If you just bought a MacBook Pro (especially the 15"), this will hurt a little: the new ones out today (same prices) all have FW800 in addition to FW400, up to 200GB drives, up to 3GB RAM, and a 6x dual-layer SuperDrive. Oh, and that Intel Core 2 Duo thing.
A little-used new feature in the Displays preference pane in OS X 10.4 is rotation in 90-degree increments. I tried this feature out with the 20-inch Cinema Display on my desk. Novel – it took me back to the old grayscale Pivot I wrote so many columns on in the ’90s. A base that handled rotation would make it nicer. Also, the type and other elements onscreen just don’t look as good at 90 degrees – I don’t know if it’s the disparity in vertical and horizontal viewing angles, or maybe a change in anti-aliasing behavior.
With the help of Flagrant Disregard’s “Motivator” maker and a photo from Wikipedia, I’ve produced this little poster to get you pumped up for your next big computer purchase. (Here’s the full-size version.) Ian Blackman commented :
Please may I use yoour obsolescence “motivator” image for a press article I am writing. If you are ok with that would you want us to reference you in anyway? Thanks in anticipation.
If you own a 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4, or 15-inch PowerBook G4 and are having trouble getting to this page to see whether your battery is included in the recall Apple just announced, here’s a copy of the chart:
I just checked, and the battery in my 15" is in the recall. I feel special!
Update: Apple has updated their chart to more accurately reflect the batteries covered. See the official page for more.
The MacBook is out today. It’s a bit more than an iBook replacement; for Apple laptop fans this single detail from the tech specs page says that loud and clear:
Extended desktop and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 1920 x 1200 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors.
Finally! Goodbye, unauthorized hacks.
At 5.2 pounds it’s about the same weight as the old Titanium.
Tonight I had to get some data off a Dell Inspiron 4000 that has a totally screwed up W98ME installation. Rather than struggle again with burning CDs from the broken system, I decided to see how hard it was to get at the hard drive itself.
I didn’t have any directions or anything, I just flipped the laptop over and started unscrewing stuff (I’ve done this since I was a kid, but have gotten a little bit better at putting things back together).
From dialog05.com, an exhibit of conceptual USB hardware. Imagine all the email. “WHERE CN I BUY 1 THANX!!!” I trust that the USB Implementers Forum Compliance Committee has been appropriately consulted.
