Macworld 2008 Stevenote Highlights

I’m no Apple fan boy, but the Macworld Keynote address by Steve Jobs is always a big deal for me and probably for the whole computer industry. The San Francisco 2008 Stevenote was no different. Apparently, live video coverages were not permitted so I watched the entire event in streaming text and photos. Macrumorslive.com did an excellent job covering the occasion which started at exactly 1:00 AM (Bohol, Philippines time) and was concluded at around 2:45 AM. In short, I slept late last night, which I always do anyway.

For those who are from another planet, here were the highlights of yesterday’s Macworld keynote address:

* Announced Time Capsule, an Airport Extreme Base Station - with "server grade" internal hard drive. Available in two configurations:
500GB - $299
1TB - $499

* Announced iPhone Software Update, SDK Release Date, and sales performance. The iPhone has sold over 4 million units since going on sale 200 days ago. That averages 20,000 iPhones sold per day. In its first quarter shipping, the iPhone garnered 19.5% of the US Smartphone market (2nd, behind only RIM's BlackBerry). iPhone SDK Release scheduled for February

* Announced iPod Touch Software Update. 5 new apps for the iPod Touch: Mail, Stocks, Notes, Weather, and Maps. Upgrade fee is USD $20.

* Announced iTunes sales performance and Movie Rentals. As of last week, the iTunes Store has sold over 4 billion songs. A new single-day record was set this past Christmas Day (December 25, 2007) with 20 million songs sold in 24 hours. iTunes Movie Rentals: Touchstone, Mirimax, MGM, Lionsgate, Newline, Fox, WB, Disney, Paramount, Universal & Sony are all on board.

* Announced AppleTV upgrade and Price Drop. You can now rent movies directly on the Apple TV in your choice of DVD quality or HD + dolby 5.1 surround sound without a need for computer. The upgrade is available as a free software update that should be available in two weeks for current AppleTV owners. AppleTV price drops from $299 to $229.

* The most important announcement of all, ‘Macbook Air’. According Jobs, it is “the world's thinnest notebook”. Here are some of its features:
- At 0.16" to 0.76" - thinner than the thinnest part of a Sony TZ series laptop.
-Screen size is an LED backlit 13.3" widescreen with a magnetic latch
- MacBook-like keyboard, but with an ambient light sensor
- Multi-touch trackpad (iPhone-like control)
- 45 Watt MagSafe power adapter, Micro-DVI out, Audio Out, 802.11n + Bluetooth 2.1/EDR
- 1.8" hard drive, 80GB standard, or a 64GB SSD as an option
- Core 2 Duo processor. Intel shrunk the size of the chip by 60% to fit in the new machine.
- Battery (Non-replaceable) life is approximately 5 hours.
- 2GB non-expandable memory
-No optical drive but a SuperDrive accessory is available for $99.
- The case is fully aluminum (good for recycling), the first fully mercury and lead free display, circuit boards are BFR free, and retail packaging are 56% less volume than a MacBook.
- MacBook Air starts at USD $1799, available for pre-order today, and will be shipping in two weeks.
- More MacBook Air tech specs HERE

I find the 2008 keynote not as explosive as that of last year. Well, as they say it, you can’t announce an iPhone year after year. For those who still want to watch the event, a Quicktime stream is already available HERE.

Don't Fail Me Steve

Macworld Conference & Expo is just several days away. Though I’m not an Apple enthusiast, I’m pretty much excited about the said event for two reasons. One is I can’t wait to see what new products will Apple announce or unveil. Maybe an iStove or iCar, only Steve Jobs knows. The second and the most important reason behind my enthusiasm is that I wanted to find out if frigging El Jobso will really launch an ultra-mobile laptop, “AKA Macbook super-thin”.

You see I really wanted to buy an extremely portable notebook computer ever since last year. In fact, I was already eyeing a number of decent laptop models and was about to make a choice. But, when rumors circulated that Apple is creating and will be releasing a potentially Mac-dreamy laptop, I raised my patience a bit and covered my eyes every time I’m near a Sony VAIO TZ or an Asus Eee PC to resist the urge to buy.

If those rumors will indeed come true, here are some of the possible tech specifications of the said Über mobile PC that I will soon be getting, or not:

Monitor Size: 13"
Case Color: Metallic, Dark gray
Optical Drive: External, Blu-ray
Weight: 50% lighter than present Macbooks
Storage: NAND flash
Trackpad: Multi-touch
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM: 2 GB minimum
Price: starting at USD $1500

..and here are several concept images of the much awaited sub-notebook courtesy of some Apple fanboys:

If Apple will really unleash a Macbook super-thin hopefully this January 15, and if ever I get convinced to buy one, I’m planning to dual boot Mac OS X with Linux, possibly Xubuntu. But that’s another story. :)
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Mac OS X: Virtual Machine vs. Boot Camp

My sister-in-law handed me her brand new, shiny black Macbook; the one with a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB memory and 160GB hard drive. Like majority of new Mac owners, she wants to run Windows applications on it. I have two options to help her out. One is to install Windows through desktop virtualization software like Parallels or VMWare Fusion. The other is to use Apple’s Boot Camp. Now which method did I like better?

First and foremost, I will give a brief overview of Virtual Machine and Boot Camp:

In computer science, a virtual machine (VM) is a software implementation of a machine (computer) that executes programs like a real machine. It is considered as one of the distinct classes of desktop virtualization. Virtual machine technology is used to host multiple instances of a standard, single-user desktop PC operating system (e.g., Windows XP) on a server machine. With desktop virtualization, a user can directly access the guest desktop operating system while inside the host OS (e.g., Mac OS X).

Boot Camp is a utility included with Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" that assists users in installing Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista on Intel-based Macintosh computers. Boot Camp guides users through non-destructive re-partitioning (including resizing of an existing HFS+ partition, if necessary) of their hard disk drive and using the Mac OS X Leopard disc to install Windows drivers. In addition to device drivers for the hardware, the disc includes a control panel applet for selecting the boot operating system while in Windows. In short, Boot Camp will let you dual boot OS X and XP efficiently.

Now which way did I choose?

If you are not in a hurry, I will compare some of their essential features so that we can easily point out the advantages and the disadvantages:


The Verdict:
After considering the hardware specifications of my sister-in-law’s laptop and the possible applications that she will often be running with it, I immediately decided to go for virtualization using Parallels Desktop for Mac. The other reason for choosing VM over dual boot is its ability to switch OS a lot faster and easier, or even use two or more operating systems at the same time. If my sister-in-law is into gaming or her Mac is a little low-end, it would have been a different story because I will definitely just install Windows using Boot Camp. Low-end hardware cannot handle VM well, and advanced 3D games will possibly run slow in VM environment.

So there you have it. I hope this article will somehow guide those who are torn between desktop virtualization and Boot Camp on installing Windows or just about any other OS for their Mac.