Apple grabbed 9.9% of the laptop market last March besting Compaq which only posted an 8.5% showing. This feat has put the company at fourth place in NPDs list of highest selling vendors of retail notebooks.

The companies that were ahead of Apple are Gateway(13%), Hewlett-Packard (23.9%) and Toshiba (26.2%). Apple's sales posting is up from its February sales but lower than their figures from January which was at 10.1%. The company has been posting good numbers as of late because their desktop sales have also put them on the top five list of NPD. They took a respectable 7.7% of the market in that respect.

This should not be any surprise, since Apple really has established itself in the notebook field. Will their upcoming new releases be enough for them to claim the top spot on the ranking? We will have to wait and see.

It may be a little radical on our part to consider possible alternatives for the "exorbitant" price of most notebook batteries. Replacement batteries for the Apple laptops often cost up to $100, but according to Dan Knight, the cost isn't justifiable. Of course, ordinary consumers would agree to this, but what makes it even more unsettling is the fact that your $100 worth of high-capacity battery replacement means only a bunch of ordinary AA Li-Ion Cells soldered inside your Powerbook.

The standard battery is the AA Li-Ion cell, and Knight says there's no need to solder wires on them or enclose them in fancy cases. Companies that offer battery replacement services don't want to expose the secret -- but in reality there's always a better alternative to these enclosures. An example is a built-in adapter that could accept standard AA Li-Ion batteries. With the addition of some "information on the importance of using a matched set of cells, maybe even a big, bright warning label you'll see every time you replace the batteries", Knight says it eliminates expensive proprietary enclosures or over-engineered battery holders.

Notebook users will eventually find out that Apple, Dell and other notebook manufacturers have all the carte blanche to trim the price of their rechargeable batteries. $100 isn't just worth it, considering that these ordinary AA Li-Ion batteries cost only less than $30!

Holy rainbow fruits, Batman! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's... Uhmm... A finely customized, ever-so-versatile, color-changing, glowing Apple logo!

If you are getting pretty iBummed with the Apple iLogo at the iBack of your iLaptop, you can get it iCustomized for CAD 3.99 (~USD 3.60) with iColours' newest project. And that's worldwide shipping too! For that price, you can get a colored filter of your choice. It could be a normal color, or a design, like a rainbow or tiger-skinned logo. For a little more money, you can buy them in packs of three, six, or a dozen. Their website also provides detailed installation instructions (speaking of tutorials, you might also want to check this out) for placing the colored/designed filters onto your iBook, PowerBook, MacBook, or MacBook Pro. It's a very simple concept but altogether quite ingenious.

However, there remains that one question... are you willing to void your iWarranty? Maybe, maybe not. Whatever the case, it still looks iCool. Personalizing your iLaptop was never this iLovely!

Both Dell and Apple had issued a recall for their defective batteries as a response to the never-ending saga of the exploding batteries these past month.

For Dell, a recall of notebook batteries for models which includes Latitude D410, D600, D610 and D620. Under rare conditions, these batteries could possibly overheat, and are being replaced by Dell. As for Apple, they confirmed that a number of lithium-ion batteries containing cells manufactured by Sony Corporation of Japan pose a safety risk that may result in overheating under rare circumstances. The affected batteries were sold worldwide from October 2003 through August 2006 for use with the following notebook computers: 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4, and 15-inch PowerBook G4.

However, the next issue would be how long before these battery replacements arrive? One customer with a Dell D810 and an Apple Mac Book Pro commented that Apple was able to deliver the battery replacement less than 3 days after the request was filed (considering the request day was a Sunday). Not too bad. But he can't say the same thing with Dell. The guy is still waiting for the replacement. It's been 16 days or so since he filed for a request.

We wonder how long it took before other affected laptop owners receive their replacement batteries - or are they still playing the waiting game?

Design boo-boo over at the Microsoft Security webpage, folks!

Steve Jobs must be having a laughing fit on this by now: a PowerBook being advertised as "clean" on a Microsoft Security webpage? I couldn't help giggling. Well, we're not surprised that Microsoft proves once again that they're a cop-out.

Well, in the design industry, it's pretty much of a given standard that most companies (including Microsoft) make their creative designs on a Mac. But when Microsoft itself accidentally slips up and admits that they use their major competitor's products, you got an instant recipe for Apple fans bashing Microsoft.

The score: Dell - 3, Apple - 1.

So far, those are the only exploding laptop cases that have been catching attention. Most likely, there are more laptops going boom somewhere, but are left undocumented. Anyway, it looks like Dell is not alone in its misery, as an Apple laptop exploded -- this time in Kristiansand, Norway. The employees of a company, called Ide`til Produkt AS, got the fright of their lives as a battery of one of their  12" Powerbook G4 laptop suddenly caught fire recently.

An employee divulges that smoke appeared from the corner of the laptop, where the battery was located. He moved away from it and then flames shot out of the laptop. The said employee, Ive Skrede, was quick-minded enough to push the battery to a trash can and to take it out of the office. The trash can fire intensified. This type of laptop uses lithium-ion batteries, and they create their own oxygen when they burn. If you could recall, Apple launched a worldwide Battery Exchange Program for the iBook G4 and the PowerBook G4.

After the fiery incident, Mr. Skrede contacted Apple about what had happened. The company took it seriously as the laptop will be sent to Apple labs in Ireland, and replaced. Whether the fire is caused by the company or by the owner's negligence, definitely the Apple brand would be hard to remove from this fiasco.

When the infamous MacBook Pro was released to the masses back at the start of the year, it was housed in a very fetching aluminium case, gained somewhat from its predecessor. When the MacBook was released recently, that too supported a 'newish' case, which gained popularity thanks to its slimline appearance, and its choice of white and black. We have now learned that the new release of the PowerMac will be housed within a newly designed case.

The new case will be different enough to allow instant distinction between the PowerPC and Intel Core Duo variants. Together with the cases, there will be a few choices on which processors to adopt. The new Intel Core Duo will be available for the PowerMac with 2 chips, A.K.A. Quad-core platform. It is not known whether the PowerMac will adopt the soon-to-be released Core Duo 2 chip, codenamed Conroe. The mobile variant is not expected till Fall.

The MacBook Pro will also have a new case for its range. However rumour has it that this will not be released till the system adopts the Intel Core Duo 2 chip, codenamed Merom. We would hope that issues are fixed in the new case release including heat expulsion.

There is no emotion; there is peace.
There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no passion; there is serenity.
There is no death; there is the Force.

You have now gotten past being a youngling and is entering a new phase. A Padawan. An apprentice Jedi. You are going to undergo intensive one-on-one training under a Jedi Knight. And to give you the best possible training, you are going to be under the tutelage of Jedi Master MacSaber 1.1.

MacSaber 1.1 has been updated for PowerBook5 and 7, added keyboard backlight actions for equipped notebooks and improved update checker logic 1.0.

MacSaber is compatible with Mac laptops equipped with Sudden Motion Sensor (SMS) technology. Remember not everyone can be a Jedi.

Download: [MacSaber 1.1]

You don't have to be a snake charmer to make your Mac dance, all you need is this nifty program called iSpazz. It's a plugin for iTunes on OS X, controlling the MacBook Pro/PowerBook backlight keyboard and optionally the display backlight.

All you need to do is download the plugin at the bottom of this article, uncompress and copy it to Library/iTunes/iTunes Plug-ins in your home folder. Press "i" to toggle the display flicker. Although, Stefan Werner gives us warning of installing this at your own risk because with all that flickering going on it might have an effect on your backlights and maybe even kill it.

On a lighter note, he sends his thanks to apple4ever from the Mac Ach, Amit Singh and Marvis.

Download: [iSpazz]

  

Innovation and Apple consumers have gone hand-in-hand nowadays. Apple consumers have been conceptualizing, finding, and doing more things that would make them enjoy their Apple contraptions more, that is why this one, although not that surprising, is still a welcome innovation.

An Apple 17" PowerBook user named Steve Cooley is tired of keeping his PowerBook's screen open everytime he works on the couch. According to him, "I (he) have a 17″ powerbook. When IÂ?m on the couch, either reclining or with my feet up on the coffee table, my laptop suddenly turns into an unusable device because in order to make the keyboard egronomically comfortable, the screen wants to fall down and close."

So with that, he came up with a crude but effective way to keep his screen open even if he is typing in a reclined position. He created a device out of wood ans some screws that eliminated his problems with his MacBook. According to the guy, "this is a device to solve the problem of a falling powerbook screen. It's made with 1/4" hardboard layered up, 8/32 bolts, washers, and nuts, and an extra deadbolt faceplate that I cut with my dremel and bent on my vice." Hey, whatever works sounds good to us! Although he didn't mention anything about it damaging or scratching his powerbook, you should bear that in mind if you're gonna try and do something like this.