by Geekboy on 17 August, 2009
Mac Tablet, iPad, iTouch, Mac Book Touch… Apple’s up and coming new touch device has lots of names as the rumour mill try to guess the real name and it’s capabilities.
There have been lots of mock ups circulating around the net.. here are some of the better ones.
So when Nowhereelse.fr posted their pictures, it looks the most possible one of the lot. A nice 10 inch screen and the iphone/ipod touch look a-like button.
Rumours have it that the Apple tablet may act as a secondary display device or even as a Wacom type tablet for you to draw/use while connecting to your main Mac/PC ? [Actually there are programs out there that allow you to do this now. So it's not that difficult.. well, at least on the Windows platform!)
So here's what I hope the tabletPC like device would be...
- Everything the iPod touch can do (Apps,games, photos/videos... of course music!)
- Wifi enable (of course!)
- Bluetooth enabled with support for tethered modem usage and wireless music stream A2DP!
- Read eBooks - PDF !!
- at least 5 hours of battery life
- Priced at USD$600 not more than US$800! -> with today's exchange rates it's about SGD$1000...
We’ll only know… when Apple takes on the TabletPC/Netbook market later this year, with their release of their.. Mac Book Touch? iPad? iTablet?…. (whatever!) haha
by Geekboy on 13 August, 2009
My friend is looking at getting a Mac, but is having trouble deciding between the Mac Book Pro 13 inch or the Mac Book Air…
Here’s a comparison chart I came up to help with her decision making.
Which MacBook are you? (Specs table courtesy of apple.com.sg)
|
13″ MacBook Pro
|
MacBook Air
|
|
Price
|
2.26GHz, 160GB S$
1,988.00
2.53GHz,
250GB S$ 2,488.00 |
1.86GHz, 120GB SATA S$
2,488.00
2.13GHz, 128GB SSD S$
2,988.00 |
|
Display
|
13.3-inch
(viewable) LED-backlit glossy widescreen
1280
x 800 pixels |
13.3-inch
(viewable) LED-backlit glossy widescreen
1280
x 800 pixels |
|
Processor
|
Intel
Core 2 Duo
1066MHz
frontside bus
3MB
shared L2 cache |
Intel Core 2 Duo
1066MHz frontside bus
6MB shared L2 cache
|
|
Graphics
|
NVIDIA
GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main
memory |
NVIDIA
GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main
memory |
|
Memory
|
2GB
(two 1GB) or 4GB (two 2GB) of 1066MHz DDR3
SDRAM
Option:
Up to 8GB |
2GB
of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM (onboard) |
|
Battery2
|
Built-in
lithium-polymer battery
Up to 7 hours
of wireless productivity |
Built-in
lithium-polymer battery
Up to 5 hours of wireless
productivity |
|
Hard drive1
|
160GB
or 250GB Serial ATA, 5400 rpm
Options:
Up to 500GB hard drive or 128GB or 256GB solid-state drive |
120GB
Serial ATA, 4200 rpm; or 128GB solid-state drive |
|
Optical drive
|
8x
double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) |
Option:
External MacBook Air USB SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) |
|
Expansion
|
Two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, one SD card slot
|
One
USB 2.0 port |
|
Video
|
Built-in
iSight camera
Mini
DisplayPort output with support for DVI, Dual-Link DVI, and VGA video
(requires adapters, sold separately) |
|
Audio
|
Combined
optical digital/headphone out (with selectable analog line in), microphone,
speakers |
Headphone
out, microphone, speaker |
|
Wireless
|
Built-in AirPort Extreme
(802.11n)3
Built-in
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) |
|
Ethernet
|
10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit)
|
Apple
USB Ethernet Adapter [need to buy to collect to hotels/places with no
wifi] |
|
Input
|
Full-size,
illuminated keyboard with ambient light sensor
Glass
Multi-Touch trackpad |
Full-size,
illuminated keyboard with ambient light sensor
Multi-Touch
trackpad |
|
Enclosure
|
Precision
aluminum unibody |
|
|
Size(H x W x D)
|
0.95
x 12.78 x 8.94 inches
2.41
x 32.5 x 22.7 cm |
0.16 to 0.76 x 12.8 x 8.94 inches
0.4 to 1.94 x 32.5 x 22.7 cm
|
|
Weight4
|
4.5
pounds
2.04
kg |
3.0 pounds
1.36 kg
|
Mac Book Pro 13inch
Everything you need is built-in, and up to 7 hours of wifi usage. If you get this, go for a total of 4gb RAM(long term investment for a faster system) and at least 250gb HD or 500gb (store more pictures/music/videos) .
Good when you don’t mind the 2kg (not light, plus case or bag?), or have a car or porter to help you carry stuff around.
Mac Book Air
Sleek, sexy, thin.. lighter and you carry the minimum (no DVD, only 1 USB, 128gb HD, need adapter for no wifi internet connections.)
Slightly slower processor and only 2gb RAM but good enough for web surfing – youtube/facebook/emails and photo and simple video editing, for up to 5 hours only.
Sexy enough that you want to carry yourself.
If you get this, you will definitely need the Ethernet Adapter, and optionally ->
- external DVD drive, + S$150
- 250gb or more external 2.5inch Harddisk + S$150
- 4 port USB hub (to connect more USB devices). + S$30
Do note, since the Air has only 1 USB port, if you’re in a hotel or place that has no wifi, and you are wired up thru the Ethernet cable, you have no way to connect to other USB devices (e.g. digital camera/ipod).
BOTTOM Line
For price and performance, the mac book pro definitely seems a better deal. Of course at the expense of the additional weight and thickness.
Decide how you will use the device and see which on fits your usage better.
