If you really want to be able to enter the universe of a movie, and enjoy it to its fullest, you need more than just a portable media player, or a computer monitor. After all, there's always something to draw your attention from the movie, and ruin everything, but if you have a head-mounted display...things are a bit different. Since Apple is well known for trying to provide best experiences to its users, there's no wonder they filed their first head-mounted laser display patent, I only ask myself why did they wait so long to do it...


Unfortunately, the new Apple patent doesn't give any hints about the final destination of the devices using this technology, so we must think - what is Apple going to do with a head-mounted laser display? After all, this technology didn't make it to the mainstream yet, but considering the past, and how many times Apple managed to change the direction of an entire industry, I wouldn't be surprised to see their head-mounted displays becoming as ubiquitous as the iPod.

Wait, did I say "iPod"? Yes, probably that's the way of the future - moving from the iPod Touch as it is, to an iPod with head-mounted display! Or... could it be something else?

This is what the abstract says - "A head mounted display system is disclosed. The head mounted display system includes a remote laser light engine that generates laser light associated with a display signal. The head mounted display system additionally includes a head mounted display apparatus that is separated from the laser light engine and comprising a display unit that displays laser images. The head mounted display system further includes an imaging device coupled between the remote laser light engine and the head mounted display apparatus. The imaging device creates laser images from the laser light transmitted through an optical cable in accordance with the display signal. The laser images are delivered to the display unit in order to create display images that can be viewed by a user of the head mounted display apparatus."

At last, I should thank our reader James for sending us a hint, so I will mention it here - FreePatentsOnline is a website that "provides free patent searching, free PDF downloading, allows annoting documents and sharing them, and free alerts for new documents." If you really want to be up to date with the latest technologies, apart from visiting our site, please pay a visit to FreePatentsOnline, I am sure it is worth your time.

Do you want to hear some new Apple-related rumors? I am sure you do, especially since we're going to talk once again about the 3G iPhone, and an upcoming MacBook. Unfortunately, nothing is official yet, as it usually happens with future Apple products, so if you don't want to be disappointed, don't believe everything you'll hear. Anyway, let's hope we'll get what we are all waiting for, and let's hear what latest rumors say, shall we?


First, it seems Apple ordered some Taiwanese case manufacturer to produce enclosures for new MacBooks, and since this is inside information, all that we know for now is that we may get to see new aluminium MacBooks pretty soon. Other than that, nothing (anyway, even with this, the one that reported this may lose his job...), at least for now.

As a followup to the above, it seems there are also assumptions that the white cases will disappear, being replaced by a silver, anodized aluminum, similar to the material used in the MacBook Air or the latest iMacs.

Leaving the Macs behind, we move on and take on the iPhone. What about it? Well, not simply the iPhone, but the 3G iPhone, the device that a lot of people are waiting for, and even more are talking about. So, what's the rumor about it?

The chip inside the 3G iPhone is going to be manufactured by United Microelectronics Corporation. This is the same Infineon-based processor previously rumored to be used for the upcoming 3G-capable mobile from Apple, and it is going to be produced using the 65nm technology.

At last, I should add that we'll probably wait until June, when Apple's WWDC 2008 will be held, since that is just a perfect occasion to release new products, or at least announce them officially.

The global economic growth is clearly slowing down, and some pessimists even speak about crises here and there. Anyway, a clear fact is that while computer sales seem to have lost some of the pushing force shown in the last few years, Apple's sales are not following the same pattern. How's that possible? Well, there are plenty of reasons, but I'll leave them aside, so we can talk about the numbers, because numbers are also very interesting to study.


Even the US recession didn't really hit PC shipments in the first quarter of the year, and according to Gartner, the worldwide PC market even went up with 12 percent during this period!

Looking at the figures closely, here's what we have - 71.1 million units sold in the first quarter, exactly 12.3 percent up, compared to the first quarter of 2007, with HP extending its lead (18.3 percent growth), but in the US market, Dell proved to be the strongest manufacturer, followed by HP, Acer, and Apple.

Finally, let me tell you about Apple's 6.6 percent! I find it really impressive to see that Apple climbed above Toshiba in the US market, reaching this percent, compared to 5.2 percent last year, when Toshiba had 5.4 percent of the market in control. The estimations show over 1 million Macs shipped in the first quarter, compared to 840,000 Toshiba computers. Not bad at all, don't you agree?

On my road to reviewing Safari 3.1 for Windows, I was so fortunate to end up facing a new version, and since the 3.1.1 update comes with no less than four security issues, I thought you have to find out about it as soon as possible. Before we talk about this new version, let me suggest you to take a look at the Quick site access in Safari article, because that may help those of you still getting started with this browser, and maybe even those that have been using it for a while, but didn't find the time to digg in.


Now, let's see what they fixed in this update, apart from the widely known bug that allowed a MacBook Air to be compromised in public, shall we?

The 3.1.1 release, available for Mac OS X and Windows, can be downloaded from the official Safari page, and Apple recommends all users of previous versions to move up, since this new version comes with stability, security and compatibility improvements.

Out of those three security issues remaining, two are only encountered on Windows XP or Vista, both related to maliciously crafted websites that can control the contents of the address bar or lead to arbitrary code execution, and the remaining flaw affecting both Windows and Mac OS X versions of the browser allowed hackers to use maliciously crafted URLs to conduct cross-site scripting attacks.

These being said, I hope you'll take your time to try Safari, especially if you're a Windows user that ended up here looking for the iPhone or the iPod, because there's more to Apple than meets the eye!

Back in January, when NVIDIA claimed that the 8800 GT cards will become available for older Mac Pros "in a few weeks," I wasn't expecting for such a long wait, and I am sure those in need for a video upgrade to their older Mac Pro almost lost their hope since then. Well, the good news is that, finally, NVIDIA kepts its promise, so...


...less than a day ago, the long-awaited upgrade for older Mac Pros was released to the public! With 512MB of GDDR3 memory, the PCI Express NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT upgrade is capable of driving one or two Apple Cinema HD displays, thanks to its dual-link DVI ports.

All that you need is a Mac Pro with a bus speed of 1.33GHz, and a free PCI Express slot, of course. Priced at $280, this new video card for older Mac Pros can be acquired as a standalone item, or a build-to-order option for Early 2008 Mac Pros through the online Apple Store.