Technology Guides

As expected Apple released its update on the Apple iMac. Aesthetically it has kept the same body but with some slight changes. First lets start off with the screen. Taking cues from a HDTV, the Apple iMac has a black border going to the very edges of the screen and the aluminum border that was present on the previous generation is gone. Both of these changes give the effect that the screen is bigger. As well instead of offering 20-inch and 24-inch screen, Apple upgraded significantly with 21.5-inch and 27-inch screens that are only offered in the glossy finish. I apologize on behalf of Apple for not giving you guys the option of a matte finish.

In my opinion 27-inch seems a little too big for the mainstream public and they may want to consider offering something in between; say bring back the 24-inch. On top of that, it is interesting to note that many observers have said that the 21.5-inch looks much bigger than the previous 20-inch mostly because of the changes noted above, but both use IPS technology to deliver consistent colour at most angles, 178 to be exact.

The new Apple iMac is the fastest ever with Intel Core 2 Duo processors starting at 3.06 GHz, and Core i5 and i7 quad-core processors for up to twice the performance of last years mddel. The Apple iMac comes with improved graphics across the board with NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics or ATI Radeon HD 4670 discrete graphics in the 21.5-inch model, and ATI Radeon HD 4670 discrete graphics or ATI Radeon HD 4850 discrete graphics in the 27-inch model.

Apple also upgraded in the RAM section with 4GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 with the possibility to expand to a whopping 16GB.

Prices for the new Apple iMacs come in at $1199(USD) for the 21.5-inch model and $1699(USD) for the 27-inch model. All come with a wireless keyboard and the new Magic Mouse, a world first Multi-Touch mouse. They also ship with a built-in iSight video camera, mic and integrated stereo speakers. On top of that the new Apple iMac includes built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi networking, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Gigabit Ethernet, a grand total of four USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port and a new built-in SD card slot.

Prices in Canada start at $1299 for the 21.5-inch model and $1799 for the 27-inch model.

Popularity: 12% [?]

More good news is on the way after word came out that Apple obliterated sales forecasts this quarter in this really slow economy. Apple is introducing new product face lifts including the iMac, MacBook, and Mac Mini. Google seems to have inadvertently started prematurely advertising the new Apple ads and so this is how we came to know this information. Also in the mix is redesigns of the company’s Mighty Mouse and Apple Remote, as well as aluminum wireless keyboards.

Reports are flowing in that signage has been received recently that cannot be opened until further notice from Apple headquarters.

iMac

These new iMacs are supposed to be thinner sporting 20″ and 24″ models. The ads on the Dutch and Italian Google claimed they would be priced at 1099 Euros which in USD translates into $1643.

The In-Depth Review

MacBook

The new Apple MacBook isn’t supposed to be changed to much except for redesigned polycarbonate with thinner and sleeker enclosures. Obviously with any product update these products are supposed to be faster. No word on pricing yet.

Mac Minis

Apple’s, Google ad read: Apple’s New Mac Mini. Faster and more affordable than ever. From only € 499. Order immediately. € 499 in USD equals $746 and it’s interesting to note that the current version is € 599.

More details to follow shortly

Popularity: 12% [?]

Google has long dominated the search engine market and with Yahoo and Live way behind, as well as other search engines such as Ask there really isn’t much choice.

Cuil

One that had some big hype was Cuil (pronounced cool) because it is superior to Google in some ways. It indexes 3 times as many web pages as Google does and 10 times more than Microsoft. Now with the partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft things may change for Bing as it will have more freedom as to how it can market itself better. The cool thing about Cuil though, is the way it displays its search results.

As you can see from the above screenshot of my search for Toronto Maple Leafs, it basically becomes like a website displaying it in squares with widgets on the side. Depending on what you search a map will appear or for this particular search a timeline appeared for the Toronto Maple Leaf’s franchise.

Unlike Google you can narrow down your search further by scrolling down and clicking on a category. To me this is really great because there are definitely people like me who can’t search to the full potential of what these sites offer and this helps you search for what you really want. You can also roll over words under “Explore My Category” and get a definition as well as the top results for that word. Another good thing that privacy watchdogs will love is the fact that all searches are private because Cuil does not rely on previous users searches, it relies solely on the web pages and looks at the content rather than the popularity. This to me sums up Cuil “Cuil is an old Irish word for knowledge. For knowledge, ask Cuil.”

FactBites

FactBites has taken a different approach just like Google did when it first entered the industry. It is trying to offer a new services to the vast market of searchers in the world. It is a clean search engine just like Google but it searches slightly differently than Google. Factbites searches for matches on the basis of your whole topic area, not just the keyword. This means that it can return relevant, informative results on your topic that don’t necessarily mention the word you searched for. It also returns search results with a small summary of around 3 points that describe the page so you can have more confidence when you click a search result that it will provide relevant information that pertains to your search. On top of that it tells you how many words are in on that webpage. Sadly it is still in the beta stage so some of your searches won’t work but it will very soon.

KartOO

KartOO was first suggested to me by my high school and I was extremely fascinated by it because of the way it laid out the search results. It displays it in a mind map almost where it links each webpage with another webpage and ever since I started using it I’ve never found a mind map on the first try without a useful link. Usually there are numerous useful links and so I continue to go back. I will continue to update this list with brief descriptions of each and feel free to suggest more you like because we all get bored of Google sometime.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Since Canadians or anyone outside of the U.S. for that matter can’t get a hold of free movies and TV shows online for free I decided to go hunting for a way to. Now personally I love Hulu or any of the sites that Hulu gets their content from, I couldn’t find a way to hack onto it using Linux and it was hard as well for Vista or Mac users. So I gave up (sorry it was just getting to time consuming) and so I decided to try and find some sites on the net that would offer the service to users like me. Again I kind of failed but my search engine skills aren’t the best. So one day I stumbled on this site called TV Shack (no I didn’t use Stumbleupon but I’m sure it’s on there by now).

This site has a huge database and I haven’t come across a link that doesn’t work because they use a community system where users update the collection and offer multiple links in a very clean way so it’s not overwhelming like some other websites. They have a TV Show, Movie, Anime, Music and Documentaries database that offer enough selection for even the pickiest person. The huge benefit of this site is that they offer the whole series and not just the last 5 episodes.

You also don’t need to register on the site but if you want to add links because the site needs to be able to moderate what links do go up there and make sure that they do actually work.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Google and Apple have just started competing with each other and things started warming up with the release of the Google Android smartphone but now things may start to heat up with the release of an Apple search engine to compete with the cash cow leader in that department, Google.

This makes total sense for Apple as its brand is gaining ground whereever it enters including a market share in the smartphone industry that has doubled since 2008 from 5.3% to 10.8%. (Nokia has a 41.2% share and RIM has 19.9%). Now it’s rumoured that they’re going to release a search engine.

Now let’s try and figure out if this makes sense when you break down the numbers. Currently Google is the reigning king in this department by a long shot with an 83% market share but this is largely because everyone associates search with Google and so naturally people go there to do their searches. Increasingly though people want services that are more convenient and thus they are searching on the go with their Blackberry’s, iPhones or other mobile devices.

Now this is where it gets complicated because all the major search engines (Bing by Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and possibly Apple) are promoting their respective sites very hard and with Google launching its browser recently and it rumoured OS, Google is continuing to strengthen its lineup to protect its search engine and revenue stream. Microsoft on the other hand will make its own search engine the default on IE and the default search engine on Windows is, you guessed, it IE. Both these platforms have a stranglehold on their respective market and thus it makes easier for users to use Bing and you should see a steady increase in its usage over the next bit. Apple on the other hand is slowly gaining market share in the OS department where Safari is the default, but where the growth can occur is the smartphone department and that’s where this battle will be won or lost.

The key thing to note is whether or not Apple can continue to grow the iPhone and knock down Nokia and keep up with RIM. If that happens Apple has a serious chance of gaining some huge money because then the default search engine on the iPhone will be Apple’s version instead of Google. Where Google can gain is if the Android takes off and what RIM decides to do. Whether they go with Google, Apple or even Microsoft as their default search engine may determine how far Apple gets.

There really is so much at play here for Apple and in the end there’s too many variables for Apple to worry about to even think about entering but knowing Apple they want their own stuff and so I would not be surprised if they release it anyway. That’s my take and let me know yours.

Popularity: 5% [?]

So the results of the contest are, drum roll please.

Bob Gold!!

Congratulations Bob and spend that gift card wisely .

Popularity: 1% [?]

CONTEST IS NOW OPEN! (Sorry, I decided to change the start date because I couldn’t contain my excitement)

This is my first contest ever since I hit the world wide web and I’d like to do something different. Something no other website (at least I hope) has ever done before. Since I’m fairly new to parts of the game, i.e. Twitter and YouTube, I want to encourage my readers to sign up and get others to sign up to increase my visibility. Right now the prize is minimal and it’s just to get you guys interested but based on how well all of you do, I will up the ante accordingly for the holiday season starting mid-November. Here is the outline for the Bring The Heat Contest.

Prize: Grand prize of a $25 Best Buy gift card

Eligibility: Open to everyone.

How to Enter: I couldn’t wait to start this contest, so I decided to start it now. Here are the steps you need to take to enter the contest.

1. Go to my YouTube channel which has just been created with a brand new video (you can subscribe when you watch the video, How to Share Large Files For Free).

2. Go to my Twitter page and follow me at TechGuides Twitter Page. Note: Since Twitter is very open, I’ll need a direct message sent to me to verify that you are enterting the contest (i.e. @TechGuides I love www.yourworldwired.com check it out)

3. If you refer someone, get them to send me a message on Youtube and/or Twitter to let me know that you referred them. With this message, the referrer will get 2 extra entries into the next contest which will be in mid-November, so remember to check back.

4. Everyone who enters in this contest will get an extra 5 entries up to a max of 10 (5 for Twitter and 5 for Youtube) in the next contest.

Now you ask, how am I, one lonely person, supposed to track all of these entries? Well my friend, with the help of Gmail I will track all the notifications Twitter and YouTube have sent me and then load every entry onto Microsoft Excel including the extra’s for those who refer. For the next contest I also note who entered the first one.

So to summarize how many entries you get for each action:

1 entry per YouTube subscription

1 entry per Twitter follow

2 extra entries per referral

5 entries into the end of the year contest for each YouTube Subscription and/or Twitter follow (max. 10 extra)

I will also confirm all entries with a message to each respective user account along with the amount of referrals at the end to give you guys a peace of mind.

How Will I Choose the Winner?: That’s simple, after loading all the entries onto Microsoft Excel I will then go onto www.random.org and tell it how many entries I have and it will determine the winner. I will make a video of me choosing and publish it on YouTube and here as well as putting links to the videos on Twitter. I will announce the time of when this video will be published to.

The next contest will be as big as YOU, the readers, want it to be. Based on how many YouTube subscriptions I get and how many Twitter follows I get I will increase the prize value and I may use an actual product instead of a gift card depending on your votes.

100 Subscribers and 100 Follows = $50 Prize Value

200 Subscribers and 200 Follows = $100 Prize Value

500 Subscribers and 500 Follows = $200 Prize Value

1000 Subscribers and 1000 Follows = $500 Prize Value

If you get more I’ll update it to give you more incentive.

Contest will close 11:59pm August 23rd 2009 and the winner will be revealed approx. 24 hours later, probably less. Please feel free to comment or message me if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions. Good Luck!

Popularity: 2% [?]

The media has been abuzz lately about a new version of the Apple iPod Touch. Now in all honesty it’s nothing we haven’t seen before but what Apple is doing is trying to revolutionize the mp3 market by adding cellphone specs to a mp3 player such as a built-in camera and microphone. Obviously those two features aren’t something new and it will probably be the highlight of the new features packaged with the new Apple iPod Touch but what it will do is allow Apple iPod Touch users to download apps only useful to iPhone users such as Shazam. Granted, users will need to be in a WiFi zone but what’s stopping people from subscribing to personal hotspots offered by companies like Rogers and Verizon that will allow them to be always on the grid.

TruPhone

Now what might even further revolutionize the mp3 industry is the fact of the availability of some applications such as Truphone and Fring which allow Apple iPod Touch users to call other users with the same application for free once they are in a WiFi zone and with the built-in microphone you’ve now got a working phone that makes VoIP calls.

Now all of you must be asking when will this new Apple iPod Touch be coming out? Sources say the timeframe would be around the next two to three months which matches up with the new releases of other Apple products. This is all just around the time when school starts and students, who are usually the trend setters, go back to school and want to have the newest gadgets. Look for this mp3 player to change a small part of the world.

Update: Not only will the Apple iPod Touch have a camera but the Apple iPod Nano will have one too. “My company had got full information and dimension,” wrote a Chinese distributor in an email to a U.S. reseller. “Enclosed some image and instruction for your reference. Most of the sample available now. If you need some sample check quality please freely let me know.”

The cameras on the Apple iPod Nano will be placed in the bottom left corner whereas the Apple iPod Touch’s camera will be surprisingly in the center of the device at the top (not dead centre which I first thought when I read it). Going with what Apple traditionaly does, it will be a safe bet to say that both these devices will get double the storage at the same price.

• iPod Nano (fifth generation): 16GB for $150; 32GB for $200
• iPod Touch (third generation): 16GB for $230; 32GB for $300; 64GB for $400

Apple iPod Nano 5th Generation

Now although the Apple iPod Nano looks the same there are small changes it will have. There will be a slightly wider screen with a 1.5:1 aspect ratio up from 1.33:1 (I know, a small jump) and a smaller click wheel that will move down the device.

On top of that, I just found out that the Apple iPod Touch will most likely be able to take video whereas the Apple iPod Nano will not. Even so, with the Apple iPod Touch being such a huge success, it will deal a blow to the compact video recorders like The Flip (My review on The Flip) but it’s not like they were that great to begin with.

Popularity: 19% [?]