Benny Ling’s Bling

YouTube – Running iPod / iPhone OS on Mac Pro.

And some hilariously awful music plays before the session starts, including this song — a lot. The awful pre-session music, as well as the awful conference-center food, becomes a joke and bonding experience with the other attendees.

via Marco.org – Notes from WWDC 2009.

I bought this song because it’s actually incredibly catchy, and because I have 5 free songs on the iTMS thanks to Mac1 Australia!

If you’re after the iTMS links, it’s here. Enjoy.

Star Wars toys that never made it.

via VISGORIA.

There’s no other way to say this. If you care about battery life and portability at all, buy the new MacBook Pro. Go to the Apple store and buy one. While I only tested the 15” model, I’m guessing the 13” model should leave a similar lasting impression.

Ever since I first looked at the power consumption specs of Nehalem I thought it didn’t make any sense to buy a new, expensive notebook before Arrandale’s launch in Q4 2009/Q1 2010. While performance will definitely increase considerably with Arrandale, Apple just threw a huge wrench in my recommendation. The new MacBook Pro is near perfect today. If you need a new laptop now, thanks to its incredible battery life, I have no qualms recommending the new MBP.

[...]

Today I am more than comfortable saying that this is the best Apple notebook I’ve ever laid my hands on. The build quality is excellent, the base specs are solid and of course, the battery life. There’s no doubt that it could be better; toss in an SSD or drop the price even further, but as it stands the new MBP is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a Mac laptop.

Obviously, you can attain the same battery life with a cheaper notebook and one or two spare batteries. But there’s something to be said for increasing battery life by at least 50% without increasing the bulk or weight of the system.

I’m not sure there’s much else I can add other than Good Job, Apple.

via AnandTech: Apple’s 2009 MacBook Pro: Battery Life to Die For.

That’s a hell of an endorsement, especially coming from AnandTech.

Favourite quote comes from the fourth page (where the beef of the article is):

That’s a 51% improvement in battery life. It’s close enough to the max theoretical 46% improvement for me to think that the significant gains in wireless web browsing are due to improvements in idle power optimizations. It’s possible that all of the components in the new MacBook Pro have been optimized for lower voltages at idle.

The battery tests are repeatable however. I saw anywhere from a 50 – 100% improvement in battery life over the old MacBook Pro. Given the increase in battery capacity alone, you should see no less than a 46% increase in battery life. Exactly what is accounting for the expanded life above and beyond that, I’m not sure.

Either way, Apple’s 7 hour claim is well within reason. For light workloads, even on WiFi, you can easily expect 6.5 – 8 hours out of the new 15-inch MBP. As I write this article on that very system I’m told that I have nearly 8.5 hours left on my charge. If you do a lot of writing on your notebook, the new MBP is exactly what you’ll want; it will easily last you on a cross-country flight if you need to get work done.

Spectacular work, Apple. Thumbs up from this blogger

The last session of WWDC ‘09 yesterday was about publishing on the App Store. The content of sessions is under NDA, so I can’t tell you what it was about. So I’ll tell you what wasn’t in it: the audience Q&A session that succeeded nearly every other WWDC session and usually provided invaluable access to Apple employees and useful additional knowledge to attendees. The session itself blew through its lightweight examples quickly, ending 45 minutes early. The majority of the audience was clearly there for the Q&A. As people lined up at the microphones around the room, the presenter abruptly showed a simple slide with only “WWDC” in plain lettering, thanked us for coming, and bolted off the stage. The Apple engineers, usually staying around the stage for one-on-one questions, were gone. The lights came up instantly, and it was the only session that didn’t end in music. The audience was stunned.

via Marco.org – Trust, hostility, and the human side of Apple.

• I know, Dream Theater's "A Rite of Passage" will wake me up for #WWDC! What an excellent idea, old chap. #
• WWDC == awesome. #
• Killing time in town. No idea why I came out this early… #
• I *love* how Safari 4 scrolls like butter. I *love* how fast it is. What I don't love is the DAMN GREEN BUTTON THAT DOES NOT MAXIMISE! ARGH! #
• Oh great. Since @itweetreply has died in the arse, I now don't get my twitter replies by email… :'(
  SOMEONE CALL THE WAAAAMBULANCE, NAO. #
• Er… #thehitlist #grammar #fail: http://twitpic.com/6yqbg Maybe it's payback for not releasing a native iPhone app, @thehitlist? #
• Twitter, I'd love an MD5 on the new 3.0 GMC IPSW, if you'd be so kind. Need to verify this one that I have here… Much gratitude to you. #
• Fine, don't help me. For the record, MD5 of iPhone OS 3.0 GMC IPSW is 812da3da0ba98a7991ff6f09fd6b8002. Thanks to Google Cache + Whingepool #
• Thanks to @lumus for MD5 and SHA-1 of iPhone OS 3.0 GM IPSW: http://bit.ly/UiyVI Also thanks to Google Cache + Whingepool for confirmation. #
• http://bit.ly/lIW8p …and THAT's why I won't upgrade. I'm far too attached to my 5 icon dock, anyway. I'll have my cake and eat it too! #
• Holy sheeeeet it is cold. #
• #squarespace are giving away 30 iPhones in 30 days! Check them out at http://www.squarespace.com/ #
• One exam down, three to go. This makes Benny happy ^_^ #
• I has chicken: Thank you, Woolworths Kingston. http://twitpic.com/71609 #
• Failing hard at sending emails with attachments from the command line. :S #
• Guess what! @freeiphoneapps is giving away 3 $10 iTunes Cards! Here’s how to enter: http://tr.im/mRXx (re-tweet!) #
• Ah crap, I'm shaped to 64k until tomorrow. Well, I guess that's not so bad… #
• I would _love_ the 24 port gigabit switch that's going on OCAU at the moment, but I'm afraid it's gonna be a little outside of my budget. #
• BOO YA! Just got Safari 4 to maximise it's window size when I click the green button – just make sure you don't have a webpage loaded #
• Playing Peggle on iPhone (it's on sale for $1.19) while watching Scrubs on TV after a long day of study… ^_^ #
• I'm having fruit loops for breakfast this morning. Haven't had them for years, but they still taste just as good as the last time I did. #
• I'm flirting with Safari 4 today. It scrolls like butter (and it's gosh darn fast), but certain features remind me why I'm a Firefox man… #
• You know #squarespace are giving away $199 Apple Store vouchers for you to redeem an iPhone with? They're not giving away actual iPhones… #
• Chances of a package arriving for me today from Brisbane if it was posted on Tuesday via registered post are converging to zero. #
• MacTalk Skype Meet 3.0 happening TONIGHT @ 8pm, be there or be a square! http://bit.ly/rS0ZY for all the details #
• Oops. Make that 8:30pm http://bit.ly/rS0ZY #
• Mactalk skype meet in 30 minutes, people. Be there or be a square or any other 4 sided polygon of your choosing. http://bit.ly/rS0ZY #
• Hmm. I'm gonna have to sell some stuff to pay for this managed 24 port gigabit switch I just bought. Shame I have nothing to sell :'( #
• Holy sheeeet it's cold. #
• I tell you what would be awesome: eBay implementing the ebay:// protocol to open links in the eBay app on the iPhone. Tweetie does it, <3 #
• Oh crap. I ran out of The Unit S4 episodes, so now I'm just gonna have to watch Veronica Mars S3 instead. Kirsten Bell, mmm. :drools: #fb #
• Buying lots of stuff lately. Recent purchases include: managed 24 port gigabit switch, GA-P35-DS3R rev2.0 mobo, and there's more on the way. #
• If any #iPhone #developer makes a CincLock-VII app ala M. Reilly's Scarecrow, I, along with all other Scarecrow fans, would b willing 2 pay. #
• For the first time since I can remember, I'm having a "midnight snack"….
  AT MIDNIGHT.
  I AM AWESOME. #
• Parents back from Adelaide. No Crumpler haul for me, but I did manage to score a FCUK tee and an awesome FCUK jacket. Much love to them #
• Damn you for crashing, Peggle. I was just about to save the most epic replay ever, and BAM, you just CRASH on me. Waaah! #
• So the countdown begins… Fingers crossed I'll be able to snipe this eBay item – I've never done any sniping before. 22 hours to go… #
• Holy sheet – did eBay just do a complete re-hash of it's UI in the last couple of minutes? I swear it wasn't like this a second ago… :S #
• On the plus side, I can now have a page refresh in less than a second with images disabled – this will make eBay sniping more awesome. ^_^ #
• I just bought something off the iTMS. First purchase in a while, and only because I have some free songs. http://bit.ly/8bQJ4 [iTMS Link] #

Pokemon deconstructed to its most basic graphic elements.

via One shot: Pokemon, pixel by pixel | Offworld.

This is awesome. Hit up the image for a HUGE version.

You know you want to.

Reader rykennedyan’s desktop combines a beautiful wallpaper with a full set of launchers and tools integrated into a taskbar at the bottom of the screen.

via The Starlight Desktop | Lifehacker Australia.

Oooohhh. Preeeettty.

I like.

Shame there’s no Mac OSX version.

‘Cos that’s how I roll.