Step Aside Textbooks and Welcome the iPod
Ohio State’s medical school will begin using Touch iPods over the next 2 years equipped with medical software according to eSchool News. They believe it will be useful for students to look up information on the fly and be able to reference things at their own convenience.
Temple University also implemented iPods in teaching students the differences between heart murmurs. Students would listen to 5 different heart murmurs up to 400 times each. They found repetition was key to recognizing the differences between the murmurs which can save patients from undergoing expensive tests to diagnose.
Read more on Ohio State University’s Website or Temple University’s Website.
Speck Releases Cases For New Mac Notebooks
Speck has come out with their new line of protective cases for the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
The “See-Thru Satin” design provides a hard casing to protect your laptop from scratches and scrapes while also providing a rubbery grip and a colorful touch.
The case still allows access to all the ports and is removable should you ever decide to take it off. It is also ventilated to allow for heat distribution.
Colors include black, purple and cranberry.
Simpsons Episode Pokes Fun at Mac Culture
Picture from Hulu.com
Season 20 episode 7 of The Simpsons featured jokes aimed at Apple.
The show starts with the family at the mall each returning one gift from christmas with “no hard feelings” when Lisa exclaims, “Mom! Dad! Our mall got a Mapple store!”
From inside the store she continues, “It’s so steril… Mypods, myphones {gasp} a braniac bar!”
The jokes continue from there with a Mapple salesman telling Homer that the my cube is “fueled by dreams and powered by imagination.”
Even Steve Jobs is referenced as “Steve Mobs”.
But there are more jokes to be had in the show. Check out the full episode for yourself on Hulu.
Find the Best Black Friday Apple Prices
AppleInsider has compiled a chart of discounts for today. If you’re doing a bit of Black Friday shopping today, you might check out the list they have on their website.
The chart includes prices from Apple, Amazon, Best Buy, ClubMac, MacMall and On Sale. It provides the prices for 15 different models of computers at all these locations and bolds the best price and shows the total discount. On Sale and ClubMac are offering some of the best prices. The prices in the chart link to the pages where you can buy them online.
Discounts range from $55-$300 off of retail price.
Check out the deals yourself on AppleInsider’s website.
Apple is also having their sale online today. View the prices on Apple’s website.
Black Friday Sales Starting Early
MacRumors is reporting sale prices for MacMall, Best Buy and Amazon on several Mac products. MacMall offered the most significant discounts last year but it seems they are getting more competition from Best Buy this year.
Sales will continue through Friday at midnight. Visit MacRumor’s page to view a chart of discounts ranging from about $50 to $250. The prices also link directly to the page where you can buy the items.
You can also download a countdown to Christmas widget (and a countdown to Macworld 2009) on Macsimum’s website.
Happy shopping!
Free MacTech Offer Ends Nov. 28
MacTech is offering a free six-month subscription to MacTech Magazine to the first 100 people that sign up. But don’t worry if you’re not in the top 100, you’ll still get a free issue. The offer ends Friday at midnight, so sign up now!
MacTech Magazine is a monthly magazine that was established in 1984. It’s distributed in more than 60 countries and read by tens of thousands of readers.
Click here to read more about MacTech magazine and view some of their recent articles.
Green Notebooks
Apple’s new laptops have the environment in mind. Here are some specs on what Apple is calling “the greenest family of notebooks”.
Less Toxins
Apple engineers were able to design the new notebooks to be mercury and arsenic free by choosing mercury-free LED technology and arsenic-free glass.
They also removed the brominated flame retardants and PVC (polyvinyl chloride).
Recyclable
The body is made from a single piece of alumninum (allowing for less parts overall). Along with the glass screen, it allows for pieces of the notebook to be recycled.
Less Energy
The MacBook has earned Energy Star certification with the amount of energy it saves. The MacBook can allocate things to different processors (the CPU or GPU) depending on which one can perform the task more efficiently. The LED uses 30% less energy than the conventional LED display and is designed to adjust to the light around it (the display dims in a dark room).
The MacBook can run on a quarter of the power of a lightbulb.
Less Waste
The packaging has been designed to be 41% smaller than the packaging of the previous generation of notebooks. This reduces the amount of waste associated with the notebook. Smaller boxes also allow for more items to be shipped at once.
Read more about the “green notebooks”.
Black Friday Sales
Apple is beginning to drop hints about a Black Friday Sale.
Black Friday takes place the day after Thanksgiving and is the largest shopping day of the year. It’s been coined “Black Friday” because it’s typically the day stores go from operating in the “red”, or not making enough money to operate the store, to operating in the “black”.
MacRumors is reporting that the New Zealand Apple Store is emailing customers about a Friday sale.
MacRumors also says that a Thanksgiving sale has been widely expected and that in previous years, they’ve offered discounts on Apple gear. However, the best deals will likely be found through third party retailers.
On that note, AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has an unadvertised policy to price match to Authorized Apple Retailers. It seems you just need to bring in the advertisement stating the lower price.
The best way to check out these deals would be to shop online or stop in an Apple store on Friday. You might also grab a newspaper and check out fliers from your local electronics stores.
Switch-to-Mac Cable
Thinking of making the switch from a PC to a Mac? Worried about the dreaded task of getting your files from one platform to another?
Belkin is marketing a cable to make the switch as easy as plug and go. For $50 Belkin claims that it will move everything from music and pictures to your internet preferences to your new Mac.
Belkin released similar cable in 2006 to make the switch from Windows XP to Windows Vista.
View a demo or learn how to purchase the cable (coming soon) on Belkin’s website.
iPhone shifts to a necessity?
MacWorld is reporting that more and more lower-income consumers are purchasing iPhones implying that smartphones are becoming more of a necessity than a luxury.
ComScore, a marketing research company, completed a survey in August that found iPhone purchases grew the most amongst people with an annual income between $25,000 and $50,000 making the growth rate 48%–compared with 16% in the over $100,000 group.
AppleInsider is reporting today that the iPhone has surpassed the Motorola RAZR in sales after the RAZR’s three-year run at the top.
