Hasta La Gadget!

With new features and better battery life, the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (http://tinyurl.com/ng4xsr) was a shoe-in for our Editors’ Choice.

Today was big for Apple, busting out hardware updates in the two hottest lines—iPhones and MacBooks—along with final details on the overhauls of their two operating systems, too. We saw everything but a tablet—and Steve Jobs.

iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 3GS Complete Feature Guide
• iPhone 3G vs. iPhone 3GS Comparison Chart
• iPhone 3GS Video Walkthrough (Quick 4-Minute Version)
• iPhone 3GS Gets Voice Control

iPhone Pricing Issues: The Untold Story
• iPhone 3G Owners Will Have To Pay $200 Extra To Get iPhone 3GS Early
• Old 16GB iPhone 3G to Sell for $149
• The Not-So-New $99 8GB iPhone
• AT&T’s Tethering and MMS Support Delay—and Possible Reason For It

iPhone OS and Apps
• iPhone 3.0: The Whole Story
• “Find My iPhone” Is a Relief to Us Forgetful Types
• App Roundup: iPhone 3.0

New MacBook Pros
• New Amazingly Priced 15-Inch MacBook Pros
• All-New, Low-Priced 13-Inch MacBook Pro, Plus Great Price Reductions for MacBook Air

Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Safari
• Mac OSX Snow Leopard: The Whole Story (Including $29 Upgrade Price!)
• Safari 4 Available, Dubbed “World’s Fastest Browser”

The Whole Damn Keynote
• Wish You’da Been There, Elbow To Elbow With Bloggers, Feeling Chen’s Hot Breath On Your Neck? Watch This, and Imagine

Apple just announced new MacBook Pro models with the same upgraded, 7-hour battery life as the 17-inch MacBook Pro, a bump in memory, processor, and storage, as well as an SD-card slot. Most importantly, they’ll be shipping today. Yes!

Apple promises the battery will last 5 years or 1,000 recharges in the same body we’ve come to know and love, which is pretty important since it’s non-removable. Along with the battery come upgrades across the board.

The base model features a 3.06 GHz Dual Core Intel processor, 4GB of memory, a 250GB 5400rpm HDD, and an upgraded display (Apple claims it has 60% more color gamut) all at $1,699—$300 less than the current model. If you want to upgrade to a 2.66GHz proc with a 320GB hard drive, that’ll run you $1,999, while the 2.8GHz model with a 500GB hard drive will hit at $2,299. The latter two models will be packing Apple’s dual Nvidia graphics chips, the 9400M and 9600M (256MB and 512MB, respectively), while the cheapest model has merely one 9400M. All the MacBook Pros can be upgraded to 8GB of memory and a 500GB 7200rpm hard drive or a 256GB SSD.

The 15-inch Pro still won’t have an ExpressCard slot—you’ll have to bump up to the 17-inch model if you want that. On the plus side, Apple just dropped the price of the 17-inch model (which is otherwise unchanged) to $2,499, a $200 cut. The SD card should stick out a bit from the Pro’s body, but that’s absolutely a sacrifice we’re willing to make.

The 15-incher isn’t the only one updated: Check out the Air and the new 13-inch MacBook Pro for more new kit. Press release:

Apple Updates MacBook Pro Family with New Models & Innovative Built-in Battery for Up to 40 Percent Longer Battery Life

SAN FRANCISCO, June 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today updated the aluminum unibody MacBook® Pro line to include 13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch models featuring Apple’s innovative built-in battery for up to 40 percent longer battery life. Each MacBook Pro includes an LED-backlit display with greater color intensity, the innovative glass Multi-Touch™ trackpad, an illuminated keyboard, an SD card or ExpressCard slot, a FireWire® 800 port and state of the art NVIDIA graphics. Starting at just $1,199, the MacBook Pro line is more affordable than ever, with some models up to $300 less than the previous generation. The industry’s greenest notebook lineup, every Mac® notebook achieves EPEAT* Gold status and meets Energy Star 5.0 requirements, setting a new standard for environmentally friendly notebook design.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090608/SF28883)

“Across the line, all of our new MacBook Pro models now include Apple’s innovative built-in battery for up to seven hours of battery life, while staying just as thin and light as before,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Starting at just $1,199, the aluminum unibody MacBook Pro is more affordable than ever and sets a new standard for environmentally friendly notebook design.”

The new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models include Apple’s innovative built-in notebook battery for up to seven hours of wireless productivity on a single charge without adding thickness, weight or cost. Using Adaptive Charging and advanced chemistry first introduced with the 17-inch MacBook Pro earlier this year, the built-in battery delivers up to 1,000 recharges before it reaches 80 percent of its original capacity-nearly three times the lifespan of conventional batteries.** The longer battery lifespan equals fewer depleted batteries and less waste.

The new 13-inch MacBook Pro is a significant upgrade at a lower price than the original aluminum MacBook it replaces. With the same sleek and durable design popular with consumers, students and professionals, all 13-inch MacBook Pro models now include a seven hour built-in battery, an SD card slot, a FireWire 800 port, an illuminated keyboard and an improved LED-backlit display with 60 percent greater color gamut. Featuring the powerful NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is available in two models: one with a 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive priced at $1,199, and another with a 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive priced at $1,499.

The perfect balance of performance and portability, the 15-inch MacBook Pro now features a seven hour built-in battery, an SD card slot, an improved LED-backlit display with 60 percent greater color gamut and 4GB of RAM across the line at an entry price $300 less than before. The new 15-inch MacBook Pro is available in three models: a 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system with a 250GB hard drive and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics for a new entry price of $1,699; a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system with a 320GB hard drive, and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M and 9600M GT graphics for $1,999; and a 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system with a 500GB hard drive, and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M and 9600M GT graphics for $2,299.

The 17-inch MacBook Pro, which includes an eight hour built-in battery, an ExpressCard slot, a brilliant LED-backlit display, 4GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M and 9600M GT graphics, has been updated to include a faster 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and a larger 500GB hard drive for $2,499, which is $300 less than before.

All MacBook Pro systems feature Apple’s revolutionary aluminum unibody design and for the first time can be upgraded with up to 8GB of RAM, and up to a 500GB hard drive or up to a 256GB solid state drive. The 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro models can also be upgraded to a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. All MacBook Pro systems include a next generation, industry-standard Mini DisplayPort to connect with the 24-inch Apple LED Cinema Display.

Apple today also updated the incredibly thin and light MacBook Air®, making it more powerful and more affordable. Measuring just 0.16 to 0.76-inches thin and weighing just three pounds, the MacBook Air is available in two models starting with the new entry price of $1,499 for a 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system with a 120GB hard drive and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics, and a 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system with a 128GB solid state drive and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics for $1,799.

Every Mac notebook achieves EPEAT Gold status and meets Energy Star 5.0 requirements, setting a new standard for environmentally friendly notebook design. Each unibody enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and comes standard with energy efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. All MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models contain no brominated flame retardants and use internal cables and components that are PVC-free. The built-in battery design results in less waste and depleted batteries can be replaced for $129 or $179, which includes installation and disposal of your old battery in an environmentally responsible manner.

Every MacBook Pro comes with Apple’s innovative iLife® ’09 featuring iPhoto® for managing photos, iMovie® for making movies and GarageBand® for creating and learning to play music. Every Mac also runs Leopard®, the world’s most advanced operating system, featuring Time Machine®, an effortless way to automatically back up everything on a Mac; Spaces®, an intuitive feature used to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; Mail with easy setup and elegant, personalized stationery; and iChat®, the most advanced video chat.

Pricing & Availability

The new 13-inch MacBook Pro, 15-inch MacBook Pro, 17-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air are now available through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™ will be shipping in September 2009, and any new Mac system purchased without Snow Leopard from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller between June 8, 2009 and the end of the program on December 26, 2009, is eligible for the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-To-Date upgrade package available for a product plus shipping and handling fee of $9.95 (US). Users must request their Up-To-Date upgrade within 90 days of purchase or by December 26, 2009, or whichever comes first. For more information please visit www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate.

The 2.26 GHz, 13-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $1,199 (US), includes:

· 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1280 x 800 glossy display;

· 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB shared L2 cache;

· 1066 MHz front-side bus;

· 2GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 8GB;

· NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;

· 160GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;

· a slot-load 8X SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW) optical drive;

· Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);

· built-in AirPort Extreme® 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;

· Gigabit Ethernet port;

· built-in iSight® video camera;

· two USB 2.0 ports;

· one FireWire 800 port (FireWire 400 compatible);

· SD card slot;

· one audio line in/out port, supporting both optical digital and analog;

· glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard;

· built-in, 58WHr lithium polymer battery; and

· 60 Watt MagSafe® Power Adapter.

The 2.53 GHz, 13-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $1,499 (US), includes:

· 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1280 x 800 glossy display;

· 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB shared L2 cache;

· 1066 MHz front-side bus;

· 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 8GB;

· NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;

· 250GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;

· a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW) optical drive;

· Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);

· built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;

· Gigabit Ethernet port;

· built-in iSight video camera;

· two USB 2.0 ports;

· one FireWire 800 port (FireWire 400 compatible);

· SD card slot;

· one audio line in/out port, supporting both optical digital and analog;

· glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard;

· built-in, 58WHr lithium polymer battery; and

· 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

Build-to-order options for the MacBook Pro include the ability to upgrade to 8GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, a 250GB 5400 rpm, 320GB 5400 rpm or 500GB 5400 rpm hard drive, a 128GB or 256GB solid state drive, Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, Apple Remote, Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter and the AppleCare® Protection Plan.

The 2.53 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $1,699 (US), includes:

· 15.4-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1440 x 900 glossy display;

· 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB shared L2 cache;

· 1066 MHz front-side bus;

· 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 8GB;

· NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;

· 250GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;

· a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW) optical drive;

· Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);

· built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;

· Gigabit Ethernet port;

· built-in iSight video camera;

· two USB 2.0 ports;

· one FireWire 800 port;

· SD card slot;

· one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;

· glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard;

· built-in, 73WHr lithium polymer battery; and

· 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

The 2.66 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $1,999 (US), includes:

· 15.4-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1440 x 900 glossy display;

· 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB shared L2 cache;

· 1066 MHz front-side bus;

· 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 8GB;

· NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;

· NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics with 256MB GDDR3 video memory;

· 320GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;

· a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW) optical drive;

· Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);

· built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;

· Gigabit Ethernet port;

· built-in iSight video camera;

· two USB 2.0 ports;

· one FireWire 800 port;

· SD card slot;

· one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;

· glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard;

· built-in, 73WHr lithium polymer battery; and

· 85 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

The 2.8 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,299 (US), includes:

· 15.4-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1440 x 900 glossy display;

· 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache;

· 1066 MHz front-side bus;

· 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 8GB;

· NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;

· NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics with 512MB GDDR3 video memory;

· 500GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;

· a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW) optical drive;

· Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);

· built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;

· Gigabit Ethernet port;

· built-in iSight video camera;

· two USB 2.0 ports;

· one FireWire 800 port;

· SD card slot;

· one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;

· glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard;

· built-in, 73WHr lithium polymer battery; and

· 85 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

Build-to-order options for the 15-inch MacBook Pro include a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, the ability to upgrade to 8GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, a 320GB 5400 rpm, 320GB 7200 rpm, 500GB 5400 rpm, or 500GB 7200 rpm hard drive, a 128GB or 256GB solid state drive, Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, Apple Remote, Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter and the AppleCare Protection Plan.

The 2.8 GHz, 17-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:

· 17-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1920 x 1200, glossy display;

· 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache;

· 1066 MHz front-side bus;

· 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 8GB;

· NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;

· NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics with 512MB GDDR3 video memory;

· 500GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;

· a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW) optical drive;

· Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);

· built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;

· Gigabit Ethernet port;

· built-in iSight video camera;

· three USB 2.0 ports;

· one FireWire 800 port (FireWire 400 compatible);

· ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;

· one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;

· glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard;

· built-in, 95WHr lithium polymer battery; and

· 85 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

Build-to-order options for the 17-inch MacBook Pro include a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 8GB 1066 MHz DDR 3 memory, 500GB 7200 rpm hard drive, a 128GB or 256GB solid state drive, anti-glare display for $50 (US), Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, Apple Remote, Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter and the AppleCare Protection Plan.

Last night I discovered an incredibly dumb — and what I consider to be dangerous — setting enabled by default in my unibody MacBook Pro. In the Bluetooth preferences, it’s the box checkmarked “Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer.” Sounds innocent enough, but it could’ve killed my computer.

Here’s what happened: I was in a rush to leave the office to meet a colleague for coffee, so I closed my MacBook Pro and threw my Bluetooth mouse into my laptop bag. After my coffee meeting, I ended up at a bar and took my notebook out to quickly check my e-mail. It was scalding hot all over, and when I opened the lid I was greeted with the gray screen of death. And I realized my notebook, though closed, was still on for hours — the heat insulated by my bag.

After checking the Apple support forums I found a thread where a user reported the exact same problem, and it turned out it was because his Bluetooth mouse was left on in his bag, too; he remedied the issue by unchecking the default Bluetooth setting. I was relieved that the solution was so simple, but I was still pretty concerned that this was a default setting in the first place.

Imagine if I hadn’t checked my notebook for a few more hours. That could’ve caused a serious burn injury, or at worst, a fire. True, it was my own negligence to not turn off my Bluetooth mouse before throwing it in my bag, but I think it’s reasonable to assume many people have done the same thing. (Heck, I often don’t turn off my Bluetooth mouse when it’s on my desk at home, as it shuts down when it’s inactive. Clearly it’s not the same when your mouse is in your bag and you’re keeping it on by walking around.)

Also, I say it’s unintelligent that this feature is turned on by default because for notebooks, it’s useless. Usually when we sleep our notebooks, we close the lid. On a MacBook, opening the lid wakes it back up automatically. There’s no need to use the Bluetooth mouse to wake up the notebook. This setting should certainly not be turned on by default.

MacBook users? If you own a Bluetooth mouse, disable this setting now. Have you seen any other strange settings turned on by default that I should disable? Feel free to point them out in the comments below.

Photo: WzaHk/Flickr

About a month ago, after multiple laptop disasters that in all likelihood were my fault, I decided to switch to a Mac after a lifetime of PC use. How’s it been?

It’s been pretty good. Here’s a quick rundown of some of my experiences.

• Expose and Spaces are great for someone who usually has over a dozen windows and programs open at once. Having Photoshop isolated to its own space to reduce clutter is great, and being able to swipe down and see everything at once is also really nice. One issue I’ve run into, however, is that spaces makes dragging and dropping across programs harder. Sure, you can drag down to the icon, but if I want to drag album artwork from Firefox into the proper section of iTunes rather than importing the image, I can’t do it across spaces. Not a huge deal, however.

• I really like the multitouch trackpad…most of the time. It’s great for using expose and for right-clicking with two fingers, but it also often misfires, especially in programs like Photoshop. Photoshop thinks I want to rotate the image every damned time I put more than one finger on the trackpad. This gets very annoying.

• Some functions and options are just buried way too deep. For example, whenever I plug my iPhone in, iPhoto opens. I in no way want this to happen. In order to turn this off, I had to Google it and get instructions from a message board. It involved fiddling with the Image Capture app, which is not really that intuitive. How would a non-expert figure this out?

• One of my favorite programs is Connect 360, which serves media to my Xbox 360 from my MBP. It’s actually amazingly ironic that this works so much better on a Mac, seeing that Microsoft makes the Xbox 360. But I tried multiple times to do this on my PC, and it always involved downloading new versions of Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player, getting codes from my Xbox and putting them into my computer and multiple restarts. Even then, it never worked. For $20 I bought Connect 360 and it was working in 3 minutes. Microsoft, what the hell are you doing that this is the case?

• Growl is a nice little notification service that lets programs deliver pop-up messages in a way that’s unified across the system. It’s great for stuff like the Gmail notifier, but a lot of apps abuse this thing. No, Last.fm, I don’t want a pop-up notification every time a new song starts. Annoyingly enough, you can’t control these notifications inside the preferences of the apps that use it. Instead, you need to go to System Preferences and go to Growl’s pane. Not a huge annoyance, but I had to search around through all of Last.fm’s menus before trying a different approach. Not too intuitive.

• Every single Mac app costs money. Where’s the freeware on Macs? On the PC, I used Texter to create macros for things I type a lot, which is free. On the Mac, there’s TextExpander, and it’s $30. There are loads of free FTP clients for the PC. On Mac, you use Transmit, and it’s $30. Tweetie is a nice enough Twitter client, but it sure isn’t $15 worth of nice. TextMate is a great, robust text editor, but no text editor is worth $54.

Paying $30 for one app that provides a great value is fine, but paying $30 each for 10 basic apps that aren’t all that important on their own adds up pretty fast.

Overall, the learning curve on the switch was really gentle. I feel like I’ve figured out most of the important stuff, and I’ve been enjoying my experience for the most part. But the fact remains that this was a damned expensive computer. MacBook Pros start at a solid $2,000. Is it worth it in this recession?

I’d say that if you are happy with your PC and don’t have any serious issues, no. There’s no real reason to justify the switch and the difference in price. But if you’re sick of your PC, are curious or just feel like switching things up, I haven’t run across any dealbreakers that would make a former Windows user run for the hills. It’s a slick machine that’s very stable and has lots of nice perks, but switching isn’t going to change anybody’s life all that much.