Using the MacBook Air is “…like Christmas, your birthday, and Valentine’s Day all rolled into one”

Elizabeth Mateo, who is the founder of the newsletter and blog, Casa Naranja, a style-conscious Hispanic publication, compared the MacBook Air, the Cloudbook and the Sony VAIO Tz298n for CNN.
(See whole article at: Here)

She writes, “When I started this test, I was more inclined to use the VAIO, since I have been a PC user for 20 years… But as time wore on, the VAIO became less attractive. For example, high-def movie trailers played flawlessly on the Air and really showed off its screen. Sony’s processor was not powerful enough to render video smoothly, so it was a choppy, unpleasant viewing experience. ”

“The Cloudbook…, which uses a Linux-based operating system called Ubuntu, was the runt of the litter. Booting the machine up was dog slow, and the keyboard felt mushy and cheap. It could stall for minutes at a time,” Mateo reports. “The Cloudbook is designed to offer basics such as e-mail and the web, and the price is nice. The performance isn’t.”

In short time, she says, the MacBook Air won her over. It doesn’t compromise on keyboard or screen size; and as someone aware of style, Mateo adds, “The MacBook Air is going to get approving looks no matter where you go… there’s no denying the thing is gorgeous. It feels great in your hands and somehow seems lighter than the VAIO, even though it actually isn’t. The trackpad is large, and scrolling is intuitive. You use two fingers to scroll, one finger to mouse, just like the iPhone. Using the Air is like Christmas, your birthday, and Valentine’s Day all rolled into one.”

What is Mateo’s ultimate conclusion? “I now lust for this laptop and will switch to a Mac as soon as possible.”

Reviews of the New Apple iMac

Gregg Keizer of Computerworld takes a look at the newest iMac and finds a lot to be impressed with. The new iMac has Intel Core 2 Duo processors, which run up to 3.06GHz; they are equipped with 6MB L2 cache, and provide a significant increase in speed — up to 1,066 MHz. The CPU speeds are increased across the line, and faster graphics has been added to the top-end 24-inch model, which “peaks out” at 3.06GHz.

It also features NVIDIA’s new GeForce 880 GS graphics card. The new iMacs, like the the newest range of MacBooks, now support up to 4GB of memory, 2GB of RAM standard, which is upgradeable to 4GB.

This graphics boost is not only aimed at gamers, but at consumers and professionals who want and need the faster image processing. “We want to make the iMac even more appealing to even more people, whether that’s gamers looking [to play] great games or consumers and creative professional who want to run pro-level software faster,” said Tom Boer, senior director of Apple desktop product marketing.

The look is still sleek and sexy. “The iMac’s gorgeous aluminum and glass all-in-one design has been an incredible hit with our customers and is just one of the reasons Mac sales are growing three and a half times faster than PC sales,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. “With the latest Intel processors, a faster new graphics option and more memory, customers now have even more reasons to love the iMac.”

The new iMacs can support up to 4GB of 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory (shipping with 2GB pre-installed in most models). The computers come with AirPort Extreme, iLife 08, Leopard, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet; built-in iSight video cameras. There is also a total of five USB 2.0 ports (including two on the Apple Keyboard). One FireWire 400 and one FireWire 800 port are also featured.

From an environmental perspective, the iMac shows Apple’s commitment to “green” computers, with recyclable and durable materials which include a scratch-resistant glass and professional grade aluminum. MacWorld UK reports, “Every model in the iMac line is rated EPEAT Silver and the power-efficient iMac also meets the stringent Energy Star 4.0 requirements for power consumption. Customers who purchase any qualifying Apple computer can recycle their old PC or Mac for free via the Apple Recycling Program.”

This is the first update for the iMac line since last August. They have been an extremely popular line. For instance, in the first quarter of 2008, Computerworld reports, “Apple sold 856,000 desktop machines, the vast bulk of them iMacs — 37% more than in the same period last year. For the quarter overall, Apple sold nearly 2.3 million Macs, a 51% year-to-year gain; according to Gartner, that growth rate was three and a half times the industry average.” These newer, faster and more powerful iMacs will surely make the line even more popular.

The prices range from £799 to £1,389.00 and all come standard with a remote. For more information: Visit the Apple Store.

Defying The Global Economy Crunch, Apple Profits Jump 36% on Mac Sales and More

In the quarter ending 29 March, Apple has reported a net profit of $1.05bn (£0.53bn) compared with $770m in the same period a year earlier. Apple shipped an astonishing 2,289,000 Mac computers during this quarter, which is a 51% rise from the previous year.
International sales were a hefty 44% of Apple’s revenue, which totaled $7.51bn in this quarter.

“We’re delighted to report 43% revenue growth and the strongest March quarter revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.
“With over $17bn in revenue for the first half of our fiscal year, we have strong momentum to launch some terrific new products in the coming quarters.”

Dispelling fears about a saturated market for media players, Apple reported that
10,644,000 iPods were sold during the quarter. This is a 1% rise from last year’s numbers.

Apple has also reported shipping 1.7 million iPhones. This seems like a healthy enough number, although some analysts questioned the iPhone’s success, since O2 and Carphone Warehouse reduced the UK retail price of the standard handset by £100 to £169 in an effort to attract new customers.

Analysts expectations were surpassed by these impressive figures, but Apple is being cautious about the outlook for the remainder of 2008. With the economy slowing everywhere, the company said that it expected revenue to total $7.2 billion for the next quarter, which is less than some of the Wall Street analysts expected.

They CAN Get Some Satisfaction: The Rolling Stones Love Their Apple Products

Variety.com posted an interview with Richard Kerris, who is the chief technical officer of Lucasfilm. He was also the technical adviser on the last two Rolling Stones tours. Interviewed by David Cohen of Variety, he talked about the Stones use of Macs, iPods and GarageBand.

Kerris says: “On the 40 Licks tour, which is where it started, they’d record every single show. They’ve done that for years, but what they’d do with the Licks tour, they would actually record it to a laptop. If you look at any of the old videos from that tour you’ll see a laptop, a Mac laptop sitting behind Charlie, everything’s recorded with these two stereo mics, so they have a rough, they have a full 48-track underneath, but everything goes into that laptop. Everything’s connected to a little distribution amp with five Firewire cables hanging off of it. So while the band was doing their bows and the fireworks were going at the very end, the backline crew would plug in their iPods, synchronize the thing, and put in their bathrobes an iPod that had that night’s show, so when they came offstage, they’d grab their stuff, get in their car and they would have the show with them right then and there. No one had done anything like that at all.”

Apparently, this was originally Mick’s idea. As soon as the iPod was released, he saw the value of it, and wanted to use it to immediately capture a night’s performance for the purpose of review and critique. Shortly afterwards, they discovered iLife’s GarageBand’s qualities. Says Kerris, “…they used GarageBand for their last album as they did all their demos. That was mainly Mick and Keith. Keith doesn’t use the computer as much, he just recognizes what part it plays.”

ACS Egham International School: Teaching and Learning Languages Through Podcasts

An exciting article was posted on the Apple site about the success of technology in teaching languages:

“Learning a new language can be very frightening for a young child”, says Wendy Brandse, 2nd Grade Class Teacher at ACS Egham. “Making a podcast is something they can be successful at straight away. They can record and listen to themselves, and delete and re-record if there is a mistake. The child has control, and doesn’t feel exposed to the whole class, while the teacher can monitor more effectively how each child is doing”.

ACS Egham is one of three ACS International Schools, all located in south or west London. Egham’s students range in age between 2 1/2 and 18 and hail from over 70 different countries. All three schools are International Baccalaureate World Schools, and ACS Egham is one of only three schools in all of the UK which offers IB Middle Years Programme and IB Primary Years Programme. Many of the students’ parents are professionals with internationally-based careers; many of the students join the school with very little or no prior knowledge of English. For instance, in Ms. Brandse’s 2nd Grade class, only one student is a native English speaker. Although English as an additional language is taught, the standard classes are taught in English. Therefore, learning English quickly from very early stages is extremely important.

ACS Egham has addressed this challenge by embracing technology. It has a large number of both desktop and notebook Macs not only in the computer labs but throughout classrooms. Teachers have been provided with a variety of multimedia learning aids which include audio and video recorders, interactive whiteboards and still cameras. Apple’s iLife is an important component for both staff and students, who find the software easy to use.

Although the programme is still in its pilot stage, Wendy Brandse has seen exciting benefits in her 2nd grade class. The students are not only using the technology to record their speech and make improvements; they are quickly using the medium in their new language to tell stories, to create artistically.

The article states, “After only a few months of exposure to English, seven year-old student Barbara found the medium gave her confidence to record a remarkable story she had written and illustrated. A number of her classmates saw her success and followed suit.”

“We were amazed at the way Barbara was able to improve her language through a process of recording and listening and editing, mainly on her own”, she says. “Being ‘published’ is also really important as a motivator for the children. It helps to spread the word. Once Barbara’s peers could see what she had achieved, they wanted to make podcasts to show off their English language skills, too”.

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