Mac Pro Benchmarked on Geekbench

The latest Mac Pro “Nehalem” dual 2.93GHz Quad-Core system with 6GB of RAM and an ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics card has gotten a Geekbench score of 17,665.

The previous top-of-the-line 3.2GHz 8-core Mac Pro only got a score as high as 11,030. To see pictures and read discussion on MacRumors, click here. To see the cumulative table of all Mac performance benchmarks as of January 2009, click here.

And if you want to buy one almost as fast, you can click here.

Lusting After Hardware. CalDigitVR External Drive.

If there is one external raid drive that I lust after, it’s gotta be the CalDigitVR. Not only has it got the performance, but the looks too. You can see a performance comparison here to the G-Raid3.

The CalDigit VR can reach speeds up to 220MB/s in RAID 0, and over 110MB/s with RAID 1 protection. These high speeds allow for the most demanding tasks, like video editing. In fact the CalDigit VR is so fast that it can play back high definition video with ease.

It is not sold as an empty case, so you have to buy it as it comes in sizes from 500GB to 3TB. Of course with the 2TB drive already out, it won’t be long till it’s available with 4TB. The price of the 2TB size is around $595. This was an online price I found from a reputable dealer on the net.

Size and weight

• Height: 3.6 inches (92 cm)
• Width: 5.3 inches (134 cm)
• Depth: 8.5 inches (216 cm)
• Weight: 6.6 lb (3 kg)

Host Interface

• eSATA x 1
• Firewire 800 X 2
• Firewire 400 X 1
• USB 2.0 x 1

Could We See an Apple Netbook in 2009?

A story in DigiTimes suggests that there will be an Apple netbook released in 3Q 2009. The story states that Taiwan-based Wintek will supply touch panels for the netbook.

source[DigiTimes]

Amazon VOD in HD on TiVo - Coming Soon?

It’s in the works, so hopefully soon we’ll be able to get more HD content from our Tivo box. I personally have the Series 3 HD box, and would love to have more on demand HD content.

Click here for more>

Blu-ray releases for March 10, 2009

 The top titles are the following:

• Pinocchio
• Transporter 3
• Milk
• Batman Anthology

The complete list on Amazon can be found here

Top reviews of the week on CNET

Head on over to CNET for the top-rated reviews of the week.

Click here for the complete pictures.

The sweet spot: the 24-inch iMac

“The new entry-level 24-inch iMac is a smart buy,” concludes Wilson Rothman (gizmodo.com). By dropping the price while, at the same time…

Click here for more>

Have You Seen Gigapan In Action?

Here is an example of a Gigapan from the Geneva Motor Show. This image shows the main hall show floor. This type of Gigapan is similar to the image produced for the Barack Obama Inauguration. To see specific details in the image, double-click anywhere or use the navigator in the top left of the image.

source[imageengineers]

Snow Leopard Build 10A286 Seeded to Developers

Apple has seeded a new version of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, termed Build 10A286, to developers. World of Apple republishes the seed notes, which highlight three significant changes in the new build: a new QuickTime user interface, Cocoa-based Finder features, and Safari 4 beta as the default browser.

QuickTime Player
The new QuickTime Player has a new minimal UI and is focused on playback.

Finder
Finder includes a new Cocoa Desktop, Info Window and Contextual Menu

Safari
Safari 4 beta is included in the seed as the default browser.

World of Apple also notes that developers are being encouraged to run the new build in 64-bit mode, signaling a "major shift" in that direction.

Snow Leopard is due for release sometime in 2009, and Apple has been making steady progress on the new operating system, as demonstrated by consistent releases of new builds to developers. Apple has said that they are focusing on quality and performance in Snow Leopard rather than introducing significant numbers of new features.

source[macrumors.com]

Amazon's Kindle for iPhone on App Store

This one is for all you Kindle reading iPhone wearing geeks out there. The app you have been waiting for.

Kindle for iPhone allows Apple iPhone and iPod touch owners to read Kindle books using a simple, easy-to-use interface. You can shop for hundreds of thousands of books at www.amazon.com/kindlestore, and wirelessly transfer the books to your iPhone or iPod touch. Enjoy Amazon’s low prices on Kindle books, including New York Times Best Sellers and most new releases for $9.99, unless marked otherwise.

With Kindle for iPhone, you can:

• Buy a Kindle book from your Mac, PC, or iPhone using a Web browser and wirelessly transfer the books to your iPhone
• Read first chapters of any book for free before you buy
• Download the Kindle books you already own for free — they are automatically backed up on Amazon.com
• Adjust the text size, add bookmarks, and view the annotations you created on your Kindle device

Kindle for iPhone also includes Whispersync, which allows you to seamlessly switch back and forth between your Kindle device and Kindle for iPhone while keeping your bookmarks and reading location synchronized between devices. Now you can easily pick up reading right where you left off on your Kindle or iPhone.

Books you purchase can also be read on Kindle and Kindle 2, Amazon’s portable readers that wirelessly download books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs to a crisp, high-resolution 6-inch electronic-paper display that looks and reads like real paper.

You can access Kindle app from the iTunes store here.