Mac

Japanese engineers trash MacBook Air

Japanese engineers were quick to pour scorn on the MacBook Air. This critique comes courtesy of Nikkei Electronics, a major Japanese electronics monthly, which did a teardown of the Air.

Here's the seeming challenge: The Japanese PC industry must come up with a reason why their own PC suppliers--NEC, Toshiba, Sony, Fujitsu--don't have a riveting 0.75-inch-thin notebook design on the market in the U.S. The answer, for them, is simple: a Japanese company would never approve of the design.

(Actually Mitsubishi did design an Air-thin notebook called the Pedion back in 1997, but the shallow keyboard … Read more

Palm Foleo: Not such a dumb concept after all?

If the sudden rush into subnotebooks by major PC vendors is any indication, it's worth considering whether Palm's Foleo wasn't such a lame idea.

Photos of a subnotebook from Hewlett-Packard, reportedly called the HP Compaq 2133, showed up on the Web recently. And another major PC vendor, Acer, is also rumored to be entering the subnotebook fray sometime soon. Neither company will confirm anything, but in the case of the HP Compaq device, an industry insider tells us the product is for real and that the company began seriously looking into the category in November 2007. When … Read more

Apple seeks patent on MacBook trackpad power chords

Apple could be readying a notebook trackpad that lets you practice your Rock Band form while using your Mac.

A patent application unearthed by MacRumors.com seeks protection for multitouch technology similar to that introduced by Apple on the MacBook Air's trackpad. This time, however, MacBook users could use as many as four fingers positioned in "chords" to execute different tasks in Mac OS X, such as bringing all the application windows to the front or opening up the Dashboard.

This could even be extended to individual tasks within applications, such as cut and paste. Those were … Read more

This week in laptops

While some sectors of tech were reliving the years 2001 through 2003, the world of laptops soldiered on, driven by the harsh master that is Moore's law. Intel's 45-nanometer Penryn chips crept into several laptops, including the Dell XPS M1730 and two Acer Aspires. Meanwhile, Best Buy is currently showing a one- to two-week delay on MacBook Pros--we'll let you connect the dots.

In other component news, Nvidia was met with yawns when it revealed the specs for two mainstream notebook video cards. A supersecret start-up called Montalvo Systems just might be on the verge of … Read more

Best Buy running low on MacBooks ahead of new arrivals?

A back order of MacBooks at Best Buy could be yet another sign that Apple has new notebooks around the corner.

Best Buy is showing a one- to two-week delay on both 15.4-inch $1,999 MacBook Pros--the exact configuration that was rumored to be on tap earlier this month--as well as 13.3-inch MacBooks. AppleInsider has also heard from a reseller who claims orders are "trickling in" in preparation for a new launch.

Rumors of new notebooks have been swirling for weeks as a confluence of different events point to the possibility of new MacBook Pros. Intel … Read more

mac.column.ted: Happy Anniversary to Default Folder

[Friday, February 15th]

Ted Landau

February 2008

Default Folder (with and without the X) is one of the most enduring utilities ever released for the Mac. The first version dates back to 1988. That's right. 1988. Even Apple doesn't have much software that dates back that far. This means that 2008 is Default Folder's twentieth anniversary!

My recollection is that I started using Default Folder soon after its initial release and have been a more than satisfied customer ever since.

For those of you unfamiliar with this great utility, here's what you need to know: Default … Read more

Open Season Episode 11: Some stuff happened and we did a podcast about it

If you've got a half-hour, we've got a podcast for you. This week on Open Season, Matt Asay, Ashlee Vance and I talk about a whole lot of nothing, including:

My MacBook Air (I am still in love) XenSource Sun Lies and damn lies about open source on Intel's website We made an attempt on this 2 weeks back but our petard was hoisted by a shoddy conference bridge. Technology is only occasionally my friend.

Open Season Episode 11

Rush wants Apple's Time Machine to back up e-mail

Rush Limbaugh provided a little more detail Wednesday on the Mac issues that have been driving him batty (yes, more so) since he upgraded to Leopard.

The bombastic radio host has been a Mac user for years, but on Tuesday he complained on his show about issues with six Macs that he runs on a network, without providing any details. The story made its way around the Mac community to a mixture of curious and hostile responses, and now Limbaugh has outlined his two main beefs.

The first one is the Back to my Mac feature introduced with Leopard isn'… Read more

Bad luck with Belkin

I like the Belkin company. I remember when Belkin was basically nothing but a cable company, and by that, I mean a company that makes electrical and optical cables. They made good cables, and still do.

But in recent years they have expanded into a wide variety of consumer products. I've always assumed Belkin's expansion was driven, at least in part, by the success of Monster Cable, which has made a lot of money selling expensive cables that (in my opinion, at least) are not always worth the price.

I imagine Belkin's engineering-oriented management deciding that selling … Read more

Limbaugh appeals to Apple's Jobs for help

Even the rich and famous can't always depend on their megaphones for technical support.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is having trouble with his four Mac Pros, which he recently upgraded to Mac OS X 10.5.2. Apparently he's having some sort of issue with Leopard that he thought would be fixed with the latest update, but it wasn't, and Limbaugh joked about making a personal appeal to Apple CEO Steve Jobs for technical support.

Limbaugh posted a transcript of an exchange from his Tuesday show concerning the Leopard update. "I've been having two … Read more

Mac