MacBook Pro All-Around Powerhouse

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After a now-customary period of rumors, leaks, and anecdotal evidence, Apple's new generation of MacBook Pro laptops has arrived. And though these new models may look the same as the ones they replace, the changes under the hood are some of the most far-reaching in the history of the MacBook Pro brand.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro moves from Intel's original Core i-series CPUs to the latest second-generation chips, formerly code-named Sandy Bridge. Not only that, you can forget about seeing an Intel Core i5 CPU in your 15-inch (or 17-inch) MacBook Pro--these use high-end quad-core Core i7 chips ... Expand full review

After a now-customary period of rumors, leaks, and anecdotal evidence, Apple's new generation of MacBook Pro laptops has arrived. And though these new models may look the same as the ones they replace, the changes under the hood are some of the most far-reaching in the history of the MacBook Pro brand.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro moves from Intel's original Core i-series CPUs to the latest second-generation chips, formerly code-named Sandy Bridge. Not only that, you can forget about seeing an Intel Core i5 CPU in your 15-inch (or 17-inch) MacBook Pro--these use high-end quad-core Core i7 chips now. Our step-up $2,199 review unit had a 2.2GHz quad-core i7, with 4GB of RAM and a huge 750GB hard drive (at only 5,400rpm, however).

The biggest surprise is the 15-inch MacBook Pro's graphics processor. Instead of the Nvidia GeForce 330M graphics card previously found in these systems, the GPUs now come from Nvidia's longtime rival AMD. The base 15-inch model has an AMD Radeon HD 6490M, and our review unit had an even faster 6750M. With Intel's improved integrated graphics in the 13-inch models, that means that Nvidia has been completely ousted from the MacBook Pro line.

The iconic unibody aluminum construction remains, as does the large glass multitouch trackpad. Most of the ports and connections also remain the same, with one very notable new addition. Where the Mini DisplayPort connection used to be, now an identically sized port is marked with a lightning-bolt icon. That's for Thunderbolt, Intel's new high-speed powered-port technology for data transfer and displays. The Thunderbolt tech is envisioned as a sort of future unified successor to USB, FireWire, and DisplayPort, allowing peripherals to carry data and video at 10Gbps (in the video above, we may have had a slip of the tongue and said Mbps, but we meant Gbps).

For now, at least, that promise is hypothetical. We have very little idea of exactly when Thunderbolt-compatible peripherals will be available (although Apple says the first ones should show up in the spring of 2011), how much they'll cost, or if Apple will be adding the technology to future displays or iOS devices. For now, it's a wait-and-see gamble on a future technology.

The lowest-cost 15-inch MacBook Pro is still $1,799, following the usual Apple trajectory of keeping the price steady but adding faster, more powerful components. While we're still waiting for oft-requested extras such as HDMI, Blu-ray, and 3G, the speed and power of these new quad-core Core i7 CPUs is extremely impressive, and leaves even other recent MacBook Pros in the dust.

2.2GHz Intel Core i7 quad-coreAMD Radeon HD 6750M / Intel HD 3000System weight / Weight with AC adapter

By now, the shape and size of the MacBook Pro should be very familiar. Even more recent Apple designs, such as the second-generation MacBook Air, are basically just variations on it. The core building block remains the same: a solid block of aluminum, which is carved down into a shell with support struts. This unibody chassis has the benefit of being thin (for a 15-inch laptop), but strong and flex-free at the same time.

The touch philosophy that informs the iPad/iPhone line of devices can be said to have its roots in the large multitouch clickpad-style trackpad that's been a staple of the MacBook Pro for years. Of the multitouch gestures, our favorite is sweeping up or down with four fingers to show or hide all your active windows. Once you get used to that, going back to a regular touch pad is difficult. A few new gestures are apparently coming to the next version of OS X, but you won't see those until this summer.

Several Windows laptops have added larger clickpads over the past year or so, with similar multitouch gestures, but we can easily say that none can yet compete with the MacBook Pro's implementation.

The 1,440x900-pixel display is still a higher resolution than many 15-inch laptops (many of which are 1,366x768 pixels), and two screen upgrades are available: a 1,680x1,050-pixel-resolution version for an extra $100, or a 1,680x1,050-pixel-resolution "antiglare" version for $150. That's a lot more flexibility than the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which still doesn't have a glare-free or higher-resolution screen option (even though the current 13-inch MacBook Air has a stock 1,440x900-pixel resolution).

Mini DisplayPort/Thunderbolt I/OStereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacksStereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks2 USB 2.0, FireWire 800, SD card reader4 USB 2.0, SD card reader, eSATAEthernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, BluetoothEthernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband

The big story in the ports and connections category is the new port based on Intel's Thunderbolt high-speed I/O technology. If it looks a lot like the Mini DisplayPort connection on previous MacBook Pros, that's because it is the same, except for the tiny lightning bolt logo next to it. It still functions as a DisplayPort output, and, in fact, you'll be able to daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt devices or displays to that single port.

While there aren't any Thunderbolt peripherals available yet, we did get to see a demo of a prototype RAID product when we met with Apple, and the performance passing multiple uncompressed HD video streams was impressive. Thunderbolt is technically capable of 10Gbps bidirectional transfer, and if Intel and Apple have their way, it may replace many other kinds of ports and connections in the future.

Also notable on the new MacBook Pro is a 720p Webcam, which works with the new Mac version of FaceTime, the same video-conferencing application found on the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch. With a solid Wi-Fi signal, jumping into full-screen mode was clear and mostly stutter-free. There's also an onscreen button for changing the video window from portrait mode to horizontal, and video calls can be made between MacBooks and iPhones as well. You can read more about FaceTime for Mac in this hands-on. It's also worth noting that the SD card slot is now SDXC-compatible, meaning it will work with higher-capacity SD cards.

But while Thunderbolt and FaceTime are interesting extras, the real muscle behind the new MacBook Pro is the quad-core Intel Core i7 CPU and AMD Radeon HD 6750M GPU. In our CNET Labs benchmark tests, it absolutely clobbers the competition, including last year's 15-inch MacBook Pro, which had a first-gen Intel Core i7, and other high-end midsize laptops, such as a Core i7 Alienware M15x.

To be sure, once more systems with these new Intel processors hit the streets, the competitive gap will close up significantly, but for now, this is the fastest laptop we've tested.

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The switch from Nvidia to AMD in the graphics department came as a surprise. The AMD Radeon HD 6750M in our review unit is one of the better GPUs you can cram into a laptop right now. The less-expensive base-model 15-inch version of the MacBook Pro includes a still-good Radeon 6490M. As with the last generation of MacBook Pros, the discrete graphics automatically share the workload with the integrated Intel graphics as needed, saving battery life as you go.

Mac gaming, no matter what anyone says, is still a pretty fallow field, with many big games still available only for Windows systems. Fortunately, one of our most anticipated upcoming releases, Dragon Age II, will be Mac-compatible. Civilization V is another recent high-end game that will run on OS X. In our older Modern Warfare Mac gaming benchmark, we got 51.8 frames per second at a 1,440x900-pixel resolution with high quality settings, which was significantly better than the 34.5fps we got with the Nvidia GeForce 330M in last year's 15-inch MacBook Pro (but when we turned the graphics settings down to medium, the two GPUs were much more similar).

Apple MacBook Pro - Core i7 Sandy Bridge 15.4-inch - 2.2GHz

For once, our battery life score actually exceeded a manufacturer's estimate. Apple says the system should run for 7 hours on average, and in our video playback battery drain test, it ran for 7 hours and 5 minutes. That's about an hour longer than last year's model, even with all the new, powerful hardware inside.

Service and support from Apple has always been a bit of a mixed bag. Apple includes a one-year parts-and-labor warranty, but only 90 days of telephone support. Upgrading to a full three-year plan under AppleCare will cost an extra $349 ($100 more than for the 13-inch MacBook Pro) and is pretty much a must-buy, considering the proprietary nature of Apple products and their sealed bodies. Support is also accessible through a well-stocked online knowledge base, video tutorials, and e-mail with customer service, or through in-person visits to Apple's retail store Genius Bars, which, in our personal experience, have always been fairly efficient, frustration-free encounters.

Multimedia multitasking test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Apple MacBook Pro - Core i7 Sandy Bridge 15.4-inch - 2.2GHz
Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Apple MacBook Pro - Core i7 Sandy Bridge 15.4-inch - 2.2GHz
Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Apple MacBook Pro - Core i7 Sandy Bridge 15.4-inch - 2.2GHz
Video playback battery drain test (in minutes)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Apple MacBook Pro - Core i7 Sandy Bridge 15.4-inch - 2.2GHz

Find out more about how we test laptops.

System configurations:

Apple MacBook Pro (2011) 2.2GHz Core i7 quad-core, 15.4 inch
OS X 10.6.6 Snow Leopard; Intel Core i7 2.2GHz; 4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz; 1GB AMD Radeon HD 6750M / 384MB (Shared) Intel HD 3000; 750GB Toshiba 5,400rpm

Dell XPS 15
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.53GHz Intel Core i5 M460; 4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 420M + 64MB(Dedicated) Intel GMA HD; 500GB Seagate 7,200rpm

Acer Aspire 5742G-7200
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.53GHz Intel Core i5 M460; 4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M; 500GB Western Digital 5,400rpm

Apple MacBook Pro (2010) Core i7 M620 15.4 inch - 2.66GHz
OS X 10.6.2 Snow Leopard; Intel Core i7 M620 2.66GHz; 4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 512MB Nvidia GeForce GT 330M + 256MB Intel GMA HD; 500GB Seagate 5,400rpm

Alienware M15x
Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit); 2.0GHz Intel Core i7-920XM; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M; 500GB Seagate 7,200rpm

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South Korean film director will make movie on the iPhone

' paranmanjang ' movie poster Moho FilmThe

Park Chan-wook, one of the leaders of South Korea may be a lot of attention when he introduces a new movie. Approximately 100 journalists showed the latest work on Monday morning screening, the 30-minute short called "Paranmanjang," which covers the ups and downs of Korea ".

Some were there in the way, Mr. Park of film: Shooting entirely, Apple Inc., iPhone to the latest version.

"Hunting the location Shooting, the film makes the process of questioning all the documents of the filming was shot, the iPhone," Mr. Park, said after the screening. "Went through all the processes of making a movie with the same, except that the camera was small."

He became famous for "Legal (Joint security area)," the 2000 multi story that captured divided Koreas tragic reality. Then in 2004, he won the Grand Prix award in Cannes Film Festival "Old Boy" with the second of three movies, what he called his revenge trilogy. And then, in 2009, his film "Thirst" won the Jury Prize, Cannes.

A short, he started his younger brother, Park Chan-kyong, media artist and KT Corp., wireless operator, which is the exclusive distributor for the iPhone in South Korea. Paid the cost of $ KB, 130,000 part.

Myung Hyun-Pyo, KT's mobile business group President, called the movie "out-of-the-art technology, the product meets the highest demands in terms of art." The company has sold a million units of account, incurred on the iPhone because it became available on the market in November 2009.

Moho FilmA-scene of the film, Paranmanjang

The short story is fantasiaroolipelin, which begins in one afternoon and then hours later in the night, middle-aged man, a woman's body, the catches. A man tries to undo the Panicked connects flagellum, but he gets more and more juuttuneisiin. He faints, then, to find himself in white clothes, woman was wearing a sleep state. From the perspective of a movie, then moves on a woman, and it becomes a tale of life and death of a traditional Korean.

Cinematography quality is pretty good, except for a little bit at the beginning of the shakiness. And the fact that the monitor is in the interest of the movie in the works-a coarse, in particular taking account of the life and death with the theme of the night scenes.

Upon promoting your movie KB, in October, the ad that was shot with a smartphone also. The ad Mr. Park asks himself, "is there anything you can do that most of the Government has not made yet?" After stroking his chin, he exclaims, "Ah! Make a movie on the iPhone! "

Mr. Park was the first South Korean moviemaker experiment in this way. Last October sponsored film festival 12 KB, short films, which is also done with iPhone 4. Mr. Park has nine new work screened cinemas nationwide later this month.

Please read this Korea

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Technology in the context of the present

Ken Dychtwald, CEO, recession, research, and consulting services to meet the needs of your organization, which focuses on the ageing ", which is developing is the digital divide," said. "New technologies are largely the seed lots 50-year-olds," Mr. Dychtwald said. "If you are a parent, you have the power to ask for your family, how all of the acts of courage."

The most commonly occur in the new technologies, or as part of the company's colleagues, through the system. "Learning in the workplace is the processing of the swimming pool and the sharing of new technologies," he added. "If you are at home, you do not have the environment around you."

But many of the technology even more valuable when people leave the Office. There are no products available to 18-year-olds and 80-year-olds, the information and entertainment on your PC and helps keep your family and friends.

Getting familiar with the certain products will help ensure that the technology, such as young people, making for young people.

The following are some of the easily picks:

You want to remain active? Buy a video game console. Forget about the first person shooters and the psychedelic mazes. Systems, such as the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 Accessories, that to get the players out of their chairs and move on the floor, whether virtual dance competition Training program, or a sports Simulator.

In addition, you can simply move around the benefits of the recent studies have shown an improvement in balance of some of the older people who use the Wii (about $ 180) and fitness programs such as Wii Sports (approximately $ 24). Microsoft Xbox Kinect (300 EUR) is available in the built-in cameras and motion sensors, which can be seen in the player's body and its position in the most advanced gaming system.

Fitness Centre, such as Your shape ($ 50), you can not only view, Kinect what move to make the exercise, but can also see if you are doing them correctly, and provide tailored advice for improving the form.

You want to Keep? For Web camera. Although there is nothing to replace the out-of-the-person visits, videoconferencing may be fairly close. If your computer has a built-in webcam, to buy an external one. Logitech makes a wide range of cameras, but on its model for about $ 30 C310, is suitable for discussions with your friends and grandchildren.

In addition, the hardware you need a account Gmail, Skype, iChat, aim, or with another service. To place and receive video discussions are simple and pay nothing. As long as your loved ones have the same network, you can speak for the Kinkdom as long as you want.

Are you? Pick up a Tablet PC or e-reader. Touch screen Tablet PC, intuitive interface, suitable for everyone dreads the traditional keyboard and mouse. Among the growing number of tablets on the Apple iPad ($ 499) remains the best option.

It is easy to use and its assets to facilitate the complete digital companion apps. Also, the iPad pinch zooming feature is removed and separated from the text — whether the e-book, Web site or e-mail message — the great contract type, in seconds.

If your Tablet-PC: it seems that step too far, economic or technical reasons, consider using the e-book reader. Amazon's Kindle ($ 139) is the main operator. "Always on, never pay for its" wireless Internet connection means you can download books, most any seconds.

You can also subscribe to the Kindle editions of newspapers and magazines (and adjust the type size as well). In addition, the light is the light, which weighs only half a pound, and it can store up to 3 500 books.

You Want To Be PRODUCTIVE? Search for some applications. When you were at work, had some of the design. Some of the organizational chart was. If you want to keep these things in pension, is a software that can help you. Evernote is one application. It bills itself as a personal digital assistant, but it is a matter of fact, the world's largest cab file.

Evernote, you can copy and paste almost anything you find on the network memory books searchable on. "" Locate the picture, such as online? Copy and paste it into Evernote. Highlight the part of the e-mail message and save it to Evernote. Post a link to your friend who sent you the Evernote account.

Almost any device with an Internet connection can easily (and for some devices even store information about the offline, thanks to things like Evernote iPhone app). There is a free version of Evernote, and version of the $ 45 premium annual fee, which is not advertising, and some of the extended properties.

The second is a good plan to repurchase Nuance Dragon Dictation program. $ 100) for Windows computers (and Macs ($ 200) for the strength of the industry, employing the Dragon speech recognition technology, you can say accurately transcribed. You can speak naturally to a spoken punctuation and dictate an e-mail message.

The application also performs the voice commands to your computer, so you say "search the Stieg Larsson Amazon" to automatically redirect the browser to Amazon.com and search for these words. You can tell the computer to open and close programs, scroll to the bottom of the screen, and then click to select the words and and copy, delete or append the rows.

You Want To BE ENTERTAINED? Stream movies to your TV. The movie rental stores are losing appeal and pay-per-view/on demand cable programming costs can be added. But the $ 60 to buy Roku box and you will see a world of cheap video programming.

$8-a monthly subscription, you get access to thousands of combination of Netflix movies and TV programs on the remote control, click the article number below to view the company's library. Other subscription services Amazon Hulu Plus the video and the Instant, as are also available.

AppleTV is $ 99, Netflix, and also provides access to Apple's iTunes provides a library of shows and movies. It also features more of the current selection — Netflix is not the current TV programs; iTunes is the day after they are sent. Apple's service is also a number of movies. Unlike Netflix, iTunes is not a subscription service, but will work on the basis of a la carte: TV-99 cents for the rent and bought a $ 2 or $ 3. Movies can also be rented or bought, the prices of the region.

You want to see who does what? Get a digital photo frame. Digital photo frames is not new, but the growth of the wireless connection to provide some valuable years old technology with new features. A good example can be found in the latest advances in n Pandigital photo mail digital photo frame, $ 180.

At first glance it resembles many other digital picture frames — a simple dark rectangle surrounding eight-inch screen. And other digital frames, as in this template can display pictures on the camera memory card. But what sets this framework apart is its ability to receive new photos wirelessly, with friends and family.

The photo in the e-mail-on the Amazon Kindle, such as: is always on, no costs for wireless connection to the AT&T n wireless network. The frame also has its own e-mail address. This means that anyone, which is the address sends images to the frame in which they are displayed as soon as (note the screen indicates when new photos are in the Inbox).

If the parents cannot be on the beach, the grandchildren of the e-mail the photos, they take them and they will appear in the frame at home. And unlike other picture frames, which are similar, but require a Wi-Fi network, to get a photo in the e-mail box set up is almost at all.

These products and services are not of the everyday life of a radical design data, but they make measurable improvements to other users to be connected to the more efficient and information. And since these objectives are not age-restricted products, nor would that help you to achieve these objectives.

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