MacDirectory Magazine

Fall-Winter 2008 (#39)

MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.

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54 MacDirectory DEPARTMENT COMPILED BY RIC GETTER APPLE NEWS WHEN IT COMES TO APPLE NEWS, GO TO MACDIRECTORY.COM AND SUBSCRIBE TO EMACDAILY. EMACDAILY DELIVERS THE TOP APPLE NEWS, PRODUCT RELEASES, INDUSTRY TRENDS, SPECIAL DEALS AND MORE. THIS IS A FREE E-NEWS SERVICE TO MAC USERS. It's obvious that Santa is still doesn't have an e-mail account because, with a flurry of September product announce- ments, Apple was just one of a number of companies vying to inspire you to send in your holiday wish lists early. Apple CUPERTINO, Calif. -- In a mid-September gala event at the San Francisco Moscone Center, Apple unveiled its refreshed iPod lineup. Leading off was the longer, sleeker iPod Nano with a larger video display and an accelerometer that provides a shake-to-shuffle feature. Apple reports that the new Nano extends battery life to offer 24 hours of music or four hours of video playback. The 8GB model sells for $149 or you can opt for 16GB of storage for $199. Both models are available in silver, purple, blue, green, orange, yellow, pink, red and black. The slimmer and sleeker theme was carried over into the new iPod Touch. Apple touts this model as the "funnest iPod ever" (perpetuating the company's reputation for great products and bad grammar). The new, curvy look and feel is similar to the iPhone 3G's redesign. The 8 and 16 GB models will retail for $229 and $299 respectively. You can also super-size your storage with a new 32GB model for $399. This will store up to 40 hours of video (or 7,000 songs). Lest this turn you into too much of an iCouch potato, you can add the Nike + iPod sensor to any of the new editions of the Touch for $19. If storage space surpasses your desire for video and games, the last iPod Classic left standing provides you with 120GB of it for $249. Adobe SAN JOSE, Calif. -- With one of the most lavish webcasts we've seen, Adobe's Creative Suite 4 made its official public debut on Sept. 23. The company had started seeding beta versions to users and the media months earlier, allowing much of the Webcast's show-and-tell sessions to be led by customers rather than product managers. This was the first time since Macromedia's acquisition that the entire suite was released simultaneously. Estimated street price for the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium will be $1,799, $1,699 for Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium, $1,699 for Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium, and $2,499 for Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection. Adobe plans to offer tiered upgrade pricing from previous versions with aggressive academic discounts for schools and students. MacDirectory had the opportunity to spend a good part of the summer with the CS4 beta and our full report appears later in this issue. Google/T-Mobile NEW YORK -- The much-hailed competitor to the iPhone made its public debut in New York on the very same day that Adobe released CS4. The G1, powered by Google's open-source Android OS combines a touch screen interface with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The $179 price tag (with a two-year contract) and two tiers of monthly data charges are comparable to the iPhone. Google Maps offers a version of Street View, which, in some demonstrations we've seen, appears to be tied into the phone's motion sensor. But with the limited number of cities where T-Mobile currently offers 3G service, the comparatively bulky profile and absence of Apple's unique multi- touch interface, not many iPhone owners can expect to suffer from buyer's regret. Prosoft Engineering PLEASANTON, Calif. -- Prosoft is offering up a treat that won't have to wait until the holidays. Now, the program will not only monitor, optimize and repair your hard drives, it will also help with the housekeeping. Drive Genius 2.1 adds a feature called "DriveSlim" that will search your drives for duplicate or excessively large files, remove unneeded language resources, and, for Intel Mac users, strip out the bulky PowerPC code to slim down applications. To accommodate cyber-packrats, DriveSlim will offer to back up what it wants to remove to a CD or DVD. It's a shame they can't offer a version of DriveSlim to Mac users who over-indulge in holiday dining. ADOBE CS4 G1 PROSOFT'S DRIVE GENIUS 2

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