Common Paradox Tech Blog

For those of you who get hot and bothered by leaked Intel product roadmaps, please sit down. We have one here for desktops that runs the gamut from budget Core i3 and a low-power i5 marked with an “S.”

Is the S for Savings? Who knows, but we do know that this Core i5 offering will lower the chip from 95W to 82W. The Core i3 mentioned above removes Turbo Boost from the line in an attempt to go budget-friendly. Other news? The Core i9 Gulftown chip won’t arrive until Q2 2010.

And about that Gulftown chip… The folks at AppleInsider opined this morning that the chip could very well be headed to the next version of the Mac Pro, as was previously rumored to be the case. [Impress PC Watch via Electronista via Engadget, AppleInsider]

Apple has just released their second minor update to their latest desktop operating system, Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.2. While there are a lot of fixes for Mac users, iPhone users may want to pay particular attention to the “general reliability improvements” for MobileMe and iDisk. (And yes, the infamous “guest account” data deletion [...]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Releases Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.2 Update

The desktop version of Waveboard for Mac, although in a very early stage, is already available for download. Official info on the app is very scarce, but some users have tried it out and called it “simple and practical”.

The same developer is currently waiting for Apple’s approval of a Google Wave client for the iPhone under the same name. You can already run Wave on your iPhone by simply accessing wave.google.com/wave from your iPhone, with mixed results (works a bit better on Nokia N900), but we expect the app to make the entire experience far smoother.

All you Mac users out there, please let us know how you like the application in the comments.

Reviews: Google Wave

Tags: Google Wave, mac, Waveboard

PhoneView is a desktop companion that fills in the holes left by iTunes for any iPhone user on the Mac (sorry Microsoft faithful). Some of PhoneView’s features are as follows:

Use your iPhone as a disk
Play and export music
Create, edit and save notes
Search and save SMS/MMS messages
Download camera photos
Save voicemails
View and export call history
Play and save [...]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

PhoneView Desktop Companion for iPhone on Mac OS X

It’s out, and you should get it, if you own a BlackBerry and a Mac. That’s about it. [BlackBerry]

BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac is landing tomorrow. Good news? It works and it’s fast. And since it syncs your info and media in the same app, I think it’s actually better than dealing with BlackBerry on Windows. Crazy.

It doesn’t look or feel particularly Mac-like, but it is easy to figure out and use, since there’s not a whole lot going, really. Pick what you want to sync—contacts, calendars, notes (from Mail), tasks and music—it syncs it, done.

Its staunchly BlackBerry utilitarianism is something you really notice within the application manager, where you install, uninstall or update apps on your BlackBerry, since it’s an all-text list instead of a nice graphical representation of what’s on your phone.

It syncs iTunes playlists for your music, but it actually does this in the same app it manages your info, which is a step up from the Roxio crap Windows users have to deal with. (I have the feeling that will change whenever RIM’s contract with Roxio runs out.) It’ll backup and restore all of the data on your device (which can be encrypted), though by default it’s only set to create weekly backups. And of course, you can wipe data too. It also works with multiple BlackBerrys, so you can manage several from one computer.

I hope they make it prettier and a liiiiittle bit more polished over time, but for now, it’s what BlackBerry users on Mac have wanted: a really simple way to sync the data on their phone that actually works. gawkerGallery(5372380,6,’alttitle’); [BlackBerry]

After months of flirting, an engagement, and even an infamous sex tape, BlackBerry and Mac OS have finally set a date: This coming Friday, BlackBerry Desktop Manager, which makes syncing your BlackBerry to a Mac bearable for the first time in history, will see an official release. [RIM]

September 1989: Much excitement surrounds Apple’s first battery-powered Mac. But the 4-inch thick, 16-pound beast stretched the definition of “Portable”. And though $6500 wasn’t unusual at that time, it was underpowered, and couldn’t run on AC power while charging.

Apple spared no expense, adding a 10-inch (640 by 480-pixel) active monochrome display—while PC portables were using blurry passive screens. In 1991, a backlight made the screen easier to read, but Apple’s other “improvements” included cutting the battery life in half. The Macintosh Portable was killed-off in October that year by the truly portable PowerBook 100.

As you’ll see over at Technologizer, the Mac Portable was a fascinating machine. Apple used plastic fasteners (and only two screws) to make it easy to take apart. Also worth a read is their fun look at the Macintosh Portable versus the MacBook Air. [Technologizer]

Macintosh Portable Specifications:
• 10-inch (640 by 480) Monochrome active-matrix LCD
• 16MHz Motorola 68000 CPU
• 1MB RAM (soldered to the motherboard; expandable to 5MB via RAM expansion slot, or 9MB using PDF expansion)
• Expandable ROM slot (up to 4MB)
• 40MB SCSI hard drive
• 3.5-inch (1.44MB) floppy disk drive
• SCSI Disk Mode (so it could be used as a storage drive with a desktop Mac)
• Built-in trackball could be made left- or right-handed
• Monitor output (required soon canceled converter box)
• Ports: 2400 baud RJ-11 modem, external disk drive, SCSI, ADB, LocalTalk (printer), LocalTalk (serial), audio out
• 2.7lbs Lead acid cell battery (8 to 10 hours)
• 16 pounds