Celebrating Christmas in style this year, we awaited the announcement of Apple's new computers in January 2009. What news at this year's Macworld Expo? What new models will be announced? Will the current desktop Macs drop significantly in price, or will the new ones add features and drop in price as well? Either way, another stylish Apple computer is soon to find its way to our desktop. Apple only released a new 17" MacBook Pro. The best is surely yet to come, though.

Is there going to another entry-level MacBook soon, to provide some variety and offset the price of the more expensive metal MacBooks? This image was found in the US Apple Store. The MacBook isn't red but the description is unmistakable. Michael

Apple is set to showcase its new "brick" technology: carving notebook computer cases out of solid pieces of aluminum, these will be strong, screw-less durable laptops built to exacting specifications. Come back Tuesday and after for release information. Michael

One of my favourite iPhone applications, Shazam, which identifies whatever music you are listening to--really, just press "tag now," hold up your iPhone and it identifies the music. Not just that, it identifies it exactly, the artist, the version, the album, the date of issue, everything. Shazam distinguishes between artists covering the same song. It identifies music the neighbours are playing. Yes, I'm amazed by Shazam, and so are 1.5 million others who have downloaded Shazam in just six weeks. Over 20 million tracks have been identified so far. Michael

A friend of a friend on FaceBook says... (Click for the full pic.) Michael

When will Apple release new computers?  How much will they cost?  Will the current recession affect the pricing? Here are my 'stock' answers: When:  Tuesday. How much:  Eleventy-billion dollars. I love speculation as much as anyone else--so go nuts.  But no one who knows will be able to answer. Except this: the delay so far relates to Apple having too much stock (not the kind you trade, the kind you store) on hand. Keep buying the current models and the new ones will be released sooner. Don't ask me how I know this... Michael

That is, will you have a better or worse buying situation on sale days in the coming months. Answer:  it's all about perception. If the markets rebound soon, everything will be more expensive than before. People will be lead to believe that there is still easy money to be had. If they start calling this a recession, and more banks fail, things won't be very different but people will hold off on buying things. The only people that will continue to lose their jobs as a result of a lesser bailout or no bailout at all are bank officials and government employees. Anyone who is going to lose their house already has. The government wants bankers to keep their homes. Will Black Friday benefit you, or not? That depends on the scope of the bailout. Or, if you work for a bank... Michael  

Apple's Time Capsule is a great device:  wireless backup to your a hard drive in the same enclosure as an 802.11a/b/g/n wireless router.  It offers good security if you use it correctly. I came across a question about how secure Apple's Time Capsule would be for multiple Macs using the same backup system.  Here is my answer: Any number of Macs can use the same Time Capsule securely if you assign passwords to each. In fact, I asked this question when buying a Time Capsule from an Apple store. The cashier wasn't sure, and unlike most help staff I've encountered, didn't just guess. He asked me to wait, went into the back to grab a tech, brought the person out. The tech said that both he and his brother use a Time Capsule at home and the sparse image files are encrypted so that they know that each other has one such file on the hard drive, but cannot access the other's files. Here is a link to a brief article on security for the Time Capsule. Interesting although it doesn't address the exact question asked. Apparently PC users confuse hacking of iPhones (by their owners) with other security issues on Apple computers and peripherals. That ...

This story is quoted from Ars Technica which feeds off a story in the Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Which Ars reads for fun, no doubt. And why are only PC users idiots, and not those who use Apple computers? Since the latter know they can't get malware, viruses or spam. For most of us, security issues happen to "other people"—we block popup ads, we carefully examine dialog boxes and, for those of us on the Mac platform, we snicker when confronted with something that attempts to mimic a Windows system warning. But everyone knows that they are exceptional—what's the behavior of a more typical user like? Some researchers have tested how college students respond to fake dialog boxes in browser popup windows and found that the students are so anxious to get the dialog out of the way, they click right through obvious warning signs. The authors, who work in the Psychology Department of North Carolina State University, crafted a set of four fake dialog boxes. All of them contained the following warning: "The instruction at '0x77f41d24 referenced memory at '0x595c2a4c.' The memory could not be 'read.' Click OK to terminate program." One of the warnings was ...

The Griffin Aircurve is yet another revolutionary sounding product from Griffin Technologies, who have previously hit home runs with the iTrip and other add-ons to iPods. The latest beauty is a clear rectangular box, essentially a dock, that projects sound and charges your iPhone or iPhone 3G. I don't see how they can fail. The best part is the $19.99 price tag. For less than the cost of an Apple dock, you get a unit with speakers and more style than Armani. The only fault might be if the Griffin Dock Connector is proprietary; that is, if the unit won't work with your existing dock cable/USB connector. Here is the official shpiel: Imagine hearing your iPhone loud and clear, without using speakers. AirCurve is a cleverly-designed acoustic amplifier that turns your iPhone into a no-power-drain alarm clock on your nightstand, or a mini sound system that never needs batteries or adapters. AirCurve looks like a simple, elegantly minimal stand for your iPhone. But inside is a cleverly designed coiled waveguide that collects the sound from the built-in speaker of your iPhone, amplifies it, and projects it into the room. AirCurve's waveguide has been engineered to deliver amazing amplification -- you'll swear there are ...