According to user “mactwiggy” who put up several photos of this particularly rare find (no idea on where he spotted it though), what makes this prototype all the more unique is this – production Mac models relied on 3.5” 400k floppy disk drives, which is a format that Apple by and large was responsible for introducing to the masses.

Touted to be a pre-production system, this prototype, as mentioned before the jump, will sport the proprietary Apple Twiggy 5.25” disk format. I guess that some good came out of this particular rare disk format – it proved to be rather unreliable, and was eventually shelved in the Lisa 2 with the 3.5” floppy disk drive taking over after that. Bear in mind that none of the Macs shipped to date ever came with such 5.25” internal disk drives, so this is either a very clever hoax, or a true blue prototype that never made the grade to be released to the mass market.

The person behind this prototype claimed to have purchased it through an online advertisement, where a retired engraver had this piece of digital treasure that he wanted to let go. The company which he worked for was hand-picked by Apple to create some award medallions for a ceremony at Apple, and somewhere around 1983 thereabouts, this Mac was sent as a model for him to work off of – once the job was completed, several arrangements were made to have him send it back, but somehow or rather, Apple finally told them to keep it.

Basically, the retired engraver did not sell this to make a whole wad of cash on the double – rather, he was just pleased that someone out there knew the intrinsic value of this, and would definitely appreciate in a living room. Talk about a vintage piece of computing in your living room!

Source

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Not only that, you need not worry about your textbook being out of date, since this is digital content that we are talking about, iBooks will ensure that its collection of textbooks will remain up to date at all times, and even better is the fact that you need not lug around a really heavy backpack unlike your now-graduated seniors have experienced. Apple has a penchant for wanting the best always, and this has caused them to team up with leading education services companies such as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson in order to bring educational titles on the iBookstore.

As not all students are a privileged lot and most of them do learn how to operate on a shoestring budget each month, most of the textbooks are priced at $14.99 or less – leaving you with more money left at the end of the month to blow it on a really nice meal, or stash away for a rainy day. Not only that, the new iBooks Author is a free authoring tool that allows anyone with a Mac to come up with their own iBooks textbooks.

Those who are interested will be able to download the new iBooks 2 app for free from the App Store. Just to recap, iBooks 2 will offer gorgeous, fullscreen books, interactive 3D objects, diagrams, videos and photos, fast and fluid navigation, easy highlighting and note-taking, searching and definitions, plus lesson reviews and study cards, amongst many others. Now is a good reason as any to bug your parents to get you an iPad 2, rattling off the list of benefits that the iBooks 2 app offers, while keeping secret the many wonderful games available for Apple’s best selling tablet yet from them.

Press Release

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Retro Cell Phone Handsets $19.99

iBottle Opener$20.00

iPhone Alarm Clock$39.50

Wristband iPhone Holder$39.99

XtremeMac InCharge Duo$41.70

Impervious iPod Speaker Case$49.95

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BungeeAir Power Wireless Security Tether$74.01

Room Filling Travel Speaker$69.95

Solar iPhone Battery$79.95

JAM by Apogee$99.00

iPad Arcade Game Cabinet$99.95

iPhone Blood Pressure Monitor$99.95

iPad Leather Satchel$99.95

Powered Rotation iPad Stereo Dock$99.95

Remote Controlled Helicopter$129.99

iTutor Piano$149.95

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The iBike Workout is a simple dongle designed to fit in the 32-pin connector for the iPad, and it is quite simple to download the iBike application. This allows the iPad to be used for indoor cycling training with ANT + sensors.

The iPad user can select from over 40 different power and HR workouts, and you can achieve “maximum fitness”. Man, if only I can use this with the FitDesk that I just wrote about in the last post.

In all honesty, I have not seen a lot of bike related applications for the iPad, mostly for the iPhone. I suppose that it is a matter of time before someone makes the ultimate iPad app for a bike. Perhaps this particular iBike app is going to be the one.

I don’t have any information about where to purchase this product as yet, as the iBike site doesn’t seem to have it listed as a product as yet. I do have a price, as it costs about $69.95.

Source

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When combined with the recent launches of the Iomega Helium portable hard drive and the Iomega Mac Companion hard drive, Iomega;s new line of portable and desktop hard drives for Mac users seems to be complete. All three drives will come formatted in HFS+ for compatibility with Mac computers the moment you unbox it, making them the perfect addition for Mac owners, regardless of whether they are rocking to notebooks or desktops.

Coming in 500GB and 1TB capacities, the new black Iomega eGo Mac Edition portable hard drive will feature a couple of FireWire 800 ports as well as one USB 2.0 port that delivers fast performance and versatile connections. Not only that, you will also be able to keep your heart in your mouth since it will feature a Drop Guard Case that helps protect the drive from drops of up to seven feet in height – that is more than two meters when you think about it. Forget about lugging around a power adapter, as the eGo Mac Edition will not need any external power supply to keep it going. After all, each purchase comes with a trio of cables – USB 2.0, FireWire 800 and a FireWire 800-FireWire 400 adaptor.

As for the new Iomega Helium portable hard drive, it will also come in 500GB and 1TB capacities, sporting a solitary USB 2.0 port and a durable aluminum case. It also needs no power supply and will be equipped with one USB 2.0 cable.

Shared features include 256-bit AES encryption, the Iomega Protection Suite, Iomega QuikProtect for simple scheduled file-level backup, and MozyHome Online Backup for convenient online backup of up to 2GB free. Regardless of which model you pick up, it will come with a three-year warranty.

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The Magnate is an affordable way an iPhone 4 user can whip out their iDevice and say, without words, “I have class”. Yes, the thing has leather, but it is leather inlayed, highlighted with “contrasting stitching”. Granted, it is not genuine leather like the seats of a fine car, but I’ve seen vinyl that looks good enough.

It actually uses a durable yet flexible rubber like materials also known as TPU (Thermoplastic Polyutherane). The sides are ribbed, so you will have a good grip on your iPhone 4.

The material is all shock absorbent, so I imagine that it can be dropped on its side and take the hit. The sides of the Magnate case are also designed so the user has access to ports and controls.

Best of all, it is pretty lightweight, and the inside reminds me of the Carbon Back Skin that I reviewed a while ago from idAmerica. Unfortunately, the iPhone 4/4S Magnate Case is sold out right now. You should be able to get it here for about $35.00 when it comes back in stock.

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