I just came across Dropbox, which is an online service that automatically syncs your files across multiple computers (Windows & Mac). This is EXACTLY what I and several other people that I know need! The thing that really peaks my interest is that there will be a sync client for Mac OS X and Windows that will auto-synchronize all files in the targeted folders. In addition, you can access the files via their website. To top it off, Dropbox also keeps version history so you can rollback to a previous version.

Anyways, Dropbox hasn’t launched, yet, but they do have a nice screen cast on their site so you can see it in action.

I’m pretty excited to see how well their service works because I’ve tried to synchronize files across two Macs with .Mac and it’s flaky, at best. I also wonder how much the service will cost - if anything.

Update: GigaOM has a great write-up on Dropbox…and it looks like the beta started today.

Wow…some very cool details that Apple has released about the iPhone SDK (beta) today. I won’t go into the details since you can read them yourself (link below). The most important thing: an iPhone software update enabling 3rd party apps will be released in June, 2008. So, it looks like we have a few more months to go before we can start buying and installing 3rd party apps w/o jailbreaking our iPhones.

There were some very cool demos shown at the press event, too.

[via AppleInsider]

If you’re debating between getting the new MBP (i.e., the ones with multitouch and Penryn processor) or the old MBP, you’ll find AnandTech’s benchmark tests very informative.

The net: Penryn’s biggest advantage is in battery life. Performance is a tad better (depending on the test) but not a lot. So, for some of you, the reduced prices of the old MBP may be the right option for you.

With new MacBook Pros (& MacBooks) released yesterday you can save some serious cash on the previous generation models. As I’m writing this I see the following in the refurbished section of the online Apple store:

• MacBook Pro 2.2Ghz Core 2 Duo (matte or glossy display): $1,449
• MacBook Pro 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo (matte or glossy display): $1,649

These laptops were originally selling for $1,999 and $2,499 so these are some steep savings…especially on the 2.4Ghz model.

If you’re looking at buying a MacBook you should seriously consider the 2.2Ghz MacBook Pro at this price. I say this because the Intel Penryn processor in the MacBook (& low-end MBP) only has 3MB of L2 cache whereas the previous Core 2 Duo chip (aka Merom) has 4MB. To be honest, I’m not sure if the additional 1MB of L2 cache cache will net any noticeable performance gains but the option to get a MBP for less than the black MacBook ($1,500) it’s definitely worth considering.

There are some additional benefits to Penryn: supposed better battery life (reportedly by 8 - 10%)  and the SSE4 instruction set (this will make application run much faster provided they are designed to utilize it).

Personally, if I were in the market for a high-end MacBook, I would seriously consider getting the 2.2Ghz MBP. In fact, if a friend was going to spend $1,300 or $1,500 on a MacBook, I would most likely recommend getting the refurbished MBP.

Apple has released a new firmware for the iPhone (1.1.4) .  Apparently, all the release notes say are, “bug fixes.”

I don’t know about you all but ever since I upgraded to 1.1.3 (released during MacWorld ‘08), I’ve had Safari crash several times.  Prior to 1.1.3, Safari crashed only a handful of times in 6 months.  Maybe this new firmware will make Safari more stable.

[via AppleInsider]

Apple has finally updated the MacBook Pro and, suprisingly, the MacBook.

I’ve been waiting for over 1 year to replace my Powerbook so I am absolutely ecstatic. I placed my order for the $2,500 version of the 15″ MBP and should have it next week. Cost: ~$1,999 (+ tax) thanks to the Apple Dev Connection discount, which is 20% off on MBPs).

Side note: I love how Apple still showcases a Ducati 1098 motorcycle on the MBP product page! 

Toshiba officially put the last nail in the HD-DVD coffin - today, Toshiba announced they will cease HD-DVD player production and replication. They will phase out HD-DVD by the end of March 2008. Warner Bros. decision to go Blu-ray exclusive this past January was one nail in the coffin. The second nail was delivered by the retailers (Best Buy, Netflix, and Walmart). After these two it was only a matter of time before Toshiba raised the white flag.

As most of you know, I was an early supporter of HD-DVD but when WB went BD exclusive, I was ready for this format war to end so we can all unite under one HD format. Do I regret my decision in buying an HD-DVD player? Heck no. I bought the Toshiba HD-A1 for it’s excellent ability to upscale SD DVDs to 1080i and looked at HD-DVD as a ‘bonus.’ The HD-A1 was also appr. $300 cheaper than the Denon DVD-2910 that I was contemplating on buying.

Anyways, we’ve already gotten an announcement from Universal Studios (one of the two HD-DVD exclusive studios) stating that future titles and catalog titles will be released on Blu-ray disc. Although Paramount hasn’t officially announced anything it’s obvious they will support Blu-ray (again).

Now, let’s hope the BD association starts lowering the prices of players and movies. The next battle for BD will be against HD movie downloads/rentals.

[via Format War Central]

FWIW, I was at one of my local Apple Stores today and asked them if they had any of the $2,500 version of the 15″ MacBook Pros in-stock.  The answer: no.  Hmm….could the updates be coming this Tuesday or next Tuesday (Feb. 26)??  Man, I hope so!

Post a comment if your local Apple Store is also out of stock.

Amazon is having a buy 2 get 1 free deal on select Blu-ray titles. There are approximately 180 titles that qualify - just make sure you view each genre (action & adventure, drama & family friendly, etc.) by clicking on the tabs on top of the page.

I bought Black Hawk Down, House of Flying Daggers, & Underworld: Evolution for $38 ($12.66/title) - a pretty darn good deal.

The price varies so if you’re buying a lot of discs make sure you divide your purchase into separate orders. For example, all $15.95 discs in one order and all $23.95 discs in another because Amazon gives the cheapest disc to you for free.
Not sure how long this deal will last so buy ‘em if you can!

Here are two interesting posts from someone named “Tailpipe” on the AppleInsider forums (post 1, post 2).

Take it for what it’s worth: a dude posting in a forum for Apple rumors. 

Posted Feb 13, 2008:

Why the all new MacBook Pro has been delayed

The all new MacBook Pro was meant to make its debut at MacWorld in January.

The big story was meant to be that while 2007 was all about the iPhone, 2008 would see Apple return to its roots: computers.

Steve Jobs had planned to reveal a brand new 17″ MacBook Pro, a brand new 15″ MacBook Pro, (and, if my source is correct, there was even meant to be a brand new 13″ model, but it isn’t clear whether this was MacBook Pro or MacBook - but it is definitely aluminium). Having introduced these machines, the “…and just one more little thing.” was meant to be the MacBook Air.

All of these machines feature the gesture touchpad, new keyboard, LED screens and super-sleek thinner case designs, longer battery life, lower weight than the existing line-up and 802.11n WiFi capabilities.

What screwed up the launch was the manufacturing problem Intel is having with Penryn processors using the new 45Nm process. THEY STILL HAVEN’T YET SHIPPED IN VOLUME.

Given that Leopard 10.5.2 wasn’t ready either, the decision to pull the launch was made as a delay between announcement and launch would have killed Mac sales. As things stand, Apple will not launch any revised laptops until Penryn is up and running. That is expected to happen later this week or next week.

For these reasons, Apple is holding a special event in February which will include the iPhone SDK but no 3G iPhone yet.

Apparently, the decision to pull the launch of the revised range was only taken just before the MacWorld Conference and SJ was not amused. Fortunately, the MacBook Air uses a unique processor that was ready in time so this was unaffected by the penryn problem.

So, be patient, friends, new MBPs are coming. The delay isn’t Apple’s fault.

By all accounts, we’ll all be delighted when these machines show-up. They’ll be worth their WAIT in Gold.

He also made another post on Feb. 1:

Definitive update on new MacBook Pro

This info comes to you from London via an Englishman working at Apple, (and there are more than you think ;-))

A revised MacBook Pro with a Leopard 10.5.2 update was meant to debut at MacWorld but neither was ready.

The delay for the MBP was caused by Intel Penryn processors not being available due to some production glitch. As we all know, Apple doesn’t like to announce products too far ahead of their shipping dates - with the notable exception of the iPhone - so decided to delay the launch. Penryn-based PCs now good to go and begin shipping Monday.

Expect new MBP 15-inch and 17-inch within two weeks. 17-inch gets LED.

New MBP DOES feature a slightly revised case design with the new black keyboard from MBA and a larger trackpad, but is basically very similar to existing design. Think evolution not revolution.

The idea is to achieve a commonality of look across the range.

SSD will be an option offering an exceptionally fast boot time < 30 seconds.

Also seen lurking in the corridors of Cupertino was an aluminum MacBook 13″. Initially available in silver, my source reckons annodised black, blue, pink and other colours will be available around September. New MacBooks will be a big story later this year. One of the range (I don’t know which, maybe the black one) will have a superior spec that basically makes it a MacBook Pro 13″.

Well, I hope he’s right and that we see the new MBPs on Feb. 26th…it’ll be fun to see how accurate he is when they are finally released.

This week Apple finally released version 2.0 of the Apple TV software that was demo’d by Steve Jobs at this year’s MacWorld. This is a big deal because it finally makes the Apple TV a lot more functional - adding the ability to buy and/or rent movies (SD or HD) and TV shows. However, the one question I had was, ‘just how good is the HD video quality compared to Blu-ray/HD-DVD?’ Answer: it’s surprisingly good…ranking #2 - right behind Blu-ray/HD-DVD.

It’s def worth reading the reviews as they have screen shots comparing AppleTV, Blu-ray/HD-DVD, HD Cable, and standard DVD:

• Engadget HD: Sizing up Apple TV’s HD
  
• AppleInsider: Apple TV Take 2 review (Part 2)
• iLounge: Apple TV 2.0 vs. Blu-Ray, DVD & HD Cable: The Comparison

I haven’t had time to rent an HD movie on mine, yet, but I’ll post a review of my experience when I do.

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.

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]

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]

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.

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)

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!

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.”

Best Buy is offering a buy 1 get 1 free deal on HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs. And, yes, there are some good movies that qualify for this offer.

FYI, I was in a Best Buy store yesterday (Watertown, MA) and there were no advertisements for this offer so this offer may be online only. If you need the discs before Christmas, just buy online with in-store pickup - that’s what I just did.

HD-DVD

• 300 ($34.99)
• Arctic Tale ($34.99)
• Blades Of Glory ($29.99)
• The Bourne Ultimatum
• The Departed HD-DVD ($34.99)
• Disturbia ($29.99)
• Evan Almighty ($19.99)
• Harry Potter & Order Of The Phoenix ($32.99)
• I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry ($29.99)
• Knocked Up: Unrated ($19.99)
• Mr. Bean’s Holiday ($29.99)
• Ocean’s Thirteen ($34.99)
• Shooter ($34.99)
• Shrek The Third ($29.99)
• Transformers ($29.99)

Blu-ray

• 28 Weeks Later ($29.99)
• 300 ($29.99)
• Are We Done Yet? ($29.99)
• The Condemned ($29.99)

• Crank ($29.99)
• The Departed ($29.99)
• Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer ($34.99)
• Harry Potter & Order Of The Phoenix Blu-Ray ($32.99)
• Hostel: Part II ($29.99)
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith ($34.99)
• Mr. Brooks ($34.99)
• Ocean’s Thirteen ($29.99)
• SAW III ($29.99)
• Spider-Man 3 ($29.99)
• Underworld: Evolution ($29.99)

[via High-Def Digest]

MacUpdate has another software bundle for sale and there are some really awesome applications in the bundle. In short, you get 10 applications for $50…but it’s offered for a limited time and expires in 7 days. I bought the bundle and would highly recommend them. So far, my favorites are Yep and RapidWeaver.

Here’s the skinny on the applications included in the bundle:

• Forklift
• RapidWeaver
• Swift Publisher
• Marine Aquarium
• Xslimmer
• MemoryMiner
• Yep
• SRS iWow
• XMIND 2008 Pro
• iStabilize
• PulpMotion

I won’t list a description of all of these apps since the MacUpdate site does a great job of that so click on over!