macs

By now most Mac users (and certainly Leopard users) know about Stacks, the new file-management feature that resides in the Dock in Mac OS X 10.5. Stacks are great for many things, like organizing a bunch of similar files or keeping all the parts of a project together. To create a stack, you just put a folder in the Dock and start grabbing files and drag them to the same folder. You get your choice of the way it displays your files when you click the folder--either in a grid or fanned out. The less-than-useful issue I noticed, is … Read more

The usually quiet CNET offices were abuzz this afternoon thanks to a new visitor--Apple's MacBook Air laptop. Since its announcement at Macworld last week, this superthin 13-inch system has been conversation topic number one for Apple fans, and after getting our hands on one in person, it's easy to see why.

The Air is incredibly thin, about 0.75 inch thick, even though it occupies the exact same desktop footprint as a regular 13-inch MacBook. Picking it up, the MacBook Air feels a little heavier than you'd expect from looking at it, even though it's … Read more

We've just taken a cheeky advance look at Asus' new Nova P20. It's the latest in a line of alternatives to the Mac Mini and at first glance it ticks all the right boxes for a small form-factor PC: It's tiny, it's very, very quiet, and it's not beige.

You can position it in vertical or horizontal orientations and it has touch-sensitive power and optical drive eject buttons, which help to keep the front looking uncluttered. 'Round the back there are four USB ports and three audio jacks that support surround sound. It also has … Read more

Over the course of the past week, I decided to wait before making my final decision on whether or not I believed Apple's new MacBook Air would be a success or not. After evaluating the state of the ultraportable market historically (poor) and the specs Apple is doling out with this device, it seems almost too obvious that very few people will be willing to buy this junker.

Let's face it--the MacBook Air is nothing more than a gimmick to make people believe Apple is a trendsetter that knows the best way to bring "cool" products to the masses. But what everyone seems to forget is that this company already has a slew of "cool" products and there's no need for something that's underpowered and overpriced.

Suffice it to say, the MacBook Air is nothing more than a toy that has no promise and will flounder in stores. Why you ask? It's simple.… Read more

So you're a fan of intellectual property innovation and you want to bring Creative Commons to Hong Kong. What are your pitches? Exalting the free market and smearing Hollywood.

Creative Commons, founded by Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig, develops licenses that let creators allow or disallow a variety of reuses of the work. It's catchphrase, if it has one, is "Some Rights Reserved."

Teams of lawyers have adapted these licenses to more than 40 national jurisdictions, including mainland China, but the Hong Kong efforts are still under way.

Rebecca MacKinnon--an excellent media blogger, an assistant professor … Read more

This afternoon, I heard about the forthcoming film, MacHeads, for the first time.

My first thought was, huh, someone has made a movie based on Leander Kahney's book, The Cult of Mac.

I watched the trailer, and sure enough, Kahney--a former editor of mine when I wrote for Wired News--was in it. But it didn't look at all like it was his film.

Rather, it appears to be a similar look at the cultlike community and emotions that surround Apple, the Mac, and all things non-Windows.

For me, the trailer itself was gratifying enough, as from the very … Read more

Apple released the first patches for 2008 to the QuickTime media player as well as the iPhone and iPod Touch on January 15.

The updates to QuickTime 7.4 for Windows and Mac users are designed to prevent a system from being hijacked when malicious movie files are opened.

Apple Downloads lists the updates for Windows XP and Vista as well as Mac OS X 10.3.9 and higher. Mac users also can access the download via Apple's Software Update.

Memory corruption issues in QuickTime's handling of Sorenson 3 video, Macintosh Resource Records, and Image Descriptor atoms … Read more

According to AppleInsider, the next version of MacBook Pro will be equipped with the same multitouch trackpad as the one on the MacBook Air.

Though this move is about as unexpected as the rising tide, it will be more interesting to see if their claims that the units will appear in a few weeks turns out to true. The new portables will also be based on Intel's latest Penryn processors.

(Source: Crave Asia)