Awhile back AppleAddiction.net had a video podcast entitled “Thinkcast!”. Thinkcast! explained and investigated alot of upcoming products and features relating to Apple. It also featured a how-to segment giving you step by step instructions on how to do something neat or useful. It seemed popular back in the day. However I feel like the internet is already saturated when it comes to podcasts. I would really like your input as to whether or not I should start a podcast again.

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Thanks for your input!

New MacBook Pro: -$1999 Apple.com

• 250GB HD Standard. 128GB SSD optional ($550)
• Mulit touch Glass Trackpad
• USB, FireWire800, Displayport(+$100 for DualLink DVI), Expresscard
• 2GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M+ and 9600M GT (Hybrid SLI) W/256MB
• 2.4GHZ
• 1066MHz FSB
• 8X Superdrive
• Glossy Display Only

Old MacBook Pro: -$1349 Apple.com Refurb

• 200GB HD Standard.
• Multi-touch Trackpad
• USB,FireWire800, FireWire400, Expresscard, DualLink DVI
• 2GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT W/256MB
• 2.4GHz
• 800MHz FSB
• 8x Superdrive
• Gloss or Matte, your choice

While I’m not devastated by the loss of the FW 400 port on the MacBook Pro, the complete omission on the MacBook is preposterous , the lack of the DualLink DVI port does have me asking questions. Like, seriously Apple?

What are your thoughts? Please leave them below in comments.

Confirmed Apple Rumors for Oct. 14th

• All new MacBooks will be sporting new NVIDIA graphic chipsets. More specifically NVIDIA’s MCP79.
• New NVIDIA chipsets are capable of supporting Blu-Ray playback.
• Aluminum casing will be gracing the MacBook Lineup. Shots from MacX.cn Confirm this
• $800 MacBook, Most likely $899
• Blu-Ray drives to be introduced. (More then likely as a Build To Order Option for all Macs)
• Announcement of iLife 09. Will have Blu-Ray support.

That’s all we are sure of at the moment. However, there has been alot of talk about streaming equipped Apple HDTV’s. No promises on this one though.

Kevin Rose, Accurate predictor of new iTunes and iPods, told of possible Blu-Ray enhancements for the new MacBooks on Oct.14th. He revealed this info at the Future Of Web Apps Diggnation recording earlier today.(He did claim however that this source is not as good as the last)

This rumor has been floating around for quite a while and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Blu-Ray drives coming as a Build To Order option for both the MacBooks and the MacBook Pros. As far as pricing goes, expect the add on to be in the sub $200 range. I can’t imagine it would come standard though, as wonderful as that would be.

Don’t hold your breath but I do give you permission to get your hopes up.

So I’m sure you have all heard the rumors and seen the pics. But allow me to try and make some sense of it all.

$800?:The new $800 Apple Laptop will be a new, lower end MacBook. As Apple is not about to unveil a 4th laptop form factor. It will feature at least 2GB Ram and a 120GB HDD.The introduction of this model will also bring in a new design for the MacBooks.

NVIDIA?:The rumors about Nvidia are to sketchy for me to say that any new mac will include integrated Nvidia graphics, it is however, a possibility.

(Brick) Aluminum Case?:The MacBook Pro will be using the new “Brick” casing design. I am also expecting the MBP to ship with 4GB standard and nothing less then 250GBs.

Glass Trackpad?:The glass trackpad rumor is one I really wish I could get behind. However, I still feel that there is a ways to go before that technology will make it into a MacBook Pro. If they update the MacBook Pro on the 14th, it may be awhile before they make changes again.

What are your thought? Anything I am missing? Let me know in the commenst below. (Click “Meta” to bring up comment box.

Today Google announced the availability of a new version of the Picasa uploader for Mac.

The new version brings in a few needed features. The biggest one being video support. Most cameras these days allow you to take video clips. So why not share those as well? I had been hoping to see this feature in Flickr but it seems Google beat them to the punch. The new version of the Picasa Uploader allows you to upload video clips directly to your picasa web album, either from iPhoto 08 or by using the standalone Picasa uploader app. Another neat feature is that the uploader now preserves geo tags. So those out there with geo tagging cameras will be happy as well.

Full release here: Share your home movies with Picasa Web Albums
Download link here: Picasa Web Alnums Uploader

Mac OS X 10.4 + Required

I have always been a big fan of the Adobe Air platform. It’s cross platform coding and wide variety of apps makes it very appealing. I have begun using Adobe Air everyday. Mainly because many of the apps out there are so darn useful, from keeping track of my tweets to designing my websites. Here are my top 5 most useful Adobe Air Apps.

TweetDeck: TweetDeck is a powerful and unique twitter client. If you are following alot of busy tweeters, you are definitely going to what to give it a try. It manages your tweets by breaking them up into categories. The first thing this allows you to do is reply to your tweets much more efficiently. It also allows you to keep better track of previous things said. Up to 48 hours of previous tweeting.

AlertThingy: AlertThingy is in essence, a multi-functional RSS reader. It does it in a very easy to understand way. You have the option of following twitter accounts, flicker accounts, and your friendfeed account. Read the rest of this entry »

Livestation.com along with the live station streaming player make for an ideal IPTV setup. Its cross platform solutions(Linux,Windows, and OS X) and high quality picture make a nice bundle

Once you have downloaded and installed the application you create a user account. After your acccount is created you get access to a handful of high quality streaming channels. However, you can then go to Livestation.com to add hundreds of other channels not pre-packeged with the player.(Discovery Channel,CNN,FOX,BBC,CBC, and NBC are just a few) Livestation.com is constantly working on adding new channels to help beef up the lineup. So, if you’re interested. Give it a look here: Livestation.com

So, I was able to convince a friend of mine to let me try out his developer copy of 10.6 (Snow Leopard). After fooling around on it for awhile I decided I should write about my findings. However, being a developer copy, there really wasn’t much that stood out. There is one difference however, this version comes with 64bit optimized versions of the core OS X apps. So I took it upon myself to do some benchmarking. (Note: take all of the following with a grain of salt. Many features that are expected to be in the final version are absent in this version)

Benchmarks were executed on a 20″ iMac with a C2D @2.4GHz W/2GB RAM.

The Hard Numbers: OS X 10.6

• Safari Launch to News.com – 2.96 Seconds* (1.75 Cached**)
• Safari Launch to Amazon.com – 5.46 Seconds* (4.26 Cached**)
• Safari Launch to Digg.com – 4.06 Seconds* (3.82Cached**)

• 12.1MB jpg display – 6.54 Seconds (3.42 Cached**) Read the rest of this entry »