Product News: Apple Mac Pro, Motorola i-Mode phone and data backup website


15 Aug 2006

This week we preview the latest in the Apple Mac Pro line-up (pictured), Motorola SLVR L7 with i-Mode and Mamut Teamwork.

Apple Mac Pro
What is it? Workstation computer
How much? Prices start at €2,539

Demanding designers and businesses will be casting eyes at the newest addition to Apple’s line-up, a newly redesigned Mac Pro workstation that is powered by two Dual-core Intel Xeon processors. The Mac Pro has a new, direct attach storage option of up to four 500GB Serial ATA hard drives for a total of 2TB of internal storage, the most ever on a Mac. It can also handle up to two optical drives to simultaneously read and/or write to CDs and DVDs. It comes with more customisation options and high performance graphics, as well as several expansion slots. The machine runs Mac OS X version 10.4.7 Tiger and includes software translation technology called Rosetta that lets customers run most applications originally written for Mac OS X PowerPC.

Motorola SLVR L7 with i-Mode
What is it? Mobile phone
How much? €179 (contract) and €189 (prepay)

Motorola’s SLVR L7 with i-mode mixes a slim form with multimedia and connectivity features as it can access the i-mode online service. The handset comes with a large 1.9-inch colour TFT display and a built-in 1.3-megapixel VGA camera with video capture and playback capabilities. It also has an email-reading function. It’s Bluetooth-compatible for connecting hands-free kits or headsets and a dedicated i-mode button offers instant web access to download the latest music, news, games and more. The SLVR L7 comes with 60MB of internal memory and up to 1GB of expandable memory via a MicroSD card. It can play MFi 3.0 and MP3 audio files.

www.mamut.com/ie/teamwork/
What is it? Data backup service
How much? Free

Worried about losing vital documents? Online backup of data is the internet equivalent of offsite storage. Mamut Teamwork is an easy-to-use, free downloadable tool that lets you choose which folders you want to save or share over the internet. The information is securely held and encrypted so only the authorised user can get access to it. Access to data is controlled via the person’s e-mail address, a password to their account and a personal encryption key. The software works automatically in the background, where files are first encrypted on the user’s PC and then securely transferred to the server for storage. In the free version, businesses get up to 1GB secure storage space (500MB backup and 500MB send/stream/sync/share) and private individuals will receive 500MB secure storage space (250MB backup and 250MB send/stream/sync/share).

By Gordon Smith