Microsoft and Apple have been in competition since Bill Gates and Steve Jobs shared a dorm room together. The advance in technology is directly due to their battle for market share. Out of their rivalry the computer was born and the lap top later on. The newest gadgets are cell phones, although those are being renamed primarily with the brand name of the company that powers them. iPod is a name that is synonymous with a mobile device that you can listen to music on and now you can communicate with, its personal but it reaches millions of people.

The simplest iPod is the shuffle, it has changed shaped but it’s stayed ahead of the game when it comes to syncing songs for your listening enjoyment. It’s also very inexpensive so owning one won’t break the bank. The next in line is the Nano; it has been advanced from just an MP3 player to a video recorder. You can pick from many vibrant colors, you can even have them engraved with your name making the iPod your very own. Depending on how much memory you want the iPod expands in gig size so you can all your music on it or just enough to keep you busy while you exercise or escape for a while in your own mix of music, videos, pictures and even games.

If you don’t own an iPod and you think they are too complicated to operate then you should visit the Apple store. If you have a mall close by then you might have seen one but weren’t sure what they offer. They have computers, iPod’s, all accessories related to Apple products and best of all, they have qualified salespeople who can walk you through a decision to buy one or help you with questions about what might be wrong if you own an Apple product. You can also play with all of the devises that are on display, what better way to learn about technology than to take a hands on approach. You might find yourself spending a lot of time in the Apple store since its very user friendly.

The new iPhone incorporates all of the features of an iPod plus you can make phone calls with it, surf the web and download applications that help to make your life easier and more fun. Applications can be free or cost up $80.00, that’s for the more expensive buyer. If you own an iPhone then you know how much it can do, if you have a friend who has one let them show you how easy it is to operate. The iPhone is considered the device of the future because it gives you freedom to do whatever you want and with a full screen to view web pages you be able to surf the web anywhere you want. Don’t be forced into technology, visit an Apple store today to see what is available. You will find something that will help benefit your desire to stay connected but also to escape with an iPhone.

Apple’s laptop family constitute the mac pro, mac mini, macbook, macbook pro, macbook air and the imac. In normal circumstances, the computer is manufactured by one company and all the software that run on it including the operating system is built by another. Mac laptop’s come with one of the world’s most advanced operating system and is built by the same company that build the software that run on it. This allows the macs to function with amazing efficiency, with extremely rare occurrence of a crash or malfunction.

The latest leopard operating system will be made available in a few months from now. Like all it’s predecessors, it is designed on a unix base and with security in mind. It is important to note that no virus has been written for it yet. This implies that the mac is as secure as it gets. The new snow leopard operating system makes the transition from 32-bit computing to 64-bit. All other system programs are also now 64-bit which means that they can completely leverage the memory of the mac’s enhancing the speed and efficiency. Equipped with the latest Intel multicore processors and other engineering designs, the new mac is an amazing gadget. The new grand central dispatch feature of snow leopard allows it to fully exploit the multicore processor design. With this feature, the thread technology is handled by the operating system and not by the individual applications, thereby allowing the optimum distribution of processing to all the cores.

Mac comes with hundreds of drivers built into it and hence connects easily to a digital camera, a wireless device, or any external drive. All macs come with a built-in wifi capability and identify any wireless networks available. It just requires the user to connect into the network and browse the web. It also includes ichat software which allows for a four way video chat and presentation. Mac has a great software update mechanism in place and notifies the user of any updates available for it’s software.

OpenCL is another groundbreaking feature incorporated into the snow Leopard. It optimizes the power of graphic processors and distributes it for general computing. This means that the graphic processors will no longer be limited to graphic applications alone. Opencl stands for open computing language and is a c based programming language familiar to programmers, who can simply use xcode developer tools to adapt their programs to work with opencl. Another feature in the media and entertainment space is the quick time x application. This program uses the cutting edge technology that will take the audio and video experience in mac operating system x snow leopard to a whole new level. It builds on the technologies like core audio, core video and core animation to provide for superior playback and higher quality.

Using snow leopard, the users now get out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Entering the email address and password does the job. And, instead of using applications like email, calendar invitations and global address lists, mac users can take advantage of mail, ical and address book as they are shipped with the Mac itself.

Going along with rumors going around during the week IDealsChina has posted pictures online about the supposed new iPhone Nano.

IDealsChina claims that they got the latest news from third party suppliers around the world, which would be very reliable sources since they would be producing accessories for the yet to be released product.

Here is an excerpt from a recent post on their site:

No more speculating, the new iPhone is a  Nano Phone ! We just got these images of a silicone case design by www.XSKN.com for the new  iPhone Nano. This case is in production. We are not sure when they will release it on their site. The XSKN designs will give you an idea of the shape and size of the new  iPhone Nano.  We understand that a number of company are producing cases as of last week. If you remember, before iPhone 3G was released a number of companies including Griffin had advanced information of the size and shape of iPhone 3G. We understand that once one company starts making a mold their information is passed onto other mold companies or accessory companies through a China underground network.

This news is some of the first to stir up a little interest before the Macworld conference this year, where nothing is known besides the fact that Steve Jobs will be speaking. There also are not as many speculations about new products as there usually are around this time.

The information could prove to be true, or total BS but the pictures go along with all the speculations going around, and personally an iPhone Nano wouldn’t be such a bad gadget to have lying around.

IDealsChina also posted some photos of the cases that are presumably going to be used for the iPhone Nano.

Via MacBlogz

Advertisements have always been around, but gone are the boring link ads or stationary banners, now ads are interacting with their host pages.

Advertisements have “plagued” Internet users for quite a while now. Most of us have become accustomed to ignoring them and just getting down to the text on the web page, or we use Adblock. After advertisers realized that most people ignore the ads, they had to find something more creative to do that would attract interest and therefore traffic.

Now here’s a taste of the “new” generation of advertising.

Impressed? I was when I first saw it. This type of ad isn’t totally unique though as there are two other well known similar ads on the Internet. Watch the Wii Experience or the NY Times Apple Ad for more life changing ad and web page interaction footage.

These innovative ads make me want to go to the website, to see what other interesting ideas and products the company has. Besides the incentive it’s just plain fun to watch navigation bars fly around in response to the iPod’s movement. The video above is mean to highlight the iPod’s accelerometer so all the elements are synced with the iPod’s movement.

Who knows if this is the future of advertising, all I can say is that the concept is innovate enough that I enjoy seeing those ads enough that I’ll stop and watch them for a bit before moving on with my regular browsing.

Via Mac Life

The most recent additions to Apple’s laptop line, the unibody Macbook and Macbook Pro are receiving complaints regarding issues with their graphics and displays. 

“Black Screen of Death”

Apple’s Support forums have reports of Macbook Pros that get a black screen after just a few minutes of gaming, while the audio continues to work. The only reported solution to this so far is to do a “hard reset” by pressing on the power button until the laptop is turned off. Some users are said to have success correcting this by using programs such as smcFanControl. SmcFanControl allows the user to set the minimum fan speed which can help the laptop cool itself adequately.

Apple has not identified the source of the problem yet, whether it be the cooling of the new NVIDIA chips, or if it is a software problem.

Wavelike Screen Distortion

Also, both the new unibody Macbooks and Macbook Pros are recieving complaints about screen distortion when scrolling through webpages in OS X or watching HD movies. Most users describe it as a screen tearing or seeing blinking text. In Apple’s Support forum, there are also speculations about whether different types of screens used on the MBPs could possibly be the cause as was brought up by Daniel Seiden:

 

Experiencing exactly the same issues as described here. Very strange effect, like a wave distorting the text during scrolling - either to do with screen refresh rates or graphics processor drawing. Pretty poor for a premium model from a premium brand like Apple. 

My screen, I discovered from one of the other threads, is a Chi Mei. The new Pros either have a screen manufactured by Chi Mei (a low brow Chinese brand) or LG/Samsung. I discovered that my panel part is 9C85 using Coloursync Utility to find out. The LG/Samsung panel is 9C84. People have commented that the 9C85 is yellower and is not as color vibrant as the 9C84. However, both are much better than the new Macbook panels, which a number of people, myself included, have returned for the Pros. Now I find that there are issues with the Pro screens too. 

It is a lottery as to which screen you get in your model. You could like the one in store, only to purchase the computer and find out that it is not what you remember. Even though Apple probably requires that they all be made to certain spec, you can easily imagine that using different parts suppliers is going to end up with a similar, but essentially different product for one half of users. Let’s face it - we buy TVs from one manufacturer over another because of the quality of the LCD panel. Here, what we think we are buying, may not necessarily be the case. Give me a Japanese manufactured panel any day. Then, a Korean one. The last thing I would want is a bloody Chinese-made panel. That’s what I’ve got.

Imagine if Apple substituted CPUs? Why should the panels be any different? There are some components that you just can’t compromise on - the screen is absolutely one of those. I tell you, if there was an alternative, I’d be out, after my recent experiences with these new Macbooks and Pros.
 

I wonder if the scrolling issue comes down to the brand of panel used in particular users MBPs? 

Hopefully Apple will solve these issues before the masses come to purchase Macbooks and Macbook Pros for the holidays.