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It’s been almost two weeks since I posted here, and I’ve been busier than ever. I just moved into my first apartment and am now living on my own for the next few months until my girlfriend finishes school. It’s a lot to manage all at once, but I’m doing well so far. As an added bonus, there’s open WiFi access nearby, so I’ll be able to post here regularly again.

And what better way to ring in the new year than with goodies from Apple?

The rumors were mostly true, predicting the announcement of an Intel-based Mac portable. Surprisingly, it came in the form of a Pro notebook instead of an iBook. With the new dual-core processor comes a new name: MacBook Pro. I’m not sure I like the name yet, but it will likely grow on me. A nice touch that I’m impressed to see is the addition of a built-in iSight into the MacBook. How Apple managed to fit all the hardware of a video camera into such a thin space is beyond my comprehension. The iMac also received a new chip as the first desktop machine to take advantage of the offerings from Intel. As expected, new versions of iLife and iWork debuted, with new features and “Apple Designed Themes” abound.

I’m very interested to see what Mac+Windows virtual machine or dual-boot environments can be concocted with the new native x86 processor. What I don’t want to see is too seamless interaction, such that Windows and Mac OS X use the same file system. My reason for this is the absurd amount of spyware and total junk that pollutes the internet and is just waiting to latch onto a host Windows machine. Ideally, I’d like to see Microsoft Virtual PC lose the windows-in-a-big-box interface and work like Classic does (did…), but keep the separation of systems. I want the Windows environment on my Mac to live inside a virtual partition, just like Virtual PC currently arranges it. In that way, if Windows were to ever become infected or corrupted, blowing away the file and replacing it with a backup will restore it to working order. We’ll see how this pans out in the very near future.