M.I.C Gadget claims info on next Mac Pro

Chinese site M.I.C. Gadget has thrown in its own list of possible improvements to the next version of the Mac Pro, now more believably expected to turn up at or around Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference next week. This list of specs may be just educated guesses or based on genuine leaks, but mentions support for SATA 3 and SAS connectivity with native support, which would facilitate more uses of SSD storage. PCIe 3 is also postulated, along with Thunderbolt, USB3 and Intel Xeon E5 processors.

According to the report, the onboard memory controller has been moved to the CPU and the RAM speed will improve to 1600MHz, allowing 25 percent more RAM than the 64GB currently supported for a total of 80GB. The E5 chip, if used, offers advanced Turbo Boost, more cores (up to eight) and a larger L3 cache.


Wilco creates tour memento with iBooks Author

Rock band Wilco has released a free iPad-only e-book on the iBookstore documenting a small group of Chicago-set appearances that were done late last year. Interestingly, the band used the free iBooks Author to create The Incredible Shrinking Tour of Chicago, even though it bears little resemblance to the included (and mostly textbook-based) templates. The book is mostly comprised of photos along with a few multimedia images -- including one included audio track. The 14-page, 280MB download includes setlists, posters and behind-the-scenes images from the small venues the band (which is based in the area) played.


Sparrow coming to iPad

Not one for subtlety, popular alternative e-mail client Sparrow has put up a "curtain" under the URL sprw.me/iPad that teases "we are preparing something bigger," a reference to a forthcoming iPad version of the IMAP-oriented program. The program has found a following on the Mac and iPhone platforms for its clean design, Gmail and Dropbox support and Quick Reply feature. The iPhone version costs $3 and the Mac version is available as either an ad-supported free version or $10 ad-less version.

by MacNN Staff