Apple : Nokia slip slingshots Apple into No.1 spot |
- Nokia slip slingshots Apple into No.1 spot
- Hands on: Apple MacBook Air 2011 review
- Buying Guide: Best Mac webcam for Mac: 5 tested
- Mobile devices fuel another bumper Intel quarter
| Nokia slip slingshots Apple into No.1 spot Posted: 21 Jul 2011 01:10 PM PDT  Apple has now overtaken Nokia as the world's leading smartphone manufacturer following this week's massively contrasting financial reports. On Tuesday, Apple announced that it had sold a staggering 20.4m iPhone handsets between April and June, on the way to record-setting income and profits for the quarter. Nokia responded on Thursday with a hugely disappointing loss of £323 million for the same period, during which it sold 16.7m handsets - down 32 per cent from one year previous. That means, for the first time Apple shifted more iPhones in a single quater than Nokia sold handsets making Steve Jobs's company officially the biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world. The news will be icing on the cake for Cupertino as it already overtaken Nokia in terms of the revenue brought in from the smartphone arm of its business. Ailing Finns During the Nokia financial report the ailing Finns also revealed that it had received a one-off payment of $600m from Apple in order to license patented Nokia technology. As part of a new agreement, Apple will continue to make payments, but it's going to take a lot more than that for Nokia to even think about getting back on an even playing field. Those Windows Phone-packing handsets surely can't come soon enough. |
| Hands on: Apple MacBook Air 2011 review Posted: 21 Jul 2011 08:52 AM PDT  The MacBook Air that debuted last October was a mighty fine-looking piece of hardware - a newly designed unibody shell, 0.3cm at its thinnest. Trouble is, the meat inside didn't quite match up with the supreme exterior – Apple had been forced to stick with the ageing Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Intel had originally produced a special, smaller packaged Core 2 Duo variant for the first-generation MacBook Air that was still clinging on in last year's release. The small processor package, presumably, couldn't be bettered until this year's Sandy Bridge generation of Intel Core chips. So here we are with the newly-launched 2011 MacBook Air running the day-old Mac OS X 10.7 Lion - featuring all new processors.
The great news is that the new models don't lack for performance. Even the base models are stacked. The off-the shelf models come with the blistering Core i5 1.6 (11-inch, £849/£999 depending on memory and SSD) or 1.7 Ghz (13-inch, £1,099/£1,349 depending on memory and SSD) variants. Even better is that, for an extra £100 you can pop a 1.8GHz Core i7 into the high-end 13-inch and that is what is inside the 13-inch MacBook Air Apple has been kind enough to loan us here. (It's the 7-2677M, if you're a code aficionado.)
Moving centre stage The model we have in our hands is seriously quick, though having used numerous Sandy Bridge Core i5s including the new 2011 MacBook Pro, we're confident the performance of those machines won't disappoint. Whichever you choose, the MacBook Air is certainly no longer the poor-powered portable Mac – indeed, Apple has so much faith in it that it has discontinued the MacBook for retail purchase (it's still going to be available for education, apparently). The MacBook Air is expensive of course, but you get what you pay for. As with the new MacBook Pros, the new MacBook Air also adopts the Intel-gestated Thunderbolt technology - again manifesting in a DisplayPort connection. Various Thunderbolt products will launch in due course, but in the meantime Apple has also released a new Apple Thunderbolt Display which is a thorn in our theory that thunderbolt is just a gimmick.
You see, the monitor acts as a docking station for the MacBook Air. There's Gigabit Ethernet, USB ports and FireWire – and it all connects over the Thunderbolt connection along with the video of course! We have to say, the idea of having Thunderbolt as a single point of docking connectivity is mighty appealing – even if the display is a monstrous £899. Which should you choose? Although the 13-inch MacBook Air is a lot more usable for most workhorse tasks, the 11-inch MacBook Air is still a highly capable machine for most purposes. The displays remain the same as the last generation, though what they're driven by is different.
Graphics is now provided by Intel's HD 3000 graphics built into the new Core chips rather than the Nvidia GeForce 320M used in the last generation. While Intel's Sandy Bridge graphics are fine for most needs, if it's supreme graphics performance you want than you need a MacBook Pro. In terms of pixels, the 11-inch is a 16:9 1366 × 768 panel, while the 13-inch is 16:10 - 1440 × 900.
All the memory is solid state as with the last generation, and the 11-inch comes with either 64GB or 128GB while the 13-inch provides either 128GB or 256GB depending on model. You can have up to 4GB of DDR3 memory. One of the most annoying things about the last MacBook Air was that a compromise had had to be made about the backlit keyboard – it disappeared to the chagrin of many potential purchasers. Thankfully, it is now well and truly back.
As you'd expect from any Apple notebook, there's the glass Multi-Touch trackpad that supports Lion's multi-touch gestures.
There's also support for Bluetooth 4.0 should you be interested in that, while you also get the standard Apple webcam (not HD) and an SD card in the 13-inch which was introduced with the last generation. As then, there isn't the space to include one in the 11-inch.
Weight is comparable to the last generation of the Air at 1.08Kg for the 11-inch and 1.34Kg for the 13-inch. It seems strange that the MacBook Air has become Apple's entry-level notebook. But that's what has happened. If you can spare the not-inconsiderable cash, its one hell of a power portable whichever model you decide to plump for.
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| Buying Guide: Best Mac webcam for Mac: 5 tested Posted: 21 Jul 2011 02:25 AM PDT  All Mac notebooks, iMacs and Apple displays have a built-in iSight, FaceTime or FaceTime HD camera. Positioned directly above the screen, it's great for keeping in touch using apps such as iChat and FaceTime. But what if your monitor doesn't have an internal camera, or you want to show a wider view of yourself? Apple no longer produces the external iSight, but there are third-party webcams that work brilliantly with Macs. Here we look at five webcams for your Mac. Also, to get more from your webcam, you can buy the iGlasses app. It gives extra controls for brightness, contrast, colour balance, orientation and more. It's due an update, but we're promised iGlasses 3 is on the way. So what's the best Mac webcam? Let's find out. 01. Liquid Digital Solutions aGent V5 HD - £56 This full HD, 2MP webcam resembles the old Apple iSight. It comes bundled with clips and stands, and as its screw-in mounting is the same size as a standard camera's, you can also use a regular tripod.
A bundled CD is full of optional apps such as Webcam Monitor, CamGrabber and Gawker. The webcam's design is minimal - it even lacks an LED to tell you when it's activated. The five-layer German lens does a great job with stills and video, recording sharp, detailed images, even in poor light. Unfortunately, sound quality is poor, and we had to turn the input volume right up to use it, and then it suffered from hiss. Verdict: 4/5 Good looks and excellent image quality, but if you want sound too, you'd better use a separate mic. 02. Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910 - £60 This one puts in a stellar performance. Colours are more natural than the aGent V5 HD, and it handles motion well. It adjusts for sub-optimal lighting conditions, though it can look a little yellow when natural and artificial light is mixed.
Its sound is as good as its video, with built-in stereo mics. Given the specifications, it's no wonder its performance is so impressive. The C910 has a Carl Zeiss lens, and takes 10MP stills. It's full HD, and you can make video calls in 720p. One-click upload to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter is also catered for. Unfortunately, its non-removable stand isn't very versatile, and it doesn't look Mac-like. Verdict: 4.5/5 Excellent performance, with great video and sound. We wish it had a screw-mounting, though. 03. Blue Microphones Eyeball 2.0 - £35 You can tell at a glance where the Eyeball 2.0's priorities lie. Most webcams add a microphone as an afterthought, but the Eyeball 2.0 is built around its mic, with the camera positioned on a retractable arm that pops out of its spherical body.
As a result, audio quality is good, capturing voices clearly without picking up background noise. Yet for all its acoustic strengths, the Eyeball 2.0's video was the worst of all the cameras on test. Despite a 1600x1200 resolution, it lacked sharpness and clarity, and video was marred by motion blur. It copes with low light well, but its overall performance is poor. Verdict: 2.5/5 Good audio, but this can't make up for the Eyeball 2.0's awful video quality. Horrible motion blur. 04. Macally IceCam2 - £17 If you're looking for a less expensive choice that does a decent job with the minimum of fuss, then this is your cam. It's plug-and-play, with no bundled software or drivers, and its 640x480 VGA resolution is more than enough for video chat.
Its monitor/desktop stand and swivel head are functional, as is its long USB cable. Naturally, the video quality can't match the HD heavyweights. It's not as crisp, it needs to be manually focussed and there's significant motion blur when the light's poor. The sound echoes a little, and audio and video are sometimes slightly out of sync. It's not for connoisseurs, but if all you want is basic video chat, the IceCam2 puts in a robust, if workmanlike, performance. Verdict: 3/5 Surprisingly capable considering the price, and certainly good enough for basic video chat. 05. Ecamm BT-1 - £110 The Ecamm BT-1's selling point is Bluetooth. With no USB cable, you can place the BT-1 anywhere within 30 feet of your computer, even in another room. Its supplied telescopic tripod uses a standard camera mounting screw, and its rechargeable battery lasts around four hours. There's nothing to mount it on a monitor, but that's not its intended use.
The BT-1 offers a maximum 640x480 resolution. Its colours are muted and it lacks sharpness and clarity, though there's very little motion blur. The mic does a decent job, capturing sound without picking up background noise. It struggles to focus close in, but manages much better at longer distances. It's not yet compatible with FaceTime but we've been assured that an update is coming soon. Verdict: 3.5/5 Not ideal for putting on your monitor, but great for when cables won't reach. |
| Mobile devices fuel another bumper Intel quarter Posted: 21 Jul 2011 02:09 AM PDT  Intel has announced another quarter of record profit, with CEO Paul Otellini pointing to the growth of mobile devices as a key factor in the chip giant's growth. Intel surpassed $13.1 billion (£8.1bn) in revenue for the second quarter of 2011, with servers, strong demand for high-end Core chips and the continued growth of mobile devices all cited. "We achieved a significant new milestone in the second quarter, surpassing $13.0 billion in revenue for the first time," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. Advanced tech "Strong corporate demand for our most advanced technology, the surge of mobile devices and Internet traffic fueling data centre growth, and the rapid rise of computing in emerging markets drove record results. "Intel's 23 percent revenue growth in the first half and our increasing confidence in the second half of 2011 position us to grow annual revenue in the mid-20 percent range." Interestingly, Intel stated that newly acquired McAfee and Inineon Wireless Solutions (not Intel Mobile Communications) contributed $1 billion in their first full-quarter of results. Breaking the results down further, Intel's PC client group had revenue up 11 per cent year on year, its Data Server group reported a 15 percent increase and Embedded & Communications Group saw a 25 per cent increase. One sour note was the waning impact of the mobile Atom processor and chipsets, which saw revenues drop by 15 per cent. |
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