On Monday, MCE Technologies announced that it had released its 250 gigabyte MobileStor hard drive for the MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops.
The 2.5″ SATA drive, which retails for US$279, can be installed as an internal drive and also ships with an eSATA/USB 2.0 external enclosure to use it as an external drive or make the initial data clone to the MobileStor drive before installation easier. MCE also ships a bundled copy of SuperDuper!, a backup and cloning application to help the user get up and running.
According to The Mac Observer, the 5,400 RPM drive can support a data rate of 66 megabytes per second with a burst rate of 150 megabytes per second. The S.M.A.R.T.-compatible drive can be verified and edited with Apple’s Disk Utility program as well as other third party drive utilities.
The drive ships with a 30 day money back guarantee and is available in 100 gigabyte, 120 gigabyte and 160 gigabyte capacities, which may be better suited if there’s a budget to consider.

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PowerPage head honcho Jason O’Grady discusses this year’s lack of new hardware at the Worldwide Developers Conference among other points over at The Apple Core.
I don’t always agree with Jason on everything, but he has a point. In years past, Apple has also used the keynote speech to release new hardware or more groundbreaking news. This year’s seemed more focused on Leopard’s eye candy and ensuring its developer community that it’d be able to write programs for the iPhone.
Take a look and if you have an opinion about the keynote, we’d love to hear it.

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One of the more significant announcements to come out of the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote held yesterday was news that Apple would be bringing the next version of its Safari web browser to Windows XP and Vista.
Safari 3.0, which has gone into public beta, is now available for download and can be used on Mac OS X 10.4.9 or later as well as current builds of the Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems. The new version adds features such as increased speed, better search capabilities and the ability to drag tabs wherever they’re needed.
Macworld News actually has a pretty good first look at the new beta, what Apple is trying to do by offering it to other operating systems and what this means. Take a look and see what’s what.
For those of you who might be a bit nervous about moving Safari over to a public beta, Apple has also included an uninstaller program in the download. Running this program should strip the Safari 3.0 beta out of your system and allow you to either download a current version of Safari or use an alternative web browser.
If you’ve had either a positive or negative experience with the Safari 3.0 beta on either Mac OS X or Windows, let us know.

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Ok, here’s the full summary of Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at this year’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference in San Francisco.
Among the high points were 10 of over 300 new features to be seen in Mac OS X 10.5 (“Leopard”), iPhone development information and brand new vows of support and development from gaming industry titans such as id Games and Electronic Arts.
Special thanks to MacRumors, iPhoneAlley and Ustream.tv for a killer outdoor photo and help with streaming the broadcast.
Click the jump for the full story…

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A recently released report on BareFeats.com compares the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics card found on Apple’s newly-released MacBook Pro laptops with Intel’s new Santa Rosa hardware architecture. The graphics cards offer both 128 and 256 megabytes of onboard SDRAM while the laptops themselves operate at 2.2 and 2.4 gigahertz clock speeds.
As expected, the 256 MB versions of the graphics cards outperform their 128 megabyte counterparts, but not by staggering margins.
For the full report, click here.
If you’ve gotten your hands on the new MacBook Pro and can offer feedback as to the graphics system, let us know.

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I’m going to grant that firmware updates aren’t quite as intimidating as being 10 years old and going to the dentist, but they’re almost there.
You know this is supposed to be helpful, but part of you still can’t help but worry. That and no one ever gave you a lollipop at the end for enduring a new firmware version on your computer.
On Friday, Apple released version 7.1.1 of its firmware for the 802.11n-based AirPort Extreme Base Station. The new version, a 4.6 megabyte download, offers the following fixes and changes:
- Printers and Routers, VPN, PPPoE, WDS(ACL), WEP(TSN)
- Localized file naming, port mapping, IPv6, and NAS
- Improved stability with keychain passwords
- Improved support for third party applications saving files to a USB disk
- Improved support for AirPort USB disk stability and power saving, disk read/write performance, disk file sharing and passwords
- Addressed an issue where Base Station would not request a password when expected
For more information, click here.
The software is also available through Mac OS X’s Software Update feature. Users will need to have AirPort Utility 5.1 for Mac or Windows installed for it to run.
If you’ve tried the new firmware and have either positive or negative comments about it, let us know.

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A scanned AT&T iPhone Sales Training Workbook has been leaked to MacRumors.com. The manual reveals several details about the upcoming iPhone, which is slated for release on June 29th.
The manual points out which previously speculated features were included in the final product and mentions which features were left out in this rendition, sch as TeleNav support for Google Maps, instant messaging support and MMS messaging to send photos and videos to other users.
Keep in mind that this isn’t a final product and the leaked manual does mention that there is room for added features via the quote “Keep in mind that there might be additional iPhone features that are announced at iPhone‚Äôs launch as well as additional information about the features in this guide.” Features may also change via the iPhone’s software update features, which could add or modify features within weeks or months of the iPhone’s release.
Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

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Late Friday, VMWare released the fourth beta of Fusion, its virtualization application for Intel-based Macs.
The new version, a a 168 megabyte download, includes the following additions and changes:
-Unity: This feature allows users to open and run Windows XP appications from the Mac OS X desktop.
-Fusion Launch Palette: This allows users to save Windows favorites in the Dock.
-Boot Camp support: Boot Camp disk partitions can now be used as a virtual machine. The beta adds “experimental” support for Windows Vista and offers Boot Camp partition detection.
-A new feature automatically updates Windows to use optimized drivers within a virtual machine.
-Improved speed: The new version of Fusion boasts shorter boot times as well as faster application launching and a more responsive interface.
-Fusion beta four also offers a customizable toolbar that can be adjusted on the fly.
-Hardware Editor: Settings for virtual hardware are now complete now with the ability to add a USB controller as well as virtual serial and parallels ports that map to files on the Mac. The virtual machine hardware editor is also now a sheet attached to the virtual machine to make it easier to determine which VM you are editing.
-Support for Apple’s 30″ Cinema Displays: Now virtual machines can take advantage of the full resolution of the 30 inch Cinema Display.
Fusion requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.4 or later to run.
If you’ve tried out the new beta and have either positive or negative feedback about it, let us know.

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First off, snagging an iPhone come the 29th is Jason’s quest, not mine. My cell phone needs still reside around an Amish level wherein I just hope my phone makes and completes a call. If my phone got any simpler, it’d be a butter churn.
Still, for those of you who are wondering about the best way to snag Apple’s newest and coolest item three weeks from today, check out The Apple Core as Jason discusses inventories, strategies, what the best workarounds might be and who might have units in stock.
I wish Jason the best of luck as he works to snag an iPhone somewhere in the tri-state area. And I feel confident that not only will he emerge with an iPhone in one hand, but a workable formula for cold-fusion technologies in the other right before someone hands him a guitar to bang out a killer 10-minute solo.
It’d make sense that way.

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With June 29th only a handful of weeks away, we here at PowerPage would like to know where you’ll be when the iPhone goes on sale.

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