Steve Jobs is leaving Apple. Not tomorrow, but probably very soon. That's why he started to say good bye today, doing something more important than just presenting new MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and an updated MacBook Air. Today's event was a play in which he clearly told everyone that the company is more than himself.
In one of his characteristically terse email replies, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has reportedly told one Mac user that changes in video camera technology have reduced the need for FireWire on his company's 13-inch MacBooks.
Hardware hackers have already got their mitts on Apple's latest MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops - and taken the new notebooks to bits.
Actually, it looks quite easy: push in a flip-up catch to release the battery cover and you have access to the MacBook's battery and - retained by a single screw - HDD. Remove these and the remaining case screws, and the memory, logic board, optical drive, speakers and so on are right before you for inspection and removal.
Apple on Tuesday was sued in Arkansas by Luxpro Corp., a Taiwanese electronics company, for contract interference, attempted monopolization of the MP3 player market, unfair competition, and commercial disparagement.
The lawsuit represents a continuation of a long-running legal fight between Apple and Luxpro. It alleges that Apple has used illegal tactics, such pressuring Luxpro's retail partners to stop selling Luxpro music players, in an attempt to monopolize the MP3 music player market.
At its notebook announcement, Steve Jobs said NVIDIA had presented Apple with a new chip it had in development that incorporated the company's high performance graphics platform into a part that would also handle the general interface of a computer's main Intel processor, a task typically performed by a series of components referred to as a chipset.
Yesterday, Apple didn't announce a netbook. When asked why, Jobs replied "That's a nascent market that's just getting started, and we'll see how it goes."
Nascent it may be, but it isn't stopping people rolling their own OS X netbooks. We did it here at Gadget Lab (in fact, I just put in a new, Apple-supported wireless card this morning — more on that soon), and now Flung, over at NetBook Tech, has managed it with Lenovo's new IdeaPad S10, which we previously declared "The Best Netbook We've Seen All Year."
Apple has just released a major update to the MacBook line, leaving the original white plastic model in the mix but lowering the price to $999; the two new models are priced at $1299 and $1599. You can see a video overview of the new beasties at Apple's site.
The new models feature the same unibody aluminum construction process as the MacBook Pro; video chores are handled by the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M display subsystem with 256 MB of shared video RAM, a dramatic performance boost from the older Intel integrated graphics -- Apple claims 2.5x-6x better 3D performance on gaming tests.
Even the MacBook Air got a boost, 9 months after the first release in January. As with the rest of the MacBook line, the new Air features the Nvidia GeForce 9400M GPU and the Mini Display Port. The MacBook Air now supports DVI, dual-link DVI, and VGA video output. It will connect to the new Apple LED Cinema Display and can drive other displays up to 30 inches in size. Unlike many of the other MacBooks, it doesn't have the new glass trackpad. The big deal from today's announcement? The top level MacBook Air now has a slightly faster CPU, faster memory, and a 128 GB solid state drive.
Almost eight years ago, Apple introduced the Titanium PowerBook, and with it the company ushered in a wave of industrial laptop design that in many ways, is still unmatched. Although the 2003 and 2006 refreshes to the lineup changed the material (from titanium to aluminum) and processor (from PowerPC to Intel), the basic design has remained essentially the same.
The clock is ticking toward the big Apple event - you know, the one where the company is expected to announce the sub-$1,000 notebook and/or a new design to the MacBook line and/or the move into Nvidia’s graphics chipset and/or something altogether different. (Dontcha just love the Apple rumor mill?)
