Electricpig.co.uk - tech news fast! |
- Windows Phone 7 Connector revealed: Sync with your Mac!
- Samsung Omnia 7 review
- HTC HD7 review
- Windows Phone 7 review: People hub and messaging
- Windows Phone 7 review
- New MacBook Air: New looks, new sizes!
- Mac OS X Lion: See what’s inside
- Mac App Store coming to Snow Leopard!
- iLife 11: What’s new in each app?
- FaceTime for Mac out today!
| Windows Phone 7 Connector revealed: Sync with your Mac! Posted: 20 Oct 2010 04:08 PM PDT  Windows Phone 7 Connector is coming, for all you Windows Phone 7 obsessives stashing media on your previously incompatible OS X machine. No, it’s not Zune for Mac, but it does get the job done: we’ve been testing it out over the last few days, so read on for our impressions.
A little primer first for anyone who hasn’t been following Windows Phone 7 since launch. Microsoft has done away with the USB mounting of Windows Mobile (And Android and BlackBerry) for Windows Phone 7 handsets: syncing with a desktop computer instead relies upon proprietary software as the iPhone needs iTunes: except it’s Microsoft’s own Zune software. And that’s only available on PC. Microsoft’s solution to this is Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac, and it does what it says on the tin. It works in a way that’s similar to media syncing with BlackBerry Desktop Manager on Mac. It’s a separate app, but it pulls in your iTunes content and playlists, and dumps everything on the phone back in your OS X libraries as well. For instance, our HTC HD7 photos and video are dropped straight into a new album created on iPhoto when we sync. It also shows you the storage capacity of the phone, just like iTunes, and what’s eating up all the space. Set up is easy, and the first time you plug your Windows Phone 7 handset in, it’ll recognise the model and show an image. The Sync options in Windows Phone 7 Connector let you choose automatic and manual sync, as well as connect to music info from Zune. Everything worked quickly, and without a hitch, but music has to be in an iTunes playlist to make it across, and you can’t drag and drop into the phone’s name, as you can with iTunes. Unfortunately, there’s no WiFi syncing this way sadly – that’s a Windows thing for the time being. Pity really, as it’s very convenient. Truth be told, Microsoft has kept this quiet for far too long: if it had plans for this, we’d have much preferred it flagged them up at launch back in February, or at one of the numerous press conferences it’s hosted since then. We’d also like to see a full Zune OS X application too, since it’s actually pretty nice, and well, Ping is starting to get on our nerves. Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac launches in public beta on 24 October. In the meantime, why not check out our review of Windows Phone 7, and the first phones out of the block, the HTC HD7 and Samsung Omnia 7? Related posts:
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| Posted: 20 Oct 2010 04:07 PM PDT  The Samsung Omnia 7 is to the Samsung Galaxy S what the HTC HD7 is to the HTC Desire HD. It’s the Windows Phone 7 equivalent of a bloody great smartphone that everyone has fallen in love with already. Is its Super AMOLED screen still the talk of telephone town? And can its specs help it stand out from the Windows Phone 7 crowd? We’ve been testing out the Samsung Omnia 7 for you, and have the answer right here: read on for our full Samsung Omnia 7 review.
Read the rest of our Windows Phone 7 review Microsoft’s made an unusual move with Windows Phone 7: it’s made manufacturers stick to a bare minimum spec sheet, to stop budget handsets with slow interfaces letting the side down as we’ve seen happen on Android. And the Samsung Omnia 7 sticks to those specs by and large: a humming 1GHz CPU that makes games and apps fly, a five megapixel camera and just 8GB of storage. These all lead to a perfectly smooth experience, but they’re nothing out of the ordinary.  The Super AMOLED screen on the Omnia 7 is scorchingly beautiful Where Samsung really steps on the gas though is with the Samsung Omnia 7’s screen. It’s beautiful. Just like the 4-inch, WVGA Super AMOLED screen on the Samsung Galaxy S, it will quite possibly cause your eyeballs to implode. A lot of the Windows Phone 7 UI uses black (Perhaps in a bid to save the battery life of AMOLED screen phones), and the Samsung Omnia 7 does it justice in a way the HTC HD7 simply can’t. The problem is the rest of the Samsung Omnia 7’s build. If you’ll recall in our glowing Samsung Galaxy S review, we said Samsung needed to drop its piano black plastic design ethos – it has, but what it’s gone for instead is the worst of both worlds.  Meh. How ordinary the back is. Don’t get us wrong, we like the fact that the metal casing on the Samsung Omnia 7 is smudge resistant and impressively warm. It just looks dull, like an overweight Samsung Wave. There’s nothing wrong with any of the port placement (though the micro USB sliding door on the top is a bit unnecessary), but it’s just dreary, and the angular lines make it look chunkier than it is. Despite that dazzling screen, we just didn’t enjoy holding it as much as we did the HTC HD7. Sure, that’s an emotional decision rather than a rational one, but we know plenty of people will react that way when they come to test out phones on display in a shop. Check out the best Samsung Omnia 7 deals now The camera on the Samsung Omnia 7 meanwhile is a hit and miss affair. Focusing was noticeably quicker than on the HTC HD7 when it came to taking stills, and the HD video shot below (Of er, the HTC HD7) shows its impressive 720p video recording skills. Shots with the flash came off considerably worse than with the dual LED shooter on the HD7. One odd difference we noticed with the camera on the Samsung Omnia 7 is that it doesn’t offer a QVGA resolution recording mode, where the HTC HD7 does. It doesn’t really matter, but we’re surprised to see Microsoft allowing differentiation in something as minor as this. Samsung hasn’t added much on top of Windows Phone 7, other than a pointless Samsung Zone in the Marketplace with three uninteresting apps. The Samsung Omnia 7 unit we had did also have some Orange software preloaded, which gives us some idea of what to expect from networks when it comes to bloatware. Orange has bolted on its Daily Reader news app, plus its own hub and Orange Maps – which wasn’t working but should be soon – while we object to its presence on Android, Bing Maps doesn’t offer turn by turn navigation, so it might prove a welcome addition here.  Orange bloatware ahoy We can’t say we cared for any of them, but we did quite like Orange’s custom shade of, well, orange for the homescreen. And sensibly, it hasn’t crippled the Search button in Internet Explorer like O2 has: it still launches the native Bing app. And if you’re buying the Samsung Omnia 7 on another network (like T-Mobile), you won’t see any of this anyway. As with HTC and the HD7, Samsung has failed to make the Omnia 7 stand out from the Windows Phone 7 crowd with its software. That’s frankly not an issue though when the screen is incredible.  A solid Windows Phone 7 debut We didn’t notice anything stand out about the battery life or the call quality on the Samsung Omnia 7: you’ll survive a day, and you can hear people talking just fine, but won’t want to host speakerphone conferences with it. Which leaves anyone after a Microsoft mobile at an impasse. If you know you want a Windows Phone 7 handset, you’re left to choose between great screen or great design – it’s a pity we can’t have both just yet. Read the rest of our Windows Phone 7 review Related posts:
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| Posted: 20 Oct 2010 04:06 PM PDT  Let’s not beat around the bush. The HTC HD7 is the phone the HTC HD2 should have been: a mammoth smartphone that’s all screen, with a working OS. Windows Phone 7 is that panacea, but there are a few more differences – plus some serious competition from the likes of Samsung and LG. Find out how the HTC HD7 holds up now with our HTC HD7 review.
Read the rest of our Windows Phone 7 review Long time Electricpig readers will probably know by now that we’re in love with HTC’s huge smartphone form factor. It was ace in the HTC HD2, it’s ace in the Android powered Desire HD, and it’s what puts the HTC HD7 ahead of the rest of the Windows Phone 7 launch pack when it comes to design. Despite how smudgy it can soon become, we love the build: that front face is almost all screen, while the slightly curved edges make it comfortable to hold. At 11.2mm, it’s not at all thick, and we can sure you it won’t have any problems fitting into any pocket.  The HTC HD7 is still very thin at 11.2mm A few changes on the hardware side have been made since the HD2’s launch a year ago though. The physical row of home buttons is now replaced by the three mandated Microsoft buttons, Back, Home and Search. They’re now touch sensitive, but work without a hitch. It’s also possibly a newer 1GHz CPU, but we can’t confirm this – there is however more internal storage this time. Our review model had 16GB, but HTC says European units will ship with 8GB. It should be enough, though we’d love the option to bolster this with microSD – which Windows Phone 7 technically supports. The lock button is now on the top right of the HTC HD7, while 3.5mm audio and micro USB for syncing and charging sit on the bottom.  The kickstand in action The kickstand meanwhile is an interesting addition to the HTC HD7. We’ve not really seen one of these on a high end phone since the Sony Ericsson W995, but if any screen merits one, it’s certainly the huge panel on the HTC HD7. Truth be told, Windows Phone 7’s limited video format support (The same as the iPhone’s, pretty much) means you might not watch too many, but it’s nice to have the option there: it balances well, and perhaps more importantly, doesn’t add to the thickness, or ever feel like it could open and snap by accident when pulling the HTC HD7 from your pocket. Check out our Best HTC phone Top 5 now One of the most noticeable physical difference between the HTC HD7 and the Desire HD is the former’s physical camera shutter button, where you’d expect it on the right hand side. Windows Phone 7 conveniently lets you trigger the camera with a long press even when the screen is locked, which is welcome for spur of the moment shots, and the five megapixel sensor on the HTC HD7 is reasonable. Shots ended up pretty noisy most of the time, and the phone has an annoying habit of only focusing on the screen at the very last second, so it can be difficult to frame shots accurately. The dual LED flash is welcome, and get the job done – this is no Nokia N8 though. What we were pleased with however, was the HTC HD7’s 720p video recording. As you can see in the clip above, while nothing is especially sharp, the auto focus is extremely responsive.  See the difference between black and screen black? All in all, the HTC HD7 is the spruced up slab of hotness we were expecting. What really surprised us about the HTC HD7 however, we’re almost sorry to say, is the screen. While it’s perfectly responsive and sharp, at 800×480 resolution, it’s also unfortunately washy for something so top of the line, and the Windows Phone 7 default black background only shows it up even more. You know how blacks on older TVs look more white than anything else? It’s like that. Perch a Samsung Omnia 7, complete with Super AMOLED screen next to it, and the difference is astonishing. HTC really needs to work on this aspect of all its phones, now that its supply of Samsung made AMOLED panels is dwindling. Of course, the sheer size of the screen goes some way to making this up. The 4.3-inch display sounds big, but at least with our man hands, it’s absolutely perfect for typing and tapping icons. We never missed a stroke on the excellent Windows Phone 7 keyboard, and it’s definitely the way forward.  Typing on the HTC HD7 is seamless. Kudos for the keyboard, Microsoft You can read more about Windows Phone 7 itself in our full review, but the HTC HD7’s 1GHz CPU absolutely flies. We never experienced any slowdown, and if anything, you’ll only be waiting on the flash screen transitions – see for yourself in the video below, which we doubled up and recorded with the Samsung Omnia 7. Some third party apps (particularly games) do take a long time to load, but the HD7 is a match for the Omnia 7 when it comes to speed. We did run into a couple of crazy bugs that caused the screen to repeat itself again and again, offset by a few pixels, so the whole thing became unreadable. But a restart fixed these, and it’s possible this glitch will be fixed by launch. HTC has tried to differentiate itself a tad with the HTC HD7’s software though. On board, you’ll find the HTC Hub preloaded, which lets you use various HTC widgets within it (stocks/weather). Unfortunately, it’s pretty pointless, since it opens as a third party app. We don’t think HTC will be making a name for itself with this in the way it has with Sense on Android, and we unpinned it from the start screen fairly quickly, and haven’t looked back. Battery life on the HTC HD7 is pretty much par for the course with a modern smartphone these days. 1230mAh doesn’t sound like much for a 4.3-inch WVGA smartphone, but we still never had any trouble getting through a day of solid use, even if it won’t stretch to two. Of course, Windows Phone 7 doesn’t allow for third party apps to run in the background, so you won’t have any real opportunity to drain it in the same way you would an Android phone – swings and roundabouts.  In spite of its screen, this is the best Windows Phone 7 launch handset - just The HTC HD7 is unusual, in that perhaps more than any other smartphone this year, we’ve been expecting it. It just seemed obvious that HTC would combine its beautiful design with Windows Phone 7. And it works: we’d go so far as to say that it still makes it a better choice than the fugly Samsung Omnia 7, despite its clearly inferior screen. It’s big, beautiful, and for better or worse, has all the pros and cons Windows Phone 7 brings with it. Read the rest of our Windows Phone 7 review Related posts:
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| Windows Phone 7 review: People hub and messaging Posted: 20 Oct 2010 04:03 PM PDT  Microsoft is touting Windows Phone 7's new "hub" approach to smartphone UI as groundbreaking, and sitting at the top of that new live tile homescreen is the main attraction and one you'll likely use most: the People hub. Want to know if it really helps you get back to living, or just makes it more frustrating to make a phone call? Read on for this part of our Windows Phone 7 review to find out.
Read the rest of our Windows Phone 7 review HTC HD7 review You shouldn't have any problems bringing your contacts over to Windows Phone 7 if you keep them in the cloud on another platform. While you'll initially need to login with a Windows Live account (and all your nostalgic contacts from when you used MSN in the 1990s will sadly appear in your address book), you can add Outlook, Facebook, Gmail and Google App accounts without a problem, and choose what syncs from each (contacts, photos, calendar, email etc).
We ran into no problems here, and linking different emails and numbers under one name is straight forward. What you can't do is link a Twitter account to a contact – this does mean synchronising doesn't take very long, but if you've grown used to seeing a friend's latest update before you call them on an Android phone, it may be an issue for you. We had no problem running running a Gmail and Google apps account simultaneously, and events from both dropped through into the calendar without a hitch, while a quick sweep to the right in the contacts page takes us to the Facebook and MSN activity of all of them in the What's New pane. This certainly looks nice, and is quick to sweep through – it's just a shame it has to update when you open the hub, rather than update in the background as email happily does. Samsung Omnia 7: Everything you need to know Speaking of email – it's OK, but not quite what you'd expect from the maker of Exchange. New message numbers appear in the tiles of each account, but unfortunately, messages from various accounts don't all drop into one inbox, and instead all have their own tiles on the homescreen. It's no more of a problem than it is on Android, but BlackBerry owners looking to switch may well be put off by this – it's all very well having live tiles showing how many messages you've got, but we'd rather see what said messages are straight from the homescreen, something perfectly possible in BlackBerry OS.
Unfortunately, there's still the occasional glimpse of the mistakes Microsoft made with Windows Mobile buried within the UI, and they're actually most prominent here. While typing and reading messages, the Send and Delete buttons sit directly below the space bar, which can be deadly: you'll either trash an email as you scroll down, with no way to get it back, or hit send instead of space mid email and fling it off into cyberspace prematurely. Finally, there's our biggest grievance: no true quick contact search. While you can pin contacts on the homescreen, and see recent ones in the hub, simply typing someone's name on the dialler doesn't bring up a name as it will on Android, BlackBerry and webOS. There's a search button within the People hub, but we'd still like to be able to do this from the launch screen: as such, your best bet is to use the adequate voice control, activated by the home button, and which seemed to cope with British accents pretty well. It does make you look like a tool in public though. All in all, Windows Phone 7 gets the job done if you want to stay in touch. It's not ideal for corporate users, truth be told, or Twitter addicts – but that still leaves a large populace who'll be more than satisfied. Read the rest of our Windows Phone 7 review HTC HD7 review Related posts:
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| Posted: 20 Oct 2010 04:01 PM PDT  Windows Phone 7. Only a complete moniker makeover could help users even begin to learn to forgive Microsoft for the atrocities it's committed with Windows Mobile in recent years. Rightly, Redmond's razed it to the ground and salted to the earth: Windows Phone 7 won't run previous Windows Mobile apps. Indeed, bar a few fonts, it's nothing like you've ever seen in Windows Mobile. Is that for better or worse? We've been testing it out on a couple of phones for the past fortnight to find out: see what we made of it in our full Windows Phone 7 review right here.
Read the rest of our Windows Phone 7 review HTC HD7 review We've had several opportunities to play with Windows Phone 7 since we first tried it out at Mobile World Congress way back in February, and you'll either be relieved or disappointed to hear that after extensive play with a HTC HD7 and Samsung Omnia 7 this week, little has changed from its initial premise. Windows Phone 7 is very much a smartphone operating system for the masses, with a very shallow UI – but one that won't boggle the less tech savvy either. We're breaking down the core sections of Windows Phone 7, like media, the web and hubs, in their own individual sections of our Windows Phone 7 review, so we'll stick to an overview of how the parts come together here, and sum up the experience of using Windows Phone 7. Who is Windows Phone 7 for? The video above gives you some feel for the audience Microsoft is trying to pitch to with Windows Phone 7. What may surprise you is that it's really not the same audience as Windows Moible once was: an amalgamation of corporate users unfortunately too tied into Outlook to move, and tinkering early adopters. Don't let the message of this ad fool you: Windows Phone 7 is an OS for those who scoff at people rubbing their glowing screens, not those already in servitude to their iPhone or Android blower. And by and large, it works, if not for the right reasons. Read our HTC HD7 review now Microsoft's not changed the game with its new Windows Phone 7 hub and tiles system as it claims to have – in practice, they're just bastardized widgets – and nor does it let you perform many core actions quicker than rival platforms, as it's been crowing. By only allowing very contained, fenced off third party apps, it's not changed the "There's an app for that" paradigm consumers have only just started to grasp, as Android moves well beyond it. What it does do is provide a solid, simple and coherent ecosystem that we have no doubt mainstream users will come to grasp just as easily as Apple's – but with much more choice when it comes to hardware. For this, Microsoft should be lauded.
Yes, we just used the L word. Albeit with a few inconsistencies – long presses occasionally bring up context menus, but only in certain situations – Microsoft has delivered on the basics, with a shockingly usable touchscreen keyboard that eclipses any Android board we've used, a competent web browser and smooth pinch to zoom gestures (Apps can use up to four touch recognition), and most impressively, a system you could credibly give to your parents and expect them to figure out for themselves. To the design and hub system of Windows Phone 7 first. It's not revolutionary as Microsoft claims, but it is nice, and our original concerns about getting lost in the UI – mostly backdrops and large font menu titles, Zune style – are null and void, since it's not really possible to get more than two layers deep from the home screen. You can stick what you like as a tile on the homescreen – including contacts and even individual media files – and your longer list is always available with one swipe to the right.
Microsoft's People hub doesn't set a new benchmark for contact management, but it is perfectly pleasant looking, and importing any type of ActiveSync account, plus Facebook contacts, is possible. As we've seen on countless Android phones now, a quick swipe shows a friend's recent activity – as well as who's talking to them on Facebook, which is decidedly odd – and we can't help but feel that it's reached the point where it would be unacceptable if this type of integration wasn't included. But it is, so. The same goes for the Microsoft Office hub. Since there's no TV-out on any of the launch Windows Phone 7 handsets, you're not going to be plugging it in to show off your PowerPoint presentation, and we'd venture to suggest that if you need to edit said presentations on your phone, you're probably not doing your job properly. But the options are there, and it'll do in a pinch, so long as you can cope without Cut and Paste, which won't hit until early next year.
What we think more people are really going to be slapping high up their list of tiles -rearranged, incidentally, just as icons are in iOS with a long press – is the Music and Videos hub. While a few might be disappointed to see Microsoft take the syncing approach of the iPhone, rather than the more open USB mounting process of Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones, we have to say it's performed it well. Zune on the desktop, an unknown entity in the UK by and large, is delightful, and worked flawlessly on the Windows 7 laptop we tested it with – and the Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac isn't half bad either. Once your music and video is onboard, album art and imagery will take over the tile. It's hard to say whether the Zune Pass subscription model will be worthwhile in the UK – a Windows Phone 7 Spotify app has already been confirmed – but in this regard, Microsoft has delivered above and beyond Apple. Oh, and there's no bloody Ping either getting all up in your grill with suggestions. Check out our Samsung Omnia 7 review now What Windows Phone 7 does have however, is Bing. Tap that search button and you can search from Microsoft's amiable "decision engine". When you're on the homescreen, it works a treat, pulling up results based on news, location and plain old fashioned web. It's not without its flaws – there's no universal local search of messages, contacts and all your files, and Microsoft has made an alarming concession by letting networks decide what search engine the button triggers when Internet Explorer is open – but both it and Bing Maps are pleasant, fast, and in most situations get the job done. Hand on heart, as gadget enthusiasts, we can't say the experience matches Google's comprehensive search and navigation skills on Android. But if Joe Public can understand how to do all this, Microsoft will have achieved something Google hasn't.
Unfortunately, the one aspect of Windows Phone 7 we weren't really able to test properly was Xbox Live. Trying to login currently leads to a broken URL, but we'll be testing it out when the service goes live. For a brand new platform however, the games are undeniably pretty, if slow to load – we just wish that multiplayer support extended beyond "asynchronous" games – or rubbish ones, depending on your perspective. Still, we wouldn't call this an issue: we can't honestly say we get the urge to do this much on other smartphones either.
Multitasking – or lack thereof – however really is one of the big issues we have with Windows Phone 7. Every other rival now platform allows some form of multitasking for third party apps, whether iOS 4's limited tasks to Android's free for all approach. Windows Phone 7 does not. Leave an app, and it needs to restart. This might sound like a petty complaint, but it does have real ramifications. It means when the Spotify app arrives, it won't be able to stream music in the background while you browse the web. It means that Twitter programs have to open links within the app, rather than open a full screen page in Internet Explorer. It leads to frustrations you might not run up against everyday, but ones you're just not going to find a way around, or ever get used to. If this is an issue for you, the chances are nothing else about Windows Phone 7 is going to make this up to you. Speaking of those apps: as you might expect, there aren't a great deal of them right now, and some of the ones that are live are rather buggy. Twitter client Twitt for instance crashes like a Windows Vista laptop being dropped off a skyscraper. But this is just the start, and if anyone can get all the big names ticked off in a short amount of time, and get enough money into the Marketplace to make it worth developers' time, we'd say it's Redmond right now, thanks to its consistent specs and OS approach to Windows Phone 7 handsets – watch this space closely, as we'll be monitoring the Marketplace non-stop. To pull off this united front is impressive, and should avoid any of the Android fragmentation issues we've seen over the last year. But in a rush to get Windows Phone 7 onto phones and out of the factories by Christmas, it's not just Copy and Paste that's been left on the wayside. Microsoft's not managed to iron out all the bugs, and it shows in Windows Phone 7. We can forgive third party apps which crash or take a while to load, but we've witnessed a quite spectacular glitch on more than on occasion and on more than one phone that causes the background to go mental. It'll start changing colour, and worse, showing the homescreen at multiple offsets, so everything becomes unreadable until a full restart is required. Fingers crossed this is fixed in time for launch. We also saw some wild fluctuations in reported battery life on the HTC HD7 too, with quoted battery life dropping down to around 10 percent, before jumping up to about 50 percent for an hour, then suddenly kicking out a critical low power message – not at all helpful. Our Samsung Omnia 7 behaved much more nicely however.
New or completely overhauled mobile operating systems are a rare thing these days – before Windows Phone 7, the last one of note was Palm's webOS back in June 2009, and then before that was Android more than two years ago. We can't say that Windows Phone 7 is a more competent OS than webOS on launch, but it's much more simple and much more mainstream – and with Microsoft's overspilling coffers propping it up, we think it's going to hoover up a larger marketshare much more quickly. Should you buy a Windows Phone 7 handset on launch? It's nowhere near ready for demanding users, but we'd gladly recommend it to anyone with an iPhone obsession, but looking for something cheaper, or with a physical keyboard. Right now, Windows Phone 7 is something we'll be recommending to our less fussy friends, rather than queuing up for ourselves. Until Microsoft fixes the multitasking issue, we can't see that changing any time soon either – but if that doesn't bug you, it's definitely worth considering for your next blower. Read the rest of our Windows Phone 7 review HTC HD7 review Related posts:
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| New MacBook Air: New looks, new sizes! Posted: 20 Oct 2010 11:34 AM PDT  UPDATE: Ah, random UK gadget markup strikes again. The 11-inch, with a 1.4GHz CPU , 2GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD will cost £849 – a bit more than the actual $999 pricetag is worth in British pounds right now (£630). The 1.86GHz 13-inch new MacBook Air with a 128GB SSD starts at £1,099. Owee. The new MacBook Air is here! Wait, did we say MacBook Air? We meant MacBook Airs. There are two: a unibody refresh of the 13.-3incher, and an even smaller 11.6-inch. Who needs a Mac netbook when you can have one of these?
Steve Jobs unveiled the new look MacBook Air as his “one last thing” at Apple’s Mac press conference today. It now tapers from 0.68 to just 0.11 inches, but Apple appears to have addressed the biggest problem with previous models: its piddly power. The 13.30inch new MacBook Air has a 1440×900 screen, Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics – plus an SSD drive instead of mechanical storage. Jobs says the battery life is 7 hours of real world use, and an absurd 30 day standby – we’ll be roadtesting that ourselves ASAP, as it’s one mighty claim. There’s also a new MacBook Air that’s the same thickness (or lack thereof), but only 11.6-inch across. It’s still rocking a Core 2 Duo CPU, and has a 1366×768 display, with a 5 hour battery life. Apple says prices start at $999 (£630) – that’s an impressive price cut for the MacBook Air, assuming it makes the trip across the Atlantic without a random gadget markup. Like what you see? We’ll be hunting down the new MacBook Air models for a test just as soon as we can. Out Today | $999 | Apple Related posts:
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| Mac OS X Lion: See what’s inside Posted: 20 Oct 2010 11:30 AM PDT  Apple just showed us the new OS X Lion. Steve Jobs says it's "inspired by some of the innovations in the iPad and iPhone… it's Mac OS X meets the iPad." Think multi-touch everywhere, an App Store for your desktop Mac, new homescreens for your apps and some neat improvements to the way apps load and quit. Best of all, OS X is coming in Summer 2011. So what's inside and what do those new features mean? Read on, and we'll break it down.
Multi-touch gestures
Steve Jobs appears to have pooh-poohed the idea of a touchscreen Mac, stating clearly "touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical…it doesn’t work, it’s ergonomically terrible. Touch surfaces want to be horizontal" and pointing us back to the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad as the way we'll use multi-touch on our Macs in OS X Lion. In the demos we saw, it seems to work well, although we're a little gutted we're not getting the full Minority Report Mac OS X of our dreams. App store
That App Store you love on the iPhone and iPod touch? It's coming to the Mac, and you don't have to wait for OS X Lion. It's coming to Snow Leopard in the next 90 days, with apps being approved from next month. Steve jobs explained that "over 7 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store. There's never been anything like this that we've seen in our career. As part of OS X Lion we're going to launch a Mac app store. It won't be the only place to get apps for Mac, but we think it'll be the best place." Everything you'd expect will be there. You can install apps with a single click, get automatic updates just like the iPhone, automatic installation of those updates, and even reviews and ratings from other Mac owners. Apps downloaded to your Mac will be licensed for use on all your personal Macs too. App Home screens
Launchpad is Apple's new app launcher for the desktop, coming in OS X Lion. It's an idea snatched straight from the iPhone. Launch it with a multi-touch gesture on a Magic Mouse or trackpad, and you'll see apps fly into view, over a slightly blurred desktop. Folders work just as we've seen on iPhone and iPod touch homescreens too, so you can organise your apps without a clunky old Applications folder. Full screen apps
In OS X Lion, apps can take over your entire screen. We don't mean they fill the screen, but retain the toolbar and Dock, they literally fill the entire screen. Multi-touch flick gestures using two fingers move between open full screen apps. It looks great for PDF viewers and iPhoto, but as avid multi-taskers, we're not yet sold on working full-screen all the time. Auto saveJust like apps on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, OS X Lion apps will auto save their state when you quit them, letting you forget about saving documents or photos, since the OS will take care of it for you. This isn't a completely new idea. Some OS X apps currently offer this, although it seems OS X will usher in a new focus, with all apps adopting the iOS auto save standard. Apps resume when launchedDucked into an iOS app and found it's exactly where you left off? That same experience is coming to the Mac. Mission Control
A new way to view everything that's running on your Mac, and navigate anywhere, Mission Control is a little like Exposé, showing you piles of windows you've got open, organised by app, as well as full screen apps you have open. Again, it's accessed by a multi-touch gesture and looks incredibly zippy. Related posts:
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| Mac App Store coming to Snow Leopard! Posted: 20 Oct 2010 11:19 AM PDT  A Mac App Store was unveiled as part of Apple’s sneak peek into its next version of OS X, Lion. It works just like the App Store for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, but you won’t have to wait a year to try it out – it’s coming to Snow Leopard “within 90 days”, according to Steve Jobs. Developer submissions open next month, and the 70/30 revenue split and options for paid and free apps remain intact. Will you be using it? Related posts:
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| iLife 11: What’s new in each app? Posted: 20 Oct 2010 10:58 AM PDT 
iPhoto 11iPhoto has no new "features" as such, but rather Apple's put its existing abilities on steroids. Check out the new additions: New Full Screen modes, so you can "live full screen in iPhoto".
New slideshow effects
Easier e-mailing of photos from within iPhoto
New Facebook enhancements, with comments integrated into iPhoto
A "big leap" in printed photo books, ordered direct from iPhoto, with higher quality printing.
Letterpress and greeting cards can now be ordered from within iPhoto
iMovie 11Where iPhoto 11 was an enhancement of the last version we know and love, iMovie 11 has tons of bonafide new features. Read on and we'll break them down. New audio editing
New audio effects One step effects
Auto-generated movie trailers
Facebook and Vimeo sharing GarageBand 11More new features for your delectation, including new ways to tune your musical abilities, as well as polishing things post-recording. Read through, and we'll sort out the new stuff. Groove Matching
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New piano and guitar lessons "How did I play?"
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| Posted: 20 Oct 2010 10:53 AM PDT  FaceTime is coming to Mac OS X. Woohoo! The public beta is out today, and will let your ring anyone on a Mac, iPhone 4 or new iPod touch simply by hitting their mug in your contacts. Apple CEO Steve Jobs demoed it on stage at the company’s Mac press conference with Apple vice president Phil Schiller, with no WiFi interruptions. No sign of a PC version though. Is this what FaceTime needs to go mainstream? Related posts:
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Apple just tore the covers off the all-new iLife suite of apps. There's all the apps you love, with new features galore. Want to know what's new in iLife 11? Read on, we've broken it all down.
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