Apple

February 18th, 2008

 

Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Interactive Media, 19 Entertainment, FremantleMedia and Apple®, for the first time, have partnered to bring music fans all of the contestant performances from Season Seven of television’s most popular show exclusively on the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com). Kicking off with the “American Idol” Top 24 semifinalists this week, customers can purchase music performances for 99 cents per song, and viewers will be able to purchase the full video of Top 12 finalist performances for $1.99, starting March 11. In addition, beginning today, fans can pre-order performances of their favorite contestants from the iTunes Store, which will be automatically downloaded the day after the show airs.

“We have some truly outstanding talent this year, and by working with Apple and iTunes, we’re giving viewers another great way to enjoy America’s brightest new stars from ‘Idol,’” said Simon Fuller, creator of “American Idol” and Founder of 19 Entertainment. “I’m sure there will be many memorable performances that viewers will want to relive from this 2008 season.”

“We’ve created a special section on the iTunes Store for ‘Idol’ fans with an incredible array of music and video performances from television’s most popular show,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We think ‘American Idol’ viewers are going to love the ability to purchase and download ‘Idol’ performances from iTunes.”

iTunes will also provide exclusive direct links from the free streaming performance videos on americanidol.com (www.americanidol.com), the official website of the show and home to MyIdol, the Internet’s largest “American Idol” fan site. Fans will be able to simply click through to iTunes if they want to purchase their favorite performances to own and enjoy on their iPod®, iPhone™ or Apple TV®.

More info at apple.com

July 24th, 2007

Rating:

 

Price:

15-inch - $1999

17-inch - $3099

Sure, you could buy a faster Windows machine for the same price, but it won’t be as sexy as Apple’s Macbook Pro notebook.

Available with either a 15-inch or a 17-inch screen, the Apple MacBook Pro proves that a desktop replacement notebook doesn’t have to be gargantuan. The 15-inch weighs just 5.4 pounds, while the 17-inch comes in at 6.8 pounds and a sleek 1 inch thick.

The great looking, brushed-aluminum shell of the MacBook Pro offers a clean, crisp design, which continues inside, with the monochromatic brushed-silver keyboard and deck. The keyboard is  comfortable and quiet, and the oversized touchpad and single mouse button are a delight to use.

The 15-inch, 1440 x 900-pixel screen is sharp and clear, with great color rendition for any application. The Nvidia 8600M GT graphics engine comes standard with 128MB VRAM. The 17-inch, 1680 x 1050-pixel widescreen (available in either antiglare or glossy) is clear and very bright, with superb color  reproduction for image and video editing. It also has the best viewing-angle performance available, making the MacBook  Pro great for presentations. If you want an even larger screen, the ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics engine drives an  external display up to 2560 x 1600 pixels.

Standard Apple hardware and software features are plentiful and you’ll love the backlit keyboard, which illuminates automatically, thanks to the machine’s  light sensor. The built-in iSight camera and software enable four-way videoconferencing, and the included remote launches and  controls Apple’s Front Row interface for playing movies, music, and photos from across the room. You’ll find FireWire 400 and  800 ports, and the ExpressCard slot accepts a Wireless EV-DO wireless broadband card. The MacBooks are also equipped with 802.11n Wi-Fi.

Then there are the extras of the Mac OS X 10.4 itself, including the Finder search utility and the Dashboard with dockable  Widget applets. The included iLife suite makes it easy to manage and edit photos with iPhoto, manage and expand your music  library with iTunes, make your own music with GarageBand, create movies and DVDs with iMovie and iDVD, create a Web site with  iWeb, and more. You can also load Apple’s Boot Camp utility and set up the MacBook Pro as a dual-boot machine running either  Mac OS X or Windows XP. In fact, the only software you’re likely to need to add is the Microsoft Office suite.

Performance from the 2.33-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and ATI graphics are very good and wireless throughput is excellent at 19.3 Mbps at 15 feet, and 14.6 Mbps at 50  feet. Battery life of 2 hours and 45 minutes is good for a 17-inch model.
 
For the price, you can definitely get a faster Windows notebook, but it won’t have all the Apple software and hardware extras, it’ll weigh at least two pounds more, and you know it won’t look nearly as great when you pull it out of your back pack or brief case!

Technical Specifications:

Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch

Screen: 15.4″ LED Backlit Screen @ 1440 x 900 Native Resolution
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 CPU at 2.2ghz (4MB Shared L2 Cache)
Memory: 2GB DDR2 PC2-5300 667mhz RAM
Hard Drive: 120GB HDD @ 5400RPM (Fujitsu)
Graphics: Nvidia 8600M GT with 128MB VRAM GPU
Optical Drive: Slot-loading 8x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVDRW/CD-RW)
Wireless: Apple Airport Extreme Wireless B/G/N
Built-in Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
Mac OS X 10.4.9 (Tiger)
Dimensions & Weight:
14.1″ x 9.6″ x 1.0″ (35.7cm x 24.3cm 2.59cm)
5.4lbs (2.45kg)
Cost: $1,999 USD ($1,799 with Education Discount)

Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch

Screen: 17-inch (diagonal) TFT display with support for millions of colors; optional glossy widescreen display
Processor: 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4MB on-chip shared L2 cache running 1:1 with processor speed
Memory: 2GB DDR2 PC2-5300 667mhz RAM
Hard Drive: 120GB HDD @ 5400RPM (Fujitsu)
Graphics: ATI Radeon x1600 with 128MB VRAM GPU
Optical Drive: Slot-loading 8x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVDRW/CD-RW)
Wireless: Apple Airport Extreme Wireless B/G/N
Built-in Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
Mac OS X 10.4.9 (Tiger)
Dimensions & Weight:
15.4″ x 10.4″ x 1.0″ (39.2 cm 26.5 cm 2.59 cm)
6.8lbs (3.08kg)
Cost: $3,099 USD

Bottom Line
Apple’s new MacBook Pro is ideal for creative professionals looking for a feature-rich system with plenty of screen real estate.

Pros
Very good performance running Windows and Mac OS. Lightest 17-inch notebook available. Great features. Excellent software suite. Extra USB port. iSight camera.

Cons
Runs a bit hot. Expensive.

July 21st, 2007

Rating:  

This may be the coolest iPod accessory ever! The sound is amazing and you can run it on batteries or A/C power. I listened to the Bose and other models before settling on the somewhat larger Hi-Fi, but the extra weight was definitely worthwhile …. you can’t beat the sound quality of the Apple iPod Hi-Fi Home Stereo.

It couldn’t be easier to set up the speaker …. just plug it in or inserting batteries, set your iPod in the cradle on top of the speaker using the appropriate dock adapter, and press play. I put the Hi-Fi in my kitchen about 10 inches from the rear wall and equal distance from side walls. I also made sure to put it as close to ear-level as I possible. This type of placement keeps the sound as smooth as possible and preserves the stereo imaging.

The iPod Hi-Fi ships with the standard Apple wireless infrared remote. Its controls look very similar to those of the iPod shuffle, but with a Menu button in addition to the track skip, play/pause, and volume buttons. The Menu button, however, doesn’t really work with the iPod, though you can press and hold it to switch from the dock connector input to the auxiliary input if you should have two devices connected simultaneously. It also comes with 10 iPod dock adapters for each model with a dock connector, all clearly labeled and set in a nice little box.

I really can’t imagine any more useful iPod accessory than my Apple Hi-Fi Home Stereo! Get yours now from Amazon:

July 11th, 2007

Rating:  

Price: $999 - 2,499 USD

Hands down, the best graphics package money can buy. We reviewed the eight applications that comprise the Design and Web editions of Adobe’s Creative Suite 3, and haven’t given any program a score of less than 4. Mac users should be especially pleased, since all the apps are now available as universal binaries.

If you’re involved with computer graphics (or want to be), Adobe has a program for you. But if more than one Adobe app appeals to you, then you may want to think about purchasing one of the Creative Suite packages instead of buying the apps à la carte. And with six different editions of the Adobe Creative Suite 3, to choose from, there’s definitely one tailored to your needs!

July 11th, 2007

Until Harman Kardon released its Drive+Play, iPod owners that wanted to use their player in the car had a couple of basic options that were less than elegant: an FM transmitter or a cassette adapter. (A few lucky souls had a direct input jack, but until recently, those were rare.) The choice between these options left most people wanting much more.

With the Drive+Play, Harman Kardon gave users of most automobiles the option to hardwire their iPods directly into their car’s audio system, providing both better sound quality and easier in-car control.

Hooking it up

The Drive+Play allows users to connect it to your car in three ways: It can connect directly to any car stereo with an auxiliary input jack (via a standard audio cable); to most stereos with a CD changer connecter (using an optional third-party adapter); or, for those who don’t want to go to the trouble of a more complex installation, via the Drive+Play’s built-in FM transmitter.

Drive+Play’s components

Even though my car is only two years old, I was not able to connect the unit directly to my car’s stock stereo—it has no auxiliary input jack, and the CD changer connection is already taken up by an in-dash 6-disc changer. Fortunately, I have a built-in entertainment unit with DVD and all the extras, so I was able to test the Drive+Play using that.

How does it sound?

I was most interested in how the Drive+Play’s sound compared to what my CD and DVD player produces. Most iPod car solutions I’ve tried have provided poor audio quality, leading me to not use them. While ease of use is very important to me, I would be willing to go through a little hassle for superior audio. With the Drive+Play, I had to make no such sacrifice.

The first connection approach I tried was the Drive+Play’s built-in FM Transmitter. As expected, the audio quality was less than stellar. I’m not a fan of any FM Transmitter solution—perhaps it’s where I live, but none of them seem to work well for me. I have talked to a couple of people that found the Drive+Play’s FM Transmitter worked fine for them. I just wouldn’t rely on a unit that only had the FM option.

Next, I connected the Drive+Play to my entertainment unit. This turned out to be a real plus for testing the system’s sound quality because I was able to use headphones to listen, switching between CD, DVD and Drive+Play inputs.

Using the standard iTunes settings for the songs on my iPod and music CDs and DVDs that I burned, I was hard pressed to tell the difference. The Drive+Play performed remarkable well, even surpassing my initial expectations. I tested it against store-bought discs as well and while there was a slight difference in sound quality, it was just that—slight. In other words, the sound quality your iPod is likely to be limited by the quality of the music files on it and by your car’s stereo, not the Drive+Play.

Drive+Play’s click wheel knob

When it comes to ease of use, the Drive+Play easily beats the other in-car solutions I’ve tried. A small screen mounted on your dashboard gives you the familiar iPod interface to navigate through your music. The included click wheel knob (which you also have to mount—preferably somewhere comfortable for you to reach) mimics the functions of the iPod click wheel for navigating the device.

Scrolling through a large amount of songs is very smooth and quick. I have about 4,500 songs on the iPod I tested, and I was able to scroll through songs, artists, and genres, quickly jumping between the lists. The Drive+Play was able to keep up with me the whole time. Of course, if you are scrolling through that many songs, finding one at the end of the alphabet will still take some time.

The only thing I was disappointed in with the Drive+Play is the screen. Although the screen is functional, its monochrome interface isn’t nearly as crisp and clear as the iPod’s own screen. A crisp color screen would have elevated the Drive+Play to untouchable heights. Still, that is a small issue when you consider all of the things the Drive+Play brings to the table.

The Lowdown

With a Drive+Play, you won’t have to fumble around, reaching awkwardly for your iPod as you drive down the highway at 70 miles an hour. The Drive+Play solves many issues iPod users have had from the first time they wanted to incorporate their music player into their car. From sound to safety, if you want an iPod in your car, there is nothing like the Drive+Play. 

June 26th, 2007

iPod nano is a miracle of miniaturization. Stacked up against Apple’s original efforts at putting 1,000 songs in your pocket, the nano’s “Impossibly small.” tag-line seems insufficient. Even the svelte and now surceased iPod mini seems like a jumbo Crayola crayon next to a black cabochon Cartier fountain pen.

If you feel smaller is better–and I realize not everyone does–then there’s a lot to love about the new iPod nano: It’s equally as unnoticeable in your pocket as the iPod and the razor-sharp screen is the smallest yet on an iPod, but it manages to display one more item in menus than the iPod mini’s larger screen. It can also fits artist, album, and track name information for the playing song, plus artwork.

To accommodate the narrow body, Apple shrank not only the screen but also the ClickWheel. The donut pad is 3/8-inch wide, down from about 5/8-inch on the iPod and iPod mini. The center button remains the same size. The diminutive click wheels takes a bit of getting used to, requiring more precise thumb movements than other iPods.

Apple shaved more than just size with the iPod mini’s successor, mind you, reducing capacity (by 2GB) and battery life (by about 4 hours). Like a magician that distracts the audience with one hand while the other prepares the next trick, Apple is hoping that consumers will be dazzled by the tiny form factor and color screen and not notice these changes. Or simply not care. Most probably won’t, but folks who compare the price per ounce of different sized boxes of the same breakfast cereal have even more incentive now to go for the higher-end iPod nano than they did with the iPod mini: the 4GB nano’s 25 percent price premium over the 2GB model buys you twice as much room for music or photos.

Not that photo functionality is a very compelling reason to buy an iPod nano. Unlike the full-size iPod, the iPod nano can’t hook up to a TV to display your photos and doesn’t support Apple’s camera connector for downloading photos on the fly. That leaves you with a mobile photo viewer that sports a screen likely smaller than your digital camera or cell phone. Couple that with the multi-megabyte size today’s digital photos are and storing any quantity on the iPod nano significantly cuts down on space for songs.

Still, I find myself nitpicking to find any problems with the iPod nano. It’s a device like none other out there and once again sets Apple far ahead of the competition. The biggest shortcoming I ran into with the iPod nano is its lack of FireWire support. You can still charge the nano over FireWire, but connecting it to your computer is strictly a USB affair, despite its standard iPod dock connector. Mac owners with iBooks or iMacs more than a couple years old that can’t add USB 2.0 to their systems will find this especially annoying since transferring songs over USB 1.1 is a bit of an experience in patience, especially when that high-speed FireWire port is sitting idle.

We’ve witnessed the music player market becoming increasingly competitive since the first iPod debuted nearly four years ago. As others vie to keep up with or outpace Apple, packing features like color screens months or years ahead of Apple, the iPod nano demonstrates that not only does Apple still have it to be the market leader, it’s probably not going to lose it any time soon.

Apple simply gets that the value of a product is best not measured in gigabytes or bells and whistles but in the joy that using it brings to its owner. In that respect, iPod nano is the best to date.

June 26th, 2007

strong>first take The new “enhanced” iPod looks like a tremendous improvement over the last one, with a brighter screen and better battery life.

At Apple’s media event, Steve Jobs jumped right into introducing an updated fifth-generation iPod. Not a tremendous surprise here, as we believed the sixth-generation “true video iPod” would not be announced until later in the year or even early in 2007. But the new “enhanced” iPod looks like a tremendous improvement over the last one, which debuted last October. The iPod has many incremental improvements, including a brighter screen and better battery life, but probably the most appealing aspect is the new price points of AU$380 for the 30GB version and AU$499 for the huge 80GB version.

Let’s talk about battery life first, since the pre-enhanced iPod has been dogged for its 2-plus hours of video battery life. Now you’ll get 75 percent more battery life with both sizes — that means you’ll get up to a rated 4.5 hours of video battery life for the 30GB version and up to 6.5 hours for the 80GB. Boosting battery life will always make a product more appealing, and it looks like Apple responded to all the complaints. Basically, this brings the iPod in line with other players, such as the Creative Zen Vision:M and the Toshiba Gigabeat S, in terms of video battery life. And now you can watch a couple of movies on a plane trip, plus have some extra juice for music and photos.

The new iPod also has a brighter screen — by up to 60 percent. Not that the iPod had a dim screen in the first place, but brighter is always better, especially when it doesn’t come at the cost of battery life. Gapless playback is probably one of the most requested features in any MP3 player. Those with dance mixes can now rejoice, and the feature works with virtually all the compatible formats. While this should have been added a long time ago, we commend Apple for turning the corner (the new iTunes 7 also has gapless playback).

The iPod’s software has been enhanced as well, and these new features definitely make the iPod better. First, you can search tunes using an alphabet-style instant search. OK, we’ve seen this on Creative and other products for a while, but it’s nice that Apple has observed the market and integrated this useful feature. Another “borrowed” feature is that as you scroll through tracks, the first letter of the track section appears as a graphical button overlay. Remind you of the Toshiba Gigabeat S? Finally, Apple has added a refined games section, which includes titles such as Bejeweled, Tetris, Texas Hold ‘Em, and Pac-Man. New games will be available online.

Just about every reviewer despises the bundled headphones. So Apple responded and will be shipping better-designed headphones — we can’t vouch for their comfort level and performance at this point, but any improvement is appreciated.

So that’s it — while the 6G “true video” iPod will still be a figment of the tech world’s imagination, the enhanced 5G iPod looks more attractive than ever with its incremental updates. It looks virtually the same, but underneath the hood, you have an iPod that makes the original 5G iPod look very rusty. Nice job there, Apple. For me personally, the gapless playback and better battery life make the iPod the most attractive one to date.