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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 [...]

Take Control of Buying a Mac

Author and Mac guru Adam Engst has just released the third edition of Take Control of Buying a Mac, in which he talks about what’s new and what hasn’t changed about buying a Mac since the Intel transition. The book reviews why hard drive size isn’t important, but RAM is, and why an iMac may be your best choice. Laptop or desktop? Which laptop? Engst delivers answers to these questions and more in the 98 page book.

The book features a chart of Apple’s model launches over the last 5 years to help predict when new Macs will appear and worksheets help you match your needs and budget to the right model Mac. Engst explains when readers can purchase to get the most bang for their buck, compares different venues for where to shop, gives advice and step-by-step instructions for transferring files from an old Mac to the shiny new one, and offers thoughts about how to get the most out of the Mac that’s being replaced. The book costs $10 and is available at Take Control Books.

About the author

Lonnie Lazar

Lonnie Lazar is a writer, musician, web designer attorney. He writes about Apple for Cult of Mac and Mac|Life, and about VoIP and telecommunications for Voxilla. Follow Lonnie on Twitter @LonnieLazar, join the Cult of Mac on Facebook, and find Lonnie's photos on Flickr.

Email the author | Read more posts by Lonnie Lazar.

One comment

    > The book reviews why hard drive size isn’t important,
    > but RAM is

    Because hard drive size can be expanded easily externally? Sure, but not if you’re on a MacBook. If you want to take everything with you, you need a big enough drive.

    MacBook Pros can’t easily be swapped, and the latest generation of iMac’s don’t have an easily changeable drive either, so if you like that clean desk look, you’re screwed.

    Hard Drive size matters, it just might not matter as much as some other things…

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