[SoftRatty] tag: super

In Depth T-Mobile G1 Hardware and Software Review

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:58:00 +0000

Engadget has posted an in depth review of the T-Mobile G1 phone. The review is divided into two parts: Hardware and Software

Industrial Design:
The first thing that strikes you about the G1 design is its... well, surprising lack of "design." In a world consumed by an unhealthy competition to be the absolute thinnest and filled with shiny silver / black sticks, the G1 stands out with its decidedly trend-bucking, quirky styling. That's not to say there's nothing to love here -- quite the opposite. The device bares a kind of charming, retro-future look, like a gadget in a 1970's sci-fi movie set in the year 2038. The smooth, round edges make the phone seem eminently approachable, and HTC (and design partner Google) forgo single-button simplicity for functionality, dotting the phone with all manner of hardware controls. Like we said, the phone isn't trying to break any dieting records -- so while the G1 isn't super-thin, the thickness is by no-means a deal breaker. At 0.62 inches it hardly measures up to standards set by similar devices like the iPhone 3G (0.48 inches) or not-so-similar (yet venerable) RAZR V3 at 0.55 inches closed, but it won't have any trouble sliding into your pocket. Getting it to slide into your heart, however, is strictly going to be a matter of taste; this form factor definitely inspires strong feelings.

Apple 2008 Notebook Event: Live Blog

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:45:00 +0000

This is coverage of the Apple Notebook Event on October 14th 2008. Most of these quotes are taken from Engadget. We were planning to combine several news feeds; however, many feeds were down or very slow due to high traffic. Thanks to them for their reliable coverage!

11:03AM - Engadget
Q: You've put a lot of work into the new touchpad, do touchscreens not make sense?
A: Steve: so far it hasn't made a lot of sense to us.

11:02AM - Engadget
Q: Are we going to see a netbook?
A: Steve: In terms of netbooks, that's a nascent market that's just getting started.

11:01AM - Engadget
Q: Concern about the glossy screens. Are you going to offer another option?
A: Steve: We're going all glass -- we won't offer another version. Phil: You offset the reflection by the brightness, and consumers love it. One of the great things about a notebook is you can turn it however you want!

10:57AM - Engadget
Q: What's up with the 17-inch?
A: Tim: It's being refreshed today as well.

10:56AM - Engadget
Phil: "We have the best HD movie and TV options in iTunes."

10:56AM - Engadget
Q: "Blu-ray?"
A: "Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It's great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we're waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace."

10:55AM - Engadget
Q: No Blu-ray, and display port -- why no HDMI?
A: Steve: HDMI is limited in resolution. Phil: for typical computer use, display port is the connector of the future.

10:54AM - Engadget
Q: Do you have first dibs on this NVIDIA chip?
A: Steve: We're the first taking it to market, but it's up to them.

10:53AM - Engadget
And Steve is back. "The will be on the web today. So what we'd like to do is have a Q & A session. I'm going to ask Phil Schiller and Tim Cook to come up. A few caveats, we can?t answer questions about the quarter ending, and secondly... 110/70... this is Steve's blood pressure." HUGE laughs and applause. "This is all we're going to talk about Steve's health today."

10:45AM
A short documentary on Apple's production process is being shown

10:45AM - Engadget
"I've got a video." Ive talking about the construction. "The new MacBook is remarkable..."

10:44AM - Engadget
"So we think this will be a huge success. So two new notebook families, we're building both in a whole new way, from a slab of aluminum..."

10:43AM - Engadget
"Second model, $1599, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD... and a backlit keyboard. Shipping today, should hit stores tomorrow."

10:42AM - Engadget
"It's going to come in two models -- $1299 for the new MacBook 13.3-inch display, 2GHz Core 2 Duo... that's $700 more affordable for these Pro features."

10:41AM - Engadget
"Again we're using the 9400M. Here's our system architecture, very clean. And of course, we've got that glass trackpad, and we've got 5 hours of battery life." Now he's back on the environmental soundness of this thing. This is the most eco friendly MacBook ever in the history of human existence.

10:40AM - Engadget
It has the same casing, LED backlit display, glass trackpad... the whole nines. Just smaller. Looks like those leaks we saw were right on this too.

10:39AM - Engadget
"We're introing a new generation of MacBook on top of the white plastic model." It's just like the Pro... yet smaller.

10:39AM - Engadget
"But we've heard that people want a metal enclosure, faster graphics, and a lot of them want LED backlit displays... so, we figured out a way to bring these to the MacBook line."

10:38AM - Engadget
"It is the best selling Mac... ever. We sell a ton of these, and people love the. They sell for $1099, and we're gonna keep right on selling these, but we're going to reduce the entry price to $999." Ooh, so close Steve, but not low enough!

10:37AM - Engadget
"Of course that one more thing is the MacBook."

10:37AM - Engadget
"One more thing."

10:37AM - Engadget
"So 24-inch LED backlit display, 1920 x 1200 resolution, stereo speakers... everything you need for $899, available in November."

10:36AM - Engadget
"We're introuducing a new Cinema Display -- our first with LED backlighting. It's got a cable with three connectors: a MagSafe, you can power your notebook, 2nd is a USB port, and third is Display port."

10:35AM - Engadget
"So again at $1799." "We have a second model at $2499, gives you a 1.86GHz CPU and SSD -- available in early November."

10:35AM - Engadget
"We're putting the 9400M in the Air, adding a 120GB hard drive, and we've got a 128GB SSD as an option -- in addition we're putting in a mini display port."

10:34AM - Engadget
"Now, we have another cool product we'd like to talk about today. The Air. We'd like to update it with some of these technologies."

10:34AM - Engadget
"There's a lot of new tech in these products, but we're proud of the things we left out..." Now he's going to talk about how eco these guys are. "We think we're leading the industry with this... arsenic free glass, BFR free, mercury free, PVC free, 37% smaller packaging." "And for the first time, the MacBook Pro has earned an Epeat gold rating."

10:32AM - Engadget
"And these MacBook Pros are shipping today, in stores tomorrow."

10:32AM - Engadget
"And of course, 802.11n, Bluetooth... .95 inches, our thinnest MBP ever. It's going to come in two models. The first, $1999, 15.4 inch display, 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, NVIDIA 9400 and 9600. We have a second config at $2499, you get a faster CPU with double cache, 4GB RAM, double graphics memory, 320GB hard drive."

10:30AM - Engadget
"So let's get back to this mini display port -- we can drive any display we could before, but at a fraction of the size -- we're building this into everything we make. This will also be the first MBP that we offer SSD on, and you can access the drives from underneath the battery."

10:30AM - Engadget
"Slot load super drive, magsafe connector, Ethernet, firewire 800, dual USB, mini display port, we're going to that on all our products, expresscard 34, and the battery indicator is now on the side."

10:29AM - Engadget
"We've added a new chip from NVIDIA -- the 9600M GT, 32 graphics cores, we're including both the 9400 as integrated graphics, or choose the 9600M for big graphic performance. 5 hours of batter on the 9400, 4 on the 9600."

10:25AM
"Mini display port connector... let's take a look at each of these ports. We're not going to talk about the old stuff we've built in, magnetic latch, backlit keyboard, built in isight... we don't have time to talk about that." "Precision unibody enclosure... exceptionally beautiful... much more rigid construction. We're really happy about this." Steve is passing the case around

10:23AM - Engadget
"Today we're replacing the old model with this..."
"Glass display, all connectors on one side..."

10:22AM - Engadget
"So a new trackpad for notebooks. So let's take this tech and make some new notebooks. We're introducing the new MacBook Pro."

10:22AM - Engadget
New gestures... Steve is showing off one and two finger gestures... now three... uh huh, where could this be going? "And we've added some four finger gestures. "A new way to open expose, and a great way to app switch..."

10:21AM - Engadget
"39% larger tracking area, multitouch, glass -- and we've optimized the friction on the glass... but where's the button? It's the entire pad -- gives you more area, keeps you from hunting... multi buttons via software, just turn on in preferences."

10:20AM - Engadget
"We've got a new trackpad -- a large multitouch glass trackpad."

10:20AM - Engadget
"We've been shipping the 8600M, we're at 55% for heavy graphics performance compared to that chip." "We've got some great new graphics."

10:19AM - Engadget
"This delivers up to 5x faster graphics than the chips we've been using. So what's it look like when we take it into the real world? up to 6x performance."

10:18AM - Engadget
"They've dubbed it the NVIDIA GeForce 9400 M -- it's an amazing chip. Chipset and GPU on one die -- 70% is the GPU, 16 parallel graphic cores, 54gflops of graphics performance. It's a sunner."

10:18AM - Engadget
"We also have some new graphics for notebooks... NVIDIA talked to us about an amazing graphics part they wanted to use." "We said this is fantastic, but can we use it in a notebook?"

10:17AM - Engadget
"So this new way has a relevance beyond the Air -- we've been working super hard on designing new uni-body enclosures. Thank you." And Steve is back!

10:16AM - Engadget
"Through each stage we're cleaning, collecting, and recycling the material. We started with a 2.5lbs piece of metal and end up with a piece that weighs a quarter of a pound."

10:16AM - Engadget
He's going through the very detailed way this piece of metal is machined. "We go through a noisy stage called rough cutting -- we create the holes for the key caps, towards the end we anodize it..."

10:15AM - Engadget
"We discovered if we started with a thick piece of aluminum we could make a lighter and stronger part." "So we make it from a solid piece of aluminum." Uh huh... Brickish.

10:14AM - Engadget
"This new process culminated in the design of this product: the MacBook Air. You couldn't build something this strong and thin in the older way."

10:14AM - Engadget
"We've been looking for a better way -- and we think we've found it."

10:13AM - Engadget
"The palm rest requires the same sort of internal structure. A series of stiffening plates..." "Finally, we had this plastic gasket -- it helps us control the junction."

10:12AM - Engadget
"One of the problems is designing something as thin and light as the Pro, but making it strong." "The structure is primarily derived from this..." Shows the internal frame. "It's made of multiple parts, then assembled into the bottom case... a very thin aluminum pressing."

10:11AM - Engadget
"I'd like to take a couple of moments to tell you about a real breakthrough we've had about how we can design and build our notebooks." "I'd like to start by giving you a sense of context." "I'd like to show you how we build our current MacBook Pro."

10:11AM - Engadget
"Let's talk about notebooks. Before we get into the actual notebooks, we want to talk about discoveries we've made. I'd like to talk about some new ways to build notebooks." Jony Ive is out!

10:10AM - Gizmodo
Steve Jobs comes back on stage.

10:09AM - Engadget
"Macs at major universities -- from 15% to almost 50%" "Many universities requires students have a laptop, we've worked hard to get Mac to be a choice." Shot of a school room... every laptop is a Mac! Ha!

10:08AM - Engadget
"One out of every 3 dollars is spent on the Macintosh. What a difference a few years makes."

10:07AM - Engadget
"If you look at the history, the Mac has outgrown the market for almost 4 years. There's been some key milestones along the way, like our transition to Intel, the Vista announcement and Leopard." "Since we're growing faster than the market, in US retail marketshare we've gone from single digits to 17.6%."

10:06AM - Engadget
Tim: "Retail stores -- 400,000 visitors a day. 50% of the Macs they sell are people that are new to Mac." Now he's busting out a slideshow of new stores around the world: Sydney, Bejing... "Both stores are off to a great start."

10:05AM - Engadget
Now Tim is talking about the PC vs. Mac ads. Playing one now. PC is on a king's throne... good stuff. The gist is switching is easy. PC: "I banish you."

10:04AM - Engadget
Vista -- the 4th reason Macs are doing well. Nasty, nasty burn to Microsoft.

10:04AM - Engadget
"The next up is something we didn't do -- Vista." Big laughs. "I think it's fair to say Vista hasn't lived up to everything Microsoft hoped it would -- and this has given us a door in."

10:03AM - Engadget
"Third reason: compatibility. When people looked at macs in the past, they were concerned about switching -- we fixed that with Boot Camp. We also work with third parties on productions like Fusion and Parallels." Windows on an iMac "Frankly this sends a shiver up my spine." Big laughs.

10:02AM - Engadget
"Why? Superior computers -- they're far superior to anything on the market." Now he's going through the line, iMacs, Air... "And with those better computers comes better software... like Leopard, like iLife, and products like iWork."

10:01AM - Engadget
Tim Cook: "Good morning -- our last reported quarter we sold 2.5m Macs. In several quarters in a row we've been growing 2/3x the market growth."

10:01 PST - Gizmodo
Tim Cook, Chief Operating Officer, is coming on stage to talk to us about the “stage of the Mac.” Steve Jobs is sitting down.

The event starts at 10:00 am PST so stay tuned!

Orbit Downloader Latest Version 2.7.7

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:32:26 +0000

Orbit Downloader is a great speed, super light,easy-to-use free download manager. It is based on p2p and multi-source downloading technology and supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, MMS and RTSP protocols. Using Orbit Downloader, you can almost download everything online with 500% faster speed, like youtube video, Rapidshare files, flash and streaming media etc. Anyway, Orbit Downloader is an indispensable tool for download acceleration and management. Orbit Downloader supports Rapidshare & most of the file-sharing service websites, including megaupload, badongo, sendspace, yourfilehost, uploading, filefront, 4shared, turboupload, depositfiles, filefactory, and more.

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Orbit Downloader Latest Version 2.7.7

Adobe fends off rivals with Flash Player 10

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:17:00 +0000

Flash Player 10 was code-named Astro.

(Credit: Adobe Systems)

Astro is launched.

On Wednesday, Adobe Systems announced the release of a major update to its Flash technology to endow Web sites with better video, audio, and graphics. The new version 10 was code-named Astro, and it arrived just days after Microsoft released version 2.0 of its rival Silverlight software.

Flash Player 10, a free download, includes a number of new features:

• Easier-to-use 3D graphics effects.

• Better text handling for more sophisticated layouts combining words and graphics, more refined typography, and better multilingual applications.

• Better sound handling, so that different audio signals can be mixed together--for example, a music sound track with a game's audio effects.

• High-performance visual effects using technology called Pixel Bender that also works with After Effects CS4 and Photoshop CS4.

• Better abilities to tap into hardware acceleration.

• Adaptble video streaming that can adjust to changing network throughput.

Flash Player is a key part of Adobe's push to make Web-based applications more powerful. Adobe's Flex framework can be used to create applications that run on the Flash Player or as standalone computer applications running on AIR, the Adobe Integrated Runtime.

Flash and Silverlight aren't the only ways to make these so-called rich Internet applications, though. Silverlight, which drafts off Microsoft's strong developer base and its .Net programming technology, is a newer competitor. And JavaScript is growing up as a way to build more elaborate interfaces in Web applications. Flash, however, enjoys a very broad adoption, and users upgrade to the newer versions relatively swiftly.

Flash Player 10 also is used within Adobe's Creative Suite 4, a broad range of applications including Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Premiere that just began shipping. Because control panels are written with Flash technology, CS4 menus can be extended by third parties more easily, and Adobe plans to release a Configurator by the end of the month that will make it easy to create custom control panels.

Update 11:25 a.m. PDT: One big Pixel Bender fan is online photo editing site Picnik. Flash Player 10 speeds the site and enables "mind-blowing effects." It also means third parties can create effects of their own using the Pixel Bender technology. See some examples below.

"Future plans with Flash Player 10 include the addition of super high‐resolution photo capabilities, more sophisticated editing features, and the ability to load and save photos without involving an upload to a server," Picnik said Wednesday.

One special effect enabled by Flash Player 10 on Picnik's online photo editing site.

(Credit: Picnik)

Another Flash Player 10 effect in Picnik.

(Credit: Picnik)

Showdown: Ultimate Ears Metro.fi 2 Earphones vs. Zune Premium Headphones

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 03:00:00 +0000

What do you get for headphones for under $65? Let's compare two options, one of them twice as expensive as the other. Is that a fair comparison? $65 is affordable for most people who purchase something capable of digital audio playback, so I think it's fair game. I was using my set of Ultimate Ears' Metro.fi 2 earphones ($62.99 from Amazon.com) this morning, and I decided to throw the Zune Premium Headphones into the mix - you know, the ones that come with the Zune 80, but not the Zune 120 - and I was quite disappointed with how poor the Zune headphones sounded. I normally wouldn't criticize free headphones that come with a player, because it's always my advice to toss them and buy a good pair of headphones, but in this case the premium headphones are a product normally sold separately for $39.99 MSRP (retailing for $30 from Amazon) so I think they're fair game for comparison - especially now that there's no modern Zune that includes them.

So how do the Metro.fi headphones compare to the Zune Premium Headphones? There's really no comparison - the Zune headphones lacked any sense of clarity when I was listening to tracks from Flyleaf, while the Metro.fi headphones handled the same songs without a problem. The Zune headphones did better with other songs, and they're certainly better than the default Zune headphones that come with the Flash-based Zunes, and now the Zune 120, but they just didn't measure up to the Metro.fi headphones. I also found that I needed to turn the volume level up on my Zune 80 to about 15 in order to "feel" the music properly from the Zune Premium headphones - the Metro.fi 2's gave me the same feeling with the volume at 12. The Zune headphones have decent bass response, but nothing fantastic - for fantastic bass, you want the Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 EB earphones. They're pretty expensive at $155 from Amazon.com, but they deliver the best bass response I've ever heard.

An important factor with headphones is durability, and the Metro.fi headphones measure up there as well: I've been using them off and on for over a year now, and the past few months at the gym. No frayed connectors, no drop-outs, and no static. The Metro.fi headphones come with interchangable tips, providing 16 decibels worth of audio dampening, and they're carried in the included small leather pouch - a really nice touch. My biggest gripe with them? Nothing to do with sound: the cable tends to not relax very easily, so when I take them out of the storage pouch I have to fight to get them even a little bit straight. Interestingly enough, the Zune Premium Headphones have this problem nailed: they're fabric-wrapped, and tend to relax quite quickly. That frustration aside, and from a pure sonic standpoint, the Metro.fi headphones are well worth the extra $35 over the Zune Premium Headphones. I'd like to see Microsoft bump the price bracket up to $49.99 MSRP and see if they can get better sounding headphones.

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog.

Apples strange displaynew LCD screen has head in clouds

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:11:45 +0000

New laptops weren’t the only thing Jobs unveiled today—Apple’s also finally provided a new external display. And it’s a strange one.

More information’s available at Apple’s website, but the gist of it is this: the display is super-thin, 24″, uses advanced LCD technology, has integrated power with easy connectivity, and includes an iSight, microphone and speakers. All this for the same price as the existing, aging 23″ Cinema Display.

That sounds great until you dig and think a little more. $899 is hardly great value for a 24″ display these days. The display is gloss-only, which will make pros flee. And those that won’t had better have laptops, since unless I’m very much mistaken, this display requires one of Apple’s new laptops to work—it needs a machine with a Mini DisplayPort. So you guys who just dropped $2499 on a new Mac Pro had better look elsewhere.

Apple’s a great company, an innovator that goes where few others dare to tread. But flashes of the old sneak through now and again, and only Apple would dare release a nine-hundred dollar MacBook accessory in the middle of global economic turmoil.

New MacBook Pro adds power, graphics might

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Filed under: Hardware, Portables, Macbook Pro

Almost eight years ago, Apple introduced the Titanium PowerBook, and with it the company ushered in a wave of industrial laptop design that in many ways, is still unmatched. Although the 2003 and 2006 refreshes to the lineup changed the material (from titanium to aluminum) and processor (from PowerPC to Intel), the basic design has remained essentially the same.

It's time for a change. Last night we got a tip showing off the new design (a design that closely mirrors the leaked Deutsche Telekom images from last month), now we finally have the hardware details. Apple did mention that the rumored "Brick" manufacturing process is, in fact, what they are using for the new notebooks.

15" MacBook Pro

Price: $1999

Specs:

15.4" LED-backlit display
2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo (with 3MBs of L2 cache)
2GBs of DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 256MB
250 GB hard drive
Slot-loading Super Drive

15" MacBook Pro

Price: $2400

Specs:

15.4" LED-backlit display
2.53 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo (with 6MBs of L2 cache)
4GBs of DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 512MB
320 GB hard drive
Slot-loading Super Drive

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Its a Laptop. Those Come Out Every Day

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:26:49 +0000

Partly due to boredom, and partly due to lack of more important news, I’ve taken the time to read the extremely thorough coverage of the new Macbook Pro, due to officially come out in a matter of hours. I don’t expect much from these type of events and I know that the hype around Apple is almost always (it wasn’t in the case of iPhone, hence “almost”) hugely exaggerated, but if the rumors are true, this time even I am underwhelmed.

What’s described over at Daring Fireball - and it seems to be an accurate description - is some cosmetic changes to Apple’s laptop line. Yes, that’s right: nothing important has changed at all - the Air didn’t get a second (or third) USB port; Macbook Pros still have pretty much the same CPUs inside; the screen is still glossy (yuck); hard drives in the Air and the 17” Pro have been updated, and the new Pro has a better (but still not top of the line) video card. That’s it: that’s all. Unless, of course, you’re really, really stoked about that black keyboard and aluminum finish and no-button trackpad (I’d like two buttons, not one, and not none at all, thank you). I’m not.

It’s a laptop, folks. Those come out every day.

[blurry image courtesy of Engadget]

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Apple Rumor Roundup: $800 Laptop, Blu-ray, Space-Age Factory? (AAPL)

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:00:00 +0000

Steve Jobs takes the stage at Apple's Cupertino campus today for another one of his highly anticipated product launches. No mystery what this one's about: 'The spotlight turns to notebooks,' the invitation announces.

The chattering classes also seem to agree that at least one of Steve's rollouts will be a laptop that sells for less than $1,000. That's par for the industry, but a big leap down for Apple, which has always commanded premium prices for its machines.

OK. But exactly how cheap will it (they) be? How big will they be? Is Apple using a new manufacturing process? What about something truly mind-blowing?

Here's the best guess from the rumor mill. If you want to find out in real time, check back here at 1 p.m. Eastern when we'll be blogging LIVE from the Apple campus:

Aluminum Frame - MacRumors had supposed screenshots of the new frames of the laptops.

New $800/$900/$1000 MacBooks - Duncan Riley thinks Apple will offer a machine that's only a couple hundred dollars more than the original iPhone. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster suggests the other two prices.

Updated MacBook Pro/MacBook Air - Munster says that the new Pros could be cheaper, too.

No Tablet PC - Also from Munster.

Blu-Ray - Digg founder Kevin Rose says that the new notebooks will support Blu-ray DVD drives, a recurring Apple rumor that finally makes sense now.

NVIDIA Graphics Chips - AppleInsider says that Apple is switching all the MacBooks over to NVIDIA graphics chips, abandoning the current Intel ones. Some of the MacBook Pros use NVIDIA chipsets already.

New manufacturing process, 'brick' - Possibly our favorite rumor. 9to5Mac says that the castings for the new laptops are carved from a single block of aluminum using lasers and water-jet cutting, so it won't need screws and be super light and super strong. This is also the least likely.

The Real $899 MacBook is Actually a NewDisplay?

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:45:25 +0000

New rumors keep cropping up about Apple’s event tomorrow.

First, some new pictures have surfaced on Engadget of a supposed new 15″ MacBook Pro. A few other sites have picked these up, but AppleInsider has taken it further with information about a possible new display that resemlbes an aluminum iMac but without the “chin”. They go on:

A second source adds that the display is about 24-inches and features a “super thin” base stand. The new 24-inch display may be the mysteriously-priced $899 Apple product that recently turned up in Apple’s systems, not a $899 MacBook.

The $899 product is codenamed K29, while all other products on the price list begin with an “M” such as “M96.” Apple has traditionally used different codename trackers for its accessory products. For instance, several years ago, its Mac codenames began with a “Q” and its MightyMouse codename started with an “M.”

OK, that’s a new twist. So all the talk of a $900 MacBook may not be true, and instead we get a $900 display. That’s the same price as Apple’s current 23″ Cinema Display. You’d think after all these years Apple could have lowered the price when they introduced a new display. If not a lower price, then at least add some functionality.

And why announce it now? They’ve waited so long, why use the event tomorrow for that purpose? I mean, what kind of functionality could be so special about this display that they would potentially announce it at a laptop event? Well, maybe… this?

Admittedly, this would be very cool, but I think Apple’s going to break a lot of hearts tomorrow (especially on Wall Street) if there’s no sub-$1K MacBook.