Apple bumps specs of White MacBook

Sometime earlier this week, Apple updated its least expensive notebook.

Engadget noticed that the white S$1,588 (US$1,147.32) MacBook was slightly--and quietly--upgraded. It now has a newer Intel processor (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo), 2GB of memory, integrated graphics (Nvidia GeForce 9400M), and a faster frontside bus, now 1,066 MHz.

Besides that, almost everything else remains the same. But at S$1,588 (US$1,147.32), it's now much closer to its more expensive, unibody-constructed MacBook cousins.

VIa CNET Crave

Dork throws Netbook in front of moving laser, lives to take pictures

Revolving dork (no really--revolving dork) Chris Maguire harbors such an intense love for the original Super Mario Land and his ASUS Eee PC that he did what any of us would do: He laser-etched the entire game (as it appeared on the original Game Boy) onto the lid of the Netbook!

We're not sure what safety precautions Mr. Maguire took before the surgery to ensure the safety of the Eee PC, but the end result is flawless. The laser cutter, courtesy of NYC Resistor in Brooklyn, rigged up the final artwork to show all the levels cascading on top of each other in several layers.

Chris provides the Mario Land etching pattern here, but recommends you try to make one yourself and set the laser in "raster mode at 70 percent speed and 40 percent power to achieve this look."

More pictures of Chris's masterpiece after the break.
Read more »

Arc mouse turns white; Office for Mac provides company

The Arc Mouse was not only a breakthrough in design but, according to GfK Asia, was the bestselling wireless mouse in the two months since its October launch in Singapore last year. The unique foldable body allows for a full-sized mousing experience, yet maintains a small profile for storage and portability.

Currently available in black or red, a white edition will soon start making its rounds. Come mid-February, Microsoft will be bundling the white Arc Mouse with Office For Mac (Home and Student Edition) at S$249 (US$179.90) from Apple resellers in Singapore. In some markets like Japan, the white edition will be available sans bundle.

Intel CULV laptops in 2009

If AMD was hoping to dominate the niche between Netbooks and traditional ultraportables with its Yukon platform, it's got another think coming. During CES 2009, Intel announced its intention to produce low-cost chips with performance that falls between the Atom processor and ultra-low voltage Core 2 Duo models.

Dubbed CULV (consumer ultra-low voltage) processors, these chips are meant for machines with 11- to 13.3-inch displays and provide a better computing experience compared with Netbooks, though at a slightly higher cost.

According to Digitimes, laptops based on CULV platforms should turn up in the second quarter of 2009 with prices ranging from US$699 to US$899. The same report also mentioned that HP's rumored 13.3-inch Mini-Note might be one of the first to sport a CULV chip under the hood. Suffice to say, the coming year will be one of major confusion for consumers as the notebook segment becomes even further fragmented.

Via Digitimes

Test drive: Windows 7 on a Netbook

Still semi-jetlagged from Las Vegas, one of the very first items on our to-do list was to install the now widely available Windows 7 beta on a Netbook.

From off-the-record conversations with PC makers during CES, we heard that Windows 7 played well with systems powered by Intel's Atom CPU--which is something we generally can't say about Vista. (Although it's also worth noting that Vista, while making for a somewhat sluggish user experience, actually performed reasonably well in benchmark testing on Sony's new VAIO Lifestyle PC mini-laptop, which combines an Atom with a more appropriate 2GB of RAM.)

We quickly installed the 32-bit version of Windows 7 on a typical Netbook. The installation went smoothly, and the OS seemed to run well at first glance, but our wireless card wasn't detected initially. We eventually got that sorted out, and ran our iTunes benchmark test for a quick speed comparison (our test system had an Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, and an 80GB 5,400rpm HDD).
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