Users will notice refinements including a more responsive Finder; Mail that loads messages up to twice as fast; Time Machine with an up to 80 percent faster initial backup; a Dock with Exposé integration; QuickTime X with a redesigned player that allows users to easily view, record, trim and share video; and a 64-bit version of Safari 4 that is up to 50 percent faster and resistant to crashes caused by plug-ins. Snow Leopard is half the size of the previous version and frees up to 7GB of drive space once installed. System applications including Finder, Mail, iCal®, iChat® and Safari are 64-bit and Snow Leopard’s support for 64-bit processors makes use of large amounts of RAM, increases performance and improves security while remaining compatible with 32-bit applications.

Don’t know if your computer is compatible with the new OS? It’s quite simple to figure that out. Just click on “About This Mac” from the “Apple Menu.” If you are running Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard on an Intel based machine, you are good to go! All you’ll have to do is purchase Snow Leopard and pop in the disk to upgrade! So what are you waiting for? Head on over to Apple’s Online Store which even guarantees FREE delivery to your door on August 28th, 2009!

Buy: Snow Leopard – Apple Store | Snow Leopard – Amazon
More Info: $10 Up-To Date Program | Snow Leopard Info

Phil Schiller, the SVP of Marketing at Apple, filled in for Jobs. He began by presenting a lot of new software applications that would soon become available to Mac users: iLife ‘09 and iWork ‘09.

Let’s start with the applications included in iLife ‘09. The new version of iPhone features Facial Recognition, which will automatically scan through your entire library and tag people in each image once you assign a name to a face. Users will then have the ability to browse through their photos by “Faces” to find every instance that a person appears throughout your entire photo gallery. iPhoto will now also support Geo-tagging, which will take coordinates from GPS enabled imaging devices such as the  iPhone (or Blackberry Storm) and assigns locations to where they were taken. A built-in interactive mapping tool, based on Google Maps, will allow browsing through your photos by locating them as pinpoints on a map. Finally users will also have instant way of uploading images directly to Facebook or Flickr. Tagged faces will be tagged on Facebook while Geo-tagged images will be noted on Flickr. iMovie ‘09 and GarageBand ‘09 also received upgrades which add new functionality. iLife ‘09 will be included on all new Macs, but if you have an older machine it will become available for $79 this month.

Next up was iWork ‘09. Keynote ‘09 now offers the ability to create advance transition effects with simple commands.  The program will be able to support displaying 3D graphs and charts. A new iPhone and iPod Touch application will also become available for 99 cents, turning your portable device into a remote control. Unlike a standard clicker, the application will display presenter notes and slides, which many speakers may soon adore. Pages ’09 and Numbers ‘09 also received upgrades. Apple also announced iWork.com, which allows users to easily upload and share their documents online with others. iWork ‘09 is now available for $79 in retail stores; however it will only run you $49 if you buy it at the time you purchase a new Mac.

Last but not least was the new 17-inch MacBook Pro. When Apple released the new 13-inch MacBook and the 15-inch MacBook Pro late last year, the 17-inch model was left in the dark with the old body. Today Apple refreshed the design giving the 17-inch MacBook Pro the new single piece aluminum body that its smaller siblings share. Most notable about this monstrous machine might be the fact that Apple claims a whopping eight hour battery life. And the unit isn’t too bulky either. It retains .98-inches thick body throughout and weighs about 6.6 pounds making it both the thinnest and lightest 17-inch notebook on the market. The unit is loaded with a LED-backlit 1920×1080 resolution display, now offered in glossy and matte. Also has the newly introduced large glass Multi-Touch trackpad, which clicks. It can be configured with Intel latest Core 2 Duo processor running at 2.93 GHz, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and either a 320GB 7200RPM HDD or a 256GB SSD. And just like the 15-inch MacBook Pro, it comes with both the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M and 9600GT for either saving battery life or for high performance, respectively. It all sounds great, but I personally don’t know too many people who are willing to spend $2,799, which is the starting price. But if you happen to be interested, units will begin to ship at the end of this month. Apple has already begun taking pre-orders.

Finally Schiller announced the new variable pricing scheme on iTunes. Previously all songs were priced at 99-cents; with the new scheme, songs will be available for download for as low as 67-cents, the standard 99-cent price, or for as high as $1.29 cents. Although Schiller claims more songs will become available at the lower price than the higher, time will show whether this will be beneficial to everyone. And as a bonus, Apple will begin to turn 8 million of its 10 million songs DRM Free, by the end of March. Those who wish to upgrade to the DRM Free tracks will have the ability to do so by paying 30 cents per song or 30% of the album price. I’m personally glad to see this day finally coming!

Overall, the entire Keynote seemed to be bummer. Other than the software, there’s wasn’t much that would excite the average Apple Fan or consumer. Unless you’ll planning on buying a notebook for nearly three grand, of course. Either way, CES in Las Vegas gets kicked off tomorrow with Press Day. Skatter Tech will be on the ground with coverage, so stick around!

Links: Apple.com | iLife 09 | iWork 09 | MacBook Pro 17-inch

I was in the market to buy a new laptop earlier this year and I came down to comparing to machines: the Dell XPS M1530 and the Apple MacBook Pro. I compared both of them to every aspect I could possibly come up with. Anyways both machines recently have received some upgrades so I thought I should update both comparison lists for those of you who might be looking for a new 15-inch notebook.

Update 4/20/08: Dell is now offering a 1440×900 LED and 1920×1080 Full HD displays.

I gave Apple a point for the Screen since they offer a non-glossy option which I truly prefer due to glare. Dell was expected to push out a LED screen over a month ago, however it hasn’t happened yet. The body of the MacBook Pro is cleaner, simpler, and lighter compared to the XPS 1530. In terms of Operating Systems, if you want OS X Leopard, chances are you won’t be able to get it working on a XPS; however it should a breeze to install Vista/XP on a MacBook Pro with Boot Camp. Leopard can use 4GB of RAM; however you’ll need 64-bit editions of Vista or XP to utilize all of it. Dell offers many more options for HDDs including a 64GB SSD which would be unusual for a 15-inch laptop. Dell also lets you turn your XPS into a Blu-ray player with an optional Blu-ray read/write drive which is great for watching high definition movies. I was irritated to find out that the XPS didn’t have gigabit Ethernet, which is great for transferring large files on a local network, especially when most new laptops have it. Apple won the keyboard war with its beautiful backlit keyboard with an ambient light sensor. However the XPS makes up with a Finger Print Sensor, which is great for bypassing typing passwords when people are around, and a better Web Camera. The XPS comes with a media remote control which tucks away into the express card slot while Apple now charges an additional $20 for their Front Row remote. The XPS M1530 can also be configured with a Sprint or Verizon mobile broadband card which will utilize the laptop’s antennas for better signal gain. I choose the 6-cell battery for the XPS since it was the best one which didn’t stick out. It offered only 2.5 hours of work time while the MacBook Pro gets about 3 hours.

If you didn’t already notice, there’s one major factor I left out on the chart: price. This part is what made me make my final decision which was to go with the Dell M1530. Dell offered a pretty good student discount in addition to their constant promotions. Apple also offers such discounts, but are incomparable to what Dell offers. With both configured to the highest similar specifications, the MacBook Pro was getting very close to $3000 while the Dell XPS was about $500 cheaper costing about $2500. In addition for those of you on a strict budget like I was, there’s more flexibility to remove unneeded components with the Dell to bring the price down. Anyways, that’s my two cents so please feel free to make comments.

Links: Apple MacBook Pro | Dell XPS M1530

Today, 04.24.06, Apple unveiled a new 17″ MacBook Pro, which is about 5x faster than the original 15″ model. The new MacBook Pro has a 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo processor, a whopping 1680×1050 display, 1GB RAM, 8x Dual-Layer SuperDrive, ATI Mobility Radeon 256MB, and a 120GB Hard Drive. This new laptop will run you about $2,799, but the specs speak for themselves. Although many were hoping for a smaller and cheaper MacBook Pro, a larger and more expensive one was released. However, this may be popular for those that wish to have a powerful portable machine that can now run both Mac OS X and Windows XP. Overall this new addition is an exact replica of the previous 15″ models, which still exist, except this model has a bigger/brighter display and better hardware specs. The 17″ MacBook Pro still has all standard MacBook Pro features such as the iSight Cam, MagSafe Power, Front Row Remote, Bluetooth, WiFi, etc. If you do wish to purchase it, Apple will begin shipping them next week.

Links: Apple MacBook Pro | Apple Store
Coverage: Gizmodo | Engadget | TUAW | Slashdot
Related: Boot Camp | MacBook Problems

Despite all the articles of defective Mac Book Pros, we decided to order one. We were disappointed when we saw how many problems the unit had. The first problem encountered was the loud hissing sound, which occurs when the LCD’s brightness was turned up all the way and the CPU wasn’t being put to work. The sounds didn’t seem too bothersome at first, but became extremely irritating after working with it for about 30 minutes. The biggest problem we ran into was with the touchpad. The touchpad on the unit we received was smashed in the top and was pushed off to the right. It wasn’t noticeable at first glance, but after working with it awkwardly for a few minutes we could tell that something was wrong.

With all the reports on its awesome performance, it was hard to believe how slow our 2.0GHz Dual Core Processor with 1GB of ram was running. For some reason it took us over 10 seconds just to launch iTunes with no other programs running. Apple’s new Front Row application was also quite slow and buggy. After pressing the “menu” button on the remote a few times, nothing happened. But after about five minutes it suddenly started to take in all the previous actions we had given it, making it go crazy. The computer also kept saying the DVDs we put in were corrupt until the 3rd time we restarted the machine. Apple has a lot of work to do with this.

With so many issues, I suggest that to anyone who plans to purchase a MacBook to wait until a “rev. b” is released. A new version soon should be expected soon if too many units are running into these problems. Note: Apple may have some big announcements on April 1, 2006, which is their 30th anniversary.

Links: MacBook Pro | TUAW Report
Recent: A Faster MacBook Pro

Apple first announced the MacBook Pro in MacWorld in early January this year. This laptop was the first computer from Apple to be using an Intel Processor (Core Duo). The first two models Apple released offered either a 1.67 or a 1.83 GHz processor. The new faster model, which is now available on the Apple Store, has a 2.0 GHz processor. Apple also allows upgrading the 2.0 GHz processor to a 2.16 GHz processor for an additional $300. The 1.67 GHz model has been replaced with the 1.83 GHz model at no additional cost. Many will soon be upset with Apple for releasing a new MacBook Pro so fast and even before most pre-orders have even been shipped. Apple also stated that they would upgrade all the 1.67 GHz models that have not yet been shipped to a 1.83 GHz processor. More news should be released soon, so check back for updates.

Update: MacBook Pros are actually suppose to start to ship this week!

Links: Apple MacBook Pro | Buy at Apple Store
Related: Apple Announces 1GB iPod Nano