Sorry, Dual-Link DVI fans: we’re getting reports this morning that those of you who have been eagerly anticipating the adapter that makes your shiny new DisplayPort MacBook work with your Dual-Link DVI display has been—oh noes!—delayed. One user forwarded us his shipping notification, which cites an “unexpected delay” that means the adapter will now ship out on December 18th. That’s right, just in time for Christmas.
Likewise, the online Apple Store is now saying there’s a delivery time of 4-5 weeks for the Dual-Link adapter which, as you may recall, costs a hefty $99. Until then, you’ll have to hang out with the rest of us in the single-link proletariat. It’s okay: we have cookies, hot chocolate, and hugs for everybody.
As strong a suspicion as I had that this was on the cards, I was hoping that Apple would be a little kinder toward the matte variety of displays and at least let the existing ones live on, even as these newfangled glossy ones permeated through the entire lineup.
But it wasn't to be and as we stand here in communion today, we mourn the loss of the Apple 23-inch Cinema Display, one of the last members of the endangered matte species of displays. It was put to rest recently without much fanfare. All that remains on Earth to remind us of its illustrious past are a few refurbished units available on the Special Deals section of the Apple Online Store and an entry in the main store with a small mention that shipping has now been discontinued.
The 20-inch and 30-inch Apple Cinema Displays and the 17-inch MacBook Pro are now the only remnants still hanging on to that matte display, but things are not looking very good for them either.
That said, being an optimist, I expect to see Apple release updated versions of the 17-inch MacBook Pro and 30-inch Apple cinema display in January, both taking design cues from the newly released MacBooks and LED Cinema Display respectively, while still retaining the matte display. I don't expect the 20-incher to make the cut.
Either that or Apple will just hammer the final nail in the matte display coffin and move the entire lineup to the look-I-double-as-a-mirror-too glossy display generation. Either way, it's not exactly going to be a rosy future for matte aficionados, specially those with small wallets.
So, what's your take on this development?
Apple had already made it public knowledge that there would be no more changes to their product lineup in 2008, so when the Apple Online Store went down last Tuesday, I’d expected them to make their new $79 In-Ear Headphones available for sale. But that Tuesday came and went and all we saw was the addition of some window dressing to herald the oncoming holiday season, with nary a mention of those headphones that were expected to ship by the end of October.
To refresh your memory, let me remind you that these new headphones were announced along with the new iPod lineup during the ‘Let’s Rock’ special music event in September. Featuring a woofer and a tweeter in each individual headphone, these high quality headphones are supposed to “deliver a truly immersive sound experience.”
There are three different sized interchangeable ear tips, a box for carrying them around, and a small remote and mic that allows you to play/pause/skip tracks, change the volume, and record audio using the built-in recording feature in the new iPod nano or any of the several third-party audio recording apps on the iPhone and iPod touch.
The default headphones that came with my iPhone are already in poor shape and I’ve been holding out on my purchase, waiting for Apple to release these new sonic wonder-things! Let’s just hope they get their act together and get them out the door before Christmas comes calling. Or sooner, preferably.
You thought Microsoft was slow to the party getting Office Intel native. Adobe gets to take the prize for that one though. It has just recently made Shockwave native to Intel. I bet you didn’t even notice. I sure didn’t.
On the other hand, should I manage to find some esoteric website that decided Shockwave was the way to put out their content, I can now check it out without invoking Rosetta. That’s exciting. A little.
Version 10 will continue be available for PowerPC users, while version 11 is for all things Intel (running 10.4 or later natch).
Western Digital is best known for their hard drive offerings, most notably their successful MyBook series of drives (which I, for one, am a big fan of). But it would seem that WD has realized that lots of people are storing gigs and gigs of media on their drives without an easy way to go from storing said media on an external drive to watching that movie on a big screen TV. Enter the WD TV HD Media Player, whose sole goal is to make that happen.
As Macworld's own Jonathan Seff reports in his First Look, the WD TV is a bridge between your USB hard drive and your TV. Plunk the WD TV near your TV, hook it up using either HDMI or composite interfaces, plug in your USB hard drive (I'm sure the folks at Western Digital would prefer you use one of their drives, but the WD TV supports other USB mass storage devices including cameras and camcorders), and enjoy your media on the big screen.
The WD TV supports HD playback up to 1080p in a host of different video formats (MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264)), and it also supports a number of popular audio formats (MP3, WMA, OGG (for you hippies), WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA). Of course, the WD TV won't playback any media that has DRM on it (including videos and some music from the iTunes store), so if you're looking for an iTunes Store-friendly set top box the Apple TV is still the way to go.
The WD TV does have some neat tricks to offer. You can attach two USB drives at one time and the WD TV will index the content on both drives and display the media in one collection. You can also run slideshows of your photos right off of your camera.
All of this for $130, so what's the catch? The biggest drawback that I can see, other than that Fisher-Price-looking remote, is that there is no way to manage your media on the device itself. In order to add new movies/music you need to grab your hard drive and hook it up to a computer. Seems like a hassle to me, but if you store your media library on an external USB drive the WD TV looks like a winner.
Many were disappointed that Apple decided not to integrate Blu-ray support in its new lines of notebooks—not, perhaps, as disappointed as they were about the lack of FireWire, but still.
Amex Digital has launched a pair of slick-looking external USB Blu-ray drives to fill that void. The $289 BDP-2 plays back Blu-ray discs, while an extra $100 gets you a Blu-ray recorder—both also play and record CDs and DVDs. They require an Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, and either an NVIDIA GF8000 Series, ATI HD2000 Series, or better graphics processor.
However, while the press release claims that the Blu-ray player is compatible with OS X, color me a bit suspicious. Because OS X itself doesn’t support Blu-ray out of the box; you’ll definitely need Roxio’s Toast 9 if you want to do any sort of Blu-ray burning, and I believe there’s still no way to play back consumer Blu-ray movie discs on the Mac. So, caveat emptor.
Happy days are here for those of you wanting an iMac, but without all that icky computer stuff inside of it. Word comes from the Macworld liveblog of Apple's laptop event that there is a new addition to the Cinema Display lineup: a 24-inch LED-backlit Cinema Display for $899. This iMac look-a-like sports just 2 cables: one for power and a three headed cable with MagSafe power to charge your MacBook/MacBook Pro with, a USB connector, and a Mini Display Port (which I think is Apple talk for a DisplayPort). It has a maximum pixel resolution of 1920 X 1200 (the same as the 23 inch Cinema Display currently available)
The monitor also includes built-in stereo speakers, a built-in iSight and mic, a 3 port USB hub, and a dollop of awesome.
All of this can be yours for $899 sometime in November.
Look, I know that sparks can be a good sign in a relationship, but not in the relationship between you and your Mac, right? But if you’ve seen sparks from your PowerBook or iBook’s power adapter, you aren’t alone. You may recall that Apple settled a class action suit with those who had to buy replacement adapters, but what you may not know is that the class of devices affected has recently been expanded.
You can get a PDF of all the affected computers from the settlement’s website, and if you’re among the affected, you could win big—up to $79 (the cost of purchasing a replacement adapter). If your brick failed after the first year, you can pick up $40; after the third year and you’ll net a sweet quarter of a hundred bucks. Course you’ll need proof of purchase in order to take advantage of the deal.
All the details are on the settlement’s site, so swing by if been among the legions of the suffering.
[via Consumerist]
I have to admit, the idea of uploading pictures to the web directly from my digital camera, without having to do the USB cable/memory card dance seems like the future to me. And while I haven’t used the Eye-Fi card that makes this future into the present, it still seemed worthwhile to bring the device’s latest improvements to your attention.
Specifically, it may behoove you to know that the new version of the Eye-Fi adds compatibility for MobileMe. That’s in addition to improvements that claim to bump the upload speed of photos to twice as fast as the original card (an enhancement that will apply to original Eye-Fi owners as well). Eye-Fi card users will also be able to add additional services that aren’t included in their card, such as hotspot access, geotagging, and web sharing for annual fees of $15, $15, and $10 respectively.
The cards themselves run between $79 and $129—they’re all 2GB cards, so the price differential is just what services they come with. So ask yourself: what price the future, my friends?
