myMacBUZZ

If you listen to Diggnation this week, you would have heard Kevin Rose’s prediction of the next upcoming iPhone version. It will be a 3G phone and there will be a camera on the front made for iChat video conferencing.

If you remember sometime ago, pre-iPhone era when Apple have not yet announced the iPhone, Kevin Rose did said that according to his sources;-

The iPhone will be coming with 2 batteries, one for the phone the other one for the iPod function.

Nope only one non-removable battery.

It will come with a slide out keyboard.

Did he meant slide out soft keyboard?.

It’s going to me small as sh*t.

It’s thin, but I wouldn’t call it small as sh*t.

So if Kevin Rose latest predictions came from the same source as before, expect the new iPhone not to have camera on the front, no iChat video conferencing. It wont be 3G. It will be in super high speed 7.5G network only available in Cupertino. Ok, I just made the last sentence up.

Anyway, there is still no solid news that the iPhone will be available officially in Malaysia or the Asian market. Kevin Rose didn’t mention anything about it, so I guess there is still hope.

Apple updated their MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks line with better specs. Both machine gets the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, larger hard drive and a 2 GB of memory standard in most models.

Apart from the updated graphics, nVidia GeForce 8600M GT up to 512MB of video, all MacBook Pro now comes with the Multi-Touch gesture trackpad support for pinch, rotate and swipe just like what you get on the MacBook Air.

So if you are looking to get a new Apple notebook and are disappointed with MacBook Air then now is the time to get one, either MacBook or MacBook Pro.

Watch this space as MyMacBUZZ crew will get some information on local availability and pricing.

Apple Malaysia had a small event for the media yesterday on the launching of Apple’s MacBook Air.  Although it was a small event, they had two MacBook Airs for us to fondle around with. 

There were only about 10 of us, so there is not much point in having a projector.  Apple brought their 30″ Apple Cinema Display connected to a 17″ MacBook Pro for the launch.

The setup with MacBook Pro 17″ hidden

Product Marketing Director for Apple Asia Pacific, Mr. Tony Li presented the MacBook Air to us and went on to demonstrate the other features.

First, he demonstrated the Multi Touch TrackPad on the MacBook Air, then he went on to demonstrate how to install Microsoft Office for Mac on the MacBook Air using Remote Disc. 

Tony Li with the MacBook Air

MacBook Air on my lap

According to Mr. Tony Li, the MacBook Air is already on the market since last week for a recommended retail price of RM6,299 for the basic configuration.  RM389 for MacBook Air’s Superdrive.

A breakdown on the MacBook Air’s pricing:

• MacBook Air (basic configuration) - RM6,299
• SuperDrive - RM389
• MacBook Air with 1.8GHz and 64GB SSD - RM10,899

The Time Capsule was also on display although it wasn’t demonstrated as the MacBook Air got all the limelight.  The Time Capsule will be in the stores as early as March 2008.  The display unit was brought by Tony Li all the way from Hong Kong.

A breakdown on the Time Capsule’s pricing:

• Time Capsule 500GB - RM1,199
• Time Capsule 1TB - RM1,899

MacBook Air in the now (in)famous manila envelope, Time Capsule and my iPhone

Apple Malaysia also said that the Apple Resellers in the country are accepting preorders now.  So make a move and place your orders now! 

Dubbed the “World’s Smallest MP3 Player”, the iPod Shuffle second generation got a slight bump in the storage department. Not only that, it got a price reduction as well! So you’ll be getting a bigger capacity iPod Shuffle for a lower price. Don’t you just love Apple?

Anyway, no words on how much it will cost when it comes to Malaysia but the prices in Apple’s Online Store are as follows:

• 2GB iPod Shuffle going for USD$69
• 1GB iPod Shuffle going for USD$49

We’ll update this page when we get the prices in RM.

So what’s your reason for not getting a iPod?

So maybe you’ve got yourself an iPhone or an iPod Touch. Those are wonderful devices to play videos on. If you do not have one, may be you are thinking of getting one? I know a lot of people are thinking of getting the new higher capacity 32GB iPod Touch.

However, iPods and iPhones doesn’t just play any video codec you dump at it. It is not like we can browse and buy movies and TV shows from the iTunes Store either. I’m pretty sure each of us have our ways of getting all our media needs.

*cough*bittorent*cough*

So how do you convert all you video collection to play on your brand new iPod Touch? This is where ffmpegX comes in. It is the ultimate video and audio encoder for Mac OSX.

So far it manage to take any video with any format I throw at it and covert it to an iPod playable format. It is fairly easy to use. Drag and drop the video file you want to convert to the left box and choose what format you want to re-encode it to.

It doesn’t just only convert to an iPod playable format, there is also some other preset format for PSP, 3GP for handphone, and other types of format.

The software is a shareware, but you could try it for free or for just $15 you could register it. Registering will remove the reminder message.

However it takes a long time converting a movie. I usually let it run overnight. Then again my machine is a 1GHz PowerBook G4. Newer Intel Macs might be a little bit faster.

Just when I recently got myself an iPod Touch, Apple upgrades it’s iPod Touch and iPhone line. Apart from the 8GB and 16GB model, Apple’s iPod Touch now comes in 32GB. There is also a new 16GB iPhone model.

These are the same devices, it comes with the new January firmware that Steve Jobs shows us at the recent MacWorld.

Watch this space for more info on local availability and pricing.

No, there were no news about official unlock iPhone.

It’s about time things had settled down with MacBook Air. Here is a view of the MacBook Air after the reality distortion field effect had wear off.

I’m putting my hater cap for this post about Apple’s new very thin super model. Although I did write a lengthy rant about Apple’s wireless world on my blog, here are some points that I find less appealing. What not to like about the MacBook Air.

1. 80GB hard disk space is just too little of a disk space these days. There are iPods that have larger capacity. Apple claims that they solved this issue with their new Time Capsule, which is somewhat like a network attached storage.
2. Non-replaceable battery makes the MacBook Air just like an iPod. The time will come when the battery will not receive anymore charge. You can’t just buy anther battery and replace it. Then AppleInsider claims that changing the MacBook Air battery is not that difficult task.
3. No ethernet port. I have to say that most of the time I’m wifi, but there are those rare occasion where I do need an ethernet port. You know the times when your wireless router acts up and need a wired connection. There a ethernet USB attachment for the MacBook Air, sold separately.
4. No optical drive. The lack of an optical drive out of the box makes the ultra-thin MacBook Air less appealing. The fact is I do use the optical drive for a lot of things, I rip music CDs, DVDs, because I can’t buy any Music from iTunes Store. Got that Apple? When will iTunes Store available worldwide?
5. Only one USB port. You can’t connect many devices at the same time. You can’t get files from an external hard drive to burn on a DVD with the external MacBook Air Super Drive.

   Or may be you can?

   Apple are pushing the MacBook Air wireless capabilities, so you might just be able to grab files from a remote disc and burn in on a super drive on some other Macs.

No matter how hard I try, but it still shines through. You can tell that I like the MacBook Air. Will I buy one with the given price? I don’t think so.

Will I buy one if I don’t have rent to pay, monthly car payment to worried about, phone bills and an extra RM 7k or so? Yeah sure.

Will I buy one if the price includes Time Capsule, external super drive and a USB ethernet? May be.

Check out the attached YouTube video above. Showcase is a Quicksilver interface plugin that manages to turn some heads and gets people asking, what’s that?

It’s a Quicksilver plugin that adds a new interface on to Quicksilver. It rely heavily on the new Core Animation technologies introduced with Leopard, MacOS 10.5. My guess this is a Leopard only thing.

It has a really nice animation on the icons. Quicksilver power user however might just find this to be a little bit slow. You can download it here.

Showcase is just, well a ’show case’ of what to come. There is another plugin in the works by the author, called SilverFlow. The interface plugin will make navigation on Quicksilver more CoverFlow like. Check out the attached YouTube video below.

It is a pre-alpha status, which is geek talk for not yet finish. You can download and try it yourself.

Those who are new to Quicksilver there is a little introduction tutorial on MyMacBUZZ.

MacBook Air was released about 20 minutes ago at MacWorld 2008 by Steve Jobs.

Dubbed the thinnest notebook in the world at only 0.4cm - 1.94cm in thickness, the MacBook Air is set to take portability into new heights.

Specifications are as follows:

• Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz or 1.8Ghz
• 2GB RAM standard
• 80GB hard drive, 64GB SSD hard drive optional
• 13.3 inches wide screen with LED backlighting
• MultiTouch trackpad
• iSight
• Full sized keyboard with backlight illumination
• Wireless 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1
• Built in mono speakers
• o.4 - 1.94 x 32.5 x 22.7 (cm, H x W x L)
• 1.36kg

The standard configuration will cost USD$1,799 and another USD$99 add on if you want to add on an external SuperDrive.

My take on the MacBook Air? It’s AWESOME. I don’t know how they built the thing in such a thin chassis, but they did it nevertheless. It could even fit in an envelope, as demonstrated by Steve Jobs. The inclusion of the MultiTouch technology, as seen on iPhones and iPod Touch, is great as well. The trackpad works like the touchscreens on iPhones and iPod Touch now.

However, the price of USD$1,799 is a bit pricey. It’s only slightly cheaper than the MacBook Pro, a full fledge notebook.

Leave us a comment on what you think about the MacBook Air. Yay or Nay?

P.S. Apple’s site is updated with MacBook Air’s page, head on over to look at it.

In a few minutes, his greatness, Steve Jobs will be giving his keynote at Macworld. Those who a lucky enough will be sitting in the same hall listening, sucked into Steve Jobs’ famous distortion field.

While, us, the mere mortals will have to turn to the web for coverage. As usual, just like a ritual, I’ll stayed glued on my screen hitting the refresh button on Engadget Macworld keynote coverage page for updates.

There is also an IRC back channel by Arstechnica (irc.arstechnica.com), you may want to join #mwsf.

Also keep an eye on Apple’s website, especially its online store section.

I’ll try to post something if I’m not too tired and had already fell asleep.