Fortunately, it seems Bubble Bash wasn't quite Apple's surprise for this Tuesday, and I say it this way because, to be honest, it was simply something too small for them. The good news arrived less than a day after the game for iPod, as the new MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops, something everyone has been waiting for a while already...


Basically, it's all about moving to the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, so you won't get to see any MacBook or MacBook Pro as thick as the MacBook Air, but there's plenty of time for this to happen. These being said, let's check the technical specifications of the latest MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops, shall we?

The MacBook has the same pricing, starting at $1099 for the non-Super Drive white base model, and $1499 for the BlackBook, but processor speeds start at 2.1GHz for the base model, and 2.4GHz for the $1299 and $1499 ones. The storage solutions used are 5400rpm "classic" hard drives, starting at 120GB for the base model, and going up to 250GB for the BlackBook. At last, all models get 2GB of memory, apart from the entry-level MacBooks, still having 1GB of memory in the default configuration.

The MacBook Pro got a few extra features, when compared to its younger brother, with processor speeds starting up at 2.4GHz, and up to 2.6GHz. The new 2.5GHz, the default one installed on the 17-inch models, has 6MB of L2 cache. The 17-inch MacBook Pro has a LED backlit screen option, hard drives range between 200GB and 300GB, and the video adapter is using the NVIDIA 8600GT chipset, starting at 256MB of video memory. Last, bot not the least, the new MacBook Pros have a multi-touch trackpad like the one available for the MacBook Air users.

The MacBook Pros are priced between $1999 and $2799, but these are the prices for standard configurations. If you want to go higher, I am sure that's not a problem...

All MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops are shipping with Mac OS X Leopard and Apple's iLife application suite, adding some extra value to your purchase, as it always happened with Apple's desktop and portable computers.

As it was expected by everyone, Apple came up with something new today. It wasn't the iPhone SDK, and in fact it didn't even arrive exactly today. How's that? It's very simple - last night, Apple released the Bubble Bash game for the iPod!


Developed by the French company, Gameloft, Bubble Bash is an arcade game where you have to use the click wheel to aim and shoot a bubble cannon, with the purpose of clearing patterns of the same color, before the advancing wave reaches the bottom of the screen, while being challenged by additional threats, such as monkeys or parrots.

Available for a mere $5 on iTunes, Bubble Bash works on 5th generation video ipods, 3rd generation nanos, as well as the iPod classic.

This is not everything, because two more interesting facts should be mentioned today. First, if you're going to visit the iTunes Store to grab Bubble Bash, you may also consider grabbing the "Movie of the Week", an older title available for only $0.99 (this week, it's 2002's Academy Award winner "The Hours"), and second, you could consider visiting Amazon to grab the iPod touch 32GB. Why? Well, it comes with a free 1GB iPod shuffle as a bonus!

The iPhone may face some serious legal problems in Australia, but the interesting part is that these problems may lead Apple into selling unlocked iPhones...or drop the idea of entering the Australian market. How's that possible? Well, that's what we shall see right away...


According to a group of law researchers located in Queensland, "The iPhone is breaking new ground in using technology to restrict customer's choice in technology markets.", so releasing the iPhone in Australia and requiring its buyers to sign a contract with a certain carrier could enter in contradiction with the Trade Practices Act provision dealing with third-line forcing.

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) law researcher Dale Clapperton said "This law will greatly simplify the task of seeking redress for such behaviour through the courts and could prove a deterrent for exclusive release of the iPhone with one carrier.", so "If Apple enter into an exclusive agreement with any particular carrier then it would be a matter for the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) as to whether that agreement was anticompetitive and contravened the trade practices act."

Do I have to say more? Apple Australia didn't say anything yet, but I hope they will decide to make things easier for everyone and sell unlocked iPhones there. "At least there", I must add. In the end, they may lose some revenue, but they will surely improve their image a lot!

I don't think I have to say again how important is to backup your data on a regular basis. Sometimes, bad things happen and you have to recover your lost data with any price, and considering the price, most people learn the hard way that it's always better to back up your data, instead of paying to recover it... Anyway, when disaster strikes, it's good to know where you can recover your data, especially if you have a crushed iPhone, for example.


Obviously, what I have for you now is a solution for bringing your iPhone back to life, just enough to get your data back. Unfortunately, we're not talking about any software or do-it-yourself hands-on recovery procedure, and your iPhone won't be ready to be used again, but at least you'll have your data back, if the device is not damage beyond any chance of recovery, of course.

According to DriveSavers, their iPhone data recovery service is the first of its kind, and was officially born more than a year after the official release of Apple's mobile, simply because cusomers arrived with these devices for recovering their data, and DriveSavers recovered successfully data for more than just one or two customers in that period.

Just to remember you how important is to backup your data, here's what can be done, once your iPhone arrives at DriveSavers - recovery service turnaround is advertised to be between 5 and 7 days, recovery cost between $500 and $1400, and if your iPhone's drive is damaged beyond recovery, you're going to be charged a $100 attempt fee.

The conclusion is this: backup, backup, backup, and if your iPhone blows up, is hit by a falling elephant, or something like that, and you forgot to backup your data, go to DriveSavers. At last, just remember to backup, all right? ;)

Back in October, Steve Jobs finally announced that Apple will support third-party development of software applications for their iPhone, and everyone got ready for the storm of games and other programs to arrive. First, the SDK for the iPhone and iPod touch was expected to arrive about a month after the MacWorld Conference & Expo, but now, a new delay has just been announced...


Now, it seems that a blog posting at BusinessWeek.com made it clear that the iPhone SDK will be released in early- to mid-March. In the last weeks, everyone was ready to see something new from Apple, but all we got were the smaller prices and those updated iPods.

The most interesting part is that, since 2008 kicked in, Apple dropped us new things on each Tuesday, so since most voices, more or less official, are claiming that if the SDK manages to arrive tomorrow, it won't be the final version, but some Alpha or Beta release.

At last, here's the blog post that started everything. Take your time to read it, and remember that yesterday, Steve Jobs celebrated his 53rd anniversary(Happy birthday, Mr. Jobs!), so if the SDK doesn't make it quite on time, we could also suppose they had a wild party yesterday, and getting back on track was harder than expected...