While UBS told us in a research note that the plant closing could affect supplies of MacBook Air and other notebook computers, DigiTimes is confident that the temporary suspension of operations won’t cause Apple or others to switch to other suppliers, since Catcher has such strong production capacity and the best manufacturing technology. Apple uses Catcher for up to 60 percent of its unibody enclosures for its MacBook and iMac computers.

Catcher, for its part, is considering investing more money in additional production facilities to ensure any similar problems in the future won’t completely shut them down. Another plant located in Tainan, Taiwan recently ramped up production, and Catcher has another massive lot located there for planned future expansion.

The planned re-opening is promising news for the possibility of an imminent MacBook Pro refresh, so hopefully Catcher’s investment is enough to satisfy local Chinese authorities.

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Well, last night, Apple released version 1.1 of the Aluminum Keyboard Firmware via Software Update. And as a man almost ready to buy Energizer shares (anything to try to win back the cost of paying for high-performance batteries every week) its description sounded very promising.

“This firmware update improves battery performance of the 2007 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard when used in combination with other bluetooth devices (eg. Magic Mouse, some bluetooth headsets) and addresses an issue with the 2007 aluminum Apple Keyboard and the 2007 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard where a key may repeat unexpectedly while typing. The update also addresses other issues.”

Promises Promises; the Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update

I can’t say I’ve ever experienced the “key repeat” problem but I most certainly have watched in dismay as my keyboard greedily depleted — in record time — every expensive battery I put in the thing. (Remember that scene in My Stepmother is an Alien when Celeste sucks the flashlight batteries dry? Exactly the same.)

Coincidence?

Not unexpectedly, the update required a restart — but that was a trifling inconvenience in return for longer battery life! In fact, it was only a few days ago I put in a fresh set of expensive Lithium batteries and I wasn’t eager to have to buy more any day soon. Imagine my surprise when the following message popped-up.

Shocking! Annoying, too. Prior to the update I could coax 9-14 days out of my batteries. The current batteries have been in for only three days and I’m being told they’re on the way out? Surely that’s no coincidence.

So what’s happening here? Bad batteries? Or could it be that Apple’s update has made things worse?

Mixed Results

I headed back to the Apple Support pages to see what was being said. The experience of other Magic Mouse / Wireless Keyboard owners is so far somewhat mixed. Here’s what Creator2456 reports:

Did the firmware update […] The keyboard also REFUSES to stay powered on after the update. Already tried several batteries so it is not a power problem. The LED will light when I press the power button and then turn off within 5 seconds without pairing or anything.

Conversely, here’s a more ebullient comment from Xorgoo:

It works ! My alu keyboard (3 batteries) is reborn! 1% lost during the night, compare to 10% before.

And then there’s this warning from Freekarrot:

This update won’t work on recent 2-cell AWKs, which are heavily affected by the bug as well. Letting out an update just for one of the affected devices is ridiculous. It means they know what the problem is and how it is solved, but they either don’t know or refuse to acknowledge that ALL AWKs are affected!

Conspiracy theories aside, I really don’t know what to make of this sort of incompatibility. (I’m not sure what else to call it — ‘Not Playing Nicely Together-ness” doesn’t sound very smart; perhaps “malfunction” is better?)  I understand Apple doesn’t develop its own Bluetooth drivers (that responsibility is left to Broadcomm, the manufacturers of all Bluetooth radios in Apple’s machines) but even so, for their own equipment to behave in such a flaky, unreliable manner really isn’t the ‘Apple Way’ to which I have become accustomed. It’s all supposed to ‘Just Work’, right?

Think about it; if Microsoft were to build a bluetooth keyboard and mouse that, individually, worked just fine but, together, played very silly games with battery-life, we would be so quick to tut-tut and shake our heads. We would chuckle, too, adding ever-so-smugly (in the manner many Mac-heads are wont to do when commenting on Windows-PC-based problems) “Well, what do you expect from Microsoft?”

Just prior to the Firmware update, the now-very-happy Xorgoo complained;

More Than 100 days, more than 300 posts, and… nothing.
Apple, you have to do something.
And you should at least give us some news.
Do you think time will cure the trouble ? It won’t…

Well, Apple has done something. We now we have an update, but judging from my own initial experience and fresh comments on the Apple support pages, problems remain. Of course, one is a poor sample — my batteries may have already been too far-gone to benefit from the updated firmware. Maybe.

So now it’s over to you. Have you tried updating your firmware? Has it made any sort of difference? Share your findings with me in the comments below. And please… no comments about how we should ditch our Apple keyboards. I don’t care how shiny your Logitech is.

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Two Taiwanese companies are cited in the report as having received the contracts for the aluminum casings and the touchscreen panels that the upcoming Apple slate will use in its construction. If true, this means that the tablet will indeed sport an aluminum enclosure, and I’d expect something akin to the unibody construction process used in the MacBook Pro casing to be applied here. Imagine the build quality of that machine, without a hinge as a point of weakness. It’ll be quite hardy.

AVY Precision Technology is said to be the supplier for the cases. The company manufactures covers for various electronic devices. The cases haven’t yet begun production, though they will very soon, according to Reuters’ sources:

“Production of the cases will begin in February, so everything points to a second-quarter launch right now,” said one of the sources. “It doesn’t take that long for the company to assemble the PC together, but a second-quarter shipment date is what we’re looking at now.”

As for the touchscreen panels, the sources cite TPK Solutions as yet another supplier for that component of the devices. It joins Wintek, which is reportedly already producing panels for the tablet, too. Apple seems to be preparing for a fairly ambitious initial production run. The panels have reportedly already begun shipping.

The timing of the orders and shipments implies a second-quarter 2010 launch for the device.

I’m of the opinion that this new rumor is fairly reliable, for a few reasons. First, at CES last week, many manufacturers took the opportunity to try to steal some of Apple’s tablet thunder by unveiling slate-type computers and media devices themselves, Microsoft and HP being the most notable among them. Second, in the wake of the Mac Observer piece by a former Apple marketing manager revealing the internal workings of and purposes behind Apple’s intentional leaks, this latest rumor seems to fit the bill pretty well.

Stoking the rumor fires with relatively inconsequential information about parts suppliers manages to draw some of the attention back to Apple and away from competitors, while not really revealing any major new details about the upcoming device — except for the aluminum casing thing, which could actually be pretty cool.

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Along with new iMacs, Mac minis, mice and MacBooks, Apple also quietly unveiled a made-over Remote. It still does the same thing it always has, which is control you Mac or dock-connected iPod remotely, but now it does it with a different aesthetic and improved usability.

The new remote, as you can see from the picture accompanying this post, has an aluminum enclosure and black plastic buttons, borrowing a cue from the design of recent iMacs and MacBook Pros. Note also the button layout change. The Play/Pause button now resides beneath the directional/volume/skip radial button, a new neighbor for the Menu button. The positioning should be better for folks who use Front Row, in which they activate back/forward functions, but I think I prefer the old layout myself, being strictly a VLC guy.

I am happy about the change in the battery door location. You can now use a coin to swivel out the battery cover, sort of like you do on an Apple wireless keyboard. Much better than old bottom-loading batter drawer on the plastic model, which was prone to popping open and just felt generally unstable.

I’m surprised by Apple, which has demonstrated a clear distaste for buttons recently with the iPod shuffle and the new Magic Mouse. It’s only be a matter of time before the Remote gets redesigned as a touch-sensitive slap of nondescript solid aluminum, mark my words.

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Well, the Apple Store went down, and we waited with bated breath. And most of what people expected to see came true. One of those expectations was new iMacs, and Apple’s all-in-one desktops did indeed get a nice upgrade and redesign. That means you’re old hat, iMac which I’m typing this up on right now.

The new iMacs feature LED-backlit 21.5 and 27-inch widescreen displays, with a new edge-to-edge glass and seamless aluminum case design. It’s quite the sexy little get up, and it’s sure to turn a few heads. Also sure to turn heads is the introduction of quad-core processors to the iMac line, though the entry level model still sports an Intel Core 2 Duo processor by default.

In the official Apple press release detailing the new hardware, Phil Schiller focused on the LED-backlighting and the inclusion of the new Magic Mouse when talking up the new all-in-ones:

The iMac is widely praised as the best desktop computer in the world and today we are making it even better. With brilliant LED displays and the revolutionary Magic Mouse, the new iMac delivers an amazing desktop experience that we think customers will love.

The new displays feature 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution for the 21.5-inch, and 2560 x 1440 for the 27-inch, which mathematically inclined readers will note makes the aspect ratio for the screens 16:9. That’s good news for HD movie and TV show watchers, but the changed ratio might not excite web and print professionals quite as much. Still, as Apple points out, the display on the new 27-inch screen does provide 60 percent more working area, which is never a bad thing.

Graphics computing power also gets a boost in the new line. The NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated card is still around, but the ATI Radeon HD 4670 discrete card is an option on the 21.5- and 27-inch model, while the ATI Radeon HD 4850 is reserved as an option exclusively available for the bigger computer. The new iMacs now have 4GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 RAM standard, and the potential to increase that to up to 16GB.

As for storage space, you’ll get 500GB in the base 21.5-inch model, or 1TB in the mid-range 21.5-inch or top-of-the-line 27-inch versions. All drives operate at 7200 rpm. Of the four available models, only the most expensive 27-inch 2.66 GHz version offers a Core i5 chip, with an option to upgrade to the Core i7. All three of the other models offer the Intel Core 2 Duo processor operating at 3.06GHz. Four USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800, and a brand new SD card slot are also standard on all models.

New iMac owners get a nice bonus when it comes to input devices, as wireless keyboards and the new Magic Mouse, which only comes in a wireless (Bluetooth) variety, are now standard with every machine. Apple is clearly doing its best to de-clutter your workspace, or at least to add to the perceived value of its machines, since the price points of the new models have not changed as some had suspected. The base models are priced at $1,199, $1,499, $1,699 and $1,999 respectively.

So long as you aren’t in the market for the $2,000 quad-core beast, you can order now from the Apple Store and your computer should ship in 1-3 business days. The Core i5 model isn’t shipping until “November,” according to Apple’s website, which is maddeningly vague. Attempting to upgrade to the Core i7 does nothing to remedy the situation, which doesn’t come as a surprise.

Finally, I spotted a new Apple Remote as an add-on option on the ordering screen. Not an iMac exclusive, but the little guy does get an aluminum makeover, with black buttons, and looks much fancier. Is it worth an additional $19 now? Not sure, but at least it matches the machine it works with.

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The price of the new iMac for education (PDF link) hasn’t changed, but the hardware definitely has, and for the better. For starters, it uses the aluminum body frame that’s been the standard for all iMac machines, save the old 17-inch polycarbonate machine it’s replacing. It also gets the same 1066MHz front-side bus as its consumer cousins, though only a 2.0GHz processor, compared to the 2.66GHz for people and institutions not trying to teach anyone anything.

The $899 price tag will also kit out the iMac with 1GB DDR3 RAM, a 160GB SATA HD, and the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor that is now the standard entry-level card across Apple’s Mac lineup. All the standard ports, and the usual optical drive and wireless card, are also included.

For those counting, that means educational institutions get half the RAM and half the hard drive space in exchange for a cost savings of $300 per unit. Not a bad deal, considering most educational customers will never have cause to upgrade beyond those specs, as they’d primarily be buying the machines to fill up computer labs and/or student common areas.

Note that this deal isn’t for individual students, staff or faculty of educational institutions, but for the institutions themselves. Now might be a great time to start that correspondence school for ballroom dancing you’ve always dreamed about.

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Apple had it so close…

That was the first thought I had when Apple unveiled the new aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pro on October 14.

Many Mac owners out there are still longing for a successor to the PowerBook G4 12″. I am one of them. Someone needs the features and performance of Apple’s Pro notebooks in a 12″ or 13″ form factor that, to me, is just right. In the days leading up to the unveiling, I had hoped that the new MacBook, already rumored to sport blazing fast graphics performance, would essentially be a MacBook Pro. As it turns out, the new aluminum MacBook is really The 13″ MacBook Pro That Could Have Been.

Size vs. Features

As part of my daily work, I often have to use devices ranging from HDV camcorders to RAID arrays that connect by FireWire 400, 800 or eSATA (via ExpressCard). For this, my Mid 2007 MacBook Pro 15″ is the perfect workhorse. But having lugged the five-pound MacBook Pro around almost daily for over a year, I am yearning so badly for something lighter to relieve these aching shoulders of mine.

My first notebook, a Sony VAIO ultraportable, had everything I could ask for in a small, lightweight package and was a pleasure to use. This ultraportable has had me convinced that the size of a notebook does not have to be inversely proportionate to the richness of its features.

So what are my options? The new aluminum MacBook comes closest to being the candidate of choice. The leap in graphics performance alone sets it as a worthy MacBook Pro replacement, and is why it is a contender now when I never took a second look at its predecessor before. But the lack of either FireWire or ExpressCard, both exclusive to the MacBook Pro, is the one deal-breaker.

The FireWire Fiasco

Since the announcement, it is almost impossible to talk about the new aluminum models without mentioning FireWire. A lively debate regarding Apple’s decision to drop FireWire from the MacBook has risen among users; proponents favoring the move cite the fact that FireWire has a smaller marketshare than USB, while opponents see the omission as a blatant maneuver by Apple to protect its Pro product line.

So who’s right and who’s wrong? The answer is a sum of many parts.

The NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics chipset in the new portable Macs has been getting all the attention. But little has been said of another internal change: the I/O controller chipset. In the previous-generation MacBook, it is the Intel “Santa Rosa” chipset which governs SATA, USB, Audio, Wi-Fi, and networking. This has been replaced with an NVIDIA integrated controller. What is interesting is that, in the course of designing the GeForce 9400M and its accompanying integrated controller, NVDIA left FireWire out of the list of I/O interfaces supported by its integrated controller.

The Trend Is Bucking

Digging deeper, Apple’s only response so far (in the form of an email ostensibly from Steve Jobs) is that consumer camcorders released in the past two years use only USB 2.0 for connectivity. Specifically, such camcorders record footage into AVCHD files instead of onto tapes. FireWire, for which its high sustained transfer speed is crucial to capturing footage from tape in real-time, is now irrelevant; getting the footage in your solid-state or HDD camcorder into your Mac is now a simple file transfer operation.

Personally, I am of the opinion that the increasing irrelevance of FireWire in those consumer products is conveniently a coup for Apple to leverage FireWire as a differentiator between the MacBook and the MacBook Pro. Marketing has won this round.

The good news? There is a FireWire specification called FireWire S800T (IEEE 1394c), which provides the speed of FireWire 800 over a Cat 5 cable. Yes, that’s Gigabit Ethernet. The standard was proposed a year ago; to date, no products have shown for its adoption. I suspect something is brewing at Apple.

The Search Continues

Going back to my search for the imaginary successor to the PowerBook 12″, I do believe a 13″ MacBook Pro would be a huge hit with consumers and professionals alike. Now that both classes share the same unibody form factor, I would think that introducing a 13″ MacBook Pro is more of whether Apple wants to rather than if Apple can. Naturally, if that does happen, Apple would want to protect the sales of the MacBook. Even if it prices this 13″ MacBook Pro close or equal to that of the 15″, I am confident it would still fly off the shelves.

Apple nailed the psyche of Mac users when it stated, in its recent Q4 2008 financial results conference call, that Mac owners are more likely to “postpone purchases… to delay than switch”. And it is true: I love OS X and I will never go back to Windows. I am a professional user whose needs are beyond what the MacBook can give me, but I could really do with a smaller and lighter notebook. For now, I’ll just have to hang on to my Mid 2007 MacBook Pro 15″ for as long as my suffering shoulders can bear.

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As predicted, Apple today introduced two new models of MacBook, featuring all-aluminum cases constructed from a solid block (or “brick”) of aluminum.  The new models much more closely resemble their Pro siblings than did the previous white and black plastic MacBooks. The entry-level ($1099) white MacBook will also continue to be offered, but receives a discount of $100, which, combined with the education discount, makes it a very attractive first laptop for students.

Here’s a breakdown of what the new models offer:

• Aluminum enclosure
• LED backlit, corner-to-corner glass display (with the iMac-style black border)
• Nvidia 9400M Graphics (integrated, but promising up to 6x better performance)
• Bigger, multi-touch glass trackpad (featuring new four-finger gesture support and trackpad-as-button design)
• New Mini Display Port (which supports DVI, VGA, and Dual-DVI adapters)
• Macbook Air-style black keyboards
• 0.95 inches thick, 0.5 lbs lighter than its predecessor
• 5 hours of battery life

The two new models are priced at $1,299 and $1,599, with the cheaper model offering a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3MB L2 Cache, 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 memory, 9400M GeForce, 160GB hard drive and SuperDrive. The more expensive option will get you a 2.4GHz processor, 2GB of ram, a 250GB hard drive and a backlit keyboard. A 128 SSD option is also available as a custom configuration.

Speculations of Blu-ray drives and an $800-$900 price point proved false. The new MacBooks are also the most environmentally friendly ever created by the company, owing to more efficient manufacturing processes and the use of less dangerous materials. Both new models are shipping today for online orders (as of this writing the store is down) and should be on brick-and-mortar store shelves tomorrow.

I don’t know about you, but my credit card finger is getting mighty itchy.

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