Amazon Kindle 2.0 Wish List

I've been looking at the Amazon Kindle for a while now, and have never been quite ready to take the plunge and purchase the device for its $350 asking price. Don't get me wrong - the Kindle is a fantastic little device, I think truly heralds the forthcoming e-ink revolution. However, there is a lot of room for improvement, and with the recent rumors about a forthcoming Kindle 2.0 (next year) and a "Kindle for students," I thought I would weigh in with some feature suggestions that would truly excite me:

• Smaller, thinner, lighter - better design (Apple-like), black/metal (since white gets dirty)
• Richer formatting: Perfect for textbooks, images, and those many newspapers & magazines
• Native Document Viewer/Editor: Supporting .doc, PDF, rtf, etc., supporting direct copying via USB or wireless without having to convert the file or pay a "small fee." Being able to edit (with keyboard)/annotate/highlight said documents would be an extra special touch).
• PC Viewer Software: Lightweight PC/Mac viewer, allowing us to view our Kindle purchases on our computers in full color, synced over the air with all of our annotations,bookmarks, and highlights. Being able to view richly-formated color pages would be perfect for textbooks, with diagrams, and newspapers with vibrant images.
• Multi-Lingual Dictionary: As a language student, consistently reading French novels and textbooks, a multi-lingual French and French-English dictionary would be a fantastic addition to the built-in English dictionary (as long as its quick/easy to lookup needed words) - great for when reading my Le Monde newspaper subscription as well!
• Touchscreen
• I don't care about the media features, as I would listen to MP3's and audiobooks on my iPod anyway - focus on books and document viewing, and maybe through in some internet features to take advantage of the Whispernet (at no or a very small fee), such as:
• Web browser
• Google Reader RSS integration
• Email reading (with push)

The Kindle gets a lot right, including cheap book prices and fantastic (repeat - fantastic) newspaper and magazine subscription options, at great prices. I especially like the international options, such as Paris's Le Monde. Hopefully, Amazon can bring more non-English/international novels and material into the kindle universe in the future. With richer formating, multi-lingual dictionary, and a native document viewer, the Kindle would be a must have device - and I would be right in line among its first buyers!

Access your FreeNAS server remotely

After finally getting my FreeNAS and ZFS-based file server up and running, I've been looking at ways to access its services from remote locations outside of my home network. There are numerous ways to achieve such a feat, such a creating a VPN between your remote computer and the server. However, VPN's typically require either special software installed on the server (which FreeNAS lacks, like Hamachi) or dedicated hardware running on the network (such as a machine running OpenVPN), which I lack. FreeNAS, however, does contain SSH, allowing you to create a sudo-VPN called an "SSH tunnel." An SSH tunnel is a secure, encrypted connection between the remote computer and the file server for a specific port. Each service running on the server uses different ports, thus it is necessary to create numerous tunnels - once for each service you which to access remotely. After reading a number of online tutorials, most of which were geared towards Windows or the CLI, I discovered a very easy way to set up tunnels between a Mac OS X remote machine and the FreeNAS server, which I'll describe here in detail.

On the server/local network:

1) First, enable SSH on FreeNAS through the FreeNAS Web interface. Also, make sure allow tunneling is checked and that SSH is using port 22 (you  can use another port, but I'll be using the default port 22 in this tutorial). Finally, I enabled "enable root login," but for security purposes, this can remain unchecked and you can login as a local user account (assuming one has been created on the FreeNAS server).

2) If you have a dynamic IP address, its a tremendous help to use a dynamic IP service (such as dyndns or no-ip) to provide a static host name to your ever-changing IP address. This is built-into FreeNAS, and can be enabled under "Services" on the FreeNAS web interface.

3) Prepare your router: You'll need to open up the SSH port 22 to outside access on your router.

On the Remote Mac OS X-based Computer:

4) Download two applications, SSH Tunnel Manager and Network Beacon, which will be used to graphically configure the SSH tunnels.

5) In SSH Tunnel Manager, we need to configure the different tunnels required for the services we want to access. For example, suppose you want to access Samba file shares on your FreeNAS server:

• Fill in your username and password, your static host name, and SSH port (22)

• Than, you need to forward a local port on your Mac to the Samba-port (usually 445) on your FreeNAS server. Under "Local redirections," you can pick any port number on your Mac (I used 5445), the "LAN Host" of "localhost" and remote port of "445." You can leave "remote redirections" blank. Then, make sure your newly created tunnel is enabled and open.

6) Network Beacon allows reporting of the local port redirections to the system via bonjour, so for example, the SSH tunnel we created above for Samba shares will appear auto-magically in the Finder. In Network Beacon, create a "New Beacon" containing the following information:

• For Samba, use Service Type "_smb._tcp." and enter the local port redirection you created above (ex. 5445). Next, enable the host proxy with the host name of "localhost" and IP address of "127.0.0.1." Finally, click OK and enable the new beacon.

7) If everything was performed correctly, your FreeNAS share should now show up under "Shared" machines in the Finder, and you can connect and browse files as if you were on your local network.

Other Services:

You can also enable other service besides Samba, such as iTunes sharing. As I add more tunnels for remote services to my remote connection, I'll update this tutorial with the required ports and information.

• iTunes Shares: First, you need to have the daap service running on your FreeNAS machine. For this, you need to redirect the remote port of 3689 to a local port of your choice (I just reused 3689), and then set up a Beacon with the service type "_daap._tcp." with your local port redirect (3689) and the same local host proxy as above. Then, open up iTunes and your remote iTunes server should appear under "Shared."

Optional: Finally, with SSH, you can enable the use of secure certificates between your Mac and FreeNAS server to allow logging in via SSH without having to enter a password for the FreeNAS user account. I may add the instruction on how to do this to the tutorial, but for now, there are numerous tutorials on the internet about how to do this. Note, you'll need to use the command line to accomplish this completely optional feature.

Dual-Core Atoms on the Way!!!

According to MacNN:

"Intel's long-rumored dual-core Atom processor now has a fixed launch date and price, according to a late leak. The Atom 330 is now purportedly due on September 21st and will be one of Intel's most economical dual-core chips, costing $43 for a 1.6GHz chip with both the extra core as well as a larger 1MB of Level 2 cache and the same Hyperthreading support as single-core chips, effectively simulating four cores with optimized apps.

The chip is believed to consume just 8W of power and should thus work in netbooks and larger ultra-mobile PCs without significantly reducing battery life. No customers have been named to receive the new device, although the new Atom is widely expected to reach the ASUS Eee PC and similar computers shortly after its introduction.

Apple is still thought to be introducing at least one Atom-based device before the end of 2008 after a leak last year, when the processor was still under Intel's Silverthorne codename."

This is really cool news, but one I've been expecting. However, it raises an interesting question. There's no doubt that MSI and Asus will adopt the dual-core Atom for their netbooks, so should I buy a MSI Wind now (or in a month or two when the six-cell battery is available), or should I wait an unknown amount of time (possibly an extra month or two) to purchase a dual-core Wind? I'm guesstimating that a dual-core Atom would essentially double CPU performance over the current single-core 1.6GHz CPU, as well as having an increased L2 caché? If so, this would certainly be a worthwhile upgrade with little additional power usage. Ah, the joys of technology: "Should I buy now, or wait for tomorrow!"

Get the benefits of MobileMe for Cheap (or free)

I’ve been investigating ways to obtain the push email, contact, and calendar synchronization of MobileMe without subscribing to its $99 a year price. For those of you that don’t know what Apple’s MobileMe is, it is a service that offers users push email (@mac.com & @me.com domains), push calendar, push contacts, push pictures, and push bookmark synchronization to/from the iPhone and Apple’s MobileMe servers in the cloud. It doesn’t, however, offer push sync from a Mac or Windows-based computer, but the MobileMe software will sync with the cloud every fifteen minutes. Additionally, the service provides some slick web interfaces to these functions (mail, calendar, contacts) that mimic the look and feel of Apple’s desktop apps (Mail, iCal, and Address Book) and a web gallery app that allows the easy creation of online photo galleries from pictures uploaded from your computer or pushed directly from the pictures you’ve taken on your iPhone. Furthermore, the rebranded .Mac service still retains the iDisk cloud storage space and provides space to publish iWeb created websites, but adds no further new features to these. Now, let me take a look at these individually, and explore ways of achieving the same effect without MobileMe.

Email: First, lets look at email. I operate my own domain, and use Google Apps for Custom Domains and Gmail to host my email accounts. This provides me with an exceptional email service, with a lot of storage space, and a nice web interface (although not as Mac-specific as MobileMe’s webmail app). Obviously, the best solution for myself and the many millions of other Gmail users in a similar situation would be for Google to offer its own push service (compatible with the iPhone, of course, barring Apple’s support), to offer MS Exchange Direct Push (which is now supported in iPhone 2.0 software), or for Apple to enable IMAP Idle support in the iPhone Mail app, which would offer push-like functionality and be compatible with Google’s mail servers. But, Google doesn’t offer push or exchange support, at least at this point, and the iPhone doesn’t support IMAP idle, which leads all of us searching for another solution. Thankfully, Gmail allows its users to forward all incoming email to another email address. If you already have access to an exchange server, you can forward your mail there and have it push it to your iPhone. If not, you can sign up for a personal exchange host online for free or low cost depending on the services you require (typically between $4.99 and $10.99 a month). I personally use a free Exchange service called Mail2Web (which also offers an upgraded version for $4.99 a month). The only inconvenience of such an approach is having to manage duplicate emails: one set on Gmail and one on the exchange server. I still use Gmail as my main account, and Mail2web serves only as somewhat of an email notification service. It would be nice, however, if the changes on one would sync with the other, but this inconvenience is a small price to pay for push mail if you don’t manage large amounts of mail per day. There are two other services available which promise to be able to synchronize a Gmail POP/IMAP account while providing a push mail through Exchange Direct Push, but I haven’t had success with one (mobiPush) and the other has yet to launch email sync (NuevaSync).

Note: I’ve had a few problems with Mail2web, such as long wait times to send mail (not immediate). I’ll post on any further problems I may experience.

Calendar & Contacts: Any Exchange server should provide you with a calendar and address book where changes gets pushed to and from your iPhone to the server. The problem, then, would be getting Exchange to sync with iCal and Address Book on your Mac or GCal and Gmail Contacts on the web. I have yet to find a solution to allow iCal to sync with Exchange (hopefully this will be built into 10.6 Snow Leopard), but its easy to do with Address Book (just enable Exchange sync; note that pictures in vcards pose a problem). I haven’t had much of a chance to research Google-Exchange sync, but will update this when and if I find an answer. Its possible, I suppose, to sync iCal to Gcal and then sync Gcal to Exchange? Likewise, perhaps one could sync Address Book with Google (possible with 10.3.3), and then sync Google to Exchange? Finally, NuevaSync supposedly offers and Exchange server that syncs with your Google Calendar and Contacts, but I haven’t been able to test it out yet. Note that its only possible to have 1 Exchange server configured on the iPhone at one time, so if you use Nuevasync for Contacts or Calendar, you can’t use another service for email (Nuevasync would be perfect once email gets up and running, assuming it works).

Note: Interestingly, it seems as though Calendars pushed/synced through MobileMe are not editable on the iPhone, which seems to defeat the purpose. I don’t know why this would be, since I thought Apple was using Exchange for MobileMe. Anyway, I will research this and update.

Photos: It’s not push, and it doesn’t sync with iPhoto over the air, but there are a few different 3^rd-party iPhone apps that allow uploading of pictures to various photo sites. This provides similar instant publishing functionality to MobileMe. I’ll update this once I test a few of the different apps.

Bookmarks: MobileMe offers bookmark push to and from the iPhone to the cloud (and then syncs every 15 minutes with your Mac), but doesn’t provide a web interface anymore to view your bookmarks. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet found a way to synchronize bookmarks with iPhone Safari over the air; nonetheless push bookmark updates to/from the iPhone. It’s technically possible for third party apps to provide such functionality, but I think accessing and modifying Safari’s bookmark store would violate Apple’s SDK terms, and thus would never be approved. Unless this changes, I assume the closest we will get will be 3^rd-party app interfaces to web bookmark service (like del.ic.ious), and perhaps an app that syncs with your bookmarks and provides a bult-in webkit browser that could be used as a Mobile Safari replacement.

iDisk (and offline access/sync): Coming Soon

Back To My Mac: Coming Soon

iWeb and Site Publishing: Coming Soon

MacBook Refresh in the Works?

There has been a lot of speculation recently regarding an upcoming refresh of Apple’s MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook lines. These rumors were spurred by purported images which surfaced of a new bottom case for MacBook Pro’s which reflected some sleeker, MacBook Air inspired design curves as well as Apple’s own admission the other day of a “product refresh” later this year. Like many Mac heads, I’m rather excited about the prospects of the redesigned systems, and in addition to updating the system specs and adopting Intel’s new Centrino 3 “Montevino” architecture, I hope that above all, both models inherent design cues from the Air, and well as becoming lighter and slimmer. Furthermore, there has been a rumor in the last day or two claiming the new MacBook would gain a glass screen with iPhone-like multitouch, built-in GPS, and an accelerometer. This would also be neat! As I previously posted, there has also been rumor of an Apple netbook. Anyway, I decided to compile a short list of what I would like to see in the new models:

MacBook Air:

• Faster Processor – at least 2GHz
• 2 USB Ports
• Gigabit Ethernet Port
• Upgradable Memory (2 RAM slots supporting up to 4GB)
• Stereo Speakers
• Audio input (Mic in)
• Kensington Lock
• User-Replaceable Battery
• Upgraded iSight camera (the Air’s current version has less MP than other MacBooks and is fuzzy)
• Cheaper Price 

MacBook Pro:

• MacBook Air-inspired curves and design cues
• Lighter (5 pounds or less) and thinner
• eSATA Port
• Faster Centrino 3 Components
• Multitouch? 

MacBook:

• Faster Centrino 3 Components
• Aluminum Case (like MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, maybe even boring some design elements from the iMac’s rounded, aluminum sides– considering the iPods are all now aluminum – I really like the aluminum look, and it’s certainly more scratch/dirt repellent)
• LED Backlight Display
• Backlit Keyboard
• eSATA port; USB 3.0 (draft) – Not especially important, I’m just wishing here!
• Lighter (around 4-4.3 pounds – to compete with Windows competition)
• Thinner (to compete with Windows competition)
• Multitouch?

iPhone 2.0 Problems: Horrible Reception?

I posted the other day about some problems I’ve experienced while using the new iPhone 2.0 software on my original iPhone. I would like to quickly revise and expand this list with one huge issue that’s bugging the *** out of me: terrible, no, deplorable, signal reception.

For the past week or so, I’ve been visiting family in Richmond, VA. I’m right in the heart of the city, a few blocks away from billboards that read “Richmond is AT&T Country,” and I have no coverage! That’s right, zero coverage - zip, nada! I’ll admit that sometimes the iPhone will change from “no service” to one or two bars, but even then, EDGE and GPRS use is very spotty and unreliable at best. Most of the time, it just won’t work at all. Furthermore, the signal completely drops and returns at whim, while the phone is stationary, and takes forever for the phone to regain a signal once a signal is lost. In fairness, I know the iPhone has worse reception than other phones (which itself is deplorable), but I know I did experience better coverage a few months ago in the same areas using an earlier version of the iPhone software (not much better, the internet was still slow and spotty, but the phone did retain some signal and it didn’t take so long to recover from a lost signal or was so quick to loose one to begin with).

The kicker, however, was when I went shopping the other night in one of the busiest parts of the city, where I had “no service.” This was standing outside, right in front of the door to an AT&T Wireless company store. This is really inexcusable! I mean, I’m paying $80 a month for service that I’m not getting. If they weren’t closed at the time, I would have walked in and demanded an answer. Is this problem specific to my iPhone, or do the store’s iPhones also exhibit the same lack of coverage? How does the iPhone signal strength compare to other manufacturer’s phones? Is there an overall lack of coverage in this particular part of the city (which I would find surprising) or in Central VA as a whole (since I have experienced the same issues elsewhere)? How about iPhone’s running earlier versions of Apple’s software verses iPhones running version 2.0? Whatever the problem is, I want answers. Is the issue with AT&T or Apple? If it resides with Apple, is it a hardware issue (poor antenna design) or a software problem, which could be corrected?

Note: Other websites and forums have reported users having extremely poor 3G signal reception with the iPhone 3G world-wide, but I haven’t read anything specific to poor reception with an original iPhone. The curious thing, however, it that just as many are reporting fantastic signals, much improved, in fact, over the original model (I would like to know how this compares to other manufacture’s phones though). Unfortunately, it all seems to somewhat be a crapshoot, and I think we deserve some type of response or fix from Apple as to what might be going on. Luckily, it seems that Apple has been testing version 2.0.1 of the iPhone software, so we can all hold out hope this update can correct things.

Finally, I’d like to pontificate further on two additional issues relating to the new iPhone 3G hardware. First, how scratchable is the new black plastic cover (specifically black)? Does it scratch like hell (like the original iPod Nano), or is it better at resisting scratches than most other plastics? Not that I would use my phone without a case, but would prefer if the iPhone wasn’t prone to scratching in the case. Second, I’ve read that Apple has removed the firewire charging pins from the iPhone 3G’s dock port, causing many out iPod accessories not to charge the iPhone 3G. I’ve been using a *** adapter n my 2005 Acura TSX for a few years now, which has worked perfectly with both my old iPod and iPhone for both charging and playing music through the car’s stereo system. I’m wondering, however, if this adapter would be able to charge an iPhone 3G, or if I were to purchase one, would I have to replace the car adapter as well? Finally, are there any adapters currently on the market that do charge the iPhone 3G for the Acura TSX? These are things I will have to research in the weeks ahead.

Netbooks: MSI Wind or a Possible Apple?

Since I first read about the MSI Wind netbook back in April, I’ve been captivated. What’s not to like about it: 1.6GHz Atom processor, long battery life, and 10” screen – all at roughly 2 pounds and with an incredibly portable footprint? Adding to the intrigue, the Wind featured a dedicated overclock button, which overclocks the CPU automagically from the stock 1.6GHz to approximately 1.8GHz, which would come in extremely handy when running media intensive apps or games (unfortunately, this feature has been removed from shipping versions, apparently because MSI didn’t know how the CPU would react to overclocking in the long-term. Hopefully, this great feature will return, perhaps through software). Furthermore, all of this comes at the extremely amazing price of $499. The only drawback: it runs Windows XP (but I could live with this). After salivating over its good reviews, I’ve been waiting to click the purchase button now for over two months.

Anyone who has been following this machine would have noticed that its US release date keeps slipping. Originally scheduled to ship around June 14, the ship date was pushed back to the 2^nd week of July in limited quantities – and then only with the much smaller 3-cell battery – for essentially the same price ($479) as the 6-cell ($499). I think it’s interesting to note that the Wind, and its many clones, have been shipping in other parts of the world now for well over a month. Whatever MSI’s US distribution problems may be, it seems they don’t plague Europe and Asia – which makes me wonder whether MSI’s market focus has inched away from the North American market in sync with the ever declining dollar? Now, Newegg lists availability of the 3-cell black version as 7/26 (after slipping from 7/22) at a cost of $499 – the same retail price MSI originally announced for the six-cell. Additionally, MSI somewhat confusingly announced that the 6-cell version will be available either in late August or September (expect this to slip too). Now the question is: Do I buy the 3-cell version now, and purchase an additional 6-cell battery when it becomes available (at an unknown price), or wait an unknown amount of time for the 6-cell version to ship (Apple could refresh the MacBook or release a netbook in the meantime as well).

As a netbook, this would obviously not end up being my main computer (I would retain a Mac for that), but the Wind’s low price, light weight, and small size combine to form the perfect laptop for porting to and from university and using in the classroom for notes and on the go browsing and work. What I really would like is a MacBook Air, but since its really pricy and its performance is abysmal for the price, I feel like it would be a bad choice as my primary machine (which it would have to be at its $2,000 price). At only $500, the Wind would allow me to easily purchase both a more portable netbook for school, as well as a larger and heavier PowerBook (or MacBook). Obviously, the ideal solution would be for Apple to release netbook Mac, with MacBook Air style, and featuring identical or better specs to the Wind, running Mac OS X and possibly containing a touch screen for iPhone-like multitouch. I would gladly pay an additional premium for such a system, as long as the price would come in sub-$800. Indeed, there has been a lot of recent analyst chatter about the possibility of Apple entering the netbook (or touch tablet) market, possibly this fall or early next year (I remain skeptical, however, due to netbooks relatively low profit margins). This would certainly be a welcome, and highly aggressive move for Apple to attack and likely dominate a whole new and fast growing segment of the electronics and computing industry.

iPhone 3G & 2.0 Software: Problems, Updates, & Feature Requests

Numerous problems and feature requests I had for with the original iPhone were fixed on the iPhone 3G and/or iPhone 2.0 software. For example, the iPhone software now supports multiple calendars, supports exchange and direct push, allows WiFi with Flight Mode, while iPhone apps. eliminates the need for Apple to create dedicated widgets for things like news, sports, or movies. Likewise, the iPhone 3G’s hardware has been updated with 3G support, and thankfully, no recessed headphone jack (so you no longer have to use adapters). These updates are great, but there are still a lot of things I’d like to see added to the iPhone in the future, and there are unfortunately a few problems I’ve experienced with the current 2.0 software that I’d like to see corrected in the short term. What follows is a somewhat lengthy post, listing in detail the problems I have with the 2.0 software, and both software and hardware feature requests for the future.

iPhone 2.0 Software Problems:

·     The iPhone (2.0 software) has horrible reception on original iPhone; frequiently no signal at all or very low reception with slow or non-existent EDGE or GPRS

·     The iPhone (2.0 software) has horrible battery life (especially with games)

·     App and Keyboard slowdown after using the iPhone for a while

·     Internet Explorer locking up and causing the iPhone to restart after browsing

·     Better cache support in Safari – (Currently, immediately going back a page or two results in fully reloading each page (or after Safari crashes), which is extremely frustrating, slow, and cumbersome on EDGE or GPRS and doesn’t provide a desktop browsing experience.)

·     SMS: Currently no indication of SMS character limit when writing a message that will be split into 2 or more SMS messages; Entry area is too small (can’t see entire message you a writing without drag-scrolling)

Software Requests I’d Like to See - Now!!!:

·     Background “Push Notifications” (Coming in September)

·     IMAP Idle Support (push mail for IMAP; like Mail.app for Leopard supports)

·     Gmail Push Mail (& calandar/contacts push sync - see below; works with Google apps accounts)

·     Google Calendar and Address Book Synchronization (OTA Push - SyncML???)

·     Tasks in Calendar (with Exchange Sync support)

·     Copy/Paste

·     Safari: Open Link in New Window; bookmark seperators

·     Flash Support (in Safari, app. frameworks, and flv movie viewing)

·     Tasks in Calendar (with Exchange Sync support)

·     Voice Command/Voice Dialing

·     Notes Desktop Syncing

·     Voice Notes (in Notes.app)

Software Requests I’d Like to See Sometime (the sooner, the better):

·    Mail: Two-Pane view (was in iPhone when originally previewed at MacWorld 07); Option to “Go back to inbox” after deleting a message (instead of opening next message); Unified Email Inbox (All accounts in one inbox)

·   iPod: Searching (available in iTunes Remote app.); iPhone playlist creation/rearanging; folders (available in iTunes Remote.app.); Song/Playlist editing/creation on iPhone and searching in iPod application (and playlist folders from iTunes support)

·   Photos: Ability to rotate photos, tag, star, rename etc. to photos and new camera images

·   Calendar: Appointments to exact minute (not just in 5 minute increments)

·   Camera: Digital zooming and stabilization; video recording

·   Photo Booth and camera effects in iChat and pictures

·   Safari: RSS reader, offline support (like Gears)

·   SMS: MMS Support; Option to view SMS messages individually as opposed to threaded.

·     “Today” like information listing tasks and messages on lock screen

·     “Don’t Ask Again” support for the annoying “This device not made for iPhone. Enable Flight Mode?” message – Remember preferences.

·     Automatic Profiles (according to schedule – not sure how it would work with hardware switch though)

·     Pop-Up notifications for new email (like with text messages)

·     Show daily calendar events on the lock screen

·     Horizontal viewing support in iCal, widgets, maps, mail (Bug: Safari should switch to horizontal when rotated and keyboard is open).

·     File browser for file Uploads on websites and in email (like pictures)

·     Dictionary/Thesaurus and Spell Check

·     iChat Mobile (with video chat - requires front-facing camera)

·     Landscape keyboard support in all apps. (such as mail/calendar/notes)

·     External Document viewer/filesystem for downloading documents/files from computer or over-the-air and then viewing them on the iPhone (outside of Mail or Safari)

Hardware Feature Requests (for iPhone 3.0):

•  Faster processor, more memory (so iPhone is faster, and more responsive – can support more features, and games can support increased graphics)
• Longer battery life
• Slimmer, Lighter (without scratchable plastic back & silver bezel)
• Increase Mega-Pixels & Front-Facing Camera (for video chats)
• Tactile feedback on screen (for typing, games, etc.)
• MagSafe magnetic dock connectors (retaining compatibility with existing dock connector)