everything will happen.

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iPad retail price index

Ulysse Sabbag | October 18, 2010

This is funny. The Economist has published an interesting chart showing iPad’s retail price throughout the world. Just like the Big Mac index. With Apples.

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‘Back to the Mac’ Apple keynote on October 20

Ulysse Sabbag | October 13, 2010

Mac OS 10.7 and what else? A lion, of course people.

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Is Android a threat to the iPhone?

Ulysse Sabbag | October 8, 2010

The blogosphere is all warmed up today because of the latest Nielsen research results. Android is the most popular operating system in the US among recent smartphone buyers.

Though RIM and iPhone OS are close, Android is on the rise.

Now, the very serious Bits blog from the New York Times posted an article stating that the iPhone has a real fight on its hands?

We must ask ourselves, is that true?

It seems that nobody noticed Apple’s policy change. It’s not called iPhone OS anymore, people, it’s called iOS and Apple doesn’t care anymore about iPhone-centric statistics. Apple is surely losing momentum. But they know things happen very fast and they know the iPhone cannot be king forever. Just like for the Mac. So they launch new products.

Please do not forget: Android is available on more than twenty (20) phones. Apple is aware of this fact.

For them, the iPad is the most important device. With billions of dollars in the tablet industry, the iPhone is starting to lose its luster. But it’s OK for Apple.

So, yes, Android is a threat to the iPhone, but right now, Apple has the innovation momentum and not the product momentum. Which is way more important.

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Is your Mac slow? Try these simple solutions

Ulysse Sabbag | October 8, 2010

Great write-up from TNW. It details various things you should try when you feel your Mac is slow. However, the article is concluded with an interesting psychological analysis. In fact, there aren’t much things you can do about your Mac’s speed.

At first, when you buy your Mac, you want it to be amazingly fast so you think it is. And as time goes by, you think your Mac is getting slower but it isn’t—it’s just the fact that since it’s getting older, you think that it will slow things.

I’m afraid I’ll have to disagree. The experience with your Mac isn’t psychic. When you feel it it slow, it unfortunately means that it is slow. Test it, you’ll see. Let’s not fall into psychologic answers for very pragmatic and mechanic questions.

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Steve Jobs NeXT years: why Apple is doing well

Ulysse Sabbag | October 3, 2010

He’s the same Steve in his passion for excellence, but a new Steve in his understanding of how to empower a large company to realize his vision.

—Kevin Compton, on when Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997.

Read the New York Times story.

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7-inch iPad, FaceTime iPad: the problem is the rumors

Ulysse Sabbag | September 20, 2010

I’m done people, I don’t want to hear about iPad rumors anymore. And since they’re a piece of Apple-related news, iPad rumors pollutes my feeds. We don’t need these rumors for a bunch of simple reasons.

First, Apple is evidently building a FaceTime iPad. This just makes sense. And if they don’t, well, they would contradict their own product expansion policy. This is too irrational, even for Steve.

Second, it would be illogical for Apple to build a 7-inch iPad. Though it may be possible. I’m not helping, right? Actually, we can’t know for sure. Steve Jobs was very clear when he announced the iPad, last January: it fits into a new family of devices. It is not a phone and it is not a computer (nor a netbook, to be precise).

People should have known there won’t be an iPhone nano when the iPhone 3G was released. Then, we knew the iPhone would evolve year after year, generation after generation as a unique device in Apple’s phones family.

Concerning the iPad, we will know if they will build a 7-inch iPad as soon as the second generation is announced. And there’s more: we will know more clearly what is their policy about the iPad family.

When people will start to think about the rumors instead of spreading them like peanut butter, I will feel better.

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Stop with Ping shitty puns

Ulysse Sabbag | September 3, 2010

Stop guys, seriously. “Apple is being ping’d by spam”, “Apple and Facebook are scrap-ping”. No, please, no.

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Apple updates iPods, Apple TV, iTunes and iOS

Ulysse Sabbag | September 2, 2010

Get to know more about the new iPods here, the revamped Apple TV over here, iTunes there and finally iOS there.

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iTunes sample lengths may double to 1 minute

Ulysse Sabbag | August 31, 2010

This will probably be announced tomorrow.

LG’s exec: our tablet will own the iPad

Ulysse Sabbag | August 21, 2010

Mr. Ma said that the iPad is a great device, but he doesn’t do much work on it. “Our tablet will be better than the iPad.”

Yeah dude.

Chang Ma is vice president of marketing.

Apple set to update Discussions forums to Communities

Ulysse Sabbag | August 18, 2010

With a social direction. Like before, they’d like to revolutionize the way people help others.

How the Magic Trackpad could change the world

Ulysse Sabbag | July 29, 2010

This partially consists as a response to The Next Web’s post: 5 ways Apple’s Magic Trackpad could change the world and more particularly to the bottom of the article: A whole new wave of computer art.

For a new wave of computer art to arrive, there is, in my sense, a little more to achieve than releasing a device. Sure, the pen did great for the cause of art in general yet the Magic Trackpad isn’t as revolutionary.

Computer art needs precision. And even when I try to do some light image editing with Preview on my Mac, my trackpad isn’t sufficiently precise.

The Magic Trackpad will, maybe—hopefully!—allow people to access computer art more easily but nothing is less sure. So your fifth reason isn’t truly one.

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Apple updates iMac, Mac Pro (12 core), unveils Magic Trackpad

Ulysse Sabbag | July 27, 2010

Today, Apple updated its entire line of desktop computers.

The Mac Pro will feature an impressive 12 core processor and many hardware improvements. Available to buy in August. More information from Ai and Apple.

The new Mac Pro desktops feature the latest quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors, all-new ATI graphics and the option for up to four 512GB solid state drives (SSD). The processors run at speeds up to 3.33GHz and use a single die design so they can share up to 12MB L3 cache, improving efficiency while increasing processing speeds.

The iMac is now available with Core i3, i5 and i7 processors along with the ATI Radeon graphics starting at the attractive price of 1199$. More information from Ai and Apple.

Starting at $1,199, the new iMac line is the fastest ever with dual-core processor speeds up to 3.6 GHz, quad-core speeds up to 2.93 GHz and discrete graphics including the ATI Radeon HD 5750.

The Cinema Displays now—well, in September—ships with a big, glossy 27-inch screen and the usual goodness. More info from Ai and Apple.

Apple on Tuesday took the wraps off its new 27-inch LED Cinema Display which sports a 2560 x 1440 resolution and 60 percent more screen real estate than the company’s existing 24-inch LED Cinema Display.

And finally, last, but the the only new product from this afternoon Mac frenzy is the Magic Trackpad. Which is quite similar to your MacBook Pro’s trackpad and should be used along your iMac. More info from Ai and Apple.

Apple has brought the multi-touch gestures available to MacBook users to the desktop with its new $69 Magic Trackpad, as well as a new battery charger for wireless devices like the Magic Trackpad, Apple keyboard, and Magic Mouse.

Plus, in an unprecedented eco-friendly move, Apple added the battery recharger that works for your Apple accessories. And since there’s an Apple on it, it’s the best.

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