MacBook Pro

Hey guys so a few weeks ago on September 2nd I got a MacBook Pro for my birthday. This is my first laptop and was extremely excited when it came. First I will start of with the specs then I will move to my personal opinions and then some photos and video.

First for the specs I got the 13.3 inch 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro. It has the full aluminum enclosure. It has the backlit keyboard and a built in trackpad. For a processor chip it has a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo chip. There is also 4GB of DDR3 ram also know as memory. For a hard drive there is a standard 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive. There is also a slot loading optical drive for both CDs and DVDs. For a graphics card there is a NVIDA GeForce 320 graphics card with it's own 256MB of DDR3 ram. For all things video there is a mini display port which lets you output signal for a second monitor. This supports many different formats but all which require an adapter other than the LED Cinema Display. You can also find Apple's iSight camera. This is a 13.3in glossy display with a resolution of 1280 x 800. Again this is LED backlit. For ports you will find a FireWire 800 port, two USB 2.0 ports, and a SD card slot reader. In the audio department it does have a built in mic along with speakers. There is also a line in and line out 3.5 millimeter jack on the side. There two are put into one port for space saving reasons. There is an ethernet jack for wired internet. You can also connect to wireless though 802.114n and earlier version of Wi-Fi. That include B andG and others. There is also 2.1 Bluetooth connectivity for sending files from a computer to computer or computer to phone if they connect. There is a ten hour battery built into this computer for long work hours with out being tethered to a wall outlet. This does have a 60W power supply. This connects to the computer by magnet so that it will just pop out if something happens and won't brake either the computer or the power supply. The computer is extremely thin and light weight at only 4.5 pounds. It is also just .95 inches tall. This like most other Apple products follows the going green method by meeting all the requirements of a green device. All this and other specs can be found at www.apple.com/macbookpro

Now for my opinion of the computer. This is my first computer ever and let me start of by saying I am not disappointed by it. The computer runs extremely smoothly and I have rarely experienced any issues with applications. During the times that I do have applications fail they are usually third party applications. I have noticed some lag if running multiple applications and then launching Final Cut and trying t use that but that would be expected due to the fact that it only has a Core 2 Duo and 2.26GHz of processing power. Rendering video on the computer isn't bad it only takes about 20- 30 minutes depending on the size and quality. Also while playing both savage 2 and warsow I have experienced absolutely no graphics errors and they run very nicely. For the battery life it is amazing. If I am just checking me email or browsing the internet it will last hours without having to be plugged in. With no wireless on and just typing or even listening to music the battery lasts even longer. I have clocked the battery length at very close to ten hours. The display looks great and blows away my external monitor. The screen becomes very bright and just looks amazing. The backlit keyboard is a nice addition. It makes typing in the dark or even just working in low light situations great. The chick let style keyboard is nice any easy to type on. It also spaces out the keys nicely for easier and in my case faster typing. The built in iSight and microphone are OK and can be used for chatting with friends with no problem but if you plan to record video that looks good I do recommend something a little bit nicer. There are only a few minor issues I have come to notice about the computer. The first is that like on any computer he does get a little hot where the battery and power plug are but that is normal. This only really happens when you are on a sheet like surface but can happen while at a desk. One way to fix this is to cool down what you are doing and let it sit. You can also give the computer some more room to vent and let all the hot air out. Another issue that may be pretty big to others but not me because i just used an old hub that I had but there is only two USB ports on the side of the computer. The only other issue I have found with the computer is that instead of having separate headphone and mic ports they are shred on this computer. This isn't that big of a deal right now for me as I have never had to use a mic and pair of headphones at the same time. One way to get around this is to have one the the devices USB. Those are the only cons that I have found so far. Overall this computer is amazing and will meet the needs of most people that need a laptop. I do recommend this to anyone who wants a lower end Mac but doesn't want to loose the aluminum look or the power it has over the usual MacBook.

Here is my video review of the MacBook Pro: I did miss a few things so read the text for a more in-depth look at the computer. I had problems uploading it directly to to blog so here is a link to the video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2caRh2G2KoU

New iPods and one more hobby!

On Wednesday, September 1, 2010 Apple held a press conference. During this they announced new iPods, a new iTunes, and a new Apple TV. First I will go over the new iPods.

The first iPod that was released was the new Shuffle. This is the smallest iPod that

Apple sells and is really for the people who don't care what song is listening they just want to hear their music. That is because there is no screen on it and the big feature for the device like it's name is shuffle. Just by switching a little button you put all your music on shuffle. There were some great additions in both this version and the version before it. One of them was the ability to make playlists. That way you can listen to one type of music and not just any song that is on the whole device like in earlier models. Another one of the new features is voice- over. This lets you have the iPod tell you the information about what song you are listening to or what playlist you are in. This is great if you have ever been like what is that song I really like it but couldn't because there was no screen. There are other new things in the latest model like buttons and new colors. You may be thinking well there were buttons on other shuffles and the answer to that is yes but in model before this they took the buttons away in trying to make it a smaller unit. The lack of buttons for some people was a big draw back so it is a good thing that they got added back in my eyes. For battery life Apple is saying that you will be able to listen to your music for 15 hours. They also say that it will take 3 hours to fully charge it. The music capacity of the shuffle is 2GB. That is ruffly 500 songs. This little iPod sells for only $49 and is available this week. For more information go to http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/.The next iPod that got an update was the iPod Nano. This one got a real big change in looks. The previous models of the nano were all candy bar style with both a pretty good sized screen and a scroll wheel and in the model before this one a video camera. There was also the ability to watch video on the nano from the third generation on. But that all changed with this new nano. This little guy got a complete make over. It now has a 1.54- inch screen That screen is multi touch enabled. The screen resolution is 240 by 240. There are four different screens that you can swipe through to get to the different options. The screens are easily changed by holding down on an icon and then dragging it to the place of your choosing. Since the screen does have multi touch you can use two fingers and rotate it so no matter which way you are holding it or have it clipped to your clothing you see the screen the correct way. The entire device takes a lot from the looks of the shuffle. If you were to take the shuffle's buttons off and replace them with a screen you would make the nano. On the top of the device you have your sleep/ wake buttons and you volume controls. On the bottom you have your dock connector and headphone port. There is now more video camera of the option to watch video on the device. There is also an FM radio tuner built in so you can listen to your favorite radio stations. There is also VoiceOver. This is the same technology that is found in the shuffle. It will read out to you what song you are listening and any other information about it that is available. For battery life Apple is saying that with a full battery you can listen to your music for 24 hours. To charge the device completely it will take 3 hours. The is an accelerometer built in although at this point I am not sure what it is used for. There are two different different size models available a 8GB and a 16GB. There are also 7 colors available including a product red one. The starting price for the nano is $149. For more information on the nano go to http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/.

Now the last iPod to get an update was the iPod Touch. There were a few changes made to the design of the iPod and a few changes to the OS. Lets start with the OS. They announced that this week IOS 4.1 will be available. There aren't many new things in the OS just lots of little bug fixes like the proximity sensor. That tells the phone where it is during a phone call and makes it so your cheek won't hang up the phone. That was a big problem that people were having. It also fixes a few other bugs. There are three big new features in IOS 4.1. One of them is the ability to rent TV shows for 99 cents commercial free. Another new feature in the OS is game center. This is where you can play with other people around the world, socialize about your favorite games, or check out the leader boards and other records. This was announced back when iPhone 4 was but hasn't been available. The last big feature announced was ping. Ping is Apple's music social media service. It is in both the IOS devices and built right into iTunes. This lets you share with either your friends or the whole world what type of music you like and what songs and albums you have been downloading. You can follow your friends of big artists. You can make comments of other peoples posts and tell them what you think. In my eyes it is very much like the FaceBook for music. Those are the new features in the OS. Now for the hardware changes. There has been multiple changes to the look. One of them is that it has been slimmed down. The entire device is only 7.2 millimeters. There is also the addition of the retina screen. This is the screen that can be found on the iPhone 4. It is one of the best screens on the world. It is crisp, clear, and bright. The resolution of the screen is 960 by 640. It is also LED backlit. There is also the minor change of the volume rockers which are now separated where on previous models they were connected. There is also now a visible speaker grill on the bottom of the iPod. There is also an A4 chip inside the unit. This is the same chip that can be found in the iPhone 4. This chip is faster than the snapdragon 1GHz chip which can be found in most high end smart phones. It is whole fast chip. Everything just happens like that. There is also a three axis gyro which can be also found in the iPhone 4. This makes endless ways to control games and makes you feel like your in the game more. There is also still an accelerometer. Now for the biggest change. The brand new two cameras. One on the back and one front facing camera. The rear camera takes fantastic 720p HD video. Even though there is no flash because of it's backside illuminator it still takes great video in low light situations. There is also a built in mic to record audio while recording video. You could also download the iMovie app and edit the video you take right there on your iPod. There is also the front facing camera. This can be used for FaceTime calls or taking self portraits of yourself. Both cameras take great video and can make your iPod oh so much more fun. The front facing video camera takes VGA quality stuff. For battery life Apple is saying that you can get 7 hours out of watching video and 40 of just listening to your music. There is both 802.11n wireless and 2.1 bluetooth. For more information on the new iPod Touch or cost go to http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/.

Now after the iPods that were announced Steve Jobs announced iTunes 10. This is the latest release of the world known iTunes software. There are a few changes to it. First the color scheme has been changed and it is now very gray and white. The colors are very simple. There is also another way to view your music collection. This is a mix of two older viewing styles. The list and cover art. This new viewing style makes it so if you have 5 or more songs from one album it will then show you the cover art because it takes up no extra space. There is also the ability to rent TV shows for 99 cents like found on the iPod Touch. These again are in full HD and commercial free. There is also full integration with ping. This lets you post and share you iTunes music with all your friends or the whole world. Apple is also saying that there is improved syncing between your devices. There is now a real time status bar to tell you how full you iPod is. There is also a better way to manage both your music and apps and arrange them the way you want to. There is also a new thing called AirPlay. This enables you to share your music with a sound system easier or another Apple device. This lets you stream your music or videos to another device to be played. Apple is saying that you will find this technology in more speakers and AV receivers soon. That is a run down of the iTunes 10. It is available today for download. For more information on iTunes 10 go to http://www.apple.com/itunes/.

Now for the one more hobby. A few years ago Apple released the Apple TV. During the release instead of calling it the one more thing like they usually do they called it the one more hobby. This is though of a way for Apple saying we know it is not the best but this is a starting point for us and eventually we will make the best one that we can. When the originally released the Apple TV it didn't sell of the shelf's or become a very big product. The new Apple TV has several new features going for it. Lets start off with the new looks. First it is now a quarter of the size of the original model. It is also now all black instead of the original white design. There is also now a built in power brick so the power cord can be smaller and easier to move. There is also no built in fan which keeps the device extremely quiet. The device also stays very cool. When you are not using it to stream movies or your TV shows the device uses less power than a night light. Other bonus' of the new device are that there is now hard drive built in so you don't have to worry about running out of space or organizing your data. This means that all your TV shows, movies, podcasts, music, and photos are streamed over the internet. Due to the fact that now all TV show rentals and movie rentals are in HD on the Apple TV they have equipped it with an A4 chip. This makes doing all those tasks extremely simple. You can control the content just like you would with a movie by pausing, fast forwarding, and rewinding all you want. To hook the device up is pretty simple. All you have to do is plug it in to the wall with the included power cable and then connect it to your TV using a HDMI cable. The HDMI cable is sold separate from the unit itself. There isn't any other cables to be hooked up because of he fact that it is all streamed via the internet there is no need for any other cables. For movie rentals you don't have to wait for blockbuster to have it or netflix to send it out to you because most major films are available for rent the same day that they are on DVD. There are several ways to look at the movies, you can see reviews, and even the rotten tomatoes. After finding a movie to watch just press play and in second you will be at the opening credits. There is 5.1 surround sound in most movies but not all. If you want you can rent a SD movie for as low at $2.99 and a HD movie starting as low as $3.99. Like in the desktop version of iTunes you have 30 days to start the movie and once you start it you have 24 hours to watch it as many times as you would like. For TV shows it is again a rental only system. For most shows you can rent the show the day after it aired on TV. The shows are all in HD and commercial free for only 99 cents. Like with the movies once you rent an episode you have 30 days to press start. Once you have pressed start you have 48 to watch the TV show as many times as you want. It will also now record the TV shows that you download most and make a list of them for quick access and if you download a lot of shows a bunch you can reorganize them and put your favorites on the tom of the list. There are also a few other ways to watch media on your Apple TV. One way to consume media other than just through iTunes is through Netflix. With a netflix account you can stream movies in their catalog for free. They have both SD and HD movies. It is now easier than ever to get netflix on your HDTV. There is now no need to buy an adapter so you can connect your computer to your TV. You can also access YouTube, online radio, flickr, and your MobileMe account. This makes it so you can see all your favorite content right on your big screen with no extra hassle of connecting your computer up. With the ability to stream content right from your iTunes library you can play any song you want right through your stereo. You can also start a slideshow right from iPhoto and leave it up for everyone to see. You can also watch the movies and TV shows that you have bought on your computer by streaming it over. You can also use a new software called AirPlay. This lets you stream what you are watching on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad to your Apple TV. This is great if you start a movie on your IOS device and then want to continue it on your Apple TV. There are also a few different ways to control your Apple TV. One of them is by using the Apple Remote that comes with the device and is pretty straight forward on how it works. You can also use your iPhone or iPod Touch to control it through a downloadable app. This makes moving through the Apple Tv menu a breeze. You can use multi touch gestures like swiping and scrolling. You can also open up the keyboard for easy search in both Netflix and the iTunes store. This remote works just like the apple remote but is all done with touch. That is the new Apple TV. For more details or information go to http://www.apple.com/appletv/.

That is what went down during the September 1st Apple keynote. All this information and more can be found at apple.com.

What Apple has done since my last post

Sorry for the long time no post but I have just been really busy. So here is what Apple has been up to since my last post except for the most recent iPod announcement which will be another post. So here it goes.

I will start with the iPhone. A new iPhone was announced. The iPhone 4. There were some key new features that were announced. Here they are. The first one and a very cool one at that is the new Retina Screen. This is the same size as the older models of the iPhone 3.5 inches but it has a much higher density of pixels. The exact number is 960 x 640. That is the highest resolution ever found on a camera at the time it was announced. It also much brighter and clearer than the other models. The best way to see this is by looking at the text. You can clearly see that on the older phone it was pixelated on the edges and a little bit blurry but with the new screen the letter are crisp and clear. All around this new screen is just breath taking. Another new feature that was found in the new phone has to do with the camera. First lets start out with the rear camera. This camera has been on all the iPhones but has some new features. It now has a 5 megapixel sensor. This may seem a bit low compared to some of the other new phones that have been coming out but it takes some of the best pictures that any phone takes. It also records full HD video as 720p and up to 30 frames per second. The video it takes is great and it is hard to tell that it was taken on a phone and not a really video camera. Now for the brand new camera. This is a front facing camera. It can be used to record video, take pictures, and do video chat. First the camera takes VGA quality pictures. As with the rear camera it takes video at 30 frames per second. Both have tap to focus. The rear camera also has a brand new LED flash for taking pictures in low light. The camera also uses geotagging in both pictures and video for use in iPhoto and other photo software to see where the picture was taken. That is all for the camera. The phone also has a new sensor. This a a 3- axis gyro. This will be a great use in games where you have to run around and walk places because you will be able to tilt up and down and around for looking. This will give the games a more real life effect. Now the nest changes are all in the looks department. First the phone got a whole new look. The new look is that instead of the plastic backing that is curved the phone now has a glass back. This gives the phone a much nicer and refined look. The phone also lost the arched back because the back is flat and the sides are flat but the corners are arched. The sides is now not connected to the back it is now a strip of aluminum. The cool thing about this strip is the actual 3G radio is built right in in an attempt to get better reception. Overall in my eyes the look of the new iPhone is great. Now I said earlier that there was a front facing camera for video calling. This service uses a program from Apple called FaceTime. This allows for iPhone to iPhone video calling only on wifi because 3G does not support it. Now for the pricing. The prices stay at the same of the old 3GS starting at $199 for 16 gigs and $299 for 32 gigs. The old 3GS now takes the spot of the 3G at $99 for 8 gigs. That is the new iPhone 4. For more info on the iPhone 4 go to http://www.apple.com/iphone/.

Now later on in the summer Apple didn't have a press conference but updated some of their desktop mac line up and their external monitor. First I will start with the Mac Pro. I can not seem to find the specs to the old Mac Pro so I will just go over the specs of the new 12 core model but there are still both the Quad- Core and 8- Core models for sale. The 4 and 8 core models are sold both online and in stores while the 12 core model is only available online. First and the biggest updated is that it now has 12 cores. There are also 4 wire free bays for hard drives both standard spinning ones or Solid State Drive. In total you can have 8TB of space because each bay holds up 2TB. It comes equipped with two 2.66GHz Intel Xeon "westmere" processor chips. There is also 12MB fully shared L3 cache per processor. It is also stocked with 6GB of DDR3 SDRAM. For monitors it has an ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1 GB of GDDR5 memory. It has two Mini Display Ports outputs and one dual- link DVI output. It comes standard with a 1TB SErial ATA 7200 RPM drive. It comes stocked with a 18x SuperDrive with double layer support. For wireless internet it has built in 802.11n wireless and 2.1 Bluetooth. It also has 3 full length PCI Express 2.0 ports. You can opt to have it shipped with either a trackpad or mighty mouse. You can also go between having a wired or wireless keyboard. You can also go between having a fiber channel card. Either Dual or Quad. For graphics card if you want to get a better one you can choose to go with the ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of GDDR5 ram. If you do a lot with disc both CD's or DVD's you can choose to get two 18x Super Drive optical drives. Now for memory you have lots of options. The highest amount of ram you can get is 32GB. That is most of the new features in the Mac Pro. For more information go to http://www.apple.com/macpro/.

Now for the new iMac. The two screen size options are 27in and 21.1in. The biggest part of the new upgrades are the new processors. You can get either an i3 an i5 or an i7 chip. These are all made by intel.There are also other updates to the video cards. The nicest graphics card available in the 27in iMac is a ATI Radeon HD 5750 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory and in the 21in iMac the best graphics card is and ATI Radeon 5760 with 256MB of GDDR3 memory. Both have built in web cams and mics. They both also have slot disc drives. The iMacs also have 802.11n wireless and 2.1 Bluetooth. For the connections they have four USB 2.0 ports and one firewire 800 port with 7 watts of power. There is also a SDXC card slot. Both are also very customizable when it comes to storage. With the option of standard spinning drives and solid state drives. For more information on the iMacs go to http://www.apple.com/imac/.

Now for the Mac Mini. The Mac Mini got some spec bumps and a small change to the look. First we will start off with the new look. All that I know of that changed in the look is that there is now a black disk on the bottom. This not only makes a spot where you can access your internal hardware but it also makes the computer raised up by just a very small amount but it just enough to help keep the unit cooler and make it not as easy to scratch up the bottom. That was the only change for the Mac Mini to my understanding. Now the specs for the device are it has and NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics with 265MB of DDR3 memory. That is shared memory. For outputs it has both an HDMI and Mini Display port. For a processor it has an intel 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo for the base line but can be bumped up to a 2.66GHz chip. For memory it has 2GB of DDR3. It can in total support 8GB. For a hard drive it comes standard with a 320GB drive but can be upgraded to a 500GB. It has a 8x slot drive. For ports the device has one fire wire 800 port and 4 USB 2.0 ports. It also has an SD card slot. There are both audio in and audio out ports. For wireless connections it has 802.11n wireless and 2.1 bluetooth. For more information on the Mac Mini and costs go to http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html.

They have also updated the LED Cinema Display. Instead of the display being 30 inches it is now only 27. The design may or may not have changed but it now has a black bezel. The highest pixel resolution of the display is 2560 by 1440 pixels. As you can tell from the name of it, it is a LED back lit screen. It has both a built in iSight which is Apple's webcam and it also has a built in mic. It also has built in speakers. The display also has some ports of it's own. It comes with three powered USB 2.0 ports. It also comes with a very cool cable. This is the cable that plugs into the back of your iMac or the side of you MacBook Pro or MacBook. It could also be used with the Mac Mini. This cable splits into three different ends that get plugged into your computer. One of them is only for the MacBook and MacBook Pros. This is the MagSafe power adapter. This lets you charge your laptop through the power of the display. Another one of the ends is a USB port. This plugs in and then makes the three other ports on the monitor able to be used. The last cable is kind of obvious. It is the Mini Display port. This plugs into the output on your computer and makes the external monitor work. The monitor is extremely power efficient at while charging both a MacBook Pro and giving it self power only using 250 watts. It also only uses 1 watt or less while in energy saver mode. That is all about the LED Cinema Display by Apple. For more details or buying go to http://www.apple.com/displays/.

The brand new Magic Trackpad. This is a new product that Apple came out with along with it's battery charger which will be gone over in the next paragraph. This trackpad it just like the one found on both the MacBooks and MacBook Pros. It is a little bit larger and it has a slight slant like on the wireless keyboard they have. This trackpad will let you do all the multi finger gestures on a desktop computer or just externally on a laptop. It is connect over bluetooth just like the Magic Mouse and Wireless keyboard they have. The range of connectivity is 33 feet letting you walk about a room and still work your computer. It fits right in with the keyboard because it has the same aluminum look and slant. You can use this device instead of or with a mouse. There are numerous amounts of gestures you can make like two finger scrolling or 3 finger swiping and many more. The device is also very customizable like a mouse. You can adjust the sensitivity of moving the mouse or you can change what fingers do what if you find one feature more helpful over another. That is the brand new Magic Trackpad for you. For more details on it or what gestures perform what action go to http://www.apple.com/magictrackpad/.

Last but not least of Apple's work over the summer is the Apple Battery Charger. Yes, I just said Apple Battery Charger. Now you may be thinking why on earth did apple come out with a batter charger. Well I have an idea of why. The reason may be because they have so many devices that use batteries like the magic trackpad, might mouse, and wireless keyboard. This way you can charge your batteries and reuse them because the cost of them is a little high. Now because every device takes two batteries apple ships the chargers with six batteries. This way you can have two in your mouse or trackpad and two in your keyboard while the other two stay charging. This way if one set dies you will already have two fully charged and just switch them out. This is a great ides. Now you may be like well what makes this better than all the other battery charges. Well apple claims to have made this one with better features. One of the features is that once your batteries are fully charged the charger will stop drawing as much energy from the wall and only enough to keep the batteries at full. This is a great way to save on power because most battery chargers even once a battery it at full charge will continue to draw a bunch of unneeded power from the wall. Apple says that once the batteries are charged it will only use 30mW while other charges will continue to use 315mW. They also claim that the batteries will last up to ten years of use. That is really good. The batteries are also made by apple and even after sitting in your desk drawer or any other place for a year will still have 80 percent of the original charge. These batteries are double a because that is what all their devices use. That is all the information about the new Apple Battery Charger. For other information or price go to http://www.apple.com/battery-charger/.

That is all that happened with Apple since my last blog post before WWDC. Sorry about the long wait but I just got really busy and didn't have much time to write. I am planning on doing a better job at posting and have at least two more that will be out in hopefully under a week.