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Showing posts with label apple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apple. Show all posts

The MacBook might be getting changes inside and out in the next several weeks.

(Credit: Apple)

Apple might have decided its partnership with Intel doesn't mean it has to use all of Intel's products.

AppleInsider reports that Apple could be using a chipset from a different company--or even an internally developed one--in the next iteration of the MacBook, expected to arrive in the next six or eight weeks. Like other notebook vendors, Apple had been using Intel's mobile Centrino chipsets in its MacBook line ever since 2006 but it's going to pass on the Montevina version of those chipsets this time around, according to the report.

Intel has done an excellent job reinventing the company around mobile processors, starting with the original Pentium M design back in 2004 and carrying forward to today's Core 2 Duo. But it has done a much less stellar job with the integrated graphics chipsets that connect those processors to the rest of the system, such as the memory chips and hard drives.

Most notebooks use integrated graphics chipsets over discrete graphics chips to cut down on power consumption, but the graphics performance of Intel's chipsets leave a lot to be desired. Microsoft was less-than-thrilled about the performance of the chipsets that were scheduled to arrive with Windows Vista, and Intel has had problems getting other chipsets to live up to their promise.

If it's an internally designed chipset that Apple has in place for the new systems, history would be repeating itself at the company, which used to design much of the internal hardware that went along with IBM's PowerPC chips back in the day. Apple recently acquired a passel of chip designers from P.A. Semi, but Steve Jobs has said those folks are working on future chips for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

AppleInsider thinks Apple might have contracted with Advanced Micro Devices or Via for the new chipsets, but offers no details on what might actually be inside the new systems. Given Nvidia's huge mobile chipset problem this summer, it is probably not in the running if Apple's looking at other suppliers.

In other pending MacBook news, Computerworld reports that the new systems will arrive in September with glass touchpads, which seems a bit curious. Glass might allow for all kinds of trackpad-oriented multitouch goodness, but it seems like a warranty nightmare to me.

The new notebooks are expected to borrow design cues from the MacBook Air and bring the aluminum casing on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air to the MacBook.

Posted by Alexander Wolfe, Jul 28, 2008 09:53 AM

Will MobileMe mail users be mollified by Apple's just-updated status page, which gives a progress report on how the Mac maker is recovering from the meltdown? Mmmm. Judging by the comments I received in response to my post last week, What's Behind Apple's MobileMe Meltdown, I wouldn't bet the iPod Touch on it.

First, the new Apple status page. The latest entry (there are only two), posted Sunday night, essentially says that only 1% of MobileMe users are still having problems. (They way Apple puts it is: "As you know, restoring full email access to the remaining 1% of MobileMe users is our first priority.") Apple says that these folks can be fully restored in the next few days.

This is in keeping with Apple's original status post of July 25, which said that only 1% of MobileMe users were affected in the first place. Pity for Apple that its customers expect Apple to be perfect, because judging from my e-mails, that 1% are a noisy bunch (and there are a lot of them!). Here are a few I've received (as well as some of the comments drawn from my previous post).

Here's one that blasted both Apple and me:

"I was insulted by the tone of your mac outage story which seemed to be that Mac geeks and bandwagonners would have to wait to play with their new toys. … I am an attorney, writer, former news anchor and union actor who, three and a half years ago, converted from my decade-long hotmail account to mac.com. Friday morning July 18, 2008 sometime around 9:37 a.m., without warning, it stopped.

I began getting calls from people who were trying to send me e-mails. I spent all weekend on the phone with Apple. I even posted on message boards for the first time in my life. My lifeline was cut five full days ago, and Apple could not care less. Each business day I talk to people at Apple who insist they will pass on my problem, but that they have no idea how to fix it or when it will end.
I don't have an iphone. I was leaning toward getting one, but now will not. ... I will never buy another Apple product again. "

And this:

"I was not able to access my email for days and thereafter for periods of time. It is obvious to me, Jobs was pushing a new product without sufficient time to guarantee a good product. I think he was trying to generate money with the Mobile Me since the Mac.com never took off.."

This:

"Nothing like having a sense of being HEARD, which is not the case with reaching out to Apple/MobileMe support. Just made the big switch from the PC world to the MAC world last year, bought an iPhone to replace my Palm Treo, and purchased an iMac to replace my oldDell ( Dell) ... so this is obviously disappointing. I'll more than likely NOT be renewing my mac-now-me, account after being a paying customer for four years, and just stick with gmail. Sad, but true. "

And this:

"As an old time .mac user I've been without access to email since the 14th, but, at least today when I went to the mobileme website the mail webpage indicated that there was a problem with email. Before today the webmail page always came up blank. Apple has lost at least one customer with their total lack of response and support during this upgrade.

I might also add that I just sync'd my calendar to MobileMe and it turns out my MobileMe account was set to the wrong timezone. So I set the timezone and then did a new over-write sync from my Mac. My MobileMe calendar is now unreachable. I get an error page trying to access it."

One can't necessarily judge the pervasiveness of a problem from negative comments, because people with a gripe are more likely to write than someone who's satisfied. So on the fair-and-balanced front, I received this:

"Everything worked flawless for me. If more folks like me, knowing that the 3G intro would stress the system had waited a few days to login, they would have given the new iPhone owners a chance and avoided headaches. My dotmail was never interrupted."

Please leave your comments below or e-mail them to me directly at alex@alexwolfe.net.

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Apple's iPhone drew criticism when first released because of tepid enterprise business support. Small businesses felt the pain of iPhone envy more sharply than their enterprise counterparts because of the high up front cost of the first iPhone and the back-end support requirements for high-end e-mail and communication servers.

But the second generation of iPhones, the new 3G version, answers almost all these issues.

Costs are down to below what many people pay for other smart phones.

Integration to existing e-mail servers is faster and easier. Yet those back-end servers still require heavy investment up front and technical support later, especially when loading up a new Microsoft Exchange 2007 server.

Let's talk about two options for the small business iPhone users who are eager to get full smart phone and mobile computing advantages from their new shiny faced toy, er, iPhone.

Neither option includes Microsoft Exchange, saving money and time while supporting the miracle of communication (at least according to Apple).

Jeffrey Bernstein is the president of Digital Desktop Consulting in Los Angeles, a firm with ties to the entertainment business.