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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1877
60 MacDirectory DEPARTMENT MacBooks: More for Less The keynote opened with an array of price breaks and speed bumps that left little in the Apple Store laptop catalog untouched. For the first time since the clamshell days, there is only one model of its entry level MacBook. The aluminum-bodied editions have been elevated to Pro status. The white MacBook remains the only laptop with a FireWire 400 outlet. (For a great buy on the FireWire 400 to 800 cables you'll need, check out monoprice.com.) The 13" and 15" MacBook Pros have traded in their Express card slots for a more compact and infinitely more useful SD slot. This will provide you with up to 32GB of bootable storage and works as an interface for a growing number of devices. The entire lineup has moved to the higher-capacity and longer-lived "green" lithium polymer batteries with a promised (but not formally guaranteed) five-year lifespan. Also, the expanded MacBook Pro line will hold up to 8 GB of RAM and the larger MacBooks offer two onboard NVIDIA graphics options, providing the choice of phenomenal frame rates or longer battery life. The Leopard Leaps The WWDC keynote featured Apple's first public demo of Snow Leopard, revealing several more new features and discussing some of the core technologies that the across-the-board 64-bit architecture will provide (and yes, that finally includes the Finder). On the application side, the white cat will offer improved, and actually very slick, support for Microsoft Exchange services and an all-new look for QuickTime 10. Grand Central Dispatch will give developers the tools they need to thread their applications through multiple CPU cores while OpenCL (Open Computing Language) promises to take advantage of the new and terrifyingly powerful generation of graphics cards to offload some of the CPUs' workload. New system- level file compression will reduce Snow Leopard's footprint by 6 GB and substantially reduce installation time. Apple's VP of software engineering, Bertrand Serlet, was more than happy to draw several comparisons to Windows Vista and 7. The undercurrent of innuendo about Apple's "neighbors to the north" remained when he announced that the upgrade cost to Leopard users for the September release would be $29 (or $49 for a family-friendly five-pack). Like loyal fans at the last spring's Star Trek movie premiere, everyone in the audience knew pretty much what to expect. And, like the aforementioned film, the whole audience seemed to enjoy it anyway. So check back this fall when MacDirectory brings you in-depth coverage of the iPhone 3G S: the next generation.