Macworld Expo

I had a chance to quickly try out Etymotic’s new premium hf2 headset with my own iPhone. It promises not only exceptional sound quality but the best noise isolation of all competing headsets.

The hf2 did a nice job of blocking out the din of the Macworld show floor, and our The Hives tracks sounded loud and clear but a little harsh with our iPhone set on the Rock equalizer setting. One booth rep told me that most Etymotic employees prefer the Flat setting, so you can hear songs the way they were recorded. Things improved when I switched to this mode.

Is this thing worth $179? Stay tuned for a full review. We’ll put it head to head against the Editors’ Choice-winning Shure MPA with SE110 combo as soon as we get a set in.

Today we spent a few minutes with the Axiotron Modbook on the Macworld show floor, and it’s basically a MacBook that’s been converted into a tablet. It seems best suited for artists but the company claims that it’s also designed for students and professionals. For a starting price of $2,279–that’s $780 more than the MacBook black–you get a slate with a Wacom digitizer that has a whopping 512 levels of sensitivity. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve been over the specs and we’ve shown you all of the angles, but now it’s time to answer the tough question. Is the MacBook Air good enough for road warriors? On paper, the answer is “absolutely–just look at it!” but when you dig a little deeper there are some reasons to think twice. And we’re not talking about the mono speaker. Let’s quickly review why this demanding crowd might hold off on forking over $1,799 or more for the ultimate mobile status symbol.

Issue #1: Can’t Replace Battery Yourself
Our friends at Engadget have reported that Apple told them you’ll need to bring your MacBook Air in to have the battery replaced once it starts to have trouble holding a charge. We don’t mind the $129 fee, but we’re assuming road warriors will mind being without their notebooks while this procedure is done. We’ll find out tomorrow from Apple how long this should take. The other issue is that you can’t order an extra-capacity battery or a replacement battery to take on the road. Don’t get us wrong, 5 hours is very good endurance, but other ultraportables offer 10+ hours of runtime when you outfit it with an extra battery.

Dealbreaker? For some it could be, especially for those road warriors who need to go all day without being plugged in.

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Apple’s new firmware update had us dashing to its website to download the latest update to one of our favorite phones.

After a few failed “Check for Updates” that kept returning 1.1.2 as the latest, we decided to just download iTunes 7.6. Once iTunes was updated, our “Check for Updates” box worked and we were on our way downloading.

Dancing Icons
After the automatic download finished, we started messin’ with the home screen. If you hold down any icon for about two seconds, all of the icons begin to shake. Once they’re boogying, you can move any icon anywhere with the swipe of a finger. You can even add or remove icons from the launch bar at the bottom. I really love that I can finally have my e-mail and SMS programs right next to each other.

You can also swipe the home screen like you would a photo album, to see multiple home pages. (There are nine in total). It’s a great feature for those with a lot of Web favorites, but more on that later.

Map Updates
Apple also updated the Google maps application. Now, using triangulation, Google can pinpoint your location in a GPS-like fashion. It’s not perfect, but it’s damn close in New York City. We were pinpointed at Broadway and 39th, which is exactly where our office is. Oddly, though, the circle around our area extends as far down as 37th, up to 40th, and from 7th Avenue until nearly 6th Ave. So it’s clearly a bit unsure of itself, though it’s nearly dead-on in Manhattan.

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After weeks of rumor and speculation, the much anticipated MacBook Air is finally upon us, but does the machine’s reality match the hype?

With it’s 13.3-inch LED backlit display and illuminated keyboard, the MacBook Air combines elements of the MacBook and MacBook Pro, while maintaining one of the slimmest and lightest profiles this side of the Sony VAIO VGN-TZ150N. The Macbook Air measures a remarkable 0.1-inches at its thinnest point, and weighs just 3 pounds. (the TZ-150N is 1.2-inches thick and weighs 2.7 pounds).

But with the MacBook Air’s extra weight comes additional screen real estate, as Apple’s machine eclipses the TZ-150’s 11.1-inch display by 2.2 inches. Apple keeps the notebook slim by ditching an optical drive, but the MacBook Air’s innovative Remote Disc lets users “borrow” the disc drives of other Macs (or PCs) in its vicinity.

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Ok, so it’s not the most exciting announcement to come out of MacWorld, but it’s still noteworthy nonetheless.

Today DisplayLink announced that its USB display adapters now offer OS X support. In the past, we’ve seen DisplayLink’s USB technology built into displays such as the LG L206WU monitor, and in standalone adapters.

The adapters are easy to use: just plug a monitor’s DVI cord into one end, and the other end spits out a USB cable that you can plug into your computer. With multiple adapters, it’s possible to add additional monitors to laptops, and without having to install a pile of video cards in a desktop. The new announcement for OS X will allow Apple systems to support up to four displays.

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It’s really, really thin. Like nano thin. And yet the Macbook Air packs in a full size keyboard and one of the biggest and most versatile touchpads we’ve ever used. We spent a few minutes with the thinnest notebook on earth and came away mighty impressed with its design and snappy performance. You do make a few trade-offs for the size, but we imagine most prospective buyers won’t care.

The aluminum body feels rock solid and yet super light. There’s a lot of computer inside this 3-pound chassis. And the keyboard has plenty of depth despite the system’s 0.76-inch profile. The touchpad is the coolest feature. We used three fingers to move forward and backward through pictures and slideshows, pinched our fingers together and apart to zoom in on photos, and successfully rotated some photos with just a twist of two fingers. And the touchpad is really big, which is nice compared to other ultraportables. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a gallery of pictures taken live from the keynote. While these are a bit blurry, they show what you missed.

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Earlier today, I live blogged from Steve Job’s keynote address. Here’s all the action as it happened:

The big show is about to begin and all the rumors are about to be put to rest. Announcing Office for Mac but the first big news is Time Capsule, a companion product to Time Machine. Available in 500GB ($299) and 1TB ($499). Will have Wi-Fi built in. So it’s like a network storage device and router in one.

Next big announcement is about the iPhone. The device has been shipping for only 200 days and company has sold over 4 million of them. That’s 20,000 iPhones every day. In terms of U.S. SmartPhone Marketshare, RIM had 39 percent, and next was the iPhone and 19.5 percent, followed by Palm, Motorola, and Nokia.

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Just in time for Macworld, Targus, one of the major players in the notebook bag arena, lifted the curtain on the latest addition to its Mac-friendly Radius line: The Radius EcoSmart.

Constructed of PVC-free materials, recyclable plastics, nickel-free metals, and 100% recycled polyester (so that’s where my pops’ suits went!), the Radius EcoSmart line represents Targus’ devotion for greenin’ up our gear. Besides being environmentally righteous, the henna-colored EcoSmart bags, designed for the 15-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro, featured an EVA-molded compartment for safeguarding your notebook, and lots of pockets for stashing power cords, iPods, and Mighty Mouse. Each bag in the line is backed by a lifetime warranty, and will come with a custom printed interior lining and carabineer key ring.

The Radius EcoSmart bags will be available as a messenger ($99.99), top-loading case ($99.99), and backpack ($129) when the line hits retail in February.