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In this issue
Nov. 23, 2009
JWisdom.com: Actually, it really is all about you with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff
Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Nov. 24, 2006 / 3 Kislev, 5767

Apple's twin wonders

By Mark Kellner

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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Over the course of the past 30 years or so in which Apple Computer has done business, it's quite possible that 2006 will go down as one of the firm's best, if not its best so far. That's in no small measure due to something which might well have been thought impossible: a super-successful migration from the PowerPC processor to various CPUs made by Intel Corp.


Within the past two weeks, Apple has upgraded the Intel processors in two of its portables, the MacBook and MacBook Pro, offering greater speed at the same price as earlier models. If the former computers were good values, the new models are superb values worth weighing for an end-of-year purchase or for holiday gift giving.


The MacBook Pro, with its 15-inch screen and 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, will be a very good choice for many traveling business people, I'd suspect. The screen is large without being overbearing (Apple offers a 17-inch version, but it's unwieldy) and as delivered for review, with 2 GB of RAM and a 160 GByte hard drive, it certainly offers enough capacity for most road warriors. Configured as described, count on spending $2599, or $100 than the base price, for this model.


Along with size and a marginally more powerful CPU chip than the smaller MacBook sent for review, what's nice about the MacBook Pro is its made-for-business styling, the ability to handle up to 3 GB of RAM, or 50 percent more than a maxed-out MacBook, and a better graphics card, ATI's Mobility Radeon X1600, with 256 Mbytes of dedicated RAM. By contrast, the MacBook uses an Intel graphics processor which shares 64 Mbytes of RAM with the main system memory.


What this means is that for the on-the-road photographer or filmmaker, the MacBook Pro - and probably a 17-inch version for Mr. Spielberg - is your best bet. Ditto for other "creative" types who need a bit more power and performance. Processor-to-processor, however, I don't know if the .33 GHz advantage of the MacBook Pro over its smaller sibling is compelling; when the RAM and graphics are factored in, it becomes a different story for many of us.


For me, though, I'd probably want to spend about $800 less on a very nicely equipped MacBook and spend the balance on a digital camera or some such. The MacBook, with which I fell in love last summer while toting one around southwestern Turkey, is back in a new and improved model with a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo chip and up to 2 GB of RAM and a 160 Gbyte hard disk drive, all this for $1774 from Apple. All that's more than enough for yours truly, and perhaps for many other people. You can go up to a 200 Gbyte hard drive on both the MacBook and Pro models, however.


In performance, the MacBook earns my respect for several things. One is its sleek design, which isn't James Bond-like, but is stylish enough. The "Chiclets" style keyboard grows on you; at least it grew on me, and I prefer typing on it a bit more than the MacBook Pro's keys.


Other features of the MacBook work very nicely, including the built-in Wi-Fi antenna and iSight camera. Sound quality is very good, and there are enough ports to connect a range of peripherals. I wish the trackpad offered a few more scrolling options, but at least you can tap on it to duplicate a mouse click, once you specify this in the system settings.


My earlier endorsement of both MacBook models, basic and Pro , stands, and is enhanced with more bang for your computing buck. Oh, and do I need to remind you that with Parallels Workstation software, you can run Microsoft Windows (if needed) alongside the Mac OS? Details on the machines at http://www.apple.com.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here.

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