Macgasm

iFixIt, the website devoted to making technical repairs easy enough for anyone to attempt them, has taken apart the new 11.6-inch MacBook Air. Here are their comments on the new SSD:

The drive is a completely custom part, and will probably only be available through Apple support services, thereby putting another nail in the coffin for user-serviceability. The new SSD drive is 2.45 mm thick compared to the platter-based 5.12 mm thickness of the old Air’s drive. Being smaller in two of three dimensions definitely helps the new Air achieve a super-slim profile.

While this is a turn-off for tinkerers, it makes the Air’s instant-on feature and slim case possible. However, the SSD module isn’t soldered to the logic board, leaving the possibility open for third-party upgrade options.

The RAM in this model — like previous MacBook Air models — is part of the logic board itself.

The debate rages on, and now that a Mac App Store is also slated for release, the information that 30 percent of iPad users aren’t buying applications is a little bit curious.

According to a Nielsen study involving 5,000 wireless device owners, including iPad users, many aren’t buying applications. Amongst the iPad users, only 63 percent had purchased an application of some kind. It seems like a huge number, but on its own, it’s hard to gain much insight on purchasing tendencies. What we would like to know is what the numbers are for desktop users? Is the iPad more successful or less than OS X users?

Going on personal experience, people seem to be buying applications a lot more on their iPads than they are on their desktops. That’s completely qualitative data, so don’t quote me on it. According to the study, 62 percent of users purchased games, 54 percent bought books, and 50 percent purchased music.  Productivity apps, sports apps, and travel planning apps are at the bottom of the totem pole. It’s not really surprising to me, considering very few people actually use GTD apps, or travel very often.

Here’s another interesting statistic, iPad users are more likely to make a purchase after seeing an advertisement, by quite a large margin.

Update:  Nielsen has since retracted their original statement, citing errors in calculations.  You can read an update here.

Article Via MacNN

So, everyone’s panicking that FaceTime is exploitable and opens a huge security hole. But get this, in order for the exploit to be carried out, you have to have FaceTime open. Someone has to physically gain access to your computer with FaceTime logged in and running.

Yup, you read that right. Logging into an application and leaving a computer unintended could result in a “hacker” altering your Apple ID and changing the password, in order to, oh I don’t know, buy you a new MacBook Air or something, or maybe buy you some Britney Spears tracks in iTunes so they can embarrass you in front of your Ping friends.

Who the hell knows what the hacker could do with your Apple ID. All kidding aside, they could get some credit card and address information from Apple, but again, keep in mind you have to be logged into FaceTime, and they have to take over your computer physically.

I don’t remember the last time a hacker stole a laptop from a Starbucks for an Apple ID, do you? Here’s our advice: do not leave you computer unattended in public, do not use public computers, and stop being so naive when it comes to Apple rumors. We recommend reading the Ars post so you can have a laugh, and then the TUAW article for some awesome snark from Dave Caolo.

Article Via Arstechnica and TUAW

Photo Credit: GameSpot Forums

The MacBook Air may have stolen the show yesterday, but the MacBook Pros got a huge boost in power, while flying under the radar a little bit. Apple has added the build to order option of Core i7 processors on their 15 inch and 17 inch MacBook Pros, while also offering Core i5 models  a 2.8 GHz iCore 7 processor.

If you’re looking to upgrade to the new Core i7 chip, it’ll cost you at least another $400.00. The first model available with the Core i7 chip also ships with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB HD, as well as a NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M graphics card. The 13 inch MacBook Pros still have the Core 2 Duo processors.

The split between Pro and Consumer based computers has never been more evident. The MacBook Air still has a Core 2 – Duo chipset, making it substantially slower than the 15 and 17 inch MacBook Pros; however, the solid state drive helps to boost the response time of the MacBook Air.

It’ll be interesting to see some benchmarks for the new MacBook Air versus these new MacBook Pros with the iCore processors. If you’ve picked up the new MacBook Air already, you could make the news by posting that information on the web.

Be sure to let us know if you do it.

Update: We’ve gotten a lot of response about this post and thought we should clear some things up. Apple updated the MacBook Pro and provides the 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 chip as a build to order option.  We erroneously assumed it was an entire introduction of the iCore chip.  We’ve flogged ourselves accordingly. Thanks for keeping us honest.

Article Via The Apple Blog

We’ve all seen the PR photos on Apple’s website, and we’ve all probably watched the keynote by now, but no one has really said anything about the iLife and iWork bundles that were staring us right in the face while Apple showed off the Mac App Store.

These apps, traditionally bundled for OS X, seem to be available for purchase on an app-by-app basis, much in the same way that they’re available in the iOS App Store. This is great news for consumers, if it ends up being true. Moments after picking up iLife 11, I realized that I’d never use 40% of the applications available on the disk (iWeb and iDVD). Had these applications been available on an app-by-app basis, I would have saved some money.

This is a still a lot of speculation, but how would you feel if you could buy Pages and Keynote, without have to buy Numbers? And for that matter, what would happen if you wanted to buy them all? Is there a cheaper bundle price, or is this a sneaky way to grab a couple more dollars per sale?

This Mac App Store is going to be interesting, and it’ll be fun to see how it plays out in both the tech-savvy and not so tech-savvy circles. My initial reaction is that it’ll be a hit with everyone except developers and people who don’t want to pay for their apps, but that’s just a hunch.

The Mac App Store will be available in 89 days (and counting).

Article Via MacNN

Canonical holds the trademark and right to the name “Launchpad” according to the legal policy placed on the Launchpad website,  but that hasn’t stopped Apple from launching their own Launchpad yesterday during the keynote. It looks like we might have a trademark-infringment case on our hands again.

In a pretty witty move, a funny Ubuntu fan thought it would be a lark to submit a bug on the Launchpad website, indicating that it would be a “bug” if Canonical neglects to defend their trademark against Apple.

Apple has a way of working these things out before their products get launched, and given that we won’t be seeing 10.7 until next summer, there’s plenty of time to reach an “agreement.”

We’ve quoted the thread below for your convenience, but if you want to see the original you can get it on the Launchpad website.

The Thread

The Original comment

According to [1] then ” “Launchpad” is a registered trademark of Canonical Ltd “.

Considering Apple have announced a new piece of software for Mac OS X called “Launchpad” (see second image down on [2]). I believe it is a “bug” if Canonical does not defend Launchpad’s right to the name.

[1] https://help.launchpad.net/Legal
[2] http://www.apple.com/macosx/lion/

Canonical’s lawyers didn’t seem to think it was so funny, and responded fairly quickly.

The response

Who made this a bug please?

Amanda

Amanda Brock, General Counsel
Canonical
27 Floor, Millbank Tower
London SW1P 4QP
Ubuntu – Linux for Human Beings
www.canonical.com

Apple seems to have taken the next step in their fight against Adobe’s Flash player with the New MacBook Air. According to Engadget, Apple did not install the popular plugin on their new device, and instead decided to leave the decision up to their users.

Surely this will open another chapter in the debate about how “open” Apple has been with their devices, and now that we’re seeing more iOS-like features, including the Mac App Store that’s coming to OS X, this could become a hot-topic item again for pundits.

The argument is that Flash drains battery life, and no one wants that. We get an inordinate amount of comments from people about the argument being rhetoric, but we don’t agree. When Safari dies, a Flash plugin crash notification is usually seconds away. Flash is broken on the Mac, and it’s not surprising that Apple’s trying to distance themselves from it again.

If you like punishment, you can install the Flash plugin on your own, just like the good old days, from the Flash website.

Normally Canadians have to wait a little bit longer to get new Apple products (iOS devices anyway), but the MacBook Air became available, complete with a premium on price, at the same moment it launched in the US.

Canadians have been “over” paying on devices from Apple since the US and Canadian dollar is so close to parity these days. The 11-inch MacBook Air is $999.00 in the US and starts at $1049.00 in Canada.

If you’re doing the math, $999.00 is currently worth $1018.32 in Canada, so it’s only a $30.00 difference, not exactly something to write home about.