The device is smaller than one might expect for such a long-lasting power source. It is 7” x 3.5” and only one inch thick. At only 1.2 pounds, it travels well with the MacBook, even matching its coloring and surface texture. The durability of the battery is evidenced by its recharging capability. It is tested to recharge 1,000, which is three times as much as most Li-ion batteries. For the international traveler, fear not. The charger is compatible with power supply outlets internationally as well. At $249.95, it’s not a cheap five hours of power, but it could very well be worth it.

Apple Insider has a round-up, including numerous screenshots, of several upcoming enhancements. (It’s worth noting that the rumored “marble” user interface style is not readily apparent in these images save for a black title bar in a QuickTime X interface screenshot. Perhaps Apple is saving the rumored new look for WWDC in June.)

The biggest changes for most users will be the new Image Capture app, which has finally grown up and received a modern Mac UI from Apple. QuickTime X also gains a screen recording ability and new options for exporting videos to iPods, iPhones, or Apple TVs. The other big change is a new Chinese handwriting recognition system. Chinese users will be able to draw characters on multitouch-enabled trackpads.

Since Apple acquired chip manufacturer P.A. Semi last year, many have speculated as to what Apple planned to do with the firm’s processor expertise. This latest revelation is one piece of the puzzle. As the Wall Street Journal reports, Apple executive Mark Papermaster will also begin working at the company after he was delayed by a legal settlement with IBM, his former employer. Papermaster is famous for developing the PowerPC chip architecture.

Battery life will become increasingly important to Apple as the company begins placing staking more and more of its future on handhelds and smartphones. The ARM processors which currently power iPhone OS devices have a reputation for being horribly inefficient, so it makes sense for Apple to attempt a much more frugal solution. Internal chip development will also help Apple maintain a tighter grip on secrecy about future products, especially since its been plagued by recent leaks from its Asian suppliers. Internal chip development will also let the company tune its software and hardware to work together with peak efficiency, which will become more and more important as the smartphone space continues to heat up.

One question is whether Apple will also develop chips for desktop computers. After all the confusion of the switch to Intel chips several years ago, it seems foolish of Apple to go through the entire process all over again. Then again, we have yet to see what its internal teams will come up with. The WSJ estimated that Apple-stamped chips won’t begin making their way into shipping hardware until at least until 2010.

(Via The Apple Blog.)

Macworld Expo 2009 – Booth #502

El SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA – At the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, California, hardware and software manufacturer Axiotron® yesterday unveiled the Modbook® Pro, the world’s fastest and largest-screen tablet computer. With its sleek black enclosure made from precision-machined aluminum, powerful graphics processing capabilities and revolutionary Synergy™ Touch technology, the Modbook Pro redefines the tablet computing experience.

An aftermarket modification of the unibody Apple® MacBook® Pro computer, Axiotron’s Modbook Pro offers a 15.4-inch pen-enabled display with a pixel resolution of 1440×900 WXGA, and features a surface layer of the company’s etched, paper-emulating ForceGlass™ for optimum drawing and writing comfort. The screen assembly is flush-mounted in the top bezel, providing a completely level drawing and writing surface and maximizing the Modbook Pro’s on-screen workspace.

In addition to the RF-based pen digitizer components, the Modbook Pro also feature Axiotron’s Synergy Touch, a revolutionary technology that — unlike any other touchscreen computer — employs touch functionality primarily in support of the pen input. Synergy’s user interface, Quicktouch™, appears on the screen as translucent overlays of buttons and pads, permitting users to enter text or keyboard shortcuts with the “alt,” “option” or “command” keys to directly modify pen clicks.

While the Axiotron Modbook Pro completely replaces the original Apple MacBook Pro’s enclosure, it leaves the main system components unmodified, maintaining 100% compatibility with both the system hardware as well as the Mac OS® X operating system. The voided Apple warranty will be replaced by Axiotron’s one-year Modcare® Hardware Warranty, covering the complete hardware solution top to bottom.

As another first, customers can order their Modbook Pro with a partitioned drive preinstalled with Windows Vista® Business Edition. The Modbook Pro also comes with Axiotron’s Quickapps™ suite, including Quicktouch (the pen-supporting touch user interface), Quickclicks™ (on-screen software keyboard and shortcuts), Quickflip (screen rotation utility), and Quickscript (advanced handwriting recognition).

The Axiotron Modbook Pro is compatible with all 15.4-inch unibody Apple MacBook Pro systems, hosting up to a 2.8GHz Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM, up to 320GB of storage on a 7200-rpm hard drive or 128GB of storage on a solid-state drive, and an NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT graphics subsystem.

The Modbook Pro is slated to ship in May/June 2009. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price for an Axiotron Modbook Pro built from a customer-supplied Apple MacBook Pro base system via Axiotron Modservice™ starts at $3,049. An Axiotron Modbook Pro built from a brand new Apple MacBook Pro base system starts at $4,998. Customers can direct pre-orders through Axiotron’s website at http://www.axiotron.com/buy. Placing a pre-order now will secure a customer’s place in line when the Modbook Pro begins shipping.

To celebrate the Modbook Pro’s unveiling at the Macworld Expo, Axiotron is offering the following discount promotions through January 19th, 2009.

Modbook Pro Promotion:
Customers who pre-order a complete Axiotron Modbook Pro, including those built with a new Apple MacBook Pro base system, will be eligible for a manufacturer’s discount of $399. With this discount customers can get a complete Axiotron Modbook Pro solution that includes the 2.4GHz Apple MacBook Pro for as little as $4,599.

Those figures are just the actual iPhone itself. The 39% doesn’t include the subscription based revenue. Steve Jobs would later go on to provide interesting facts about the Q4 2008 iPhone stats:

- In Q4 2008, more iPhones were sold than RIM Blackberries

- Based on revenue, Apple is the #3 cell phone vendor.

Along with the recent 3G iPhone numbers, Apple has said that the App Store has reached the 10 millionth download marker.

“The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days,” from the man Steve Jobs himself.

Mac OS X increased about a quarter percentage point in January, when it comprised 7.6 percent of all the systems that surfed sites tracked by Net Applications. Apple’s share of the operating system market in January rose 0.27 percentage points from December 2007, up about 1.35 percentage points in the last 12 months and a one year increase of 22 percent.

Gartner predicts that Apple will double its U.S. and Western Europe market share by 2011. “Apple’s gains reflect as much on the failures of the rest of the industry as on Apple’s success,” Gartner analysts said.

“Apple is challenging its competitors with software integration that provides ease of use and flexibility; continuous and more frequent innovation in hardware and software; and an ecosystem that focuses on interoperability across multiple devices.”

Net Application’s data for January showed that Microsoft Window’s still has a majority of the market share at 91.5 percent, a decrease from 93.3 percent a year ago.

My sister and I share a Mac computer and I’m tired of her looking at my files. Is there some way I can protect or hide my folders without downloading any software she’d notice?

Dave’s Answer:

Seems to me that the very best possible solution is for you and your sister to set up different accounts on your Mac, actually. That’s one of the real benefits of Mac OS X (and, for that matter, Windows too).

You can do that by simply going to Apple –> System Preferences… –> Accounts and setting up an account for her. Then simply ensure that you log out when you’re done with the computer each time and she won’t be able to get to any of your files and you’ll be safe from having her mess with your preferences, settings, etc.

No? That’s not what you want to do?

Okay, I’ll give you a couple of neat Terminal tricks that can help you out, one that lets you make a folder closed to everyone and another that makes it disappear completely until you make it reappear.

In both cases, you’ll need to launch Applications –> Utilities –> Terminal.app. It’ll start out in your account “home” directory, which you can check by typing pwd. Move to the directory where your folder or files lives by typing in cd followed by the name of the directory.

For example, if I wanted to protect a folder on the Desktop, then I’d type in cd Desktop and move there.

Now, to make a folder completely locked and unreadable, simply type in:

$ chmod 000 my-protected-folder

You won’t get any feedback but you’ll end up with something like this (pay particular attention to the “testing123″ folder and how it’s portrayed):

To get back in when you want to, simply go back to the same place with the “cd” command and type in:

$ chmod 775 my-protected-folder

To hide a folder or file completely, simply preface its name with a “.”. For example, to hide “testing123″ I’d rename it “.testing123″:

$ mv testing123 ".testing123”

Wanna get that one back to normal? Go back to the same directory and type in the reverse: mv .testing123 testing123

So there you go, three possible solutions to your problem. Hope one of them works out for you!

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About the Author

Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and is
internationally known as an expert on both business and technology issues.
Holder of an MSEd and MBA, author of twenty books and founder of four
startups, he also runs a strategic marketing company and consults with firms
seeking the best approach to working with weblogs and social networks. Dave
is an award-winning speaker and frequent guest on radio and podcast
programs.

AskDaveTaylor.com
http://www.intuitive.com/blog/

Gartner says some of Apple’s success is due the PC business lacking compelling, consumer innovation. It says Apple is capitalizing on the biggest trends, such as digital entertainment and photography.

The report says,” “Apple is challenging its competitors with software integration that provides ease of use and flexibility, continuous and more frequent innovation in hardware and software, and an ecosystem that focuses on interoperability across multiple devices (such as iPod and iMac cross-selling.)”

“He may actually think that Microsoft Excel is required for him to produce a spreadsheet. I needed to get back to work, so I didn’t want to get into a long explanation of available options for “Office-like” apps, so I just quickly said something to the effect that yes, he could do spreadsheets with a Mac and left it at that,” writes Lawrence.

The interesting thing, however is that Lawrence makes it abundantly clear that his neighbor is a very smart man. He’s not talking about just some completely naive person. That’s kind of the point of the whole story. Many people tend to feel that they’ll be losing some capabilities by using a Mac rather than a Windows-based PC.

How do you convince the average joe that they should by a Mac over a PC?