Posts tagged with "mac"

The MacBook Tablet Shows Up, Again

According to the most loyal Apple fan, two are the “dream products” Apple has in store: the iMac Touch and the MacBook Tablet. While we don’t know whether such machines would make for great innovations or terrible hybrids, the loyal Apple geek surely can dream. And it’s not that patents Apple is granted do anything to convince him that these products aren’t real.

As noted by Patently Apple, the much rumored and long-awaited MacBook Tablet showed up again in a patent published a few days ago. It’s a convertible MacBook / iPad-like device with a touchscreen and a physical keyboard, something that Steve Jobs could really describe as a MacBook hooking up to an iPad. Other patents Apple was granted include one for multi-touch scrolling behavior and the iPad’s virtual keyboard.

Dell is getting ahead of Apple in the convertible notebook market with its latest Inspirion Duo hybrid, and we’re not sure whether Apple will actually ship something like a MacBook Tablet in the next few years. It sounds cool thinking about some sort of MacBook Air with a touch screen, but, as usual, Apple patents are something the loyal Apple fan shouldn’t rely on.

Public Beta of Reeder for Mac Now Available

Reeder developer Silvio Rizzi promised a public beta of Reeder for Mac by the end of November and he didn’t break his promise: Reeder for Mac “draft 1” is now available for download here. Reeder comes to the Mac after two very successful iterations on the iPhone and iPad (our review of the iPad version here).

This is a first rough beta of the app, which has been in the works for several months now, and it’s still missing key features such as in-app feed management, search and downloads. The application is already pretty fast and stable, but it can’t be considered a final version at all. Feedback can be submitted to: mac@reeder.ch.

A lot of things have changed since our exclusive first look at Reeder for Mac months ago. Rizzi has been busy polishing the overall feeling of the app and adding features (especially sharing ones); he completely redesigned the navigation of unread items in Google Reader by putting folders and subscriptions in “boxes” sitting in a left sidebar, he tried a more iPad-like approach.

Reeder for Mac is going to be huge, and this is just the beginning. I guess the app will eventually find its way to the Mac App Store after initial testing. Look for a detailed review of Reeder “Draft 1” on MacStories tomorrow.

Update: review online here.

Update #2: Reeder Vs. Fitt’s Law.

A Wooden MacBook Case I’d Actually Buy

Usually, I’m not into wooden accessories. Heck, I’m not even a fan of wooden-like interfaces (hello, iBooks) – I just don’t like the feeling of wood when put next to a shiny Apple product.

The wooden cases from BlackBox, though, are a different thing of beauty. They are detailed, hand oiled, hand rubbed and numbered. They are unique pieces made for the exclusive Apple user. And they don’t come cheap: $129 for the 13” and 15” cases.

Still: they look good. Even to someone who’s not into this kind of accessories. [Gizmodo via BlackBox]

Mac Of The Future→

Mac Of The Future

From its experience with iOS, Apple believes it has discovered—or perhaps rediscovered—the secret to selling consumer technology products: simplicity. This doesn’t mean that the Mac we know and love will disappear. Rather, by stealing the most successful ideas from iOS, the Mac OS of tomorrow could slowly shed its legacy constraints while still remaining true to the power, utility, and spirit that has always defined the Mac.

And we haven’t seen anything about Lion yet – Mac App Store and Launchpad aside. Exciting times ahead for Mac users.

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The Mac That Saved Apple→

The Mac That Saved Apple

I remember covering that crowded midnight rollout at a Palo Alto, California, store, and talking with then Apple hardware-engineering honcho Jon Rubenstein, who was beaming like a proud papa. An exhausted proud papa, to be sure, but grinning ear-to-ear nonetheless as he watched a long line of purchasers plop down $1,299 for the latest shiny-shiny, and lug their big boxes out of the store, smiling as broadly as Rubenstein himself.

Rubenstein told me that the iMac was going to redefine consumer computing. He was right.

Reminds me a lot of the iPad announcement and launch. But this time Apple doesn’t need to be saved.

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“Random” FaceTime Calls A Bug in Apple’s System?

According to several reports surfaced on iSpazio, fscklog and Apple’s discussion boards, hundreds of iPhone, iPod Touch and Mac users received random FaceTime calls from themselves or one of their contacts in Address Book on Saturday. Most specifically, it appears that a bug triggered these FaceTime calls to go out at 6:30 PM PST, 9:30 PM EST, 2:30 AM GMT and 3:30 AM GMT +1 on Saturday, November 27th (United States) and Sunday, November 28th (Europe).

Basing on the reports from iSpazio and Apple’s forums, it seems like these random and “fake” calls (not initiated by users, coming randomly from iPhone numbers and email addresses associated to FaceTime on iPod Touches and Macs) happened on devices running iOS 4.2.1 and iOS 4.1 (both regular and jailbroken devices). FaceTime for Mac, on the other hand, is currently in beta and available for download on Apple’s website.  Read more

Soon, You’ll Be Able To Control Chopper 2 for Mac With Your iPhone

A few weeks ago we saw the first screenshots of the next version of The Incident, which will allow you to mirror the game on your TV and control it with your iPhone. Admittedly, the iPhone can serve as a great “external” controller, even better than when you’re using it to control and play at the same time because you don’t have the actual game covered by your fingers. With a small multi-touch surface in your hands, the possibilities for TV gaming are endless.

The next version of Chopper for Mac, Chopper 2, will allow for a similar setup, although the TV isn’t involved this time. Instead, Chopper 2 will let you pair your iPhone with your Mac and control the game on your computer using the accelerometer and multi-touch technology on your iPhone. The demo video below gives you a brief preview of what’s coming, and it’ll be interesting to see whether Mac games that will be published in the Mac App Store will take advantage of this pairing technology or not.

What’s for sure is, the iPhone can be a great game controller. Read more

Office for Mac 2011: 26% Off→

Office for Mac 2011: 26% Off

Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 includes Mac versions of Word 2011, Excel 2011, and PowerPoint 2011; the most familiar and trusted productivity applications used around the world at home, school, and business.

Home & Student single license pack, save 30 bucks. If you need the most recent version of Office for Mac, this is a good time to buy it.

You can also save $40 on the Family Pack.

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