It’s going to be an Apple Christmas. According to a new report by Duracell, Apple products are the most requested item on many kids Christmas wish-lists for 2010, overcoming toys as a the most sought after gifts by a wide margin. Not only do children want Apple gadgets, but they’re at the very top of their wish-lists.

Most Popular Christmas Gifts for 2010

The most requested Christmas toys are Apple products in the following order:

1. iPhone 4 – this is a tougher one for Santa since it requires a contract
2. iPod touch – Basically the same as iPhone 4 minus the cell phone and contract, the iPod touch would make an amazing gift and light up anyones holiday
3. iPad – I would be thrilled if Santa gave me an iPad this year

Here’s the other interesting thing, it’s all ages that want these Apple gadgets. The breakdown of Apple products appearing on wish lists for Christmas 2010 by child age:
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There have long been rumors and predictions that the new version of Mac OS X will use the ZFS file system, but with each new OS release the idea falls flat. So here we are again with a new Mac OS on the horizon, the inevitable question returns: will ZFS come to Mac OS X 10.7?

No one outside of Apple knows for sure yet, but LifeOfAGizmo.com points to the ‘Auto-Save’ feature of Mac OS X Lion as proof that ZFS is indeed coming:

As for the proof it’s simple, really. Unless Apple is developing their own filesystem, ZFS has the main features that allow you to get rid of file saving: snapshots and clones.

I’m hesitant to jump on the ZFS bandwagon, here’s why: iOS. iOS already has auto-saving, and it’s not using a ZFS file system, it’s using HFS+. Considering the whole point of the “Back to the Mac” event was to bring iOS features back to its parent Mac OS X, I would imagine the auto-saving capabilities are at an OS level.

But let’s investigate the “snapshots and clones” feature of ZFS anyway, which is explained as follows by Wikipedia: Read more »

If you need to quickly hide all windows within a Mac OS X application, hit Command+H and all the apps windows will become hidden. You can then manually retrieve the windows of through the applications Dock icon.

Hide all windows except the currently active window

Another great alternative is to hide all the windows on screen except for the currently active window. To do this, hit Command+Option+H at any time. This is a great trick to help focus on the task at hand.

I would recommend combining both of these tips with the ability to make hidden application icons translucent within the Dock, it’s a simple Terminal command to activate and it helps to determine which apps are hidden by the use of the aforementioned commands.

You can also hold down the Option key and click away from a Mac application and it will hide the application or windows being clicked away from.

Wondering where you can get all the iPhone firmware files from? Here’s the direct download links for all of the iPhone IPSW firmware files from version 3.0.0 on up through 4.1.0 for iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4. Note that we are not hosting the files, they are direct links to Apple’s web servers.
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Wondering how the new MacBook Air 11″ and MacBook Air 13″ benchmark against the older MacBook Air and the current MacBook Pro models? Wonder no more:

Update: This article has been updated with more information. Read on for further benchmark results for both the MacBook Air 11″ and 13″ models.

The above results are from the GeekBench program. In short, the new MacBook Air 13″ model with a 1.86ghz processor performs at roughly 80% of the performance of a MacBook Pro 13″, while it’s little brother the new MacBook Air 11″ reaches roughly 60% of the MacBook Pro 13″ performance.

The preliminary benchmarks appeared on PrimateLabs, who says: “There are two ways you can look at the new 11-inch MacBook Air; it’s either a much smaller but slower MacBook Pro, or a much faster but larger iPad,”

The results aren’t too surprising considering the slower processor clock speeds and half the shipped RAM, but remember that GeekBench scores do not take into consideration GPU or SSD performance. The flash based memory of the new MacBook Air makes working with the Air actually feel snappier with things like booting and launching applications, despite running at a slower clock speed than it’s beefier Pro cousin. Using a faster hard drive can make a machine feel significantly faster, and it’s a recommended upgrade to existing MacBook Pro machines because of this.

Here are some more generalized benchmarks as performed by MacWorld, they use a different benchmark program called SpeedMark which tries to give a broader overall performance view. In these tests, the new MacBook Air 11″ and 13″ is compared against the older MacBook Air models, as well as the baseline MacBook, and the MacBook Pro 13″ and 15″:

As you can see, the new MacBook Air fairs better in these tests, with the new 13″ model performing at a similar performance level of the MacBook Pro 13″. These gains are almost certainly the result of the high speed SSD drive.

The benchmarks reiterate my view of the new MacBook Air: it’s a wonderful lightweight travel companion and general purpose machine perfect for most user tasks. If you really need to be performing hardware intensive work, you should jump to the MacBook Pro 13″ line for performance and portability, or the MacBook Pro 15″ for powerhouse portable computing.

See that graph? That’s Apple taking over the world… if you think the iPad counts as a PC that is. The chart represents PC Market Share in the USA (AKA United States of Apple), and includes Apple with and without the iPad counted as a PC. That massive blue leap is Apple with the iPad.

Here’s what you need to notice about this market share graph:

• Every other PC manufacturers market share is declining
• Apple’s growth is exploding: Apple now has a commanding 25% market share counting the iPad as a computer

Did you catch that? Counting the iPad, Apple is shipping 1/4 of all computers in the USA. Did I mention that the other PC manufacturers on that graph are declining? Yea they still have dominant sales of PC’s, but look at the bigger picture and the trend is obvious. Is it fair to call the iPad a computer? I think so, because it’s changing computing. Why get a simple PC for simple tasks when you can get an iPad and have a better experience?

The chart is from Fortune, who quotes a Deutsche Bank analyst saying:

“The iPad is driving a rapid, unprecedented shift in the structure of the computing industry.”

This unprecedented shift is currently entirely Apple. Has anyone else noticed the complete and total failure of any decent iPad competitors to arrive? Nothing is competing against it yet. The upcoming Google Tablet running Android or Chrome OS show a lot of promise, but for now they are nowhere to be seen. Microsoft is also rumored to be working on a tablet, but where is it? Surely both Microsoft and Google can feel the market slipping between their fingers when they see graphs like this of Apple’s amazing growth. Will it be too little too late for the competition?

Minus the iPad, Apple’s market share of just Mac’s is still at a recent high of 10.4%, as AppleInsider recently reported. With Macs dominating college, that number has nowhere to go but up – even without the iPad.

Were you surprised when Apple decided to stop shipping Flash pre-installed with Mac OS X? I wasn’t. I posted the above screenshot last year after I experienced the most epic Flash disaster my Mac had ever encountered.

We know Steve Jobs hates Flash, and, well, Flash on Mac OS X is generally pretty awful. But if you were wondering why Apple opted against shipping Flash pre-installed with new Macs, read on.

Here are some more lovely screenshots demonstrating the wonderful ability of Flash to decimate your web browsing experience in Mac OS X:
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You can easily increase the font size of text displayed on webpages within Safari by hitting Command and + keys together. This increases the font size on a per-page basis, and you can reduce the font size with the opposite, Command and -. You’ll notice that if you close the browser window, the font size is changed back to its default size though. We can adjust that by going into Safari’s preferences.

Increase the font size in Safari permanently

This sets a minimum font size within Safari, making all web pages display at least a font of the specified size or larger.

• Click on the Safari menu, and navigate down to Preferences
• Click on the “Advanced” tab
• Next to “Universal Access” check the box next to “Never use font sizes smaller than” and specify the minimum font size you want to use in Safari
• Close Preferences and enjoy the increased font size in Safari

I’ve found that 10 is a good minimum size for my eyes, but try a few different options to see the best fit for you. The changes take effect immediately so you can see how various text sizes looks without closing the preference window.

Check out some more Safari tips while you’re at it.

You can password protect a Microsoft Word document quite easily, this is a great feature to keep sensitive documents completely private, such as your finances or a personal journal. Once the password is set, anyone trying to open the file will be required to enter a password within Word. If the document is brought into other applications, it will appear as gibberish.

You may be familiar with this technique from Windows, and it’s no surprise that Mac OS X has the same ability. Here’s how to set a password so that any Word document will be protected from either being opened completely, or from being modified.
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The college football season is halfway over, but that doesn’t mean you have half the interest. If you follow NCAAFB, things are just now starting to really heat up, so keeping track of your alma mater or favorite team is absolutely essential.

The iPhone and iPad make great tools to follow college football, and the best app I’ve found is called Sportacular. It’s a free download for either iPhone or iPad HD, and it’s feature rich instant-updates make it my go-to sports app all season long.
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