After a few delays, Apple's Time Capsule is finally here! It took a while, but let's hope all previous problems that caused the delay have been solved, and everyone will have a smooth ride backing up their data on this handy wireless network-attached storage device. Just think about the fact that the Time Capsule was introduced in Steve Jobs' keynote speech on the 15th of January, so it's good to see it shipping, after almost one month and a half, don't you think?


If you don't remember about the Time Capsule, then let me refresh your memory a little... Basically, we're talking about a 802.11n AirPort Extreme router that has a built in server-grade hard drive. This device works with Apple's Time Machine software to help you perform automatic wireless backups of one or multiple Macs running Mac OS X Leopard.

Currently, on Apple's site you can find the 500GB Time Capsule, priced at $299, as well as a 1TB setup, sold for $499. To find out more about the device and, maybe, order your own, feel free to visit the official product page, here.

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.

Only a week after its introduction, the MacBook Air is one of the hottest topics of the IT world. A lot of people love it (I am one of those, I must admit), maybe some of these already got one, and would do anything to defend the image of their favorite laptop, others are trying to bury it, using the price as one of their best weapons, while others simply sit back and enjoy the show...

Soon after its introduction at this year's MacWorld Expo, during a keynote that a lot of voices on the Internet claimed to be way below the expectations, most people started to claim that the MacBook Air is too expensive. Well, they may be right, especially since the ones that may be delighted to use the MacBook Air (I am talking about students here) have a pretty limited budget, in most cases, but I am sure that, in the long run, it may be worth the price.

We only have to wait a little longer to see some serious price drops for the solid state drives, because a MacBook Air with a SSD would be great, but a price tag of $3,100 is completely out of this world, especially since you only get 64GB of storage space on your new Apple laptop for the price...

Other people said the Air will have heat problems, and the only way to go is to grab the SSD model, but... where's the truth? The truth is that, first of all, everyone expected Steve Jobs to announce the iSpaceship, and that isn't possible just yet, and second, being given all this "love-it-or-hate-it" crowd gathered by the MacBook Air, this laptop will only get more and more popular, at least in the news, if not with users all over the world.

After all, the iPhone has shown the way for the a lot of mobile phones that followed it, and maybe that's exactly what the MacBook Air is all about, with its MIA optical drive and "it's-not-here" Ethernet port, leaving only the wireless communication as a link to the outside world. My only fear is that, this time, the MacBook Air may be one step too far ahead...

Until now, if you had an older Mac Pro desktop computer from Apple, belonging to the first generation, the video card upgrades available were rather limited. The fastest mainstream graphics card available for these first-generation Mac Pro owners is still the older ATI Radeon X1900 XT, but that will change pretty soon...

The X1900 XT was a great card when it appeared, almost two years ago, and I wouldn't be ashamed with one in my computer at this time either, but there are better and more convenient solutions available at this time, such as ATI's HD3870 or NVIDIA's 8800GT, the one we'll talk about next.

GeForce 8800GT cards for Mac Pros are already available in Apple's online store, but their firmware requires the computer to have a free PCI Express 2.0 slot, and older Mac Pro computers don't have one. The strangest part of the problem is that most PCI Ex 2.0 cards on the market at this time have no problems working on old PCI Ex slots, but the 8800GT available to Mac users is an unfortunate exception...

The new Mac Pros come with the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT card by default, and this one is far less powerful than the 8800GT, and even than the older X1900XT mentioned earlier, so it's expected that NVIDIA's decision to work on making the 8800GT compatible with older Mac Pro computers is a very good one.

Unfortunately, there is no clear information on when this is going to happen, but according to sources from NVIDIA, the new 8800GT for Macs should be available for purchase on Apple's website "in a few weeks".

We all know that the MacBook Air uses a smaller 45nm Penryn mobile CPU from Intel, right? Well, we knew that, because I just found out that information is not the truth(or the truth got a challenge, take it however you want)! According to some new reports, the heart of the MacBook Air is an Intel 65nm core that uses some technology taken from the future by the CPU giant, just for Apple...

If we look at those (few) images available with Air's processor, it becomes obvious the chip has been scaled down, but we can't get any information about the technology used in the core. The rumor is that Apple's MacBook Air has a modified version of the current 65nm mobile Core 2 Duo processor, but with smaller packaging, obviously. This is probably a custom-made Merom Core 2 Duo chip, so it's closely related to the one used already by Apple and a lot of other notebook manufacturers in their products!

According to sources from Intel, "The MacBook Air uses the Intel Core 2 Duo Processor and Intel 965GMS chipset with integrated Gfx using a new miniaturized package technology". I see...pretty nice, so - despite all its detractors - Apple IS ahead of its competition.

"This new CPU and chipset allows for approximately 60 percent reduction in total footprint. The Core 2 Duo Processor TDP is 20 watts. The Macbook Air is using existing Core 2 Duo technology with a lower voltage spec in a new miniaturized packaging design. It is not a ULV processor.", Intel continued, so this should be settled - we don't have a completely new 45nm CPU inside the MacBook Pro, but I am sure we'll get one by the end of the year.