Faster than a Granny Smith shot out of a rocket
Apple’s sleek new MacBooks are all about speed. Powered by the Intel Core Duo processor, the new MacBook is five times faster than Apple’s iBook and four times faster than its 12-inch PowerBook. Each MacBook is equipped with the latest Mac OS X Tiger operating system, wireless connectivity, a built-in video conferencing camera, the iLife ’06 digital suite and Bluetooth connectivity. A model with a 13.3-inch wide-screen display, a 1.83-gigahertz processor, 512 megabytes of memory, a 60-gigabyte hard drive and a DVD-ROM drive costs $1,099. A similar model with a 2GHz processor costs $1,299, while one with a 2GHz processor and a bigger 80GB hard drive is $1,499.
www.apple.com
Make your laptop keep the film rolling
A new program from CyberLink can increase your odds of seeing a movie from start to finish without having to plug your laptop into a power outlet. The program’s See-It-All feature calculates the remaining battery life and movie’s length, and then quickens the movie’s pace up to 1.25 times its normal speed. The program also has a one-click option that lets you instantly replay a section of dialog, support for high-definition playback and subtitles that can be positioned for the best readability. The Windows-based PowerDVD 7 Deluxe title costs $70.
www.cyberlink.com
A portable drive for addled memories
SmartDisk’s FireLite XPress Portable Hard Drive makes it easier to find stored computer files. To see the contents of the drive, all you have to do is look at its display, which is always on and can be viewed without being connected to a computer’s USB port. Weighing just 6 ounces, the palm-size drive works with both PCs and Macs. A 60GB version costs $200 while a 120GB model is $300.
www.smartdisk.com
Slide show on a key chain
Your favorite digital photos will always be close at hand with the Digital Picture Keychain from Royal Consumer Information Products. The key chain can store 56 digital photos, which can be displayed individually or in a slide show on its 1.1-inch liquid-crystal display screen. The key chain ships with a USB cable, an AC adapter, a battery charger and imaging software. It costs $52.
www.royal.com
