Category: Mac Hardware

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Green Tech at the Expo

by Michael Gaworecki

Green Tech was by no means prominent at Macworld 08, but there was still a pretty good amount on display. Environmental sustainability has become a major concern when it comes to technology products. Computers and most other electronic devices consume lots of energy while they’re living and produce lots of waste when they die. Hazardous waste, in many cases. But nearly all of the major manufacturers have begun thinking through the lifecycle of their products and designing them to have as little an impact on the environment as possible – not only because of the demand for Green Tech in the marketplace, but also because it’s just plain old good business.

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My second day on the show floor

by Michael Gaworecki

I thought I’d share a couple more interesting products and booths that I came across today.

We’ve all been in a situation where our iPod has run out of juice, leaving us tuneless and videoless at the worst of times. Which is why I think the iZAP R08-IV for iPod Video is a great product. The literature claims that it can give your iPod up to 10 hours of video playback and a whopping 36 hours of audio. But the guy in the booth told me he thinks the 36 hour estimate is “soft”! ZAP!, whose name stands for “zero air pollution,” also makes the Recharge-It-All Universal Battery, which has connectors for every mobile device you can imagine. Plus there are actually four rechargeable AA lithium-ion batteries inside that you can take out and use in your digital camera. It’s convenient and it can help you be more environmentally friendly!

IntelliScanner won a Best of Show award at last year’s Macworld Expo for their IntelliScanner mini, which is a miniature barcode scanner that lets you scan all your books, music, and movies and manage your collections in their proprietary software. This year they’ve come out with the professional-grade IntelliScanner SOHO for managing inventories and other bigger cataloging jobs. The software has an interface similar to iTunes, and it even lets you create the equivalent of iTunes playlists so you can organize your audio, video, and book libraries by genre. Before you say “You’ve got to be a serious neat-freak to want one of those,” consider this: The software also has a function that lets you track who you are lending a book, DVD, or CD to simply by scanning it in! My friends would probably think I’ve finally lost it if I started checking out my books to them, but I’ve lost so many from “lending” them to friends that I really don’t care at this point.

I wrote about the Modbook yesterday, but I didn’t get any pictures. I happened to cruise by today and got a couple of great pictures of one of their demo guys drawing a blue-jay on the Modbook, so I thought I’d share them.

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Accessories

MacWorld Gear and Accessories

by Kathryn Vercillo

Walking around MacWorld this week, I’ve rapidly learned that the laptop bag I use to hold my computer and notebooks and all of the other junk that I tote around isn’t really very comfortable. As a result, I found myself drawn to the many booths in Moscone West that were selling laptop bags. Once I’d turned my attention to that, I found that I was also pulled towards all of the different cases and accessories for other gadgets.

Here were some of my favorite accessories finds:

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Macworld 2008

MacBook Air’s unremovable battery

by Chris Ainsworth

John Gruber posted a great first look at the MacBook Air, chiding the tech media about its enclosed battery, and I couldn’t agree more:

No swappable battery. I think this aspect is going to play out exactly as it has with the iPhone: (a) there’s going to be a ton of criticism from the gadget and tech press decrying this as a terrible decision; and (b) the vast majority of users don’t care and won’t mind the sealed battery at all. Seriously, the press is not going to shut up about this — you can’t go 10 feet in the Expo media room without hearing someone complain about it.

I personally like carrying an extra charged battery with me on long trips, but it wouldn’t keep me from buying an Air if I otherwise wanted one.

Amen, brother. Folks need to get their heads around this.

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