While most of the focus of WWDC fell on the iPhone 3GS, the MacBook Pro line got some love from Apple last week as well, with several upgraded features on the 15" model and a re-branding of the 13" model from MacBook to MacBook Pro.

The Achilles' heel of the new upgrades, as reported last week, was that the MacBook Pro's SATA interface was limited to 1.5 Gbps in the latest models, down from 3.0 Gbps in previous models. Although this wasn't likely to be an issue unless you replaced the hard drive with a high-speed SSD, it still seemed like somewhat of a boneheaded move to downgrade the SATA interface without sufficient cause.

Today Apple has released MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7, which makes the issue moot. The update allows the SATA interface to work at full speed once again.

If you have one of the affected models of MacBook Pro, grab this update either via Software Update, or else go here (requires OS X 10.5.7). More info on the firmware update can be found on its support page.

Thanks to reader Joachim Bean for sending this in.

In a display of environmental posturing on both sides, Dell lodged a complaint with the advertising industry's self-governing oversight board: The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (NAD). The claim? When Apple says it has the "world's greenest family of notebooks," family could be taken to mean all models of MacBook past and present -- including models that weren't built with the environment in mind.

"Common industry usage of 'family' refers to a particular model or group of models, and not the entire notebook line," argued Dell, according to a post on the New York Times' "Green Inc." blog. Dell also complained about Apple's use of gold EPEAT ratings -- an award that many of Apple's competitors have also earned.

Standing behind their claim, Apple effectively said, "that's right, deal with it": Family, in the context of the ad "refers to its whole line of notebooks, taken in toto, [and] not a particular model or group."

The NAD said there was no problem with Apple communicating its EPEAT ratings to consumers, and commended the company for its commitment to creating an entire line of notebooks that meet the highest EPEAT ratings, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Even so, the NAD suggested that consumers could believe that "family" means a line of products (and not all the products) that a company makes. They recommended that Apple use direct comparisons between MacBooks and competitor notebooks to clarify their claims of environmental friendliness. They also recommended that Apple avoid the use of world's greenest "given the potential for overstatement." Apple? Overstatement? That's unpossible.

Apple was happy with the conclusion, with PR spokesman Steve Dowling telling the New York Times that the NAD had confirmed that MacBooks are indeed the world's greenest notebooks when compared to other manufacturers' entire product lines. It appears that Apple has taken to using the word "lineup" instead of "family" on its website.

Dell issued a statement, saying they "commend the NAD for their part in helping ensure companies represent their products' environmental attributes accurately." Dell has previously lodged advertising complaints against Lenovo, and last year the company had to stop using the slogan "the world's most secure notebooks."

We're back with another edition of Ask TUAW. This time around we've answering questions about how to resize windows too big for the screen, "compulsive" updating, booting from an SD card, Open GL in Snow Leopard, and more.

As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.

Steph asks:

I recently switched from an iMac to a MacBook Pro and now many of my windows are sized to big for the screen of my laptop. I can't reach the corner to resize them and clicking the "Plus" sign in the corner doesn't help. What can I do?

Fortunately, this is very easy to fix. Instead of clicking on the "Plus" sign (the green button) in the top left corner of the window you are trying to resize, Option-click it and the window will fill your new screen size instead.

John asks:

I realize there's a method for updating Mac OSX all the time and sometimes I get the window popping up saying I have updates. Should I always update immedietly when it tells me I have some?

Mac Life and Gizmodo are both reporting that Snow Leopard will add multi-touch gestures to all older MacBooks and MacBook Pros. This has gotten a lot of people's hopes up that three- and four-finger multi-touch gestures will be back-ported to all Apple portables that previously did not have them.

Unfortunately, this is incorrect. Apples own information on Snow Leopard's enhancements reads, "All Mac notebooks with Multi-Touch trackpads now support three- and four-finger gestures." (emphasis added)

This raises the question, what's the difference between a multi-touch trackpad and a regular one, and which models have it?

The multi-touch trackpad was introduced with the first MacBook Air in early 2008. Not only does it allow two-finger scrolling like older models, it also allows advanced three-finger gestures like swiping to go back in Safari.

One month later, the early 2008 MacBook Pro received the same trackpad, with the same gestures. The multi-touch trackpad gains this new functionality because it has an embedded controller chip, identical to the one in the iPhone and iPod Touch, which allows advanced input from more than two fingers at once.

Later, the unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros debuted with multi-touch trackpads, but also introduced new four-finger gestures, which will not be officially supported in the older MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros until Snow Leopard's release.

The original MacBook Air and early 2008 MacBook Pro are the only machines which will gain additional gestures via Snow Leopard. The only reason these notebook models are able to gain these gestures via software updates, while earlier MacBook Pros and all plastic MacBooks are not, is because they possess the multi-touch controller chip in their trackpads.

Just to break it down, this is a list of the only, and I mean only, notebooks that support multi-touch gestures, either now or after Snow Leopard:

MacBook Air (all models)
Early 2008 MacBook Pro
Late 2008 17" MacBook Pro
Unibody MacBook (all models)
Unibody MacBook Pro (all models)

If you have a MacBook Pro manufactured before early 2008 or any plastic MacBook, then Snow Leopard or not, multi-touch isn't coming your way...

Well, we're still not sure our iPhones are safe to use, and now comes word from Australia that our brand spanking new glossy screens might be hurting us as well, through bad ergonomics.

An HR advisory from Queensland University of Technology suggests that:

"Reflections and glare on high gloss monitor screens and their relation to the angle of the monitor screen, could cause the operator to adopt awkward postures when viewing the monitor screen and using related equipment. These reflections on the screen can be from internal and external sources such as the overhead lighting and/or position of windows.

Awkward postures adopted by the operator may in turn lead to an injury."

Of course Apple has moved to high gloss screens on every laptop except the 17" MacBook Pro, and the matte screen option on that laptop costs an extra fifty bucks. The iMacs are also only available with glossy screens.

Of course there are other health hazards associated with having Apple equipment, such as a tendency to have panic attacks or heart palpitations when you learn you can't update your iPhone cheaply through AT&T. At any rate, there is one advantage to those glossy screens. You'll be able to clearly see your pained face as you try to stretch into position to avoid those reflections on those mirror-like screens. So there.

Thanks to one of our readers who tipped us to this happy news via this web site

Hard Mac reports on a newly released Apple Knowledge Base article that reveals this nice little tidbit about the new MacBook Pro's SD slot. Not only can you use it to dump pictures off your digital camera, but you can use it as a boot disk if need be. The article also reveals:

• You can use the thinner MultiMediaCards with the SD slot. Cards that have a thickness or surfaces that exceed 2.1mm should not be used.
• You can use standard SD cards (4MB to 4GB) and SDHC (4-32GB) cards in the slot. MiniSD, MicroSD, MiniSDHC and MicroSDHC can also be used with adapters.
• The SD slot will work with cards that exceed 32GB
• SD cards with the exFAT file system will not be read, will need to be reformatted as a FAT32
• SD cards are read as USB storage devices
• To use the SD card as a startup volume, change the default partition table to GUID and format the card to use the Mac OS Extended file format
• SDIO (Secure Digital Input Output) cards will not be recognized
• The SD card slot will work with Boot Camp for both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

[Via Macworld]

Long ago, before Intel had stolen Apple's heart, there was a time when a certain company's line of "Pro" notebooks consisted of three model lines. These three PowerBooks were differentiated by screen size and, at the time, they were 12-inches, 15-inches, and 17-inches.

Fast forward a few years to Monday's WWDC '09 keynote, Apple surprised us all and moved the 13" aluminum MacBooks up a few notches in the product line. As we reported Monday, the 13" aluminum MacBook now has a little "Pro" attached to the end of it. Thus, the differentiating factor between the MacBook and MacBook Pro line is (again) based on building material (plastic or aluminum). With the disappearance of the ExpressCard slot from the majority of the Pro line (except the 17"), even the expandability story becomes similar across the model lines.

Some will try to tell you that Apple has muddied the waters and tarnished the "Pro" branding by re-badging the 13" aluminum MacBook as a professional model. I, however, disagree; I believe that up until yesterday, the MacBook waters were muddy and Apple has finally cleared things up. It makes perfect sense that Apple would include the 13" aluminum MacBook in the Pro line -- it fits right in with the Apple "rule of threes" -- given that there were previously three models of professional notebooks.

It has been said that one of the differentiating factors between the professional and consumer laptops was the presence of a dedicated graphics card. If you'll recall, however, the 12" PowerBook G4 actually featured an NVIDIA graphics processor with shared virtual memory from the main system. This is extremely similar to the 13" MacBook Pro and the entry-level 15" MacBook Pro. These two models also feature NVIDIA processors with shared virtual memory, although they do lack the dual graphics chip capabilities of the higher-end models.

My belief is that Apple was wrong for ever releasing the 13" aluminum 'Book as anything other than a professional model. Ever since the Intel switch heralded the death of the 12" notebook, I have longed for Apple to provide a replacement. When the unibody line of notebooks was first released, the 13" MacBook Pro of my dreams had been born. It may have been missing a few important letters at the time but Monday's WWDC keynote address rectified that problem.

As Christina so eloquently put it, "It used to make sense to differentiate between a consumer-focused laptop and a laptop aimed at professionals... Continuing to brand nearly-identical products differently doesn't make a lot of sense." I agree with her on this, which is why I believe the re-branding of the 13" MacBook is a good idea. In my opinion, the white, plastic MacBook and the aluminum MacBook falling under the same moniker was a little non-sensical. Moving the aluminum MacBook up to the Pro line was a logical step for that piece of hardware.

Further, I think the fact that there is only a single model in the MacBook family points to the possible release of a future product slotted below the current 13" MacBook. Whether that is the fabled Apple netbook or the iTablet is yet to be seen. It is simply my opinion that the single consumer product rationale in the MacBook line is not going to last.

When you're out there mulling over the question of whether Apple's professional products have any significance in their name or not consider this: it doesn't matter. That's right, at the end of the day it all boils down to choice. Whether you think Apple made the right call or not is pretty insignificant in the face of having several different options from which to choose.

Update: As noted by commenter Tom , the PowerBook G4 never used shared system memory in any model. It had a dedicated GPU and dedicated VRAM whereas the "entry-level" MacBook Pros feature only a dedicated GPU and shared RAM. It is worth pointing out, though, that the iBook G4 also featured a dedicated GPU/VRAM combo which made the iBook G4 and entry-level PowerBook G4 very similar in terms of graphics-processing power.

Once again, Gruber called it (aside, I wish I had his sources); the naming distinctions between the unibody 13" MacBook and the 15" MacBook Pro are now gone: say hello to the 13" MacBook Pro. Complete with a lower price (starts at $1199 and goes to $1499 in stock configurations), and more features (SD card slot, FireWire 800, 7-hour battery), the 13" MacBook Pro will likely continue to be Apple's best selling laptop.

This is an interesting reversal of branding. When the unibody MacBooks were released last fall, they appeared nearly identical to the larger, "Pro" labeled companion. The two big differences (aside from screen size) were the video card configurations (integrated for the MacBook, as opposed to integrated and discrete in the MBP) and the lack of a FireWire on the "amateur" edition. Many of us speculated that the removal of FireWire was done primarily to distinguish between the two lines and try to move consumers up to a pricier model.

There was a lively debate in the posts about FireWire's exodus from the unibody MacBook about what constitutes a "pro" machine from something that shares the same design but is smaller in size. Without rehashing the whole debate, it pretty much mirrored those "my dad is richer than your dad" fights that always seemed to break out at high school parties in my district. In my experience, when arguments essentially become "you're only a pro if the label says so," the real-world distinction is gone.

For those of you avoiding the whole WWDC live-blogging sensation that's going on throughout the web, here's a little tidbit of information you may not yet know. Apple announced the immediate availability of a largely-refreshed MacBook line. New models include a refreshed 15" MacBook Pro, a new (actually refreshed) 13" MacBook Pro, and an updated MacBook Air.

If you'll recall the 17" MacBook Pro has a fairly handsome battery that is built-in, recharges 1,000 times and lasts for 7 hours. That same battery can now be found in the 15" MacBook Pro and the 13" MacBook Pro. Apparently Apple really has a beef against user-replaceable batteries. But if they don't require recharging every 3 1/2 hours or die completely in 2 years, this may not be a bad thing.

The 15" and 13" MacBook Pros now feature an SD card slot to be replacing the ExpressCard slot of yore. Personally, I have never found a use for the ExpressCard slot but I imagine those with mobile data packages will be less than stunned. For the Firewire crowd there's some good news, the 13" MacBook Pro now has FireWire (again) so we can all put our pitchforks down.

The 15" MacBook Pro now starts at $1,699US featuring the 2.53GHZ Core 2 Duo and GeForce 9400 graphics only. Step-up models priced at $1,999 and $2,299 feature the 9400M and 9600M GT combo.

• $1,699US: 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 250GB HDD
  
• $1,999US: 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT graphics, 320GB
  
• $2,299US: 2.80GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT graphics, 500GB HDD

The 13" MacBook Pro is essentially a re-badged unibody MacBook but now featuring an SD card slot, Firewire, and the 7-hour battery hotness The new 13" MBP can be had with hard drives up to 500GB in capacity and RAM sizes up to 8GB. It didn't take long for the aluminum 13-incher to best its white sibling.

• $1,199US: 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 160GB HDD
• $1,499US: 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 250GB HDD

The MacBook Air has also received a little love in terms of specs increase and price decrease:

• $1,499US: 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 120GB HDD
• $1,799US: 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 128GB SSD

Apple pushed out a couple of software updates late this afternoon. One is for regulating the fan speed under heavy loads on older MacBook Pro laptops.

The other is a more general 42.7 MB update for iWork '09. This is the second software revision for the word processing, spreadsheet and presentation package. The update says it improves reliability when saving some iWork documents. It also fixes some issues when Keynote sessions are played back multiple times.

Update: Users of Apple's pro video editing, photo and audio apps will also see the ProKit Update v4.5, which "improves reliability for Apple's professional applications and is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Express, Aperture, Logic Studio and Logic Express."

Your software update option under the Apple menu should get you one or all updates. The MacBook Pro update is a firmware update, and it will start up automatically after a download. If you don't see this update, your laptop doesn't require it.

Here are the included update instructions:

To update the SMC firmware on your MacBook Pro:

Your computer's power cord must be connected and plugged into a working power source.

1. Quit all other open applications.

2. Click Restart in the MacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update window and wait for your computer to restart.

The SMC firmware update starts automatically. A status bar indicates the progress of the update. During the update your computer fans will run at full speed, but will return to normal once the update completes.

Important: Do not interrupt the update.

Your computer restarts automatically when the update is completed and opens the MacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update.

3. Click OK. The SMC firmware is now up-to-date.

If these instructions appear on your screen again, the SMC firmware update was not successful. Repeat steps 2 and 3.

Thanks to Matt for the MacBook Pro tip!

At 1:30am, Ken Brinkman awoke to the smell of burning plastic. His unibody MacBook Pro was on fire. As he details in his Mac-Forums post,

"Smoke was pouring out the seam between the unibody and bottom enclosure. I actually burned my hand pretty badly ripping the adapter out. Oh man. This is reallllly scary because what if I didn't wake up? It could of burned my house down."

Ken e-mailed us this morning, understandably freaking out. Two weeks ago, Mel reported on a San Jose lawsuit alleging that the MagSafe power cables Apple uses for its portable computers are a fire hazard. We've seen Flickr evidence of melted or scorched MagSafe adapters in the past, but Ken's pictures take that to another level.

Ken's primary concern, after his safety, of course, is what Apple will do about the problem. Personally, I think a new computer is a given -- though I would also want some sort of assurance that Apple is testing its MagSafe cables for consistency. No one wants to wake up to find this on their desk.

It was just a few days ago we were talking about hacked MagSafe connectors, and now a lawsuit seeking class action status claims the innovative connectors are a fire hazard and a risk to life, limb, and property.

As an example, here's a link to some Flickr images of what is claimed is a melted MagSafe connector.

The complaint, filed last week in San Jose, California says that eventually the cord will fray from heat or wear, with a resulting danger of fire and injury. The suit, filed by plaintiffs Tim Broad, Naotaka Kitagawa and Jesse Reisman says Apple is aware of the problem and has done nothing about it.

The suit also claims when people demonstrate the problem to Apple, the company suggests they buy another $80.00US cable. Actually, we reported in August that Apple was replacing damaged or worn cables if they were not subject to abuse.

Apple has not commented on the lawsuit. It will be interesting to watch this one wind through the courts.

The power connector was introduced at Macworld in January, 2006. It has not always received positive reviews, even at the Apple Store.

Consumer Reports continues to shower praise on all things Apple it seems. In a report in the June issue, the Magazine says Apple won the top three places in the 13 inch laptop derby. The unibody MacBook was in first place, followed by the MacBook Air, with the white plastic MacBook in a solid third place.

CR also named the 15-inch MacBook Pro as top laptop in the 14- to 16-inch group, and the 17-inch MacBook Pro walked off with the honors in the 17- to 18-inch category. The HP Pavilion publicized in the first Laptop Hunters ad from Microsoft came in 4th in the category behind Dell and Lenovo laptops. The Sony VAIO FW370 that was the star of the 3rd Microsoft ad came in 5th in the 14- to 16-inch category.

Apple also took the honors for best in tech support.

This won't bring smiles to the folks in Redmond, who are going all out to convince people that Apple computers are not a good value. It should be noted that none of the Apple laptops were rated a best buy, but they all scored the highest in each category and were recommended by the magazine. Of course Apple has repeatedly said they are not trying to win on price, but on quality, and Consumer Reports seems to accept that as the case.

I generally don't put a lot of stock in CR for some of its testing, but these high ratings for Apple laptops are just one of a continuing chorus of approval from the press and generally happy Mac owners.

In what looks like a first for the Mac laptop line, support of MacBook and MacBook Pro owners everywhere, a 3rd party is offering external battery packs for MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook air models.

The batteries, from Sanho in California, are available in 4 different capacities, 60Wh, 100Wh, 150Wh and 222Wh, giving a computer like the MacBook up to 32 hours of battery life. The company is also offering a car charger. These items are all available for pre-order and will ship later this month. Prices are $149.95US (car charger), $199.95 (60-watt-hour battery), $299.95 (100Wh), $399.95 (150Wh) and $499.95 (222Wh). The batteries also come with a USB power port so you can charge an iPhone at the same time or separately.

The first thing I thought of when I saw this announcement was how the company was able to offer a charger with a MagSafe adapter, because that design is protected by Apple patents. I checked with the company president, Daniel Chin, and he told me: "What we did is obtain the MagSafe connector and cable from the original MacBook AC adapter, remove the adapter and splice in our own charger plug, which interfaces with our battery and car charger products. Since we are using the original Apple MagSafe plug and did not modify the actual plug (which the patent in question covers) in any way, we are still respecting Apple's IP and in no way infringing upon their patent."

That might or might not satisfy Apple, but it did allow the company to offer these chargers which are likely to be highly desired by some customers. At the very least, I'm surprised Apple has not offered a car charger for laptops. I can think of many times such an adapter would have been handy.

Update: Several commenters have pointed out the QuickerTek and MikeGyver power solutions for the MBP line, which predate the Sanho offering and use the same approach of sacrificing a MagSafe adapter to provide the plug connector. Apple's Airline adaptor, while electrically similar to a car adapter, is not recommended for automotive use (some have tried it with success, your mileage may vary). Lastly, you can of course use a DC inverter for in-car charging, but please be careful not to obstruct vents or leave the device plugged in and unattended... they can get very hot while in use. Happy motoring!

With all of the iPhone news lately, some of you may have worried that we're forgetting what got us here: Apple computers, not the other gadgets and doohickeys they sell. But worry not -- we're still Mac-crazy, which is why we'll still link to a Grade A smackdown on the old argument that Macs are more expensive than PCs.

After a few analysts question whether or not Macs are worth it (as if buying a powerful and easy-to-use computer was ever not worth it), MacsimumNews' Dennis Sellers pulls out the big guns, and shows that report after report will make it clear that when you compare the quality vs. cost that you get with an Apple to what you get with a PC, the Mac will almost always win.

Sure, if you compare a new MacBook Pro with the bargain laptops you'll find on the shelves at Best Buy, you'll be seeing a smaller charge on your credit card. But when you compare the total cost of ownership due to what's actually in those laptops (and the experience you'll have with each computer), the Mac is cheaper than ever.

[via MacBytes]