06 August 2010

06 August 2010

18 June 2010
New Slim Unibody Mac Mini

Technical Specifications

Processor and memory
2.4GHz or 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
3MB on-chip shared L2 cache
1066MHz frontside bus
2GB (two 1GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; two SO-DIMM slots support up to 8gb

Environmental Status Report
Mac mini is designed with the following features to reduce its environmental impact:
BFR-free
PVC-free2
Highly recyclable aluminum enclosure
Meets ENERGY STAR 5.0 requirements
Rated EPEAT Gold3

Peripheral connections
One FireWire 800 port (up to 800 Mbps)
Four USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps)
SD card slot

Graphics and video support
NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory4
Mini DisplayPort with support for up to 2560-by-1600 resolution
HDMI port with support for up to 1920-by-1200 resolution
DVI output using HDMI to DVI Adapter (included)
VGA output using Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter (sold separately)
Support for extended desktop and video mirroring across both ports

Communications
AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking5; IEEE 802.11a/b/g compatible
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) wireless technology
10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet (RJ-45) interface with support for jumbo frames

Audio
Audio line in minijack (digital/analog)
Audio line out/headphone minijack (digital/analog)
HDMI port supports multichannel audio output
Support for Apple iPhone headset with microphone

Storage
320GB or 500GB Serial ATA hard disk drive6
8x slot-loading SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Maximum read: 8x DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-ROM, DVD-ROM (double layer DVD-9), DVD-R DL (double layer), DVD+R DL (double layer), DVD-RW, and DVD+RW; 24x CD
Maximum write: 8x DVD-R, DVD+R; 6x DVD-R DL (double layer), DVD+R DL (double layer), DVD-RW; 8x DVD+RW; 24x CD-R; 24x CD-RW

Electrical and operating requirements
Line voltage: 100-240V AC
Frequency: 50Hz to 60Hz, single phase
Maximum continuous power: 85W
Operating temperature: 50° to 95° F (10° to 35° C)
Storage temperature: -40° to 116° F (-40° to 47° C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Maximum altitude: 10,000 feet
Typical acoustical performance
Sound pressure level (operator position): 14 dBA at idle7

Size and weight
Height:
1.4 inches (3.6 cm)
Width:
7.7 inches (19.7 cm)
Depth:
7.7 inches (19.7 cm)
Weight:
3.0 pounds (1.37 kg)1

07 May 2010
ADOBE CS 5 Adobe launched the new Adobe Creative Suite 5 in Johannesburg at The Forum on April 12th, 2010 at a mind-blowing presentation. New in CS5 include Adobe Flash Builder CS5, Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5, Flex, Live Cycle Enterprise Suite, Adobe Air. Find the full range ADOBE products on order at Simply Mac. This breakthrough release of the industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow. Focusing on interactivity, performance, and maximizing the impact of digital content and marketing campaigns across media and devices, the Creative Suite 5 product line brings exciting full-version upgrades of flagship creative tools while delivering significant workflow enhancements to designers and developers. Featuring integration with online content and digital marketing measurement and optimization capabilities for the first time, Creative Suite 5 products include access to signature Omniture technologies, to capture, store and analyze information generated by web sites and other sources. Additionally, a brand-new component, Adobe Flash® Catalyst™, joins the Creative Suite, ushering in the ability to design interactive content without writing code and improve the collaborative process between designer and developer. The Adobe CS5 product family also enables the creation of content and applications for the much anticipated releases of Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR® 2, which are optimized for high performance on mobile screens and designed to take advantage of native device capabilities for a richer, more immersive user experience. The new line up is headlined by Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection which includes, in a single package, all of Adobe’s renowned Creative Suite tools, such as Photoshop® CS5 (see separate release), Illustrator® CS5, InDesign® CS5 (see separate release), Flash Catalyst CS5 (see separate release), Flash CS5 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS5, Adobe® Premiere® Pro CS5 and After Effects® CS5. These tools are also available separately or in one of the five Creative Suite editions. The complete Creative Suite 5 line-up includes Creative Suite 5 Master Collection, Creative Suite 5 Design Premium, Creative Suite 5 Web Premium, Creative Suite 5 Production Premium, Creative Suite 5 Design Standard, as well as 15 point products, associated technologies and integration with new Adobe CS Live services (CS Live Services are complimentary for a limited time). “While Creative Suite 5 continues Adobe’s storied history of delivering astonishing new creative features, this release first and foremost addresses the challenges facing publishers and creatives worldwide—how to build profitable businesses around digital content,” said Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer at Adobe. “By coupling sophisticated online business analytics with dazzling creative tools we’re ensuring that publishers, designers and marketers can create, deliver and optimize beautiful, high-impact digital experiences across media and devices.” Refer to http://www.adobe.com for complete suite compatibility, upgrades and all its great new features.

09 April 2010
Apple iPad Review by Walter S. Mossberg-Print Share For the past week or so, I have been testing a sleek, light, silver-and-black tablet computer called an iPad. After spending hours and hours with it, I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop. It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades. But first, it will have to prove that it really can replace the laptop or netbook for enough common tasks, enough of the time, to make it a viable alternative. And that may not be easy, because previous tablet computers have failed to catch on in the mass market, and the iPad lacks some of the features—such as a physical keyboard, a Webcam, USB ports and multitasking—that most laptop or netbook users have come to expect. If people see the iPad mainly as an extra device to carry around, it will likely have limited appeal. If, however, they see it as a way to replace heavier, bulkier computers much of the time—for Web surfing, email, social-networking, video- and photo-viewing, gaming, music and even some light content creation—it could be a game changer the way Apple’s iPhone has been. The iPad is much more than an e-book or digital periodical reader, though it does those tasks brilliantly, better in my view than the Amazon Kindle. And it’s far more than just a big iPhone, even though it uses the same easy-to-master interface, and Apple (AAPL) says it runs nearly all of the 150,000 apps that work on the iPhone. When held horizontally, the iPad’s virtual keyboard is roomy and easy to use. It’s qualitatively different, a whole new type of computer that, through a simple interface, can run more-sophisticated, PC-like software than a phone does, and whose large screen allows much more functionality when compared with a phone’s. But, because the iPad is a new type of computer, you have to feel it, to use it, to fully understand it and decide if it is for you, or whether, say, a netbook might do better. So I’ve been using my test iPad heavily day and night, instead of my trusty laptops most of the time. As I got deeper into it, I found the iPad a pleasure to use, and had less and less interest in cracking open my heavier ThinkPad or MacBook. I probably used the laptops about 20% as often as normal, reserving them mainly for writing or editing longer documents, or viewing Web videos in Adobe’s (ADBE) Flash technology, which the iPad doesn’t support, despite its wide popularity online. My verdict is that, while it has compromises and drawbacks, the iPad can indeed replace a laptop for most data communication, content consumption and even limited content creation, a lot of the time. But it all depends on how you use your computer. If you’re mainly a Web surfer, note-taker, social-networker and emailer, and a consumer of photos, videos, books, periodicals and music—this could be for you. If you need to create or edit giant spreadsheets or long documents, or you have elaborate systems for organizing email, or need to perform video chats, the iPad isn’t going to cut it as your go-to device. The iPad is thinner and lighter than any netbook or laptop I’ve seen. It weighs just 1.5 pounds, and its aluminum and glass body is a mere half-inch thick. It boasts a big, bright color 9.7-inch screen that occupies most of the front. As on all Apple portable devices, the battery is sealed in and nonreplaceable. It has a decent speaker, and even a tiny microphone. Memory, also sealed in and nonexpandable, ranges from 16 gigabytes to 64 gigabytes. And you can order one with just a Wi-Fi wireless connection to the Internet, or Wi-Fi plus an AT&T (T) 3G cellular connection. The Wi-Fi models will be available Saturday and the 3G models, which I didn’t test, about a month later. Prices start at $499 and go to $829, with the costlier models having more memory and/or 3G. The cellular models don’t require a contract or termination fee. You can pay AT&T either $15 a month for 250 megabytes of data use, or $30 a month for unlimited data—a significant reduction from typical prices for laptop cellular connectivity. I was impressed with the iPad’s battery life, which I found to be even longer than Apple’s ten-hour claim, and far longer than on my laptops or smart phones. For my battery test, I played movies, TV shows and other videos back-to-back until the iPad died. This stressed the device’s most power-hogging feature, its screen. The iPad lasted 11 hours and 28 minutes, about 15% more than Apple claimed. I was able to watch four feature-length movies, four TV episodes and a video of a 90-minute corporate presentation, before the battery died midway through an episode of “The Closer.” Walt’s mountain-view wallpaper with app icons arranged during his tests. Oh, and all the while during this battery marathon, I kept the Wi-Fi network running and the email downloading constantly in the background. Your mileage may vary, but with Wi-Fi off and the screen turned down from the fairly bright level I used, you might even do better. Music plays far longer with the screen off. On the other hand, playing games constantly might yield worse battery life. Apple says video playback, Web use and book reading all take about the same amount of juice. When I was doing the latter two tasks for an hour or two at a time, the battery ran down so slowly for me that I stopped thinking about it. I also was impressed with the overall speed of the iPad. Apple’s custom processor makes it wicked fast. Screens appear almost instantly, and the Wi-Fi in my home tested as fast as it does on a laptop. I found email easy and productive to use, and had no trouble typing accurately and quickly on the iPad’s wide on-screen keyboard. In fact, I found the iPad virtual keyboard more comfortable and accurate to use than the cramped keyboards and touchpads on many netbooks, though some fast touch typists might disagree. Apple’s $39 iPad case, which bends to set up a nice angle for typing, helps. The Web browser also works beautifully, and takes advantage of the big screen to show full pages and cut down on scrolling. It even now has a bookmarks bar at the top. As noted, however, it doesn’t support Adobe’s Flash technology. I also was able to easily sync the iPad’s calendar and contacts apps with Google (GOOG) and Apple’s MobileMe. Watching videos, viewing photos, listening to music, reading books and playing games was satisfying and fun. I used the device heavily for Twitter and Facebook. And I even got some light work done in the optional iPad word processor, called Pages, which is part of a $30 suite that also includes a spreadsheet and presentation program. This is a serious content creation app that should help the iPad compete with laptops and can import Microsoft Office files. However, only the word processor exports to Microsoft’s formats, and not always accurately. In one case, the exported Word file had misaligned text. When I then tried exporting the document as a PDF file, it was unreadable. Apple created a touch version of its Pages word processor for the iPad. The iPad can run two types of third-party apps, both available from Apple’s app store. It can use nearly all existing iPhone apps. These can either run in a small, iPhone-size window in the middle of the screen, which makes them look tiny, or blown up to double size. The larger size makes them fill the screen, but can make type inside them look blocky. Still, the dozens I tested all worked properly. And it can run a new class of specially designed iPad apps, of which Apple hopes to have 1,000 at launch. I successfully tested the revamped App Store, which features the iPad apps most prominently when you’re on an iPad. Based on my very small sample, some app developers may be testing higher prices for iPad apps than the 99 cents or $1.99 typical for paid iPhone apps. The paid iPad apps I saw ranged from $3.99 to $49.99. Others were free. Apple has rebuilt its own core iPhone apps for the iPad to add sophisticated features that make the programs look and work more like PC or Mac software. For instance, there are “popover” menus that make it easier to make choices without leaving the screen you’re on. And, when the iPad is held horizontally, in landscape mode, as I often preferred to use it, many programs now have two panels, making them faster and more useful. For example, in email, a left-hand panel shows your message list, while a larger right-hand panel shows the message itself. The photo app is striking, and much more like the one on the Mac than the one on the iPhone. The device can even be used as a digital picture frame. The iPod app is beautiful, too, as are the calendar and contacts app. Unfortunately, Apple excluded some of the more familiar apps from the iPhone, including Weather, Clock and Stocks. I tested a small selection of the new third-party iPad apps Apple hopes to have available at launch, and most were also rich and feature-filled, beyond what iPhone apps offer. These included games such as Scrabble and “Touch Hockey,” a database app, news services and more. I was able to try a pre-release version of The Wall Street Journal’s new iPad app (which I had nothing to do with designing), and found it gorgeous and highly functional—by far the best implementation of the newspaper I have ever seen on a screen. Unlike the Journal’s Web site, or its smart-phone apps, the iPad version blends much more of the look and feel of the print paper into the electronic environment. Other newspapers and magazines have announced plans for their own, dramatically more realistic iPad apps. I also found iBooks, Apple’s book reader and store, easy to use, and read a couple of books on it. I consider the larger color screen superior to the Kindle’s, and encountered no eye strain. But the iPad is much heavier than the Kindle and most people will need two hands to use it. The iBooks app also lacks any way to enter notes, and Apple’s catalog at launch will only be about 60,000 books versus more than 400,000 for Kindle. I did run into some other annoying limitations. For instance, the email program lacks the ability to create local folders or rules for auto-sorting messages, and it doesn’t allow group addressing. The browser lacks tabs. And the Wi-Fi-only version lacks GPS. Also, videophiles may dislike the fact that the iPad’s screen lacks wide-screen dimensions, so you either get black bars above or below wide-screen videos, or, if you choose an option to fill the screen, some of the picture may get cut off. All in all, however, the iPad is an advance in making more-sophisticated computing possible via a simple touch interface on a slender, light device. Only time will tell if it’s a real challenger to the laptop and netbook.

19 March 2010
Apple iPad

Launch Date - 27 Jan 2010

U.S Market Release Date-3rd April 2010
-----------------------------------------------------------
Capacity: 64gig, 32gig and 16gig Hard Drive


Height:
9.56 inches (242.8 mm)

Width:
7.47 inches (189.7 mm)

Web Browser
The Safari web browser on iPad puts the Internet in your hands — literally. View whole web pages in portrait or landscape on the large Multi-Touch screen with vibrant color and sharp text at a size that’s actually readable. When you rotate iPad to landscape, the page you’re viewing rotates, too, then expands to fit the display.

With iPad, navigating the web has never been easier or more intuitive, because you use the most natural pointing device there is: your finger. Scroll through a page just by flicking up or down on the screen. Double-tap a section on a page to enlarge or shrink it. Or pinch to zoom in or out. When you touch and hold a link, Safari shows you the URL so you know before you go. There’s also a handy thumbnail view that shows all your open pages in a grid, so you can quickly move from one page to the next.

You can sync your bookmarks from your Mac or PC, and add even more right from your iPad. A handy bookmarks view makes it easy to access your favorite sites. Google and Yahoo! searching is built in, so it’s easy to find what you’re looking for. And when you want to enter a URL or fill out a form, the big onscreen keyboard appears. If you check the same websites every day, you can even create icons on the Home screen that let you access them with a single tap.

Go to Products page for more detailed information.

19 March 2010
Aperture 3 Launch Date -9th February 2010

Whats new in Aperture 3?
200+ New Features
Faces, Places and Blushes for precision retouching.
Dozens of adjustment presets.
True full-screen browsing and editing.

Places
Now you can use GPS location data to explore your photos by the places they were taken. Better still, find them on an interactive map.

Organize your library by location, location, location.
If you’re shooting with a GPS-enabled camera, Aperture 3 uses reverse geo-coding to convert location coordinates into familiar location names, then displays those locations on the Places map. If you’re using a separate GPS tracking device, the path of your photo journey appears on the map when you import a track log. You can even extract locations from iPhone tracker apps or your iPhone photos. Which means you can instantly find all your Yellowstone photos, for example, without typing the word “Yellowstone.”  Photos can be organized by country, state, city, or a point of interest such as Old Faithful or the park visitor center.

Put your photos on the map.
If a photo doesn’t include GPS metadata, simply drag the photo to the spot on the map where you shot it. A pin appears. Then, when you’re searching for photos, use the map’s navigation menu to quickly find the location. When you click the pin, Aperture displays all the photos taken there.

Easy course corrections.
If you need to change the location of your shot, drag the pin on the map across the street or across the country. The GPS data associated with the photo updates automatically, so you know where your photos are at all times.

Faces
Faces makes it faster and easier to search thousands of photos for shots of a particular person.

Find a face in a crowd.
Faces automatically detects faces in your photos. Once a face is detected and identified, Faces can recognize that face and then scan your entire library — or individual projects — to find others just like it. It can even find a specific face in group shots. The more you use Faces, the smarter and more accurate it gets, making it easier to find shots of a particular person.


Put a name to the face.
When Faces shows you an unidentified face, simply type in the person’s name. When you export your final images, the name is embedded as a keyword.

Aperture takes Faces further.
Aperture 3 expands on the power of Faces in iPhoto ’09. Not only can you view the people you name across the entire library, you can now see them in individual projects. And the new Show Unnamed Faces pane displays all the detected-but-not-yet-named faces in a project to help you easily add names.

Places
Now you can use GPS location data to explore your photos by the places they were taken. Better still, find them on an interactive map.

Organize your library by location, location, location.
If you’re shooting with a GPS-enabled camera, Aperture 3 uses reverse geocoding to convert location coordinates into familiar location names, then displays those locations on the Places map. If you’re using a separate GPS tracking device, the path of your photo journey appears on the map when you import a track log. You can even extract locations from iPhone tracker apps or your iPhone photos. Which means you can instantly find all your Yellowstone photos, for example, without typing the word “Yellowstone.”  Photos can be organized by country, state, city, or a point of interest such as Old Faithful or the park visitor center.

Put your photos on the map.
If a photo doesn’t include GPS metadata, simply drag the photo to the spot on the map where you shot it. A pin appears. Then, when you’re searching for photos, use the map’s navigation menu to quickly find the location. When you click the pin, Aperture displays all the photos taken there.

Easy course corrections.
If you need to change the location of your shot, drag the pin on the map across the street or across the country. The GPS data associated with the photo updates automatically, so you know where your photos are at all times.

05 March 2009
Simply Mac

05 March 2009

Climbing Mount Everest with a MacBook Pro and iPod

by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld.com

If you're planning an expedition to conquer Mount Everest, you need to make sure you have all of the necessary supplies. If your list of supplies is anything like the most recent group to take on the Everest challenge, you should pack your MacBook Pro and a few iPods, too.

On the First Ascent Web site, Gerry Moffat, head of production for the team, films daily dispatches and uses his MacBook Pro to transfer and edit the data. All of the footage is shot on a solid state cards on the mountain.

"It's then put into the trusty MacBook Pro," Moffat said in a video on the Web site. "These have been functioning superbly all the way up—we're at about 21,000 feet."

After the footage has been backed up, the card goes to one of the sherpas who takes it to the base camp for editing. The video editor, Tom, then makes another backup of the data and begins editing the footage for public viewing.

The relevant clips are imported into Final Cut Pro, Apple's professional video application. Music is added, the video is edited and the dispatch is ready to be encoded for the Internet. The files are uploaded via satellite connection to an FTP server in the U.S. and posted to the Internet.

Documenting the journey is not the only reason to carry Apple gear on Everest. Each climber has an entertainment pack that they carry for rest periods. Many of them chose to bring their iPods.

During a rest day, some of the climbers give us a glimpse of what they take with them to pass the time.

"This is what's turning out to be the best entertainment on this trip—my iPod touch," one of the climbers said.

"Of course, I've always got my trusty [iPod] shuffle," said another climber when he was going over his entertainment kit.

One of the other climbers brought her iPod nano on the trip to sit back and rest with.

The team is scheduled to make the ascent to the peak of Mount Everest today.

MacBook Pro 13"

R 11,799.00
see details...

iPod Nano 8gig Orange

R 1,575.00
see details...

iPod Nano 8gig Graphite

R 1,575.00
see details...

iPod Nano 8gig Green

R 1,575.00
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iPod Nano 8gig Pink

R 1,575.00
see details...