Mac

Apple’s new MacBook Air lineApple released an update for the MacBook Air in October that corrected an issue where the laptop might not wake properly when connected to an external monitor, along with a bug that could cause the system, to stop responding when playing movie trailers in iMovie ‘11. Like the first update, the…

I’ve had trouble waiting. Over the subsequent weeks, I found myself continuing to return to this topic. Where exactly is Apple heading with all of this? Does Apple really hope to transform the Mac into a giant iOS device? Would Apple actually risk making such a dramatic change? Would it throw overboard all of the…

Reeder for Mac OS XSince Reeder for the Mac is in an early public beta phase, its feature set isn’t complete yet. Searching, downloads and feed management, for example, are currently missing in action.Gloria, the developers behind Reeder, aren’t saying yet when they plan to release a final version will ship or how much it…

What made PhotoFast’s SSD upgrades was their speed. While Apple also offers a 256GB SSD option on its MacBook Air models, they operate with a read/write speed between 150MB/sec and 160MB/sec. PhotoFast’s would run with a read/write speed of 250MB/sec. We don’t know, of course, why Apple asked the company to stop making these upgrades.…

FingerPrint from Collobos SoftwareCollobos Software’s FingerPrint supports most printers and doesn’t require Mac OS X 10.6.5 — a limitation of Apple’s own AirPrint software. Instead, FingerPrint supports Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6, although it does require iOS 4.2 to provide the necessary print components for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.FingerPrint is priced at…

Mr. Munster told investors that he has analyzed recent NPD Mac sales data, which is up 20% year over year. “…it leads us to a Mac number of 4.1 M to 4.3 M [for the quarter ending in December]…. This early data, along with our assumptions for international Mac sales, which are growing faster than…

While the company didn’t specifically announce that these are the same thin SSDs Apple is using in the MacBook Air, our friends at MacRumors noted that both the Blade X-gale and Apple’s SSD units, which is not-so-coincidentally supplied by Toshiba, have the same part numbers. The 64GB and 128GB units are a mere 2.2mm tall,…

WaterRoof (that’s the opposite of FireWall, get it?) is a GUI that allows you to interact with ipfw without all that nasty mucking about on the command line. When you start WaterRoof, you may be taken aback by the initial dialog, which provides buttons for Rules and Logs, and a Help button. Your first choice…

Citing a single unnamed source “familiar with the progress of the technology,” CNet said Light Peak will appear earlier, rather than later, in that first half of 2011, which means Apple could be introducing it in the first quarter. Intel has been developing the technology for years, and first demonstrated it in 2009 (on a…

Let’s start with the bottom line. Are you happy with the new MacBook Air? Delighted. Spectacularly so. The MacBook Air is all that I expected it to be — and more. My old MacBook Pro (MBP) had been a reliable workhorse. But I can’t say I ever enjoyed using it. In fact, if I had…

The Firmware Restoration CD is available as a downloadable disk image at the Apple Support Web site and must be converted to a physical CD before use. Here’s how: After downloading the Firmware Restoration CD disk image, launch Disk Utility. It’s in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder on your Mac’s hard drive. Select…

The TSA’s policy kills the notion that electronic devices without hard drives can stay in traveler’s bags since the 13.3-inche version of the MacBook Air has to pass through X-ray machines outside of carryon bags. Like the 11.6-inch MacBook Air, the 13.3-inch model uses flash RAM for data storage instead of a hard drive.The 11.6-inch…

Most of the new MacBook Air’s body is filled with six lithium-polymer batteries, leaving just a small space near the back for the tiny circuit board that includes the processor, system memory and solid state storage. This laptop doesn’t have room for an internal hard drive, so Apple when with flash memory, just like the…

FaceTime for Mac (Apple)The FaceTime public beta is available now from Apple. It’s a .dmg file that contains a .mpkg installer. When I see that, I get curious about the contents of the package, but if you take a look at the files (File -> Show Files) you’ll be blocked from seeing them. What is…

There’s no word on why Apple chose to leave Flash Player out of the new laptop’s factory software installation, which will no doubt lead to speculation that the company is beginning to distance itself even more from the current Internet media playback standard.The new MacBook Air: Flash-free. Sort of.Flash isn’t supported on Apple’s iOS devices…

“We believe the iPad is a ‘magical’ content display device, [but] our experience has been less than stellar when actually trying to create content on it,” Mr. Marshall said. “Enter the hardware refresh… it is our view the updated MacBook Air will be a phenomenal ‘mobile content creating’ device and not cannibalistic with the iPad.”Apple introduced…

 The Apple Magic Trackpad is a blessing, but in disguise. It’ll require new muscle memory for dedicated mouse users, is better than a conventional trackball, and has amazing new features. But it’ll require a period of acclimation. The Apple Magic Trackpad was released on July 27, 2010 without a lot of fanfare. It’s a five…

An Apple patent looks very iMac touch-likeRumors that Apple has been working on a touchscreen-based iMac have been circulating for some time, and last week’s report seemed to add more fule to that fire. With the company’s denial, however, it seems less likely that Apple is working on bringing a touch-based iMac to market any…

The Parallels Desktop virtual machine environment for Macs just keeps getting better and better. Incremental refinements make it easier to install, more intuitive and always a little faster. Here’s my report on upgrading to version 6. Parallels Desktop version 6 for Macintosh (PD6) was released on September 14. TMO covered the news, and the story…

The report said that the displays have an integrated cover glass and touch sensor system, and that this has resulted in a “good vertical and horizontal viewing angle.” This solution contrasts with traditional solutions that have touch sensors that are placed on top of the glass, which DigiTimes’ sources characterized as “costly and complex, [and…

StreamWatcher displays a widow which shows all network connections between your Mac and other computers, be they on your local network, or on the Internet. For each connection, or stream, it displays the protocol being used (TCP or UDP) the source machine and port, the destination machine and port, the current upload and download speed…

I spend a fair amount of time in hotel rooms these days, and lately, I’ve noticed a couple of trends in in-room entertainment. No, not that kind of entertainment — I’m talking about the increasing frequency of HDTVs and the decreasing quality of the programming available for them. I mean, how many different ways can…

“We have not found evidence that would establish beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone involved had criminal intent,” commented U.S. Attorney Zane D. Memeger.The school district was understandably pleased with the investigation outcome. “We are very pleased with today’s decision by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which supports the findings of our internal investigation,” said Superintendent…

Mr. Whitmore also told clients that Apple’s iPad is cannibalizing notebook sales, but that this cannibalization is taking place in the PC space, not from Apple’s own laptop line. In other words, Apple’s laptop sales grew even as the iPad hit the market like the PC industry’s worst nightmare. “Our retail checks suggest this share…