“I now lust for this laptop”

When Elizabeth Mateo (cnnmoney.com) put three ultraportables through their paces, only one stole her heart. MacBook Air. “Using the Air,” she says, “is like Christmas, your birthday, and Valentine’s Day all rolled into one.” In fact, Mateo was so impressed with its looks, size, weight, and performance that the 20-year PC users says “I now lust for this laptop and will switch to a Mac as soon as possible.” [Apr 30, 2008]

“I can’t think of a simpler, easier backup system than Time Capsule”

Explains Rob Pegoraro (washingtonpost.com) Time Capsule “combines a fast 802.11n WiFi router and a massive external hard drive in an enclosure no bigger than a regular AirPort Extreme router.” Working in conjunction with Time Machine, it “allows you to back up every Mac in the home over your home network.” And, notes Pegoraro, since he began using it, “its primary trait has been a near-complete lack of drama.” [Apr 30, 2008]

Pro Tip of the Week: The latest word on Word editing

A friend or colleague sends you a Word document and asks you to give her some feedback. Don’t have MS Word on your Mac? Not a problem. You’re running Mac OS X Leopard, so you have an application on your Mac that will let you open the Word document, edit it, then save it as a Word document again. What application could that be? Read the latest Pro Tip of the Week and find out. [Apr 30, 2008]

Early registration for WWDC 2008 extended to May 9

Whether you want to develop applications for iPhone or the Mac, you can get expert assistance at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference from Apple engineers and learn hands-on in the highly informative sessions and labs. And since we’ve extended early registration until May 9, you can still save $300. [Apr 29, 2008]

Quick Tip of the Week: Reading PDFs in Safari

When you find a link for a PDF while surfing the Web, Safari lets you open it right in the browser with a single click. In Mac OS X Leopard, Safari also offers new PDF controls that let you zoom in, zoom out, save that PDF file, or open it in Preview. Find out how by watching the latest Quick Tip of the Week. [Apr 28, 2008]

Meet the new iMac

The updated all-in-one iMac introduced today offers the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors and the most powerful graphics ever available in an iMac. The ultimate all-in-one desktop computer includes faster processors with 6MB L2 cache, a faster 1066 MHz front-side bus across the entire line, and 2GB of memory standard in most models. And the 24-inch iMac now offers a 3.06 GHz Intel processor and the high-performance NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics as options. Available immediately, the new iMac starts at just $1,199. [Apr 28, 2008]

Musical magic in GarageBand

Jim Dalrymple (macworld.com), still going strong on his recording project, knew he wanted to write “a traditional type blues song—nothing too complicated, just a good slow blues number in A.” But even though he knew what he wanted, laying down some tracks proved harder than he thought. Until, that is, Dalrymple remembered Magic GarageBand. Just 45 seconds later, he “had the perfect slow blues song playing, while I filled in the leads.” [Apr 25, 2008]

Macs gaining bigger role in the enterprise

“‘We’re seeing more requests outside of creative services to switch to Macs from PCs,’ notes David Plavin.” In fact, the operations manager for the Publicis Groupe explained to Galen Gruman (infoworld.com) that he’s received so many requests that he “now supports 2,500 Macs across the U.S. — nearly a quarter of all Publicis’ U.S. PCs.” [Apr 25, 2008]

Podcast Pick: Building a better honey bee

Watermelons, avocados, apples, onions, carrots, squash, tangerines—these fruits and vegetables come to your dinner table thanks in large part to the industry of the tiny honey bee. Better Bees, a podcast from KQED Public Broadcasting (part of iTunes U) explains what researchers are doing to ensure that the honey bee survives deadly mites, Colony Collapse Disorder, and other threats to their survival. [Apr 25, 2008]

Sign up today for the Final Cut World Tour

Starting next month, Apple takes the Final Cut World Tour to cities from Hollywood to Mumbai. During the free, in-depth seminar on Final Cut Studio 2 and Final Cut Server, Apple production experts offer step-by-step demonstrations of workflows used by leading post-production houses, creative agencies, Hollywood film studios, and broadcast television operations. Sign up today to reserve your seat. [Apr 24, 2008]

Apple Reports Record Second Quarter Results

Apple today posted revenue of $7.51 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share, for its fiscal 2008 second quarter, which ended March 29. “We’re delighted to report 43 percent revenue growth and the strongest March quarter revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs. During the quarter, Apple shipped 2,289,000 Mac computers (representing 51 percent unit growth and 54 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter), sold 10,644,000 iPods, and reported quarterly iPhone sales of 1,703,000. [Apr 23, 2008]

Pro Tip of the Week: iCal, your powerful personal assistant

Did you know that you can use iCal to easily set up recurring events, send yourself reminders, invite participants to meetings, reserve meeting rooms and equipment, attach documents to an event, and more. Find out how you can tap into the power of iCal by reading the latest Pro Tip of the Week. [Apr 23, 2008]

Editing plug-ins and SDK for Aperture 2.1 arrive

On the same day that Apple posted the Software Development Kit (SDK) that third-party developers can use to create image editing plug-ins for Aperture 2.1, the first image editing plug-ins from third-party developers have arrived and several others are expected to appear shortly. [Apr 21, 2008]

Hi-ReS: Fragments of Imagination

The London interactive agency Hi-ReS! builds intriguingly imperfect, immersive experiences with the help of Mac applications such as Adobe Creative Suite, Final Cut Studio, Logic, and Autodesk Maya. “The Mac puts everything in one place,” says Hi-ReS! Creative Director Florian Schmitt. “Especially with the new MacBook Pro. For the first time, we have the power to do anything anywhere.” [Apr 18, 2008]

Apple first among World’s Most Innovative Companies four years running

In its annual tribute to innovation, Businessweek invites us to meet the “world’s 50 most innovative companies.” Foremost among them is Apple. “Our repeat winner has rocked the wireless handset world with the iPhone, spurring rivals to imitate the touch-screen design. After just nine months on sale, it’s already No. 3 in the global smartphone market.” Indeed, Apple not only leads the overall rankings but also tops the Consumer Products and Technology categories and comes in second in the Entertainment and fourth in the Retail categories. [Apr 18, 2008]

Make a photo book for Mom — and save

While Mother’s Day will be here before you know it, you still have plenty of time to get Mom something really special. Simply use the photos you have in your iPhoto or Aperture library to create a gift she’ll treasure for years to come. If you place your order by May 11 and use our special offer code, you can even save 20% on the cost of your custom photo book. (Order by May 4 if you’d like her to receive it in time for Mother’s Day.) [Apr 18, 2008]

Your ticket to a great mobile development experience at WWDC

For the first time ever, this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco offers a track designed for those developing applications and optimized web content for iPhone. In fact, we’ve already listed 80 sessions and hands-on labs essential for iPhone development. The conference offers developers a great opportunity to speak with Apple’s own iPhone engineers and user interface experts, and if you sign up now, you can take advantage of early registration pricing and save up to $300. [Apr 17, 2008]

At MIT, the Mac helps scientists learn the language

Deb Roy and his wife Rupal Patel have turned their house into a high-tech observatory and live-in laboratory. With the aid of their young son, the pair of academics are collecting data for the most ambitious study ever conducted on how children acquire language. So far, their Human Speechome Program has amassed more than 200,000 hours of audio and video recordings — more than 250 terabytes of data — and they’ll depend on a Mac application called TotalRecall to help them make sense of it. [Apr 17, 2008]

Macs Trounce PCs in Popular Mechanics “Ultimate Lab Test”

In what columnist Glenn Derene (popularmechanics.com) billed as the “Ultimate Lab Test for New Desktops & Laptops,” both the iMac and MacBook soundly outperformed Vista-running PCs. “In our speed trials,” reports Derene, “Leopard OS trounced Vista in all-important tasks such as boot-up, shutdown and program-launch times. We even tested Vista on the Macs using Apple’s platform-switching Boot Camp software—and found that both Apple computers ran Vista faster than our PCs did. [Apr 16, 2008]

Leopard’s Preview “a superstar”

Preview, says Bob Levitus (chron.com) has “always been a gem. But in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, it’s turned into a real powerhouse with many new and useful features.” For example, Preview’s “Mark Up icon provides a drop-down menu with highlighting, strike-through and underlining tools, all fantastic for editing text. “ And, Levitus points out, you’ll find tools for annotating PDFs, reordering pages in a PDF, and several other new and highly useful features. [Apr 16, 2008]

• Apple Updates iMacApril 28, 2008
• Apple Reports Record Second Quarter ResultsApril 23, 2008
• FY 08 Second Quarter Results Conference CallApril 21, 2008
• Final Cut Server Now ShippingApril 8, 2008
• iTunes Store Top Music Retailer in the USApril 3, 2008
• Award-Winning Television Programming Now Available on the iTunes Store in GermanyApril 2, 2008
• Apple Releases Aperture 2.1 with Powerful Image Editing Plug-In ArchitectureMarch 28, 2008
• Apple Releases Safari 3.1March 18, 2008
• More press releases...