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Briefly: the MacBookAir and 17" MacBookPro have been refreshed: faster processors. There is a new 24" LED Cinema Display whuch has the same screen design that was first introduced on the current iMac range. The basic MacBook has been updated and has been reduced to $999 which should make it around 35,000 baht here. There are new MacBooks and MacBookPros and these have a changed body design making it slightly thinner at the front, the black keyboard that we same on the MacBookAir and a similar display to the new monitor and the iMac with that black surround. It seems a bit odd that there are no Matte displays which will not please some people who do a lot of work on images. Underneath there are several changes, not least of which is the inclusion of the NVidia GeForce 9600M GT processor for high end 3D graphics and the glass trackpad which is also the trackpad button: it moves and we can press it.
That rumour about the construction method we outlined last week, with the parts being laser and water carved from a solid block of aluminium is right. That means the top is seam free and there is none of that plastic insert between keypad area and the sides. Another subtle change is the battery charge indicator. That was on the bottom, but is now on the front (or side: I am not sure from the images). There is no latch but like the MacBook and MacBook Air the lid is held by a fairly strong magnet. As far as I can see at first glance of the online shots and information, the MacBook is fairly similar to the MBP although of course has the 13.3" display rather than the 15". It also now has no Firewire port. The graphics processor is the GeForce 9400M which is a bit less powerful than that in the MBP. This has 2.0 or 2.4GHz processors and starts at $1299 which makes it rather attractive. The MacBookPro has 2.4 or 2.53GHz processors with an optional 2.8GHz. Hard drives are larger at 250G or 320G. The MacBookAir now has the option of a 128G solid state drive. The MacBookPro is $1,999 or $2,499 depending on the processor. These are all Greenpeace friendly.
There has been some problem with current MacBook Pro computers that have NVidia graphics processors. One source suggests the chips are over-heating and NVidia is playing the blame game: not us, they claim. Whatever it is, the company is now said to be "working with" Apple and Cupertino is going to fix all those faulty machines.
The countries listed in this region, which the tour reaches after North America, Europe and India are:
Actually something started here first before going to the US. That show of photos from the air which was outside Central world for a couple of months, packed up a couple of weeks ago and I now hear it is about to open in New York. If you missed it, you should be sorry. The images had that quality of patterns that some of the best photos seem to seek out.
I discovered that the company that Apple hires for its PR has changed its procedure for test machinery -- at least as far as iPods are concerned. I now have to go down to Sukhumvit to collect them. It was nice of them to tell me, but we arranged that they would let me know at the beginning of the week as the iPods were out with another journalist just then and I am off down there on Thursday to collect one or more of these. That Pro Day had a really dynamic audience in attendance and, although I only went to the first part, I would count it as a success, particularly as far as exposire was concerned. Lots of younger people there, while it was aimed at those interested in media and the speakers were (of course) highly enthusiastic about their use of Macs. The workflow demo was certainly interesting. I had a quick look before my lunch but after I had eaten, I could hardly get through the dor. The rest of the show and demo booths in another area were similarly packed out.
Mama's Cookin', a group whose music I bought online a few months ago and Ryan Winford both send out regular updates, as do Classics Online and Pristine who release remastered classics (like Yehudi Menhuhin performing Mozart at age 16).
He did mention in his article how hard it is to contact a real person: it is actually harder than the automatic voice response systems of some telecomms companies here. Using Google tools, he was able to discover the problem lay in his attempts to ban spammers from the site and he had inadvertantly banned Googlebot, the spider that searches the web.
Some of you may remember that I reviewed the latest Mac version of Office and, while I acknowledged the industrial strength of the suite, I had some reservations for oridnary users in Thailand on two specific points: the price and the way Office deals with fonts, particularly Thai fonts. Prices then were 24,900 baht for the full version. A Home/Student version (Office suite alone) costs 7,500 baht and someone paid 7,000 for this a couple of days ago when he bought a new MacBook in Siam.
To add to that, he also said in the interview, "Apple started doing stores because nobody wanted to sell their PCs. Okay?" Tell that to the iStudio franchise holders here.
Ergo, the shop starts the computer up, gives the main account a name, which might not suit the user while at the same time the policy is not to use a password. I bet that well in excess of 50% of the Macs being sold are like this: easy to steal, attractive and with no password: the computer and all of the user's data is lost so easily. And on another related note, although I use NeoOffice when I do need such a suite -- and that does have access to all the Thai fonts installed -- I see that this week a native version of Open Office 3, for Macs with Intel processors only, was released. I am afraid that when I tried early in the week, they seemed to be having problems with the server or connections and it was reported later that demand broke the site. Microsoft ought to think hard about that.
Too Good to Miss?This year the internet as well as the TV has helped me follow the US presidential election closer than has ever been possible before. If we reply on TV news alone, we would have a very narrow view of events, but online sources, including podcasts from major US cable stations, mean that on the other side of the world we can have almost the same input as those in the States have avalable to them.
As we have seen, Troopergate has grown into a monster because whoever was advising forgot about how information is used these days: by trying to put a lid on things -- using the courts, sending heavyweight advisers up to the remoteness of Alaska, and generally trying to interfere -- did more damage than letting it run its course. I read the report Saturday and two things struck me: if they had not made such a big deal, Troopergate could have been dismissed with a shrug and "Oh well"; and the bi-partisan committee voted to release its findings, but it is worse than that as the committee only had 4 Democrats: the majority were 10 Republicans. Not one of the Republicans on that committee, in an election year -- a month from the election -- in the State of Alaska, made any attempt to delay its release at all. They did not of course vote to endorse the report, but that is a different matter. That vote to release the report has to say something, especially as the findings do not blame Sarah Palin in toto for the sacking of the official involved: it was a "contributing factor". The committee does note that it was a "proper and lawful exercise" of her power, although some of us tend to read betwen the lines of such committee work. The winner? Me. And the Internet. As a non-US citizen in a country halfway round the world, I am better able to grasp the finer points of events there which may well shape my world -- and those of millions like me -- over the next few years.
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As I write this, prior to recording the first half, we are all waiting for the expected announcements on Tuesday night, Thai time, for the newest Mac portables to be released. This week, I am going on from what I looked at last week in system preferences and focussing on the iSPeakIt utility.
Apparently, if you want to use that graphics processor properly it is achange in the Energy Saver preferences and you need to log out to have it take effect. More on that is now available in an 
Apple are about to start an 
I went to the first day of the two-day Remix2 Pro days that were held at the Intercontinental Hotel last week and I put 
That Radio Scotland podcast that I subscribe to continues to give me excellent and fresh music. A couple of recent artists have been 
Several sites this week had news of the most recent awards Appple received at the 
On a related note, I had someone here this week with two MacBooks, neither of which had a password. Straight out of the shop, the newest had just been set up for a Thai who was living abroad and who has just moved from Windows, so Office was put on at a cost of something like 7,000 baht. And the lady will wonder why she can only use the Ayutthaya font when on her PC she would have had access to others.
One of the interesting stories was what has come to be known as Troopergate. When Palin was first announced as McCain's running mate, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow had a quick look at her and this came up. At that time, they dismissed this as a storm in a tea-cup because of the domestic nature of its origins and the establishment of a bi-partisan committee.