The new MacBook Pros now all come with sealed batteries. This was just once the territory of the mighty 17 inch model. Not anymore. The recent refresh brought that technology to its smaller siblings, the 15 inch and the recent addition to the MacBook Pro line-up the 13 inch.

MacBook Pro Family, Image courtesy of Apple Inc.

According to Walt Mossberg who had the chance to test both the 13 and 15 inch MacBook Pro and put it through the paces of his own battery test, both laptops performed well. The 13 inch lasted a slighty below the 5 hour mark while the 15 inch was 21 minutes above the 5 hour marker. This says well considering no power saving feature was turned on and the screen brightness was cranked up. In normal usage, expect battery life to be even slightly higher.

I for one was at first skeptical of the notion that I can’t replace the battery of my laptop. However looking back, ever since I’ve owned a laptop, I’ve never bought a spare battery. Hmmm… I guess I just like the thought that I could replace it if I wanted to. Mossberg cites in his article that only less than 5% of consumers actually buy spare batteries. This figure was from NPD, a research firm. I would believe that this figure is close to the truth.

I guess we just need to let go of our need to control things and trust that technology works. Apple was able to increase battery size and life in its MacBook Pro line of computers without adding weight or heft. I guess its a decent trade-off to the fact that you can’t replace it yourself. Apple also claims that their batteries will last up to 5 years. So by the time it’s time to change batteries it’s also time to change computers.

So we’ll see in the days to come if indeed sealed batteries are the way to go.

Apple’s WWDC 2009 is underway and it opened with the keynote speech which featured some new Apple stuff. Below is a roundup of the notable items.

WWDC 2009 - Image courtesy of Apple

New MacBook Pro Lineup

I don’t think anyone saw this coming. At least not for this event. Apple just revamped it’s MacBook Pro line. Releasing an all new 15 inch MacBook Pro which now sports a similar battery to the 17 inch. Promising battery life of up to 7 hours. Another notable thing is the swapping out of the express slot with a SD card reader.

Another thing is that the MacBook Aluminum is now rebranded as the 13 inch MacBook Pro. It shares similar specs to it’s 15″ brother. The 13 inch model also now comes with a FW800 port.

What’s also outrageous (in a good way) is that the MacBook Pros prices have been reduced significantly. The 13″ starts at $1199 while the 15″ starts at $1699.

The white polycarbonate MacBook now remains as the only MacBook model available.

MacBook Air updated

Apple also updated MacBook Air models. The new entry level MacBook Air sports a 1.86 Ghz Core 2 Duo processor with a 120GB Hard drive while the higher end model has a 2.13 Ghz Core 2 Duo processor and a 128GB Solid State Drive. The 1.86 Ghz’s price starts at $1,499 while the 2.13 Ghz is priced at $1,799. Making both of them easily the most bang-for-buck MacBook Airs yet.

Snow Leopard

A preview of Snow Leopard was demoed during the keynote. What can I say except that I’m really excited to upgrade to Snow Leopard. Apple is also making it available to exisitng Leopard users for a low low $29 for a single user license and $49 for a Family Pack. Beat that Windows!

There are a lot of great features that come with Snow Leopard, such as a rewritten Finder, Expose controls via the dock and the new Quicktime X.

However with all of these refinements I think the most important of which is Exchange support. Sure, not all will agree but I think it’s the most important feature because it now allows Macs to really compete and penetrate the corporate market. Companies rely on Microsoft Exchange for their corporate communication needs and now the Mac can play with them. That means IT companies can now adopt Macs for some if not all of their users. That will significantly help improve market share for Apple.

iPhone 3G S and iPhone 3.0 OS

The iPhone and the iPhone 3.0 OS were the most anticipated announcements of the keynote. Apple previewed the new OS which I must say is getting better all the time. I can’t believe people are actually clapping and shouting with the announcement of the copy and past feature and MMS. It’s something that people have been really clamoring for. However true to Apple form, they won’t do something unless they can do it right. I think their version of copy and paste is good and will work really well with the iPhone interface.

The 3.0 software boasts of a 100 new features. I mentioned copy and paste, other notable features are spotlight search, new Safari, landscape version of the keyboard, better parental controls, the ability to record and send audio, voice control app, etc.

What I really liked was the “Find My iPhone” feature. This is available to iPhone users who are Mobile Me subscribers as well. In the event that you lose your iPhone, you can login to Mobile Me and send your iPhone a message. It will also tell you where your iPhone is. If in fact it has been stolen and not just misplaced, you can send it a command to erase all of your data. Some people are saying that there might be a privacy issue and that people can use it to track you without your knowledge, but this technology has already been embedded in most phones sold in the US which have built-in GPS chips to help authorities track people in case of emergencies. So this is not something that’s exclusive to the iPhone.

Some very cool demos were shown during the keynote albeit there were some malfunctions or mishaps that occured. I love medical app from AirStrip CC which allows doctors to monitor patients with a remote sensor. It feeds the iPhone the relevant data of the patient and can alert doctors when certain parameters are reached. I’ve always been a proponent of better technologies for health and medical services. This looks to really be a promising one.

All in all the WWDC keynore was great. Steve didn’t make an appearance though but it’s ok. It shows that Apple can exist and put on a good show even if he’s not there. It would have been better though but the other guys at Apple still did a good job.

The question I had last May was if Steve Jobs will return to Apple, well it looks like I have my answer. According to WSJ, Steve Jobs is set to keep his promise and return to Apple by the end of June. Some people have said to have spotted Jobs at the Apple campus.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple was also quoted to have said that Jobs seemed to be healthy and energetic during their last phone conversation. Ben Charny’s post on Digits, (blog for WSJ) had this to say about Wozniak’s comment regarding Jobs.

On the sidelines of the All Things D conference, Mr. Wozniak said Mr. Jobs “doesn’t sound like he’s sick,” nor did he seem to be in a health crisis. Mr. Wozniak said, however, he has never directly asked Mr. Jobs how he is.

So things seem to be pointing to the return of Steve Jobs, which is well and good. This might be part of the reason why Apple’s shares have shot past the $140 level the past week. That and the imminent launch of the 3rd generation of the iPhone.

June, which is the start of the 2nd half of the year looks to be promising. If Steve Jobs returns to Apple, then we’re off to a good start.

Do you want to be able to type faster? David Pogue from New York Times has listed applications that could help you become more productive through faster typing apps.

The following are these applications:

TypeIt4Me, Typinator and TextExpander for MAC.

TypeIt4Me is also available on the iPhone

AutoHotKey, ActiveWords and Texter for Windows

AutoCorrect feature for Microsoft Office applications

In-depth discussion of the typing application and features can be found here —

Typing-Expansion Software.

In an excerpt:

Of course, you can get the same effect within Microsoft Office (Mac and Windows), using its AutoCorrect feature. That arrangement has one profound advantage: the expansion happens even when you’re editing. That is, I can click just after a "w" I typed earlier; if I add a "v," it expands to "Windows Vista." With the shareware programs, by contrast, you have to type the whole thing at once, *followed* by a space or punctuation so it knows you’re finished with the abbreviation.

But Microsoft’s AutoCorrect has a big downside, too: it works only in Office. I want my expansions to be system-wide. I want it to work in my e-mail program, browser, sticky-notes app, word processor, spreadsheet, on the desktop, and so on.

News source from Typing-Expansion Software

Image from acplteens.wordpress.com.

Panic Software, makers of popular Mac software such as Transmit and Coda is having a 3 day sale. Transmit, Coda, CandyBar and Unison are 50% off. The sale period is from 12:01 AM PST May 27th to 11:59 PM PST May 29th.

I took this opportunity to buy Coda. I’ve tried this out before and generally like this software except for the $99 price tag that it carries. So now with the chance to buy it for $49.50, I snapped it up.

Hurry Mac users and avail of the 3 day sale!

Spurred by my recent battery problems, I stumbled upon this little app from Sonora Graphics. It’s called Battery Health Monitor. It’s a free app that allows you to monitor your MacBook Pro, MacBook, PowerBook and iBook’s battery life.

Battery Health Monitor Screen shot

It shows you the original capacity, current capacity, current charge, charge cycles, voltage and some more info. From this you can see how your battery is doing, if you need to change it, etc.

Granted these information can be found through System profiler, I just like it better when there’s a GUI to look at. Plus what am I gonna fill up my hard disk with but with tons of Mac apps. Right?

Download Battery Health Monitor here. It’s a free download.

Filemaker Inc. announced today, the mobile version of its Bento database application. For $4.99, iPhone and iPod Touch users can have the power of Bento in their hands. They can use it as standalone application for their mobile device or in tandem with the desktop app in order to sync and have their data wherever they go.

Bento app for iPhone and iPod Touch

The mobile app comes with 25 pre-designed and ready to use templates, which can have you up and running in minutes. They’re also customizable so that you can add other data that you want. It also ships with a blank template so you can create your own custom template.

It also integrates with the iPhone / iPod Touch’s existing applications, such as Contacts, Safari, Mail, Phone dialing and Google Maps for a better all around experience.

The app’s release is actually quite coincidental since I just downloaded the trial version of the desktop version of Bento. I think I really need a database app for some new things that I’m venturing into. I’m exploring to explore Bento and see if it fits my needs or should I go for broke and get Filemaker Pro. I do wish that there was a trial version for the mobile version of Bento. While $4.99 isn’t exactly a lot of money, it’s still money and in these trying times you really don’t want to be spending on something you won’t be using.

Check out the complete press release of the Bento for iPhone and iPod Touch.

I tried Pixelmator before but didn’t really use it much ever since. Probably, because I never really had enough time to play with it. The makers of Pixelmator recently released a new version and a new learning section in their web site which aims to teach and showcase the powerful editor that Pixelmator has become.

Bokeh Effect Image created with Pixelmator

The Colorful Bokeh Effect tutorial was the one that caught my interest. I like these types of images and saw it as a great opportunity to learn how to create one. So I downloaded a copy of Pixelmator again since the last copy I downloaded was an older version and the trial had expired. After installing it I proceeded with the tutorials. I honestly thought that it would take longer but I was over and done in less than 10 mins. It’s really easy in Pixelmator.

Not only was I surprised at how easy it was to do the image but the quality of the resulting image was great. For this tutorial I got to use the gradient tool. All I can say is that the gradient tool was great because you can see a live preview of the gradient you’re creating. Pixelmator makes use of the Macs GPU and produces quick filters and tools.

For $59 bucks, Pixelmator is a great buy. It has most of the features that everyday people will use. Sure Photoshop is still better but it also comes at a price. Most people won’t need that. Pixelmator makes it affordable for people to start and improve their image editing skills.

I would seriosuly recommend this app.

I came across this list of 25 Free Mac Apps for Freelancers from Designer Daily . A lot of the apps listed are apps that I use, because I’m a freelancer as well and they do help a lot and don’t cost a dime.

Most of the apps listed are also very useful to the everyday Mac user. Apps such as Adium, Skype, Firefox, Handbrake, Quicksilver and Transmission should be essential tools for most Mac users as well.

Some of the apps on this list that I’d like to try for myself are AppCleaner, as a replacement to AppZapper. Another app I want to try is DeepVacuum, an app that will allow me to download local copies of web sites. This will come in useful if I want to try and deconstruct a site that I’m trying to learn from.

So if you’re a freelancer or a Mac user at that, try out the apps listed on this article. Most of them are great and best of all free.

If you have been searching for an excuse to update your iPhone (or finally make the leap and purchase one of your very own for the first time), the announcement from Apple yesterday on the new features and goodies it will include might just push you over the edge. The focus appears to be cleaning up a lot of the nagging little things that a user would anticipate being easy from the start.

Image: Apple

Systemwide search- now you can find what you’re looking for from within one search interface, instead of having to detemine what you’re searching for first.

Copy and paste for text, photos, and SMS- why you weren’t able to take a selection of text and move it around across applications before…is just crazy. Finally you can grab a text message and paste it into an email, or grab someone’s name and use it to name a properly name a photo. As just two scenarios where this is more than just a ‘nice to have’.

MMS - I have never been a big user of multimedia messages, but now you can send and recieve them on your iPhone.

Improved GPS -probably the biggest complaint I heard from all my iPhone loving friends, is that the GPS has been subpar from the start. This sounds like a big improvement all around.

Micropayments - while I understand why this would be useful, I do appreciate that right now I purchase an app…and then it’s done. Well, now app developers have the option of requiring you to subscribe instead of paying one fee up front.

More from Gizmodo.