By Robert Henny

I have to admit, I love my iPad 2, not only for its functionality but also for its aesthetic appeal.  Simply put, it’s a sexy little thing. It’s what separates Apple’s products from all the imitators.  I have always enjoyed the feeling of pride I get when typing away on my iPad, MacBook Air, MacBook or iPhone; yes, I own and use them all.  Nothing beats watching those poor souls who, for one reason or another (maybe they’re too cheap or too stupid to buy Apple), purchased a competing device and turn green with envy as I unsheathe my works of art.  Apple recognized this with the design of its latest Smart Cover for the iPad 2, a svelte and remarkably thin and functional piece of engineering.  And I love it. 

Beautiful Design

I use it all the time.  I almost cringe at the idea of covering my iPad 2 in a case, especially one that I’m supposed to leave in place.  It reminds me of when I used to go into old people’s homes and they’d cover their furniture with plastic so it wouldn’t get stained.  Great, now you’ve ensured your beautiful couch will remain unblemished, but you’ve also destroyed the reason why you bought it in the first place.  You can still sit on it, but it’s damn ugly now!  Why buy a Ferrari if you’re gonna leave it in a garage and never feel the stares of jealous pedestrians as you rev past a Starbucks?  It’s like asking a supermodel to wear a paper bag down the runway… actually, that is probably happening at a fashion show right now to thunderous applause.

Environmentally Friendly

Okay, by now you get the point.  You’re probably sick of the point: covering the beautiful new iPad 2 in a case seems counterintuitive.  But then along came Temple Bags.  I had heard about the company through the grapevine and was intrigued by their business model.  The Los Angeles based company creates all their canvas and leather bags and cases from vintage military materials and repurposed World War II bags.  It’s a great story and certainly pleasing to the environmentally friendly, but for my money, I still want a great case.  Temple Bags delivers.  I went with the iPad 2 Leather Smart Case, and from the moment I laid eyes and hands on it, I was smitten. 

Protection & Functionality

The thing is beautiful, well crafted, and incredibly lean. Yet it maintains a rigidity perfectly capable of protecting my iPad 2. It’s painstakingly engineered to provide an exact fit for my investment.  It’s no paper bag on a supermodel, this is an evening gown with a matching pair of Manolo Blahniks and it fits like a glove.  Admittedly, I’m a beauty junkie, but you’ve probably already ascertained that.  However, I also demand functionality, and the Temple Bag did not disappoint.  It has a brass eyelet to provide a full range of view from the rear facing camera. And when the case is opened, it provides full access to all the iPad 2’s controls.  Heck, it even somehow manages to turn the thing on and off when you open the cover, a function I heretofore believed was unique to the Smart Cover. 

The magnetic flaps that close the case also function to provide a stand for the iPad 2, almost exactly as the Smart Cover does.  Unlike the Smart Cover, however, all worries about scratching the iPad 2 are out the window.  When the case is closed, it looks like you’re carrying a trusty leather notebook that you’ve used since you first learned to scribble notes.  With it open, well, it’s the iPad 2 inside, and what’s not to love about that?

Summary

The Temple bag may be a bit pricey ($189), but well worth the cost in my humble opinion.  I guess the only problem I have with the case is merely something that hasn’t even happened yet. Leather can change shape so that something that once fit (like a glove) no longer fits.  So far, the leather straps on my case have stretched a little, but the magnetic closure is adjustable so it hasn’t been a problem.  So for now, I’m happy as can be.  I mean, you don’t kick a supermodel out of bed because she may not be as pretty in the future, do you?  Well, I wouldn’t, and I won’t do that to my case.  And as I head out to my next meeting, Leather Smart Case and iPad 2 in hand, I can’t help but think my case is whispering to onlookers, “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.  Just appreciate the fact you get to look at me.” 

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Templebags.com

Therefore, this three-part series will examine some of the best hardware upgrades for your media storage. We are going to use a 2006 Mac Pro to demonstrate the upgrades, but you should be able to achieve similar results on any iMac or PC.

Kicking off this series is the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD (solid state drive) to improve the overall speed of our system.

Boot Drive – OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD

There are a quite a few drives when it comes to choosing the right SSD for your system. We decided to try out the Mercury Extreme Pro SSD from Other World Computing because it’s supposed to very fast while also being one of the most affordable drives out there. It also uses the highly acclaimed SandForce Processor which should help prevent write speed degradation commonly experienced by SSD’s.

Installation:

Installation of the SSD was a breeze. Its’ very similar to installing any other (mechanical) hard drive. The Extreme Pro comes in a 2.5″ form factor, however, so you’ll have to place it into an adapter to fit it into any of the 3.5″ Mac Pro slots. Other World Computing recommends the Icy Dock adapter. You can also install the SSD into the second optical drive bay if you own a Mac Pro 2008 or later. Unfortunately, this isn’t easily achievable on the 2006 model, since the optical bay isn’t wired with SATA connectors.

The Icy Dock adapter will convert any 2.5inch SSD into a 3.5inch compatible hard drive.

I actually recommend purchasing a 2.5″ SSD over an 3.5″ alternative, even if you’re planning on installing the drive into a desktop computer. A 2.5″ drive will give you the flexibility to also install it into a MacBook Pro down the road, for example. These drives aren’t cheap so flexibility is a good thing!

Performance:

Other World Computing promises “Ultra High-Performance” compared to mechanical hard drives. To test this claim we’ve set up an exact mirror image of our boot drive on the Extreme Pro SSD as well as on a 7200rpm drive from Seagate for a side by side comparison.

In our sequential, uncached speed test the Mercury Extreme Pro achieved write speeds of 155MB/s and read speeds of 199MB/s. That’s compared to 60MB/s write and 62/MB read speeds on our 7200 Barracuda drive. The difference was even more dramatic in our random, uncached speed test. 152MB/s write and 192MB/s read vs. 23MB/s write and 26MB/s read speeds. It even topped the SSD in the newly released MacBook Air which peaked at 126MB/s write and 113/MB/s read. The Mercury Extreme Pro’s overall Xbench score of 324 points destroyed the mechanical hard drive which only scored 38 points. The MacBook Air SSD was able to scoop up 248 points.

Those are the bare numbers, however, which I’m usually not a big fan of. I find it much more interesting to note how upgrades actually affect daily user operations. And let me tell you; the perceived speed enhancements from upgrading your boot drive to the Mercury Extreme Pro are amazing. Applications—even large ones such as Adobe After Effects and Apple’s Aperture—open almost instantaneously. No dock-bouning. No hard drive noise. No wait. The system boots within seconds—compared to minutes—while day to day operations simply feel snappier.

A quick boot tests demonstrates how dramatic the difference between SSD and mechanical hard drive will actually feel in a real world situation. For this test we booted OSX 10.6.5 with Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, After Effects CS5, Microsoft Word 2011, Chrome 5, and Firefox 4 set to auto launch. Take a look at the video below for a side-by-side comparison:

If you couldn’t stand sitting through the above video (can’t blame you) here’s the quick and dirty summary: the Mercury Extreme Pro SSD booted in 27 seconds from start to finish compared to 3 minutes and 21 seconds for the mechanical drive. That’s a real life improvement by 7.5x!

I doubt that any graphics card update, that extra 0.13GHz of CPU power, or even an additional 2GB of RAM would be able to impact your system on such a dramatic scale;; at least not in terms of day-to-day usage. An SSD upgrade will be noticed even with the most common tasks.

File Management – Limited Storage

There’s no question that this drive is fast. Unfortunately, all SSD’s come with a caveat: limited storage space.

For our test we chose the 120GB model—minuscule compared to the latest drives in the mechanical hard drive world. And while OWC does offer drives with up to 480GB of storage the cost ($1579.99) is most likely prohibitive for all but the most extreme users out there. And even then, it still can’t compare to a Western Digital drive with two ($90) or three terabytes ($260).

Hence, we currently can’t recommend the Mercury Extreme Pro—or any SSD for that matter—as a storage solution. Instead we recommend using it exclusively as a boot drive while moving most of your media to external drives, or in the case of the Mac Pro, to one of its internal hard drives.

Many websites go as far as recommending you to move your entire user folder to a mechanical hard drive. And while there are many tutorials to make this change, I recommend against it. The reason is simple: only files that are stored on your SSD will actually benefit from the speed improvements. Therefore, you want to keep as many of your system files as possible on the SSD, while moving your large media files to a mechanical hard drive.

Here’s our recommendation for getting the most out of your Mercury Extreme Pro:

Keep your OSX installation files, user folders, and applications on the Mercury Extreme Pro. Snow Leopard’s footprint is fairly small, so this shouldn’t be a problem with a 120GB SSD. You can free up additional space by deselecting unneeded languages and printer drivers during the OSX installation.

You should definitely consider moving your iTunes, iPhoto, and Aperture libraries off of your SSD, however. Yes, this will prevent fast access to those media files, but let’s face it: you simply don’t have 3TB of SSD storage at your exposure. (We will take a look at speeding up your media drive in the second part of this series.)

Fortunately, moving your iTunes, iPhoto, and Aperture libraries couldn’t be easier. First, drag your iTunes media folder, as well as your iPhoto and Aperture libraries to a new location on your media drive. Then open iTunes, iPhoto, or Aperture—while holding down the option key—and point the programs to the new location. Done!

Option-click iPhoto to invoke this dialogue box.

In addition, I also recommend creating a ‘documents’ folder on your media drive with a shortcut placed in the finder sidebar. That way you’ll always have easy access to the new location.

In my opinion this workflow will offer you a healthy balance of disk speed and space utilization.

Conclusion – What Are You Waiting For?

After reading this review, it shouldn’t surprise you that I’m a big fan of OWC’s Mercury Extreme Pro SSD. It’s blazingly fast, easy to install, and competitively priced. At $259—for the 120GB model—this may be the single best upgrade you’ll ever make to your aging computer system. If you’re tired of spinning beach balls, and stalling launch times, you should definitely give the Mercury Extreme SSD a try. It was definitely love at first boot for me.

The Mercury Extreme Pro SSD is available directly from Other World Computing. Available models range from 40GB for $99 up to 480GB for $1579.99. For the purpose of a boot-drive we can highly recommend the 120GB option for $295.99.

I have a strong feeling that I’m not alone with this experience. The recently unveiled MacBook Air seems to evoke a high range of emotions. It certainly is tempting, isn’t it?

That’s why this review won’t focus on technical specifications or benchmarks. You already know that the MacBook Air uses a past-generation processor, limited storage space, and virtually no opportunity to upgrade your machine down the line. Yet, we seem intrigued by this incredibly thin machine. Why? More importantly, though: will the initial satisfaction last beyond the initial buyers rush?

Know Your Expectations

Before we take a closer look, however, it is important that you know your expectations. Sit down for a moment and think about your daily usage scenarios. Also consider what type computers (and I’m counting the iPad here) you already own.

I’ve been using the 11″ MacBook Air (1.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB, 128GB) for just a few days but I can already tell you that this is by far the best portable computer I’ve ever used for writing, researching, blogging, and daily business correspondence. Yes, it’s just as portable as the iPad (as a matter of fact it even fits into the same bag) but offers all the flexibility and true multitasking capabilities of a full blown computer system. This doesn’t mean that it completely outshines the iPad in every possible way, however. In my opinion, the iPad still remains the best device for media consumption. The MacBook Air, however, beats it hands-down for light content creation.

Beyond simple text and image manipulation I also tried Photoshop CS5 to edit a full size, 21MP RAW image from my Canon 5D Mark II without experiencing any frustration, whatsoever. Was the experience as smooth or snappy as it would’ve been on a MacBook Pro? No, but at no point did I feel frustrated or restricted. Again, a far superior experience to manipulating images on iPad. The same goes for the videos in this review which I shot on the 5D (at 1080p) end edited on my MacBook Air using Final Cut Pro. Encoding may be slower, but the process isn’t painful. (One annoyance I experienced in both Photoshop and Final Cut Pro was that certain windows were too large for my screen. Hence, I wasn’t able to resize the RAW image editor window in Photoshop or the Canon E-1 plug-in in Final Cut Pro. Suddenly, that ‘any corner resizing‘ feature in OSX Lion makes a lot more sense!)

Final Cut runs adequate on the MacBook Air

Often resize corners aren't accessible on the small screen.

If you’re a creative professional, however, don’t expect the Air to replace your primary machine quite yet. Exporting the same 720p video, for example, took 11 minutes on the Air compared to 7:15 minutes on a 2.4GHz Core2 Duo, 2009 MacBook Pro and 5:45 minutes on a 2 x 2.66GHZ Dual-Core Xeon, 2006 Mac Pro. Also, remember that you’ll be limited to 4GB of RAM and that there’s no firewire for speedy data transfers. If push comes to shove, however, it’s reassuring to know that applications such as Final Cut Pro are still an option on the MacBook Air.

Hence, the 11″ MacBook Air strikes me as the perfect companion to a more powerful pro-machine. Would you be able to use it as your primary computer? Possibly. Especially if your main tasks involve writing, researching, blogging, as well as light iPhoto/iMovie usage. If that’s your plan, do yourself one favor and opt for the 128GB model. Your ever expanding iTunes library will thank you later.

My recommendation changes slightly if you’re considering the 13″ MacBook Air. I could definitely see how the 13″ model could be the primary machine for quite a few more people. Especially if you are willing to commit to the 4GB model with that 2.16 GHz processor upgrade. This configuration should be plenty powerful for most excluding creative professionals and gamers. At the same time, I don’t really see as many compelling reasons for the 13″ inch as a secondary computer.

MacBook Air – Killer Features

So far I’ve spent most of this review focusing on the Air’s appeal without actually mentioning most of its features. However, between the iPad, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air Apple hasn’t made the purchasing decision very easy so I feel this detour was appropriate. Now that we’ve set the expectations and come to understand the scope and general limitations of the MacBook air, however, I’d like to take a look at some of the features that I found most impressive.

Size/Design

After Apple introduced the iPad I was truly convinced that I’d never be able to fall in love with another laptop again. Sure, I’d have to keep using my Laptop for work, but write a 2,000 word review about one? Probably not. Leave it to the company that brought us the iPad to prove me wrong. The Air is just as portable as the iPad and the design just as sexy. The 11″ especially feels like something completely new and fresh. This is really hard to grasp unless you go see and feel it with your own eyes and hands. There’s absolutely nothing ‘cheap’ or ‘netbooky’ about the Air. This is a complete computer in an extremely compact, yet durable design. Everything about it feels just right. The MacBook Air truly brought sexy ‘back to the mac’.

Keyboard/Trackpad

Yes, it’s true. The MacBook Air features the same full sized keyboard and trackpad (even though a bit shallower on the 11″) that you’ve come to expect from Apple’s Pro machines. Writing is just as comfortable (if not slightly better) as it’s always been on a MacBook Pro and leaps and bounds better compared to the iPad.

Speakers

They’re not nearly as loud or clear as the build in speakers on the MacBook Pro, but the simple fact that Apple was able to integrate a pair of decent STEREO speakers into this thin design simply blows me away. Listen below for a direct comparison between MacBook Pro 15″ and MacBook Air 11″ at maximum volume. Surprisingly good for a computer this size, wouldn’t you say?

Instant On

Seeing is believing:

Display

Last but not least, the Air’s display truly took me by surprise. I had no idea how much better it would be compared to my MacBook Pro. The screen is so incredibly sharp that both iPad and MacBook Pro pale in comparison. No seriously, I can barely stand looking at my 15″ MacBook Pro Screen after working on the Air. It’s like the difference between iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. Once you see it there’s no turning back. It’s really that much better.

MacBook Air – What’s Missing

Besides the obvious three (raw computing power, limited disk space, and virtually no upgrade path) there were a few other things that irked me. Let’s have a look:

3G Modem

As previously mentioned, the MacBook Air is just as portable as the iPad, yet it’s missing the iPad’s killer feature: an integrated 3G modem. You simply can’t slide the Air out of your bag and immediately start surfing the net unless you are in reach of a WiFi Hotspot. While the Air may be an ‘instant-on’ machine, it’s not an ‘instant-on-the-web’ machine. Of course you could always tether, or get a USB modem, but that’s neither as sexy or convenient as the integrated 3G experience on iPad. It’s time for Apple and the cell phone providers to work out some data arrangements that can be shared among all of our portable devices without having to rely on external hardware. I am not holding my breath, but the Air yearns for mobile connectivity. Perhaps Apple is waiting for the rumored ‘open sim’?

For 3G access you have to tether the MacBook Air to a wireless modem. (Demonstrated here on a jail-broken iPad)

USB 3

Sure, as of this writing, not even Apple’s pro line features the vastly superior USB standard, but with firewire MIA and storage space at a premium, the faster USB standard would’ve been a truly welcoming addition. At least Apple had the hindsight to hook up the existing USB ports with enough juice to power a portable USB drive without the need for an external power supply. I’ll take what I can get at this point, but the next revision better bring USB 3 to the table!

Backlit keyboard

On my MacBook Pro the backlit keyboard has always just kinda been there for me without me truly taking notice. And I have to admit that I’ve never really regarded it as an essential feature. Until I took the Air into my bedroom and turned of the lights. I guess you don’t really know what you’ll be missing until it’s taken from you. Also, I had apparently forgotten how hard it is to type in the dark. Bummer!

Power Supply

Okay, now I’m really nitpicking here, but I was a little disappointed that Apple hasn’t managed to shrink the included power supply even further. The MacBook Air consumes very little power, so for some reason I fully expected Apple to blow me away—yet again—with another ‘oh my god, I cant believe how small they have become’ power supply. They didn’t. It’s not large, by any means, but it’s no iPad charger either. I wish it were.

From left to right: power supplies for MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iPad.

Bottom Line

The new MacBook Air allows us a glimpse into the future of mobile computing. Flash Storage, slimmer designs, increased portability, and minuscule power draw. If the time’s right for you to jump on board, however, depends on how you use your computer. If you’re a writer on the go, this should be a no-brainer: buy. The same goes for power-users: stay away. If funds are limited (second computer isn’t an option), and you do a little bit of everything, the decision becomes more difficult.

Ultimately, if you are of the patient kind, holding out a little longer may be worth your while. I would be shocked, if not at least some of the Air’s standout features will make their way into the next refresh of the MacBook Pro line. While we may not see an all-out SSD MacBook Pro anytime soon, I think it’d be reasonable to at least expect some sort of hybrid drive before OSX Lion is released next summer. The same goes for USB 3.

Either way, the Air proves that the Mac may still have its best years ahead of itself, even in pre-iPad times. So burn your obituaries; the Mac’s here to stay and I have a feeling that this is just the beginning. Welcome back, buddy. We missed you.

The MacBook Air is now available on Amazon. No tax. No shipping. You’ll also support our site if you order from the links below:

Apple MacBook Air MC505LL/A 11.6-Inch, 1.4 GHz, 64GB – $994

Apple MacBook Air MC506LL/A 11.6-Inch, 1.4 GHz, 128GB – $1194

Apple MacBook Air MC503LL/A 13.3-Inch, 1.86 GHz, 128GB – $1294

Apple MacBook Air MC504LL/A 13.3-Inch, 1.86 GHz, 256 GB – $1594

PS: I wrote this article on the 11″ MacBook Air. I also edited all images and videos on the machine. Not once did I wish for access to a more ‘powerful’ computer.

Pro Tip: Utilize the ‘software reinstall drive‘ when you first receive your MacBook Air to re-instal OSX from scratch. This can save you a few GB’s of space. During install choose ‘customize’ and deselect all optional languages.Then install only the iLife applications which you’ll be truly using on a regular basis (in my case: iPhoto and iMovie). This will only take 25 minutes of your time but free up 2.5GB of storage. Of course you could also use ‘Monolingual‘ and ‘Appzapper‘ but then you wouldn’t have an excuse to utilize that slick USB installation drive!

Pro Tip #2: Quicktime 7 is no longer an installable option from the ‘software reinstall drive’. Follow this tutorial to get it back.

It’s rumored that Apple and Gemalto have created a SIM card, which is typically a chip that carries subscriber identification information for the carriers, that will be integrated into the iPhone itself. The new Gemalto SIM is embedded in a chip that has an upgradeable flash component and a ROM area. [...] The flash component will receive the carrier related data via a local connection which could be the PC or a dedicated device, so it can be activated on the network.

The report continues to speculate that an integrated sim card could allow customers to choose between competing network providers after purchasing their iPhone.

Then customers will be able to choose their carrier at time of purchase at the Apple web site or retail store, or buy the phone and get their handset up and running through a download at the App Store as opposed to visiting a carrier store or calling the carrier.

What I find much more intriguing about this story, however, is the fact that an integrated solution may allow costumers to ‘connect’ multiple devices to a single data account. Currently iPhone and iPad costumers, for example, must sign up for two separate accounts, both with their own SIM-card and billing procedures, in order to connect to a 3G network.

The rumored ‘open SIM’ may allow consumers to sign up for a single wireless account that could be used with a multitude of 3G enabled devices. For example, if Apple would integrate the ‘open SIM’ in iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air customers could simply connect the devices to iTunes and enter their wireless provider’s account information to connect each device to their existing data plans.

Obviously, this doesn’t mean that data acces for multiple devices will become more affordable. It’s doubtful that AT&T, for example, would allow customers to connect multiple devices to an unlimited, shared data account. It would be realistic to assume, however, that AT&T will allow customers to connect multiple devices to a metered data account for an additional fee per connected device.

Either way, if true, the new chip could allow Apple to quickly incorporate 3G access into their entire mobile line-up without the hassle and frustration of signing up for yet another data account (which is probably the reason that the 2010 Macbook Air does not include a 3G modem).

Exciting times!

In the list of new features in iPhoto ’11, “fun” is more prominent than “functional.” During the keynote, special emphasis was given to the new slideshows in iPhoto ’11, which do not disappoint. They are especially rewarding if you have put forth the effort to tag faces and places. With just a few clicks I was watching a slideshow of a trip, and the ease of use combined with the fun imparted by the theme made the experience a genuine delight.

Faces and Places both received a usability upgrade in iPhoto ’11 as well. Their function remains the same, but the interface seems much more accessible now. For example, the new Info column exposes an easy was to tag people in your photographs and add a location. While not a glamourous update, it is a welcome one.

Another prominent new feature is the fullscreen mode. When using iPhoto ’11 in fullscreen, I get the distinct impression that I am looking at a mockup of an iPad app. In fact, the fullscreen mode of every new iLife application seems tailor-made to be used with OSX Lion’s Mission Control, where screens can be swept from side to side. It’s nice, but it all feels a bit too inspired by iOS. During this time where much ado has been made about multitasking in iOS, the best multitasking computer continues to be the traditional desktop, where multiple windows can be open at once and all easily managed. The new iLife suite (and, by extension, Lion) sadly breaks this great feature by introducing a uni-tasking environment, where just one app is on the screen at any given time. Sound familiar?

BUGS

iPhoto ’11 was not billed as a complete rewrite of iPhoto, but it feels like it has some very 1.0 bugs. The beach ball has made a very unwelcome return, and the celebrated fullscreen mode caused my iMac to crash so hard it required a hard reboot. After it came back up iPhoto entered fullscreen without a problem, but I was left with serious doubts about its reliability. Some of the keyboard binding have been neglected as well. The escape key usually brings you back one level, for example, from inside an event back out the the main window. In iPhoto ’11 this seems to be missing.

iPhoto ’11 is also sluggish. Whenever I add a location to a group of pictures, the application becomes slow to respond or totally unresponsive, throws up a beach ball, and I have to wait up to 30 seconds until it has finished. Similarly, my co-author Philipp saw multi-second delays when confirming names in Faces. Adding metadata to an image should be an instant operation, and in previous versions of iPhoto, this has never been a problem.

ROUNDUP

In all, I believe these small bugs and performance issues can be easily fixed with a quick software update. If you are the kind of person who is really excited to play with the new slideshows and themes, these bugs shouldn’t stop you from buying iLife ’11. If it’s stability you are after, you might want to wait to upgrade until Apple has released a fix that addresses the these glitches and performance issues.

Well, OSX is 10 years old now, and (although slightly ahead of schedule) it’s clear that it has entered its awkward teen years. Today begins a long, pubescent period of transition; filled with wonderful new emotions, pimples, and also hair in places there hasn’t been before.

And boners.

OSX Lion has left its childlike carefree confidence behind, and will likely spend the next several years trying very hard to be like the “cool kids.” Instead of developing its own style it will just slap a new UI right on top of the old one, like putting a fancy leather jacket over sweaty gym clothes. It will pretend that it has a touch interface so people will think it’s popular. It will try smoking cigarettes. It’ll read Ayn Rand. It will get an App Store and ride a motorcycle.

Sadly, none of these things will make Lion popular. All those new features will confuse the parents and be ignored by cool kids.

I, for one, will try to ignore this teen OSX. I can’t stand to watch all those teen mistakes: the gross mustache, weird UI choices, bad dancing, trying to be hip like iOS. It’s all too embarrassing to watch.

Barf.

If you try to call a device with iOS 4.01 installed you will be presented with the following error message: “User needs to update to the latest version of FaceTime.”

So go grab your copy of FaceTime and be sure to update your iPod Touch/iPhone to iOS 4.1.

Steve Jobs, didn’t mention one very interesting detail, however; the ‘Software Reinstall Drive’ that is detailed on the Air’s tech spec section. The ‘Software Reinstall Drive’ looks like a very thin, and apple-styled, USB drive that comes loaded with OSX to easily reinstall the operating system on the new machine which no longer includes an optical drive.

Previously, Apple asked customers to either purchase an external DVD drive or install software via “drive sharing” from another machine. With App Store for Mac and ‘Software Reinstall Drive’ it looks as if the last days of boxed software seem to be numbered, however.

The WordPress App for iOS has never been a winner. Just read the reviews. For everything it lacks, it does have one important feature that the authors of this blog use frequently: uploading photos. Here is how I use it (quoted from this earlier article):

“I used the previously mentioned crappy WordPress app to make a draft post, and attached the images I wanted to that draft. The pictures got uploaded to my site, and I was then able to go back to Safari and select them from the “Media Gallery” and insert them.”

This image uploading feature was broken in an update earlier this month. Any attempt to upload a picture and resize it would result in a 640×480 image, most likely in the wrong aspect ratio. The only fix was to disable image resizing in the app’s never mentioned settings, which was annoyingly hidden in the separate Settings app on the iOS device.

The app was updated today to fix this bug, so those of you who rely on it’s uploading to post images on the go can feel free to resume blogging from Starbucks.

‘Greenpois0n’ works on firmware 4.1 only, so if you care about preserving your iPhone 4 baseband (to unlock) it is strongly recommended that you use TinyUmbrella to upgrade your firmware in order to preserve the original iPhone 4 baseband.

Currently ‘greenpois0n’ is only available for windows but @p0sixninja promises that a mac version will follow as soon as some technical issues have been overcome.

According to the release notes, the initial release will support the following devices:

- iPhone 4
- iPhone 3G S
- iPod touch (4th Generation)
- iPod touch (3rd Generation)
- iPad

The team promises that another release will follow soon, adding the 2nd generation Apple TV as well as the 2nd Generation iPod Touch to the list of jailbreakable devices. You can download the jailbreak at http://www.greenpois0n.com/.

We will update this story as it develops.