Damn, this thing is thin! Apple unveils the MacBook Air

Wow. I’m blown away. Today, Steve Jobs and his bunch of genii over at Apple have truly made history in the technological world. The MacBook Air. Touted as the world’s thinnest MacBook… Gosh, this thing really takes the idiom “as thin as paper” to new levels!

And, the Air boasts an impressive 80GB hard drive, or 64GB solid-state drive. Wow. But, I’m not to impressed with it’s CPU speeds of upto 1.8Ghz… hmmm, maybe it’s because of the size of the thing!

Anyway, you can see pictures of the MacBook Air, read more about it, and even watch the cool official advert and guided tour, direct from Apple’s official website, at www.apple.com. Impressive stuff from Apple… Yet again!

Dawn of the Solid-State Memory?

So, MacWorld 2008 is just around the corner (something like next week!) and Apple enthusiasts around the world will be waiting with bated breath for CEO Steve Jobs’ annual keynote presentation.

As with almost every year, the Internet and subsequently the blogosphere, is filled with rumours of what the Californian-based electronics company has to offer for the new year.

Well, three of the rumours have caught my attention, partly because they are something that I desire in a Mac, and partly because they will just make Macs even more killer than they already are . These are: a new, wafer-thin MacBook, solid-state (i.e. Flash) memory for the MacBook (instead of a Hard Drive) and 3G for the iPhone.

Probably the most prominent rumour is flash-based memory for the MacBook. Now, there could be a LOT that us, as customers to Apple, would benefit from this. Main amongst these, is faster boot-up times. Coupled with the Intel chips in the MacBook, solid-state memory would make the small notebook one of the fastest on the market.

Another benefit, would be added protection to the notebook. Because there would no longer be any moving parts in the internal workings of the MacBook, if you were to drop it, it wouldn’t break that easily. Neat, eh?

Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait for MacWorld to find out….

The Story Behind the Wii

I found an interesting interview by Satoru Iwata, CEO and President of Nintendo, about the development of the Wii Console. Mr Iwata interviews his employees about their experiences working on the revolutionary console. Click on http://wiiportal.nintendo-europe.com/19481.html to read the three-part interview.

Although lacking the graphics and multimedia prowess of the Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3, the Wii Console is the most original in terms of gameplay, with its innovative motion-sensitive remote-style controller. You can visit www.nintendo.co.za, and www.wii.com to learn more about it.

2008 and Beyond: What’ll Be In Store For Us?

This is T|Z’s opinion on what 2008 and the future will bring us in terms of technology.

Well, 2008 seems to be a year full of action in the technological arena, probably equaling or bettering the events of 2007.

For starters, we’ll be seeing quite a bit of action from Apple Computer, Inc. Following their phenomenal sales surge of their iMac line, the California-based technology company will probably be quite aggressive in the New Year, regarding the marketing and development of this line of all-in-one’s. They’ll also be under pressure from competitor Dell, who introduced their reply to the iMac in the form of the Dell XPS One.

Apple may also release a refresh to the latest 6-generation iPods, a trend that seems quite common for the company.

Looking towards the future, we may see Microsoft Corporation pushing ahead aggressively to try and keep their dominance on the technological world. Under immense scrutiny from technological geeks and enthusiasts, the Redmond corporation will be aiming to improve their Windows line of software products, and we may see the successor to Vista in about 2010 in the form of Windows 7 (codename: Vienna). The corporation would also plan to release the successor to their Office productivity suite with Office 14, successor to Office 2007. The feature set of this upgrade is currently under planning.

Linux will be posing as a strong contender in the future, proving a cost-efficient alternative to Windows and Macintosh. Free software enthusiasts may be delighted to see many free alternatives to industry-leading software.

Laptops are becoming the way to go for many people these days, with most desktops acting like “base stations” at home. This looks like it could result in major improvements in the  design and feature-set of these portable PCs.

Technology is an ever-changing thing in our lives; something that we need to always be ahead in. So, we can defiantly look forward to some interesting gadgets and tech-products in the future.

Happy New Year from TechZone Online!

TechZone wishes all its readers – old, new, as well as TechZone Fans, a very happy and prosperous  2008! We also hope that you had a very merry Christmas,  and we’d like to also take the opportunity to wish you all the best for the forthcoming year

Looking Back: Technology in 2007

2007 was quite a year for technology, significantly with the two heavyweight contenders Microsoft and Apple going face-to-face in the operating system wars.

January 2007 saw Microsoft’s Windows take to the next level with the official release of Windows Vista. However, it was unfortunate for Microsoft that, even after the five years of development for Vista, the new operating system wasn’t taken to liking by many PC users.

Early in the year, Microsoft also released the next version of its office productivity suite, Office 2007. This latest version was also taken to mildly, with many users unhappy about Microsoft’s attempt at the new “ribbon” feature in the user interface.

Apple also had its fair share of product revamps when it updated a number of its best-selling products. Among these were its new 6-generation iPods, which introduced 160GB of multimedia storage. The best-selling Nano was also given the ability to play video, and a new member was added to the stylish media player’s family: the iPod Touch (also called the iTouch).

October heralded Vista’s main contender in the OS arena: Mac OS X 10.5 (codename Leopard), as well as the company’s update to its iLife suite of lifestyle and design applications.

On the gaming side, console fans were treated well this year when three consoles competed against each other: Sony’s PlayStation 3, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and, of course, Nintendo’s Wii. All three console’s provided advanced graphic systems that made new games look superb, but the on that really stood out as being innovative was from a very unsuspecting vendor – Nintendo’s Wii. Although strangely named, the Wii introduced a new way of interacting with games, through its motion-sensitive remote and nunchuk.

Microsoft .NET programmers were delighted when the Redmond corporation’s software development tools division announced the release of Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio Express Edition 2008. The revamped IDE (Integrated Development Environment) now allows for developers to take advantage of the advance GUI (Graphical User Interface) features of the Windows Presentation Foundation, as well as components of the .NET Framework 3.5. This allows for the development of applications for Windows Vista, which may finally result in a solid reason for upgrading to the new OS.

Hardware-wise, 2007 saw Dell entering the market of all-in-one PCs when the company recently introduced the Dell XPS-One series of all-in-one PCs. The XPS-One is a direct competitor to Apple’s iMac series.

2007 has defiantly signaled a new direction in which technology is heading, and we can be sure to expect even more in 2008, especially when a wider variety of DirectX 10 games are released, as well as the service packs 1 for Vista and 3 for XP are released early next year.

New Games, New Graphics Card… Hey, I like that word “NEW”!

On the 26 November ’07 (which also happens to be my birthday!!) I received (amongst other things) Need for Speed: ProStreet as a present from my parents. This was the PC version of the game (since I don’t own a console i.e. Xbox, PS3 or Wii) and I was so ampt to start playing it.

I diligently installed the game on my PC, and attempted to launch the game. However, to my utter horror and dismay (which inevitably reduced me to tears) I found out that my graphics card (then an ATI RADEON 9200 PRO Family) was not supported by the game! The horror!

So, finally, yesterday (i.e. Saturday) I finally got round to purchasing one (well, actually, it was my mum who bought it for me – a sort of congratulations present for my school results). The (lucky) card in question? A killer ATI RADEON 9600 PRO. Ok, ok, I know. Maybe it’s not one of those super-high-end cards where the cost goes into the thousands, but at least it serves its purpose – and it makes my current games look AWESOME!!

Anyway, about the two new games I’ve got – they’re Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and, of course, NFS: ProStreet!! When I bought the HP5 game, I was able to purchase Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire PC game at a discount – so, naturally, I bought it!

I’ve yet to try HP4, but I’m already 50% through HP5 (I started playing it from Wednesday last week). The game has got significantly improved graphics compared to its predecessors, and this time round, EA has taken lovely pictures of the actual actor’s faces to make the 3D characters even more believable. However, the narrative does tend to get a bit boring, when you have to help a bunch of students acomplish (sometimes silly) tasks. But I’m prepared to endure that, because I’m looking forward to the climax of the game with the encounter with Lord Voldemort…

O-kay, onto ProStreet. What can I say? The game totally rocks! Graphics are ampt up quite a bit, and that damage control is definitely wicked cool! Although I’ve just started the game (yesterday) and I’m only on like 1% in career mode, I must say that I’m quite enjoying it – but I’m missing Free Roam and, surprisingly, the absence of the 5-0 (police) does tend to make the game a bit dull…

Anyway, I’m off to try and clock HP5 – all for now!!

-Rahul