WWJD = What Would (Steve) Jobs Do ?

An interesting play on WWJD by the Engadget crew. It's Tuesday evening here in Melbourne and it's ONLY about 7 plus hours to go!!! What oh what will Steve unveil? As far as rumormills go, nothing beats good old photochops! so have a gander at the handywork of enthusiasts far and wide at What Would (Steve) Jobs Do #3 Results!

Today was the last day of work for a dear colleague, my best wishes goes out to her and good luck in the near future. It has been a great time working with her, without which would be a less exciting workplace.

Fun New Apple Products to be announced Feb 28

Looks like Feb 28 will be a red letter day for Mac fanboys. This invite has been leaked numerous times over the last week or so. Speculations include;

• 13" Widescreen Macbook, the iBook replacement. Personally, this is holding back my laptop purchase. I wanted to get the 12" iBook last year, but was discouraged by the 12" XGA (1024x768) screen and lack of a DVD burner. Not that burning dvd's on a laptop is a good idea. Can someone say BATTERY DRAIN?


• touchscreen iPod video. With Apple ramping up iTunes with video content, it seems only natural that an iPod with better video capabilities is released. After all who wants to be stuck in their own (white iPod earbuds) world when you can now watch movies on your iPod. Conversation will soon be a lost skill


• Intel Mac Mini with front row. speculations continue...

You may wonder, what's the deal with the random posts about Apple products, software etc etc etc. To be honest, I don't have a direction with this blog, really. We'll just have to wait and see how we go.

Tis Sunday in Melbourne, the hot weather has given way to rain (some parts received a downpour! so much in fact flash flooding occured!)

Unpacking the Macbook Pro & Creative Zen Vision:M

When I saw the iPod Nano that my friend had just bought, I was impressed! But what was even more impressing was the packaging the Nano came in! Classy is the word.

Now with all the hype surrounding the Macbook Pro, here's a flickr photoset of the MacBook Pro Packaging If you wanted one of these babies but can't afford it, well at least now you can "experience" the joy of opening the packaging.

Apple's latest iPod vide's competitor the Creative Zen Vision:M is being given the review runs. One of my daily sites, dapreview.net has a comprehensive write up and photos to boot! check it out!

Macbook Pro Processor Upgrades

Now I've been hankering for a Mac for some time now, ever since I got a copy of Max OS X 10.2 to install on an aging Clamshell iBook G3 366. Apple was first on the scene to adopt Intel's new Core Duo processors, and it seems that they've upped the (processor) ante.

The 15" Macbook Pro's have been updated, the 1.83 Ghz Core duo processor for the entry level model (up from 1.66 Ghz) and 2.0Ghz (upgradeable to 2.13 Ghz)for the more expensive one!

Check it out at the Apple online store

On a personal note, I'm waiting for the refresh on the iBook range. I ain't got THAT much money to spare!

AMD has been making strides in the processor wars of late. 1st in the scene with the 1Ghz processor, then the 64 bit enabled processors and winning market share over Intel. Will Intel hold its ground ? will it overcome ? Firingsquad.com has a write up on Intel called: " Intel core new low ".

Last but not least, a laptop/notebook review by cooltechzone, on the Asus W5F sporting a core duo t2500 processor and 1GB of DDR2-667 Ram !

WR-07: More than meets the eye

It's a fresh week, yeah, it's Monday. Here's what I've come across the web today.

I'm sure you've heard of the Transformers, I mean who hasn't rushed back home from playing outside to catch the glory of the Robots in Disguise? right??? I remember chucking a fit once because I was missing the final parter of a 3 part episode of the Transformers because I was at some crummy flower and produce show!

But in any case, to follow up with the Citroen transformer ad, here's the WR-07 , a prototype transformer! Mind you it's not CGI but an actual rolling, transforming vehicle/robot! You gotta give it to the Japanese, I reckon it's super-kawaii!

Check it out!

Video Card Pr0n! ATI's x1900 series

Now for those of you out there who relish in the latest video cards or GPU, head on over to bit-tech.net. They've got a round up of the ATI 1900 series cards. Sporting a core clock of up to 650Mhz and a memory clock of up to 1550Mhz this looks like a beast of a video card/GPU.

I do wonder about availability and pricing here in Australia.

On another note, The Age reports that Australia is the no 2 biggest market for pirated TV Shows. Not the pirated VCD/DVD variant like Malaysia but with regards to people downloading TV shows via the bittorrent network. Can't fault them tho, with Australian TV programming, who can? By the way it's summer here now, and summer tv is umm the sux0rs!

TOP 10 pirated shows

SHOW (number of users)

Without A Trace 574,884

CSI 561,240

NCIS 555,372

The Daily Show 554,476

Grey's Anatomy 549,622

Desperate Housewives 547,902

Smallville 538,640

American Idol 538,546

My Name Is Earl 538,546

Family Guy 537,957

(downloaded around the world, week ended January 31, 2006)
Big Champagne Online Media Measurement

open source itunes replacement - songbird!

So it's a new blog, but what the hey! here we go.


dapreview posted an item about songbird an open source media player. The screenshots look good, but then again I'm partial to dark coloured user interfaces, open source software and anything to help me keep track of my 20 odd GB of music!

Apple has quietly launched the 1GB iPod Nano!whereas some people were expecting a 6GB version, the new 1GB Nano seems to fit in well with the flock, set to compete against the gazillion 1GB players with displays from China, Korea, Taiwan etc. Australian pricing as follows;

• 1GB iPod Nano - $219 (NEW!)


• 1GB iPod Shuffle - $149


• 512MB Ipod Shuffle - $99

1st post!

Welcome to substanceamuse, my new blog!