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Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

Apple Unveils $999 MacBook, Updates MacBook Pro

The ‘will he or won’t he’ question was answered Tuesday when Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced he’ll offer a $999 MacBook in time for the holiday shopping season.

Although the price cut is on the entry-level 2.1GHz white plastic MacBook and not on one of the nifty unibody aluminum notebooks introduced, the news appeared to satisfy some analysts.

“I think it is important to note that MacBook pricing is coming down. Nobody is immune to the consumer,” Vijay R Rakesh, ThinkPanmure analyst, told Cult of Mac.

In September, the analyst said most Apple notebooks had vanished from Amazon’s top 10 list, supplanted by more inexpensive netbooks from Acer, Dell and others.

“I don’t think Apple could have made this announcement without addressing the entry-level pricing” of its Macs, Gartner analyst Charles Smulders told Cult of Mac.

Smulders said the price reduction along with the $1,299 2GHz aluminum MacBook allows Apple to continue growing.

Earlier today, Piper Jaffray analyst Andrew Murphy said he would “be surprised if they (Apple) didn’t have a $999 MacBook option.” Fellow Piper analyst Gene Munster has said the importance of such a product depends on Apple’s 3Q numbers. Apple today said it will release its quarterly figures Oct. 21.

Analyst also noted Apple’s decision to off NVIDIA’s GeForce 9400M graphics chipset was a blow to Intel.

“That is an endorsement,” Rakesh said.

Apple shares were down $5.32.

About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

Email the author | Read more posts by Ed Sutherland.

2 comments

    I can’t say that I love the new design, not yet, but ditching the FW port on the MacBook, to me is just a BIG mistake.

    right i cant believe they would leave off the firewire all together…it sucks that they only left the firewire 800 and you have to get an adapter if you want 400 on the MBP…

    and what about this new video port…

    I AM SICK OF THE COUNTLESS DIFFERENT MINI DVI PORTS ON APPLE PRODUCTS…

    i mean please…i have an imac g4, ibook g4, and a macbook and they all have different MINI DVI ports…its insane and now they come out with a different one…and you have to buy adapters…what happened to them supplying them with the laptop purchase…crazy

    im not happy…but im not surprised…they want you to have to buy a totally different set up everytime you upgrade ur system…god forbid us true mac addicts that have everything from the Cube to the Macbook and TV…forget about us

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