Tech News Round-Up

New Apple MacBooks

Over the few days there've been a few new tech items that have had me excited. First on that list is easily the new Apple Macbook and the processor speed upgrades for the Apple Macbook Pros. The new Macbook sports a 13.3 inch widescreen, with configurations that all but eliminate the G4 based 12 inch Powerbook and iBooks from Apple's line up thus completing the Intel conversion of Apple's notebook offerings. The new Macbooks are immediately avialable via the Apple store with delivery times of only a few days...not to shabby for a new system offering.

I'll probably get one of these Macbooks one day. For my pro-machine I prefer spending my money on a solid tower system that I can upgrade and keep around for awhile to make the most of my investment. These Macbooks look like a good deal for a consumer level Mac and should make it affordable for me to have a portable Mac. I can't wait to see what the new Mac Pro desktop systems are going to look like. I like the improvements they've made on their systems so far with this migration to the Intel architecture. Hopefully the pro desktops won't disappoint.

Wii Takes the Show at E3

It seems unanimous after reading the wrap-ups and reports from the E3 Electronic Entertainment show, that Nintendo with it's upcoming Wii console and popular DS handheld gaming system have impressed everyone with their presentation and gaming offerings. Hell, even the VP's of Sony and Microsoft are both talking up the Wii as a 2nd system to buy along with their consoles. I've never been that much of a Nintendo fan, owning a DS for the past year and a half has definitely changed my mind on that. From what I've heard about the Wii I'm intrigued, it might be the first Nintendo console I buy.

Sony's Playstation 3 has me unimpressed for the most part. Forcing users to swallow a 500 to 600 dollar price tag, to buy a Blu-ray disc player wrapped into a game console is kind of a shakey proposition. The HD DVD wars aren't even over yet, there's no guarantee that Blu-Ray is going to be the format of choice. With Sony's past history in format wars, they aren't a horse I'm willing to bet on (anyone remember Betamax?).

Blu-ray drive aside, what is the PS3 really offering? Higher definition football, boxing and shooting games? These are the same games we've been playing for awhile now. Despite the tech advances on the guts of the box, there aren't any innovative games being touted from the Sony camp. Sure they'll have the umpteenth GTA game, but esstentially it's the same game we've played since GTA3. That's where Nintendo is grabbing people's attention both with the DS and with the Wii. They are the one company trying to grab new gamers, attempting to attract untapped markets, and trying to give us something truely new, while at the same time improving on our old favorites. Maybe Sony has something up its sleeve for their titles, whatever it is they're keeping it a secret so far.