The preview page for Apple’s upcoming Mac App Store for OS X has a little sneak peak of what that finished app will look like. But in addition to just showing off the interface, there are also some apps listed in the store preview that are for sale. Specifically iMovie, iPhoto, and Garageband, all for $14.99. Keynote and Pages are also listed, but for $19.99 a piece. Read the rest of this entry »

First, lets start by making it clear that the Mac Mini has been one of Apple’s greatest ideas.  When the first Mini came out you could buy it for $499.99 and it came with a 1.25GHz G4 CPU W/ 512MB ram, a 40GB hard drive as well as a CD/DVD combo drive.

Ever since it’s inception we have seen the Mini’s price, and feature list get bigger. Today with Apple’s announcement of the new Unibody Mini we also see, yet again, another bump in price. This time all the way up to $699. In my opinion this is a big blow to the target market of the Mac Mini. The idea of  “value” is now somewhat lost in this $699 product.

But lets get down to what really matters, is the new Mac Mini really worth $699?

The stock CPU is a 2.4GHz (up from 2.26GHz) Core 2 Duo. This CPU, tied with the integrated NVIDIA  GeForce 320M GPU actually make for a decently capable machine. (We watched a 1080p video clip with a bitrate of 7.5Mbps and CPU usage stayed below 10%). It’s no HD authoring studio or extreme gaming machine but you will find it has more then enough power to tackle your HD video editing as well as fly through almost any game you can throw at it. The new SD card reader and included HDMI port really go along ways in adding value to the Mini, especially in it’s common role as a home media device.

To continue on it comes with a 320GB (for $699 we really should be seeing 500GB as stock) hard drive, 2GB of DDR3 RAM (up to a total of 8GB) and all the while sucking down less than 85 watts of power.

Read the rest of this entry »

Not to long ago I was in search of a system monitor that was able to monitor the temperature of my graphics card. I would have settled for an app that did only that but I was fortunate enough to stumble upon atMonitor. atMonitor, Developed by atPurpose, is a full featured system monitor.

atMonitor has the following features:

• CPU Monitoring [Load and Temp]
• GPU Monitoring [Load and Temp]
• VRAM and FPS Monitoring
  
• Hard Drive I/O
  
• Network I/O
  
• Monitoring of the top 3 resource  hungry apps.
• Logging and saving of all data to XML files.

One of the key features of atMonitor is high level of customization allowed. Layout options include horizontal and vertical layouts, different font sizes, transparency and more. In addition, you can choose to utilize atMonitor’s Dock icon to display one resource of your choice. If you prefer, you can choose to have atMonitor display its “activity viewer” in the menu bar to save screen real estate.

Some features require a newer graphics card and atMonitor currently requires OS X 10.5

You download and learn more about atMonitor here.

Which Apple computer truly offers you the most bang for your buck? We will break down and compare the cost and features to determine which one takes the cake. Every week we will go over a different Apple Model.

Today we start with the 20″ iMac. All aspects will be given a rating from 1 – 10. 1 being poor and 10 being excellent in value.

At $1499, It comes in at a very unique price point. It is a price that is attractive to both institution and individuals. Institutions love them because one computer is capable of replacing them all. The iMac is a computer that dad can work on and kid can play on.

The biggest aspect of the computer is the display. A 20″ TFT LCD with a resolution of 1680×1050 is relatively high end. Apple has always used incredibly high quality monitors on all of it’s computers. The new generation of iMac is no different. The display makes this iMac the beautiful thing it is. 9 out of 10

CPU. This computer is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo clocked @2.66GHz. A price of $164.99 means the CPU isn’t really out of this world. However, 2.66GHz goes further on a mac, and soon, even further. I would expect better from the high end 20″ line though. 7 out of 10

Read the rest of this entry »

Apple’s own Front Row is a pretty solid media center, as long as you are just looking to watch/listen to your media. It is simple and it does its job well. However, some people like a few more feature when it comes to a media center, especially those who are using there computer solely as a media center. Enter Plex.

On the outside, Plex may look just like any other media center, but inside you will find it is packed with useful and ingenious features.

For starters Plex has the ability to automatically fetch and apply Metadata from IMDB and TVDB to your media. This feature paired with Plex’s file manager makes organizing your media powerful and convenient. Support for RSS feeds and Shoutcast streams also make Plex stand out from other media center options.
Read the rest of this entry »

Well, for all us college and high school types out there, I have some exciting news. Apple has just released details about it upcoming Insomnia film festival. (College and high school students only)

You get 24 hours to make to make a 3 minute film. Once your film is made it gets reviewed by the public. The top 25 entries will then proceed to be screened by big time film industry players.  What do you get for all your time and effort? 1st place gets everyone on your team will get a MacBook Pro, Final Cut Studio 2, Logic Studio, Shake, and a year’s worth of One to One personal training to help you use them.

Good luck and look for more info here: Apple’s Insomnia Film Festival.

What makes you choose Apple? Is it the operating system? Is it their style of product? is it their devotion to excellence in every product? What makes you pick Apple when there are several other choices to choose from?

Why do I buy Apple?

I buy Apple because of the operating system. OS X is the perfect mix of flexibility, reliability, style, and power. Technologies like Grand Central will help optimize the operating system to new hardware by making every part of OS X Multi-Processor aware. From the UNIX core to the UI. Every part of 10.6 will be able to take advantage of multi-core processors and all that they have to offer. It’s scheduled to receive the 64 bit streamline in the near future. This streamlining will also accompany a complete re-write of Finder in the Cocoa language as well as general code optimization and other enhancements.

The second reason I have for buying Apple is because of product design. Laptops made out of aluminum and elegantly simply iMacs are why I buy Apple. The level of thought that goes into every aspect of every Mac makes for an exceptionally pleasing experience regardless of what Mac you are using. They look nice and they feel solid.

Those are my reasons, what are yours?

Here are some tips to follow when Installing OS X for the first time, or the 50th time.

• Tip #1: Manage your printer drivers. Plug and Play is beautiful but it comes at a price. That price is 2GBs of unnecessary system files. Deselect all the printer drives and simply make a note to install the printer manually when the installation is done. Canon, HP, Lexmark, Brother, and Epson all have printer drivers available online.

• Tip#2: How many languages do you speak? 2,3 maybe 4? Well I doubt you know 18. 18 happens to be the number of languages installled by defualt in OS X. Why not just install the ones you need?. This can save up to 500MBs

• Tip#3: Once you have installed OS X go play with the text to speech prefrences and then DELETE IT! Yeah its fun and all but unless you’re using it get rid of it. Delete this folder. /System/Library/Speech/Voices “Alex.SpeechVoice. Doing so gets you another 700MB!

If your looking for more tips try this post on optimizing OS X: A few tips to keep OS X on its feet.

The 2008 iMac. Apple most eco-friendly product.

The slick aluminum case of the iMac offers unique style and brilliant Apple design.

The design features a stunning aluminum case. This case wasn’t only practical when it came to dazzling design, but also when it came to thinking about the environment. Apple choosing aluminum over plastic was less detrimental to our environment, because of the highly recyclable nature of aluminum. (Besides plastics being a byproduct of petroleum, and we all know how bad petroleum is)

The iMac also excels in being environmentally friendly and conscious in that it has the ability to use significantly less cables then previous generations. This is due to the implementation of Bluetooth, wireless mice, keyboards, and routers. Not only does this cut down on manufacturing of cables but also makes for a more aesthetically pleasing desktop. The iMac’s Power consumption while asleep has also been cut in half over the past few years. Down to 2.7 watts while asleep. Check out this picture below for more info. Read the rest of this entry »