Mac Season

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A few days ago, FreeMacBlog substantiated a rumor that the new MacBook line would start at $800. Since the rumor, there have yet been even more rumors to counter the initial rumor (rumors can be exhausting).

According to a new “October the 14th” blog, the pricing of $800 is off. It’s actually going to be $899, if you’re to believe the image that they provide.

A report out of French Liberation claims that Macbook Pros emit a foul stench, at times. The claim also states that the odor is toxic.

The article states that the toxic material is, benzene. It has been found that prolong exposures to benzene can up the risks for certain disease, and cancer.

Apple has countered the claim by saying there has been no substantial proof that there is anything toxic in the MacBook Pros. An Apple exec told this to MacWorld, “We have not found anything that supports this claim, but continue to investigate it for the customer,”.

Who knows where this story is going to end up.

A patent application from Apple was made public today, which looks to be a patent for DVR.

Perusing through the patent, a couple of key ideas jump out. First, would be the ability to tune into live shows, and record, or rewind and pause on Apple TV. Another key element of the patent, would be the ability to hook up your iPod or iPhone. Once hooked up, Apple TV could detect the shows on your media device, and be able to select future recordings using that method. Once recorded, the shows then could be sent to your device for portable viewing.

As of now there has been no official announcement from Apple. But patents aren’t just made without reason, so this is something to definitely look forward to. Let’s just hope it comes sooner rather than later

The fashion world has the size “0″ dress, and now the notebook world has the MacBook Air. Being unveiled “officially” at MacWorld 2008 this year the MacBook Air is making a buzz among Mac users. Sporting a razor thin design compared to other notebooks, the “Air” is 0.76 inches (maximum) and 0.16 inches (minimum) in height.

Apple can now boast that it has the thinnest notebook on the market, but how does it look under the hood? It’s not a spec behemoth but it definitely holds its own compared to other notebooks especially for its’ size.

Specs
13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display
1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB Virtual Memory
80GB 1.8-inch hard drive

It’s not all good news for the MacBook Air though as it has also been announced there will be no user-replaceable battery. So you will still have to ship your notebook back to Apple, pay $129 for the battery, and wait while they change it.

Today Apple released information about the new Macbook Pro featuring 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and the new NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor and 160GB hard disk for 15 and 17″ models.

The new Macbook Pro can be upgraded to 4GB memory and up to 250GB hard drive. You can buy it online from the Apple Store.

For information on the Final Cut Studio 2 - please read more on the Apple site as I am not a Final Cut Studio user so not really qualified to talk about what is cool about it.

According to MacRumors there is speculation that there might be some good news for those of us outside the US and indeed those that may not be keen on a 2 year Cingular contract.

BoyGeniusReport.com has posted screenshots from AT&T’s accounting system revealing new account codes for three versions of iPhone sales:

• iPhone PostPaid
• iPhone PrePaid (Pay As You Go)
• iPhone Hybrid (Pick Your Plan)

If this is true then the unrestricted sale of iPhones without contractual obligations would allow users to buy and unlock their iPhones for use on any network. I guess we will all be a lot wiser on June 11th..

Apple has released a new TV commercial for the AppleTV.

Check it out

I got hold of a what is known as a “Vesa” cable from RAM Electronics and succeeded in getting my AppleTV working with a standard Toshiba projector and together with Apple Hi-Fi it is really a great solution.

The picture quality is surprisingly good despite what is probably equivalent to a 90″ screen size and hooked with the new Airport Extreme using 802.11n, buffering is nearly eliminated.

The only downside I have found is that when you navigate up and down with the Apple remote you also turn the sound up and down (and yes I know others are complaining they can not control the sound) - not sure what it better?!

Component Video is Y-Pr-Pb encoded video which is different than non-encoded RGB and RGB/HV. The Device to which the “VGA” connector is connected, needs to support Component video (Y-Pr-Pb) for this type of cable to work. This is common for projectors. Some other displays also support Y-Pr-Pb through the HD15 (VGA) connector. Check your Plasma, Projector or HDTV manual, otherwise your picture will be extremely ugly and possibly won’t have sync! In this case you need a “transcoder“.

The latest addition to the Mac Pro family: The world’s first 3.0GHz, 8-core Intel Xeon-based Mac Pro. The 8-core Mac is a duo of “Clovertown” Quad-core Xeon’s and only available in 3 GHz.

Opt for the 8-core Mac Pro and you get the power of two Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Clovertown” processors running at 3.0GHz. Or choose a quad-core Mac Pro featuring two Dual-Core Intel Xeon “Woodcrest” processors and decide how fast they fly: 2.0GHz, 2.66GHz, or 3.0GHz. At 3.0GHz, the quad-core Mac Pro runs up to 2x faster than the Power Mac G5 Quad.

www.apple.com/macpro

The prices on Cinema Displays has been reduced - I was actually expecting a new Cinema Display with iSight built-in - but I guess that might still come and could be the reason for the price cut of the current line-up?