Sleek Mac

It’s a real museum piece. It has cutting-edge looks and technology. Apple has shown that it not only makes shiny white or black devices that fit into your pocket but that CEO Steve Jobs knows what people want even before we know it ourselves.

Yes, I am talking about the brand new iMac, Apple’s flagship product that has been long due for a makeover. Built from aluminium and glass, the iMac is just a monitor with a keyboard and mouse. There is no CPU. It is all in the monitor, including the hard disk. This three-piece unit is a delight without the clutter of wires that you find in all PCs. The overall look of the iMac resembles that of an LCD television you might have in your room. The glossy display and slim design are bound to sweep you off your feet.

This all-in-one new iMac desktop will take care of all your digital needs. It is priced between Rs 65,000 and Rs 94,000, depending on the model and configuration. Currently, it comes in two sizes — with 20- and 24-inch screens — and 1 GB memory. This memory is expandable to 4 GB. The 20-inch model has a 250GB hard drive. The 24-inch one has 320GB. Since it has an Intel-based processor, you can run Windows too.

If your budget permits, I would suggest you get one of these iMacs. They can even be mounted on a wall. This is ideal for watching movies. You can control the unit with the remote that comes with the desktop. If you want to see a live demonstration of this, just visit Imagine, the Apple shop at the Salt Lake City Centre, Calcutta.

Accompanying the new machines are overhauled versions of the company’s consumer software suites, iLife 08 and iWork 08, including — among other new features — a spreadsheet program called Numbers designed to lure users from Microsoft’s Excel. I find Keynote particularly easy to use. It is equivalent to PowerPoint in Windows computers. And of course, there is Pages, a word processor just as good as Microsoft Word.

One of the best things about the iMac is the keyboard. It has been radically redesigned. It uses the same type of keys as does the MacBook, but they are placed atop a thin aluminium piece that matches the iMac’s body. The keyboard’s thin design gives it a sleek and modern look. It has a built-in USB 2.0 port on the side.

The new iMac has a new iSight camera that blends into the black screen border of the monitor. The camera — with a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels — provides fairly good video and still photographs. The microphone is also at the top of the monitor and is very good in picking up sound. You will never face a problem during a video chat.

The back of the monitor, too, is very interesting. For one, it looks good in matte black with a shiny black Apple logo. Then there are the ports. There is an analog and digital audio output port, an analog and digital audio input port, three USB 2.0 ports, one Firewire 800 port, a Gigabit Ethernet port and a mini-DVI connector.

The new iMacs have the latest Intel Core2 Duo processors with speeds varying from 2GHz to 2.4GHz, depending on the model you choose. There is an option to upgrade this to 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo Extreme should you want a more powerful model.

When you buy a Mac, make sure you become a member of .Mac. For around Rs 4000, you will get 10GB of storage online and the ability to save large

files online from office, which you can later pluck from the net with your iMac. Other new .Mac features include Web Gallery — which enables immediate sharing of photos and movies from iLife with Mac, PC or iPhone owners; and the ability to incorporate live web widgets, such as Google Maps, into websites created

using iWeb.

For me, with its lower price, the new 24-inch model is the real winner. The larger screen makes all the difference.

Marvelous Blackberry

When BlackBerry’s service goes down for several hours in the US, over five million people were struck by a curious malaise. The symptoms ranged from feelings of isolation and rage to severe longing, something very similar to drugs withdrawal. It just showed that people had become so thoroughly dependent — professionally — on their cherished wireless email that they even reacted emotionally, and some with paranoia, when deprived of this service. A woman even said it was easier to quit smoking than to be without a BlackBerry.

The BlackBerry phenomenon seems to have taken the world by storm. Earlier, many had avoided even looking at this mobile phone because of its clunky looks. But with the advent of the super slim BlackBerry Pearl, reactions changed overnight. The Canadian company, Research In Motion, which makes these phones, sold over 6.4 million sets in less than a year.

So what is it that makes the BlackBerry so captivating and addictive? It only has a 1.3 megapixel camera, which can’t even record videos. It, however, does have a decent video player. Its music player is basic, but with good sound quality. But the feature that gets you hooked to the device is its email. You can configure upto seven email accounts and synchronise with your company’s mail server. Those without a company email can subscribe to a BlackBerry account. It was this BlackBerry email blackout that caused heartburn across the world.

As you get to use this stylish and slim BlackBerry Pearl, you will find yourself constantly checking and sending email messages. Most people nowadays keep two phones — one for their calls and the Blackberry for email. Composing mails is fast with the QWERTY keyboard and SureType. SureType is much like T9 in other cell phones.

The Pearl with its EDGE connectivity lets you surf the Internet at a very good speed. A glowing trackball set just below the screen makes navigation a breeze. You can scroll vertically and horizontally smoothly without making a dent on your thumb which happens with other cell phones. Here are a few little-used shortcuts that you could use to enhance your BlackBerry experience.

Common shortcuts

In most applications in the phone you can use the following:

Move up: Press 3 to move up the screen.

Move down: Press 9 to move down the screen.

Top of page: Press 1 to move to the top of the page.

Bottom of page: Press 7 to go to the bottom of the page.

Home: To return to the Home screen, press the End key: The End key is the red coloured phone icon on your right beside the trackball.

Lock: To lock the keyboard, from the Home screen, hold the asterisk ( * )

key.

Unlock: To unlock the keyboard, hold the Send key and press the asterisk ( * ) key. Type your password. The Send key is the one with the green coloured phone icon.

Silent: To switch between the default and vibrate profiles, from the Home screen hold the pound ( # ) key.

Phone shortcuts

Put on hold: To place an active phone call on hold and answer a second incoming call, press Send.

Contacts: To view the contact list, hold the Send key.

Plus sign: To insert a plus sign ( + ) when typing a phone number, hold 0.

Message shortcuts

Compose: To compose a message from the message list, press comma ( , ).

Reply: To reply to a message, press the exclamation ( ! ) mark key.

Reply all: To reply to all, hit the question mark ( ? ) key.

Forward: To forward a message, hit the full stop ( . ) key.

Received: To view only received messages, hold Alt and press 3. The Alt key is the one on the bottom row extreme left.

SMS: To view SMSes only, hold Alt and press the question mark ( ? ) key.

All messages: To view your message list again, press Escape. The Escape or back key is just below the screen.

Typing shortcuts

Full stop: To insert a full stop, press the Space key twice. The next letter will be in capitals.

Numbers on: To type numbers only, hold the Shift key and press the Alt key. The Shift key is on the bottom row marked with a # sign.

Numbers off: To turn off NUM lock, press Alt.

@ sign: To insert an at sign ( @ ) in an email address field, press the Space key.

Select text: To select a line of text, press Shift and roll the trackball.

Cut: To cut selected text, hold Shift and press Delete.

Copy: To copy selected text, press Alt and click the trackball.

Paste: To paste the text, press Shift and click the trackball.