Solar MacBook Charger Costs More than MacBook Itself

applejuicz

You’d buy a solar powered charger for your MacBook, right? Save money, save the planet, and all that other hippy stuff the Mac user cares about. How much would you pay for such a thing? $100? $200? Sure, it might be the cost of a couple spare batteries, but you’ll make it back in the end, won’t you?

How about $1,200, or $200 more than the MacBook itself? That’s what Quickertek wants for its new 55 Watt Apple Juicz (ho ho) charger, which can refill a tired Mac’s battery in as little as six hours. You can opt for the less powerful 27 Watt model which will take from eight to 12 hours to complete a recharge, and consequently “only” costs $700.

The solar panels are pretty huge when folded out, measuring around 12 times the size of the computer they are supplying (imagine a 4 x 3 grid of 13” MacBook Pros and you’ll get the idea). If you’re the kind of person who likes to camp for days on end, but can’t go without a computer, we guess this might be for you. On the other hand, $1,200 will buy an awful lot of extension cord.

Product page [Quickertek via


Analyst: Apple Online Sales Up, Retail Down for Black Friday

According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, Apple online sales were up in a big way this Black Friday. Munster’s estimates show a 39-percent online increase for the company over last year. For the rest of the month, the company only saw a two-percent increase in traffic.

Retail sales were reportedly less impressive–down 36-percent, according to the analyst estimates. Stores sold 8.3 Macs an hour, versus 13 per hour last year, according to the numbers.

OS Xbox Pro: The Ultimate Hackintosh?

osxboxpro

When PC lover Will Urbina was finally forced to switch to a Mac by market forces (he’s a video editor, and most everyone these days wants you to use Final Cut Pro), he didn’t give up easily. In fact, he spent the next few months kicking and screaming his way through a rather painful process, a process which finally gave birth to a mutant: The OS Xbox Pro.

Faced with “the distasteful choice of either setting foot in an Apple store” or building his own, Urbina went the home-made route, building a PC into a first-gen Xbox Dev Kit he picked up for pennies, and then hackintoshing it. The case of the Dev Kit is taller than the retail box, which turned out to be helpful: Urbina wanted to match the specs of a $2,500 Mac Pro.

With some literal hacking and rebuilding, he managed to squeeze in four hard drives (a pair of 7200rpm, 500GB drives in RAID 0 configuration for Final Cut, plus slower 160GB drives for both OS X and Windows 7), external USB SATA, and Firewire ports and even a rather odd-looking Apple logo on the top. The hackintoshing aspect was taken care of by the amazing EFi-X dongle, a little plug-in widget that lets you install a retail copy of OS X onto any PC hardware.

Urbina made a few curious decisions, especially given that OS X 10.6 is moving towared moving much of its heavy lifting to the GPU, or graphics card. Because the case is so small (even an optical drive was left out), Urbina had to use a 300 Watt power supply, 100 Watts short of the juice needed for his chosen NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT card. Instead, he popped in a lesser card and beefed up the CPU to an Intel Core 2 Duo Q9550s. This reliance on the CPU to do the work clearly shows his PC bias. The specs:

Intel Core2 Q9550S @2.93GHz

Gigabyte GA-EP45T-UD3LR

Sparkle GeForce 9800http://www.willudesign.com/OSXboxPro/osxboxpro9.jpg GT

8GB Crucial Ballistix 1333MHzhttp://www.willudesign.com/OSXboxPro/osxboxprotopless1.jpg

Highpoint RocketRAID 2640×1

2x 160GB 5400rpm Seagate Momentus HDD

2x 500GB 7200rpm Seagate Momentus HDD

16GB 1.8” Super Talent MasterDrive KX SSD

EFiX USB V1

Not bad for $1,500. Urbina says that the equivalent Mac Pro would run to $4,500. We think it a little odd that a professional would go down such a route to build a work machine, though: If your wages rely on a working machine, a hackintosh is a little scary. Still, this thing looks awesome, and with all that hardware inside such a tiny case, we imagine that the fans will stay true to the noisy, leaf-blowing Xbox original.

OS Xbox Pro product page [Will U Design]

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Apple’s Black Friday deals hit Australia site, same as it ever was (update: US and UK too)

Apple Down Under[TM] has revealed its today-only holiday gift specials, and with most deals hovering between 5 and 10 percent off, it’s nothing out of the ordinary for Cupertino’s wares. Still, if you’re shopping for a new iMac this season, seems like the perfect opportunity to fill up your virtual shopping cart. If history tells us anything, look for these deals to hit Apple’s US syndicate sometime around tomorrow.

Update: It’s after midnight in the UK, and as logic dictates, the one-day sale is now in effect there, too.

Update 2: And it’s Stateside: same percentage discounts, different currency.

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Apple’s Black Friday deals hit Australia site, same as it ever was (update: US and UK too) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Review: Apple’s 27-inch iMac and Magic Mouse Make an Excellent Pair

Apple’s new 27-inch iMac is a speed demon, especially the model shipping with the new Core i7 processor. Even better, the latest iMacs ship with the new Magic Mouse, Apple’s first single-button mouse that gets it right thanks to the powers of multitouch.

Wired.com’s Mike Calore is mesmerized with his Core i7-powered iMac. He gave it a rating of 8 out of 10:

Put one of Apple’s new 27-inch Core i7 iMacs on your desk, and you run the risk of alienating yourself from your friends, co-workers and loved ones.

Sure, the sheer speed of the thing is amazing — the new Core i7 processor is outrageously fast — but it’s the massive screen that will turn your brain into a gob of HD-saturated jelly. Seriously. The iMac’s screen is so freaking huge, so bright and so crisp, it will render you dumb with child-like glee. You’ll just want to sit there and watch movies all day and night.

And yours truly was a fan of the Magic Mouse. I think it’s the first Apple mouse that doesn’t suck. (I wasn’t a fan of the Mighty Mouse because of its gunk-collecting trackball.) I gave it a 7 out of 10, knocking off a few points because of the lack of Exposé functionality:

The Magic Mouse ditches the lozenge-shaped body and gunk-collecting trackball of its predecessor (the Mighty Mouse) in favor of a curvy wedge shape with a fully touch-sensitive housing. The new form factor fits more naturally in your hand than previous Apple mice — enough so to erase the painful memories you have of that atrocious hockey-puck mouse from the ’90s.

….

As is often the case, these gains come with loss, too. The Mighty Mouse had a clickable scroll wheel and two squeeze sensors on the side that could each trigger the Exposé and Spaces tools for desktop management. The Magic Mouse doesn’t have any built-in gestures for Exposé, which seems like a wasted opportunity.

Want the full gist? See Mike’s full review of the iMac and my writeup of the Magic Mouse at the Wired Reviews site.

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Photo: Mike Calore/Wired.com


Microsoft’s Windows Most Secure OS? What?

This article was written on March 22, 2007 by CyberNet.

InternetsecurityAccording to Symantec’s annual Internet Security Report, Windows is not only doing well in terms of security, it’s actually doing better than competitors when it comes to the most widely-used operating systems. The information for this report was gathered during the last six months of 2006, and some of the information they were looking at included how many vulnerabilities appeared, and how long on average it took for a patch to be released. 

Microsoft:

  • 39 vulnerabilities discovered
  • 12 were high priority or severe
  • On average, Microsoft took 21 days to fix them

Red Hat Linux

  • 208 vulnerabilities discovered
  • 2 considered high priority or severe, 130 were considered medium severity
  • On average, it took 58 days to fix them

Apple

  • 43 vulnerabilities discovered in Mac OS X
  • 1 considered high priority or severe
  • On average, it took 66 days to fix them

Microsoft is definitely on top of their game when it comes to issuing patches compared to the others, however they also had the most high priority patches to deal with. At the same time, they also had the best turn around for fixing them. Apple had the lowest number of high priority vulnerabilities, but they took the longest out of the three, on average to fix.

Because Microsoft has been a target for years, they’ve had to be aggressive with fixing these issues.  Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT when speaking to Internetnews.com explains that “there have been complaints in the past about Apple’s lack of response to security issues.  But as Mac and Linux gain market share, they will have to respond much quicker.”

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What Happens When You Bring a 22-Year-Old Mac to the Genius Bar?


I didn’t know, so I figured I’d give it a shot. I brought an ancient and non-functioning 1987 Macintosh Plus 1MB to the Apple Store in the Meatpacking District in NYC, and this is what happened.

Overall, they were surprisingly unfazed by my request for repairs. They were impressed that I had it, and seemed genuinely interested in helping me get it fixed. They couldn’t do anything for me, since Apple only keeps equipment from the last five years on hand, but they pointed me towards Tekserve, another Apple-centric store in NYC.

Thanks to Nick McGlynn and Gawker.tv for shooting the hidden camera footage!

Mac Cloner Psystar Guilty of Violating Apple’s Copyright

picture-2Apple has won an important round of its legal battle against Psystar, a Florida-based startup that has been selling Mac clones for over a year.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled late last Friday that by selling PCs hacked to run Mac OS X, Psystar has violated Apple’s copyrights. Alsup also ruled that Psystar violated anti-circumvention provisions in the Digital Millenium Copyright act.

Psystar in April 2008 opened its business selling non-Apple PCs hacked to run Mac OS X. Its first offering was a desktop system called the “OpenMac,” which cost $400 — about $2,400 cheaper than Apple’s Mac Pro. Apple filed suit in July 2008, alleging that Psystar was committing copyright, trademark and shrink-wrap license infringement.

“Psystar’s use of Mac OS X has been in excess and has violated Apple’s copyrights,” the judge wrote in his 16-page order.

Apple’s end-user agreement for Mac OS X reads, “You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so.” In his Friday, Alsup noted that Psystar did not modify Mac OS X, but instead installed the software used to circumvent settings on non-Apple PCs to install Mac OS X. Alsup said this action constituted “facilitation of circumvention” and was a violation of Section 1201(a)(2) of the DMCA, which states the following:

(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that –

(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;
(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or
(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person’s knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

    Though Apple has won this portion of the case so far, the Cupertino, California company still has a long road ahead if it wishes to destroy the entire “Hackintosh” industry. In an article summarizing Apple’s battle with Psystar, ArsTechnica’s Jacqui Cheng cites Fred von Lohmann of Electronic Frontier Foundation, who said there are plenty of workarounds still available to hack OS X, which are not repeating Psystar’s offenses.

    “While the ruling is a serious setback for Psystar, I don’t see it having much impact beyond the facts of that case,” von Lohmann told Ars. “On a number of important points, the outcome was driven by Psystar-specific factors, such as Psystar forfeiting one of their strongest defenses by failing to plead it in time. Moreover, my understanding is that the commercial ‘hackintosh’ industry has moved on to selling software that enables the user to bring their own PC and OS X DVD, rather than selling a pre-installed solution like the one at issue in the ruling.”

    An example of a Hackintosh solution is a dongle with the Mac OS loaded, which ships with PCs, effectively turning them into sort-of Mac clones, which Wired.com reported in November. A lawyer told Wired.com such a device would face legality issues with regard to copyright, because the device would copy the Mac BIOS and put it in a chip. However, it would likely require another long legal battle with Apple, since the circumstances are different.

    Meanwhile, plenty of open-source DIY solutions for consumers to install Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware are still available on the web. Thus, it’s unlikely Apple will put an end to the Hackintosh era anytime soon.

    Apple and Psystar are scheduled for a final briefing on Dec. 14 to declare any monetary relief Apple may receive as a result of the hearing.

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    Microsoft group manager: Windows 7 borrowing ‘Mac look and feel’ (updated: Microsoft responds)

    We’ll be honest — before today, we had never heard of Simon Aldous, but it sure seems as if he’s trying hard to get his name out there. Mr. Aldous, a group manager at Microsoft, recently sat down for a rather lengthy talk with PCR. Most of the back-and-forth revolved around receiving input from partners and other mildly boring topics, but one particular Q&A was pointed directly at the outfit’s newest operating system. When asked if Windows 7 was “really a much more agile operating system,” Simon made a deliberate decision to say the following:

    “One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it’s very graphical and easy to use. What we’ve tried to do with Windows 7 – whether it’s traditional format or in a touch format – is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics.”

    Of course, he followed that up by slamming OS X’s general stability, noting that Vista’s core technology — on which Win7 is built — is “far more stable than the current Mac platform.” We know we’re opening up a giant can here, but… um, thoughts?

    Update: Microsoft has issued its response, and it’s none too happy, and apparently the Microsoft employee in question was “not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7.” From the official Windows Blog: “I hate to say this about one of our own, but his comments were inaccurate and uninformed.” We imagine there were lots of frowny faces around the office today.

    [Via AppleInsider]

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    Microsoft group manager: Windows 7 borrowing ‘Mac look and feel’ (updated: Microsoft responds) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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    AMEX DIGITAL’s Mac mini Blu-ray drive upgrade kit is not what it seems

    A Blu-ray “upgrade kit” for Apple’s revamped Mac mini… sounds like the ultimate for home theater buffs right? After all, such a device holds the promise of adding Blu-ray playback to a relatively powerful, off-the-shelf micro computer starting at $599 that’ll run any of the amazing media center apps available for either Windows 7 (with some extra legwork) or OS X. Not so fast bub, remember, OS X still doesn’t support native playback of Blu-ray discs pressed by Hollywood’s media fairies. As such, Blu-ray films purchased on disc can only be played by booting into Windows — under OS X you are limited to reading and writing data assuming you already have software like Adobe’s Premiere Pro CS3 with Encore or Roxio’s Toast with Blu-ray plug-in. Unfortunately, AMEX Digital is purposely unclear on this point by suggesting that the kit will simply “play Hollywood Blu-ray Disc movies on a properly configured PC or MAC.” For the extra $199 required to take the BD-UG1 home, we’d suggest a native PC solution, cheapo standalone Blu-ray player or PS3 and avoid these headaches altogether. Image of the drive laid bare after the break.

    [Via I4U]

    Continue reading AMEX DIGITAL’s Mac mini Blu-ray drive upgrade kit is not what it seems

    AMEX DIGITAL’s Mac mini Blu-ray drive upgrade kit is not what it seems originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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