Apple has been taking its sweet time when introducing a quad-core MacBook Pro to the market. It seems however, that Intel itself may have pulled the veil off of this long awaited product.

AppleInsider recently acquired an E-mail invite to Intel’s Retail Edge Program. Included on this invitation is a promotion for a new MacBook Pro featuring Intel’s new Core i5 mobile architecture.  Specific details are still non-existent but at least we can confirm that Apple is finally getting ready to unleash a new wave of power into the Macbook Pro lineup.

Whether or not we see the whole line-up adopt the Core i5 or not is still up in the air, but more than likely we will see the i5 in the higher end 15″ and 17″ models.

“An LG staffer has made the very bold claim that 15in Apple notebooks equipped with OLED displays will appear within months… the mole added that once Apple’s unveiled its 15in OLED notebook, LG will then launch its own standalone 15in OLED panels later in the year.”

An interesting rumor to say the least. Would it be plausible to have this as a BTO option, or would we simply see this implemented in Apples higher end models?

You can find the original article here. 9to5mac

The Western Digital HD Media Player Set-top box!
Pirated copy of Planet Earth, meet huge HD LCD TV!

The Western Digital HD Media center is essentially a gateway for your digital entertainment files.

Whether it be photos, music, or videos, the WD TV will deliver in up 1080p goodness. It features both HDMI and SPDIF out for true HD sound and video. The part of this product that really makes it stand out from the rest is its likable list of supported audio and video formats:

Video

• MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264),
  MTS, TP, TS (If your curious, almost all HD downloads use some form of H.264 and/or .MKV)

Audio

• MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA

All you have to do is connect an external USB hard drive or thumbdrive. The slick and elegant user interface will help you navigate your drive in order to find your media.

You can pick on up to day for as little as $89.99 Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player

What did Apple do the week of Febuaray 15th – 21st? Read on to get the goods.

• New 17″ MacBook Pro starts arriving at doorsteps

• Possible sneak peak of new MacMini -Video

• Apple discontinues 20″ cinema display

• Apple buying up all the RAM it can get its hands on

• Apple opens two new retail stores in France

• Turning the Dell Mini 9 into the Ultimate OS X Netbook

Keep your eyes open for my upcoming review of Linux Mint 6 (64bit) on the MacBook Pro as well more Apple tips, rumors, and news!

Interested in what I do when I’m not blogging? Follow me on Twitter to stay up to date. Twitter.com/lwestlie

Quick tips for keeping your battery in tip-top shape:

• For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. (This means not leaving it plugged in 100% of the time
• Fully charge and discharge your battery at least once a month.
• Have a spare battery you don’t use to often? Don’t store it with more then a %50 charge. (if you store it fully charged for an extended period of time, the battery may experience some loss of battery capacity)
• Be sure to store your notebook and battery at the proper temperature (Between 50 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit)

Looking for more info on battery management? Try Apple.com/Batteries

My laptop comes with me everywhere I go. I wake up in the morning, toss my laptop in my bag and head out. Often I don’t get back home for another 5-6 hours. This means I need my battery to last me all day. I do take the charger with, but I often never have time to stop and plug in. Here are five simple tips I follow to make sure my battery lasts me all day.

1. WiFi – Don’t get me wrong, I love being connected but it’s not necessary 100% of the time. I like to blog on the go, but when I write I make sure to switch the WiFi off until I am ready to publish my post.
2. Screen Brightness – I will admit that a nice bright screen is very fancy, but at times, its just not all that practical. You can skip this if you have the automatically adjust screen brightness checked in system preferences. If you don’t have that checked, you can easily forget that you have your screen blasting as bright as it will go.
3. Keyboard Brightness – Handy as it may be, it’s just another drain on your battery. Keep it off unless you need it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Not to long ago I attempted to install Linux Mint 5.0 on my MacBook Pro. It went okay but things like the display driver and wireless just didn’t work right. Fast Forward to the release of Mint 6.0. Slick, the one word that sums up this new release. Automated driver retrieval and installation makes everything much much easier. The WiFi and ATI Control Center installed without a hitch. Combine all of this with Apple’s built in boot camp feature and you have the easiest and fastest dual boot system.

Here are the pics:

Coming in at just over six and a half pounds, the new 17″ MacBook Pro packs quite a few nice new features and enhancements over the previous model.
While it doesn’t feature Intel’s new quad-core cpu, Apple is offering a 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Duo as a BTO (Built to Order) option.

Here are the top features:

1. 8 Hrs standard battery life (WiFi enabled)
2. 4GBs of DDR3 SDRAM standard
3. 320GB HDD
4. 1900 x 1200 LED HD display (Anti-Glare screens now a BTO option)

The battery is, in my opinion the highest point of this laptop. 8hrs of battery life and the ability to provide power after 1000 charges is amazing. Most other features are already present in the 15″ model. The included NVIDIA 9600M GT W/ 512MB of GDDR3 memory is more then enough power for most applications.

Interested? pick one up here. Apple Store

Although Apple claims they can only support 4GB max, those shiny new MacBook and MacBook Pros can support up to 6GBs of DDR3 memory. For the casual user, installing a 4GB and 2GB module in your MacBook or MacBook Pro may seem like a bit of overkill. Especially with a $600 price tag. But if you are looking for shear performance on the go, its good to know you can always add another 2GBs. Keep in mind though, that as of now, 6GBs is the absolute limit. 8GBs apparently gives the system issues.

Owning a Macbook Pro probably means you do a lot of work on the go, or at least you want to appear like you do alot of work on the go. Nevertheless, here are three Expresscards that will increase the productivity and usability of your MacBook Pro.

• Lexar 16GB Expresscard:Not only is this a good way to increase your internal storage, it is also a great way to keep and transport secure files that you don’t want to leave on your laptop all the time. cost:$58
• 21IN1 Multimedia Reader/writer with SDHC support:Apple’s decision to exclude a built in card reader is an unpopular one, but easily remedied. For $27 you can pick up this card reader and forget the problem ever existed.
• 2 Port eSATA Expresscard:The lack of an eSATA port on your MBP is nothing to get down about. This $40 Expresscard adds 2, 3Gbp/s eSATA ports to your MacBook Pro in just seconds. A must for people dealing with frequent and large file transfers.

If I could convince you to get only one, I would recommend the SSD Expresscard. The ability to keep secure backups of all your data on a removable internal card is feature worth forking over some cash.

By the way, these all make great gifts for people who own a MacBook Pro. They will be more then impressed when they open your gift to find something incredibly thoughtful, and useful.