Apple updates their product lines quite often, more often than other manufacturers of MP3 players, home entertainment devices and computers than I can name off the top of my head. Sure, you can buy PCs with the same processors, memory, motherboards and graphics cards from the likes of Acer, Lenovo or Dell. What you don’t get is the reliability of OSX.

If you want a Mac upgrade usually the answer is to just buy a new Mac. But when is the right time to buy that new Mac or iPod. MacRumors think they have the answers.

According to them the current generation of iPods and iPod Nanos are approaching their end of life cycle so their recommendation is only buy if you absolutely positively need one.

Since the iPod Shuffle was just recently updated, it’s safe to buy as it will be around for a while longer.

Updates to practically the entire Mac line are expected save for the MacBook so if you are eyeing that MacBook Pro, Mac Pro or iMac, don’t buy it. At the very least, wait for Leopard to come out, it is doubtful Apple will offer free updates to Leopard for even recent purchases of Macs with Tiger on them. I’m holding out for Leopard. It is rumored that when Leopard releases the MacBook Pros will be updated with quad core Intel processors. They’re stuffing quad-core processors in laptops? I’ll believe it when I see it.

Take this with a grain of salt, we know that MacRumors isn’t exactly the most reliable source on the internet but they do toss out some interesting thoughts. They were right about the switch to Intel processors but wrong about a new G5 processor. A new Power processor has materialized in the form of the IBM Power6 for use in servers but will probably never see use in Apple or any desktop computer.

Apple has just added a new feature to the iTunes market, known as “Complete My Album.” The aim of this new feature is to allow users up to 6 months to purchase the remaining album tracks from individual songs they’ve downloaded at a discounted rate.

The concept behind this new feature isn’t terrible; from time to time, I’ve been known to download a song I’ve enjoyed, and later investigated the rest of the album. However, as many of you have experienced and know, many times that one great song is..well..the only great song on the album.

That’s the whole great thing about iTunes in the first place, right? Sure, it would be nice to have a CD with lyrical and artwork inserts, but when you only like a few songs, why waste the extra money for the mediocre tracks?

That makes Apple’s move to allow users to purchase whole albums at a discounted rate curious; is there really that much of a demand from an army of iTunes users who can’t stand to go without the whole album?

Perhaps Apple isn’t the one behind it; sure, its their software, but perhaps they’re feeling the heat from the production studios to sell more of those mediocre songs the studios invest so much in.

Even you aren’t that familiar with the music industry, you still might not be surprised to learn that most studios produce a few “hits,” and then create filler to complete an album. That’s why most popular artists only have a couple popular songs per CD (Note, when I say popular I mean highly marketed mainstream artists).

That is why iTunes is so great. Get those few songs that are really great, and skip the fluff. I can safely say I won’t be completing too many albums online any time soon; however, options are always nice. Good lookin’ out, Apple.

Those of you who have a Mac out there are probably familiar with Boot Camp, those of you who don’t have probably heard of it.  Boot Camp allows those with Mac OSX 10.4.6 or later to install Windows XP and now Vista on a separate partition and run either OS natively without emulation.

Until now Boot Camp has only supported XP, while it was possible to install Vista it was met with several issues including but not limited to driver compatibility problems.  Boot Camp 1.2 Beta was just released and supports installing any copy of Vista on your Mac.

In order to use Boot Camp 1.2 Beta you must have OSX Tiger 10.4.6 or later, the latest firmware, an Intel based Mac (of course), a blank CD or DVD (and a burner), a printer for the instructions (I don’t read instructions, feel free to skip that step but do so at your own risk), full version of any XP or Vista edition as upgrade versions will not work.

Depending on the version of Windows you are installing, Boot Camp will create the appropriate drivers for that OS and burn them to the media of your choice (CD or DVD).  After you have installed Vista it may be necessary to run the driver CD or DVD that you created.  However, Vista will no doubt use at least some of its native drivers to support the hardware on your Mac (it is after all PC hardware).  Feel free to replace the native Vista drivers with the ones that Boot Camp created for you.

Macs now do Windows XP and Vista.  In fact, Macs are the prefect machines for Vista, running that OS natively faster than its own homegrown OSX.  Tell me, how backwards is that?

With all the hype surrounding Adobe’s soon to be released Creative Suite 3, you’d think they were trying to best Apple’s own impressive amount of news buzz. Today, Adobe has released the finalized versions in which CS3 will be available.

If you thought Vista came in an impressive array of sets and options, you obviously weren’t ready for CS3. Adobe has listed on their site 21 options of various packages and add-ons for your creative pleasures. You read that right…21.

The goal, obviously, is to allow each consumer to have every conceivable concoction of Adobe products at their disposal; if you can’t find something you like, you might never be satisfied.

Adobe has geared a few of the major packages towards specific industries, for instance: Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium includes InDesign, Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, Acrobat, Flash Pro and Dreamweaver. A lighter-equipped CS3 Design Standard includes the same items, but holds back Flash and Dreamweaver, and limits Photoshop to standard, not extended.

The second major product set is known as Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web (you guessed it) Premium, and Standard. Included in the Standard are Dreamweaver, Flash, Contribute, and Fireworks, where Premium lands you Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Contribute, Photoshop Extended, and Acrobat Pro.

The third major grouping is called Creative Suite Product Premium and Standard, and is marketed towards video production. The Premium includes After Effects Pro, Premiere Studio, Photoshop Extended, Flash Pro, Illustrator, Sound Booth, Encore, InLocation (Windows only, sorry Mac friends), and Ultra.

“But Triston,” you might say, “What if I need to have all of those amazing products and can’t live without a single one?!” Never fear. Adobe has released what I will call the big-daddy package, or in Adobe’s terms, the Master Collection, in which every single program from all major 3 sets is included. I can almost see your eyes get 3 times too big.

Adobe still holds to its previous April/May release time, but added that CS3 Product Premium and the big-daddy collection would be held for another 3 months. Don’t look so downcast; those 3 months will give you enough time to get that fat bankroll you’ll need to fund your Master Collection.

 A new era of gaming on the Mac may be at hand and I don’t mean just the older titles or titles no one wants (exceptions are the few first person shooters on the Mac) unless you are really into RPGs. Star Wars: Empire at War is now available as a free demo to owners of Intel Macs (PowerPC users need not apply).

The full retail version of the game will be available in stores next week for a price of $50 (technically $49.95).

Hardware wise the game will require an Intel Mac with either a Core Duo or Core 2 Duo processor running at 1.83GHz (or higher), 512MB of memory (1GB or more preferred) and a Radeon X1600, Geforce 7300 or Intel GMA 950 graphics with at least 64MB of video memory. On the operating system side you must have OSX 10.4.8 or later.

Note there is an error in the original article, as they say “an Intel GMA 7300 graphics card”. There is no Intel GMA 7300, current generations stand at the GMA950 and GMA X3000. I very much doubt the GMA950 is up to running Empires at War and as far as I know, the GMA X3000 is not available on the Mac (for now).

Taking into consideration the fact that integrated graphics can’t really play games at all; best to just stick with Macs that have a dedicated graphics card.

How excited would you be to know that your beautiful Apple TV can now (via a handy little bit of haxxing) can now be used to display all of those, erm, alternatively-formatted video files on your big ole’ HD TV? Ok, we all knew it wouldn’t take long, but the moment has come.

A friendly soul has taken the time to outline the specific actions required to make your xvid, divx, and wmv files play on your Apple TV, right here.

Take a peek at it, try it out, and let us know how it worked out for you. Our budget here at Apple Blorge doesn’t quite cover our very own Apple TV yet, so, ah…we’d love to know how much fun all of you are having!

Update 1: check out this other site if you’re really interested in “modifying” your Apple TV: Apple TV Hacks 

Ok, so we all new this, but there’s nothing like a little published recognition of our favorite visionary, Steve Jobs, to make us feel all warm and fuzzy. Barron Magazine has just released their list of Top 30 CEO’s, and Jobs sits nicely atop the pile at numero uno.

Barron Magazine, a well-respected investment magazine from the publishers of the Wall Street Journal, have comprised a list of the top 30 CEO’s in the world, based on the opinions of investors, the performance of the CEO’s company in the financial market, etc. Their survey also encorporated “intangible factors, like leadership and industry stature.”

Let’s raise a big Huzzah! for Mr. Jobs. Our friends at TUAW commented that perhaps another factor that led to Job’s victory is his uniformity and consistency of dress (see any photo of Steve Jobs for the classic jeans and black T look). Oh TUAW, how you make us giggle like school girls.

The list was comprised of quite a few impressive characters, including Nintendo’s Satory Iwata, and Samsung’s Jong-Yong Yun. If you want to see the complete list, you can either pay for a subscription to Barron, or follow this link to Mac Daily News, where they’ve outlined the top 30 CEO’s nicely for your viewing pleasure.

Digitimes, a technology news site, believes that Apple will delay the release of its much-anticipated new operating system, Leopard, until October.

As Apple has revealed their intentions to integrate a program similar to Boot Camp that will allow users to run Windows along with Leopard, Digitimes claims Apple will need substantially more time to refine Vista integration.

As Apple has spent oodles of money on their most recent marketing campaign of winning Windows users over to Mac, Digitimes says that “industry sources” feel that an April release of the new Leopard OS would be too soon to really ready the Leopard Boot Camp system for flawless Vista integration.

Though OS-X has had no troubles with XP, there have been a few complications with Vista integration (which have a lot to do with the fact that Microsoft doesn’t want their users switching to Mac), and those “industry sources” believe that Apple will need more time to prepare Boot Camp for Vista.

I feel otherwise.

 First, Apple is not known for pushing back releases of their products; to the contrary, most Apple fans wait for Apple Keynote addresses with baited breath, knowing that Steve Jobs loves springing new surprises on the Mac community frequently. Second, if Vista had only been in development for a relatively short time, and developers had not had access to the beta builds for the last umpteen months, perhaps Apple would need more time to scramble for proper Vista integration.

As it stands, Vista has been around, more or less, for quite a while now, and you can bet that as Apple loves to be ahead of Microsoft, they’ve had their developers perfecting Boot Camp integration for some time now.

Third, delaying the release of Leopard would only be a hindrance to Apple; many Mac fans have been waiting with baited breath for the newest version of OS-X, and though Apple does want PC users to make the beautiful switch to Mac, I highly doubt they would inconvenience current users in hopes of winning a few more PC users down the road.

Consider this: if Apple was to delay Leopard for 6 months to integrate Vista, they would not win any more new customers in that time period, and would lose face to current Mac users; if they release it as scheduled, they’ll keep the Mac community happy, and they will continue to steal PC users at the steady rate they already have been.

I’d be interested to speak with these industry sources, because the marketing behind delaying Leopard for Vista integration seems all wrong.

UPDATE 1:  Not to toot our own horns, but TUAW has confirmation from Apple that they will not postpone the release of Leopard past their intended release date.