Apple Magic Trackpad is out

Finally Apple unveils the Magic Trackpad for Macs. The new Magic Trackpad is the first Multi-Touch trackpad designed to work with the Mac desktop computer. It uses the same Multi-Touch technology available on the MacBook Pro. This is basically a larger version of the MacBook Pro touchpad and it supports a full set of gestures, allowing for a whole new way to control and interact with what’s on the screen. Swiping through pages online feels just like flipping through pages in a book or magazine.

Apple Magic Trackpad

Apple Magic Trackpad


Some of the main features:

The largest Multi-Touch trackpad

Magic Trackpad is just like the trackpad on the MacBook Pro — but bigger. It’s made with the same advanced touch-friendly and wear-resistant glass surface. But with nearly 80 percent more area, it’s the largest Multi-Touch trackpad made by Apple. So there’s even more room for you to scroll, swipe, pinch, and rotate to your fingers’ content. And since the entire surface is a button that clicks, you can use it in place of a mouse.

It fits in perfectly

Magic Trackpad features the same sculpted aluminum design as the Apple Wireless Keyboard, and side by side the two sit flush at the same angle and height. Go from typing to gesturing in one motion, or do both at the same time. How perfect is that?

Effortless Wireless

Magic Trackpad works using Bluetooth technology, so you don’t have to deal with an annoying cable that dictates where you place it. Once you pair Magic Trackpad with your Bluetooth-enabled Mac, you’ll enjoy a reliable, secure connection up to 33 feet away. Magic Trackpad detects periods of inactivity, and it’s equipped with an on/off switch. Together these features help to conserve battery life, so you can keep gesturing for months at a time.

System Requirements

  • Bluetooth-enabled Mac computer
  • Two AA batteries (included)
  • Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6.4 and latest software update


Finally the Trackpad will set you back $69. [Apple]

Dell Dock High CPU Usage

Dell Dock™ has been around since mid 2008. For those how are not familiar with Dell Dock, It allows for OSX-like functionality, placing a bar of frequently used shortcuts at the top of the screen specially developed for Dell Laptops/Desktops. Additional icons can be dragged-and-dropped onto this bar, creating a useful time-saver that may help to make Vista / Windows 7 more user-friendly for those struggling to adjust.
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ATI releases Catalyst 10.7 drivers

This month ATI has released version 10.7 of the ATI catalyst driver. This is not a major update, but what caught my eye was the GPU acceleration feature for VLC media player. This update enables GPU acceleration of h.264 video content when using the VLC 1.1.1 Media Player – enabling a better user experience by consuming less system resources with either a 4000 or 5000 series GPU.

h.264 (A.K.A Advanced Video Coding) is a standard for video compression and is supported by many of the big companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Google and this means that there are going to be more video content encoded using this codec.

Here is what is new in this month’s update!

New Windows Features

Highlights of the ATI Catalyst™ 10.7 release for Microsoft Windows include:

ATI Eyefinity Technology – Enhancements for HydraVision™

  • Maximizing a window across multiple displays will now take user defined bezel compensation into account
  • Automatically adjusts window position when dragging and dropping windows to ensure title bar visibility
  • Proper dialog box placement – dialogs do not cross displays, are not hidden behind bezels, and can be designated to be shown on the users “preferred” display

Enhanced Pull-down detection

  • The Pull-down detection algorithm has been enhanced for higher visual quality on certain types of video content
  • Supported on the ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 Series of GPUs

ATI CrossFireX™ technology – support for rotated displays

  • This release of ATI Catalyst™ enables end users running supported ATI CrossFireX™ configurations to rotate their displays (single or ATI Eyefinity display configurations) and still enjoy the performance benefits of ATI CrossFireX technology

ATI Radeon™ GPU acceleration of VLC 1.1.1 Media Player

  • Enables GPU acceleration of h.264 video content when using the VLC 1.1.1 Media Player – enabling a better user experience by consuming less system resources
  • Supported on the ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 and ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 Series of GPU products
  • Requires VLC version 1.1.1 and later

Highlights of the ATI Catalyst driver for Linux 10.7 release include:

Support for new Linux operating systems

  • This release of ATI Catalyst™ driver for Linux introduces support for the following new operating systems:
    • Ubuntu 10.04 production support

ATI Eyefinity support

  • ATI Catalyst™ driver for Linux 10.7 provides support for ATI Eyefinity technology under all supported Linux distributions

For more information on ATI Catalyst™ 10.7 (for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Linux versions), including all of the resolved issues in this release, please see the ATI Catalyst™ 10.7 release notes.

To download the driver, click here


Running out of IPv4 addresses in less than one year

Believe it or not, public IPv4 address space will be exhausted in less than a year, says John Curran, President and CEO of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN). Only 4 billion internet addresses are possible under the current system and all but 6% have already been allocated.
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