Sometimes, Apple’s Mac vs. PC ads go a little bit over the top. This is not the case with the recent release of two christmas ads. These are hilarious. I urge you to watch them both.

Only about two years ago, I got my first mac. At that time, I never dreamed of buying a $3000 computer, nor dreamed of having the money. Now, the only thing I can think of that would be worth spending my money on is a new MacBook Pro.

With the money I have made from selling my iPhone apps, the little money from blog advertising and a few past holiday gifts from relatives, I am able to get my dream computer. Oh, and that little thing called student discount helped a bit also.

Now when I say “dream computer,” I am not thinking of some magical computer that I “dream” of. I am thinking of the computer that I have always wanted since I got my MacBook, but has never been able to get. Finally, now that I can make my own source of income, I am able to purchase this amazingly powerful machine.

This is sort of an investment. Hopefully, this MacBook Pro will allow me to do things that I could not do with my MacBook and therefore, will in the end, make me more money. So, instead of spending the money I had on a tempurpedic mattress (was actually thinking about it, believe it or not) I can invest in something that may actually bring the money back to me.

Anyway, I am extremely happy I was able to buy this wonderful device and I cannot wait until it reaches my doorstep and I can watch that awesome welcome movie.

Here are the specs:

Due to the rumors, I believe the new MacBook Pro will end up looking like a fat MacBook Air. All aluminum, black keyboard, rounded edges, circular iSight and best of all… some thickness. Think about it. The MacBook Air looks absolutely beautiful, but it really does not have the power to be worth the money. Also, don’t you just wish sometimes it was just a little bit chunkier? Maybe that is just my opinion, but I cannot use a computer that light and skinny. I need something firm and sturdy, just like the new MacBook Pro is going to be.

While this photo, rumored photo of the new MacBook Pro has been taunted as fake, it is exactly how I wish the new MacBook Pro will look. To me, this looks like the perfect size and the perfect shape. Except for the black outline over the screen, you have to say it does look just like a fat MacBook Air.

These two photos are rumored to be REAL photos of the base of the new MacBook Pro. If you compare these photos too the first photo up top, they somewhat match. They all show slightly more rounded edges, a flat keyboard like on the MacBooks and a cut out on top for the attached screen.

Even if the photo up top is fake, that doesn’t mean it is the wrong way to go. THIS IS HOW APPLE SHOULD MAKE IT. This is the new MacBook Pro should be and I will be slightly disappointed in Apple if it is not.

One of my favorite online services, DropBox, is now totally public and still free. There is no need for beta codes or invitations any more, all you have to do is sign up and download that client. It is now available for Windows, Mac and Linux users, so almost everyone can use DropBox.

DropBox is among the best free online service. DropBox is like having a 2GB iDisk with so much more. I have wrote about how much I love this service before, so I do not want to dabble.

Back to the point. If you find DropBox as useful as I do, you may consider upgrading from the 2GB to 50GB. If your into video editing or anything like that, this could be a great bargain for you. It is only $9.99/month or $99.99/year.

So, I am really happy now that it is open to everyone and if you do not have an DropBoc yet…GET IT!

I am very excited to try out Apple’s new iTunes 8.0, which was announced today at the “Lets Rock” special event. It hasn’t yet appeared on software update, so I thought I would just share the direct link, so you all can download it easily. Note: you will need to download the new QuickTime from software update in order to run iTunes.

Here it is, enjoy. I’ll be testing out the new “Genius” feature and will report back shortly

I recently learned about an application and service called GrabUp. GrabUp is amazing. With GrabUp, there are 2 steps to have a screenshot of your own online available for you to share with anyone.

Step 1. Take the screen shot with Apple’s built in service, (Apple+Shift+4).

Step 2. Paste.

Yep, that’s all it takes. GrabUp will automatically take the screenshot that you took, upload it to their server and put the link on your clipboard. This process will take literately a second at most. GrapUp runs all the time, in the background, whenever you need up.

So, now lets get to the point of this post. I already have a great free app that does this for me. Skitch allows me to take a screenshot, crop, resize and edit the image in many ways along with posting it to web. I have always loved Skitch and it has always does exactly what I needed. I even thought it was extremely fast…until I found GrabUp.With GrabUp, I can get a screenshot of something and share it within a few seconds. GrabUp runs all the time in the background, so I do not need to wait for any app to start up like I have to do with Skitch. At the same time, I cannot edit these pictures I take with GrabUp like I can with Skitch. Skitch is a wonderful image editor and lets me make tons of modifications to all images, not only screenshots. Skitch also keeps all my images on my Skitch profile. These are the things about Skitch that I love.

I will use both GrabUp and Skitch at the same time for different reasons. GrabUp is what I will use for quick screenshot to share with friends. A lot of people on AIM ask me for screenshots. This is where GrabUp comes in. Skitch will come in when I need some sort of editing. Sometimes I need a fast crop or resize of an image. Skitch does this job beautifully.

So in conclusion, GrabUp is for quick sharing of screenshots and Skitch is for quick editing and sharing of all images and screenshots. They are both great products and I am happy to use both.

All .Mac services are online and fully operational.

MobileMe Launch
7/9/2008, 6pm-12am PT

As part of the MobileMe launch, www.mac.com will be taken offline at 6pm PT on Wednesday, July 9th.

Members will be unable to access www.mac.com or any .Mac services during this time with the exception of .Mac Mail accessed via a desktop application, iPhone, or iPod touch.

MobileMe will be available as soon as possible during this maintenance window.

I’m excited… are you?

[Via TUAW.]

I’ve been loving my MacBook for a year now. I have a white MacBook with a 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB of RAM and a 160 GB HD. It is fast, light and very reliable. Although sometimes, I do wonder how much more I would have gotten with a MacBook Pro. Since I had never used a MacBook Pro over an hour, I really did not know how much better a MacBook Pro was compared to my MacBook. I had just expected that you get what your pay for. The more money you pay, the faster and better your computer is going to be.

After using a MacBook Pro for a more extensive amount of time and researching more about it, I have come to realize that $1000 more for a MacBook Pro may not have been such a good idea. With the specs and prices that Apple has as of now, the MacBook may be just fine for a lot of the work you need to do.

If you’re deciding between a MacBook Pro or a MacBook, you are probably considering the highest end MacBook and the lowest end MacBook Pro. Lets compare both of these devices. The highest end MacBook is black one with an Intel 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB of RAM and a 250 GB HD. This is all for $1,699.00. The lowest end MacBook Pro has a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB of RAM and a 200 GB HD. So, you lose 2 GB of Ram, 50 GB of HD space and you have to pay $300 more! Lets say we match up the specs and give the MacBook Pro 4 GB of RAM and a 250 GB HD. Now it is $2,249.00, a whole $549 more! How is this possible? Well, lets look at what you get for that $549. You get a 15-inch screen as opposed to 13.3-inch screen, a Backlit keyboard and a NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT video card, which is superior to the MacBook Intel GMA X3100. So, this $549 is not giving you any more power or speed, just looks. Is the $549 really worth it? This is why I think the MacBook has a better value than the MacBook Pro.

I run my MacBook with Final Cut Express all the time for various projects. Remember, this is with a 2.16 GHz machine with 2 GB of RAM… not 4. These 2 GBs are well enough for Final Cut. If at all it will take up half of my memory with a full GB left for other apps. So in fact, I disagree that you NEED a MacBook Pro if you want to do video editing. A lot of people will buy MacBook Pros just for this reason. I believe this is a waste of money. I also believe you are loosing a lot of taste when buying the MacBook Pro. For a lot of people, this will not matter, but MacBooks are lighter, sexier and smaller. The MacBooks actually have a much better ratio of power/space compared to the MacBook Pro, which is very important to me. Why pay more for something that looks and feels worse? Oh, I almost forgot, the MacBook’s keyboard is 10X better than the MacBook Pro’s.

There are some reasons you would want to buy a MacBook Pro, which you defiantly should know about.

1) If you want to play games, you may want a MacBook Pro. MacBooks are not able to process a whole lot of visuals. The MacBook’s video card is just not enough for a whole lot of games and you may be really disappointed when your favorite video game starts to lag as soon as it starts. All MacBook Pros can handle your games, whether they are PC virtualized games or native Mac games. For example, Diablo III…

2) If you want to virtualize Windows XP/Vista along with Mac OS X, you may want a MacBook Pro. Sometimes, it may be hard to have a virtual machine running along with Mac OS X. For one reason or another 2.5 or 2.6 GHz can really help everything run smoother.

3) If video editing is your job, you may want a MacBook Pro. I still believe that MacBooks can run Final Cut perfectly fine, but don’t get me wrong, you can always run it better. Final Cut Express and Pro are very different. Express can be run easily on a MacBook Pro, but Pro is a little different. Final Cut Studio comes not only with Final Cut Pro, but also Motion. You can only run about 1/3 of Motion’s filters on a MacBook, so it really is unusable. At the same time, it is mostly only professionals who use Motion. If spending $1000 more for a 2.6 Ghz machine for a little better performance is necessary for your job, a MacBook Pro may be the right computer for you. If you use Final Cut Pro for side jobs or just for fun, there is no reason you need to spend that kind of money.

In conclusion, I really think the MacBook has a ton more value than the MacBook Pro. It is sort of like Apple adds $500 just for that “pro” feel. I am still waiting for some necessary changes that I wrote about here. I think Apple really needs to rethink their notebook product line because I do not see a big enough difference between the two notebooks that makes me want to spend that extra money.

If you are deciding between a MacBook or MacBook Pro, I highly suggest a MacBook. Save your money and get a great, quality machine that will not disappoint you.