Video: First look at the 1098R

Man, watching these videos and hearing the 1098 really makes me miss my bike…winter can’t end early enough!

My favorite part is how Michael Neeves (MCN reviewer/rider) is speechless for a second after he gets back into the pits.

Filed under: Ducati, Motorcycles, Reviews, Video, YouTube

Performance benchmarks for Intel Penryn mobile processor

As some of you know, Intel has just released their next mobile processor – Penryn. In a nutshell, the Penryn processor is similar to the current Core 2 Duo (aka Merom) processor – the biggest change was the size reduction from 65nm –> 45nm and the increase in L2 cache from 4MB –> 6MB. This yields better battery life, less heat emitted from the CPU, and a slight improvement in performance.

Anwyays, check out the great performance review from AnandTech’s Intel mobile Penryn benchmarks.

Some findings worth highlighting:

• Increase of 23 – 55 minutes in battery life (depending on the load on the CPU)
• Battery life increased 18 minutes during DVD playback
• Overall performance increase was around 4.5%

Personally, with all of the rumors of an updated MacBook Pro coming soon, it’s worth the wait. Although, I almost cracked since I’ve been waiting to buy a MBP since Jan/Feb 2007.

For you PC-buyers, fret not, Dell/HP/Sony have already announced release dates for Penryn-based laptops (shipping in February 2008).

[via AnandTech]

Filed under: Computers, Laptop, Mobile Computing

1st Ducati Desmocedici hits the UK

One word describes my reaction to watching and hearing this bike: incredible. Man, it’ d be nice to be able to spend $73,000 on a motorcycle.

[via TwistingAsphalt]

Filed under: Ducati, Motorcycles, Video, YouTube

Another PC user switches to the Mac

Wow, this week was an incredible week…my girlfriend (a PC user all her life) just decided to replace her Dell Latitude D620 (Core 2 Duo – 2.16Ghz) machine with the black MacBook (Core 2 Duo – 2.2Ghz). I think her experience speaks volumes about Mac OS X as well as the dedicated Mac applications…because it was a combination of the two that convinced her to switch.

Here’s the net of it, she needed to build a simple yoga website – Om Circle Yoga – (she’s a certified yoga instructor). I told her that I got this great web design software (RapidWeaver) from a MacUpdate promotional bundle back in December and that it would suite her needs perfectly. So, she gave it a shot and within a couple of hours, she learned how to use RapidWeaver, built her website, and launched it. Here’s the best part: after she launched her site, she commented on:

1. How easy it was to learn and use RapidWeaver
2. How easy and fun it was using Mac OS X (I’m running Tiger)

The interesting thing is that my girlfriend has used my Powerbook in the past for browsing the web and her impression was that it’s just another computer and does the same thing as a PC. The minute she did something on the Mac that was more than surfing the web or checking email she realized how much more productive she was on the Mac and began to appreciate what us Mac-heads/geeks have been raving about all these years.

So, big props goes to the folks at Realmac Software for making RapidWeaver such a great app and to the RapidWeaver community for building various add-ons…and, of course, to Apple, for making Mac OS X such a great operating system.

Filed under: Apple, Computers, Laptop, MacBook, MacOSX, Mobile Computing, Notebook, Software, Windows

Last day for the Macheist bundle

As of the time of this post, there is 23 hours left to buy the Macheist software bundle. You get 12 apps for $49. Two notable apps in the bundle are Snapz Pro X and Pixelmator. Hit it up at http://www.macheist.com.

(sorry for the short post but it was done on my iPhone via the mobile WordPress site)

Filed under: Apple, Bargains, MacOSX, Software

MacBook Pro updates coming soon?

According to MacRumors, there is some talk of updates coming soon to the MBP…man, I REALLY hope this is true and that these updates happen within the next 2-4 weeks. I know, I know…I’m wishfully hoping it’ll be soon but one can hope, right?

Here’s the quote from this posting at MacRumors.com:

In looking back at the sources of the most accurate rumors, we also find enticing reports of items that didn’t come true at Macworld, but did come from credible sources.

The MacBook Pro updates are certainly coming — and soon. Even without our rumor sources, the MacBook Pros are simply due for refresh. But the most interesting tidbit is that there have been reliable reports that the Pro machines will incorporate Apple’s new multi-touch trackpad.

Also, here are a couple of the posts I’ve seen on MacRumors’ forums:

• Someone is seeing discounts being offered on the MBP at their university store and that they only do this when an update/upgrade is ~2 weeks away
• Some people are seeing discounts on MBPs at various retail stores
• One person claiming that he works for a printing company that prints all of Apple’s brochures, boxes, and banners – he claims that the updates are coming very soon

As always with Apple, these are just rumors and people’s wild guesses but time will tell…but it’s killing me since I’ve been waiting to buy a MBP since August 2007!

EDIT: AppleInsider just reported some more details on the soon-to-be-released updated MBP. The gist of it: the MBP was supposed to be updated and announced at MacWorld but execs decided to delay it by several weeks because they needed the resources to focus on the MacBook Air.

EDIT (January 27, 2008): More rumors of the imminent MBP update.

EDIT (Jan 30, 2008): And some actual evidence(?) that the updates are coming.

EDIT (Feb 27, 2008): Finally!

Filed under: Apple, Laptop, MacBook Pro, Mobile Computing, Notebook, Rumors

Looks like Blu-ray is going to beat HD-DVD

I’m a bit sad to write this but it looks like Blu-ray is going to win the HD DVD format war now that Warner Bros. has gone Blu-ray exclusive. Now, Blu-ray has a large majority of the studios supporting it – the only exclusive studios supporting HD-DVD are Universal Studios and Paramount. However, there have been rumors that they will also go neutral or Blu-ray exclusive but I don’t think we’ll see them go Blu in the near future since Universal publicly stated that their ‘current plan is to continue to support HD-DVD’ (notice how they used the words “current plan” which tells me they’re starting to think in Blu).

Let’s make this easier, here’s a list of what’s happened since Warner Bros. went Blu-ray exclusive:

• Paramount also says their “current plan” is to stick with HD-DVD
• New Line says they are also going Blu-ray exclusive
• HBO is going Blu-ray exclusive
• The HD-DVD booth at the CES show was desolate. There were also reports that at CES Blu-ray had all of the mojo.
• Constantin Film goes Blu-ray exclusive
• The HD-DVD group fires back and slashes hardware and software prices
• Nielsen VideoScan reports Blu-ray market share for the week ending January 13 = 85% compared to year to date of 74%. It was also the first time where no HD-DVD title was in the top 10 sales for a given week.
• Rumors of Target going Blu-ray exclusive

Yeah, these are very dark times for the HD-DVD consortium and mostly for Toshiba since they are the primary backer of HD-DVD…and these are great times for the Blu-ray Disc (BD) consortium – especially Sony since they’re the primary backer of Blu-ray. However, I don’t think it’s gonna be a cake walk for BD to win the format war due to various reasons – the primary being that Universal and Paramount are still HD-DVD exclusive and the high BD player prices.

Personally, since the Warner Bros. announcement (Jan. 4) I broke down and bought a Blu-ray player (Playstation 3). I bought it about a week after the WB announcement. Needless to say, I think the writing’s on the wall for HD-DVD and it will die a slow death, which is very unfortunate because I’ve been a HD-DVD supporter from the beginning and I am NOT a Sony fan by any stretch of the imagination. I supported HD-DVD for various reasons that I won’t list because this post on Gizmodo sums it up almost perfectly.

Needless to say, I’m tired of this format war and am ready for it to end. Blu-ray has around 75% of Hollywood studios supporting it…and it hurts to say this but “go Blu.”

Filed under: Blu-ray, HD DVD, HDTV, Home Theater, Playstation 3