http://www.powermax.com/parts/show/ma896ll__a-gdd

If that's too pricey, I guess just the plain ol' Gold plated MacBook Pro will have to do.http://www.powermax.com/parts/show/ma896ll__a-gold

Who woulda thunk these things exist!]]>

QUOTE

...the findings of our newest consumer survey are in and they show the enormous impact of that transformational shift (caused by the iPhone hype)...Apple laptop sales surged to a new all-time high over the past 90 days -- up from 12% in June to 17% currently. This was an unprecedented five-point move. ChangeWave Survey

I'm not exactly sure who these ChangeWave folks are, but they sure seem to have some interesting news for Mac fans. The results of their latest survey on PC purchasing habits among their users is in and Apple is on the rise. (Note: Their numbers refer to their surveyed contacts and these contacts aren't randomly sampled Joes and Janes.)

Another interesting tidbit from their survey is that Apple leads their respondents in customer satisfaction with 86% responding "very satisifed." Toshiba was next at 56%. Dell comes tumbling way after at 44%. (see attached graphic)

They seem to believe that Mac laptops in particular are really catching on and attribute some of the recent surge in interest to "iPhone Halo." I can believe that. I got a chance to really play with one at the Apple store recently and the user interface is absolutely amazing! It is so damn easy to use. Still, I have no plans to replace my Blackberry even if I won the lottery and money was no issue. The user interface totally blew me away, but I couldn't stand the virtual keyboard.


]]>
The offer starts with following seven titles

• SRS iWOW (iTunes Bass Enhancer)
• GarageSale (makes cool sale pages for eBay etc.)
• Cocktail (system optimization tools)
• Profcast (podcasting tool to distribute presentations/lectures as podcasts)
• Amadeus Pro (Multi-track sound recorder/editor)
• Fetch (FTP)
• Graphic Converter

Once sales reaches certain milestones at 2500, 4000, and 9999 bundles sold, the following packages are also thrown in:

• 2500 - Little Snitch (Monitors apps trying to phone home)
• 4000 - Intaglio (Drawing and illustration program modeled after the classic MacPaint, but much more powerful)
• 9999 - TechToolPro (System hardware troubleshooter)

From what I can tell from the feedback left on the MacUpdate forums, the copies that you get are fully functional copies of the current software versions. You will have to pay extra if/when it's time to upgrade any of these packages (so the developers of the packages don't get totally screwed by this deal).

I'm modestly interested in the first eight applications, but I'm waiting for the sales bar to come close to 4000. If it gets there, I'm going in. I'd like to have a lightweight drawing program that has some useful features. I have Illustrator already, but I'm a klutz with Illustrator and it's way overboard for most of my drawing needs.

Here's the deal page. The offer ends this Sunday, July 15th.
http://www.mupromo.com/]]>
Speaking of phones, what do you need/want to have in a cell phone? What could you just as soon pass on?]]>
They are:

Well I must include Snood, a fun addictive game that combines strategy and arcade shooting skills.

GraphicConverter, I use for converting graphics but also as a kind of Photoshop lite. I rather open GraphicsConverter than Photoshop to crop, resize or other kind of tweaking.

TextEdit, the free program that comes with the OS has a lot of font features and is quick and simple. I use it for html duties.

Fetch, a FTP program, is what I use for FTP. I haven't used any other -- and since I love the 'little doggie' animation -- I am not planning on using any others.

FileMaker Pro, a database, I use for everything. Printing display labels, mailing labels, customers and vendors, purchase orders. I am sure I am only utilizing 15% of the programs abilities, and I am sure if I could up that percentage that my life would be better, global warming would abate, and Paris would be out of jail.]]>
If you own a Mac and want to connect up with other Mac users to swap tips, help each other out, or just jabber, go here and join this group:http://www.socialwave.net/groups/77/det/

BTW, in case I need to be specific, click the join link to join up.

There are plenty of rabid Mac forums out there to goto, but they're just too crazy and active for me. I could never keep up with those. Hopefully we can get just enough people together for sane conversations and exchanges of helpful info.]]> interesting post on Dean Takahashi's blog in the Mercury News today. It helps dispel the myth that Macs cost more than PCs. As a lifelong Mac evangelist, I have never been able to pay money for a PC and I don't think I ever will. The gist of the post is that Macs provide more value than PCs, and in some cases, are actually cheaper than PCs. AJ Strong posted a comment pointing out that Macs come loaded with applications that people will actually use, as opposed to PCs that come with tons of programs that most people will never actually use.
]]> Reviewed: Aperture 1.5
Maker: Apple Computers · Platform: Mac · Version: 1.5 ·

Description: all-in-one post-production tool for photographers. Built from the ground up for professionals, Aperture offers an advanced RAW workflow, professional project management capabilities, powerful compare and select tools, nondestructive image processing, and versatile printing and publishing.
Review Title: Simply Awesome for Digital Photo Management and Processing
My Rating: Thumbs Up!
My Opinion: If you're a serious digital photographer and you own a Mac, you absolutely must have Aperture. I only recently went for it after hearing that Apple finally worked out all the bugs and I'm absolutely stunned at how ingenious the user interface is. This thing is so easy to use it's ridiculous considering how powerful it is.

The best part of it is how it handles the task of organizing photo sets, always a challenging task for sure. The task only gets more difficult if you need to make edits, but you don't want to write over the original and you want to keep the two versions linked together for simplicity's sake. Aperture allows you to do that. You can make edits without destroying the original.

Speed is another strong selling point of Aperture. Waiting for RAW image files to queue up in programs was the worst part of organizing my photo collections in the past. It's hard to compare photo versions and then file them away in a coherent file structure when you spend so much time waiting for a picture to load.

The only area that doesn't blow me away is the post-processing toolset. They're powerful enough. They give you control over things like exposure, contrast, color levels, tint, etc. If you're familiar with image editing software like Photoshop, you should pick up on how to use these tools rather easily, but there still is no substitute for Photoshop. As cool as this program is, you'll still need Photoshop if you want to do some serious image editing.

This puppy is going to save me tons of time just on the compare and file features alone. All I can say is wow!

This is an automatically generated post created when a new opinion has been posted to the Opinion Boards. You can comment on this opinion directly or post your own opinion]]>
http://news.com.com/2102-1006_3-5731398.ht...g=st.util.print

We'll know if this ends up being true or not by this afternoon after Steve Jobs gives his keynote address at today's opening of Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC).]]>
Anandtech has the scoop on this curious incident:
http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2420&p=5]]>
When the iPod started booming, it was widely speculated that Apple would attempt to leverage its popularity to sell more Macs, but if there was any uptick in Mac ownership, it wasn't too noticable. Industry commentators kept predicting doom for anyone who'd believe that Apple Computers could get back on its feet as a computer maker. At MacWorld last week, the iPod shuffle raised a few eyebrows among analysts, but the Mac Mini was mostly panned as a too little too late move.

There was some recent research into iPod owners who said that because of their satisfaction with their iPods, they would seriously consider buying a Mac the next time around. I guess it's assumed that that Mac Mini is targeted as the ideal replacement computer for first time Mac owners since it's priced lower and comes without a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Their previous entry level strategies all included a built in monitor, which is likely to ratchet the price up enough to discourage people who'd consider switching platforms.

Last week, I probably would have shared the skepticism that Apple had a moonshot's chance of reversing its fortunes as a computer maker. I'd have disagreed with anyone who'd say that Macs were going the way of extinction slowly, but at the same time I would have acknowledged that chances of the user base making serious strides forward was essentially zip.

Well, over the weekend I was at Valley Fair and I passed by the Apple Store and it was a really different scene there this time. It was packed. I had to wait to get a closer look at the Mac Mini and I had to wait to try out the iPod Shuffle. I've never seen a computer store buzzing with people like that much less a store selling Apples. There were so many people in the store that I had to leave because it was getting uncomfortably warm in there for me.

I think there's really some renewed interested in Apple these days. Granted, I'm only expecting small increases in Mac ownership, but for the first time in years, we may see the percentage of Mac users go upward.

Apple Maxed on Mini Orders
Apple: Introducing the Mac Mini]]>