Wireless keyboards and mice – problems and pitfalls found therein. Number one thing the users forget is when you have a wireless device you need batteries for it. So I would suggest having some spares in the drawer just in case you need them. The keyboard uses three AA batteries and the mouse uses two of the same type. As always, buy good brands because a corroded battery can destroy your wireless device. Always keep in mind your wireless device can walk away and be hard to locate if your six year old decides it makes a great toy. I always keep a wired mouse and keyboard handy for troubleshooting problems on my Macintosh computer. Those directions that say "start up with the C key held down" don't work with a wireless device so be prepared. If you have an old computer that uses a wired USB keyboard and mouse just hang on to them; they will work fine with your new computer as an emergency backup for those times you need one. Something else to keep in mind is that the Magic Mouse has an on/off switch so be sure and turn it off if you are not going to use it the rest of the day. This will make your batteries last longer. When you are turning the mouse back on to use it, movement of the cursor is not instant. On my Mac Mini, it takes about 30 seconds moving the mouse to wake it up.

Updates for the Mac Mini; forgotten by some, but loved by the entertainment and lower cost crowd. The Mini has more memory and faster processor chips than when refreshed in February. The base model starting out at 2.26Ghz 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive. If you already have a keyboard, mouse and monitor this unit is perfect for the "I just want to do email" crowd. What no monitor? How about a HD TV with HDMI ports? Just plug it in and off you go. I use mine with a 37 inch Samsung but they also work great hooked to a 52 inch or a 22 inch HD TV. You will need a $30.00 adapter cable and of course a HDMI cable to plug between your computer adapter and the TV. The next model up offers the 2.53Ghz processor and 4GB of RAM as well as a 320GB hard drive to keep all those movies, oops I mean emails on.

All and all a good selection of updates from Apple although I do miss the 24 inch model of iMac. I think it fit better for those folks who feel the 27 is too large and the 21.5 is too small.

The MacBook changes, some for the good, some for the bad. First the good – the unit comes with a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2GB DDR3 memory, a 250GB hard drive and 8x double-layer SuperDrive. The graphics cards is still a GeForce 9400M graphics card but the battery has been bumped up to a built-in 7-hour battery placed in a new polycarbonate unibody enclosure. Now for the bad news – FireWire connectivity is gone from this model. So if you have any FireWire devices that you use you will have to replace them with a USB device.

The newest Apple iMacs feature a bright 21.5-inch or 27-inch LED-backlit display with a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, a wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse standard. Now with dual-core Intel processors starting at 3.06GHz and soon to be available quad-core Intel processor(s) that boost performance up to 2x. The new iMac meets ENERGY STAR 5.0 and EPEAT Gold requirements, is free of many harmful toxins, and is made from highly recyclable materials. All in all, bigger screens, bigger hard drives, faster processors and the ability to add more RAM in the two extra RAM slots.

Apple has gone back to offering two different models of the low-end 21.5 inch model. The low-end offers the 9400 Nvidia graphics card and a 500GB hard drive while the higher end model offers ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics card (with 256MB video RAM) and a one terabyte hard drive needed by graphics design people and extreme gamers. So if you're into high-end photos or gaming (WOW), I recommend the $1499.00 model. For most folks the $1199.00 unit will do fine for everyday computing.

The 27inch 2 core 3.06Ghz models start at $1699.00 which if you're using it to view several applications at the same time works really well. There is not much to say against these machines other than the fact that you need some room to set it up. I always said I never met a bigger monitor I didn't like and this one makes movie watching a dream as well as having room for all my stuff on screen at the same time. The 4 core 27 units start at $1999.00 but with add-ons can easily reach $2500.00. Keep in mind the base model (2.66Ghz 4 core processor) is plenty fast enough for higher end people. However I have been told by people who do testing with muti-theading that the i7 2.8Ghz is wickedly fast. Of course if you are adding that option you may as well add the 2TB hard drive to hold all that information you are generating. Yes all this and the ability to add up to 16GB of RAM if you can handle the price of an extra $1400.00. I would suggest waiting on the RAM, it will come down in the next year. You can however bump it up to 8GB for only $200.00 extra by filling up the extra RAM slots with a couple 2GB chips.

Kodak enters printer market

Kodak has entered the printer market with a advertising blitz. They now offer all-in-one (print/copy/scan) printers with a low price on inks. The black cartridges cost around $10.00 while the five color cartridge runs $15.00. The printers start out at $129.00 up to $300.00. If you think about how much printing you do, this could save you in the long run. I know a lot of folks have five to seven inks to replace that run $12.99 and the cost to change all the inks run $60.00 to $80.00 vs $25.00 for the Kodak inks. It will be interesting to see how this effects the other printer vendors. Hopefully it will drive prices down on inks across the board.

You have to give it to Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, the man can make announcements that others would avoid at all cost. The latest is "Apple can't control the phone market". Well, Apple is taking a fair piece of the smartphone market share. That was their goal, they have done so very quickly, and they have a very high end product. Apple is in fact diversifying their product line in order to make sure they are successful in the long term. Mr Ballmer and Microsoft do the same thing, only without the flair Apple has shown.

Snow Leopard and AppleWorks

If you are a current user of AppleWorks and plan to move up to Snow Leopard you should start converting your data today. I'm pretty sure Snow Leopard will only allow you to run AppleWorks under rosetta. Apple did not announced this but considering AppleWorks age, I'm pretty sure Apple will throw the finale shovel of dirt on the grave at some point in a future Snow Leopard update.