The new Macbooks: the day after

So, I was more or less right about the outcome of yesterday's Apple event on notebooks (looking for the keynote video? Check here). Even though I think they should still drop the "Pro" nomenclature to describe a "larger" Macbook, the two notebooks now seem more alike than ever.
The new Macbooks

They now have the exact same aluminium case, glass display and button-less mouse trackpad. The differences come down to screen sizes/resolutions and in the internal components, wherein the Macbook Pro has a more powerful CPU, GPU and RAM. If you're looking for some pictures of the new machines "in the wild", check them here and here.

Regarding the common points, one of the most interesting aspects of the new Apple's notebooks is the multi-finger button-less glass mouse trackpad. With a set of new gestures (check a video here) this trackpad allows greater control of Mac OS X's features, such as picture navigation, zoom and rotation, app switching and access to Exposé. Also, the entire trackpad is a mouse button, which means that this might actually satisfy Greeks and Trojans. For those that don't like buttons in the trackpad...well, they aren't actually there. For those that do...well, it's there :-)

Another interesting aspect is the new case, which besides being made from a new innovative manufacturing process that is "greener", allows the new Macbooks to be lighter, stronger and slightly thinner.

The other aspect regarding the design of the new Macbooks is the choice of glass for the screen display (without a matte finish). This decision, I have to say, is quite disappointing. I've been using laptops for quite some time now and one thing I've learned is that glass displays are quite annoying when you're trying to use your computer outside.

Even though I like the innovation that Apple introduced with these new Macbooks, this one decision would be enough to keep me from buying one of these new notebooks. Well, at least until I have the chance to be face-to-face with one of them and check this new display's performance outside :-)

The older Macbooks and the Air

Apple has decided to still keep the older versions because they know that there are still some fans out there. For the Macbook, they kept the good'old white version (the most best-selling Mac ever) with a $100 price reduction and for the Pro, the 17'' version of the Macbook Pro is still there, which means Apple is still proud of that powerful notebook that is easy to carry everywhere.

The Macbook Air was not forgotten and it also got a boost on speed (new CPUs and GPUs) and storage (120 GB HDD for the cheaper version and a 128 GB SSD for the richie rich version).

About the other rumours

Steve Jobs has also made clear that there are three things that Apple won't step into, at least in the foreseable future:

• Touch-screen notebook - The Mac that we're all waiting for, won't be one of Apple's priorities since Steve Jobs has made clear that "it hasn't made a lot of sense to" Apple.


• Blu-Ray - Don't expect to see Blu-Ray drives in future Macs. Jobs described it as "a bag of hurt." I don't quite understand what this means, but he probably has his reasons for believing that.
  


• Netbook - If you're into netbooks, be advised that Apple won't be entering this market in the short term. But at least, Steve Jobs has made clear that Apple will "see how it goes" and...who knows, perhaps Apple will finally release a $400 or so netbook.
  

About Steve Jobs' Health

No, Steve Jobs is not dead...yet. And it's good to see that he can still have some sense of humour regarding all the news about his health.

The new Macbooks

As you may have heard, Apple is rumoured to release new notebooks on Tuesday, October 14th. And the million dollar question is: "How will these new Macbooks look like, what features will they have and how much will they cost?"


The Cult of Mac has a great post that tries to answer this question. Here's their potential set of features for the new Macbooks:

• Penryn Core 2 Duo chips: 2.4GHz, 2.66GHz, 2.8GHz, and 3.06GHz.
• 2GB of RAM (MacBook); 4GB of RAM (MacBook Pro).
• Hard drives: 160GB — 320GB.
• Glossy widescreen TFT screens. On the MacBook: 13.3-inch (1,280×800 resolution); MacBook Pro: 13.8-inch (1,366×768).
• Integrated NVIDIA graphics system.
• New, all-aluminum enclosures, white, black and silver.
  
• Enclosure is tapered: very thin at the sides, thicker inthe middle, like the iPhone 3G and MacBook Air.
• Magnetic lid latch on all models (replacing mechanical clasps on the MacBook Pro).
• All ports on left side — including FireWire 800.
• Slot-loading optical drive on right (no Blu-ray).
• Extra-large battery pack running full width of computer at the front, under the touchpad.
• Recessed keypad like MacBook Air. Keys are Chicklet style on MacBooks, black and backlight on Pros.
• Price: Starting at $800. This is the mysterious “product transition” that Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said in July would impact Apple’s gross margins.

As some of these features may seem really interesting (specially the price part) I find it hard to believe that Apple will refresh their Macbook line. At least, not as shown on this list of features. Instead they should unify Macbooks and Macbook Pros into one single notebook with a wide range of customization (at the level of CPU, RAM and screen size/resolution). With the rate of advance in computer components, the difference between the Macbook and the Macbook Pro comes down to screen sizes and dedicated graphic boards. And I guess there's no point in having different names for more or less the same laptops.

But as every Apple rumour, it's always difficult to know exactly what to expect and as new images of how the new Macbooks will look like are released across the entire web, the hype will grow. And every doubts will be shatered on Tuesday. Let's wait and see.

How to create programs that make use of the potential of your Macbook Pro

If you have a Macbook Pro, chances are that you've already made use of some of the unique functionalities that this great Apple laptop has, such as the Sudden Motion Sensor or the Ambient Light Sensor.

For example, here's a list of cool apps that use the Sudden Motion Sensor:

• AMSVisualizer - Just a simple app that allows you to view the behaviour of the sensor
  
• LiquidMac -Play with fluids...not real, don't worry
  
• MacSaber - for the Star Wars fan
• netPong - use your Macbook Pro as your board
• Stable Window - another simple app to see the behaviour of the sensor

These apps are really cool, but what if you want to create your own? Then, you have to use the right libraries. Daniel Shiffman was kind enough to create a Sudden Motion Sensor Library that you can use with Processing. And if you're looking to mess around with the Ambient Light Sensor, then use Martin Rädlinger's Ambient Light Sensor Library (to be used also with Processing).

Try them out. They should be simple enough to the experienced programmer.

A music made out of Apple Sounds

Windows is not the only one who has the right to create a music out of its own sounds. Check out this nice tune made only with sounds from Mac OS X.



Source: The Unofficial Apple Weblog

The new Microsoft ad: I'm a PC...as a bunch of other people

So, Microsoft has decided to ditch Seinfeld and the all idea of "Microsoft and the future" and went on to adopt a new approach in their marketing campaign, where they focus on the idea that there are a lot of PCs out there and that, in spite of the stereotype created by the "I'm a PC" guy from the Mac ads, they can achieve great things. See the ad for yourself:



Even though the ad itself was made on a Mac, I still think it is better than the previous approach of placing Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld on a "higher level of the society" that is trying to "connect with the simple people".

However, it is still not there... because they show all these people but they still don't say why do they use Windows and not other operating systems. Maybe they use it because they have to, maybe it's because they don't know the alternatives, or maybe they are in fact not happy with using Windows but are too afraid to switch to Linux or Mac. And most of all, they don't show how all those people react when they get a BSOD and loose their work :-)

Photo Booth gives origin to new species: the i-men

When reading a post by the Cult of Mac, I came across this new phenomenon where Mac users from all around the world have unleashed the real power of Photo Booth and gave origin to a new species: the i-men.

Using the Photo Booth's mirror effect and a bunch of simple everyday-use gadgets, these users create the most weird characters. And I decided to give a try too:


Well, it's not very impressive...compared to some of the photos that I've seen on Flickr. But it's also not bad for a first try, right?

How to fix iTunes video playback that crashes your Mac

Every now and then, while playing some video podcasts and movies on iTunes, when the mouse hovers the movie (to trigger the appearance of the controls), my Mac completely freezes and I have to do a hard-reset. I couldn't figure out what caused this...until now.

If you remember, a few months back I posted a nice tip on how to enhance FrontRow in order to watch all kinds of video files, instead of just Quicktime files. This included installing Perian, a component plugin for QuickTime that adds native support for many popular video formats.

What I failed to notice is that this component somehow conflicts with video playback on iTunes and was the cause of these crashes. But since it only happened ocasionaly with certain video files I wasn't able to find the relation between the two applications.

But today, as I was doing some maintenance on my System Preferences, I notice the Perian section and decided to have a look and suddenly everything made sense: Perian makes some changes so as to allow playback of different video formats, right? So it must deal with video codecs, right? So, it may be related to the video crashes on iTunes... I decided to remove Perian and "voilá"...everything seems to be working just fine in iTunes now. At least, the videos that frequently crashed my Mac, now work like a charm.

Funny stuff: the new version of the Microsoft/Gates/Seinfeld ad

The first version was no fun, this one is better:



Source: bit.ate (in Portuguese)

Spore Origins for iPod: my review

As soon as I knew that a version of Spore was released for 5G iPods, I "ran to the nearest" iTunes store and purchased the game (here). This is what I've been playing for the last 2 days (that is, whenever I have my iPod around and have some free time to kill).


Spore Origins is more of a teaser than an actual game, but it is still great fun. It allows you to play the first stage of the newly-released game Spore, a simulation-based game (kind of like The Sims) that allows you to control a living being from its micro-cellular stage up to a level where space exploration takes place.

For now, I won't be playing Spore as it was only released for Mac OS X Leopard and since I only have Tiger installed, this will have to wait until I upgrade. By the way, if you're one of the lucky guys that is already playing Spore, check out the cheat codes for the game.

But we're here to talk about Spore Origins and I have to say that I didn't have this much fun with my iPod ever since I purchased iQuiz. You start the game as a small organism which has to survive by eating smaller organisms and staying away from larger ones. But as you keep going and collect DNA points, you're able to "evolve" your organism and add some features to it, such as enhancing its movement, defence or attack capabilities.

This is where the game gets really interesting, because the level of flexibility allows gamers to create the strangest organisms that you can imagine. Check out a demo video:


But these changes in your living being should not be made lightly as they will determine its success throughout the following levels. For example, I had to restart the game because I didn't "invest" in defence capabilities and got "stuck" in a level where these were crucial for my organism's survivability.

I know what you're thinking: being an iPod game, it can't be that interesting because the controls are very limited. Well, it doesn't feel that way, I assure you. The click-wheel, as with everything with the iPod, is very intuitive and it feels like a normal joystick in a typical 2D game.

Even though this game is just a way of opening up your appetite for the real deal, you can still have some real fun while in the train/bus on your way to work.

Fully recommended!

No Google Chrome for Mac? Don't worry, Firefox will do just fine

At first I was somewhat sad that Google didn't release a Mac OS X version of their new open ultra-mega-super-sweet browser, Chrome. Well, why shouldn't I? They even published a nice comic book that explains how they came up with it.

But then everything went back to normal when this Lifehacker's post reminded me why it's so great to have extensions in Firefox. :-)


Anyway, this won't stop me from trying the Mac OS X version of Google Chrome as soon as it's released. I'm actually looking forward to it. Well, let's wait and see...