Intel's Sandy Bridge In Macbooks Should Take Performance And Battery Life To A Whole New Level

Right now, Macbook users should be happy with Apple has to offer. I've got the late-2008 unibody Macbook and I'm happy with Apple offered then. And obviously, in what should be another great Christmas for Apple, their brand new Macbooks are giving users something to smile about.

But wait until you see the next upgrade that Apple is likely to offer. Intel's new mobile offering, Sandy Bridge, should offer even greater performance over all.

I won't be able to get into into too much detail here. But let's just say that I think I just might be compelled to upgrade the next time around.

Anandtech has a very detailed post on Intel's new mobile solution. I think it's worth a read, especially if you did not pull the trigger this past Christmas. Judging by the battery life and increased performance in graphics, future Macbooks should gain measurable performance increase.

More at Anandtech.

CES Impact On Apple - Summary

We know Apple's impact on CES this week. Even though a no-show, as expected, Apple has a huge impact and it shows.

Competitors are out in force with just about everything they've got to throw at Apple. On deck today was Asus.

It showed off four tablet devices running Windows 7 or Android. Some have keyboards while others are just touchscreens. One of them even can detach from the keyboard.

The Transformer, as it is called, showed the largest promise. With the keyboard attachment, the 10" tablet-network runs a combination of 16 hours running on Nvidia's Tegra 2 chip.

And with an entry price at $399 for the 16GB, it does look like iPad competitors are off to a strong start.

Obviously, we cannot take Asus at their words. Not until folks have had time to play with it and see for themselves. But forget about the tablets running Windows 7 or anything that running other than Android 3.

This is the tablet to watch. Tomorrow, we'll see others get into the ring.

One more thing. The Transformer, like many Android 3 tablets won't be available until June. So, these guys will not be going up against the iPad. They'll be dealing with iPad 2 or whatever Apple decides to call it.

What Does Disney, Netflix, Dell, and Sony All Have In Common?

What does Disney, Dell, Netflix, and Sony all have in common? Well, one way or another, Apple has dealt with them directly as competitors or in cooperation to gain access to media for the iTunes ecosystem.

However, there's one more that these four companies have in common as it relates to Apple.

And what would that be?

Apple Should Come Out With Own Magazine As Model For Others

Apple should come out with their own magazine for the iPad that would serve as a model for other media publishers to follow. Another alternative is for Apple to work closely with a couple of major magazines that can serve as showcases on how to transform print into the digital age.

Nexus One, Google's model smartphone, was a brilliant move even though it did not sell in the numbers expected but it did act as a showcase device for other device makers to follow and gave a kick in the butt for those in the Android market. Without it, the Android market may not be where it is at today. It is why Google continue this with Nexus S.

It's a model that Apple can follow. Steve Jobs should lead a team that can put together and publish an Apple-backed magazine. I don't know what subject it could be about. Anything really. But it will allow Apple to lead the way and show how to leverage technology and tools such as social media that are readily available for publishing a digital magazine.

I think a showcase along the line of The Project from Virgin is a good start. And while I applaud Virgin's effort and first time out, there is much more The Project can offer as its team gain more experience. Apple can leapfrog all that and put everything else in the app store to shame.

See, I don't think the reports of stagnating sales of magazine apps for the iPad is an issue about Apple not offering a subscription scheme for publishers. That has appeared on blog after blog and it's a rather easy excuse for everyone to latch onto.

The more serious problem is that everything thinks that just by offering a digital copy of the magazine would satisfy readers. Sorry, my friends, is not the case. The current magazines being offered on the iPad offer a few videos and sounds but nothing more. And most of what's available for the iPad can be obtained online.

Apple needs to approach the magazine and newspaper industry the way it did with music, mobile, and tablet markets. Shake things up and lead through innovation.

When Will iPhone For Verizon Be Announced? Don't Know But It Won't Be Verizon Doing It

I don't know where this came from but I found it absolutely ridiculous when I heard it. And if I had to guess who the culprit is, I'd have to say it came from an idiot Wall Street analyst.

So, essentially, there is talk about Verizon would announce the availability of a CDMA iPhone at CES beginning next week. Right. Verizon Wireless will announce to the world that Apple will make available the iPhone on its network.

This is the same Apple that left Macworld a couple of years ago and said that it doesn't want to be a part of any trade shows that force it to make announcements when it was not ready. The same Apple who's Steve Jobs said that by making announcements so close after the Holidays, its engineers were not able to spend time with their families.

So, bottom-line is this: Apple makes its own product announcements. Apple does not give up control to someone else to market their products and risk being screwed up or misrepresented to the consumers.

When will Apple tell the US consumers that they will have a choice of another network for the iPhone? Only Apple knows when that'll be but one thing is for sure. It won't be Verizon Wireless making that announcement.

iBookstore SDK Is Needed To Shake Up The eBook Market For Apple To Win

I know that Apple has made it easy to design, code, and publish apps for the iOS devices.  Three hundred thousand apps and likely five hundred thousand apps by the middle of 2011 is a testament to how Apple can really shine when it wants to.

However, outside of iTunes and the App Store, Apple's effort into other media has been met with mediocre success as with TV and movies.  And it has so far floundered with ebooks.  What should Apple do?

How about an iBookstore SDK?

Gauging Apple's Mobile Success By Examining Its Vision, Not Stock Price

I do own a couple of shares of Apple that I did not sell from way back when things were still bad. As a believer, albeit naïve at the time, I thought things would turn around. The naïve part would have come true had Steve Jobs not entered the halls of Apple Proper and took things over and shook the music, PC, and, now, the mobile markets.

I was watching a CNBC video today where two analysts, pretty much clueless about tech and what we mobile warriors are about, took both sides of the Apple stock. One thinks it’ll go up while the other thinks things about to come to a head for Apple’s stock price.

Where do I stand?