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...

<-120x240 Vertical Banner - left->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.

While Apple TV wasn't quite a market hit so far, it seems Apple won't drop the product, but do as any smart company would do with a product that sells a bit below expectations - lower the price, and add new features. Since some time will pass until we get to see the results in sales and customer satisfaction of these measures, let's see what's new in the Apple TV field!

Yesterday, during its MacWorld keynote, Steve Jobs revealed the new software for the Apple TV, allowing the rental of movies from the iTunes Store directly from their TV-set. More details about the new iTunes can be found here, so now I'll tell you about some things that I didn't wrote there...

By using the new iTunes Movie Rentals and the Apple TV, you can rent one of the 1,000 movies available by the end of next month, including over 100 HD-ones featuring 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound. Obviously, no computer is required. Oh, one more thing - the HD titles are a bit more expensive, with $3.99 for library titles, and $4.99, the new ones.

While the new Apple TV, priced at $229, for the 40GB model, and $329, the 160GB one, will be launched to the public in about 2 weeks, existing owners of the older models can update their software free of any charge.

At last, it would be nice for you to know that with the new Apple TV,photos from your computer, Flickr and .Mac Web Galleries can be viewed on your TV as slideshows or screen savers as easy as possible. Is that cool, or what?

Time travel is something we all dream of, sooner or later, and it has been done and overdone in movies, but no real progress in this research field is known to the public, at this time. Anyway, if you can't travel back and forward in time, at least you can back it up. I am talking about images, videos, but especially about data backup, because Apple just announced a new device that's able to backup data easier and more efficient than before, called Time Capsule.

The idea is this - you get a Time Capsule device, and your data is automatically backed up using a wireless connection, and you can do that for more than just a computer, as long as it has Mac OS X Leopard and runs the Time Machine software.
Pretty cool, don't you think? Well, as long as the wireless connection doesn't fail, everything should be fine, in my opinion...

According to Steve Jobs, all you have to do is "Bring Time Capsule home, plug it in, click a few buttons on your Macs and voila—all the Macs in your house are being backed up automatically, every hour of every day." Since the 500GB model is priced at $299, and the 1TB one comes for $499, and both include a fully featured 802.11n Wi-Fi base station, there's nothing else to add, so prepare for the Time Capsule, which is scheduled to be available in February through the Apple Store, at Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

Oh, my! It happened! Just like last year, Steve Jobs had a very interesting presentation in the opening day of the MacWorld Expo, and... no, "interesting" is not right. For me, last year's keynote was interesting, because this year's is much more. While the iPhone wasn't quite the best mobile in the world at that time, it managed to set a trend, and now, we got something that really takes your breath away: the MacBook Air, the thinnest laptop in the world!


<-250x250 Square - right->Before getting to the Air, I have to tell you some of the more important things Steve revealed to the public, such as iPhone sales. According to Apple's CEO, they have sold 4 million iPhones so far, which means about 20,000 daily. Not bad at all, I must say, not bad at all! In the US, the iPhone "garnered almost 20 percent marketshare of smartphone market", according to Jobs(nice one, saying "20 percent of the smartphone market", and not "x percent of the mobile phone market"-that would have been more interesting to know, but I am sure it's no secret, but we'll leave it aside for now).


I'll leave "Apple TV take 2"(another big thing announced by Steve Jobs in his keynote) aside now, and get straight to what gave me a big headache today - the MacBook Air. Why? Because I love it already and I couldn't stop staring at it, without any brilliant thought on what to write about it, that's why! I don't have plans on buying one anytime soon, but the MacBook Air looks great, and I will only say a few things about it...

Pricing starts at $1799, it doesn't have an optical drive, comes with the advanced WiFi 802.11n and BlueTooth 2.1, a custom-made tiny Intel Core 2 Duo CPU at 1.6 or 1.8GHz, and its battery life is estimated to 5 hours. As you can see above, the keyboard is a full-size one, as well as the trackpad. The 13.3" widescreen display and the iSight should also sound great, but best of all - it's only 0.4-1.94 cm thin, with a weight of less than 1.5kg!


Since I could write about this new laptop until next morning, I will stop here. After all, the official page is already up, as you probably expected already, so feel free to visit it and share your opinion with us. What do you think - there's already a winner in the "best laptop of 2008" category, or we have to wait and see?