24k Gold & Diamond Macbook Now Available

This is for real.
And for $8999. USD. (Gold version without diamonds sells for $5999.)

If you're a fan of gold plated stuff, better click here-more info about gold macs, etc!

specs:
What's in the box
* MacBook Pro
* 85W MagSafe Power Adapter, AC wall plug, and power cord
* Lithium-polymer battery
* Apple Remote
* DVI to VGA adapter
* Install/restore DVDs
* Printed and electronic documentation

Configuration options-
* Memory up to 4GB
* Hard drive up to 250GB
* Antiglare or glossy display
* Display resolution up to 1920 by 1200 pixels
* Apple USB Modem
* MagSafe Airline Adapter
* More options
* Included Software
* Operating System

Applications
* iLife '08 suite for creating photo projects, making movies, designing DVDs, building websites, and composing music
* Front Row
* Photo Booth
* iWork '08 30-day trial
* Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 30-day Test Drive
* Aperture Trial

Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger- The world's most advanced operating system including the latest versions of these system applications:
* Address Book
* DVD Player
* iCal
* iChat AV
* Mail
* Preview
* Safari
* Xcode

Buy It Here.

And for the insane person who may actually purchase this, you must get a usb flash drive worthy.


Above: The White Lake gold and diamond USB stick is a 14k or 18k gold storage device, available with or without diamonds, designed by Dutch goldsmith Erwin de Vroome.
Inquire about it here.



Check out the real diamond flash drives from MiiSTOR here.

Seriously Cute Cable Management from Copenhagen. Meet Woofy.

Earlier this week I wrote a post about cable management and charging stations, but little did I know that one of the cutest forms of cable management was about to hit the market; Woofy for Normann Copenhagen.





Okay, actually I did know it was about to hit the market, only I forgot until I received the invite to the extremely cool launch party in Denmark (see below) for Woofy in black:



Woofy comes in white, this new black edition is a limited release only:


Woofy was designed by Gabriel Nigro (shown below with Woofy) and is made of hardened plastic.


He’s cute, smart and doesn’t bite – normann copenhagen presents your new friend…

Introducing Woofy, our new addition to the normann family. Woofy is a cable container dog with many good qualities, designed by Gabriel Nigro. Woofy is your new friend and a personalised way to conceal cables.

The story of Woofy is one of experiences, of pleasure and love of design. Woofy’s Dad is Gabriel Nigro and the idea for Woofy came about during a visit to one of Gabriel’s friends, who happened to have cables lying around all over his flat. On the way home, Gabriel began drawing, and by the time he was finished Woofy was born.

Woofy never needs to be walked, fed or trained. His fur is smooth and he doesn’t cause allergies or wet the floor. Woofy can conceal your cables in his tummy and he will always be there when you need him.



Dimensions:
Width: 20 cm
Height: 33 cm
Length: 48 cm

Price: $200 USD

Woofy will be sold in stores and online here beginning the end of August 2007.



Normann Copenhagen

Want an iphone? Better Read This First

The long awaited Apple iphone hits the market today! Betcha want one, huh? Me too. But read this first-just so you know all you need to.

Written By David Pogue for The New York Times:

Often-Asked iPhone Questions
With its new iPhone, Apple pulled off two masterful feats: creating the machine and creating the buzz around it.

That machine, and that buzz, have inspired a lot of questions. Just how much of a phone, an iPod and an Internet machine is this thing?

Here are the answers to the most frequently asked iPhone questions. Consider them a companion to my review yesterday, which covered the big points like the touch-screen keyboard (adequate with practice), the AT&T Internet network (painfully slow) and the iPhone's overall character (fun, powerful, amazing).

Before you dive in, though, a note about the "Does it have...?" questions. Apple has indicated that it intends to add features through free software updates, so the real, secret answer to some of the "no" answers is actually, "Coming soon."


Phone


above: the iphone in stand

Does the touch screen work if you're wearing gloves?
Will a stylus or pen tip work? No. Skin contact is required to operate the buttons. Fortunately, most tappable elements on the screen are big and broad, designed for fingertip access.

Does the iPhone have a speakerphone? Vibrate mode? Airplane mode?
Yes, yes and yes. The speakerphone and the vibrations are both weak, though.

Can I dial without looking? Can I dial one-handed?
You can't do much on the iPhone without looking. Then again, few people can operate a cellphone without looking. Dialing the iPhone one-handed, though, is easy. As your fingers grasp the iPhone, your thumb is free to tap buttons, scroll lists and so on.

Can I use a SIM card from another phone?
The iPhone comes with an installed SIM card, the tiny circuit board that stores your account information and phone number. Apple says that you should be able to replace it with any recent AT&T card, once you activate it in iTunes. No other company's SIM card works in the iPhone.

Will the iPhone work overseas?
If you mean to use your AT&T account, yes; call AT&T to turn on international roaming, and then prepare to pay big roaming charges. If you mean to insert some other country's SIM card, no.

How about voice memos, voice dialing or call recording?
No.

Do I need an AT&T account?
Yes. The iPhone won't work at all without a two-year AT&T voice-plus-Internet plan (and no, you can't use it as just an iPod, no matter how tempting the bigger screen and longer battery life is).


Above: iphone with music and headphones

iPod
What iPod features does the iPhone have?
Password protection, Shuffle and Repeat modes, ratings, audiobooks, audiobook speed control, podcasts, SoundCheck, equalization, volume limiter, on-the-go playlists.

What iPod features does it lack?
Games, lyrics, video output to a TV and disk mode (when the iPod acts as a hard drive for transporting computer files).

Does the iPhone work with iPod accessories?
Some of them. The iPod radio receiver works, for example, but FM transmitters may not work. Existing speaker systems trigger the iPhone's airplane mode (wireless and phone features turned off) to avoid interference with the music. Starting soon, iPhone-compatible iPod products will bear a "works with iPhone" logo.

Can you use your iTunes songs as ring tones? Can you download new ones?
No. At the moment, the iPhone's 25 ring tones are your only choices. (They're really good.)

Can you use your own headphones?
Fortunately, the iPhone has a standard miniplug headphone jack; unfortunately, its plastic molding prevents most headphone plugs from seating properly. Inexpensive adapters are available from Belkin and others.

Wireless

Does the iPhone work with Bluetooth computers, printers, stereo headsets or keyboards?
No. At the moment, it communicates only with hands-free devices like Bluetooth headsets (including Apple's very tiny one, coming in July) and a car's dashboard system.

Does the iPhone alert you when it detects a wireless Internet hot spot?
Yes. In fact, if it's a hot spot you've used before, the iPhone hops onto it seamlessly and quietly.

Can the iPhone serve as a wireless modem for my laptop?
No.

Can the iPhone receive songs, files, calendar appointments, contacts or software updates wirelessly?
No, only from your computer through the U.S.B. charging cradle. But this is kind of neat: Unlike the iPod, there's no "do not disconnect" message during syncing. You can yank the iPhone out of the cradle whenever you like - to answer a call, for example; syncing resumes when you're done. You can also operate the iPhone while it is charging.

Internet



Can you make phone calls while you're on the Internet?
Yes - if your iPhone has a Wi-Fi connection. When it's using AT&T's Internet network, no.

Why didn't Apple use AT&T's faster 3G Internet network?
Apple says that today's relatively unpolished 3G (third generation) radio chips would drain the battery too fast - and at this point, wouldn't provide enough of a speed boost to justify that trade-off. Apple will release a 3G iPhone model when the time seems right.

How snappy is the real iPhone, compared with Apple's ads?
It's identical, with one exception: Apple never shows the iPhone when it's on AT&T's cellular network. That would just be embarrassing.

What kind of e-mail can it get?
The iPhone comes with presets for Gmail, AOL and Yahoo Mail. You can also set up standard POP3 and IMAP accounts.

Is there instant messaging, like AIM or MSN Messenger?
No. Text-message exchanges appear as sequential, colorful text balloons, just as in Apple's iChat program. But they're still cellphone text messages, not chat.

Does the iPhone synchronize bookmarks with your computer?
Yes: with Safari on the Mac, or Internet Explorer on Windows.

What does the Web browser have?
Multiple open pages (like tabs), fonts, layouts, pop-up menus, checkboxes, clickable links and dialable phone numbers (tap with your finger).

What does it lack?
Java, Flash, stored passwords, RSS, streaming audio or video (except for some QuickTime videos).

What about V.P.N. (virtual private networking)?
The iPhone works with several common V.P.N. systems (that is, secure connections to corporate networks). A Settings screen lets you fill in the configuration details.

Software

Does the iPhone synchronize with my computer's calendar and address book?
Yes. It can sync with Address Book or Microsoft Entourage on the Macintosh, Outlook, Outlook Express on Windows, or Yahoo's address book on the Web. If you add appointments or phone numbers to the iPhone, they are added to your computer the next time you sync.

Do To Do items show up on the iPhone? Do memos in the iPhone's Notes program show up on the computer?
No.

Does the keyboard rotate when you rotate the iPhone?
Only in the Web browser. That's a shame, because the rotated keyboard, stretching the full length of the screen, is much bigger and easier to use than the narrow version.


Above: The iphone's keyboard

Can you type with two thumbs?
I've seen Apple employees flail away with two thumbs as though on a BlackBerry, but it takes loads of practice. After two weeks, I'm still tapping with one index finger.

Without cursor keys, how do I edit something I've written?
If you hold your fingertip against the glass, a magnifying loupe appears around it. You can now slide you finger through what you've written, moving the insertion point as you go.

Can the iPhone replace a BlackBerry?
It's not really even in the same category. For example, only Yahoo Mail accounts offer "push" e-mail like a BlackBerry, in which new messages appear in real time. For other accounts, the iPhone checks either periodically (every 15, 30 or 60 minutes) or when you tap the Check button. Similarly, you can view e-mailed Word, Excel and PDF attachments on the iPhone, but you can't create or edit them. The iPhone doesn't work with corporate Exchange e-mail systems, either, unless the administrator turns on IMAP (the administrator presumably knows what that is).

Hardware


Above: the back of the iphone

Is there an ambient light sensor?
Yes. A light sensor lies camouflaged behind the black glass. Each time you wake the phone, it adjusts the brightness - to make it brighter in sunlight, for example. You can also adjust the brightness manually.

Does the camera have a flash? Zoom? Self-portrait mirror?
None of the above. The chrome Apple logo on the back is not a self-portrait mirror.

Are there any secret features?
When the screen is off, the glossy black glass becomes a handy makeup mirror.

Wanna see David Pogue's video of the iphone?
click here.

or type the address below into your browser.
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=caed76f16c6132710db58210df3940afb8a3f7c8

I'm Drooling Already: Adobe Creative Suite 3 Comes Soon

It's here!!!

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium
Design content for today — and tomorrow — with Adobe® Creative Suite® 3 Design Premium software. Design Premium combines all-new versions of essential tools for professional page layout, image editing, illustration, and Adobe PDF workflows with new tools for creating engaging websites, interactive experiences, and mobile content.

Combines Adobe InDesign® CS3, Photoshop® CS3 Extended, Illustrator® CS3, Flash® CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS3, Acrobat® 8 Professional, Bridge CS3, Version Cue® CS3, and Device Central CS3.

Pre-order now, just click here.

• Upgrade from US $440.00
• Full from US $1,799.00

Apple TV is here. What's next? The ichannel?

State of the Art: New York Times
Apple TV Has Landed
By DAVID POGUE
March 22, 2007

In the technology world, conventional wisdom says that we’ll soon be saying R.I.P. for the DVD. Internet downloads are the future, baby. No driving, no postpaid envelopes. Any movie, any TV show, any time.

Only one problem: once you’ve downloaded the shows to your computer, how do you play them on the TV?

Now, there are people — at least 12, for sure — who actually watch movies right on their computers, or who wire their PCs directly to their TV sets.

The rest of us, however, are overwhelmed by cultural inertia. Computers are for work, TVs are for vegging out, and that’s final.

No wonder, then, that when Apple announced Apple TV, a box that can connect computers and TVs without wires, the hype meter redlined with millions of search-engine citations, a run-up in the Apple stock price and drooling analysts.

After many delays, Apple TV finally went on sale yesterday for $300, but there are plenty of companies trying to solve what you might call the “last 50 feet” problem. A couple of prominent examples: In addition to its game-playing features, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 ($400) performs a similar PC-to-TV bridging function; in fact, it even has its own online movie store. Netgear’s week-old EVA8000 ($350) also joins PC and TV, but adds an Internet connection for viewing YouTube videos and listening to Internet radio.

And so Apple TV has landed. How does it stack up?


Above: Apple's TV comes with an ipod-like remote

In looks, it sits at the top of the heap. Apple TV is a gorgeous, one-inch-tall, round-cornered square slab, 7.7 inches on a side. It slips silently and almost invisibly into your entertainment setup. (You can’t say that for the Xbox, which in comparison is huge and too noisy for a bedroom.)

The heartbreaker for millions, however, is that Apple TV requires a widescreen TV — preferably an HDTV. It doesn’t work with the squarish, traditional TVs that many people still have.

Apple defends its audience-limiting decision by saying that the future is HDTV; Apple is just “skating to where the puck is going to be,” as a product manager put it.

Apple TV doesn’t come with any cables. You’re supposed to supply the one your TV requires (HDMI, component video or HDMI-to-DVI adapter). They cost $20 at Apple’s online store.

So what is Apple TV? Basically, it’s an iPod for your TV. That is, it copies the iTunes library (music, podcasts, TV shows, movies) from one Mac or Windows PC on your wired or wireless home network to its 40-gigabyte hard drive and keeps the copy updated.



The drive holds about 50 hours’ worth of video or 9,000 songs; if your iTunes library is bigger than that, you can specify what subset you want copied — only unwatched TV episodes, for example.

At this point, you can play back videos, music and photos even if the original computer is turned off or (if it’s a laptop) carried away. (Photo playback requires iPhoto on the Mac, or Photoshop Album or Photoshop Elements on Windows.)

A tiny white remote control operates Apple TV’s stunning high-definition white-on-black menus, which are enlivened by high-resolution album covers and photos. You can see the effect at apple.com/appletv.

The integration of iPod, iTunes and Apple TV offers frequent payoffs. For example, if you paused your iPod partway through a movie, TV show or song, Apple TV remembers your place when you resume playing it on your TV. Cool.

Although only one computer’s files are actually copied to Apple TV, you can still play back the iTunes libraries of five other computers by streaming — playing them through Apple TV without copying them. Starting playback, rewinding and fast-forwarding isn’t as smooth this way, and photo playback isn’t available. But it’s a handy option when, say, you want to watch a movie on your TV from a visitor’s laptop.

All of this works elegantly and effortlessly. But there are lots of unanswered questions that make onlookers wonder if Apple has bigger plans for the humble Apple TV.

For example, it has an Internet connection and a hard drive; why can’t it record TV shows like a TiVo?

Furthermore, it’s a little weird that menus and photos appear in spectacular high-definition, but not TV shows and movies. All iTunes videos are in standard definition, and don’t look so hot on an HDTV.

And then there’s the mysterious unused U.S.B. port.

Still, if you stay within the Apple ecosystem — use its online store, its jukebox software and so on — you get a seamless, trouble-free experience, with a greater selection of TV shows and movies than you can find from any other online store.

But in Netgear’s opinion, that approach is dictatorial and limiting. Its new EVA8000 box plays back many more video formats, including high-def video; can play the contents of any folders on your Mac or PC, not just what’s in iTunes; offers Internet radio and YouTube videos; and works with any kind of TV. It can even play copy-protected music — remarkably, even songs from the iTunes store (Windows only).


Netgear's TV

Unfortunately, this machine (2 by 17 by 10 inches) is as ugly as Apple’s is pretty. Its menus look as if they were typed in 12-point Helvetica. The software is geeky and unpolished; for example, during the setup process, it says “Failed to detect network” if no Ethernet cable is plugged in, rather than automatically looking for a wireless network.

The Netgear model is also filled with Version 1.0 bugs, including overprinted, blotchy menu screens and incompatibility with Windows Vista. Netgear promises to fix the glitches, but concedes that it timed the EVA8000’s release to ride the wave of Apple TV hype.

The two-year-old Xbox 360 is far more polished. Like Apple TV, it can either stream photos, music and videos (Windows PCs or, with a $20 shareware program, even Macs) or play them off its hard drive.


Above: Microsoft's Xbox


What’s different, though, is that you can’t copy files to this hard drive over the network; you can download shows and movies only straight to the Xbox from Microsoft’s own fledgling online store. You can buy TV shows for $2 each ($3 in high definition), or rent movies for $4 ($6 for high def). Microsoft movies self-destruct 24 hours after you start watching them. (Apple movies cost full DVD price, but at least you can keep them forever.)

Note, too, that the Xbox’s primary mission — playing games — doesn’t always suit music and movie playback. It can’t get onto a wireless network without an add-on transmitter ($100 — yikes). You can’t control the speed of a slide show or fast-forward through a song.

And in general, the included game controller makes a lousy remote control. There are no dedicated buttons for controlling playback; instead, you have to walk through the buttons on an on-screen control bar to reach, say, the pause function.

And alas, these products can require a journey through the hell of home networking. The Xbox couldn’t get online at first, thanks to an “MTU failure.” A Microsoft techie in India named “Mike” claimed that my cable-modem company would have to make a change in my service. (He was wrong; a router setting had to be changed instead.)

When the Netgear EVA8000 couldn’t get on the network, I waited 30 minutes to speak to a technician, who announced that I’d shortly get a call back from a senior tech. Five days later, I’m still waiting. (The solution was to uninstall — not just turn off — Microsoft’s OneCare security suite.)

In the end, these early attempts to bridge the gulf between computer and TV perfectly reinforce the conventional wisdom about Apple: Apple TV offers a gracious, delightful experience — but requires fidelity to Apple’s walled garden.

Its rivals, meanwhile, offer many more features, but they’re piled into bulkier boxes with much less concern for refinement, logic or simplicity.

Put another way, these machines aren’t direct competitors at all; they’re aimed at different kinds of people. Microsoft’s young male gamers probably couldn’t care less that they can’t change the slide-show speed, and Netgear’s box “is for people who are more experienced,” according to a representative. “This is not for the random person.”

Apple, on the other hand, is going for everybody else, random people included (at least those with HDTV sets). And that, perhaps, is Apple TV’s real significance. To paraphrase the old Macintosh advertisement, it’s a computer-to-TV bridge for the rest of us.

Desktopography's Nature Desktop Exhibition

Desktopography has posted their third annual natural wallpaper exibition. This 2007 collection of 40 beautifully designed nature-themed desktop wallpapers by selected designers are all available as free downloads for your Mac or PC in the appropriate resolutions.

Desktopography has been doing this since 2005 and the selections continue to grow. The 2005 and 2006 selections are also still available for download. They are a non-profit, fun project site to share with friends and family.

Here are a few examples of their lovely new desktop wallpapers:







So? what are you waiting for, go get 'em! Right here.

Could you live without your computer for a day?

It is obvious that people would find life extremely difficult without computers, maybe even impossible. If they disappeared for just one day, would we be able to cope?

Be a part of one of the biggest global experiments ever to take place on the internet. The idea behind the experiment is to find out how many people can go without a computer for one whole day, and what will happen if we all participate!

Shutdown your computer on this day and find out! Can you survive for 24 hours without your computer?



See who can and who can't at www.shutdownday.org

Mac•a•licious.

Never mix up your ipod with everyone else's in the gym locker room.
Or question which laptop is yours in the student library.

As a big mac enthusiast, I was thrilled to read about Etchamac in the premiere issue of Mac Life, a new magazine.

Customize your mac product with laser etching. Here are just a few examples:








Etchamac will basically etch anything you want onto your mac product-for a price, of course. But it's a great idea to help distinguish your mac from the hundreds of others out there. Or, as a corporate promotion, etch a nano with your logo!

Be it an ipod, mac book or G4 laptop... aluminum, polycarbonate or plastic, seems they can etch on most anything, check them out.