mac

The cutting-edge MacBook Air is not so cutting-edge these days. The high-profile, ultraslim notebook still comes with the same hardware that was offered initially by Apple nine months ago.

The sleek silver 3-pound notebook was announced with great fanfare back on January 15 with configurations that sported older Merom-class Intel low-voltage processors and a 64GB Samsung solid-state drive.

"I think everyone had widely anticipated that there would be some other product announcements in Steve Jobs' address (on Monday) on the notebook or computing side," said Patrick Wilkison, vice president of marketing and business development at STEC, a … Read more

With new iPods out of the way, the next priority for Apple is the Mac.

John Gruber at Daring Fireball is reporting that Apple will roll out new MacBooks on October 14, which fits the usual Apple profile of launching new products on a Tuesday. We've expected that new Apple notebooks are coming for some time, with reports of a redesigned exterior for the MacBook to go along with Intel's latest mobile chips.

If that date comes to pass, Apple will have officially missed the back-to-school shopping season, which is generally one of the best-selling quarters for the … Read more

Apple on Tuesday released Bonjour for Windows 1.0.5., patching the DNS vulnerabilities first reported by Dan Kaminsky of IOActive in July. Bonjour for Windows can be found within iTunes. Earlier on Tuesday, Apple released DNS patches for iPod Touch. Bonjour for Windows 1.0.5 may be obtained downloading iTunes 8.0 or from Apple Software Downloads.

mDNSResponder 1 This patch affects users of Windows Vista, XP SP2, SP3, 2003, and 2000. The update addresses null pointer reference issue in CVE-2008-2326. Apple says the problem within Bonjour Namespace Provider lies in resolving a maliciously crafted ".local" … Read more

As Tuesday's Apple event gets under way and journalists from all over the world are waiting with bated breath to see what Steve Jobs has to say, it's abundantly clear that the vast majority of people going and those who read the news, will be disappointed.

No, it's not because Apple will waste time or that all those people are Windows fanboys and want nothing to do with Apple. Instead, it's because Apple, unlike every other company in the technology industry, has created such a hype machine that unless it offers something major like a touch-screen Mac or a new iPhone, it'll disappoint even the most giddy fanboy.

See, the problem with Apple's success is that it's expected to keep up with it. How many times has the company announced a press event, carted Jobs onstage, who then announced a few minor upgrades, only to see less than shining press opinions later on because it wasn't "newsworthy" enough? Probably more times than we can count.… Read more

These days, people are managing so much information on a daily basis that being able to find it quickly and efficiently is becoming crucial.

With its Spotlight desktop search tool--part of Mac OS X--Apple made it possible to search not just text-based files like Word documents, but also things like PDF files that don't have modifiable text.

Windows users, too, have choices for desktop search, like offerings from Google and Microsoft.

But now, Windows users will have a more powerful tool at their disposal, Rebus Technology's Recollect Desktop, a search tool that, according to Rebus, can find just … Read more

Most of the time our Macs run smoothly due to the well-designed Mac OS X (choose your big cat) operating system. But over time, as you download more applications, visit more Web sites, and begin to use up space on your hard drive, your Mac won't run as quickly and smoothly as it did out of the box. Some users reason that it must be a RAM or hard-drive issue, but more often than not it's a question of maintenance rather than inadequate hardware.

I've talked about programs for uninstalling old or unused apps in an earlier post, … Read more

QNAP Systems announced on Thursday its QGet Utility application for Mac. The software, which used to be available only to PC users, allows for managing the Download Station features of its Turbo NAS series from a computer.

The Download Station is a function of QNAP's Linux-embedded Turbo NAS which supports BitTorrent, FTP, and HTTP downloads. This lets users download directly onto the NAS drive without having to leave a computer running, thereby saving energy. Generally, you can access a NAS's Web interface to manage the downloads; however, it's more convenient to do this via a desktop application. … Read more

For Mac users, one of the best pieces of news of the year was the announcement in January by Electronic Arts that it would be releasing a version of its long-awaited evolution game, Spore, on their beloved platform.

But if you're one of those Mac users who is shaking with anticipation at playing the new game by SimCity and The Sims creator Will Wright, and you don't have both an Intel-based machine and the Leopard version of the Mac OS X operating system, I'm afraid you're out of luck.

This news isn't new, as it'… Read more

Following up on the success of their FireWire Speakers, LaCie has announced another collaboration with designer Neil Poulton. This model retains the same minimalist design aesthetic but draws power from USB instead of Firewire for plug-and-play compatibility with most PC and Mac computers.

Created with the "en vogue" consumer in mind, the USB Speakers let you forgo standard audio cables and replace them with a single USB cord. All the juice needed to power the set is drawn from the computer's bus, and a single wire connects the left and right speakers.

The speakers are shaped like … Read more