Left Turn at Albuquerque

Along with the new iPod lineup, Apple also introduced Ping, a new social music discovery tool built into iTunes 10 at the Fall Music Event, held last Tuesday. iTunes 10 users can log into Ping and follow their favorite artists and friends and discover what music they’re talking about. It sounds like Apple’s goal is to get you to post your thoughts about an artists particular album, live concerts and just discuss their music genre in general. In addition to Ping, iTunes 10 looks a lot different than the previous versions. The layout looks fresher and it sorts music in a different manner, geared more towards artists rather than particular songs.

More @ iTunes.

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Today Apple announced a newly, totally redesigned iPod Nano. Some of the new features include:

• All new touch screen design
• Shake to shuffle
• Up to 24 hour battery life
• built-in clip to attach to your clothes
• built-in Nike+ sensor

In addition to the new Nano they also introduced a new Touch which features include:

• New 960×640 pixel resolution
• Facetime: Video calling on your iPod
• HD video recording with new camera
• New faster chip for iPod gaming

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I bought my 15″ Macbook Pro back in January, 2008. Since I bought it, it has been quite an exceptional piece of hardware with not many issues. One issue it had within the first year of when I bought it was that the magsafe power adapter failed. I took it into Apple and they supplied me with a new one. I was so happy with my Macbook Pro that I figured I didn’t need to purchase AppleCare.

A couple weeks ago I was home working on my computer. I put the computer on standby by shutting the screen so I could go make dinner. After dinner I wanted to use my computer again so I opened up the screen. I sat and stared at it for 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds and finally about 2 minutes before I realized something was wrong. The screen was still blank!

I tried to put it in standby again and then reopened it. Same issue. I restarted the machine, same issue. I restarted the machine with the reformatting disks inside, same blank screen issue! I was starting to get nervous that my computer fried and actually started researching my next computer. Realizing how much of an investment this computer was, I decided to try to fix it before I even considered buying another Apple product or switching to a PC.

I set up an appointment with a Genius at the Apple Store and took my dead Macbook Pro into the store. The lady hooked up my computer to a thumb drive while doing numerous resets and holding different combinations of keyboard keys. She then put the thumbdrive into a different Mac and started reading the data. She told me that there’s good news and bad news and I was expecting the bad news to be really bad. She said that the good news is that this is a known problem and Apple will repair the computer for me for free and the bad news is I’ll have to be without my computer for a few days. I was obviously very pleased to hear that this was covered despite me not having Applecare.

Apparently in 2007-2008 while building a number of Apple laptops, some Nvidia video cards that were attached to the logic board (The Mac equivalent of Motherboard) were defective and causing the whole logic board to fail and screen to blank out.

In July 2008, NVIDIA publicly acknowledged a higher than normal failure rate for some of their graphics processors due to a packaging defect. At that same time, NVIDIA assured Apple that Mac computers with these graphics processors were not affected. However, after an Apple-led investigation, Apple has determined that some MacBook Pro computers with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor may be affected. If the NVIDIA graphics processor in your MacBook Pro has failed, or fails within four years of the original date of purchase, a repair will be done free of charge, even if your MacBook Pro is out of warranty.

Typically when a laptop dies, the manufacture of the computer won’t touch it if it is out of warranty. The fact that Apple went out of their way to investigate this issue and work with Nvidia to fix it was a very pleasant surprise to me. It shows me that Apple really stands behind their products. If I had to get this repaired and it wasn’t covered it would have cost a whopping $1,187.50, about the same price of a new 13″ Macbook Pro. Going through this situation has really made me realize that I want stick with Apple computers from now on.

More @ Apple.

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Capcom has announced that Street Fighter IV is headed to the iPhone later this year in March. The above picture is how many fans hope it would look on the iPhone but the truth is that the iPhone can’t pull off what the latest generation consoles can do. Another serious question gamers may have is how on earth can anyone pull off Street Fighter combo moves without a D-pad or buttons? With a virtual pad and buttons of course.

I think that instead of this virtual pad nonsense Capcom could have come up with a more creative solution. Look at what Konami did with metal Gear Solid Touch and what Sega did with Super Monkey Ball. It’s definitely possibly to create some unique controls on the iPhone without these silly virtual pads. With the iPhones built in motion sensor and multi-touch capabilities there are endless possibilities of how to pull of a great game.

More @ IGN.

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If you’re in the need of an interesting looking case for your MacBook you may want to check out the BookBook. It’s a hardback leather case available in Classic Black or Vibrant Red colors and looks just like a vintage book. The BookBook is available in 13″ or 15″ for $79.99.

More @ twelvesouth.

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On Wednesday Apple introduced a new member to its family, the iPad. The iPad is essentially a larger version of the iPhone or iPod Touch. Some may wonder if there is actually a market for a device that fits somewhere between Apple’s iPhone and Macbook laptops. If you look at the way netbooks have taken off over the past couple of years you’ll notice Apple stayed on the sidelines while they became popular. This is Apple’s response to the netbook market.

The first thing you’ll notice that’s different about this netbook is that it’s a tablet. No room for a keyboard because that would bulk it up and make it just another laptop. Now if you take into consideration the thousands of apps already available for the iPhone and realize that they can be ported over to the new device then you’ll realize that there’s already tons of content for the iPad. I think Apple is also hoping that the iPad becomes the new way to read books, newspapers and magazines but they’re scared to market it that way in case that’s not the case.

The iPad will launch in March, 2010 and will be available in three versions that are essentially the same iPad guts with different amounts of memory, 16,32 and 64GB. The screen will be 9.7″ and 1024×768 pixels. The iPad will weigh 1.5 pounds and have roughly 10 hours of battery life before it needs to be recharged. The pricing of the iPad will start just under $500.

More @ Apple.

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Tomorrow, January 27 at 10AM PST, Apple is expected to announce the iSlate at an event in San Francisco. The iSlate tablet computer may revolutionize the way we read newspapers, magazines and books similar to the way the iPod revolutionized the way we purchase and listen to our music. The gadget is supposedly a 10″ multi-touch display and is expected to compete with devices like the Amazon Kindle and Sony eReader. More than just an e-reader, the tablet may also have more advanced features like a webcam and an app store.

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Apple is finally releasing the new version of OSX entitled 10.6 Snow Leopard. Apple has indicated that this product will be released sometime in September. The great thing about 10.6 on top of all the new features is that if you currenty have 10.5 the upgrade will only cost you $30.

Some Snow Leopard features include:

• Improvements include a more responsive Finder, new look and features for Exposé and Stacks, quicker Time Machine backup, faster common tasks and installation, a smaller install footprint, and plenty more

• New core technologies unleash the power of today’s advanced hardware technology and prepare Mac OS X for future innovation: 64-bit computing, multicore-optimization, OpenCL, QuickTime X, and more

• With virtually no effort on your part, Mac OS X protects itself–and you–from viruses, malicious applications, and other threats

More @ Amazon.com.

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Earlier this week Apple announced a new 13″ version of the popular MacBook Pro. Starting at just $1,199, the new aluminum unibody MacBook Pro features:

• 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1280 x 800 glossy display
• 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB shared L2 cache
• 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(R)
• built-in iSight(R) video camera
• two USB 2.0 ports
• one FireWire 800 port (FireWire 400 compatible)
• SD card slot
• glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard
• built-in, 58WHr lithium polymer battery
• 60 Watt MagSafe(R) Power Adapter.

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If you’re looking to get some free demos on your iPhone, your prayers are being answered. Even though $10 isn’t too much to spend on a quality game, companies like Sega are still starting to release lite versions of app games which feature unlimited play of a limited number of levels. The latest lite apps released include some very popular games in Rolando and Super Monkey Ball.

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A PopCap representative recently confirmed to Joystiq that Peggle is launching on the iPhone in early March which makes one wonder how many gadgets/consoles will we see this game on? Not that it’s a bad game by any means. Even though the theme behind the game was stolen from The Price is Right’s “Plinko”, Peggle creators Popcap still were smart enough to find a way to get Plinko into our homes and hearts and I’ll be buying this game to kill time during my long daily Metro trips.

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The ad made famous on January 22nd, 1984 turned 25 earlier this week.

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I don’t enjoy rebuying my movie collection every time a new format comes out, first VHS, then DVD and now digital. The thing I like least about buying digital is that it’s stuck in a format that I can’t physically touch. I’m glad Apple realized we don’t want to pay a lot for digital movies because they started an iTunes store movie bargain bin. A bunch of movies will be released each week for only $5. With movies like Terminator 2 on the list, the movies are pretty good too. Not sure yet if by limited time they mean the movies or the bargain bin but we should find out next week.

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For those looking for a cheap way to fill up your iPhone or iPod touch with some killer apps, Bejeweled 2 is on sale for $2.99. It’s possible it’s on sale now to sell a bunch of copies before they release Bejeweled Twist in the App Store. Anyway I dont care, i’ll bite and pay the $3, down from $7 earlier last month. Although the App Store version is a bit bare bones and won’t even let you save your high scores it’s still great for some fast addictive arcade fun.

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There are many MP3 players out there trying to compete with the iPod so why is it that the iPod still controls over 70% of the mp3 player market? iPods are briliantly designed, easy to operate and generally have fewer problems than competitors MP3 players. They say you can’t buy happiness but you will generally be happier overall with iPods despite paying more money up front. From the Shuffle to the Nano to the newest addition to the family, the Touch, here’s to over 150 million iPods sold.

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