Every day there’s a new set of rumors around Apple products, yesterday it was about the new cheaper iPhone with wireless syncing and today it’s about the MacBook Pro 2011 refresh and iPad 3.

MacBook Pro 2011 refresh prices, launch due on Thursday, February 24?

Up until now the rumors of a MacBook Pro refresh have been mostly speculation, much based on the recent Intel ad that showed a nice looking Mac-like laptop. Now several rumor sites are claiming that the Thursday February 24 will be the release date (which just so happens to be Apple CEO Steve Jobs birthday).

Adding some credibility to this claim is that BestBuy is apparently showing the following new MacBook Pro SKU’s and prices in their inventory:

• MC724LL/A-SKU# 9755395 – $1499 – 13 inch
• MC700LL/A-SKU# 9755322 – $1199 – 13 inch
• MC725LL/A-SKU# 1535918 – $2499 – 17 inch
• MC723LL/A-SKU# 1535845 – $2199 – 15 inch
• MC721LL/A-SKU# 1535836 – $1799 – 15 inch

Assuming these numbers are accurate, the pricing for the 2011 MacBook Pro’s will be the same as existing models. Some have took this to suggest the 2011 refresh may not feature the dramatic redesign that has been hotly speculated about (including the cool mockup shown above out of Italy).
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With all the new tools like Twitter for Mac, it’s easy to forget that email is still a dominant form of communication online. I use Gmail constantly and I like to be alerted to new messages coming in without having a dedicated window open at all times, so with this in mind here are three options to get Gmail notifications onto your Mac desktop, plus a bonus usability tip that’s essential for any Mac webmail user.

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This Mac setup does a great job of showing the opposite ends of the Apple spectrum here, with the large 27″ iMac sitting next to the tiny MacBook Air 11″ and an even smaller iPad and iPhone. According to the images Flickr page, the glowing Apple logo box above the iMac is a custom creation. Round it all off with some wall mounted speakers, and you have a great Mac setup.

Finding a decent iPhone to video converter can be a pain, and finding one that the average person finds easy to use can be even worse. Thankfully along with the Mac App Store came Miro Video Converter, a practically foolproof and no frills video conversion utility that can convert just about any video file into an iPhone compatible format with the click of a button.

How to Convert Video to iPhone Format Free with Miro Converter

This is as easy as it gets:

• Download Miro Video Converter, it’s free from the Mac App Store (direct link)
• Launch Miro Video Converter
• Drag a movie file into the app
• Select your output type (I recommend “Apple Universal”)
• Click “Convert!”

The conversion is surprisingly quick, and the newly converted video file will appear in the same directory that the original source video was located. If you chose “Apple Universal” you’ll now have a MP4 file that can be brought onto your iPhone (or iPad, iPod touch, etc) and played hassle free.

The downside to apps like Miro is that the simplification takes away more advanced options that some users require. In that case and you want more control over the conversion and video quality, check out converting video to iOS formats with Handbrake. It’s also free to download and pretty easy to use, but has significantly more options like bitrate, frame rate, subtitle support, and more.

Update: Several commenters have suggested using Evom, which is a great utility we have discussed before in the context of converting web videos to Mp3, it is also free.

The New York Times has apparently confirmed that Apple is working on a cheaper iPhone, aimed to broaden the devices appeal in the face of an increasingly competitive mobile landscape. The NYT also disputes some of the past claims regarding new iPhones from WSJ and Bloomberg, specifically that the cheaper device won’t be smaller than the existing iPhone 4.

Another person who is in direct contact with Apple also said that the company would not make a smaller iPhone at this time, in part because a smaller device would not necessarily be much cheaper to manufacture and because it would be more difficult to operate.

More important, a phone with a smaller screen would force many developers to rewrite their apps, which Apple wants to avoid, the person said.

This is interesting because the language specifically addresses the disadvantages of a smaller screen, to me this continues to suggest the new cheaper iPhone will use the same screen as the existing iPhone 4. Maybe this is a controlled leak to alleviate some of the concerns voiced in the developer community about working with another iOS screen resolution?

The New York Times also specifies that the new iPhone will be ready this summer, perhaps at the rumored date of WWDC 2011 and iPhone 5 launch.

Wireless Syncing via Free MobileMe
Finally, backing up prior reports, a new free version of MobileMe will also be released that allows for wireless syncing, according to the NYT:

“The goal is that your photos and other media content will eventually just sync across all your Apple devices without people having to do anything,”

Wireless syncing and easily accessible cloud storage have long been desired by the Apple community. The New York Times did not specify a timeline for the relaunch of MobileMe, but we assume it would be made available along with the new cheaper iPhone, iPhone 5, and a new version of iOS.

If the 80’s block iPhone case and Cathode Terminal weren’t reaching far enough back in time for you, maybe this will.

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GreenPois0n RC6.1 has been released for iOS 4.2.1, the untethered jailbreak includes an update that resolves the iBooks DRM issue that caused some iOS jailbreakers from losing access to certain protected iBooks.

Download GreenPois0n RC6.1

Mac & Windows versions are currently available:

• Download Now (Mac)
• Download Now (Windows

Like the past GreenPois0n RC releases, RC6.1 includes support to jailbreaking iOS 4.2.1 on the following hardware:

• iPod Touch 2G, 3G, 4G
• iPad
• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 4
• Verizon iPhone 4 (iOS 4.2.6)
• Apple TV 2

Using RC6.1 is the same as past GreenPois0n RC releases, you can follow our how to guide on jailbreaking iOS 4.2.1 untethered with GreenPois0n or you can use iPad specific instructions.

If you require unlock and baseband preservation, you should use PwnageTool 4.2 instead.

If the Mac App Store is open and there are updates available, you’ll notice a red badge appear on the App Store icon in the Mac OS X Dock. Of course most users click on that and update their apps from the Mac App Store that way, but for some versions of OS X there is another option to update directly from the Dock!

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Is this what a liquid metal MacBook Pro might look like? This mockup is based on the recent MacBook Pro-ish Intel ad that sparked a wave of speculation that Intel may have accidentally leaked the nextgen MacBook Pro redesign.

The mockup compared to the current MacBook Pro shows that it would be quite a bit slimmer:
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Has the CDMA iPhone 4 been unlocked? The Wall Street Journal is reporting that employees of China Telecom have “cracked” the Verizon iPhone 4 to work on the China Telecom CDMA network. The article seems a little confused as to the differences between a jailbreak or unlock, but here’s the important line:

A post signed the “Apple Lab Team” on the Sina Weibo account identified as belonging to the Guangdong branch of China Telecom said Tuesday the “CDMA iPhone 4 has made its first call in China” without a hitch.

The only way for a CDMA iPhone 4 to make a call on another network would be if the device had been unlocked, freeing the iPhone from its carrier shackles. WSJ then references a picture of the CDMA iPhone 4 with a Cydia app on the homescreen, but that’s not much evidence considering the Verizon iPhone can be jailbroken using either GreenPois0n RC or PwnageTool 4.2.

Those familiar with developing iPhone unlocks have long stated that the CDMA iPhone presents a unique challenge because moving a CDMA device to another network typically requires that new networks assistance in order to activate the phone. This simple fact is also what makes this news from China Telecom most compelling, as it suggests the unlock is being developed directly by the carrier themselves, which would ensure carrier compatibility from the get-go. If China Telecom manages to pull this off, it could represent a blueprint for other CDMA carriers to follow that would allow them to unofficially offer the iPhone 4 on their networks too.

An unlocked CDMA iPhone 4 would undoubtedly be popular both in the USA and abroad, we’ll keep you posted to any news.

You’ve probably noticed we’re fans of some retro tech stuff around here, whether it’s flip clock screensavers, retro Cathode terminals, or the ridiculous 80’s block iPhone case, there’s just something fun about bringing back the old to interact with the new.

Apparently popular iOS Developer Neven Morgan of The Incident fame agrees. So enthralled with the world of 8-bit, he has decided to make a hack that renders Safari in 8-bit.

Dubbed Pixelfari (you can download it for free), the app turns the web into a hyper-pixelated beast right out of a Nintendor emulator.
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If you’ve been itching to get a solid state drive for your MacBook Pro, here’s a couple good deals from Buy.com on two such drives. The first is a Kingston 128GB SSD for $125, and the other is an OCZ 80GB SSD for $130, both are 2.5″ so they’ll fit into any MacBook or MacBook Pro.

• Kingston 128GB SSDNow V Series SATA II SSD for $124.95 – includes free shipping from Buy.com – (Mail-in rebate PDF)

• OCZ Technology Vertex 2 80GB 2.5 in. SATA II SSD for $129.95 – includes free shipping from Buy.com – (Mail-in rebate PDF)

Both of these drives come highly rated, so other than the price and storage capacity you’re probably wondering what the difference is between the two. From what I’ve read, the OCZ Vertex drive comes in a bit faster than the Kingston drive.

The deals are valid through 02-20-2011, remember that to get the final price you’ll need to send in the simple mail-in rebate form.

Could this be the new MacBook Pro? This mysterious Mac-like thin and dark laptop appeared in a recent Intel ad for their new processors. Fueling the speculative fire is that Intel has previously leaked MacBook Pro releases through their advertising efforts. That’s not all though, there’s a few other hints in the advertisement that suggest we just might be looking at a redesigned MacBook Pro, so let’s review them:
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We showed you that AT&T’s iPhone data transfer speeds are faster than Verizons network in a speed test by a significant margin, but if you aren’t a heavy 3G data user do you care about those benchmarks? What if you’re always on WiFi anyway and you’re more concerned about standard call features like holding and conference calling?
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MenuWeather Lite is a great little free app that shows your current locations weather in the Mac OS X menu bar. As you can see in the screenshot, the menu bar item is just a discrete little icon representing conditions along with the current temperature.

That’s pretty neat in and of itself, but if you click on the MenuWeather icon, you’ll get an expanded version of the current weather conditions as well as a forecast for the week ahead, shown below:
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Popular jailbreak and unlock utility PwnageTool 4.2 has been released and includes the untethered iOS 4.2.1 jailbreak in addition to resolving the iBooks DRM problem and some WiFi connectivity issues with the Apple TV 2.

PwnageTool 4.2 supports jailbreaking nearly all iOS devices including iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, Verizon iPhone 4, iPod touch 3g, iPod touch 4G, iPad, and Apple TV 2. The only device that PwnageTool will not work on is the iPod touch 2G.

PwnageTool 4.2 is particularly important to those who rely on an iPhone unlock, since PwnageTool allows users to preserve existing unlocked baseband while allowing users to upgrade their device to iOS 4.2.1.

Download PwnageTool 4.2 Untethered for iOS 4.2.1

Currently for Mac OS X only:

• Download Torrent (Mac)
• Download Now (Mirror 2)

We will update download link as they become available.

Hot off the heals of iPhone Mini and MacBook Air 3G rumors, there’s even more iPhone 5 rumors circulating. The latest is a claim that, like the supposed iPhone Mini, the iPhone 5 will include an edge-to-edge 4″ screen. With so many rumors flying around it can be hard to keep track of them all, so here’s a quick list.
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Evidence continues to suggest that Apple is deeply interested in bringing 3G communications inside future Macs, particularly the MacBook Air. Let’s look at two pieces of recent evidence to see if a MacBook Air 3G is destined for a future release.
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