Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
In the week after Intel launched the Santa Rosa ‘next-gen’ Centrino
platform, Apple’s latest MacBook updates seem designed to clear out
existing stock before a true next-gen MacBook arrives possibly arrives
alongside OS X 10.5 later this year.
Apple’s MacBook updates are a ‘bare minimum’ hardware upgrade to counter the new Santa Rosa based Centrino Duo and Centrino Pro notebooks that PC manufacturers have started shipping since Intel’s launch last week.
The same three MacBook models are available, in black or white, with more features packed in for the same previous price. The white MacBooks now come with either 2.0Ghz or 2.16Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, either 80Gb or 120Gb as standard and both come with 1Gb of RAM, although users wanting more power and multitasking flexibility will always opt to upgrade to 2Gb of RAM instead. Respective prices are US $1099 and US $1299 (or AUD $1599 and AUD $1899).
The black MacBook now comes with a 2.16Ghz processor, a 160Gb hard disk and 1Gb of RAM as standard for US $1499 or AUD $2199, while all three have a 13-inch glossy widescreen display, a built-in AV iChat webcam, iLife ’06, OS X 10.4.9, the MagSafe Power Adapter, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and the latest draft standard of 802.11n Wi-Fi.
With rumors abounding that Apple could launch MacBook Pros at Apple’s WWDC on the Santa Rosa platform, setting a clear hardware differentiator between the MacBook Pro and MacBook lines, the only thing we know for certain is that the updates to the MacBook line are the bare minimum expected and fall far short of a true update.
More rumors suggest a new super-thin MacBook is on the way, while rumors of a true Mac Tablet won’t go away either and questions over when Apple will update the Mac Mini remain unanswered. In addition, the updated MacBooks don’t feature the expected LED backlighting slated for future MacBook and MacBook Pro models.
There has also been talk that Apple hasn’t updated the look and feel of their portable range for years, prompting speculation that the next series of Mac notebooks will feature a stunning new design that will once again set the pace for the entire industry, just as the iPhone threatens in the world of converged mobile phone and Internet connected devices.
If you’ve been wanting to buy a Mac right about now, the upgrades come at a perfect time, giving you more bang for your buck right off the bat.
But if you’re waiting for the true next-generation of Mac notebooks, that time has sadly not yet come, with the current update looking more like an attempt to clear out existing hardware before all singing, all dancing and shiny new models appear with OS X 10.5 pre-loaded.
Buy one if your need is now and you can’t wait – but if you can wait just a bit longer to see what happens when OS X 10.5 launches, our guess is that you’ll be glad that you did!
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
How to Make Business Discovery Work for Your Business
Business Discovery takes its cues from consumer apps. Like Google, it encourages us- ers to hunt for and explore data without worrying about or even noticing the underly- ing technology. Their entire experience is working within an intuitive interface to get real-time, self-service results with only minimal training. ...more
Try an easy-to-use set of web-enabled
tools for business-class productivity services. Office 365 provides
anywhere-access to email, important documents, contacts, and calendars
on almost any device.
