Got a pair of Macs laying around, but don’t want to shell out for two Apple Cinema Displays? We don’t blame you because that’s silly, considering each will cost you about MYR 3,099. A little company called Kanex has a solution for you though, the SnapX. SnapX is, at its heart, simply a port switcher that lets you connect two DisplayPort-equipped Macs to a single Cinema Display. Something like a KVM switcher, but for Macs.

But it’s not that simple, as the glossy MYR200 adapter does have a few neat extra features, like USB pass through for firing up the iSight camera and a clip for securing it to the base of the monitor. The SnapX is available for pre-order now and starts shipping to Apple devotees in September.

Apple clearly considers its new App Store-based distribution model one of the biggest advances in Lion, and to the company’s credit, we found the whole thing to be quite painless. But physical media devotees needn’t worry too much — the company quietly announced at launch that the latest version of OS X will also be available on a USB key, for the lofty price of $69 — which, incidentally, still requires Snow Leopard, unlike what has been previously reported. Word hit today that the company has finally issued the flash drive version of the software, information gleaned from an internal document reportedly leaked by AppleCare. We have it on good authority, however, that the drives mentioned in the document are not, in fact, the aforementioned sticks. Rather, the “recovery media” discussed is actually a restoration tool for AppleCare employees, used to fix faulty systems. It seems that the App Store-impaired will still have to wait until later this month to get their hands on the $70 Apple dongle.

SOURCE via 9to5mac

Iomega is offering up a solution with the fairly elegant Mac Companion Hard Drive, a two or three terabyte external drive designed with Apple computers in mind that adds a high-powered charging port for your peripherals. The drive also packs additional USB and FireWire ports, plus a set of four LEDs, which let you know how full it is with a glance. What a shame that the new Thunderbolt port isn’t included thought. The drives are available via Apple at $195 and $295, for 2TB and 3TB, respectively.

SOURCE via Iomega

It seems a little blunder has seen customers buying Apple’s latest OS X update charged more than once for their purchase. Unfortunately for users stuck on the receiving end of this mistake, neither Apple nor PayPal appears to own up to the mistake.

MacRumors reports that John Christman purchased OS X Lion on July 23, and paid $31.79 after sales tax. His PayPal account was then charged an additional 121 times, for a grand total of $3,878.40. However, when he contacted both Apple and PayPal, each pointed the finger of blame at the other. He’s not alone, either. MacRumors points to a discussion thread on Apple’s support pages that is filled with people that experienced something similar. Read more…

Just last week, Apple launched its new line of Sandy Bridge equipped MacBook Airs. However, it seems the MacBook Air is not the only superslim laptop Apple has been working on. Rumor has it that Cupertino’s got an uber-skinny 15-inch MacBook Pro in development. Not only that, but the laptop is supposedly near completion.

MacRumors was first to report the news and readily admits that it’s not sure if this is an addition to the MacBook Air lineup, or a new design for the MacBook Pro. However, the blog claims that what it does know is that the laptop has entered “late testing stages at Apple.” The Unofficial Apple Weblog has since chimed in with its own version of events, reporting that yes, this will be a MacBook Pro. TUAW also reports that there will be a second model, this one a 17-inch notebook, to go along with the first slim machine and that both will appear as part of a MacBook Pro refresh.

There isn’t much in the way of details at the moment. TUAW reckons that the laptops might be available in time for Christmas but, other than that, there’s nothing regarding specs available right now. One of the more interesting points is that the Air’s skinny form-factor has seen Apple ditch the optical drive. It’s not clear if these diet-Pros will also lose their drives.

SOURCE via Mac Rumors

Mac OS X Lion is not an exception and we are hearing that login passwords that are stored in the system memory, even when the computer is in sleep mode or locked, are used to get possibly unauthorized access to a system.

Passware said that a new version of its Passware Kit Forensic V11 can retrieve passwords from a Mac OS X Lion computer in a few minutes. The software uses the content that is stored in the system memory and reads it via Firewire. According to Passware, the password can easily be extracted regardless of password strength. “Long touted as a stable and secure operating system, Mac users are cautioned that the newest operating system has a potential vulnerability that enables password extraction from devices running Mac OS Lion,” said Passware president Dmitry Sumin in a statement.

The recommendation to protect yourself from this vulnerability is to simply turn your Mac off and not let it sit in sleep mode on your desk – which seems to be rather common sense. If there is critical and sensitive content on your Mac, you just don’t let it sit running in a location where others can easily access it while you are away.

SOURCE via Lost Password

The Lion has been released for nearly a week now, but you guys are only getting the plain vanilla 10.7 version. However, developers have been pushed forward with a new 10.7.2 update of the Lion. This update doesn’t bring any bug fixes or anything to the operating system overall, but what does it do? Well, this pending second update (build 11C26) is required for testing the operating system with iCloud — a feature notably absent in the public version of the OS released last week. The new System Preferences iCloud module enables granular management of select features, letting you choose which accounts and services to sync. Full iCloud support is coming in the fall with the release of iOS 5, so it’s probably safe to assume that Apple plans to patch some of those bugs in the meantime.

SOURCE via Apple Insider

When you head to Apple’s online store to configure your MacBook Air, you’ll find options to increase processor speed or SSD capacity — depending on the model you select, of course. There’s no mention of flash drive speed, however, though it’s now clear that not all SSDs are created equal at Apple — not only when it comes to capacity, but also performance.

Jonathan over at TLD discovered a fairly significant discrepancy when benchmarking both MacBook Air models over the weekend. The 128GB Samsung SSD in his 11-inch Air was able to achieve 246 MB/s write and 264 MB/s read speeds. When he switched to the 13-inch model, however, speeds dropped to 156 MB/s and 208 MB/s, respectively, using that notebook’s 128GB Toshiba SSD.

Over at Engadget, they compared speeds on two generations of 13-inch models, and have also confirmed Jonathan’s findings. During their tests, the 256GB Samsung drive in our older model achieved 214 MB/s write and 251 MB/s read speeds, while the 128GB Toshiba drive in the new MacBook Air scored 184 MB/s and 203 MB/s during write and read tests, respectively.

This many not be a very noticeable issue for most MacBook Air owners, but still it’s an interesting find that their performances varies.

Read more…

Did you pick up a new iMac between May and July 2011 sporting a 1TB Seagate HDD? You should probably know that the platter might be of the prone to failing variety. No worries though, Apple’s announced it’ll replace potentially faulty drives at no cost.

Owners of registered rigs at risk are being notified via email, but if you skipped that form you can check the serial number on Apple’s website (linked below). After confirming that the machine’s eligible, you’ll be able to drop it off at an Apple Store or authorized service centre for the swap. It’s also suggested that you back up the drive prior to bringing it down. Finally, you’ve got a good excuse to use that Thunderbolt port.

SOURCE via Mac World

Apple this week launched the newest version of its OS X operating system, Lion. The software debuted in Apple’s Mac App Store and has already racked up a million downloads. However, downloading is not your only option; Apple is also releasing the new iteration of its OS on USB stick next month.

Costing $69, it’s a full $40 more than the $29 users are paying for the download. Why is Apple selling the OS on USB and charging more than double the price? We can’t say for sure, but we’re betting it’s got something to do with the fact that OS X Lion is a rather hefty download (almost 4GB) and not everyone has the speed or bandwidth to download it. Still, that doesn’t completely excuse charging so much extra (Apple does need to cover costs for materials, shipping, handling, etc., but it can’t be that much). Considering the month between digital and USB release, it would seem Apple is doing its best to push people towards the Mac App Store.

If you’ve got slow internet or a cap on your bandwidth and can’t afford to fork out $70 (or don’t want to) for OS X Lion, you can always lug your computer down to the local Apple Store and use its internet for your digital download.

SOURCE via Reuters