Posts tagged with "mac"

Belkin Reveals New Thunderbolt Express Dock

Today at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, Belkin unveiled the Thunderbolt Express Dock featuring 3 USB ports, a Thunderbolt port for daisy chaining, a Firewire port and a Gigabit Ethernet port. DailyTech notes that this is the same port setup that’s found on the new 27″ Apple Thunderbolt Display – it seems very convenient that it’s the same arrangement as what Apple is already using.

The Belkin Express Dock could be very handy for Mac users wanting to expand their current port offering and don’t want to pay $999 for a Thunderbolt display. Pricing and availability have not yet been announced but the price should be reasonably below the cost of a Thunderbolt display. The next question is, will Belkin also include a Thunderbolt cable so you don’t have to dish out an extra $50 for one? [DailyTech]

mLogic’s mDock and mBack Offer Unique Backup Solutions for the Mac

mLogic has introduced two new accessories targeted toward iMacs and MacBook Pros - the mBack and mDock.

The mDock is a docking station and backup solution for your MacBook Pro. It eliminates repetitive plugging and unplugging of your peripherals, backs up your system when the MacBook Pro is docked (much like your iOS device), has front-mounted USB and headphone ports and also charges your iOS device via the “Amigo” that attaches to the back and adds an iPod/iPhone dock and a holder for the MagSafe power adapter. You can plug in such things as monitors, speakers and printers, and it comes with 500 GB or 1 TB of storage for your Time Machine backups. The mDock is $219 for 500 GB and $299 for the 1 TB option.

The mBack attaches onto the back of your iMac’s (or Thunderbolt Display) support stand and is Time Machine-compatible. It comes in 1, 2 & 3 TB versions with USB 2.0 interface. The mBack is $169 for 1 TB, $209 for 2 TB, or $349 for 3 TB.

mLogic was established by industry veteran Roger S. Mabon founder & CEO of G-Technology, Inc. – a leading provider of external disk storage solutions for Apple computers and now part of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (recently purchased by Western Digital Corporation). Their mission is to provide innovative and exciting add-on products for Mac computers. These are very unique and reasonably priced hardware for your Macs that offer multiple solutions all in one device. If this is only the beginning for mLogic, they’ve hit the ground running. We can’t wait to see what else is down the road for mLogic. [via SlashGear]

OS X Lion, MacBook Airs Driving Mac Growth In September Quarter

According to the latest NPD data and a note issued by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster – reported by Business Insider – Mac sales for the first two months of Apple’s Q4 are up 22%, with Wall Street’s estimates averaging 16% growth for the entire quarter. Apple is expected to announce its Q4 results sometime in October, and back at the Q3 earnings call in July the company anticipated there would be a “future product transition” that would affect the September quarter – suggesting the next-generation iPhone would ship before the end of Q4.

As for the Mac, Munster indicates the release of OS X Lion, updated MacBook Airs and Mac minis on July 20 helped contributing to the 22% year-over-year growth in the same period; NPD data suggests Apple could sell between 4.4 and 4.6 million Macs in the quarter. In Q3, Apple sold 3.95 million Macs, and Tim Cook noted the MacBook Pros made up for the majority of Mac sales. It is no secret, however, that ever since the refresh in October 2010 the updated MacBook Air line has been growing in popularity among existing Mac users as well as new customers, with several analysts calling it Apple’s new crown jewel.

Meanwhile, Apple announced 1 million copies of Lion sold after 24 hours of availability, but hasn’t released new data since then. Apple has encouraged customers to upgrade to the new OS thanks to heavy promotion in the Mac App Store and by releasing a USB thumb drive for those unable to download the 4 GB OS installer. Lion also comes pre-installed on the new Macs released this summer, certainly another selling points for the Airs and minis.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Coming to the Mac

Feral Interactive has announced that a native Mac version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the critically acclaimed prequel to Deus Ex, will be released in the upcoming months. The game is set to come out during Winter 2011/12, with Feral’s dedicated mini-site receiving an update with more information about the title soon.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an action-based role-playing game developed by Eidos and published by Square Enix. It tells the story of Adam Jensen, a security chief for one of the world’s most powerful corporations; in 2027 – Human Revolution is set 25 years before the original game – corporations have extended their powers beyond the reach of local governments. Adam is forced to undergo cybernetic augmentation to fuse his body with mechanical parts, and he’s thrown in the middle of a global conspiration.

From Ars Technica’s review of the game:

The game’s uncanny ability to give you multiple ways out of situations is carried right through to the final encounter, and the game even ends with an important decision. Every option you’re given before the credits roll is attractive in its own way, though at the same time, none of the choices truly provide comfort. Human Revolution can be oppressively bleak at times, but it earns its tone.

Although the game world has plenty of room for more stories told by future titles, this story comes to a very definitive end. That’s something rare in big-budget games today, especially when they take place in an established franchise. But a real conclusion just confirms why this game deserves so much praise: by the end of the game’s impressively long run time, you’re left satisfied by the story and the characters within it.

Below is the trailer of Human Revolution from E3 2010. Feral Interactive isn’t new to Mac game ports, having released Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition for OS X last year. [via The Loop]
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Translate Tab Puts Google Translate In Your Mac’s Menubar

I use Google Translate quite a bit. Automatic, “machine-made” translations of entire sentences are usually bad and may lead to some funny nonsense, but the service has gotten better over the years and, admittedly, it’s useful to quickly look up synonyms from one language to another, or get the general sense of a blog post about technology and Apple (which I do on a daily basis for articles from Macotakara or MacMagazine). And whilst heading over Google Translate via the browser is pretty effortless these days thanks to application launchers like Alfred and LaunchBar, I’ve been looking for a way to embed the translate UI of Google’s website on my Mac in a way that’s always there but unobtrusive, ready to be used when I need it.

Translate Tab does this at $2.99. It takes Google Translate, and puts it inside a nicely translucent, white Lion-like popover in your Mac menubar, which you can access with a keyboard shortcut (and if you’re geek enough, customize with automatic clipboard entry through Keyboard Maestro). Tab Translate can be considered a site-specific browser, and I like how it’s been slightly tweaked to fit inside the popover with no horizontal scrollbars, retaining Translate’s functionalities such as alternate translations.

If you use Google Translate a lot and you’re tired of opening a new browser tab every time, you might as well spend $2.99 on Translate Tab on the Mac App Store.