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A couple of cool covers for your macbook babies:
Rainer Spehl has released an uber stylish wooden case, lined in leather and finished off with magnetic closures.
Below, the bookbook case by Twelve South provides both protection and camouflage in vintage hard-cover style.
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With my eye on the market for a laptop, the Macbook event had me like everyone else, pretty much on the edge of my seat, even if, like everyone else, I had religiously followed the rumours and heavy leaks in the two weeks prior to its unveiling and was thus given a damn good indication of what was to come. So there was no loud whistling or feet stomping during Apple’s Macbook event, only a polite clapping of hands. Because whilst the newly designed laptops are still the darlings of the Apple community, and Leopard OS still = perfectlove, somewhere along the lines, and after we forget the sleek new production processes, Apple has surprisingly faltered in the categories of features and design.
& herein the reasons lie:
1. Glossy display. Glossy as in glass that has undergone multiple cycles of heavy duty polish. Glossy as in mirror, hyper-reflective, eager to please, good looking, colour popping, saturation distorting, outdoor disaster; glossy. We also are treated to a streak of black bezel borders, which apart from being terribly outdated, takes away serious screen time from the display.
2. Lack of firewire 400 port. This isn’t much of a bother to me as currently I haven’t much use for such a connection, but it will definitely be an issue for users who require this port on a regular basis.
3. Price (or “Apple Tax”). Grossly overpriced or moderately overpriced? You decide.
But Lord, it sure is beautiful. And of course one can’t forget the bumped up specs, faster, more energy efficient discrete and integrated graphics, revised multi-touch “all glass” trackpad and slightly improved battery charge. It’s a simple, precise, and beautiful machine.
Also pleasantly surprising is Apple’s new acquired Gold Epeat environment status, which finally places the company in a truly greener orchid. With displays free of mercury, arsenic, and the systems BFR and PVC free, Apple is finally striking the right cord with organizations such as Greenpeace, who have long felt frustrated both by company’s environmental policies, and by the fact that it was perceived by the general public as far greener than it actually was. Of course Apple still has a while to go before it can be considered truly green, and with only American Macs having access to the recycling program, the graphite apple definitely has a number of hurdles in its path before Greenpeace & Co give it a proper thumbs up.
To enjoy some more preliminary eyecandy of the new Macbook and Macbook Pro, see the unboxing and the tearing down of these new models and stay tuned for full length reviews.
Sennheiser PXC350 As far as noise-canceling headphones go, Bose and Sennheiser dominate the top-end of this product range. While there are a few exceptions to this rule, it makes sense to gravitate to the veteran brands in the market. Although I did consider Bose to begin with, one major negative to their entire line of NC headphones was that audio transmission folds in passive mode, so once your batteries go flat, you’re basically left with a nice looking void. Sennheiser’s high-end line includes two products: the PXC 350 and it’s slightly more tricked out older sister, the PXC 450. Both headphones are circumaural and offer Sennheiser’s advanced NoiseGard technology (which was originally developed for use by pilots). The PXC 450 offers to cut out up to 90% of ambient noise (as opposed to the PXC 350’s 85%) and also offers a feature called Talk Through, which allows the listener to momentarily activate tiny microphones on the exterior of the headphones and by thus doing enables the listener to communicate with, say, a flight attendant, while still wearing their headphones. With the exception of the above, and a distinct aesthetic look for each, the specifications of the two products are identical.
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