In amongst all the talk of new iPads and Samsung Galaxy S III's, another product trending in the blogsosphere of late is Apple's MacBook range.
Although some game vendors have been slow to adapt to mobile/web-based gaming, Electronic Arts - known commonly as simply EA - has been extremely busy in its quest to stay relevant in a market as fiercely-contested as it has ever been.
It's a subject we've touched on a few times over the last couple of months, and now the hype surrounding the rumors of the iPad 3 have been somewhat satisfied, the tech world can switch its attentions to other potential Apple releases - namely a 15-inch MacBook Air.
It wasn't that long ago when users had to wait an eternity for the developers over at Mozilla and Google to push out new versions of the popular Firefox and Chrome web browsers. In fact, pretty much every major browser version seemed to have an extremely long shelf life before the developers felt it needed an update and brought new and improved features to the public. Thankfully, it looks as though that trend of making users wait for improvements has been put to bed, with Mozilla pumping out the updates thick and fast for its Firefox browser.
Some of the most useful applications on the Mac and iOS devices are ones that seem to be simplistic in form, but ultimately end up offering a service or solution to users which can be used time and time again. A lot of people purchase or download an application which offers a one time solution to a problem and then delete it from their machine or device, but the apps which offer a consistent feature set are generally the ones that are used repetitively.
Ever since smartphones began earning their stripes as very adept and convenient Wi-Fi hotspots, companies and carriers have been looking for ways to halt the trend - or at the very least, charge more.
The world we live in is a very expensive place where every penny counts, even more so in recent times thanks to the worrying economic climate we find ourselves in. With that in mind, it is imperative that creators of goods and services which are not deemed as necessities go that extra mile to provide consumers with truly exceptional value for money. The problem with that is that one persons definition of value for money differs greatly to another, especially when we are talking about software. A growing trend is emerging where consumers seem to believe software should be free of charge is somewhat concerning when you take into account the days, weeks and months which are put into the design and development of these programs and applications.
With Apple announcing the summer release of the new OS X Mountain Lion operating system, Mac users will be forgiven for being a little bit excited about the unexpected OS which makes a huge step towards the fusing of OS X and iOS. The newest Mac operating system builds on the current Lion offering, but adds additional features which Apple describe as "being inspired by the iPad, re-invented for the Mac".
Most of us can recall that iconic "I’m a Mac" ad campaign by Apple some years ago, which saw Justin Long represent the Mac brand as a trendy, young, modern guy whilst John Hodgman was a comparatively old, middle-aged man carrying the flag for PC.
Although many computer and software makers out there are largely similar in key areas, there are a few elements which make Apple and its Mac/OS X/iOS combination just that little bit classier.
