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13inch or 15inch MacBook Pro? Here’s Our Advice

August 5, 2011 in Mac, Main Blog, Slideshow

You might be in that situation where you are spending hours and hours on deciding whether or not the purchase the 13inch model, or the 15inch model. Since we have been getting a lot of questions regarding the MacBook Pro, we decided to give you our thoughts and advice.

If your primary reason for buying a MacBook Pro is NOT video editing or gaming, you don’t need to consider the 15inch model. This is simply because the 13inch has enough power for the rest of the tasks. However, if you are looking into doing REGULAR video editing or gaming, then go for the 15inch model. In fact, if you are a hardcore gamer, go for the higher-end 15inch model simply because the graphics processor will be given 1GB of dedicated memory.

If you are thinking of purchasing a Mac, and your primary tasks you intend to do are web surfing, email, iPhoto, editing documents in Pages – then we advise you to stick with the lower-end 13inch MacBook Pro. This is simply because you are not a demanding consumer, and the baseline model will keep you more than happy. However, if you are one of those people who does video editing and gaming sometimes, but not so often, then the higher-end 13inch model should keep you happy.

If you get to the point where you realize that you are just a very light user (not using intensive applications), then we would also suggest you to check out the MacBook Air. This is simply because the MacBook Air’s flash drive really does make a difference in speed. Whether its web surfing, photo editing, documents and so on, it is just so much faster. Even opening apps can be 2+ times faster!

However, the downfall with the MacBook Air is storage capacity. Starting from only 64GB up to 256GB of storage, that might not be enough for your media. So, if you have a lot of media, and you are still a light user, then we would advise you to go for the baseline 13inch MacBook Pro, and perhaps upgrade the sloppy 5400rpm hard drive to a 7200rpm drive for faster speeds.

About the Author: Kenta Arai is a tech enthusiast who was born in Japan, and grew up in Hong Kong. He is very passionate towards technology and he became one of the most enthusiastic technophile student in his high-school, and was also well-known for consulting many of his school-mates when purchasing new computers.

 

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Sandy Bridge MacBook Airs Arrive [Video]

July 22, 2011 in Mac, Main Blog, Uncategorized

 

As expected, on July 20th, the MacBook Air lines have been refreshed with new Sandy Bridge CPU, Thunderbolt port and the return of the backlit keyboard. The design of the machine has not changed, and Apple still offers two models: 11inch and a 13inch. Both models still run on flash storage, capacities ranging from 64GB up to 256GB. Both models sport a Thunderbolt port in replacement of the Mini DisplayPort, however the SD card slot is still only present on the 13inch. The MacBook Airs ship with Lion pre-installed, and are priced competitively starting from $999, although in countries like the UK and Hong Kon, we have seen a price drop on every single model.

New Features:

The new MacBook Airs now offer the latest Intel Sandy Bridge CPU, with clock speeds starting from dual-core 1.6GHz Core i5, configurable up to 1.7 GHz Core i7. Apple claims the new MacBook Airs to have speeds of up to 2.5x faster than last years model, and the early benchmarks have shown that the speed of these MacBook Airs to be faster than last years MacBook Pro models.

 

Apple has really been pushing their new Thunderbolt I/O, which was an invention in collaboration with Intel. Thunderbolt technology allows data transfer speeds of up to 10Gb/s, and also enables users to daisy chain up to six Thunderbolt enabled peripherals, such as external hard drives and Apple’s latest Thunderbolt Display which will also enable users to have an extra FireWire 800 port, a gigabit ethernet port, another Thunderbolt port and 3 extra USB 2.0 ports.

 

One feature that Apple decided to exclude from the 2010 MacBook Airs is the backlit keyboard. The backlit keyboard has always been present since the original MacBook Air that was introduced back in 2008. Now they have included the backlit keyboard in both the 11inch and 13inch model, and are promoting this as a “new feature”. Since the backlit keyboard was absent from previous models, the dedicated backlit keyboard button had disappeared. making the keyboard have one extra (useless) key. However, now that we have the backlot keyboard back, these buttons have also returned. Speaking of keyboards, now that Apple has shipped OS X Lion, they have also changed the keyboard shortcuts. The previous Expose key is now used for Mission Control, and the previous Dashboard key is now used for LaunchPad.

Overall, we think that this years refresh of the MacBook Airs were more than acceptable, with the inclusion of fast Intel Sandy Bridge CPU and Thunderbolt technology. The backlit keyboard may please new customers, however it may disappoint previous MacBook Air customers; now knowing that the backlit keyboard can actually fit, some might say that Apple decided to exclude it from previous models, to make people want to buy the new models as well. But either way, we think that this is a great addition. However, there is one thing that we were disappointed by, and that is the FaceTime camera. We all expected the FaceTime camera to be upgraded to a FaceTime HD camera, however that did not happen. Either due to the extreme thinness of the display, or maybe because Apple are going to wait until the next generation. All in all, the new MacBook Airs are a great buy, especially if you live in the UK or Hong Kong, now with much more affordable prices.

Because Apple has decided to drop the white MacBook out completely, the MacBook Airs are now the most affordable notebook that you can purchase. This may be a problem for some people, especially switchers and students, who have a certain budget, and would like to get as much as they can for their money. The baseline MacBook Air only offers 64GB of storage, whilst the white MacBook used to offer 320GB of storage. This discontinuation may suggest that Apple really is trying to push users away from old technology such as traditional hard drives and the SuperDrive, and basically rely fully on downloads from the Mac App Store and the iTunes Store.

We also have a video regarding our thoughts and opinions on the new MacBook Air refresh:

About the Author: Kenta Arai is a tech enthusiast who was born in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan. His passion towards technology began to develop as he grew up in Hong Kong, where technology had its solid place in the mass market. Arai became one of the most enthusiastic technophile student in his high-school, and was also well-known for consulting many of his school-mates when purchasing new computers. His expertise in the tech industry is focused on Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

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OS X Lion Golden Master Seed Released. Final Version to be Released on July 14th

July 2, 2011 in Mac, Main Blog, Uncategorized

Yesterday, on July 1st, Apple has released their final, polished, GM seed of OS X Lion to developers. We all know that Lion will be released sometime during this month, and there have been rumors floating around the web claiming release dates of the new OS. If you want to know more about the features in OS X Lion, check out Steven’s article by clicking here.

So far, in this GM seed, we have found a new feature where your Mac will teach you about using multi-touch gestures, when you first boot up your computer:

The first rumor we saw was the July 19th date, however this doesn’t seem to be accurate as Apple will be announcing their quarterly financial results on the same day. And in the past, Apple has never announced any new products on the same day as their financial results call. However, a more accurate rumor found by 9to5mac, claims that the release date of OS X Lion will be on July 14th. We also expect the new MacBook Airs and white MacBooks to be refreshed at the same time, sporting Thunderbolt ports, Sandy Bridge processors, FaceTime HD camera – as retailers such as Best Buy has reported a shortage of stock and the inability to ship the current line of these machines.

OS X Lion will be available for download only via the Mac App Store for $29.99, as well as Lion Server which is avaiable for $49.99.

About the Author: Kenta Arai is a tech enthusiast who was born in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan. His passion towards technology began to develop as he grew up in Hong Kong, where technology had its solid place in the mass market. Arai became one of the most enthusiastic technophile student in his high-school, and was also well-known for consulting many of his school-mates when purchasing new computers. His expertise in the tech industry is focused on Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

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Are You Ready to Bring Your Tablet to School? [Video]

July 1, 2011 in iPad, Main Blog, Uncategorized

Many people have always questioned about productivity of the iPad. Many schools and institutions in the U.S have definitely considered the iPad as an educational tool, and it has turned out to be a success. As many of you might know, I am a student, and I was one of the first ones in my school to bring my iPad to school solely for work. I have carried my iPad, only, with me for at least 2 and half months, and overall I’m happy with my experience.

The apps I used the most were Safari, Mail, Evernote and the iWork suite. Safari in general worked totally fine. The only problem with Safari was the inability to view Flash content, however there were alternatives when doing research, so that wasn’t a big deal. Mail was also great as I was able to view and respond to emails on-the-go. You can also view email attachments properly with no problems. Evernote was used to jot down important notices, as well as homework. And the cool thing about Evernote is that it syncs over-the-air to all your devices with Evernote, so I could jot down my homework on my iPad in school, and find the same note on my Mac when I get back home.

Now on to the iWork suite. The apps I used the most was Pages, and the app worked perfectly fine for me until the iOS 4.2 update, back in November. Pages until then, worked smoothly with no lag on iOS 3.2, however after the iOS 4.2 update, the performance dropped dramatically. The transition from portrait to landscape orientation was very choppy. Even typing words out was very slow at times. This problem was only existent on the first iPad, and now with the iPad 2, I have no problems with Pages. As for Keynote, again, I believe I was actually the first student to do a presentation with the iPad in class. Keynote had worked perfectly fine on me and I’ve had no problems so far. The last app of the suite, Numbers. I have to confess that I have never really used this app in school, however it may be useful if you often work with spreadsheets.

The iPad is also great in a sense that the teachers can view what you are doing. Many students, if not, all of them are on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Many of them are even on IM clients such as MSN, Skype and iChat. Although the teacher might not find out, personally, I think this is a major distraction factor for your own education and learning. You are just simply wasting your own time. If you are on your iPad, especially for me – when I was still using iOS 3.2, you can only run one app at a time. Whilst that may not seem great, it’s actually perfect when learning in class. You have absolutely no distraction when working, and the teacher can actually see that you’re working. Also, since there is not distraction, you may actually become more productive.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed my experience in school with my iPad and I can clearly say that I can replace my Mac with my iPad when going to school.

About the Author: Kenta Arai is a tech enthusiast who was born in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan. His passion towards technology began to develop as he grew up in Hong Kong, where technology had its solid place in the mass market. Arai became one of the most enthusiastic technophile student in his high-school, and was also well-known for consulting many of his school-mates when purchasing new computers. His expertise in the tech industry is focused on Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

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Do You Bring Your Laptop With You On Your Vacation? [Video]

June 27, 2011 in Mac, Main Blog, PC, Uncategorized

In the tech world today, we have a lot of very portable, and ultra-portable computers – including the MacBook Air and PC netbooks. However, does that mean we should take it everywhere we go? Yes, it may be portable and make you happy because you have to carry it to school, or office, everyday. But, when it comes to vacation, it’s a whole new story. Even if it’s a short term, is it actually necessary to bring our laptops? Do you really want to carry that laptop with you? Well you might ask: “What’s the problem? It’s very light.” Well when it comes to vacation, any laptop can be a pain, and yes, even the light-weight netbooks can be “heavy”. You wouldn’t want to carry it from home, to airport, onboard, to your hotel and so on. It’s just like having another suitcase with you. You’ve spent so much time packing your things, and one last thing you think of is your computer. You wouldn’t carry your laptop in hand, so you need a separate storage capacity for that. Even if it’s just an iPad, you will be needing a bag with you where ever you go.

The 3 main reasons why you would want to bring your laptop with you is 1. internet connection, 2. games, 3. business reasons. Although when it comes to business, you will need your laptop with you, how about the other two? Internet connection – do we really need to bring our entire laptop just to connect with friends on Facebook and check out Twitter? Is it really necessary to bring your entire laptop to play games when you are traveling on vacation to relax? Well, you might then ask: “Then what can I bring?” If you can have a device that is capable of doing the same thing, and it’s much lighter, why not bring that? My answer would be – a smartphone. A smartphone is capable of connecting to the internet, friends, Twitter. And my iPhone actually has more games than I do on my laptop. So why not bring the iPhone? And, in all my past experiences, internet connection in hotels have been a painful experience. Sometimes it never really works. So do you really want to experience these things, when you have spend your extra energy to bring your laptop?

Watch my video below to find out more about what I think on this topic:

About the Author: Kenta Arai is a tech enthusiast who was born in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan. His passion towards technology began to develop as he grew up in Hong Kong, where technology had its solid place in the mass market. Arai became one of the most enthusiastic technophile student in his high-school, and was also well-known for consulting many of his school-mates when purchasing new computers. His expertise in the tech industry is focused on Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

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Mac App Review: Blotter by Wireload

June 27, 2011 in Mac, Main Blog, Productivity, Uncategorized

Blotter is simply a calendar app, that integrates with your calendars in iCal, and present them in a very elegant form. If you’ve ever thought that iCal was simple enough, well Blotter will blow you away. At least it did for me. With Blotter, you can now display your 7 day calendar right on your desktop. What’s cool about this is that it isn’t a separate window (like all the other apps), but it’s simply a nice and slick presentation of your calendar that stays on your desktop. Since this is integrated with the native iCal app, all the calendars that have been input into iCal will be displayed in Blotter. Of course, you can also choose individual calendars you have set up to be displayed on your desktop too. If you have configured each calendar with different colors in iCal, this color difference will also be applied in Blotter. Below is and image to show you the presentation.

As you can see on the top left, the date is presented very large and clearly. Below that is a “To Do” section where it will display all your to dos for the day. And below that is the “Right Now” section. So if you have a task set for a specific time of the day, that task won’t show up in this box until 2 hours before the actual time set. This will be handy because it tells you the approximate time left until your next task, with the presentation of a dotted line at the present time. On the right side of the display, you will see a 7 day projection of your calendar. If you have set a new task for yourself for the entire week, all this will be displayed on your desktop. Just like the “Right Now” section, this 7 day projection also includes a dotted line that shows you the time of the day, as well as how close you are until your next task. And once your day ends, the date and timeline will automatically adjust itself to the next day, without having the need to open iCal. Another handy feature with Blotter is that you can set a new task or event right from the toolbar on the top, without having the need to open iCal.

You can also adjust a few settings in “Preferences”. As I have mentioned before, you can set which calendar you want displayed. You can set the entire display to automatically fade after a set time. You can also change the size of the entire presentation, and also omit the presence of the 7 day projection.

The pros about this app is that the presentation is absolutely slick and beautiful. No matter how you look at this app, it is just very simple that it will make you think why Apple has made iCal seem a little difficult to use. Another pro is that this app does not require its own icon in the dock. You can see this app running right from the toolbar, and also adjust settings from the toolbar. You can even set this app to open at login, so you don’t have to do anything at all, as long as you have your calendars and task being set right. You can also make new tasks or events right from Blotter, in the toolbar, without having to open iCal. Another cool pro about this app is its size. Even though you can adjust the size, in preferences, to omit the 7 day projection, or make it full screen, we actually prefer the default size of the app, as it does not cover the entire screen, leaving you some space on the side, either left or right, for you to leave a few documents or files that you temporarily leave on your desktop whilst working on other tasks.

Now moving on to the cons. Firstly, even though you can enter new tasks and events, as well as their times, you can’t do anything further. You cannot input any invitees, notes and alarms. Although these might not be features you will use every time, we would have like to at least have the feature to include notes, as I always include notes when entering new events. Another point, which might not really count as a con, is that when you have 2 tasks set for the same time of the day, meaning they clash, it doesn’t display them nicely on the 7 day forecast. This would make it difficult to read what the actual task is, however most of the times we don’t really have 2 or more tasks set for the same time of the day, although it might be handy for people who have shared calendars with their family.

All-in-all, the Blotter app is just a beautiful app with an extremely slick presentation of your iCal calendars, and I have been blown away by how it looks and performs over the past few weeks of use. The Blotter app is currently available through the Mac App Store for $9.99, and I absolutely recommend this app for people with a lot of tasks and events in heir calendars, because this will allow you to view your entire 7 day projection without having to load up iCal every time. Although I have mentioned about the inability to include notes, this is not a major con for most people, and it may arrive in future updates.

plomonet rating: 10/10

Category: Productivity

Price: $9.99

Current Version: 1.3

Size: 0.9MB

Languages: English, French, German, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Swedish

System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.6 or later

About the Author: Kenta Arai is a tech enthusiast who was born in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan. His passion towards technology began to develop as he grew up in Hong Kong, where technology had its solid place in the mass market. Arai became one of the most enthusiastic technophile student in his high-school, and was also well-known for consulting many of his school-mates when purchasing new computers. His expertise in the tech industry is focused on Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

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Apple Quietly Updates their Time Capsule and Airport Extreme [Video]

June 23, 2011 in Mac, Main Blog, Uncategorized

Alongside the Final Cut Pro X update, Apple has also updated two hardware products. First one, the Time Capsule. Time Capsule is an AirPort Base Station with a built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi and hard drive. This device works in conjunction with Apple’s Time Machine software, to allow users to automatically, and wirelessly, backup all the data on their Macs. The Time Capsule used to come in two models – a 1TB and 2TB storage model. Now, Apple has updated these with 2TB and 3TB models. The 2TB model starts at $299 and 3TB at $499.

The interesting point is that Apple did not announce this product, nor have a press release. All they did was quietly update their website. Now, the new Time Capsules might not be a great choice for you. Especially the 3TB model. This is because it costs $499 for the 3TB model. Meaning that you would have to pay an extra $200 for an extra TB. However, if you look at third party hard drives, the average difference between 2TB and 3TB hard drives are around $40. This would mean that Apple is including their always-expensive Apple tax in the 3TB model. If you also look at third party products, such as hard drives from Seagate, the 3TB models are actually around $150 cheaper than the Time Capsule.

Because of this, we strongly recommend you to either buy the 2TB Time Capsule (or a refurbished model, if available), and buy another third party hard drive and connect it via USB to the Time Capsule. By this, you are essentially increasing the available storage for backups. You can buy the 2TB model, and also buy another 3TB hard drive, and have a total of 5TB, whilst saving hundreds of dollars.

Another product – the AirPort Extreme Base Station has also been updated. However, in this case, the product itself does not have any new features. The only difference between the new and the old models, are the model number that is printed on the bottom casing. We have no idea why Apple decided has updated this quietly and also without any new features, however there have been many rumors saying that the new Time Capsules and AirPort Extremes will be powered by an optimized version of iOS, just like the 2nd generation Apple TVs, for potential wireless backups of iOS devices.

About the Author: Kenta Arai is a tech enthusiast who was born in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan. His passion towards technology began to develop as he grew up in Hong Kong, where technology had its solid place in the mass market. Arai became one of the most enthusiastic technophile student in his high-school, and was also well-known for consulting many of his school-mates when purchasing new computers. His expertise in the tech industry is focused on Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

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Buy a Mac Now, Get a Free Copy of Lion.

June 16, 2011 in Mac, Main Blog, Uncategorized

Want to get a Mac now, but also don’t want to pay for Lion? Don’t worry, Apple has announced that if you have bought a Mac since June 6th, you are immediately eligible in receiving a copy of Mac OS X Lion as a free download from the Mac App Store. This is an Up-To-Date program where users are given 30 days from the purchase of their Mac in requesting a free upgrade to Lion.

Apple has also released a press release:

“The Mac OS X Lion Up-To-Date upgrade is available at no additional charge via the Mac App Store to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after June 6, 2011. Users must request their Up-To-Date upgrade within 30 days of purchase of their Mac computer. Customers who purchase a qualifying Mac between June 6, 2011 and the date when Lion is available in the Mac App Store will have 30 days from Lion’s official release date to make a request.”

About the Author: Kenta Arai is a tech enthusiast who was born in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan. His passion towards technology began to develop as he grew up in Hong Kong, where technology had its solid place in the mass market. Arai became one of the most enthusiastic technophile student in his high-school, and was also well-known for consulting many of his school-mates when purchasing new computers. His expertise in the tech industry is focused on Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

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Want the Cool Wallpapers from Lion?

June 16, 2011 in Mac, Main Blog, Uncategorized

Although Mac OS X Lion is not officially released yet, there have been many all-new wallpapers found in the OS beta. And let’s be honest, some of them are actually looking very cool. Below are some download links of wallpapers that have been found in the latest beta of Lion:

Andromeda Galaxy wallpaper from Mac OS X Lion

14 Lion wallpapers pack

Fuji mountains

Space wallpaper from Versions

Background wallpaper from Mission Control

 

About the Author: Kenta Arai is a tech enthusiast who was born in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan. His passion towards technology began to develop as he grew up in Hong Kong, where technology had its solid place in the mass market. Arai became one of the most enthusiastic technophile student in his high-school, and was also well-known for consulting many of his school-mates when purchasing new computers. His expertise in the tech industry is focused on Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

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Mac OS X Lion + iOS 5 + iCloud = WWDC

June 5, 2011 in Main Blog, Uncategorized

Whilst WWDC’11 is just a day away, there has been a few interesting things that caught many people’s attention this week. First of all, Apple has announced a press release informing us that Steve Jobs will be presenting in this years WWDC event, held at Moscone West – San Francisco, revealing the next generation of Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5 and iCloud. Now, what’s interesting about this is that Apple usually never tells us what they are going to talk about in their keynotes, however, this year they have told us about that. And not only that, they have also informed us about their new cloud based service called iCloud, already revealing a new service before the keynote – something that Apple has never done before.

Apple has also recently updated their iWork suite for iOS, now enabling the ability to run iWork on the iPhone and iPod touch. They have also introduced new features such as organizing files into folders within each app. Even though this update is a huge update, Apple has decided not to announce it in WWDC, and instead, release it beforehand.

Why could this be? Well, we don’t know yet. But what we do know is that this years WWDC is going to be packed to the gills with software. Software, software, software. We already know about Mac OS X Lion, since it has been previewed last year along with many beta releases. iOS 5 is also due to be previewed – however release dates are speculated to be in the fall of this year. Apple might even surprise us with an early release of Lion, straight after the keynote.

On the mobile side, iOS 5 has not yet been previewed meaning that it is not ready for public release yet. This might also mean that there is a possible chance that the rumored iPhone 5 will not be announced in WWDC. However, since iCloud (the name) has already been announced, could the iPhone 5 be the “One more thing” ? We have to wait and see.

Lastly, iCloud. Many have predicted that this cloud based service could be the “iTunes in the cloud”.  Meaning that we can store out entire music (and video) library up in the cloud. This would prevent us from worrying about losing our library even when our computer breaks down. However, it would be slightly disappointing if this online music storage is the only feature of iCloud. Many pundits have said that iCloud is going to be a replacement of the current MobileMe service, that is widely hated as its service tends to be slow, inefficient and costly (for $99 a year).  Steve Jobs himself has also criticized the MobileMe team as he thought it was just a total rubbish (from the Fortune Magazine). If iCloud was to replace MobileMe, all the features of MobileMe might be improved, as well as the introduction of new features such as the over-the-air updates and backups for their iOS devices.

Whatever the “One more thing” could be (if there is one), we do not believe that Apple will announce new products such as the iPhone 5 and the MacBook lines. However, we do think that they will discuss extensively about their iCloud service and also integrate Time Machine/Time Capsule into it. Many have reported that Apple’s Time Capsule is low in stock, hinting us that there might be a whole new Time Capsule integration with iCloud.

Here is a video of myself talking about my final predictions of WWDC:

Here is my video of the iWork update for iOS:

 

If you like our videos, please make sure to check out our channel at STUDIOaraikenta on YouTube!

 

About the Author: Kenta Arai is a tech enthusiast who was born in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan. His passion towards technology began to develop as he grew up in Hong Kong, where technology had its solid place in the mass market. Arai became one of the most enthusiastic technophile student in his high-school, and was also well-known for consulting many of his school-mates when purchasing new computers. His expertise in the tech industry is focused on Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

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