All New iMac - Image courtesy of Apple Inc.

Headlining the updates are the new iMacs. Now available in two sizes. A 21.5″ version as well as a massive 27″ model. Both models feature a 16:9 aspect ratio LED-backlit display that gives it stunning images. The new displays also feature a technology called in-plane switching or IPS that makes for great viewing at a wider angle. So even if you’re looking at the screen skewed it’s still manages to give a superb image.

The iMac isn’t just for show. While it’s sleek outside it also gained more muscle. The basic model now sports a 3.06 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processors while the top end models feature quad-core Intel Core i5 or Core i7 “Nehalem” processors.

Another surprising but great thing that Apple did is to do away with the wired keyboard and mouse. Now every iMac comes with a wireless keyboard and the new Magic Mouse (more about the mouse in another article). It’s surprising because those two peripherals aren’t exactly cheap.

All in all the new iMac is a stunning evolution to a great line of computers.

Apple MacBook Unibody - Image courtesy of Apple Inc.

Apple also introduced a completely redesigned MacBook. The Macbook now is clad with a unibody plastic casing that looks similar to the MacBook Pro 13″ only it’s in white plastic. Still it looks really sexy. It’s now only 1.08 inches thin and lighter at 4.7 pounds.

Apple took out the rubber feet found in the old MacBook and replaced the lower surface of the MacBook with a durable non-slip material that ensures that your computer stays put.

Same as the previous MacBook, it only now comes in one variant. A 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo model with 2GB DDR3 RAM. It has a 250GB hard drive and an 8x Super drive. Apple also applied its new battery technology to the MacBook giving it a reported 7 hour batter life.

Mac Mini - Image courtesy of Apple Inc.

Rounding up the computer updates is the new line of Mac Minis. Apple is touting it as a “Mightier Mini” with processors running of up to 2.53Ghz and RAM now upgradeable to 4GB it’s certainly a more powerful machine. It’s also still very energy efficient.

Apple added another variant to the Mini. Now there’s a Mac Mini Snow Leopard Server. It’s basically a Mac Mini without the optical drive and now packed with twin hard drives. It also comes with the Snow Leopard Server software that makes it easy for small groups/businesses to run a server in-house. Apple says it’s amazingly easy to setup and manage.

For more information regarding Apple’s new line of Mac computers. It’s best to checkout the links below.

iMac Page
MacBook Page
Mac Mini Page

Apple iMac Press release
Apple MacBook Press release

Post from: EveryJoe

All New iMacs, MacBooks and Mac Minis

Before you go ahead and spend the extra dollars for the techie person, you can download Belarc Advisor which is an application that does all the work for you. It goes through every component of your computer, ask questions from manufactured date, to firmware including the installed software.

Through this application you can save the extra dollars, or save crawling down your computer box to get this info.

Summarized information of Belarc Advisor are as follows:

1. This application runs on Windows Vista, 2008, 2003, XP, 2000, NT 4, Me, 98, and 95. Both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows is supported.

2. You need to have IE 3 or Netscape 3, and higher versions – this shouldn’t be a problem. Also runs on Opera, Mozilla, and Firefox.

3. This is a tiny application at 2004 KB.

4. This is free, in any case this is the license from Belarc product page: The license associated with this product allows for free personal use only. Use on multiple PCs in a corporate, educational, military or government installation is prohibited. See the license agreement for details.

Go ahead and download Belarc Advisor.

Image from Belarc Advisor.

Post from: EveryJoe

Know Details About of Your Hardware

The question came to my mind today is how do I know if the USB port is having an actual hardware failure issue, or if it’s just a software driver issue? How can I match one of the USB ports displayed in my Device Manager, with one of the physical USB ports on my computer?

I’ve got two USB ports in the back and two on the side of my laptop. Is there a way to match them some how? Do I need some sort of schematic from Toshiba letting me know what’s connected to what somehow?

Post from: EveryJoe

How Do You Track Down USB Ports

[image courtesy of Apple]

This upgrade puts it up the low end Aluminum MacBook who’s processor is still currently 2.0 Ghz. The update polycarbonate MacBook is now a much better value for money notebook for students with it’s price tag of $999.

Post from: EveryJoe

Apple Updates Entry Level MacBook

Called “Sakshat”, the concept is similar to OLPC. While screenshots aren’t out yet, Sakshat has a small screen, 2GB disk space, wi-fi connectivity, computing capabilities, and perhaps some open source software. It has been created to hold textbooks and access online e-learning materials. As an alternative to text-books.

The first batch is expected to be shipped to some colleges in another six months.

Read The Hindu’s article covering the prototype launch (has one image).

Post from: EveryJoe

$10 Computers in India

Physical Address: Also called the Media Access Control address, is a serial number that can uniquely identify your ethernet card or wireless adapter.

IP Address: An Internet Protocol address is assigned by your LAN provider(say, a modem at homes) to each of the systems connected to a network through the provider.

Subnet Mask: When there are multiple systems connected to a network, the network is divided into subnetworks to avoid interference (traffic), and routers manage the overall traffic. In a manner of speaking, the subnets can be differentiated by the subnet masks.

Default Gateway: As the name suggests, this is the (IP) address of the node that allows access to a different network. Say your modem connects to the Internet, and your PC connects to the modem. The modem acts as the gateway for your PC to the Internet.

DHCP Server: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol can be used by systems to obtain configuration information to connect to a network without any manual intervention. e.g. You usually don’t configure any network information on your home PC. You say “Obtain an IP address automatically” and leave it at that, and this allows multiple systems to connect to the same network without each system being designated a set of hard-written network configuration details. The DHCP Server handles this.

DNS Server: A Domain Name System server stores all the domain names and corresponding IP addresses. When you type a URL in your browser address bar, the DNS Server translates the domain name into an understandable format (IP) before the requested details can be fetched from the website you wish.

WINS Server: You may look at Windows Internet Name Service as Microsoft’s version of DNS. There are differences, but the final result to the end user is more or less the same. And either of DNS and WINS servers suffice.

Newbies, you mostly know the tiny network icons in your system tray. Click on the icon that represents the network through which you are connected to the Internet. Go to the “Support” tab, click on “Details” and you will see the “Network Connection Details” I have mentioned above.

Post from: EveryJoe

Network Connection Details

The first Apple Macintosh was launched on Jan 18, 1984. It was the first commercially successful computer with a GUI and a mouse instead of CLI.

To the left is the first Mac and to the right, the latest.

Jef Raskin envisioned the first Mac and wanted to name it McIntosh, after his favorite type of Apple, but had to settle for Macintosh. That compromise allows us to call it a Mac.

One specialty of Mac is that Apple oversees all aspects of its hardware and pre-installs its own operating system (currently the Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard”) on all Macs. Macs have always been special like the Ford Mustang, something that everyone wishes to own, but few do because of their considerably higher pricing compared to the Windows PCs.

Macs are lauded for their user-friendliness, performance, aesthetics, and quality, like most other Apple products. Check out the Mac line and tell me if you find nothing mouth-watering.

Computeworld is featuring a special series on this occasion.

For all kinds of information about Macs, visit our sister blog The After Mac.

Image Source: Wikipedia.

Post from: EveryJoe

Happy Birthday Mac

A quick survey using Google tells us that there are nearly a million results for laptop hard disk, about a half million each for laptop hard disk recovery and laptop hard disk replacement, and a quarter million for laptop hard disk failure.

Let us look into mechanical hard disk failures as there are recovery tools which can very well work in case of other kinds of failures.

One obvious reason why a hard disk might mechanically fail is when it is dropped off a height. Despite what stress tests assure you, laptops are only as proportionally safe as humans when it comes to jumping off heights. While we might be able to walk again, they might not always be able to run.

One non-obvious reason why a hard disk might mechanically fail is when you take it for a walk. Laptop is a portable device, so you hold it and walk from the kitchen (it shouldn’t even have been there) to the TV room, or worse, from your office to your home. I do it all the time. Only I suspend the laptop, if not shut it down.

Hard disks as the “disk” suggests are mechanical devices. When you walk a hard disk while it is running (while I/Os are being performed), you put it in a pickle, like you would yourself find when you were to drink while running.

The large momentum you give it while walking can conflict with its own momentum at a time when its head is trying to read or write to a sector, and this can cause mechanical failure.

So.

Don’t walk the laptop.

Not when it is running. Shut down or at least suspend all activity before doing that.

Post from: EveryJoe

Do Not Walk the Laptop

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PC Vs Mac Transformers Video

Jayvee inspects the culture of FAIL on the Internet and finds that video advertising is going to decline. Actually, the rate of growth of online advertising has reached a saturation point even though online advertising itself is continuing to rise.

In these tough times, when the economy has been slowing down, Clair suggests that choosing Linux and open source software has become more necessary. For those who are already in that path, there is a free Ubuntu training course. Ubuntu is Linux for human beings, isn’t it?

A survey found that only 1% of people are using Google Docs, and many of those use Microsoft Office already. However, Colleen feels that the Microsoft’s stranglehold on office suites may be slipping away with Microsoft promising and postponing their next release and the availability of too many options for the users.

Juan says that 2008 is the year of iPhone, which is not very debatable in the user sense though this is also the year for RIAs, Twitter (@bsravanin) and cloud computing. But then, he is an Apple guy. :-) He also shares the offer that MacUpdate is having as a holiday promo. A good offer, far better than dreaming about the Apple 24″ LED display which is about $900!

Speaking of promos, Jason has a post about the Sears Wish Promotion, similar to the HP Magic Giveaway which has recently ended. There is already several Top 10 lists too, like the top 10 viral videos of 2008. I personally don’t like the fact that these lists do not consider the rest of the year that is still to be lived through. The more important news is, in case you haven’t already heard, that a serious security flaw has been exposed in the Internet Explorer and it is advised to not use it for financial and other sensitive transations of any kind.

While you wait for the security update, be sure to take note of the 8 security bulletins that Microsoft is ending the year with. Various OS users may want to check out the 2008 Service Pack 2 beta releases.

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Tech Channel Roundup of Year End Retrospections and Forecasts