Consumer Reports, the consumer advocacy folks, recently ranked Apple’s MacBook line as the premier choice for any notebook category.
In the small category the 11-inch MacBook Air took the top spot with a score of 62 (of 100), while Gateway and HP took second and third with respective scores of 56 and 49. In the 13-inch category the MacBook Pro annihilated the competition sweeping the first five of seven areas, leaving the last two for Sony and Asus. The 15-inch category was a bit closer with the Pro finishing only 3 points in first place, but did sweep the first 3 scoring categories. The 17-inch category was another win for Apple with the Pro on top in the first areas categories.
Incidentally, I recently bought the 13-inch Pro model for myself and will be bringing a review (or at least my impressions) very soon. Stay tuned…
If you are already convinced and want to purchase a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, B&H Photo/Video is Tech Tilt’s trusted partner and where I made my purchase. Click the links below to make your purchase and support the effort here at Tech Tilt.
MacBook Pro 13-inch
MacBook Pro 15-inch
MacBook Pro 17-inch
MacBook Air 11-inch
MacBook Air 13-inch
[via 9TO5Mac, via The Loop]
B&H has notified me of a deal on the refurbished 8GB iPod Touch (4th gen.) that they are running right now. $194.99 and free shipping gets the latest and greatest 8GB iPod Touch with a full one-year limited warranty, dock adapter, software, USB cable and the classic white earbuds. Apple’s refurbishing process replaces any faulty parts, puts the product through rigorous testing, cleans it thoroughly, and repackages it, so the product you get looks and functions like new.
Product Highlights
- 3.5″ Multi-Touch Retina Display
- A4 Processor
- Front and Rear Cameras with FaceTime
- HD Video Recording and Editing
- Game Center & WiFi
- Nike+iPod
- Mac and PC Compatible
- Stereo Earbuds
- 8GB Solid-state Flash Memory
- Apple Certified Refurbished
Apple unveiled the new iMac desktops today. The new models keep the 21.5″ and 27″ screen sizes and step up to Core i5 processors across the board in the base configuration – with Core i7 processors available as an upgrade.
As expected, the iMac now has Thunderbolt I/O ports (like the recently announced MacBook Pro models), which deliver data transfer rates at a whopping 10 Gbps – up to 20x faster than USB 2.0 and up to 12x faster than FireWire 800. The 21.5″ models sport one Thunderbolt port, while the 27″ models offer two ports. Four USB 2.0 and a Firewire 800 port round out the I/O options on the backside of the new iMacs.
Although you’ll be hard pressed to find a Thunderbolt capable hard drive for the next couple of months, this I/O tech is shaping up to be the next Firewire. By making it the defacto standard in its latest computers, Apple has assured adoption of Thunderbolt by the main players in the external storage world.
Apple went with the AMD Radeon 6750M and 6970M graphics cards as available configurations in the iMacs – with up to 2GB GDDR5 video memory. The 21.5″ models come with 4GB RAM and are expandable to a max 8GB RAM, while the 27″ iMacs support up to 16GB RAM.
The new iMacs are up for ordering on Apple’s website. Pricing remains $1199 for the entry-level model and up to $1999 for the top-end 27″ model – with additional configuration options available for all models. Also look for availability on B&H Photo and Amazon.com.
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Yesterday, RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook went on sale in the US and Canada, but while the PlayBook didn’t receive quite the fanfare of Apple’s products there was some buzz.
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by Eric on April 16, 2011
Adobe showed off some of its new bag of tricks with how its Flash products now play nice with Apple’s iOS at NAB last week. The wiz kids at Adobe have figured out a way to use its Flash Media Server to stream live video to the Apple iPad 2 (and other iOS devices) by converting the video to HTML5 on the fly.
Check out the introduction to the tech from Adobe’s sneak peek at NAB in the video below. [click to continue…]
Like Sony, Pioneer has dropped their 2011 home A/V receiver lineup. The new line includes models VSX-521, VSX-821, VSX-921 and VSX-1021 and boast new features like Apple’s AirPlay, Made for iPad, DLNA 1.5, Internet Radio and custom apps such as iControlAV21 app and Air Jam1 app. from Pioneer.
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Apple has unveiled iPad 2 and with some pretty substantial updates. The iPad 2 is slightly smaller and lighter; sports a new Apple A5 1GHz dual-core chip; two cameras with FaceTime video calling; iOS 4.3, a slick new thin, magnetic Smart Cover; new apps like iMovie and Garage Band, keeps all the loved features from the first generation and is available in black and white.
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by Eric on February 24, 2011
Apple has unleashed the new MacBook Pro models for 2011 with a ton of upgrades. All of the MacBook Pro models now feature Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, including the low-end $1199 13″ model. Both 13-inch models get dual core processors as standard equipment, while the 15-inch and 17-inch models sport 2.0GHz to 2.2GHz quad core Intel Core i7 processors in the base configuration. Speed baby, speed.
However, the biggest buzz feature may be the new Thunderbolt I/O options (aka Intel’s Light Peak), which supports data transfer rates up to 10 Gbps. The new MacBook Pros still keep the old standard of Firewire 800 and USB 2.0 ports though.
Another changeover is the inclusion of AMD Radeon graphics processors, which Apple cites are up to 3x faster than previous model graphics cards. Rounding out the top-shelf of new features is FaceTime in HD. 4GB of RAM is standard across the board.
As noted above, the 13-inch models start at $1199, while the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros start at $1799 and $2499, respectively.
Check out the full press release below. [click to continue…]
by Eric on February 22, 2011
BGR has it on good word that refreshed MacBook Pro models will be available within the next couple of weeks.
The biggest spec rumors include SSD boot drives for the OS and Light Peak for high speed connectivity with peripherals.
[via Boy Genius Report]
