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OWC Tips n' Deals January 26th, 2010
In this issue:
Greeting from your Friends in Woodstock!
Hello again! It's been (and will continue to be) a busy time in Apple-land. Yesterday, Apple released their earnings. Tomorrow the 'rumor hyped' tablet will be introduced. And, in just two short weeks, OWC and hundreds of other 'Mac Community' developers will show off their latest enhancements, accessories, storage, software, and more for the Apple line up at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. I give major credit to Apple for the incredible hype they've built up regarding tomorrow's release. Awesome rumor seeding and, for lack of a better term, manipulation, to generate an amazing level of interest and anticipation for what they'll be showing tomorrow. To some degree, they've controlled the expectations. Doing so, I believe, Apple has setup themselves to exceed what is expected. What I am trying to say - and don't get me wrong, as I have no doubt it will be the best of it's kind - I expect much of the initial Apple Tablet release coverage to tout high expectations and critical judgment against what it was rumored to be vs. comparisons to PC counterparts. A comparison to a PC wouldn't be an Apple's to Apple's comparison anyway, now would it? :) All this technology is fun, and economical, as it lets us do more in less time and with greater convenience - so we have more time with loved ones and, ideally, doing some things maybe turn the tech down. After all, life's about balance, in the end. Apple Latest Quarter Earnings Reported with 33% Growth in Mac Sales
To say the least, Apple has had yet another glowing quarter. Mac computer sales up 33%, iPhone Sales doubled, and only an 8% drop in iPod sales, which iPhone sales growth made up for more than two to one. As I am not a financial analyst, I'm not going to attempt to break out the revenue and earnings numbers. It's enough to say that Apple is in an extremely strong, healthy position, fostering their leadership capability. With unrealized income in a single quarter that's nearly what their entire annual gross revenue was a decade ago - I can see how Steve Jobs would say 'it is hard to believe that Apple was now a $50,000,000,000 (50 billion) a year company now.' However you look at it, more Mac users means good things for all of us using Mac. Rarely do we see support for the Mac being an after thought. OWC has been Apple Centric for over 20 years. OWC certainly cannot raise any complaints with there being more Mac Users in the world. :) Apple Event Tomorrow (1/27) - Tablet Unveiling
Give a day, take a day – tomorrow we'll get to see what Apple's latest and greatest are. One gadget we know is being debuted is the new Apple Tablet. Apple's hype machine has had interest brewing for this not-so-new concept for months. It's really incredible, the art of Apple's team in seeding the rumors, stirring the pot, and - for lack of a better term - manipulating the masses to have all eyes turned on Apple waiting to see "what this Magic Tablet will be". I'm not trying to be a downer here. I have high expectations for what Apple will unveil. It won't be the techie specs that make it though, it's going to be all that Apple's coordinated behind it. To be sure, there were a host of slick Windows OS Tablet/Slates shown off at CES, and then products like Amazon's Kindle have put books on digital for quite some time. What I expect Apple to show off is an elegant piece of hardware with the functional, real-world use software tools that makes their Tablet consumer-ready right out of the box. Great tech specs are nice, but more important is what you can do with it. Where others show off specs, tomorrow Apple is going to sell their new Tablet - not unlike the iPhone - on all the great things you can easily and intuitively do with it. As an iPhone on steroids, out of the box the Apple Tablet should already have the same function and support as an iPhone. But more than that - it's said to be the right product with the right display technology to take the 'old media' experience to digital. Talking about getting magazines, newspapers, and, of course, books in an agreeable and appealing display format. While it's all been done before, Apple tends to be ground breaking by providing a solution, a software accessibility that has everyone wanting to use it. Reportedly, a huge industry segment Apple is targeting with the Tablet is education. McGraw-Hill has already spilled the beans that they're excited about their deal to make their text books available via the Apple device. If the usability is up to all the hype that Apple's brought upon their tablet, it will be a game-changer just for the education industry alone. At all levels, from grade school to university, printed books consume considerable financial and physical resources. Worse, when books are updated, prior editions become obsoleted forcing schools and students to buy the latest editions new. The proof is in the pudding, but this could be Apple's ticket; if they deliver a model for education that shows a long term cost benefit whereby the tablet with eBooks replaces those traditional printed texts. And of course, the Tablet is far more than just a glorified Kindle in doing this too. The possibilities are whatever one can imagine. I expect a lot of what has been imagined will be delivered in the new Apple tablet. It's not going to be about the raw specs, it's going to be about all the things people have imagined doing with a tablet and Apple having the software and deals in place that make it real. Other potential releases at the event include: iPhone/Touch OS 4.0 - another leap forward from the current 3.0 OS. Free for iPhone owners, a nominal upgrade cost for iPod Touch owners. Announcement of Apple's iTunes store and new deals for Network TV distribution via subscription (see more in our last newsletter). iLife 2010 is expected to be released with the latest updates to iDVD, iMovie HD, GarageBand, iPhoto. I'm not holding my breath, but perhaps we'll finally see the long await Blu-Ray disc support along with this. You can currently use Roxio Toast to burn hours and hours of video to Blu-Ray Disc (and of course data), but how nice it would be to have actual Apple application support for the authoring and the play back of Blu-Ray. It's just not right that Windows has long had BD video playback capability and Apple has held this back from the Mac side of the fence. I've said much about this many times... including in the our prior newsletter. New Mac computers aren't out of the realm of possibility. Maybe a Quad-Core MacBook Pro or a 12-Core Mac Pro, which seems a little unlikely, given the how the Tablet would like over shadow such. But then, Apple's got the world ready to hang on every word that comes out of this event tomorrow. That spotlight should be good for any and all that Jobs pitches out there. Real or not (ok, we know it's real), the Apple Tablet could be a distraction from another even bigger Apple product announcement. Food for thought. To be sure, whatever Apple debuts tomorrow, it's less going to be judged against other existing products and more against the rumors and hype of what's expected. Such is the power of that Apple hype machine, and no doubt they've held back more than enough to dazzle and exceed that which those controlled leaks and rumor drivers have already led us to expect. So, tomorrow, rumors can rest in peace after Apple shows the world what all this hype is all about. NewerTech MaxPower eSATA 6G - First Plug n' Play Mac SATA Card
The benefit of eSATA is high performance typically 2-3 times as fast as FireWire 800 for connecting external devices. A drawback has been the need to install and maintain drivers for modern SATA controller cards - until now! The NewerTech MaxPower eSATA 6G is among the very first in eSATA Controller cards for the Mac Pro that is fully "plug-and-play". No drivers required for Apple OS 10.5 and later (also plug and play driverless with Windows 7, this ACHI compliant PCI Express card is as easy as it gets for adding external SATA device support. Just plug it into an available PCIe slot and you can then enjoy the performance offered via the eSATA port standard on many OWC, NewerTech, and other third party single drive and hardware RAID solutions. This card isn't for multi-drive Port Multiplier enclosures/solutions that require software or special RAID controller to enable RAID operation, but it's an excellent choice for those solutions like the NewerTech GMAX, OWC Elite-AL Pro RAID, and OWC Qx2 solutions that provide a hardware controlled RAID solution and support higher data throughput via standard eSATA ports. Not only does this card offer exceptional ease of use without the worry of a driver that may not work with a future OS release - it's also an exceptional bargain, priced at just $59.99. Because it doesn't have those pesky drivers to support and to cause tech support headaches, one of its greatest benefits - that "plug-and-play" ease - also allows it to be exceptionally affordable too. If you've wanted to enjoy the higher level of performance available from eSATA - but with the "plug-and-play" operation that has spoiled you with FireWire, - then the NewerTech MaxPower eSATA 6G is your answer. OWC Mercury Extreme SSD Enterprise Solid State Drives
While we began selling Crucial and Intel SSD (Solid State Drive) products many months ago, we've stayed on the sidelines in terms of our own branded product. I'd originally intended for OWC to enter the fray that so many others have dropped into by summer 2009. Truth be told, as we did our homework and testing, we really began to question just how all these other guys we're even comfortable shipping the products they were. Short term reliability and performance were not of concern, but the long term probabilities (especially performance trends) raised enough concern for us to stick with mainstream brand offerings. When we put our name on a product it means something. We stand behind that product and it's something that we are here to support for the long term. Especially when it comes to any data storage device, there's little margin for error and the best warranty is one that never need be used. Of course, OWC's great warrranties are there, such need arise. As such, we historically engineer our products to a high standard that makes them easy to warranty, with a low likelihood that warranty will need be utilized at all. Enter the new Sandforce Processor based OWC Mercury Extreme SSD Enterprise line, which is available in 50GB, 100GB, and 200GB capacities from $229.99. These are the first Solid State Drives that deliver on the promise that SSD offers true longevity rivaling that of even the best enterprise class hard disk drives. Extremely high performance with sustained Read Speeds of up to 285MB/s and Write Speeds of up to 275MB/s plus Enterprise durability so, even years from now, those speeds are still sustained without special utilities, resetting, etc. Also, OWC's SSDs bolster an extremely intelligent management via the Sandforce processor, eliminating the issues of wear and trim that inhibit competing SSD solutions. While other SSD drives, including those from Crucial and Intel, as well as the plethora of others introduced in 2009, typically suffer substantial degradation of write performance after even just a few full drive write cycles, the Mercury Extreme SSD continues to deliver the same high-performance, even after years of heavy use. These drives also feature a 28% over provisioning of storage capacity. The 50GB is really 64GB, 100GB really 128GB, and 200GB really 256GB. This over provisioning allows both advanced media wear management that allows for the extreme lifetime of high performance + protects against data loss with best in class error correction (ECC) and SandForce RAISE™ (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) technology that provides RAID like data protection and reliability without loss of transfer speed due to parity. If you took the best Enterprise Class hard drive and made the assumption that it would never have a mechanical failure issue, you would then be just about at the level of the new OWC Mercury Extreme SSD Enterprise. It's better than that best Enterprise Hard Drive and it truly does not have any moving parts that could fail or crash. Extremely high performance, silent operation, low power consumption, and extremely high reliability make all of our new SSDs huge winners for all your data storage needs - from single drive laptop use, to RAIDs, and even to Enterprise level server use. For use in your laptop or desktop (easy with 3.5" to 2.5" bay adapters), have all the benefits of faster booting, application launching, file read/writes, and more - with a drive you can count on. I can't hardly say enough about our new OWC Mercury Extreme SSDs and the above hardly does them justice. Our website has some pretty good information and graphs. Soon we'll have a host of reviews to point you to, as well. SSD was the future - and now the future is here, with a product that truly fulfills its promise and potential. Reader Specials + MacWorld Feb/2010 Early Product Offers
As one of our readers, you can always find your 'special reserve' via the Reader Loyalty Specials page. Just by hitting this page or clicking to our site one of our newsletters 'secret encoded' links, it's all set up so you'll get the reader special pricing no matter how you come across the items via our site. In addition to your Reader Specials, this is the first notice of our Macworld 2010 offers. Many of the great partners we had for the Christmas 2009 specials have hung on and enabled us to feature their products during in association with the Macworld Expo as well. Quick Links
Online Installation Videos, PDF Docs, FAQ & more in OWC Tech Center:
From installing memory to ipod batteries, installing processor upgrades to Optical and Hard Disk Drives - you'll find help in the OWC Tech center. Tips on setting up hard drives, creating raids, proper memory handling, network setup, basic trouble shooting, and just a whole lot more. We're always adding new information, videos, etc - a wealth of information we're happy to share! There's lots of things you might pay someone to do for ya... with a little help from our Tech Center, you may learn and find out first hand how easy a lot things can be done right at home. We don't get these newsletters out far near often enough... and the entire OWC team as a lot of great insights and general commentary to share. Visit our OWC Blog - you'll be glad you did! Brand New - OWC Radio! Download our PodCasts with fun Mac news & Interviews you'll truly find no where else.
FasterMac.Net - Great Prices for Great Mac Knowledgeable Internet Access & Solutions, nationwide Now available: In addition to dial-up service packages we now have options for pure e-mail service, DSL, and new Wireless 4G Broadband too! OWC.net and FasterMac.net are now the nation's first and only 100% on-site 'green' wind-powered internet service providers. Wireless Nationwide Broadband starting for $25.00/month. For Fun and of Interest
The waters are pretty choppy in the stock market lately, Apple stock being no exception. That said, Apple's over $10 per share drop on Friday came down to an over reaction to what turned out to be bogus reporting. An investment bank made Apple a recommendation six months ago and this resulted Apple being on a list that essentially chronicles such recommendations. After six months, this list turns over. It's not a buy list but a record of what was recommended for buys. When Apple dropped off this list (at the six month mark Friday), a whole bunch of financial news outlets and shows (pretty much all of them) reported that this particular bank had down graded their rating on Apple. This was just days ahead of their earnings and new hardware release events. Knee jerk investors and news outlets had a lot of egg to wipe clean. Microsoft's leader, Steve Balmer, autographs a Mac - He's an easy target, but give him credit for keeping his sense of humor through it all. If you can't show your sense of humor with technology, what's the point? It's a good laugh seeing the various 80's TV Series intro takes applied to Star Wars. Very well done - and sure takes one back chuckling along the way. This one closes... another one around the corner
Surely, we're all be a watching tomorrow to see just what Apple drops loose. I'm excited for the Tablet and hope it's what my kids one day use in school - for all practical purposes. That's a big leap and hopefully there's more Mac too. Apple has become a giant corportion - it's not the same company it used to be. While a privately held company is firmly in control of its own destiny, Apple has a fidiciary duty to it's shareholders. I'm glad to see Mac sales still making up a large and growing portion of Apple's revenue. Truth be told, I question if that's where Steve's passion still lies and it's a darn good thing that taking care of the Mac side of the business is still core to Apple's business model. I just hope that they still stay strong with Mac offerings that appeal to the long time core, as well as those mass market models. So far, for most part good - can't wait to see what Jobs introduces tomorrow. Sincerely, — OWC Larry Contact Information
Please feel free to e-mail any comments or suggestions to: suggestions@macsales.com You may ALWAYS reply to our OWC Tips and Deals e-mail at owc@macsales.com with any questions or comments as well - PLEASE change the subject to reflect your e-mail question/comment to ensure a speedy reply! The 'fine print'
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