MacSwitching.com > Apple announces

You may or you may have not followed yesterday’s Apple Keynote.

Among several new products (namely iPad Air AKA iPad 5) and a bunch of new MacBook Pros, Apple released (not just announced) Mac OS X 10.9, dubbed Mavericks.

It’s a major release: it introduces dozens of new features most users (me too) are exploring and getting used to.

First of all, it’s free!

Yes, it’s completely free provided your Mac is entitled to run it (check here for older Mac compatibility http://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/) and you’ve got some spare time (a few hours depending on your Internet connection and Mac) and some 10 GB of spare disk space.

First thoughts are about energy management: I’m installing Mavericks on both an iMac and a MacBook Pro (mid-2010 i5-based).

Battery status now shows which processes/programs are using more energy and from Activity Monitor, now redesigned, you can check how much energy is draining each process.
This will for sure affect MacBook owners: battery management has been surely enhanced.

Overall performance seems adequate but only everyday usage under ‘worst’ conditions will tell…

Second monitor fans will be happy to learn that now each display has it’s own dock and menu bar (a feature previously available only by means of some utility).

More details upcoming…

Apple kicks off 2010 tablet frenzy with the iPad: one of the most awaited and rumors-prone device in history!

A 9.7″ inches screen that’s essentially a bigger brother to iPhone more than a little one to a MacBook, but that’s what it was intended for.

Big news: meet A4 processor, Apple’s own processor, running at 1 GHz.
Available with 16 -32 and -64 GB of memory, with 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.

Sports accelerometer, compass, mic and speaker and the usual iPod dock connector!

More facts: 10 hr batter, over a month of standby.

Runs the same Apps as the iPhone, so the iPad starts with a massive software library as well as developers support.

Introducing iBooks: the Apple alternative to Amazon Kindle service, books to be chosen and bought just like songs or apps on iTunes – er – iBooks Store, that is!
It uses the ePub book format, already available and popular, by the way.

It’s going to be available in two version, with or without 3G connectivity, along with AT&T data plan.

Pricing
WiFi versions 16 GB: $ 499 – 32 GB: $599 – 64 GB: $ 699
3G versions 16 GB: $ 629 – 32 GB: $729 – 64 GB: $ 829

WiFi version available in 60 days, 3G in 90 days.

[updating in progress]

Right now, Steve Jobs is uncovering the new iPad (the much awaited Apple tablet!)
Stay tuned!

I’ll leave the boring economic & stock details to those really interested into this [so click here to read more Apple stock news], but Apple’s shares got up to $ 205.04 – super-atmospheric price!

For us, geeks, Mac-users and -lovers, what’s more important?

New products, of course!

On Oct 20th Apple introduced so many new produts and updates I barely can name all of them here, so let’s get a list to begin.

new iMac, it’s that simple: 21.5 and 27 inches display, new CPUs up to Core i7 Quad processors, up to 16 GB Ram (from the 8 Gig previously allowed). Simply gorgeous!
Several built-to-order options for Graphics cards, CPU, hard disk units available.
new MacBook: white policarbonate chassis but with unibody construction style, multitouch trackpad, 13.3 Led display.
new Magic Mouse: almost an iPod touch or a multi-touch trackpad – in a mouse! All the mouse surface is smart enough to keep track of your gestures!
Mac Mini: despite all rumors (and death bell tolls) it’s still alive – and fine! The 2009 Mac Mini sports a faster processor, twice the RAM, energy-saving features and a lot more!

A product I’m really interested in is the Mac Mini with Snow Leopard.
A special edition Mac Mini fully loaded with 4 Gigs of RAM, two 500 GB hard disks and pre-installed Snow Leopard Server with special remote management features.
Right now it’s the best way (and the most affordable yet) to get a great Mac server for your Home/Office and to fully integrate PCs and Macs!

Most Apple product should be available by the time you read this or eligible for pre-order; here are some prices:
Apple iMac 21.5-Inch starts at US $ 1.199
Apple iMac 27-Inch starts at US $ 1.699
Apple MacBook available for US $ 999
Apple Magic Mouse available for US $ 69
Apple Mac mini goes starts from US $ 599
Mac Mini with Snow Leopard Server (unlimited license) is available for US $ 999.

Starting today, Mac OS X Snow Leopard is available for shipping.
Current Mac OS 10.5 Leopard users are eligible to upgrade to Snow Leopard at the very low price of $29.

Snow Leopard is a truly exciting addition to the Mac OS X line, with half the footprint of previous versions, great new features in Expose & Stacks, quicker Time Machine backup, and faster wireless network interaction. It’s the world’s most advanced operating system, finely tuned.

Quicktime X and 64-bit support just to name a few features.

I’ll be checking ’em out very soon and report about them!

Stop all rumors!
Apple has just updated Mac Pro, iMac and Mac Mini (after a few hours of down-service for world-wide online Apple Store).

Mac Pro -> new versions with 4- and 8-core, both with a redesigned interior,
iMac -> four versions: from 20″ (now US$ 1,199) and three 24″ versions (all with 4 GB RAM),
Mac mini -> all rumors confirmed: it’s totally revamped with NVidia 9400M graphics, in two models.
The new Mac mini sports two outstanding features:
– it’s the “greener” products from Apple ever (less than 13 W of power when idle, Apple says)
– has a crowded backside with 5 USB 2.0, DVI and mini-DisplayPort (and yes, FireWire 800!).

Have you been to Mars when Apple early this January announced the new MacBook Pro 17 unibody?
Time to refresh your memory, since it’s now available!

At first glance, you could easily mistake the new 17-inch MacBook Pro for its predecessor, the legendary 17-inch PowerBook G4 ( ; January 2006 ). The new model has roughly the same dimensions—at 15.4-by-10.4-by-1.0 inches and 6.8 pounds, it’s a shade wider, but a tenth of a pound lighter—and it retains the familiar aluminum enclosure and sleek design.

Inside, however, the new top-of-the-line Apple laptop incorporates not only a completely different processor, but a slew of other changes you should consider before deciding whether—or when—this is a machine for you. (you should…)

The MacBook Pro 17″ desktop replacement of Apple can also be classified as a multimedia notebook, because of its 3.1 kg and only 2.59 cm height.

Feature list at a glance:

Still have to sort out all stuff that’s been announced yesterday.
In a nutshell:

Apple MacBook Pro 17″ with unibody, 8-hour battery (even though non user-replaceable) and up to 8 GB RAM (!!!)

iLife ’09 which, along with all updates, introduces an interesting Garageband feature: music school lessons with the best artist around!

iWork ’09
that introduces iWork.com, right now a public-beta online service for document sharing

iTunes pricing changes:

(check our partner site iPodPalace.com about this iTunes-related topic)

Highly recommended: check these Garageband previews with music lessons from selected artists!

Yesterday, Steve’s presentation covered too many things about the upcoming iPhone SDK, the (again) upcoming 2.0 firmware update and a lot of developmente undergoing.
Some apps & games were showcased along with the App Store: the marketplace for all iPhone developer with a pretty interesting business model.

Check full coverage on partner site tiPhones.com

Just announced today!

Apple Introduces New MacBook and MacBook Pro Models
Multi-Touch Trackpad Comes to MacBook Pro

Apple today updated its popular MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook lines with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, larger hard drives and 2GB of memory standard in most models. In addition, MacBook Pro includes the latest NVIDIA graphics processors, now with up to 512MB of video memory, and Apple’s innovative Multi-Touch trackpad, first introduced in MacBook Air.

Not that much to say, always better as usual… and some price slashing as well!

Partner site tiphones.com reports:

Apple yesterday rolled out new iPhone and iPod touch models with beefed-up memories and bumped-up prices.

The new iPods touch and iPhones will ship with the new software that CEO Steve Jobs unveiled at last month’s MacWorld Expo in San Francisco, including a maps application that allows users to use a combination of cell tower and Wi-Fi hot spot triangulation to mimic a GPS device and find their location on Google-powered maps.