The wait is over!

Plenty of new products and updates to talk about from this morning Macworld Keynote event!!

The new MacBook Air...

After over a year of rumors and speculation it has finally happened, the Macbook Air has been officially released with 'multi-touch gesture support just like the iPhone. This machine has a major focus on physical size and weight. 0.04cm - 1.94cm tall and only 1.36kg in weight WOW!.
The thickest part of this laptop is thinner then the thinnest part of its smallest competitor by Sony. Surprisingly performance and functionality hasn't been reduced significantly.

13.3" LED backlit LCD, processor speeds of 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz, 2GB RAM, and an 80GB 1.8" HD is standard with an option for 64GB Solid-State Drive. Video processing comes via an Intel GMA X3100 chip with 144MB of shared memory. It is reported that the machine will be able to run for a full 5 hours on a single charge.

In order to save space and weight the only peripheral connections on-board are via a single USB 2.0 port, an audio out port, and a Micro-DVI port for support of up to 1920x1200 res on an external display. Ethernet has been dropped however a USB ethernet adaptor is available very similar to the USB modem adaptor. The optical drive has also been left out of this unit in order to keep the size as small as possible. Software ships with the MBA that will allow for optical drive sharing from both PC's and Macs. If an optical drive is necessary one can be purchased which is powered and connected to the USB port.

Pricing below. We expect first shipments in the next 3-5 weeks. Pre-ordering asap is the only way to guarantee stock

MacBook Air 13" 1.6GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo / 2GB RAM / 80GB HDD / APX / BT / iSight
$2,449 - RRP price (inc GST)
$2,349 - KCP price (inc GST)

MacBook Air 13" 1.8GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo / 2GB RAM / 64GB SSD / APX / BT / iSight
$4,338 - RRP price (inc GST)
$4,004.60 - KCP price (inc GST)

http://www.apple.com/au/macbookair/

Faster Mac Pro!

Last week we saw a silent revision to the Mac Pro line with a focus on CPU's and video cards. CPU power for these 'beasts' is derived from the 45 nanometer Quad-Core "Harpertown" Xeon processors available in up to 2 x 3.2GHz. Front side bus and memory speed has also increased to 1600MHz & 800MHz respectively. This has allowed for a 61% increase in memory throughput with Apple now also officially supporting the installation of 8 x 4GB FB-DIMM's for a whopping total of 32GB RAM!!!!

Video offerings are at 3 levels, standard is the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256MB VRAM, next the Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT with 512MB VRAM and topping out with the Nvidia Quadro FX 5600 with a mind boggling 1536MB VRAM. Apple have also brought across SAS options from the Xserve family allowing for 300GB 15,000RPM HDs. If 4 of these are utilized in a RAID 5 configuration 250MB/s I/O speeds can be achieved. All of these enhancements combine for the fastest most powerful computer Apple has ever built.

Mac Pro 2.8 to 3.2GHz
Intel Xeon / 2 to 32GB RAM / Up to 4x HDD / SuperDrive / BT
From $3,999 - RRP price (inc GST)
From $3,699 - KCP price (inc GST)

http://www.apple.com/au/macpro/

Updated Xserve!

Alongside the Mac Pro revision the Xserves saw a substantial speed bump as well. Most notably we can now custom configure them with 2 x Quad Core 3GHz CPUs for the first time offering an 8 core variant.

An on board video card supporting up to 1920x1200 is now standard. 1TB and 300GB 15,000RPM drives can also be added as necessary. Once again we can max this unit out with 32GB of ECC Ram.

Xserve 2.8 to 3.0GHz
Intel Xeon / 2 to 32GB RAM / Up to 3x HDD / SuperDrive /
From $4,499 - RRP price (inc GST)
From $3,999 - KCP price (inc GST))

http://www.apple.com/au/xserve/

Time Capsule!

This is really neat, Time Capsule combines an 802.11n base station, and a server grade 3.5" HD 500GB/1TB in 1 tiny package. This will allow for automatic wireless backup of every mac in your home or office in 1 simple cost effective package.

Time Capsule – 500GB
802.11 a/b/g/n wireless / 3x Gigabit ethernet ports / USB printer & HDD sharing
$429 - RRP price (inc GST)
$399 - KCP price (inc GST)

Time Capsule – 1TB (1,000GB)
802.11 a/b/g/n wireless / 3x Gigabit ethernet ports / USB printer & HDD sharing
$699 - RRP price (inc GST)
$679 - KCP price (inc GST)

http://www.apple.com/au/timecapsule

Office 2008!

4 years on and we finally have Office 2008. New features are found here and there, but most importantly it is now a universal binary. I have been able to use the private beta and can report it's soo much faster then Office 2004! If iWork can't do everything for you, this is a much needed update.

Office 2008 – Student / Teacher Edition
$229 - RRP price (inc GST)

Office 2008 – Retail Edition
$649 - RRP price (inc GST)

Office 2008 – Media Edition
$849 - RRP price (inc GST)

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/

Long awaited holiday...

FYI Everyone, After working straight through the holiday season, I am taking short holiday overseas. Where I am going phones don't work thank goodness. I depart Midday Fri 18th and return Friday 25th.