I never thought of the day I’d see this again: a 4GB iPhone — the very same that appealed to and ended up enraging early adapters (never adapt early, if possible).  It’s not that a 4GB iPhone shouldn’t be released: in fact, it could be commercially successful and even downright popular.  What makes it so different this time around?

photo credit: William Hook

Well — mainly, the pricing.  Dailytech reports that the 4GB iPhone will be appropriately priced at $99 (with a contract, no doubt).  But is 4GB really enough for you?  I’m no music fanatic, but even I use 8GB of storage on my iPod 5.5G (I suppose if I purged Rush Hour 2, Hitch — great movie, and the Ladykillers, and all those episodes of Smart Guy I could half the amount I used).  But come on, the iPhone’s got such a beautiful screen — it’s made to view videos!  Not to mention all that music with its 3.5mm headphone jack (you’d be surprised how many phones don’t feature a standard headphone jack — the T-Mobile G1, for one!).

If you’re seriously considering it, I highly recommend reconsidering it.  If you want it for the games, the 3G, or just music storage (assuming you don’t have that much music), then you should be good — and $99 really is quite a steal for the wonders that the iPhone features.  But storage is most certainly a different story — if you plan to watch videos, have a huge music collection (or just don’t chuck the iPod — but then that ruins the point of getting an iPhone, I suppose), then you might want to think twice before blowing a bill on the “cheap” iPhone.

In the beginning, there was the ordinary white Macbook.  Then, a couple of years ago, they introduced the black Macbook.  And now, in 2008, Apple has finally refreshed their Apple Macbook design.  And boy, what a design it is.

Source: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/14/technology/15apple1.600.jpg

Similar to the colour and design scheme of the iMacs, these new Macbooks look absolutely beautiful.  Stunning.  I’ve always been a huge fan of the aluminum Macbook Pro — so much so that I was actually thinking of getting the Macbook Pro just for the aluminum finish.

Not only have the Macbooks been updated in their looks (not to say they weren’t beautiful in their older form), their specs have been updated too.  Absolutely beautiful. Call me an Apple fanboy, but this baby is a Godsend.  I would think that the updated NVidia graphics and the multi-touch trackpad would be the dealmakers though.

Source: http://www.svirtech.com.au/images/Apple_MacBook_White.jpg

Just one problem — its 13″ screen.  At the moment, I’m using a Dell Inspiron 6400 with a 14.1″ screen, and it’s still tiny.  The only solution I can suggest is adding an external monitor, and it looks like Apple’s kicked up the graphics to allow for an external monitor to be added onto the Macbook — prior to the revision, this could only be applied to the Macbook Pro.

Source: http://images.pcworld.com/news/graphics/152257-0810macbook_fam.jpg

Apple’s never failed at consumer design, in this reviewer’s opinion — and this revision is no exception.  Apple’s Macbook has caught my heart, and my wallet.

Why would you want to use any other search engine besides Google?

That’s the first issue that popped up in my mind too.  Google is the King of search, no doubt about it — and it’s used on a daily basis.  We’ve grown familiar with it.  We’ve even…befriended it.  We use Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Documents on a daily basis.  And I get that, because I’m in the same boat as you are — in essence, a Google lover.

However, there are certain aspects in which a search engine dedicated towards searching through forums would surpass Google.  For example, if you were looking for more variety when it came to opinion, who would you look towards?  Sure, Google — right?  And usually, Google would lead you to a review site — perhaps like CNet or Ars Technica, and that would be fine.  But what if you wanted more opinions?  Real people that have encountered real technical issues?

I’m not saying that reviewers aren’t real people, but we only get a certain amount of time to test our products before judging them, and to be honest, in such a short timeframe, there’s hardly any chance the product will have any issues.  Nor will we be able to thoroughly test it out as well as a real consumer who uses it.  And besides, variety would give you more of an idea of what to expect.  One reviewer telling you something is one thing, but a majority of members on a forum screaming the same thing is a whole new level.

I give you Twing

Twing is a search engine that is directed strictly towards forums.  Twing was actually brought to my attention just a week ago, and I’ve really gotten to enjoy using it.

The feature that I really loved was the option to search by post, topic, or even the entire forum.

The results satisfied my thirst for knowledge and I am pleased to say that I will be using Twing in the future to have a look at other people’s opinions on certain subjects or products.

Visit:

http://twing.com