I hear newbie Mac Users argue that since they paid so much already for an Apple unit, paying for Apple Care is just way too much. But let me remind you that you don’t actually have to buy an Apple Care at the same time you buy the unit. You can actually defer it until a month before your current Apple Warranty expires. So that gives you ample time to save up for an Apple Care Protection Plan that costs roughly around $250-$350, depending on the Apple Product.

Courtesy Apple Gazette

Now all I have to do is save up enough money for that 15″ Macbook Pro I’ve always wanted—so that I can install Windows 7 on it!

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Wouldn’t it be harder to thieves to fence stuff online if all reputable for-sale sites required sellers to post the serial numbers of their wares?

It’s been a pretty hectic week for Technograph, involving a couple of stolen Macbook Pros. The unibody was recently stolen, while its 2007 counterpart was found.

In the latter case, the robbed owner encountered a for-sale item on a local user group forum, and upon looking at the serial number of the item, realized that someone was trying to sell his stolen laptop!

To be clear, the poster on the forum wasn’t directly involved with the theft. Reports indicate that he bought the stolen laptop from someone else through another website. In fact, he innocently complied with the forum’s rule that for-sale posts should list the serial numbers of all items offered.

That’s exactly my point: for-sale sites should require that sellers list the serial numbers of their items. Victims of theft presumably watch out for the serial numbers of their lost goods, making reunions that much easier. Sure, sellers trying to fence stuff may post a fake serial number. But using a bogus serial is likely to make any buyer suspicious, once they inspect the item and find out that the actual serial doesn’t match the advertised one.

Obviously, for this recommendation to work, we all need to be vigilant. For-sale websites can do their part, requiring sellers to post serial numbers along with their items, while buyers can check the serial numbers of whatever item they’re getting to see if it’s stolen or not. Or even look for items only on websites that require serial numbers in their listings.

It’s impossible to eliminate theft and fencing outright, but we can make it as hard as possible. Why should we take the time and help other people recover their stolen goods? Because it’s the right thing to do, and if you end up as a victim of theft, wouldn’t consider the help of others valuable?

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So how does this make cooling pads unnecessary? Rico’s personal testimony revealed that he was able to make his hot-running MBP, at 65 degrees Celsius, drop by 7 degrees by forcing the fans to run at full speed. As a safety feature, smcFanControl will not allow the user to slow fan speed below the minimum as dictated by Apple’s defaults.

While this makes a cooling pad mostly unnecessary, I wonder what the effect of running your CPU, hard disk, and optical drive fans at a consistently high speed? Will such direct and manual control of an MBP’s fans also void the warranty? At the very least, I’m pretty sure high fan speeds drain the battery faster.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Yes, the MacBook is considerably better looking and it comes with a really nifty assortment of software. But for that $675 difference, you can buy yourself a copy of Microsoft Office Home & Student, a copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, and have plenty left over for a nice netbook.

Of course, Mr. Wildstrom was probably being creative, trying to make his point about Apple resisting the downward trend of laptop prices with his little experiment. And kudos to BusinessWeek for moderating the article’s comments.

While you can literally feel the desperation of Apple’s fans as they attempt to explain away the $600 deficit, it’s really hard to find any personal attacks and you-suck statements. Fallacies abound, from both sides, but that’s to be expected from any platform vs. platform conversation.

Let’s end this on a pretty straightforward note:

Nate
January 21, 2009 12:13 PM

AdamC:
“Being virus free is worth much more than the $600 plus price difference.”

And if OSx were virus free, that’d be a valid argument here.

Dun dun dunnnnn!

Post from: The Gadget Blog

How long will battery replacement service take?
Length of time to complete the battery replacement will depend upon the repair location and availability of service stock. In general, the following replacement times apply:

Apple Retail
Same day repair with an appointment.

Apple Mail-in
3 – 4 business days after shipment of unit to depot.

So how does that compare with other brands (prices below exclusive of taxes and shipping)?

• Dell XPS M1330 Battery – $74.37
• Original IBM / Lenovo ThinkPad Z61m, Z61p, Type 9450, 9451, 9452, 9453 Series Hi-Li-Ion Laptop Battery ( 9 Cell ) – $176.85
• Replacement Intelligent 8 Cell Li-Ion Battery L18650-8DHL, for Hewlett Packard OmniBook 2100, 3000, 3100 Series Notebook Computers. ds – $169.00

(image from Apple)

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Source: Mac Rumors

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Marco: http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/2008/10/macbook-and-macbook-pro-performance-october-2008/
Marco: not too much performance boost
Marco: even with ddr3
Rico: Lol, only the basic model has an appreciable boost
Marco: yeah
Marco: i told you
Marco: macbooks benefited more
Marco: benefited
Rico: especially with the discrete (but not dedicated) graphics
Marco: yeah
Marco: but it is cheaper
Marco: my probable advice would be
Marco: if you’re upgrading from a 3 year old laptop
Marco: its worth it
Marco: but if like me
Rico: hahaha, agreed
Marco: someone who just has bought an mbp
Marco: not really worth it
Marco: unless you have cash to burn
Marco: the lack of performance gains could also be in the drivers
Marco: remember apple writes their own chipset drivers
Marco: and this is the first time they’re writing for nvidia based chipsets
Marco: but regardless the gains are still negligible
Rico: So this could probably improve over time?
Rico: With updates and the like?
Marco: it is possible
Marco: but how much gain
Marco: is still probably minute
Marco: but the platform opens up very exciting possibilities when intel releases their nehalem family chips
Marco: which offer mobile quadcore
Marco: that with nvidia’s 9400m chipset could really usher in some amazingly fast notebooks by the start of next year
Marco: probably in june at macworld
Marco: future proofing has always been the forte of apple anyway
Rico: nehalem?
Marco: the next family of multicore processors
Marco: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Nehalem_(microarchitecture)
Marco: right now it’s penryn
Marco:
Marco: its also cool to note that apple thinks (well implied) that bluray will die soon.
Marco: i think bluray hasnt enjoyed the ubiquitous popularity of dvd
Marco: when dvd became standard
Marco: infact bluray sales are down this year
Rico: Ah, you mean all that talk about licensing complications keeping Apple from integrating Blu-Ray in the MacBook?
Marco: because people prefer to get their hd content online
Marco: lol
Marco: yeah its not licensing complications really
Marco: well that’s probably part of it
Marco: but i think its more of not adapting something that is close to extinction anyway
Marco: its cheaper to get your hd content via itunes
Marco: or hulu
Marco: than it is to buy a bluray disc
Marco: let alone a bluray capable burner
Marco: er
Marco: player
Marco: so i think apple believes that hd content’s future is through online distribution
Marco: rather than through physical media
Marco: like bluray
Marco: but of course they cant really say that
Marco: and that’s beside their official issues with licensing
Rico: I know I know, it’s Apple’s marketing magic at work again
Marco: hahah true

Post from: The Gadget Blog

So Jobs has finally spilled the beans on their new MacBooks, turning the MacBook into a sort of MacBook Pro lite. Friends who’ve been brainwashed by Apple’s marketing have expressed slight disappointment—who can blame ‘em? Here’s a short rundown on what Apple has to offer:

Pricing

Yes, Apple’s laptops (at least these two) feature a premium over similar PC counterparts. The MacBook starts at $1299. A similarly configured Dell XPS M1330—sans the DDR3 memory—is much cheaper, and can do more. Mobile broadband anyone? Forget what Apple says about configuring for standards that don’t exist yet. The Steve Jobs tax is very much alive, especially since you have to pay a whopping $2000 (at least) for the Macbook Pro.

Performance

Again, the key improvement of the new MacBooks are their use of DD3 memory. Basically, this means that the laptops’ respective processors can maximize the RAM, since they’re now both running at the same speed (1066Mhz). What does this mean for the average user? Not much, but hardcore users should enjoy some noticeable gains for intensive tasks like video editing and high-end gaming.

Apple has finally given its consumer laptop (MacBook) some significant power in the graphics department. The MacBook Pro as always features dedicated graphics. But why couldn’t Apple put the same magnitude of power in a 13.3″ frame? That would’ve been really new.

Form Factor

To make a long story short, both laptops are practically the same size as their predecessors. The differences are hardly noticeable to the naked eye, so let’s not spend more time here. To be fair though, every extra millimeter is important to portability freaks.

Looks

Obviously, the new MacBooks take a design cue from the current-generation iMacs. So there’s nothing revolutionary about how they look—Apple’s latest laptops still feature a distinctive and clean look that for some reason most PC manufacturers can’t compete with. It’s great that Apple decided to go with an all-aluminum main body, as it will prove more durable (and less prone to staining) than plastic.

To make a long story short, these new Apple laptops are mostly nothing new, with significant changes mainly limited to looks.

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