AppleInsider reports that Apple's MacBook consumer notebooks have just been given an upgrade. According to Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, the new MacBook is faster and has more memory and storage than ever before thanks to faster Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 1GB of memory and larger hard drives in all the MacBook models.

If you're worried about size, don't be. The new MacBooks are still just an inch thick. They also feature built-in 802.11n wireless networking which allows for up to five times the performance and twice the range of 802.11g. The new line also includes a built-in iSight camera, an Apple SafeMag Power Adapter and iLife '06. For more details on the new MacBooks' specs, click on the "via" link below.

If you're looking to get one for yourself, all three MacBook models are already available. At a suggested retail price (SRP) of US$ 1,099, the 2.0 GHz, 13-inch white MacBook is the cheapest of the bunch. The 2.16 GHz, 13-inch white MacBook has an SRP of US$1,299 while the 2.16 GHz, 13-inch black MacBook has a suggested price tag of US$ 1,499.

Click the Read link below to see the full specs of the new MacBook models.

 

Now that Intel's anticipated "Santa Rosa" Centrino Pro notebook Platform is out, adopters of the said platform  should be able to experience better battery life, faster Core 2 Duo processors and chipsets, improved graphics, stronger wireless signals, and an option to turbo-speed boot time and software application loading. As others have said, they had us at better battery life.

Santa Rosa notebooks are expected to emerge in a variety of prices, designs, and sizes, ranging from media centric 17-inch screen laptops to energy saving ultra-light notebook PCs.

Amusingly, Apple zealots also number among those eagerly awaiting intel's new platform. It is widely believed that the first Apple notebook design to incorporate Santa Rosa features should be Apple's rumored update (AppleInsider thinks the alleged update is likely) to its 15-inch MacBook Pro, which should arrive during the second quarter of this year.

The update should have a faster 800MHz frontside bus, a second generation Core 2 Duo mobile processor, which ranges up to 2.4 GHz with 4MB of L2 cache. Yes, much is in store for Mac folks, all thanks to Intel.

We've previously reported on the Santa Rosa "adoption" of Apple as a rumor, however, as more reports are coming in, it seems that it is something that's already expected.

Intel's Centrino Pro (codename Santa Rosa) has just been released yesterday and already, companies Lenovo and LG, as well as other lesser known PC vendors, have laptop offerings carrying the fourth-generation Centrino platform.

Apple consumers are now wondering when they will see this technology in their MacBooks. Gadget site Gizmodo reports that one of its chain partner revealed that a new model of MacBook is coming out next week.

It is believed that Apple will eventually shift to Centrino Pro as well but we wonder if that they will be able to do so in seven days. It should be remembered that it took them three months after Core 2 Duo was released to shift platforms.

As you know, Apple will be holding its annual conference - WWDC - this June and if they are indeed making the shift, it is highly possible that they will announce it during the said event. After all, the initial shift to Intel was announced in WWDC 2006. Apple will change platforms, there's no question about that. The only vague thing here is when.

Just so you know, Santa Rosa Centrino Pro features an updated mobile Core 2 Duo microprocessor. The Front Side Bus speed of the chipset has been increased to 800 MHz but it can also be altered to save power.

After a brief trial run and at least one name change, Joost has announced that its self-titled Internet TV service has now officially gone live. According to MacNN, the service is still in late beta but it's already in full swing. Some high-profile ads - including segments from Coca-Cola and HP - are even reportedly slated for release some time this month.

The Joost service currently has over 150 channels as part of the launch. This includes channels as diverse as cartoons, documentaries and sports. The people behind the Joost service has also announced that existing testers now have unlimited invites so that almost anyone can try out the new service.

A new version of the Joost beta is also available for existing users. In order to run it, Mac users need to have a broadband Internet connection as well as an Intel-based Mac.

Last month's Puff the Flammable MacBook might have been an extreme case, maybe not even related. Still, Reuters reports that Apple recently acknowledged that some of the notebook PC batteries in their MacBook/Pros "may have performance problems," but "the issues are not a safety risk," they insist.

Said issues include not charging when the computer's plugged into an outlet. Strangely enough, that had been a common complaint about laptop batteries - Apple mobile PCs and otherwise - over the past year.

So enough with the bellyaching, solutions, solutions. Apple has released Battery Update 1.2, specified for Intel laptops. It should hopefully improve battery life and "reduce swelling." Swelling batteries: that's always a bad sign. In addition, Reuters notes that the battery replacement program continues and also applies to out-of-warranty MacBook/Pros as well, if and only if:

• Battery is not recognized causing an Â?XÂ? to appear in the battery icon in the Finder menu bar.
• Battery will not charge when computer is plugged into AC power.
• Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count (as shown in System Profiler) of less than 300.
• Battery pack is visibly deformed.

For those with Intel Core Duo MacBook/Pros, the repair/replace program "extends repair coverage on the battery for up to two years from the date of purchase of the computer." Presuming your hapless battery qualifies, hit the Read link for details.

Of course, if your MacBook/Pro has suffered the fate of Puff, then it's definitely too late for an Update or Replacement. Just hope the house didn't go up with the battery.

Some purists may criticize Apple's moves to make Macs more compatible to Windows and other may have seen it as a sign of weakness when the company switched to Intel processors. On the contrary, recent analysis has revealed that the move actually helped Macs reach out to more people in the corporate world.

The case used to be that it was usually the office's creative department alone that uses Apple's machines. That usually meant autonomy against the company IT. Whatever the case, all that seems to be changing. The fact of the matter is that users have been catching on and warming over because of some good reasons.

The OS X has been very stable and user-friendly. Add to that the addition of Windows apps running on the platform. That meant Mac fans were no longer alienated in the workplace and what happened is a better flow of data and a much more fluid sense of coordination.

Productivity software has also been on the rise. Apple doesn't have the biggest developer base, let's face it. Even so, most of the releases on the platform often have great quality. The new systems also have the ability to run Windows XP and maybe even Vista in the future for maximum flexibility.

Ars Technica ran a nice list of other reasons why Macs are being welcomed by more people in the work place. Follow the read URL to see them.

It looks like the Apple TV is going to feature Tux on its hood beside the pervasive Apple logo. Some ingenious hackers claim that they have wrought a custom Linux kernel on Apple TV's boot loader. The info is still incomplete but as it is, the kernel and the set-top box seem to have WiFi, SpeedStep and EFI. Other kernel status statistics:

• EFI is not working fully
• USB works with the "irqpoll" kernel commadnline option
• nv Xorg driver works
• nvidia's propritiary driver also works with full 3D accel
• Speedstep seems to work. The CPU Clock gets down to 600 MHz
• Wlan is working with ndiswrapper
• Sound works fine

Just for fun, we'd like to quote to you the spoof Apple marketing campaign that appeared on the Linux users' site when Linux was hacked into a Mac Book.

The Intel chip... For months, it's been trapped inside a Mac, inside a pretty little box, dutifully performing pretty little tasks when it could have been doing so much more. Starting today, the Intel chip will be set free, and get to live life in a Mac... running Linux. Imagine the possibilities.

The Apple community's been waiting for this. It's been rumored that an eight-core Mac Pro is in the works, now it's a rumor no more. The Apple 8-core Mac Pro is finally here.

Back when the 8-core Mac Pro was still a rumor, it was said that it was going to be released later this year, possibly November. It was released earlier than everyone expected. This newly launched Mac Pro is the world's first 3.0 GHz, 8-core Intel Xeon-based Mac Pro. We can't help but get swayed by the tagline on the Apple site: "Consider the bar officially raised."

Mac Pro 8-core boasts advanced performance on workstation graphics, and "unparalleled" expansion in many possible configurations. Simply put, at 3.0 GHz the quad-core Mac Pro runs two times faster than Power Mac G5 Quad. Expansion-wise, it 8-core Mac Pro can accommodate up to four drives and 3TB of storage, eight DIMM slots to fill up with 16 GB of RAM, two Super Drives.

That's a lot of power. We are sure the programmers and software developers are going to be happy with the functions of this one.

   
 

MacNN reports that Google Desktop is now available to Mac users the world over. Google Desktop is a new Universal app that indexes the contents of a Mac's hard drive. This includes everything from applications and files to Web histories from Safari, Firefox, and Camino, enabling users to keep a closer eye on their files, including results from previous Gmail searches when offline.

Google Desktop for Mac is currently in beta form and supports Spotlight plug-ins. It also uses Spotlight privacy features to prevent some documents from being searched. The app also includes a new Google app that lets users stay updated and download more Mac apps from Google. It also has an optional feature that integrates with Google's Web search, allowing users to search their PC's local desktop from Google.

Future iterations of Google Desktop are expected to include support for Gadget integration. Google Desktop will run on PowerPC-based and Intel-based Macs with Mac OS X 10.4 or later. Mac users can download Google Desktop by clicking on the link below.

Download: Google Desktop for Mac beta

  
  

In the spirit of bringing you more Apple TV-related modifications, we're now gonna show you how to run the full Mac OS X on the Apple TV. semthex from Hackint0sh.org hacked out a replacement to the Mac OS X kernel, side-stepping over certain hardware restrictions that previously made running the Mac OS X on an Apple TV improbable.

Here are the steps to install the full Mac OS X on the Apple TV. Install at your own risk.

1) Remove the drive from the Apple TV
2) Back up your drive! Make an image of it (see the harddrive upgrade tutorial for this)
3) Connect the drive to a regular Mac (use a Firewire or USB drive dock)
4) Install OS X (Intel version) to the drive (we suggest a slim install - no printer drivers etc.)
5) Boot from this drive, and set it up as you would like it. Make sure you do updates so it is at least 10.4.8.
6) Reboot to your normal OS X install.
7) Remove mach_kernel from root of the drive containg the ATV install.
8) Replace it with the customised mach_kernel that youÂ?ll find on Hackint0sh.org.
9) Replace /System/Libary/Coreservices/boot.efiwith the same file from your backup of the Apple TV OS drive (OSBoot partition).
10) Run bless:

bless --folder=/Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/CoreServices --file=/Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi --setBoot

11) Delete all the Nvidia kexts (all beginning with NVD, there should be 5) from the target drive (in /System/Library/Extensions).
12) Transfer the drive back to the Apple TV
13) Turn the Apple TV on and cross your fingers...

And you should boot up into Mac OS X. The Apple TV running Mac OS X can use the mouse and the keyboard normally. Use either Front Row or Back Row to watch content.

For a more detailed how-to, check the installation video by clicking on the full article link below.