A More Powerful Mac Pro From Apple

A new series in the Mac Pro brand of computers has been unveiled by Apple Inc. The basic configuration begins at USD 2,499.

The Cupertino, California-based company has built the new computer on Intel’s Xeon processors, and incorporated quad-core and 6-core CPUs that together tot up a speed of 3.33 Ghz. Because of the way these chips are designed – on a single die -, the cores share up to 12MB L3 cache, with an integrated memory controller. This translates to faster memory bandwidth and lower latency of memory. An technology called hyper-threading built into the Intel architecture has been exploited to increase the number of cores from 12 to a virtual 24.

The Mac Pro now comes with ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics processor, which the customer can upgrade to HD 5870. These processors have their own 1GB of memory.

The device has a 1TB SATA hard drive preinstalled, with space to accommodate 4 SSDs. There are two Mini DisplayPorts and one dual-link DVI port in the system, allowing customers to hook up two LED Cinema Displays without an additional graphics card or adapter. The Magic Mouse is included as part of the configuration.

Read more about the latest series of computing beasts from Apple, here.

iPad Sells Faster Than Hot Cakes

It was very obviously an idea whose time had come. The iPhone was proving to be too small to do any serious work other than reading mails and chatting, and the netbook was still a tad bulky. There was a definite niche between the two form factors. And that is where the iPad came in.

And boy! Has this new gadget taken the geek world by storm! Across the spectrum, almost everybody is going for the device. Since its launch on April 3, it is slightly over 60 days, and the sale of iPad has topped 2 million already. The purchase is not happening within a particular domain or culture, but is very universal and has touched every level of society everywhere. The company has been working very hard to fulfill customer orders pouring in from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. Come July, and the company will open new sales fronts in a lot more countries.

Very soon, the 1.5 pound thin-plate-like-device will become as ubiquitous as the cellular phone. Perhaps the netbook’s run has come to an end?

Read more about how this new device has captured people’s hearts and minds in all the countries across the continents in so short a time, here.

iPad Touches Magic Sales Figure Of One Million

The bubbly is overflowing at the headquarters of Cupertino, California-headquartered Apple Inc, ever since the news came in that the company’s latest gizmo, the iPad, has hit the sales target of one million pieces.

This achievement came about in less than 28 days after the iPad was introduced to the world on April 3. This is less than the time it took the iPhone to reach the coveted figure, of 74 days. The craze to buy and own an Apple product appears to be unabated, with customers queuing up in front of Apple’s sales outlets much before the shutters go up.

And all this while, users of iPad have downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store, besides browsing through 1.5 million ebooks they bought from the new iBookstore. iPad now has more than 5,000 apps developed especially around its architecture. The device, weighing 1.5 pounds and just about 0.5 inch thin, is not power hungry, and can run on its internal batteries for almost 10 hours. Couple this with the multi-touch interface which does away with the tap-tap of the keyboard, and you have a winner.

Read more about the latest sales breakthrough at Apple, here.

New Versions Of MacBook Pro Pack In More Power

The MacBook Pro just became more powerful. The Cupertino, California-headquartered Apple Inc has introduced new hardware elements into the popular MacBook series of computing machines, ensuring that the systems don’t go out of fashion because of newer competition.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro model now features 4GB RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor and a 10-hour built-in battery. For this size, Apple has introduced two different processors: the one with 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 250GB hard drive is tagged at USD 1,199. The one with 2.66Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo and 320GB hard drive is tagged at USD 1,499.

The 15-inch version is available in three models: the 2.4Ghz Intel Core i5 processor model has NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, 320GB hard drive and costs USD 1,799. The 2.53Ghz Intel Core i5 processor model has NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, 500GB hard drive and costs USD 1,999. The 2.66Ghz Intel Core i7 processor model has NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, 500GB hard drive and costs USD 2,199.

The new 17-inch MacBook Pro comes in one model only: 2.53Ghz Intel Core i5 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, 500GB hard drive, and costs USD 2,299.

Read more about the upgradation carried out by Apple to its popular MacBook series, here.

iPhone OS 4 Beta Version Released

Cupertino, California-headquartered Apple Inc has released the next version of the Operating System for its celebrated iPhone device. iPhone OS 4 beta version is now available to the community of iPhone software app developers.

The beta release includes a software development kit (SDK) that comprises 1,500 new application programming interface (API) modules. A key feature of the new OS version that is attractive to the developer community is its multitasking capability: there are 7 new multitasking services to choose from for incorporating in the developer apps. These services have been designed such that the device’s battery life is preserved and the foreground app performance does not deteriorate.

At the user level, the new OS offers over 100 new features. One nifty feature is called “Folders”, which helps the phone’s owner to organize and access over 2,000 apps on their iPhone in logical folders. There is a new Unified Inbox, which allows users to see messages from all their email accounts displayed together in a single inbox. Users can now thread their messages by conversation and make it easier to stay current with the latest email discussions.

Read more about the latest version of iPhone OS features and functionalities, here.

Next Page »