A recent article by my friend Jonathan on the proper time to upgrade your Apple products got me thinking; sure, Apple likes to release new goodies to the market every time you blink, but how often do Apple consumers really need to upgrade?

We all have faced the grim news at one time or another that our new Apple product was just outdated by the latest Steve Jobs’ announcement; one of the more particularly painful stories I have heard was from a friend who saved all his meager earnings to buy a color iPod, and the day after his purchase, the video iPod released. Ouch.

What may not surprise those who love Apple is that my friend didn’t mind that his iPod was just “outdated.” He still had a great product, and he never complained once.

You see, the beauty of Apple is that the standard of excellence found in every one of their products doesn’t leave buyers needing to upgrade to the latest and greatest. Though the rest of the consumer technology market demands a steady budget for “necessary” upgrades due to planned obsolescence, Apple creates quality that has enormous longevity.

The two key factors that make Apple products last are quality and support, both of which don’t buy into “planned obsolescence.” I’m willing to bet all of you that are Mac users have friends or know of someone (or are the person) that still uses that Powerbook G4, or the older iPod Mini?

If you search for the classic iPod Mini on Ebay, you’ll find them still selling for over $50. Why? Because it is a fantastic product, regardless of newer models.

Similarly, I know plenty of Mac users who run OS-X Tiger on older G4-based systems. How many PC users are running Vista on Pentium 3’s?

The reason Apple users are able to use products that have been around for longer than the industry standard of 1-2 years is because Apple dedicates many resources to maintaining quality support for each product they release.

I keep coming back to iPods, because I feel the success of the iPod has been instrumental in the overall rejuvenation of Apple’s public image; Apple has maintained updates and support for all iPods that have hit the market.

Though usage and wear do eventually tire out some of the older models, Apple has never orchestrated the demise of any iPod model, or any product of theirs, for that matter. Much less can be said about other technology giants; poor customer support, infrequent support updates, and planned obsolescence are all demonstrative of what has become the face of the technology industry.

The perception of Apple and their products has been steadily on the upswing, especially since the turn of 2007; though, much of the public still perceive Apple as expensive and flashy. This, obviously, is because they don’t know what Apple is about.

When it really comes down to it, you can spend much less as an Apple consumer in the long run, in comparison to the competition. Not only that, you get the sexy chic and superior quality that Apple is known for. I suppose if the entire public knew that, Apple’s marketing team would be out of a job. Better to break it to them slowly, right?

It seems that someone may have modified their Apple TV to run OSX. Before I go on, keep in mind that this is April Fools day so it has an equal chance of being real as it does being fake.

The Apple TV has rather limited hardware being powered by a 1GHz Pentium M processor which is under clocked (based off the Pentium 3 line not the newer Pentium 4 or Pentium D lines), features 256MB of memory and a Geforce 7300 graphics card with 64MB of memory. It actually has a better video card than the MacBook (now that’s just tragic) but none of these components really need to do much.

It has the standard 10/100 Ethernet port, WiFi a/b/g wireless (what no n support?) and a whole slew of video and audio outputs. I just wanted to concentrate on the hardware that actually makes it work.

I think my problem is how fast and responsive it is with just a Pentium M (III) 1GHz processor and 256MB of memory with OSX 10.4.8 running on it. It just seems to be running a bit fast, more like it is running with a Core Duo processor and 1GB of memory.

The system profiler does show a processor running at 1GHz and 256MB of DDR2 400 memory.  Here is a video of the Apple TV allegedly booting OSX. If you’re looking for a how-to you will find that right here.

Then again, I wouldn’t mind having a $300 Mac (as limited as it is), it would still suit me nicely since right now I’m surrounded by two PCs running Vista which are exclusively used for audio/video editing and gaming, I really don’t NEED a Mac to do all that (but it sure would be nice to have one). On second thought, after reading the how-to, it’s almost not worth it.

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.