Macgasm

Could Apple be announcing a new small business support plan this week as well as a new iPad? Apple Insider seems to think so. According to its sources, a new support plan aimed at small business was unveiled at the secretive all hands meeting for Apple retail employees this Sunday. The priority service plan would cost $500 per year, and would provide businesses with coverage of 5 Mac systems, head of the line access to repairs and Genius Bar, and a dedicated Genius support line at Apple head office.

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When Apple took the wraps off of the OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview, details about AirDrop were released. The technology will allow Lion users to share files across Wi-Fi with zero configuration needed.

Honestly, this sounds really cool. However, a French company named eviGroup is claiming that Apple’s new feature is actually theirs. The company has built an app that “involves point-to-point WiFi connections with a simple proximity-based UI, that aims to bypass complex file sharing permissions and configurations,” according to SlashGear’s Chris Davies.

eviGroup hasn’t released their app, and it is possible Apple simply didn’t know about it when designing AirDrop. There is currently no information about any legal action.

Article via SlashGear

The worst thing about Apple events isn’t the announcements themselves, obviously, it’s the waiting. A lot of people are ready to drop their credit card details immediately to get their hands on the latest and greatest out of Apple, but sometimes they don’t get the chance. iOS devices haven’t really been synonymous with immediate shipments over the years, lately Apple’s been making announcements then taking pre-orders. Rumors today suggest that Apple may be ready to ship the iPad 2 immediately after the announcement on Wednesday.

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It looks like the white iPhone 4 Unicorn has a twin this time around—The iPad 2. According to 9to5Mac, Apple might be gearing up to release a white iPad 2 on Wednesday, they even have an image of an apparently white iPad 2 faceplate.

While we’re all for a white iPad, we’re a little skeptical at this point with the rumor. Keeping in mind the difficulty that Apple as had shipping the White iPhone 4, as well as the availability of white iPhone 4 cases already available from third party manufacturers and sellers, it could be that this white iPad bezel isn’t legitimately from Apple.

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Chris McVeigh is my new hero — he has single-handedly combined the love of my youth (legos) and the passion of my adulthood (computers) into one stunning peice of artwork:

During the month of December, I was contracted to create another card image for my friends at MacRescue. One concept had the employees decorating a huge iMac. The build itself was pretty straightforward; at the time, the only challenge was finding some 1×1 lime green plates to complete the onscreen logo.

You can see the original version over on Flickr, or visit Chris’ site for a Lego Digital Designer file outlining the build.

Article Via Gizmodo

If you’ve ordered a customized MacBook Pro after the big release last week, you’re going to be getting your machines a little bit later than the rest of the world who ordered a stock option.

The difference isn’t really new though. Any time you order something custom, it takes a little bit longer to ship. According to reports, the first build-to-order MacBook Pro shipment is out the door, and it’s expected to arrive sometime on Thursday.

Luckily, the wait isn’t as long as I would have guessed. According to the image from AppleInsider, the MacBook Pro has shipped using Apple’s expedited shipping alternatives. The good news is that getting a custom machine won’t provide much of a wait time moving forward.

I’m not going to lie. I’m having a really hard time deciding between a MacBook Air and the new MacBook Pro. Is anyone else in that situation? Both machines are badass in their own way, and both would suffice for my needs.

Article Via AppleInsider
Photo Credit: Christa Noëlle ?

One of the tools that Apple includes with OS X that provides a safety net for new Mac users is Boot Camp. This feature has been around since 2006 and has been included with OS X since 2007 with the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

The product has been upgraded to support new operating systems, like Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista 64-bit, and Windows 7. Usually users were able to decide which operating system they wanted to install. This is no longer the case with the new Mac Book Pros.

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We’ve been really tentative about reporting on the OS X Lion developer release. If you’ve spent any time working on a developer release in the past, you’ll know that features are known to disappear from time to time. We’re not comfortable exclaiming new features that just might change by ship date.

Jumping in and giving our readers false expectations about an application, that’s still being tested, isn’t exactly something we’re comfortable doing.

That being said, a lot of websites and people are releasing very detailed information on OS X Lion. A nifty preview video has surfaced on YouTube. The video shows off the new Finder, Mail, Dashboard, and everything else you’d expect to see in a preview video.

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