Unibody Macbooks and MacBook Pros, along with newer MacBook Airs, have gotten a firmware update from Apple, ostensibly addressing “stability issues.” I think they’re talking about that RAM thing because a firmware update isn’t going to change your 9600M’s faulty high-lead solder into eutectic.

Oh yes I went there!

Have a case of the Mac Sweats? Embarrassed by the wet stains on your lap after hours of using your MacBook? Targus has what you’re looking for, friend.
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Not content to pay lip-service to greenness from the sidelines, Apple has decided to sell its latest MacBook line as the “greenest family of notebooks,” a noble statement indeed.

I’m totally OK with companies going green but heres hoping that Apple actually starts manufacturing locally now that it can essentially mill Macbooks out of one solid lump of aluminum it should be able to do all of its work closer to the customer. Will it? Probably not, but a girl can dream.

Both the MacBook and the MacBook Pros can now be had below MSRP thanks to a Best Buy sale. This extremely rare opportunity only comes by once every hundred years and isn’t limited to just the old MacBooks with the new all-aluminum models applicable as well, so take advantage of it. Word is that Apple Stores might start matching the Best Buy special pricing in the next few days, too. What a great Holiday sale season!

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Don’t bother using your MacBook or MacBook Pro without the battery installed unless you’re cool with a huge performance decrease. Gearlog notes that, in the process of doing the thankless task of RAM benchmarks, the MacBook’s performance, as rated using Cinebench, dropped some 37 percent without an installed battery. That is, when plugged into a power outlet without the battery installed—some people do this to extend the life of their battery, having it installed only when necessary—the MacBook suffers quite a bit.

Apple saysthis is a feature, not a bug. The idea is that the MacBook can detect wether or not there’s a battery installed. If not, performance drops in order to “prevent[s] the computer from shutting down if it demands more power than the A/C adapter alone can provide.”

So, unless you’re a glutton for punishment, keep the battery in there.

The CrunchGear staff has, over the years, grown weary of most Apple products being borked in their first iteration, so we’ve all refrained from purchasing a new MacBook and/or MacBook Pro as they tend to be skittish. But now that Apple has released the patch to fix those wonky trackpad clicks not registering Devin may go out and snag one of those beautiful beasts.

This firmware update addresses an issue where trackpad clicks may not be recognized on MacBook (Late 2008) and MacBook Pro (Late 2008) systems.

via Mac Rumors

Like the MacBook Pro external battery/charger that was announced last month, QuickerTek has rolled out the same kit for the MacBook. It still costs an egregious amount of money at $450 and you still have to get your power brick modified for $25 by sending it in or shelling out an extra $100 for a modified brick. I need the extra 6-10 hours of juice, but I think I’ll pass and get another laptop like Devin suggests.

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A tip came in this weekend from someone with a fleet of new MacBooks. His complaint? Every 50 or so clicks and the trackpad freezes for 5 to 10 clicks and then wakes back up. The tipster writes:

So we’ve bought about 10 of them, all of them have awful problems recognizing clicks. The trackpad has a bug where it does not click about 60% of the time.

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1-up! While Apple says the new MacBook has a memory limit of 4GB, memory retailer Ramjet says that the limit is actually 6GB. You get to that magic number, six, by using a single 4GB module and a singe 2GB module. On Ramjet that costs a whopping $680 $580—$500 for the 4GB module and $80 for the 2GB module.

Now, MacRumors says that the new MacBook Pro has a memory limit of 8GB. That’s all well and good, but OS X seems to run into issues when using anything more than 6GB of RAM.

Meanwhile, I’m using this MacBook with 3GB of RAM. I’ve got WebKit (with 15 tabs open), iTunes, Adium, Photoshop CS3 (still haven’t, ahem, upgraded), NetNewsWire and TextEdit open (with less than 3GB left on the hard drive)—everything’s running fine here.

An Apple patent application is currently burning up the Internet, what with the possibility that we’ll all, one day, be outfitted with a series of tiny RF transmitters. The application, named “Personal area network systems and devices and methods for use thereof,” envisions a world where our shoes, socks, shirts, iPods, MacBooks and everything else are connected via radio, so that they’re able to send and receive data as easy as the day is long, wherever we may be.

Then you realize that this is merely a patent application, one of many, and you’re all of a sudden a whole lot less excited.

It’s every Mac fanboys wet dream to embed an OS X touchscreen computer inside their ride. When RIDES does a mobile Mac workstation though, it’s more of an Apple Store on wheels with – get this – two Mac Mini’s, a MacBook Air, iPod Touch, iPhone 3G, 20-inch Cinema display, along with a bunch of car audio wares all within the surprisingly sexy Hyundai Genesis sedan. Words cannot do this car justice though. Even if you are on the PC side of things, head over and check out the car anyway; it’s a work of technology art.

This is sorta neat. It’s the OWC Memory Pro Blu-ray Quad Interface—a mouthful to describe an external Blu-ray drive that can connect to your Mac or PC four ways. That is, Firewire 800, Firewire 400, USB 2.0 and eSATA. Too bad Firewire 400 is on its way out, though.

The drive, which starts at $499, can read and write Blu-ray discs, DVD, DVD-RAM (that’s still around?) and CD-R/RW. Those of you looking to add Blu-ray burning to your fancy new MacBook can now choose between this guy and that Amex model.

Being that we’re dealing with OWC, Mac users can rest assured that the drive works just fine with the likes of iDVD and Toast. Speaking of toast, if you pony up an additional $80, to $579, OWC throws in a copy of the latest version of Roxio Toast.

Apple is notorious for its attention to the smallest details as the latest MacBooks and MacBook Pros prove with the Energy Saver icon. The updated symbol displays an energy efficient, but somewhat environmentally dangerous if not properly disposed, CFL light bulb instead of an earth-destroying incandescent bulb. No word if this detail will rollout to other Macs via an upcoming System Update or if they are going to be exclusive to the new, environmentally friendly models.