Photograph: Cool Wall of Water

A water wall like this is what I need during the middle of August. Ahhh!

Read Full Post »

Apple Revamped Its Line of Notebooks

As you can see in the image above, Apple’s corporate strategy is based on three pillars:  MacBooks, iPhones and iTunes.  All three are profitable segments of its profit-generating business model.

Many analysts believe that iTunes and iPhones were blessed with the halo effect of the Mac computers.  Apple zealots went bananas with the MacBooks and iMacs; therefore they were heavily inclined to buy other Apple-branded products like the iPhone and downloading music and videos through iTunes.  The economic results were absolutely fantastic.

Based on this fact, Steven Jobs looks very closely at the performance of the MacBook line like a laser beam.  On October 14th, after much buzz and anticipation on the Internet, Steve Jobs and its buddies announced an improvement on the MacBook line, conveniently scheduled before the shopping season.  Even though there’s an economic turnoil going on everywhere, Apple was not willing to trim prices.  They feel, Apple will  weather out the storm and will continue to sail under blue skies.  Apple did lower its least expensive laptop, the existing version of the entry-level MacBook, by $100 to $999.

What is new?

Apple presented four new MacBooks and one new 24-inch Cinema display. An updated MacBook Air, the ultra-thin portable notebook that does not have a CD or DVD drive on board, begins at $1,799, just as the previous Air did.  The Air was also revamped to include 9400M graphics and a bigger hard disk.  A 17-inch Pro will also be announced soon.

The updated versions of its MacBook and MacBook Pro machines, Apple focused mainly on adding features. Some had been in the svelte MacBook Air, including thinner laptop casings and a multitouch track pad, which, like the iPhone, understands gestures for spinning and zooming.

The redesigned laptops are thinner and lighter, and use what Apple touted as a construction breakthrough. All the new laptops now use casings cut and tooled from aluminum, without a stronger skeleton fused to the insides.

The specs of the new Macs are:

1. MacBook Pro $1,999

• 15.4-inch LED-lit display with glass cover
• 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor
• 2GB DDR3 1066 Ram memory
• 250GB hard disk
• Superdrive
  
• Multi-touch glass trackpad
• Weight – 5.5 pounds

2. MacBook Pro $2,499

• 15.4-inch LED-lit display with glass cover
  
• 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor
  
• 4GB DDR3 1066 Ram memory
  
• 320GB hard disk
• Superdrive
  
• Multi-touch glass trackpad
• Weight:  5.5 pounds

3. Mid-range MacBook #1 $1,299

• 13.3-inch LED backlit glass
• 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor
• 2GB DDR3 1066 Ram memory
• 160GB  hard disk
• Superdrive
• Multi-touch glass trackpad,
• Weight:  4.5 pounds

4. Mid-range MacBook #2 $1,599

• 13.3-inch LED Backlit
• 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor
• 4GB DDR 1066 Ram memory
• 320GB hard disk
• Superdrive
• Multi-touch glass trackpad
• Weight:  4.5 pounds.

5. 24-inch LED-backlit Cinema Display $899

• 1920×1200
• Nini-Displayport
• A USB port and a magsafe power connector that you can plug into your MacBook and power up.

As at other events in the last few months, Jobs appeared thin but, in a tongue-in-cheek nod to persistent questions about his health, projected a slide with his healthy 110-over-70 blood pressure reading.

Since appearing gaunt and pale at a previous Apple introduction earlier this year, Mr. Jobs’ health has been the subject of intense interest. The company and Mr. Jobs have responded by saying that he has not had a recurrence of pancreatic cancer, which he battled four years ago.  Mr. Jobs looked thin last Tuesday, but otherwise healthy and energetic.  However, I have a gut feeling he is slowly planning his way out.  He’s using more assistants to help him during product presentations.  It’s not a single speaker running the  show anymore.  As long as he looks pale and thin, the hens will keep on clucking.

If you’re a computer geek and would like to read a thorough review on Apple’s latest laptops, please click the link at the bottom of this entry.  Good Day.

Related Readings:  MacBook and MacBook Pro Dual Review – Bestmodo

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Read Full Post »

Poem: Hope

Hope
by:  Emily Dickinson

Hope is the things with feathers
that perches in the soul
and sings the tune without the words
and never stops at all.

Note:  Poem #254 by 19th century American poet Emily Dikinson

I love these words.  Good Day.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Read Full Post »