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OWC Lab findings installment three – MacBook Pro 13″

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 | Author: OWC Michael

We’re to the third and final installment of our MacBook Pro lab findings…

Installment Three – MacBook Pro 13″

That’s right, Apple added the “Pro” designation to the 13″ MacBook Unibody model and certainly added Pro features to do so.  As the entry level Pro model with 2.26GHz and 2.53GHz processor speed offerings, the raw speed and computing power is understandably lower than its 3.06, 2.8, and 2.66GHz 17″ & 15″ brothers. But it definitely takes a performance leap above the comparable non-pro 13″ models – especially once more memory is introduced to the system.

Speaking of memory, the 13″ MacBook Pro model can use up to 8GB of memory versus the 4GB limit Apple supported on the prior, non-Pro generation. It also comes standard with a 160GB 5400RPM hard drive.  Both components are fully upgradeable through OWC.

Rather than a removable battery, the 13″ MacBook Pro now boasts a 7 hour internal battery. Not too shabby when compared to the 4.5 to 6 hour batteries of prior generations.

As with the 15″ MacBook Pro model discussed yesterday, the 13″ model also includes the SD card slot which introduces the possibility of massive amounts of storage down the road.  If you missed my last installment, read more about that here.

In short, this is a solid entry-level machine to the MacBook Pro line. The graphics are equal to the rest of the MacBook Pro family with an impressive field of vision for the screen size. It is an ideal machine for those users looking for the Pro power and features, but don’t want to lug around a larger form factor machine.

Upgrades, Upgrades Upgrades…

Ok, now that you’ve decided that this is the machine for you, what can you do to make it better?

The most economical upgrade has always been memory – and OWC has always had you covered there. The 13″ MacBook Pro can support up to 8GB of memory. Ordering the 8GB stock from Apple will cost up to an additional $1,100 – or- you can get this same memory upgrade separately from OWC for considerably less. We’ll even show you how to install it in our Installation Video Series.

Our benchmarking on these models is complete and you can see for yourself here just how much faster and more efficient these systems run when given enough memory. Once Snow Leopard is released, were predicting these numbers will really take off between the true 64-bit processing and Grand Central Dispatch.

Additional speed can be gained by upgrading the hard drive to either a 7200RPM model or going to speed and security of a Solid State Drive. The installation instruction video is currently in post-prodution and will be available within the next few days in our Installation Video Series.

As far as the optical drive goes, there isn’t an internal option available that is faster or includes Blu-ray (which we’re still waiting on Apple to support natively) than the 8x slot loading SuperDrive already installed. As technologies advance down the line, you can be sure we’ll be on the cutting edge and will be ready with the units themselves and the video instructions to match.

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Category: Fresh from Apple
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Don’t throw out that PPC Mac…

Monday, June 22nd, 2009 | Author: OWC Chris S.

Snow Leopard is coming and with it will be a major streamlining of the whole code base. This is a bit of a mixed blessing.

This streamlining (and the addition of a number of new technologies) will allow for a reduction in size of an OS installation, while still allowing for a decent jump in speed and/or efficiency.

The down side of this, though, is that Snow Leopard will only run on Intel-based Macs. This really isn’t something unexpected. Every iteration of Mac OS and OS X has had some sort of hardware cutoff, and this time around it’s “Intel processors only.”

This is understandable; by limiting to one type of processor, the redundant code can be eliminated, allowing for more efficient use of system resources and overall optimization. The OS is able to move forward by leaving behind that which holds it back.

However, this is also a bit of an annoyance to those who have PPC-based machines, many of which are still in operation. The new OS doesn’t support it, and as a result, many day-to-day applications may soon no longer work. That doesn’t mean they’re not useful, though. Heck, I still challenge any other Mac to beat my Mirror Drive Door in consistency and performance when benchmarking FireWire 800 hard drives.

While the newer versions of some software may eventually require Snow Leopard, anything currently shipping will work just fine under Leopard. There should be a number of Security Updates for 10.5, just as there were for 10.4, so you’re not being left high and dry in that regard. Finally, many third-party apps are coded so they’ll work just fine under any OS X version from 10.3 and up.

If, however, you require the latest and greatest in OS and applications, then you’ll be needing an Intel Mac soon. That, however, leaves you with the question of what to do with your PPC Mac.

Even though they may not be suited for your Snow-Leopard-Requiring day-to-day tasks, PPC machines are still capable of acting as single-task workhorses. Here’s just a couple of ideas:

File Server: OS X’s built-in file sharing allows for easy setup of a machine as a simple file server. For those with more advanced needs, OSX Server has a number of extras that should easily do the trick. All you need is an 867MHz G4 processor or faster. Those with G4 Towers that don’t quite make this speed requirement can still use Leopard by first installing a processor upgrade. You can then install up to 4 or 5 extra internal hard drives, either on the internal ATA bus, or add a SATA card and put in the largest, fastest drives you can. A couple of quick licks in the Sharing preferences, and your files are available anywhere on the network you want them to be. While you’re at it, you can also set up Printer Sharing on that machine, allowing all your networked computers to share the same printer, too.

Kids computer - Got kids that have homework to look up or games they want to play? While it may not play the latest and greatest games, your PPC Mac has enough life in it to cover many kids uses. A decent word processor for reports, basic email & Web apps and some older games all run well on these machines. Once you have what your kids need installed, simply set up their account(s) as needed, and then fire up the Parental Controls preference pane. There, you can limit time spent on the computer, bedtime, which sites can or can’t be visited, and the like. You can even limit which programs can be run.  Once it is set up, your kids have a terminal of their own, leaving your machine open for your own marathon sessions of World of Warcraft.

Guest Terminal - Many years ago, I was renting a house with three other people, and we all were frequently online. The main problem was that only three out of the four of us owned computers. The fourth would always need to “borrow” one of ours. Unfortunately, they also had a habit of downloading whatever caught their fancy, opening up possibilities to viruses or, at the very least, filling up the hard drive. As a Mac user, I had more resistance to viruses than my Windows-using roommates, so I set up a “spare” machine (in fact, my trusty Wallstreet PowerBook) with a “Guest” account, where they could check their Web-based email, read news, etc, but they couldn’t change anything or save any files. It worked great. An older ‘Book can easily be left in the guest room with a similar setup, allowing overnight guests a way to check their email while visiting without exposing you to their careless computing.

Music Repository/Jukebox - If your music collection is approaching the proportions of some of the people around the office here (myself included), it may be time to move a good portion of it to a central location, especially if you have multiple machines you listen to it on. Several years ago, I wrote a piece on turning a G3 iMac into a simple jukebox. Once you’ve set your computer up with all your music, simply turn on the option to share the library in the preferences, and you’ll be able to listen to music from that library on any computer running iTunes on your local network.

Dedicated BitTorrent Client - Though most people immediatly think “illegal file sharing” when they hear “BitTorrent,” it is also a very effective way to distribute large files legally. Examples of this include independent bands with MP3s that don’t have the server bandwidth and various distributions of Ubuntu Linux. By dedicating a single machine to this task, it frees up other machines (and their bandwidth) for more immediate use. I know several people who use a G3 iMac for this purpose.

Curing diseases - Truth be told, this could be added to any of the above suggestions, but I’ll put it down as a separate item anyway. Even if you’re not using your PPC Mac all the time, there’s no reason it can’t be working. Set up Folding@Home, and put those spare processor cycles to good use, folding proteins and helping to find cures to diseases.

There are many more dedicated uses out there – the possibilities are really only limited by your creativity.

Of course, to get the most out of these machines, you’re going to want to make sure they’re running at peak performance. Maxing out the memory gives you the most bang for your buck, but adding a faster hard drive and even upgrading the processor can add some significant “oomph” to your PPC’s performance to its new tasks.

Even if you don’t know what upgrades are appropriate for your machine, OWC’s got you covered there. Simply check out the easy-to-use “My OWC” upgrade finder, enter in your computer’s information, and you’ll be given a list of compatible upgrades.

Don’t worry about Snow Leopard leaving your PPC Mac behind. With a little creativity and OWC, your PPC Mac can get a new lease on life.

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Category: Random Thoughts & Topics, Tech Tips
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OWC Lab findings installment two – MacBook Pro 15″

Monday, June 22nd, 2009 | Author: OWC Michael

In our last installment we visited our findings on the MacBook Pro 17″ model. Logically, we’ll visit the next step down in size.

Installment Two – MacBook Pro 15″

First off, the reduction in starting price from $1999 to $1699 is very exciting, especially when for your $300 ‘discount’ you double the starting memory! The MacBook Pro 15″ now ships with a minimum of 4GB RAM which is easily upgradable to 8GB.

The other major change to the system – Apple has added an SD card reader. Arguably the most popular form of data storage on video cameras, digital cameras, mobile phones, PDAs and GPS receivers; the SD card format is here to stay. I for one couldn’t be happier with this switch from the ExpressCard 34, even if many of my colleagues find they will miss the expandability of the ExpressCard/34 slot. I won’t miss it, and look forward to the advancements in SD cards.

Let’s start with what we’re missing out on with ExpressCard/34. There are several options on the market today for expansion cards. For example, adding more ports to your system. Well, with USB or FireWire, if you need more ports, you can always go with a hub to add more ports, keeping in mind that the more you add to a laptop, the more you have to lug around with you or give up the portability. There are also the myriad of memory card readers, but really there are plenty of USB options on the market and if you happen to use the SD card standard in your devices (as I do), you’re all set. There is also the option of adding eSATA ports to the system, but the main reason for having the port is external storage. Laptops are meant to keep their portability and I for one don’t want to lug around a 4 bay or better RAID 5 storage solution and have to find an unused power outlet every time I want to use it.

Ok, I’ll concede that you can’t beat the benefit to ExpressCard/34 wireless cards for those of you who travel a lot and find yourself in places without WiFi access. I for one, don’t travel that often and my routine takes me from one WiFi hotspot to another.

If you really miss it, we do carry a USB ExpressCard/34 adapter for $9.99

So, what is there to gain with SD?  Simple….. Storage. Nice, light, massively portable storage.

At the time of writing this article, SD and SDHC (high-capacity) are readily available on the market with capacities of up to 4GB and 32GB respectively. While not colossal in size, the SD card can hold several documents or presentations which can then be physically removed from the computer for safekeeping and security. The SD card slot is bootable and an SDHC card could certainly store an operating system and several utilities as an emergency boot disk or even relocate your home folder to the SD card to use as a physical key to your computer.

The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) however introduced the SDXC format introducing 32GB to 2TB of storage in the same form factor. Kevin Schader, director of communications for the SD Association, recently announced that SDXC cards should be hitting the market in 2010 starting with a 64GB capacity.  I for one can’t wait to see the maximums realized on the SDXC form factor where I can carry around several 2TB SDXC cards with a 300MB/s transfer rate in my pocket.

Upgrades, Upgrades Upgrades…

Ok, now that you’ve decided that this is the machine for you, what can you do to make it better?

The most economical upgrade has always been memory – and OWC has always had you covered there. The 15″ MacBook Pro can support up to 8GB of memory. Ordering the 8GB stock from Apple will cost an additional $1,000 – or- you can get this same memory upgrade separately from OWC for considerably less. We’ll even show you how to install it in our Installation Video Series (the video is not complete at the time of this posting but should be available online within 1-2 weeks).

Our benchmarking on these models is nearly complete (we’re still awaiting the 15″ MacBook Pro 2.66GHz model) and you can see for yourself here just how much faster and more efficient these systems run when given enough memory. Once Snow Leopard is released, were predicting these numbers will really take off between the true 64-bit processing and Grand Central Dispatch.

Additional speed can be gained by upgrading the hard drive to either a 7200RPM model or going to speed and security of a Solid State Drive. Again, the installation instructions will be available within the next few weeks in our Installation Video Series.

As far as the optical drive goes, there isn’t an internal option available that is faster or includes Blu-ray (which we’re still waiting on Apple to support natively) than the 8x slot loading SuperDrive already installed. As technologies advance down the line, you can be sure we’ll be on the cutting edge and will be ready with the units themselves and the video instructions to match.

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Category: Benchmarking/Performance
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Give your 13″ MacBook Pro a boost by adding more RAM.

Friday, June 19th, 2009 | Author: OWC Chris S.

We’ve got new hardware from Apple, and that can mean only one thing: new instructional videos!

This time around, we show you how to put more memory in your 13″ MacBook Pro. After all, these new releases can take up to 8GB. We’ve proven time and time again that more memory gives you better performance, so with OWC’s great memory prices, there’s no reason for you to stick with the 2GB that Apple sticks you with in the low-end model.

Upgrading the memory in MacBook Pro is incredibly simple to do. If you can use a screwdriver (preferably one from the Newer Technology 11-Piece Tool Kit), you have all the skills necessary to perform this upgrade.

Don’t believe me? Check out our how-to video, either in our Tech Center or on our YouTube Channel, and see how easy it is.

It’s almost as easy as pumping gas.

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Category: Installation Videos
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OWC Lab findings installment one – MacBook Pro 17″

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 | Author: OWC Michael

Well, most of the new MacBook Pro laptops have arrived and we’ve been busy in the lab updating compatibility, fully testing each memory module, and benchmarking the memory in the machines.  I must say, these machines are tight!

I’m going to use a series of three blog posts to review each of the different machines with some of our findings…

Installment One – MacBook Pro 17″

The biggest and baddest of the MacBook Pro line, in short, starts with two ups and one down:

UP - both models have a boost to processor speed over prior generation. (2.8 and 3.06GHz vs. 2.66 and 2.93GHz)

UP – both models have a boost to starting hard drive capacity over prior generation. (500GB 5400RPM standard vs. 320GB 5400RPM)

DOWN – the price starts $300 lower than the prior generation!

Any way you add it up – what a deal.

Some very noteworthy non-changes are in order as well:

ExpressCard/34: Mainly the ExpressCard/34 slot is still present on the 17″ MacBook Pro.  It has been removed from all other MacBook Pro machines and replaced with an SD card slot – but we’ll get into that in further installments.  At this time, if you’re looking to upgrade and are among the single-digit percentage of users (according to Apple) that use ExpressCards, then the 17″ model is the machine you’ll need.  There are ExpressCards to add eSATA capability, additional FireWire 800 or 400 ports, or media readers for compact flash, MMC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick pro, xD cards and others.

Graphics and video: The 17-inch high-resolution LED-backlit glossy widescreen display with support for millions of colors is an absolutely brilliant display.  With a 1920 x 1200 native resolution and up to 2560 x 1600 on an external display, screen real-estate doesn’t become an issue.  If you need more than that – you could always add a USB display adapter or two (or three!) for a plethora of monitor configurations.

Upgrades, Upgrades Upgrades…

Ok, now that you’ve decided that this is the machine for you, what can you do to make it better?

The most economical upgrade has always been memory – and OWC has always had you covered there. The 17″ MacBook Pro can support up to 8GB of memory. Ordering the 8GB stock from Apple will cost an additional $1,000 – or- you can get this same memory upgrade separately from OWC for considerably less.  We’ll even show you how to install it in our Installation Video Series (the installation process is exactly the same as the previous generation MacBook Pro 17″ Early 2009 “Unibody”).

Our benchmarking on these models are now complete and you can see for yourself here just how much faster and more efficient these systems run when given enough memory.  Once Snow Leopard is released were predicting these numbers will really take off between the true 64-bit processing and Grand Central Dispatch.

Additional speed can be gained by upgrading the hard drive to either a 7200RPM model or going to speed and security of a Solid State Drive. Again, the installation instructions for either is available our Installation Video Series.

As far as the optical drive goes, there isn’t an internal option available that is faster or includes Blu-ray (which we’re still waiting on Apple to support natively) than the 8x slot loading SuperDrive already installed.  As technologies advance down the line, you can be sure we’ll be on the cutting edge and will be ready with the units themselves and the video instructions to match.

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Category: Benchmarking/Performance
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Its time for a change… in your TV viewing.

Friday, June 12th, 2009 | Author: OWC Chris S.

It’s June 12. In the United States, by midnight tonight, broadcast television will be completing the transition from analog to digital. That means that outside of a couple of low-wattage local stations, all television broadcasts will require a TV with a digital tuner to receive.

For those who have cable or a dish, you shouldn’t notice anything different. When hooked up to to non-digital televisions, the cable/DSS box handles the digital to analog signal conversion, allowing you to watch normally.

Those like myself, however, who rely on an antenna for television reception aren’t so lucky. If you haven’t already purchased one, you’re going to need a digital-to-analog converter box in order to receive any TV programming. Depending on your distance from the transmitters, you may also need to purchase a higher-gain UHF antenna to get in all the stations you’re used to.

AntennaWeb has a wonderful utility to find out what kind of antenna you’ll need. For those of you who are handy with tools, you may even want to try building your own antenna. There are a number of plans available online, but I had some great results with the plans featured on Make Magazine’s Web site. I made a couple of small changes in the materials (such as using 14-gauge copper wire rather than clothes hangers and carriage bolts rather in place of wood screws), but I still came out under $25 for the whole project.

A couple of casualties…

While standard TV viewing is affected, there are other victims to this changeover, as well. The first is television recording. All VCRs (as well as some DVD and hard disk based recorders) will also be affected as they, too, receive and record analog signals. While you can hook up your converter box to these and record, the process is rather complex.

The other thing we lose is the portable television set. These units almost never have built-in digital decoders, and very few of them have external antenna inputs. Even if they did, you’d still lose portability because there are very, very few converter boxes available that don’t require a wall outlet.

Elgato to the rescue.

Fortunately, both problems can be addressed with the EyeTV units from Elgato. I talked about them last year in an in-depth article, and all the information is still relevant.

As both the EyeTV Hybrid and the EyeTV 250 Plus allow you to record DTV transmissions, you can easily record all your favorite programs for viewing later, even burning to DVD for easy television playback. You can also do something you can’t do with conventional recording devices: you can convert those programs for viewing on your iPod or other portable device.

While there’s little that can be done to adapt your existing portable television for digital broadcasts, combining the EyeTV Hybrid and your laptop Mac allows you to use your MacBook/MacBook Pro for television on the go, while also allowing you to play back programs you’ve saved, as mentioned above.

Oooh… special…

We’ve told you how to get around these setbacks with the DTV transition, but we’re going to go one step further. Right now, we’re extending the special price for the EyeTV Hybrid that would normally be reserved for our Newsletter subscribers to you, our Blog readers, as well. Of course, if the Hybrid doesn’t quite meet your system’s needs, we’ve got great pricing on all the Elgato items in stock.

Of course, the best way to be in on all the great deals is to subscribe to the OWC Tips n’ Deals and Hot Deals Blast newsletters. Rest assured that your e-mail information will only be used for the purpose of sending the newsletter emails, and nothing else.

Now that you’ve got the tools (and a great deal), go enjoy the advanced programming that Digital Television offers!

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Category: Random Thoughts & Topics, Special OWC Deals
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WWDC09 Keynote – Hardware and Software updates both now and on the way.

Monday, June 8th, 2009 | Author: OWC Chris S.

Well, the WWDC Keynote has now come and gone. While His Steveness wasn’t in attendance (at least not on camera), Uncle Phil managed to deliver a plate full of Apple goodness to us, no matter what you’re into.

Hardware

Time for an update across the MacBook & MacBook Pro families. Let’s start out with the one that caught my attention.

MacBook Pro 15″
Well, they got rid of the removable battery and have changed over to the same setup that’s in the 17″. This isn’t really all that surprising, as it keeps specs in line with the 17″ version. More surprising is the change in slots – we lose an Express Slot but gain an SD slot. This is great if you have a camera that uses SD cards, but it’s pretty darn crummy if you want to hook up drives via eSATA.

It seems they’ve improved the display a little bit and, as expected, there’s a little bit of a speed bump up to 3.06 GHz, but what’s that? A price drop!?!?! Starting at $1699… wow! Now I only have to sell one kidney to afford one.

MacBook Pro 17″
Less excitement here; No new features, but at least you get to keep your Express slot. Price drop here, too – looks like those recent Microsoft ads are having more effect than people would have you believe…

Unibody 13″
The biggest changes seem to have come for the 13″ Unibody MacBook. It’s got the same battery upgrade as the 15″, but it also gained the SD slot, where nothing existed before. The big news, however is that it gained back the one thing it was missing before – FireWire!!!

Yes, it seems Apple has heard our pleas and has added a FireWire 800 port. Though not eSATA speeds, at least FW800 is faster than USB 2.0.

Since the addition of FireWire 800 puts its features on par with the MacBook Pro line, the 13″ Unibody MacBooks have been reclassified – they are now the 13” MacBook Pros. Even with that “promotion” these guys have had a price drop as well, starting at $1199.

MacBook Air
Not much to report here, other than a $700 price drop! Prices now start around $1499. Still a bit much for a machine that has no upgradability, but at least its a huge step in the right direction.

Software

OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard is on its way. Apparently, we’re going to see a lot of speedups in the new version. It appears that they’ve rewritten the Finder from the bottom up, which should give us all sorts of speed boosts, and have also made improvements to the Dock, including integrating it with Exposé.

Those of you who are feeling the squeeze of Leopard’s rather copious install size will be happy to know that a standard installation Snow Leopard will be less than half the size of the standard install of Leopard! That should be a savings of around 6GB!

Snow Leopard, with Grand Central, Open CL, and other system enhancements, will finally be able to harness the full power of your computer’s resources. A fully 64-bit OS will allow you to more effectively utilize larger amounts of memory, and Grand Central will help distribute both memory and processor cycles to all your apps, allowing them to take advantage of all available resources.

The full version of Safari 4 will come installed (it is also available via Apple’s site and/or Software Update), featuring a slew of improvements, including a faster JavaScript engine and HTTP streaming for audio and video.

QuickTime has also gotten a boost, becoming “QuickTime X” (pronounced “Quick Time Ten”). Much of the improvements have been made under the hood, though the interface has also gotten a newer, slicker overhaul as well.

Finally, office workers everywhere that rely on Exchange compatibility for their day-to-day tasks can rejoice. Mail, iCal, and Address Book now have support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.

iPhone OS 3.0

Of course, most of the buzz around WWDC this year was centered around the iPhone.

Unfortunately, not too much more was revealed about iPhone OS 3.0 than has already been discussed.

The big one, of course is Cut/Copy/Paste functionality, which should be available system-wide. Landscape mode will be available for Mail and a couple other apps. Many of the same enhancements in the desktop version of Safari have also filtered down to the iPhone OS version as well.

Google Maps are now easily embeddable into iPhone apps, and have turn-by-turn support.

There are a couple of other things that really caught my attention – one that’s been discussed before and one that’s fairly new.

First, iPhone 3.0 will support tethering! In theory, this means you can use your iPhone’s data connection with your laptop, an invaluable feature if you’re on the road a lot. Unfortunately, support for this feature is not available everywhere.

Another interesting feature that I’m sure will be popular around here is the “Find My iPhone” option. Effectively, it uses triangulation and GPS features to locate the approximate location of your iPhone, and can even override the mute switch to play a tone so you can find. If you still can’t find it, then you can remotely send a “wipe” command, removing all the user data on the phone, so nobody else can make off with your precious data.

This last feature would have been a lifesaver two years ago when I put OWC Larry’s good humor and benevolence to the test by… *ahem*… accidentally losing his iPhone at Macworld. Yes, I was that guy… If we’d had the “Find My iPhone” feature, we might have been able to recover the phone and I would have one less embarrassing event to try and live down around here.

iPhone OS 3.0 will be available on June 17, so it’s a little more than a week before you can take advantage of all the new features… and before Larry lets me within 500 feet of his new iPhone.

iPhone 3G S

If you follow any of the rumor sites, there’s been some buzz about a new iPhone rearing its head around this time. Turns out the rumors were true, and we’ve been given the iPhone 3G S.

This new iPhone seems to be considerably faster than predecessor, with both software enhancements and upgraded network support, allowing up to 7.2 Megabit speeds via HSDPA.

Features also got a boost with the introduction of a three megapixel camera with autofocus and auto white balance support. You can also capture video at 30 frames per second at 640×480 resolutions, and even edit it down via touch. Both video and photos can be shard via MMS, email, and MobileMe.

Another new feature is Voice Control. Its an interesting concept, especially when using the phone or iPod features in the car. Unfortunately, you still have to hold down the button to activate it, so it’s not completely hands-free. It’s a start, though.

Business users also haven’t been left out. By popular request hardware encryption is now available. There’s also a new Compass application. Its integration with Maps opens up many nice options for helping you find your way around when visiting another town, be it for business or pleasure.

Last, but not least, battery life has been improved – up to 5 hours talk or 9 hours of WiFi internet.

When they’re available on June 19, expect to pay $199 for a 16GB or $299 for a 32GB model. If those prices are a little steep, Apple is continuing to sell the iPhone 3G, for only $99.

In summary

Clocking in at a little over 2 hours, the WWDC keynote had a lot to offer. We got updated MacBooks, iPhones, and previews of the OS that runs on them. This is just a quick rundown of what was discussed. Keep checking back as we go more in-depth on the new developments (no pun intended).

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Category: Fresh from Apple
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Steve Jobs to return to Apple this month

Friday, June 5th, 2009 | Author: OWC Michael

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, is reported to be returning to work from his medical leave this month according to the Wall Street Journal.  In August 2004, Mr. Jobs underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer.

Steve Jobs has been subject of several rumors since the World Wide Developers Conference in June of 2008 when he appeared to have lost quite a bit of weight. In January, Jobs announced that he was taking a leave of absence from Apple and leaving Tim Cook, Chief Operating Officer, in charge while he was away.

Much of the speculation about his health in the run-up to the announcement had been over whether that cancer had returned, but Jobs has maintained that a hormonal imbalance was preventing his body from absorbing certain proteins.  Whatever the case may be, we’re happy to hear that Steve Jobs is doing better and look forward to many more years of Apple with Steve at the helm.

Rumors of Steve actually attending the World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco are of yet unconfirmed.

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Category: Fresh from Apple
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