new camera battery

For the past few months, I’ve been working as an intern in Macworld’s San Francisco office, testing products, camping out for the iPhone 3GS, and engaging in a little cubicle warfare. Now I’m heading off to Whitman College for the first year of my undergraduate education. In addition to the usual accoutrements, like sheets (twin extra long, of course), a trash can, books, pens, paper, and the rest, I’m also packing some of my most important supplies: gadgets. After spending my summer surrounded by the latest hardware and software, whittling down my list of essential Mac gear hasn’t been easy. Here’s what’s on my back-to-school list:

My 13-inch white MacBook is the center of my digital life. For taking notes in class, I’ve loaded it with Circus Ponies’ Notebook ( Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice ). In addition to all of its organization features, this handy program can record audio and then match it to the words I type, so I can go back and hear the lecture as I look at my notes.

I’m also taking a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet ( Macworld rated 5 out of 5 mice ) for writing. In certain areas, like math, art, and science, typing is often inconvenient. The tablet provides a more natural interface. And both OS X and Notebook integrate well with tablets–Notebook even offers searchable handwriting recognition.

My iPhone will also play an important role at college. To keep track of my projects and to-dos, I use OmniFocus ( Macworld rated 3.5 out of 5 mice ), a planning and organizing app from The Omni Group. The program’s iPhone app syncs with its desktop counterpart over a local area network using Bonjour, as well as through MobileMe, so I’ll have my tasks everywhere I go. The program is structured around David Allen’s Getting Things Done philosophy, to which I am a devotee, but experience with GTD isn’t a prerequisite to effectively using Omnifocus.

Avatron Software’s Air Sharing Pro is another critical app for me. It turns my iPhone into a WLAN storage device on which I can stash useful files for class, including .zip files, Microsoft Office or iWork documents, PDFs, and a variety of audio and video formats. More importantly, it lets me view and e-mail all of the files I put on it.

Hard work is important, but so are study breaks. For times when I need to decompress and have fun, I’ve outfitted my Mac and iPhone with fun apps that don’t break the bank. On the Mac side, I’ve been keeping myself busy with casual fare, such as PopCap’s Peggle ( Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice ), Peggle Nights, and Plants Vs. Zombies (Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice). When I need an energy boost, I turn to The Iconfactory’s frantically paced Frenzic ( Macworld rated 3.5 out of 5 mice), which never fails to wake me up and get me going again. On my iPhone, my current fun favorites are Star Hogs, F.A.S.T., and Flight Control ( Macworld rated 5 out of 5 mice), all of which are ridiculously fun, and ridiculously addictive.

Moving the entire Mac lineup to shiny, glossy displays has been one of Apple’s many controversial decisions in recent times. When the company initially launched the unibody MacBooks and 15-inch MacBook Pros in October 2008, it made a glossy display the only option on the latter, raising the ire of a large minority of very vocal customers. The introduction of the glossy 24-inch LED Cinema Display during the same event, which replaced its matte-screened 23-inch predecessor, didn’t do anything to appease said users either.

Perhaps taking a lesson from the outcry, Apple retained the option to custom order the 17-inch MacBook Pro, which was introduced in January of this year, with an antiglare display for an additional charge of $50. Furthering that trend, Apple has now made the $50 antiglare display an optional installation for the 15-inch MacBook Pro as well. As with its heftier sibling, you’ll only be able to take advantage of this option if you order your notebook through the Apple Online Store.

Fans of Apple’s 13-inch notebooks–the MacBook, MacBook Air, and 13-inch MacBook Pro–still only have the glossy display as the available option. If you really want an antiglare display on your existing Apple notebook though, TechRestore has just the right service for you. Now that Apple seems to have decided that the matte look isn’t so bad after all, we can only hope that the company will consider bestowing it upon the whole notebook family–and maybe even the iMac and LED Cinema Display as well. Or is that asking for too much?

Is this week’s title in reference to silly technology pundits and their penchant for hyperbole when it come to Apple, the Windows 7 upgrade matrix, the App Store approval process, or the iconic ’60s song by the Temptations?

Sadly, just the first three.

People are strange

You may not have noticed this, but the Macalope is something of a media critic. Specifically, an Apple media critic.

Yes, it’s a niche market, but when you’ve got a classic Mac for a head there really aren’t all that many job options. The antlers don’t help either. And the hooves. The cud-chewing can also be off-putting. People can be so narrow-minded.

People at NASA, for example.

Anyway, this week brought the Macalope a veritable smorgasbord of criticizable Apple coverage.

First we have PC World’s Todd R. Weiss asking Is Apple’s iPod Dying — And Does Apple Care? Yeah. Dying like a fox, Todd.

Which is probably not a good analogy since foxes get hunted with dogs and die kind of miserably, but you get the idea. The iPod may be slightly less important to Apple than it used to be, but it’s still huge. Save the histrionics.

Then there’s ZDNet’s Zack Whittaker, who knows for a fact that the tablet that hasn’t been introduced yet is flawed from the start. Zack, Zack, Zack! We covered this material last week! Please, if you’re not going to do the required reading, just drop the class.

Finally, in the realm of more annoying than irresponsible, CBS gave ex-future Apple CEO Jean-Louis Gassée over 2,200 words to make lame “Jesus tablet” jokes (maybe they’re funnier in French) and give us a history lesson about the Newton and how he started Be. It’s not all about you, Jean-Louis!

The Macalope realizes that, for better or worse, this is the beat he was born to cover, but forgive him if he sometimes looks wistfully at his rejected application to astronaut training school.

You can’t always get what you want

The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg asked Microsoft for a matrix that would show the definitive list of combinations for upgrading to Windows 7. The result should not be viewed by pregnant women or people prone to seizures.

Now, to be fair to Microsoft, it’s not as confusing as it looks. If you already have Vista and you want to go to the comparable version of Windows 7, it’s an easy upgrade. Anything else, though and your whole weekend is shot. And if you were to plot it as a probability chart…

Oooh. Walt should totally ask them to plot it as a probability chart. And then he should ask them to plot it using a least-squares regression algorithm to account for seasonal variances.

Because it doesn’t mean anything!

It must be pretty nice to be Walt Mossberg and be able to call up Microsoft and absolutely ruin some poor intern’s week by forcing him to figure out that matrix. That’ll look good on a resumé, though. “Danced like a monkey for Uncle Walt.”

The Macalope did do a little math and going by Internet usage stats, about 80% of Windows users are looking at having to do a fresh installation instead of an upgrade.

It’s a good time to be glad you’re not a PC.

You’ve lost that lovin’ feelin’

Speaking of Microsoft, the pointy one has been seeing some commentary lately on how Apple is the new Microsoft. And that’s not really fair. While the company has gone through some growing pains of late, particularly with the App Store, the worst you could say is that it’s the new Microsoft, except with style. And class. And senior executives who aren’t nearly as sweaty.

It is, however, almost a truism that the bigger a company gets–whether it’s in terms of physical size or market presence–the more there is to criticize about it. That part’s just physics. It’s hard to run a big omelette-making business without breaking a few eggs.

So far the complaints are all coming from the developer side. In all this discussion of how screwed up the App Store is (and it is), it’s still easy to use for customers, and that gets the butts in the seats. This week, for instance, we all got incensed that Apple won’t let us have a simple dictionary until the developers get rid of the Seaward (which, apparently, was not really even the case), but does your average iPhone owner follow each app’s road to the App Store like we do? The Macalope suspects they don’t. They just know that practically everything’s a dollar and they’re real easy to download.

Apple’s pleading, “We know it’s not perfect. We’re trying!” Well…keep trying! Until developers start leaving en masse, they don’t have too much of a problem. But the crowd’s getting a little surly.

Toshiba is eyeing a greater share of the low-cost end of the laptop PC market with the development of more machines in the sub-US$599 price bracket, its new president said Wednesday.

Toshiba was later to meet the demand for netbooks and low-cost PCs than some of its rivals but is now committed to delivering products that meet market trends, said Norio Sasaki at a Tokyo news conference.

The biggest trend now in laptop computing is netbook and low-cost machines. A recent survey by DisplaySearch found almost 6 million netbooks were shipped in the first quarter of the year representing around 20 percent of the market for laptop PCs. That’s a big jump from the first quarter of last year when just under a million netbooks were shipped, according to DisplaySearch.

“The shift to lower prices is evident so our products must match,” Sasaki said.

Toshiba currently has its netbook and three laptop PCs in its Satellite family available in the sub-US$599 price range, but this will be expanded

“At US$599 it’s very cheap, but we’d like to increase our products from four to six,” he said, without detailing the two new laptops that will be offered in this price bracket.

The lower-priced models will likely first go on sale in the U.S. and Europe, were price competition is greatest. Netbooks have been particularly successful in the European market, which represented about 45 percent of global shipments in the first quarter, according to DisplaySearch. North America accounted for about 26 percent of shipments.

Unless Geekbench is reading results incorrectly, someone is testing a Mac Pro that doesn’t exist yet … outside of Cupertino anyway.

The tester’s name is Tutor and he’s running a 3.19GHz Mac Pro with 32GB of RAM. The processor used is an Intel Xeon W5580 and the BIOS reads “Apple Inc. MP41.88Z.0081.B04.0903051113″.
The current Mac Pros top out at 2.93GHz and uses Intel Xeon X5570 on a BIOS marked Apple Inc. MP41.88Z.0081.B03.0902231259.

I had a friend run Geekbench on his top-of-the-line 2.93GHz Mac Pro. He scored significantly below Mr. Tutor, so the machine seems to be legitimately faster than any Mac you can buy, today.
Now, there could be some other reasons for this special test result. Perhaps Mr. Tutor is an overclocker or he pulled the Intel CPU himself and added a newer, quicker one. It doesn’t explain the BIOS update however.

Also, Apple could be doing some of their famous silent updates which get announced at a later time. Though, this would be strange as the tests were run over a month ago in June.

Interestingly, Mr. Tutor also has been testing another Macintosh running Windows Vista Ultimate on a CPU that registers as 3.3GHz?

Also, of note, the new Macintosh registered the 4th fastest computer checked with Geekbench behind some 24 nd 32 core behemoths.

It turns out, technology costs more than TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington thought, as the price of his CrunchPad appears to be creeping higher and higher.

Illustration: Lou BeachThe touchscreen tablet computer was supposed to be “dead simple,” in Arrington’s words, with little functionality beyond a Web browser. To that end, Arrington was hoping to sell the device for $200, but in January he said $300 seemed likelier. (I’d provide the link, but TechCrunch has apparently removed that page now.)

Now, a story on CrunchPad manufacturer Fusion Garage by The Straits Times in Singapore says the estimated CrunchPad price is $400. That’s a problem.

(By the way, I find it deliciously ironic that Arrington, the king of leaks and dirty details, can’t keep the lid on his pet project. On the other hand, maybe all CrunchPad news is carefully orchestrated and Arrington knows exactly what he’s doing.)

My colleague David Coursey was right on when he said the CrunchPad needs a low price point — $99 or $200, tops. At those prices, or even at $300, the CrunchPad is somewhat of an easy buy, and sits in a league of its own as a simple gadget for Web browsing.

But bump the price up to $400, and now the CrunchPad has competition. Does the consumer buy the Web device with the fancy touch screen, or is it smarter to get a netbook that can do it all? For tablet buyers, perhaps Amazon’s Kindle e-reader will be more attractive.

And then there’s the fabled Apple tablet. If the device is indeed real, it could very well cost $500. With only a hundred bucks difference between the hottest gadget brand out there and a startup that’s never sold technology devices before, the decision would be a no-brainer.

To put it simply, a $400 price tag would make buying the CrunchPad a difficult decision. For a device that’s supposed to be a natural fit for Web-connected consumers, that spells trouble.

While Apple hides itself in a cloud of rumors surrounding the launch of its first touchscreen tablet PC, Michael Arrington and Singapore’s Fusion Garage are putting the pedal to the floor in an effort to get a working touchscreen tablet device in the hands of consumers by the holiday season. Dubbed the CrunchPad, this Web-centric tablet PC throws conventional storage to the cloud: Instead of a hard drive, you run programs and save files via a Wi-Fi or 3G connection.

The Singapore Straits Times got its hands on a CrunchPad but — more importantly — a first look at a larger version of the specs list. Here’s what you’ll be able find in this unique tablet PC:

Dimensions: approximately 12.8 by 7.8 by 0.7 inches (That’s a screen size of two inches larger than Apple’s rumored tablet PC)

Weight: 2.6 pounds

Guts: 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor and 1GB memory

Software: Open-source Webkit browser/operating system, developed by Fusion Garage

Connections: One USB port. No more, no less.

Network Connectivity: Wi-Fi, 3G, mobile broadband

The CrunchPad’s rumored (but still unconfirmed) price point of $400 would put it in direct competition with netbooks and, heck, even Apple’s iPhone. I only mention that last fact, as the CrunchPad’s built-in features — a large virtual keyboard, gesture-based controls, and an accelerometer, among others — alongside its lack of an ability to really store information on the device evokes the image of a giant alternative iPhone.

Now here’s the big question: What happened to the earlier specifications that included an embedded microphone, headphone jack, and Webcam? Are these inputs and devices still there? Can one use these, or an attached USB headset, to make a call or two on Skype? I don’t foresee the CrunchPad replacing a mobile phone any time soon, but these features would certainly sweeten the allure of a portable, connected tablet.

What do you think? Would you buy a pricy new smartphone or opt for a lesser mobile device combined with a wireless, fast-booting CrunchPad? Is the open-source background of the CrunchPad a tantalizing alternative to the concept of a proprietary application store?

Many potential buyers of laptops priced under US$300 in the U.S. had an unpleasant surprise over the weekend: The machines would not be eligible for a free upgrade to Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 7 operating system.

Wal-Mart and Best Buy attracted plenty of buyers for laptops during a promotional offering of laptops priced under $300. Some of those laptops sold out just one day after the offers began. The prices were respectableconsidering the generous features, including large screens, better graphics and DVD drives, which are not typically found in most low-cost netbooks today.

However, the laptops came preloaded with the Windows Vista Home Basic OS, which does not include a free upgrade to Windows 7 in the U.S. Instead, consumers will have to shell out about $120 to upgrade the operating system.

Mainstream laptop prices have dipped under the $300 mark just a few times over the past few years. Last week Best Buy initiated a price war by offering a fully equipped Acer laptop for less than $300. Wal-Mart responded by selling a $298 Compaq Presario CQ60-419WM from Hewlett-Packard. Best Buy soon countered by offering for $298 Toshiba’s Satellite L305-S5955, which is still available on the retailer’s Web site.

Many potential buyers left questions on Wal-Mart’s Web site asking if the laptop was eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 7. Vista has been panned by critics for being sluggish and resource-hungry. Windows 7, due for release on Oct. 22, has been praised by beta testers as faster and more efficient.

Retailers are still offering many inexpensive PCs that aren’t eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 7. Best Buy and Wal-Mart are still offering many inexpensive netbooks, laptops and all-in-one PCs from Acer, Gateway and other PC makers preloaded with Windows Vista Home Basic.

Hewlett-Packard, which makes Compaq laptops, wasn’t offering a free upgrade from Vista Home Basic to Windows 7 because Microsoft wasn’t providing such an upgrade path to PC makers in the U.S., according to HP spokeswoman Ann Finnie.

Microsoft is providing a free upgrade to Windows 7 for consumers who buy a PC with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate, said a spokeswoman from Microsoft’s public relations firm. But it won’t offer an upgrade with Vista Home Basic because there won’t be a Home Basic version of Windows 7 offered in the U.S., she said. Windows 7 Home Basic edition will only be offered in developing countries.

“Microsoft and its partners will continue to evaluate and offer additional programs such as the Windows Upgrade Option through launch, but we have nothing to share at this time,” the spokeswoman said.

Microsoft has listed an upgrade path from Vista Home Basic to multiple versions of Windows 7. Users can buy an upgrade version of Windows 7 from retailers with prices starting at $120.

Intel had to hustle to catch up with competitors in developing chips for mobile devices like smartphones, but the effort led to the development of the highly successful Atom chip, a company executive said on Wednesday.

Today, the Atom chip is being used in most netbooks, which are low-cost devices characterized by small keyboards and screens ranging from 7 to 12 inches. Netbooks are designed for Internet access and to run Web applications.

Intel kicked off the Atom project in 2004, when it was doing work on developing Arm chips in parallel, said Sean Maloney, executive vice president at Intel, at an event in San Francisco. At the time the company was “running like crazy” to develop a chip for mobile devices to catch up with the fast evolution of wireless devices, especially voice services, which were peaking at the time. Intel partly unloaded its lineup of Arm-based processors when it sold its communications and application processor business to Marvell in 2006 for around US$600 million.

Atom was focused on wireless data-related services, as Intel believed wireless carriers would focus more on their untapped potential in the future.

Intel worked with Asustek Computer at the time to develop Atom chips. Asus had a similar idea of developing an inexpensive device drawing low levels of power and providing quick Internet access. Asus in 2007 ultimately launched the first netbook, Eee PC, and close to 350,000 units sold that year. Netbooks finally started reaching a wider range of consumers in 2008, especially in emerging economies like China and India.

Though companies like Apple and Advanced Micro Devices have dismissed netbooks as having limited hardware and software capabilities, the devices have attracted a lot of attention due to their low cost and small size. Worldwide netbook shipments reached 10 million in 2008, with shipments expected to touch 22 million in 2009, according to IDC. Research firm DisplaySearch estimates worldwide netbook shipments will reach 32.7 million units this year.

Intel’s work in defining and explaining the netbook category isn’t yet over, Maloney said.

“Netbooks are so far a second or third purchase for somebody who has a notebook,” Maloney said. He has seen people whipping past netbooks in rural China to get to laptops. “First-time buyers won’t buy netbooks,” he said.

Going forward, Intel aims to further decrease power drawn as it puts Atom chips in smartphones and embedded devices. For example, Intel is developing the Moorestown platform for mobile devices that draws up to 10 times less power than current Atom chips in idle mode. The platform is set for release in early 2010.