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Average Joe's Tips

The Basics and More: Dashboard

Use & Basics:

Dashboard’s main use is to allow you to view widgets. For those of you who do not know what widgets are they are tools that allow you to view or control certain things like music or weather from dashboard. You can download all different kinds of widgets. To add as a side note there are certain widgets like Movies, which can act as a movie billboard or transform into ticket machine where you can select the movie you want, theater, and time.

Where to Get More Widgets:

Dashboard would not be fun if there weren’t so many widgets. The best place to get widgets are from Apple. If you can’t find a specific widget you want you can always visit third party places on Google. What makes widgets even better is that they are that they are free, and you able to download what ever you want.

Web Clip Widget:

One special widget that comes standard is Web Clip. This widget allows you to view and control things online without opening your browser. To do this go into Safari, select File, and click on “Open in Dashboard…” From there select what areas in the website you want. Note that you can only do this in Safari and that the size you select on Safari is the size you will get. An important tip for when using Web Clip is that you are only able to control online sites that stay on one page like a game, and not Facebook because you are moving from page to page.

Overview:

All in all, Dashboard is a great and useful application. Where it lets you be the controller of endless amounts of widgets. This is definitely one of the many great perks to owning a Mac.

 

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News

Sandy Bridge Processors for new MacBook Airs

Intel has a family of processors that are called Sandy Bridge processors. Intel is getting bigger as they produce a new ultra low voltage (ULV) that is a perfect fit for the MacBook Air. CPU World has let a leak of processors as they show a trio of Core i5 and i7 CPU models. These chips are suppose to be faster then the chips currently offered by Intel. These chips would run between 1.4 Ghz and 1.6 Ghz. CPU World says that the new Core i5 2557M will run at 1.7Ghz with the ability to Turbo Boost to 2.7Ghz while the Core i7 2637M and 2677M will run at 1.7Ghz and 1.8Ghz with the ability to run at up to 2.8Ghz and 2.9Ghz.

 

These three new processors will be dual core Hyperthreaded processors. They will include graphic cards that range from 350 MHz to 1.2 Ghz. The reason why these processors are so good for the MacBook Air is the compact fit. These chips will use 17 watts of power between the graphics and the processor which will make them easy to tuck inside the MacBook Air. The date on when these chips will be available is uncertain. They are said to come out later this year, but the actual month and day are not set. Rumors have said that the MacBook Air will get a refresh this summer, which Apple usually does to their line of computers. I can’t wait to see how fast the MacBook Air will be with the Sandy Bridge processors. Can’t wait either? Leave us a comment and we will answer them as soon as we can.

Categories
News

Apple is a Religion

Is Apple really a religion? Well it certainly is followed by millions of people in this world. Almost every person in this world knows about Apple and Steve Jobs. I certainly understand how Apple can be a religion because people go crazy when a new product or an Apple store is opened. According to neuroscientists, Apple could possibly be a religion. They compared MRIs of Apple fans’ brains to those of people who would call themselves rather religious. They found that Apple and religion light up the same part of the brain. Call me crazy, but isn’t that just spectacular? Apple being a religion would definitely draw criticism, but everyone has a way to express themselves. This also means that Apple triggers the same feelings and reaction in people as religion. In a documentary on BBC, Secrets of Superbands, the documentary also likens Apple stores to cathedrals. Renee Oricchio said that “Apple stores often feature stone or other types of austere, simple flooring like a church with products mounted on pedestals like individual altars.” When Apple launches a new store, the whole place goes crazy. The workers are high fiving the hundred of new customers. It is definitely a crazy idea, but it is also an idea that can come true. It seems Steve Jobs really is a God to some people in this world.

 

Categories
Opinion

Lion only $29, App Store download

In my previous article about OS X 7 Lion, I mentioned how one of my concerns for the new operating system was the price. If it sold for anything over $100, I wasn’t going to really consider it. Well, looks like I don’t need to put any more thought into whether or not to buy it because the price is right. For only $29 you get a full step up in an operating system that touts many new features. That alone is a pretty crazy notion.

But wait, there’s more! Apple is again shifting paradigms on their heads. Lion will only be available as a 4 GB Mac App Store download this July. No install disc. No flash drive. Nothing physical at all. You can read more about the specifics of downloading Lion at Apple.

The catch? From what I can tell, only anyone with the latest version of Snow Leopard will be able to access Lion. I can only guess that this means if you have Leopard, it will cost you $29 to upgrade to Snow Leopard and then another $29 to get Lion. Even at $60, that’s still a value, but a bit daunting. There really isn’t a shortcut to it either, because it’s all based in the Snow-Leopard-only-Mac-App-Store. It will be interesting to see if there’s some work around to archive the Lion install on a flash drive.

Furthermore, the Intel Core Duo folks are finally forsaken to upgrades. In Apple’s typical fashion, they’re cutting out the hardware they consider “cruft.” Snow Leopard seemed to portray that only Intel Core 2 Duo Macs would be able to install it. I shirked the warning and was able to get Snow Leopard running just fine on my Core Duo MacBook. While, I don’t have my MacBook anymore, I still couldn’t imagine running Lion on it. The Core 2 Duo folks are still in the running, but it’s only a matter of time.

It was hard to get a good impression of Lion without a developer copy and without any more information than the Apple site provided. But with WWDC underway, Apple has finally revealed more of their hand to the general public.

I’ve seen what I need to see. In addition to the cool new features, the price can not be beat. Now we’ll see how hard it will be to download it the moment it becomes available.

[Image Source]

 

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Uncategorized

Apple WWDC: Windows vs. Mac OS X


To start the week of Apple’s WWDC 2011, we thought we would kick it off with some humor. The video above is of Bertrand Serlet showing ‘similarities’ between Mac OS X and Windows Vista.