I hope you didn’t buy a MacBook or MacBook Pro last week, it has to happen to someone, just when you think you have the latest and greatest… Apple makes an even better one! How dare they!!

So what’s new?

They both have the new 45nm Penryn processors which claim to be more energy efficient but not much faster than the previous 65nm Merom processors, with the exception of when an application uses a specific SSE4 instruction set that will give upto a 40% speed boost.

Battery Life:

• MacBook - 4.5hrs (6hrs)
• 15″ MacBook Pro - 5hrs (5hrs)
• 17″ MacBook Pro - 4.5hrs (5.75hrs)

A note about Apple battery life claims:

“Apple has always done three separate battery tests when coming up with this metric—a DVD playback test, a wireless productivity test, and a “highway test,” which got the best battery life and Apple used to advertise. However, the highway test is “hard to reproduce, and people got confused” he said, which is why Apple ditched it and started going with wireless productivity instead. “The wireless productivity test is the closest to normal usage, right in the middle of the road with WiFi, text editing, sending e-mail, etc.”

Multitouch trackpad

MacBook Pros do in fact now have Multitouch trackpads similar to the one found on the MacBook Air. MacBooks do not utilize this technology in the new model. You have to keep something for the Pro model!

Apple Remote Control

OK, for all you MacBook and MacBook Pro owners who didn’t get in on the new models, you got an Apple Remote Control included. look at the bright side, the new models do not include an Apple Remote control.

MacBook Specs and US Pricing

• $1099 - Macbook 13″ - 2.1GHz - 1GB - 120GB - Combo - White
• $1299 - Macbook 13″ - 2.4GHz - 2GB - 160GB - Super - White
• $1499. Macbook 13″ 2.4GHz - 2GB - 250GB - Super - Black

MacBook Pro Specs and US Pricing

• $1999 - Macbook Pro 15″ - 2.4GHz - 2GB - 200GB 5400RPM - 256MB Vram
• $2499 - Macbook Pro 15″ - 2.5GHz - 2GB - 250GB 5400RPM - 512MB Vram
• $2799 - Macbook Pro 17″ - 2.5GHz - 2GB - 250GB 5400RPM - 512MB Vram

There’s never a better time to buy a Mac then when Apple just releases a new model so what are you waiting for??

For all you Canadians out there, this iTunes Movie rental tip may just make your day.

While I was visiting the US last week purchasing my iPhone, I also picked up a couple US iTunes Gift Cards to be used here in Canada to fund my iTunes Store account.

Now if you have tried to trick iTunes into thinking you where from the US (to get all that great US content) you have probably found that you get shutout at the Credit Card info section. Unless you have a US based credit card that is and most of us don’t.

By entering a US based iTunes Gift Card you can bypass having to enter any credit card info, here’s what you need to do…

• Launch iTunes.
• Select the “iTunes Store” from the left side menu.
• Make sure you are at the home level of the iTunes Store.
• Scroll to the very bottom and change the “My Store” tab to “United States”.
• In the “Quick Links” section (near the top right area) select “Redeem”
• Enter your iTunes Gift Card Code (case sensitive).
• You will now have to create a US account, go through the steps but make sure to use a different email than your Canadian iTunes Store account (if you have one).
• In the address section just use a random US based address (look one up online).
• Also make sure to select “None” for your Credit Card information
• Thats about it, you should now have a US based iTunes Store account preloaded with your iTunes Gift Card funds.
• Enjoy your Movies and TV shows…

If you don’t live near the boarder or maybe you don’t want to make the trip across the boarder there are lots of people selling iTunes Gift Card Authentication Codes online, usually with a slight markup. Once you have payed for the iTunes Gift Card all that is needed is the Authentication code, which can be emailed right away.

So far I have already downloaded a couple of movies, one in HD and the download speed is very impressive, my HD movie was ready to view in under 5 minutes.

So being a Canadian just got even better, in less than a week I got a 16GB iPhone and I can now purchase and rent all of the US based iTunes Store content.

A while back after waiting for the iPhone to come to Canada, I finally broke down and got a 16GB iPod Touch, you can read about it here. A few of my reasons for getting the iPod Touch or should I say justifying the purchase as opposed to waiting on the iPhone went something like this and not necessarily in order of importance:

• I need to own one so I can support my Clients with iPhones and/or an iPod Touch.
• The iPod Touch is more compact.
• The Touch has more physical memory.
• The iPod Touch is less expensive by about $100.
• Last but not least, using a separate phone gave me the ability to use an inexpensive phone for times when an expensive iPhone could be subject to an increased risk of becoming damaged, as in doing laborious work or sports.

All of this all still holds true…

Unfortunately an iPod Touch is still not an iPhone, a device that does it all or at least most of it! The phone part being the major component in the equation. Other key benefits of the iPhone over the iPod Touch are:

• Bluetooth.
• Camera.
• Speaker/Mic.
• Stronger Battery.

Some things that can get overlooked are included accessories. An iPod Touch comes with the bare minimum, a USB cable and a pair of headphones where as the iPhone includes a USB Power adapter (a must have for a phone) as well as a Docking station and of course the Headphones with built in Microphone. The Docking Station and Power Adapter retail for around $60 narrowing the gap in the price difference significantly! Read the rest of this entry »

One concern for switchers is the investment they have in the PC software licenses they have accumulated over time, this can add up to a lot of money! What may not have been considered is the fact that many software companies offer software cross-grades, the option to pay a nominal amount to switch your PC software to a comparable Mac version. In many cases the cost is very low and may only factor in shipping and manual costs.

Here is an account of one users experience dealing with just such a situation with his Adobe Creative Suite 3 PC software.

I had recently purchased Adobe Creative Suite 3 for the PC, and buying a whole new copy was not an option. “Call Adobe, I bet they’ll switch it for you,” the co-worker said. So I thought about it some more.

So I called Adobe’s customer service, and much to my surprise, they will switch your software. You give them the product key, you fill out a form and send it over to them, pay for shipping ($7), and they send you the version you need.

Checkout the full account here

What some people will do for a Mac… Found Here

Chris Pirillo is a self proclaimed platform neutralist but interestingly enough his latest article doesn’t seem so neutral. I guess Chris may be starting to lean a bit more in one platform direction then he realizes. That’s OK I don’t really blame him!

Some other title suggestions that almost made it on the original Post by Chris Pirillo.

• C:\DIE.EXE
• 50 Reasons Why I Left Bill for Steve
• Losing My OS Religion
• Windows Broke My Heart
• Obama Says It’s Time to Change to the Mac
• /Volume/chris/switched
• How to Switch to a Mac
• The Wow Stops Now
• Got Mac?
• Once You Go Mac, You Never Go Back?

Check out his recent “50 Reasons to Switch from Microsoft Windows to Apple’s Mac OS X Post“

And yet another update form Apple, what do they do all day… Work?

This update is especially interesting to me because I have and Apple TV, so I will be running downstairs to grab it right after I post this… What do you need to know about this update? It’s free, it allows you to rent movies in regular and high Definition formats (Library - $2.99 and New releases - $3.99 +$1 for high Def respectively) Remember this is only in countries that support movie rentals!

Want to check out the new features, here is a link to a Guided Tour from Apple.

Apple just released Aperture 2 up from version 1.5 today. The new version has 100 new features and a more streamlined interface to boot. Some of the highlights are: highlight recovery, color vibrancy, local contrast definition, soft-edged retouching, vignetting and RAW fine-tuning as well as posting directly to .Mac Web Galleries.

Aperture 2 is now lower priced @ $199 along with an upgrade of $9.95 for current Aperture 1.5 owners. You can also download a free trial version. Still not convinced, check-out the Aperture 2 Tutorials.

We knew it was coming, just had to wait and now the Leopard 10.5.2 update here.

You can download the “Combined Updater“  for Intel and PPC Macs hence the larger size (353MB) or simply run your Mac Software update to download the Intel or PPC specific files. After the install a fairly large Graphics update will be waiting for you so run Software Update again to grab it.

The Leopard 10.5.2 update has lots of improvements so make sure to get this one ASAP, if you want more info on exactly what is included in the Leopard 10.5.2 Update checkout “Apple’s “About the Mac OS X 10.5.2 Update” page.

A concept MacBook Pro from www.spicu.com (click image to enlarge)