The diNovo Edge keyboard is finally coming to the Mac platform as Logitech announced today their first diNovo keyboard specifically designed for the system. The latest diNovo Edge Mac Edition keyboard features a super slim design measuring 1/2 inch thick, a high-gloss semi-translucent Plexiglass frame, sharp angles, and a soft-orange backlighting. The keyboard comes with an aluminum palm rest along with an anodized silver finish. Other specs include:

• One-touch access to Mail, Safari, iTunes, and other Mac apps
• Power button to turn on your Mac
• TouchDisc allows you to scroll and navigate from your keyboard
• Features Logitech’s PerfectStroke key system which creates a longer key travel at 3.2 mm optimized for comfort
• Charging base - four hour charge gives one month of battery life. 10 minute charge gives one day of use
• Bluetooth wireless support

The Logitech diNovo Edge Mac Edition will be available this month for an MSRP of $159.99.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Logitech, diNovo Edge Mac Edition

Think Apple’s business is being driven by the iPod and iPhone? Guess again - Apple’s Mac business is alive and well as they’ve announced that 2.4 million Macs were shipped during the third quarter ending June 28th. That represents a 41 percent unit growth and a whopping 43 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. In total, Apple posted amazing revenues of 7.46 billion with a net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion (or $1.19 per diluted share). Compare those numbers to the year-ago quarter which were 5.41 billion and a net quarterly profit of $818 million. Gross profits dipped somewhat - from 36.9 percent to 34.8 percent.

Here are other stats of interest:

• 11 million iPods were sold during the quarter - 12 percent unit growth and seven percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter
• 717,000 iPhones were sold during the quarter compared to 270K in year ago quarter (of course the iPhone had just started sales during the third quarter of last year)

Now here’s where things get interesting. Apple’s CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, decided to warn analysts that 4th quarter gross margins will be negatively affected by a “product transition.” So as News.com points out - let the guessing games begin. What exactly does this product transition mean exactly? Does this lend credence that new notebooks are coming out from Apple? Does this mean product prices are coming down? Does it mean things getting more expensive to manufacture? It’s really anyone’s guess right now (but you can be sure that people will be coming out with their own theories now). For the record though, News.com thinks that Apple will do two things during the fourth quarter: Introduce new Centrino 2 based MacBooks and reduce price for the iPod touch.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Apple, Third Quarter, 2008, Fourth Quarter, Apple iPhone, Mac, iPod Touch

The hammer has finally fallen on Psystar Corporation - Apple has filed a lawsuit against the company citing several claims including a copyright infringement claim, an inducement of copyright infringement, and a trademark infringement claim. More importantly, Apple is seeking any profits earned by Psystar for its Open Computer system, triple damages for “willful acts”, a permanent injunction placed against the sale of these products, and a recall of all systems sold already. Psystar made front page news a few months back for having the gall to sell systems with OS X installed. The OS X version installed was a hacked version designed to run on non-Apple hardware (you can easily find similar distributions online). For more details on the suit, check out CNET’s article here - but it seems like an open and shut case here. Seriously - does Psystar even have the funds to possibly fend off Apple? Did they not think this was going to eventually happen? I mean come on - everyone knew this was going to eventually happen to Psystar - it was just a question of when. I suppose Apple was too busy dealing with the iPhone and MobileMe rollout. Now that all is clear on the western front… it’s time to set it’s guns at Psystar.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Apple, Psystar, Lawsuit, OS X, Open Computer

Apple launched their new Back to School promotion campaign today, offering what amounts to a free iPod when you buy a qualifying Mac for college. The promotion works as follows - buy a qualifying new Mac system and either an iPod nano or an iPod touch at the same time. Submit your rebate claim online and you’ll get up to $299 back based on which iPod you purchased. If you purchased an 8GB iPod nano, you’ll get $199 back. If you purchased any iPod touch - you’ll get $299 back. See this PDF file for additional information on the promotion.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Apple, Back to School, Promotion Campaign

PC Magazine has a new review up on the updated iMac which now features the latest Intel Penryn processors. The reviewed system features components such as an Intel Core 2 Duo E8235, 320GB HDD, an ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro GPU, and 2GB of RAM. Here’s the basic gist of their review:

The iconic iMac now adds a next-gen Intel Penryn processor to its mix. It’s faster, more powerful, and still the one to beat.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Apple iMac, PC Magazine, Review

CNET published a review of the controversial Psystar Open Computer here on their website. In case you’ve been under a rock for the last few weeks and you’re not familiar with the Psystar Open Computer, it’s basically the first computer to be sold with a version of OS X that’s not from Apple.  The Open Computer has the following basic specs:

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• Up to 4GB of RAM
• 250GB 7200 RPM HDD
• DVD burner
• Gigabit Ethernet

Psystar essentially installed a version of OS X that’s been modified to run on non-Apple hardware. Yes.. the legality of such a move is dubious at best but at least the company is shipping hardware (and software) to people buying the product. CNET has an unboxing video of the system which I’ve embedded here on Krunker:  

Its hardware isn’t made by Apple’s design team, it will likely never work as a full member of the greater Apple ecosystem, and one ill-intended software update could turn it into a $750 brick. Get past all of that, and you’ll find Psystar’s OS X-based Open Computer a fast and otherwise compelling lower midrange desktop.

Technorati Tags: Psystar Open Computer, CNET, Review, OS X

Apple updated the iMac product lineup yesterday with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors as well as the fastest graphics ever available for this platform. The new Core 2 Duo processors feature a 1066 MHz front side bus and 6MB of L2 cache. The high end 24 inch iMac now comes with the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics as an option.  The low end iMac still costs $1199 and features a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 1GB of RAM. Here are the full specs to all the updated iMac models:

20-inch 2.4 GHz iMac has a suggested retail price of $1,199 (US) and includes:

• 20-inch widescreen LCD display;
• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 1GB of 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 4GB;
• 250GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
• ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB GDDR3 memory;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
• built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
• the Apple Keyboard, Mighty Mouse and infrared Apple Remote.

20-inch 2.66 GHz iMac has a suggested retail price of $1,499 (US) and includes:

• 20-inch widescreen LCD display;
• 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 2GB of 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 4GB;
• 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB GDDR3 memory;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
• built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
• the Apple Keyboard, Mighty Mouse and infrared Apple Remote.

24-inch 2.8 GHz iMac has a suggested retail price of $1,799 (US) and includes:

• 24-inch widescreen LCD display;
• 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 2GB of 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 4GB;
• 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB GDDR3 memory;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
• built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
• the Apple Keyboard, Mighty Mouse and infrared Apple Remote.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Apple, iMac

About a month ago, I posted a little commentary about a project I wanted to embark on at home. The goal was to turn my Apple Mac mini into a full fledged Windows Vista system for the sole purpose of running Windows Media Center. Why embark on this project? Reason 1: It was about time I upgraded my original home theater PC which I built back in 2005 and was starting to creak under Windows Vista (it’s still great for XP!). Reason 2: I wanted to move to a small form factor than my previous system. Although the previous HTPC looked great within my A/V rack, it was huge, heavy, and somewhat loud due to aging ball bearing fans (which I was too lazy to upgrade).  Yes, it was time to downsize to a smaller form factor.

It’s actually funny that I even considered this route. I felt like I was tracing back to my earlier roots with this project. When I first got into constructing Home Theater PC (HTPC) systems years ago, I toyed with several Shuttle XPC based small form factor systems. In the end, I opted for a larger box since it looked so darn sexy in my home theater rack and had plenty of room for expansion. After a few years with a large box, I was finally ready to go small again. The question was - how small did I want to get?

Now, I could have gone the Shuttle route again (and I still might - more on that later) or I could have purchased something like the HP Pavilion Slimline PC. Ultimately, I chose the Apple Mac mini primarily because I had one handy and I wanted to see what it was like transforming it into a Vista based Media Center HTPC. Would it work well under Vista? Would I be able to do all the things I envisioned?  Hopefully I’ll be able to answer these questions and then some in this writeup. The purpose of this writeup is to cover all the steps that I took to build my Apple Mac mini home theater system utilizing Windows Vista and the Windows Media Center application. Is it my final setup? Probably not but it proves it indeed is a viable, solid, and reliable solution.

Finally, I apologize ahead of time if some of you think I might have “bastardized” the Mac mini by installing Vista. I also want to give credit where credit is due - primarily to two blog postings I read before starting this prokect - one over at markwilson.it and one over at Mauricio Freitas’s website here. Let’s get started shall we?

(more…)

Technorati Tags: Apple Mac mini, Windows Vista, Windows Media Center, Xbox 360 Media Center Extender, Converting Apple Mac mini to Windows Media Center

If your old Apple PowerBook needs a new facelift, perhaps you can take the same route that Richard Hunt did with his system. Mr. Hunt ripped the guts of the notebook out and then placed it inside a custom made desktop chassis. The result? A very cool looking Apple desktop system - clean, cool running, and quiet. Nice.

[Check it out via technabob]

Technorati Tags: Apple PowerBook, Case Mod

In case you missed it yesterday, a small relatively unknown computer company called Psystar Corporation, is selling a computer billed as capable of running Mac OS X Leopard. They’re offering two types of systems - a low end box called the “Open Computer” and a high end box called the “OpenPro” (sounds like a familiar Apple system eh?). Of course if you’re looking for a fancy looking Apple clone - forget it. These boxes certainly won’t win any design awards.

The “Open Computer” sells for $399.99 without Leopard and features:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 processor running at 2.2 GHz
• 2GB of RAM
• Intel GMA 950 graphics
• 20X DVD+/-R SATA drive with Lightscribe
• 4 USB 2.0 ports
• 250GB HDD

You can also ask them to install Leopard for you for an extra $155.

Meanwhile, the “OpenPro” Computer sells for $999.99 and comes with:

• Intel Core 2 Duo running at 2.6GHz (upgradable to Core 2 Quad processors)
• 150GB 10,000 RPM HDD
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 512MB video card
• 2GB of RAM
• Firewire and USB ports

If you’re interested in these systems, you better hurry. It’s highly probable that Apple will force Psystar to stop selling these systems at some point in the near future.

Technorati Tags: Psystar, Open Computer, OpenPro, Mac clone, OS X Leopard