The MacWorld Expo 2008 got us - and maybe most everyone else - into an Apple groove. The Manila envelope-sized MacBook Air sure made our trusty PowerBook feel a bit envious and unloved (yes, our gadgets here in the QJ.NET blogging labs have feelings too), so we decided to revisit a couple of our other gadgets. Not least of all is the Headplay, of course. Hitting two birds with one stone, we weren't just able to dish out a review of the head-mounted display, but we also managed to squeeze out some time to catch some movies too! Pass the popcorn, please!


Originally posted on January 24, 2008 at 12:44 AM.

One of the selling points of Apple's new Leopard is that it can work on older machines, and that Mac fans who are holding on to their legacy Power Macs can have a reason to rejoice once the Leopard OS gets released into the market. However, can Leopard really live up to its promise and run on an 8-year-old Power Mac G4 with AGP Graphics? Engadget tried to install the newest iteration of the OS X, and here's the verdict.

To cut the long story short, Leopard DOES work on an 8-year-old Power Mac, using only 5.9GB of space upon installation (that's without all the extraneous stuff such as drivers, etc). The question now is, what are the Leopard applications that work on an old machine, and what doesn't?

The new File Stacks and fans user interface worked, as well as Coverflow, Youtube, Quick Look, and Spaces and Expose. However, the machine choked on equally-important stuff such as DVD Player and Front Row.

All in all, it was a decent performance on a fairly old machine, and gives people reason not to throw out their legacy machines... at least, not yet.

Headplay is probably every couch potato's dream. Imagine a TV. Now imagine being able to take it anywhere and everywhere you go (except perhaps in the shower), and being able to watch movies or play games on it anytime you want. That's the concept for the new "Personal Cinema System" device, Headplay.

Headplay is a head-mounted device; basically, a TV you wear on your head. You can connect it to your gaming consoles, your DVD Player, your iPod, your PC, and maybe your Betamax player if it hasn't choked on dust yet. If it has a video out function, Headplay can most probably display it. You can also plug in a memory stick and Headplay can run the media files - movies, videos, and images - with its own built-in player.

Once you're behind the lenses of Headplay it's pretty easy to just relax and go dead to the world around you. It's nothing but you and the screen, with the stereo sounds blocking off everything else. It's like your own movie screen inside your living room.

To read the complete review of Headplay - what it is, what it does, how it plays on Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, and Nintendo' Wii on it - click on the link for the full article.

Now, before you can say "zip-a-de-doo-dah", the juiced-up Mac Pro most probably beat you to it already - about 200 bajillion times faster, as a matter of fact. Ok, exaggerating aside, we know how fast the Quad Core is. But is there any proof? Friends, Romans, Steve Jobians... Folks over at PC Pro have clocked the Mac Pro as "teh win" when it comes to running Windows XP.

Using Apple's Boot Camp beta, they've sneaked in XP Professional and tested it with some of the more demanding tasks that you can work with in Windows apps: like running Adobe Photoshop and decoding music simultaneously, or rendering 3D graphics. For the latter example, usual tests would give them frame renders of over a minute; with the Mac Pro, they achieved complete renders under 34 seconds.

If that's not enough evidence, maybe you want to test it out yourself. If you got a Quad Core Mac Pro (you lucky devil, you), maybe you can open up some videos, music, and slideshows. Then, while that's running in the background, see if you can play your Sudoku widget on the dashboard. Well? Cheering "zip-a-de-doo-dah" yet? Or did your Mac Pro beat you to it again?

Stuck in a dilemma between getting a Samsung Q1 and an Apple Newton? Well, the guys at CNET pitted those two against each other just for fun. The verdict? Read on.

Undeniably, Apple's Newton MessagePad 2007 has been around for quite some time - since 1997 to be exact. It features handwriting recognition, and touch-screen display plus a stylus, all packed in a simple design. It doesn't boast of a full color screen, but runs on an efficient and virtually virus-free OS.

The Samsung Q1, on the other hand, has a sleek, shiny look as opposed to the "industrialized" design of the Newton. Its screen has 16.7 million colors, so you would be able to watch your favorite movies here. It also has better networking capabilities and handwriting recognition than the Newton.

However, the Newton can run up to 30 hours with four AA batteries, which dealt the final blow on the Q1, which only runs for 2.5 hours. And while the latter costs £799, the decade-old Newton can be bought in eBay for £50.

So take your pick. If you're more into practicality, you might want to get a Newton. But if you're into sleek, modern gadgets, maybe you'd consider getting a Samsung Q1 instead.

"If you want a stylish, great, capable portable, buy this one. You won't be disappointed." That's Washington Times' Mark Kellner's final verdict on the Apple MacBook. And reading the full review, it seems like the only thing he had against Apple's laptop was its heat.

Having the $1,600 notebook functional after a 2-foot drop was pretty impressive but that's not the only reason that got Kellner hooked. He loved the 13" glossy screen (a good change from the previously favored matte displays, says Kellner), the "Chiclets" style keyboard (which he was previously apprehensive about), the ample multimedia features, and the built-in WiFi antenna.

Of course, the product was not perfect, but one can forgive its imperfections. The built-in speakers may not be a high-end audio system, but as Kellner wrote, "in a hotel room with little else available, the music playback is quite nice".

The touch pad, which "doesn't send the cursor flying around the screen anywhere nearly as often as other computer's touch pads have done", can be forgiven by people who are quite good at with just the keyboard. Although, Kellner admits that "having external options, wired or wireless, is quite nice".

Check out Mark Kellner's full review of the Apple MacBook here.

I love my PSP, but I've never purchased any sort of protection for the unit, I've always just used the soft carrying case it came with. Those armor type cases didn't make much sense to me because I wear cargo pants so I just slip the thing in my massive pocket, and I try to not make it a habit of dropping the device anyway. I've always kept an eye on screen protectors though, mainly because no one wants to scratch up their PSP's pretty surface, but I never got one because I didn't like the idea of seeing a sheeny, shiny screen of plastic laid over my regular screen, obstructing my vision and dimming the PSP's screen brightness. If you've felt the same way, you might want to keep reading, because there's a product on the market that should make you a pretty happy camper. Oh, and in case you don't own a PSP and are wondering what this story is doing on your fave blog, it's because the the InvisibleSHIELD can be custom cut to fit over 400 different devices, including PDA's the Nintendo DS, and yes, the iPod too.

Read the full review after the jump!

MacScan Software offers an application that scans your hard drive for spyware and that cleans up the traces of your Web browsing. Neat. But before you dole out that $25 for this Mac OS X application, you might want to check out this review. MacWorld's Mark H. Anbinder tried out MacScan 2.1 and came up with the following conclusion: there's no real need for the said software.

Although MacScan delivers exactly what it advertises, it runs really slow. Unlike anti-virus apps, this software rescans files it has previously scanned eventhough the files haven't been modified since the last scan. But the biggest issue with MacScan is its necessity. As Anbinder wrote, "Of the 40-plus threats listed on the MacScan Web site, for example, many apply only to OS 9."

With regards to the cleaning up of the Web history, cache, and cookies, one can already configure their browsers to not collect them, making it unnecessary to have a separate application to erase browser traces.

Eventhough the MacScan "takes care of its business reasonably well", its functionality can be carried on by Mac users for free. Maybe when Mac OS X users get more malware threatening their OS, then this application may come in handy. But for now, we can keep that 25 bucks and save it for the next 'must have' software.

Apple is on a mission to make a complete transition to the happy and reliable world of Intel processors, they will try to accomplish this by the end of 2006. Among the many now-Intel based Apple babies is the Apple iMac Core Dup 17-inch (which also has a cheaper, Education version). We earlier featured a review of the iMac Education variant which got favorable ratings amidst the downgrades it went through.

Now, the verdict is in for the  Apple iMac Core Duo 17-inch. As you can see, this baby is the bomb, aesthetically speaking. But now powered with Intel processors, a lot of people are expecting great things and improvements from this Apple contraptios. So with that, how did it fare in the review?

Well, according to the said review, Apple has a definite winner with this one. Faring well than other PowerPC and Intel-based Macs in business, media and general-use scenarios, the iMac Core Duo 17-inch is definitely not lagging behind in features and functions. It also mentioned that it's a good move that Apple stuck with the usual sexy design that Apple aficionados have grown to love and appreciate. It is a smooth operator too - runs quietly - with a hardware and operating system that are the most reliable around. The very plush and pretty screen is only a bonus to all that.

It is also praised for its built-in iSight, versatile all-in-one design, easy relocation for a desktop computer, and for being excellent for small workspaces (which we usually suffer from). But, every good machine has a mean bone too, nothing's all peach and roses in this world you know. But, the cons are obviously outweighed by the pros.

The not-so-good side of the iMac is its 8X SuperDrive which would be better had it been a 16X and the fact that it lagged in the iPhoto import speed test. So if you're in the market for a dependable and elegant-looking desktop computer, maybe you oughta consider the iMac Core Duo 17-inch, which has a price tag that ranges from $999-$1,300.

Apple's MacBook was put to the test by Yahoo! Finance's Robert Weston, and it's passed with flying colors. He's found that it looks sleek, runs very fast and should give manufacturers of Windows- based notebooks cause for concern.

Weston loved the MacBook's versatility. With extra software, it can of course run Windows and OS X - and with Parallels it can even switch between them at the press of a button. The 'BlackBook' he tested was a speed demon, too (when running software optimized for OS X it "felt significantly speedier than the PowerPC-based system it replaced", although older software designed for PowerPC Macs was relatively slower).  He also thought its dimensions were well-nigh perfect; the MacBook is only over an inch thick, a whopping 20 percent thinner than the iBook it replaces.

Weston also praised the laptop's display (the first glossy display on any consumer laptop from Apple), the machine's ability to display music, photos and movies when connected to regular TVs, and the sensitivity of the Wi-Fi antenna.

Just about the only things Weston didn't like were the MacBook's heft (it's 5.2 pounds, a little heavier than he'd like) and the lack of a dedicated graphics card for the gamers. But that didn't appear to give him pause at all; he says, "Overall, the MacBook is a well-priced laptop that fits the needs of most consumers... Combine [its] ability to run Windows at native speed with Apple's renowned knack for elegant hardware and software, and it's a formula that should give other PC makers nightmares."

Sounds good enough for me - although I might just wait until Apple solves the discoloration problem first...