Top 5 Myths About the Internet

Bill Gates will pay you $245 for forwarding this e-mail. At the stroke of midnight, March 31, the Internet will be shut down for 24 hours for its annual spring cleaning. Microsoft is developing a portable toilet with Internet access called the iLoo.

Sound familiar? Those are just a tiny sampling of the thousands of ridiculous Internet myths that have run the spam e-mail circuit over the past decade. Not that we ever believed any of them, of course.

What is it about the Internet that makes it such fertile territory for goofy hoaxes, elaborate jokes and urban legends? Perhaps because many of us are so awed about how much the Internet has changed our lives, yet equally clueless about how the thing actually works. As a result, we find ourselves taken in by the Internet's many distractions -- some innocuous, some quite harmful.

What follows, in no particular order, are the top five myths that continue to warp our understanding of the Internet, its origins, who controls it, how it makes people rich (or poor) and who's prowling in its darkest corners.

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Top 5 Myths About Facebook

If you've been on the Internet for any length of time, you've probably come across one of the hundreds of hoaxes that are floating around cyberspace. In fact, many of these half-truths and outright myths have been making the rounds nearly as long as the word "Internet" has been a part of our vocabulary. In 1997, for instance, an e-mail promising quick riches and a copy of Windows 98, courtesy of Bill Gates, flooded Inboxes across the world. Predictably, Bill Gates wasn't actually parting with his billions to have people forward e-mails to their friends.

A few years later, Al Gore made a crucial mistake during his presidential campaign when he claimed that he invented the Internet. Only he didn't. In reality, Gore claimed he "took the initiative in creating the Internet" in an interview with CNN. While that's still a big claim, many argue it's a far cry from claiming he engineered routers and laid fiber optic cables with his bare hands.

Clearly, the explosive growth of the Internet has created a fair share of misunderstandings, fabrications and myths, and now it's one of the Internet's most popular sites, Facebook, that's stirring up rumors. With more than 250 million users, it's only natural that some Facebook fables have taken shape. Here are the top five Facebook myths, starting with one that could make a lot of people very upset if it were to come true.

Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, explains the concept of Facebook's social network. The site has grown from Zuckerberg's Harvard campus site to connecting users across the Internet.

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Intel describes three phases of the 'Ultrabook'

The Asus UX21 Ultrabook.

Ultrabook devices will be rolled out in roughly three phases, with both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt technologies as key features, according to an Intel blog item posted Thursday. Intel and PC makers are staking a big part of their laptop and hybrid device future on Ultrabooks.

The blog item, which begins by referring to a "strategic inflection point"--a phrase used often by founder and former CEO Andy Grove--drops other catchphrases, such as "sea change." Is this the usual product hype? Probably not.

Ultrabooks may in fact radically alter laptop computing. Look no further than the MacBook Air. Apple's newest iteration of the Air is probably the best example of the future of laptop computing. It's remarkably thin (less than 0.8 inches) and light (less than 3 pounds), yet powerful.

But that's just Apple, of course. The Ultrabook, on the other hand, is really about PC makers: companies like Asus, Dell, Sony, and Hewlett-Packard. Asus is already on the record with two Ultrabooks due this fall: the UX21 and UX31, while HP is rumored to have Ultrabooks in the works.

And eventually what an Ultrabook becomes is anybody's guess. "Eventually you'll think of an Ultrabook as a tablet when you want it, a PC when you need it," Intel said.

The Ultrabook's three phases, according to Intel: 

• Phase 1: This was kicked off when Intel introduced its latest Ultra-Low Voltage 2nd Generation Intel Core processors in June that will bring new systems to shelves this holiday season.
• Phase 2: Centers around the next generation of Intel micro-architecture, code-named Ivy Bridge, with processors scheduled for availability in systems in the first half of 2012. Faster I/O such as USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt technologies are also part of Intel's ongoing work to drive the PC platform forward. 
• Phase 3: 2013 Intel micro-architecture dubbed Haswell. Accelerating the Ultrabook and reinventing the capabilities of the laptop in sleek systems. 

Other attributes include "ultra-fast start up" based on Intel's Rapid Start Technology, which boots up a system almost instantly from a deep sleep, and extended battery life: Ultrabooks will offer 5 hours of battery life even in the sleekest form factors, with some systems delivering 8 hours or more for all-day usage.

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iPhone doubles world market share!

Though still fourth among the top five mobile-phone players, Apple outshone its global rivals in the second quarter with skyrocketing shipment growth and a surge in market share, according to a new IDC report.

Released yesterday, IDC's report found that Apple shipped 20.3 million iPhones in the quarter, a leap of 142 percent from the 8.4 million shipped in the prior year's quarter. Among the top five vendors, Apple also saw the biggest jump in market share, capturing 5.6 percent of global mobile-phone shipments, compared with 2.6 percent a year ago.

Apple's growth rate rose despite the age of its iPhone 4, now more than a year old. The company is expected to release an update to its flagship phone sometime this fall, with many sources pointing to a September launch date. Despite its global success, some of Apple's future smartphone growth will depend on its ability to generate more business in developing markets, IDC noted.

Industry leader Nokia held onto its No. 1 slot, but its market share continued to plummet, sinking to 24.2 percent in the second quarter from 33.8 percent a year ago. Excess inventory in regions like China and Europe apparently triggered a drop in shipments. Stung by the iPhone and Android phones, Nokia recently reported a huge loss for the second quarter.

Over the long haul, Nokia's ability to bounce back will depend on its recent partnership with Microsoft and its ability to successfully move from Symbian to Windows Phone as its core mobile OS. The company's first smartphones running Windows Phone 7 are expected to reach consumers later this year.

In second place, Samsung saw an increase in shipments, though its market share remained flat. 

Finally, China's ZTE scored fifth place among the top vendors, increasing both shipments and market share. Although the company has typically been known for its simpler mobile phones, it has stepped up its smartphone game with such Android phones as the Blade and Racer.

Overall, the global mobile-phone market grew by 11.3 percent in the quarter as vendors shipped 365.4 million units, up from 328.4 million a year ago. Growth was actually less than IDC had forecast as a result of a 4 percent drop in shipments for feature phones, their first decline since the third quarter of 2009 and a sign of the ongoing shift to smartphones.

"For the overall market to grow by double digits year over year, despite the decline in feature phones, is testament to the strength of the global smartphone market," Ramon Llamas, an IDC senior research analyst said in a statement. "While this is not a new trend--smartphones have been the primary engine of growth for the last several quarters--it does mark something of a transition point, as demonstrated by the growing number and variety of smartphones featured in the vendors' portfolios."

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Lenovo IdeaPad Tablet K1 Preview!

The list of Nvidia Tegra 2 tablets grows longer with the debut of Lenovo's IdeaPad Tablet K1. With the manufacturer announcing a ThinkPad-branded tablet at the same time, the K1 is obviously the consumer half of Lenovo's drive into the tablet segment. The tablet comes loaded with Android 3.1 and features a unique, optical-based home button that is rarely seen on an Android tablet. Can the K1 stand out among the many Android tablets in the market?

Upside

Optical Finger Navigation--that's what Lenovo calls the physical home button on the K1. For those who are used to having such a feature (such as iOS users), this button is a useful crutch until they get used to the Android interface. It supports basic gestures like scrolling down to return to the previous page and you can even press and hold the button to do a screen capture.

The K1 comes with plenty of preloaded apps--Lenovo claims that the total value of these apps add up to more than US$50. There are some gems among them, notably the full version of DataViz's Documents To Go, which allows users to open their Microsoft Office documents on the tablet and costs S$18.99 on the Android Market. Then there's Angry Birds HD, which is currently only available for the iPad. Although the version on the K1 is ad-supported, we doubt that users will have too many complaints.

Downside

At 750g, the K1 is one of the heaviest tablets in the market. In fact, it even trumps the HP TouchPad and the Acer Iconia Tab, two of the larger tablets we have tested. As first impressions go, it doesn't bode well for Lenovo that its first tablet weighs more than the typical 10.1-inch Android tablet. The chubby feel of the K1 is not helped by the relatively thick black bezel around its screen.

From our hands-on with the pre-production units at the launch event, the plastic chassis of the K1 felt hollow and loose. The tablet's back cover comes in three colors--red, brown and black--but unlike the interchangeable lids found on some notebooks like the Dell Inspiron R, the choice of color is decided when buying the tablet and consumers cannot change it themselves. This seems like a missed opportunity for Lenovo to add even more personalization options, like snap-on designer covers.

Outlook

The Lenovo IdeaPad K1 comes with specs that are similar to other Android Honeycomb tablets, but its bulk is likely to affect its prospects in the crowded field of Android tablets. At least Lenovo has got the price right, with a competitive S$699 for the 32GB Wi-Fi version. Together with the bundled apps, the K1 may appeal to those looking for an affordable tablet.

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX55 First Take

Sony has recently added a 12.2mm-thin touchscreen compact to its stable of TX series cameras. Don't let its diminutive size fool you. This svelte camera packs a large 3.3-inch wide OLED touchscreen and 16.2-megapixel Exmor CMOS sensor. It shoots 1080i/60 full-HD videos with the ability to capture 12-megapixel stills at the same time.

In addition, there's also a 3D image capture mode, which simulates a 3D effect. Aside from 3D stills and video capabilities, the TX55 comes with a newly added Picture Effect function for convenient in-camera processing. The arrival of this slim point-and-shoot comes as no surprise as we have observed a growing trend of point-and-shoots--such as the Casio Tryx (16mm) and Fujifilm FinePix Z900EXR (18mm)--sporting trendier and slimmer chassis coupled with large touchpanel LCDs. 

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iPhone 4 made of plastic appears, possibly "4S" model

Apple may have killed off its last white plastic gadget with the recent shelving of the unibody MacBook, but an alleged iPhone prototype that's making the rounds suggests it could be making a comeback.

Macrumors picked up on a forum post from Vietnamese site Tinhte--the same outlet that got a hold of the iPhone 4 ahead of its official announcement, and more recently a 64GB iPhone 4 model--with what it says is a new variant of the iPhone 4.

What's new? The translated forum post says the device is a little bit faster than the iPhone 4, weighs less, and is sporting plastic on the front and rear instead of glass.

That last bit is where things get interesting. Apple nearly shipped the original iPhone with a plastic screen, before changing it up to "optical-quality glass" just ahead of release for what the company said would result in a "superior level of scratch resistance and optical clarity". That Apple would be contemplating a step back to plastic based on that claim is worthy of some eyebrow raising.

More recently the tide has shifted, with rumors suggesting the release will represent a new generation with a different design. That was strengthened earlier this week with an alleged iPhone 5 case design with room for a larger screen and a return of a curved back, a design feature that stuck with the phone through its first three iterations.

As noted in previous coverage, a move to offer two new versions of the iPhone would represent a dramatic departure for Apple. With recent annual releases, Apple has simply continued to sell the previous version at a discounted price. The poster of this allegedly plastic variant of the iPhone 4 suggests this newer version will in fact represent the lower-cost model that will sit alongside the iPhone 5, an idea that's been kicking around since after the release of the original model, and cropped up once again at the beginning of this year.

Why make a lower-cost model? To help fend off competitors like Google and its army of Android phones. According to a Nielsen research report this morning they are up to 39 percent of the smartphone market in the US, up from 29 percent in March.

Later this year Apple is widely expected to take the wraps off a new iPhone to replace its now more than 1-year-old iPhone 4. A report from earlier today suggested Apple was cooking up a production test run of 400,000 units ahead of beginning mass production for a release in Septembe

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Samsung Wave 725 to be released soon in India

The Samsung Wave 725 features are very good. The mobile phone is having 2G and 3G networks. The model is a touch bar form factor mobile. The handset is available in black and white colors. The cell phone is enabled with NFC option. The Samsung Wave 725 is having dual camera facility. The display of the mobile phone is very beautiful. The mobile phone enabled with lots of messaging service with social networks and instant messaging service. The good battery is also well supported. Java is also enabled in the mobile and thus better Java applications can be operated from it.



The Samsung Wave 725 specifications are very superb. The mobile phone is providing 3.65 inches touch screen display with TouchWiz UI 3.0 sense and multi touch support. The handset is having 5 megapixels camera with VGA secondary camera facility with video recording ability. The model comes with Bada v2.0 operating system. The cell phone is enabled with up to 32GB external memory. The Samsung Wave 725 is having GPS and A-GPS navigations. The mobile phone is connected with Bluetooth v3.0, WI FI 802.11b/g/n, Micro USB 2.0 and 3G connectivity options. The EDGE and GPRS connectivity options are also enabled in the handset. The DNSe (Digital Natural Sound Engine) and 3.5mm Audio Jack options are supported in the model with loudspeaker option. Games can also be played with the help of the mobile and thus user can have a nice time with the mobile.

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HP confident that TouchPad can compete with iPad 2

The webOS experience will be the key differentiator for the HP TouchPad. That's the message HP's Roland Ng, director of webOS category for Asia Pacific and Japan, conveyed in a demo session featuring the company's first tablet.

Despite the fact that the 16GB Wi-Fi version is priced at S$699 compared with the S$668 iPad 2, HP remains bullish about the competitiveness of its tablet. Unlike the iPad 2, the HP TouchPad comes with a free cover, though this is a promotion that is valid only in Singapore for August.

Multitasking, via its Cards interface, remains the top feature on webOS. The TouchPad's integration with social-networking sites offers a refreshing change from the current crop of tablets. 

Addressing concerns that the TouchPad is one of the heavier tablets in the market, Roland mentioned that this was due to the "presence of the Touchstone technology", which is a wireless charging technology unique to the device. The Touchstone charging dock is an optional accessory that costs S$109.90.

He also believes that prospective buyers would have done their research and would not be influenced solely by price. To ensure that less knowledgeable buyers know what they are getting, HP is preparing store front displays with its retail partners to showcase the strengths of the webOS platform.

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MacBook Pros to be as thin as Air by Christmas?

Even if you don’t like Apple products, it’s hard not to appreciate the beauty of the MacBook Airlaptop. It is super thin while remaining quite powerful. It certainly puts most, if not all 11 and 13-inch laptops that have gone before it to shame in sheer performance.

The design aesthetics introduced with the MacBook Air have garnered a lot of good press and feedback from users, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the MacBook Pro range might be heading in that direction too.

There’s a rumor making the rounds that Apple is working on a new 15-inch and 17-inch laptop that takes on the look of the MacBook Air to a large extent. These laptops may be MacBooks, but are more likely revamped MacBook Pros.

If true, it would mean Apple is going to make its complete line-up of laptops as thin as Air, while at the same time dropping the optical drive completely. The only question would then be, what happens to the 13-inch MacBook Pro if it is in effect almost the equivalent of the 13-inch MacBook Air?

It has also been suggested that we should expect to see these new MacBook Pros in time for Christmas. That would be quite a short update cycle seeing as the last Pro refresh only happened in February. However, if the MacBook Air is surprising even Apple with its popularity, I wouldn’t be surprised if the company fast-tracked another redesign, would you?

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Smart TVs in high demand, research finds

Televisions that can connect to the Web and offer built-in applications are set to see strong sales growth in the coming years, a new study from research firm In-Stat has found.

According to the company, shipments of smart TVs will be up by an average of 36 percent over the next five years.

Built-in applications are becoming an increasingly common feature in HDTVs. A host of HDTV makers, including Samsung, Vizio, and Panasonic, among others, currently offer users the ability to access apps from their televisions. Several companies offer apps on televisions, including Netflix, Vudu, and YouTube.

In-Stat's study follows similar findings from DisplaySearch earlier this year, which said it expects shipments of connected televisions to grow at a compound annual rate of 30 percent, with total shipments reaching 123 million in 2014.

Currently, according to In-Stat, 22 percent of U.S. households with broadband connections have HDTVs with built-in applications. Out of those, 60 percent use those applications at least once per week. The company said that Netflix streaming and YouTube are currently the most popular applications for those folks.

"As expected, Netflix and YouTube currently dominate the TV application space," Keith Nissen, Research Director at In-Stat, said in a statement. "But as Netflix competitors become more numerous and as applications are optimized for the big screen, TV apps will become part of the mainstream TV viewing experience."

In addition to accessing apps, consumers are also warming to the idea of paying for both television service and online video services. In-Stat said that those who favored paying for both grew from 18 percent to 30 percent during 2010 alone.

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Amazon's sales revenue drops down, Walmart gets success!

Amazon reports its second-quarter results later today, and Wall Street analysts will have one eye on the actual financials and another one on new revenue streams expected to emerge in the back half of 2011.

For the quarter ended June 30, Wall Street is expecting earnings of 35 cents a share on revenue of $9.38 billion. Keep in mind that the second quarter is usually Amazon's slowest of the year. According to Thomson Reuters, Amazon is expected to deliver revenue of $10.35 billion in the third quarter and $17.4 billion in the fourth quarter.

In other words, Amazon is your typical retailer that lives for the final three months of the year. The difference is that Amazon has a lot of interesting side businesses that can turn out to be big revenue streams in the future. Here's a look at some future items that will be the focus of analyst questions. Unfortunately, it's highly unlikely that Amazon will provide much comment or detail.

Amazon's tablet. It has been clear for months that Amazon is prepping the contract equipment supply chain for a tablet. And given Amazon's biggest quarter is the fourth, it's also likely that this tablet--perhaps with new Kindles--will appear in the next few weeks. Big projects just don't happen in the fourth quarter at a retailer--there's too much at stake. As noted previously, Amazon's tablet would transition the company even more toward digital delivery and boost margins. In fact, Amazon isn't likely to make any money from its tablet. Why? The device will be subsidized by e-commerce sales and ads.

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Apple, AT&T reportedly prepping staff for iPhone 5 launch

Apple and AT&T are both reportedly gearing up their employees for September, the month that the iPhone 5 is expected to launch, according to several reports.

Apple will be bumping up its staff in U.S. retail Apple stores early this fall, according to MacRumors. This follows prior reports of Apple looking to increase staffing in the U.K. from August through October as noted by SlashGear and other tech news sites.

Apple is also bringing back former employees to work part-time for holidays, product launches, and the back-to-school season, added MacRumors, citing a former employee who received an invite to work between August 15 and September 15.

Of course, boosting retail staff around the end of summer is likely a response to more traffic from students going back to school, noted MacRumors. But the timing does coincide with the weeks that Apple would need to prep the iPhone 5 for its retail shelves if the new phone is to launch this fall.

AT&T has also reportedly been revving up its employees to prepare for more foot traffic at its stores in September, a source told Boy Genius Report. The carrier has asked its managers and employees to finish any current training as soon as possible so that they can be available at that time.

The iPhone's other U.S. carrier is anticipating a fall rollout for the next model. Incoming Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam recently said he expects the next iPhone to debut in the fall, though even he isn't sure.

"You will have to ask Apple that, but we expect that probably sometime in the fall, and I think you will see a significant jump there when we get to that point," McAdam said last Friday during a conference call.

The next iPhone has been the subject of varied rumors over the past few months. Some reports say the next iPhone will be only a minor update to the iPhone 4, while other reports have pointed to a entirely new and improved model iPhone 5. Though a variety of launch dates have been bandied about, some of the latest sources have pointed to a fall release, specifically sometime in September.

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Samsung launching Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G on July 28

Samsung on Thursday is launching the 4G-capable Galaxy Tab 10.1, the company announced today.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 comes with a 10.1-inch display and runs on the 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor. The Android-based 4G tablet comes in the user's choice of Metallic Gray or Glossy White, and like the previously released version of the device, also allows users to connect to the Web via Wi-Fi.

Verizon started offering pre-orders on the 4G-ready Galaxy Tab 10.1 last month. The 16GB model retails for $529.99, while the 32GB option goes for $629.99. If customers connect to Verizon's LTE network, they'll need to choose one of Verizon's three data plans, which cost $30, $50, and $80 per month for 2GB, 5GB, and 10GB of data usage, respectively.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is arguably the best Android-based tablet on the market. As CNET's Eric Franklin pointed out in his review of the tablet earlier this year, Samsung's device "gets as close to the iPad 2 as any Android tablet before it." But with the help of 4G, Samsung has added an important feature to its tablet that the iPad 2 lacks. Apple's tablet currently only allows for Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity.

Even so, Samsung will have a long way to go to even come close to catching Apple's tablet. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company announced last week that it sold 9.25 million iPads during its fiscal third quarter.

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HTC: We'll negotiate with Apple over patent disputes

HTC is willing to negotiate with Apple to settle the companies' patent disputes, its chief financial officer told Bloomberg.

Speaking in an interview with the news organization, HTC's Winston Yung said that his company is "open to having discussions" with Apple.

In March 2010, Apple filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission against HTC, saying the handset maker violated 10 of its mobile patents. After a protracted delay, the ITC released an initial ruling earlier this month, saying that HTC did, in fact, violate two of Apple's patents.

"HTC will vigorously fight these two remaining patents through an appeal before the ITC commissioners who make the final decision," Grace Lei, general counsel for HTC, said at the time. "This is only one step of many in these legal proceedings."

That ruling followed a similar loss by Apple just a couple weeks earlier. On July 1, the ITC made an initial determination that Apple violated two patents owned by S3 Graphics, a company that, at the time, was completely independent. Just a few days later, HTC announced its acquisition of S3 Graphics for $300 million, due mainly to its patent portfolio and that ruling.

So with both companies owning a pair of patents that the other has allegedly infringed, things appear to be at a standstill. However, the ITC has the right to bring both cases before its six-person panel to review the initial rulings and make a final determination.

But perhaps HTC doesn't want it to get that far. Speaking to Bloomberg, Yung said that any resolution is on the table, as long as it makes good sense.

"We are open to all sorts of solutions, as long as the solution and the terms are fair and reasonable," Yung told Bloomberg.

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Just a few short months ago (March, to be exact), we wrote about an odd glut in Apple's otherwise streamlined lineup of products: instead of one or even two 13-inch laptops to choose from, Apple used to offer three. The White MacBook, the MacBook Air, and the MacBook Pro each had a slightly different value equation in terms of design, features, and price.

That glut's been lessened a little now that the White MacBook has been discontinued. The MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro are the only two MacBook product lines left, and they form two different solutions to same problem. The unibody aluminum Pro used to be considered thin, but it's--relatively--thick at 1 inch, and weighs over four pounds. The Pro offers better specs, while the Air, which has just been recently updated, leans towards light weight and quick booting as its advantages.

There's more to consider, though: the 2011 13-inch MacBook Pro and new 13-inch MacBook Air have become more similar than they've ever been before, for several reasons--performance, battery life, and a Thunderbolt port.

Two 13-inch MacBooks: which do you choose?

Let's lay them side-by-side and compare. (Note: for additional price-based consideration, we're throwing the higher-end 11-inch Air into the chart comparison, since its $1199 price matches the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro.)

	11-inch MacBook Air (2011)	13-inch MacBook Air (2011)	13-inch MacBook Pro (2011)
CPU	1.6GHz Intel Core i5	1.7 GHz Intel Core i5	2.3 GHz Intel Core i5
RAM	4GB	4GB	4GB
Storage	128GB SSD	128GB SSD	320GB HDD
Weight	2.38 lbs.	2.96 lbs.	4.5 lbs.
Screen resolution	1,366x768	1,440x900	1,280x800
Battery life	276 minutes	406 minutes	402 minutes
Price	$1,199	$1,299	$1,199

Size: how quickly things change: in March, the 2011 MacBook Pro was the newest laptop in Apple's stable. Now, it's the oldest. It's obviously far heavier than the 13-inch Air, by over a pound and a half. Edge: Air.

Performance: Last time, we recommended the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro as the best all-around Apple 13-incher in terms of price, design and performance. The MacBook Air has caught up fast: its price and base RAM/storage specs are still the same, but the new Air has a dramatically faster second-gen Core i5 CPU that makes for a far better computer. Benchmark results are so close they're practically indistinguishable: despite the Air having a lower-speed CPU, it performs nearly identically to the Pro. The 11-inch Air's no slouch either, and it's nearly as good, its performance lag likely due to having less RAM and a .1 GHz slower processor. Edge: Tie.

Battery life: Again, nearly the same. The MacBook Air lost the battle in the spring, but the new, more power-efficient second-gen Intel Core i5 CPU has evened the comparison. Both 13-inchers netted around 6 hours and 40 minutes. Edge: Tie.

Extras: The 13-inch Pro wins on features, but it's a narrower win than you'd expect. A larger hard drive and a DVD-burning optical drive are the larger Pro's advantages, along with an HD webcam. Port-wise, the Pro adds a FireWire port and an Ethernet jack, and that's it. However, the Air has a higher-resolution 1,440x900 display, while the Pro, oddly enough, has a 1,280x800 resolution screen. Edge: Pro.

And now, case-by-case:

Best value for the money: Pro. Unless you truly value size and weight above all else, the 13-inch Pro offers more features, ports, and hard drive space, along with an optical drive. The advantage is narrow, though, narrower than it's ever been.

Coffee-shopper and frequent traveler: Air. Obviously, size is key. The Air's tiny, and now it also has an improved battery life. Some people, though, might prefer the even smaller 11-inch Air, despite lasting for less time on a charge. (11-inch Air)

Student who wants to save money: Pro. Last time, we said to get the white MacBook, the king of value. You're out of luck on deals this time. The $999 11-inch Air is the cheapest, but sacrifices valuable storage space. The $1199 Pro's technically a good value, but more expensive. Educational discounts currently have the entry Pro at $1099 and the entry Air at $1249, respectively. Does $150 affect your purchasing decision? Alternately, perhaps consider the $499 iPad, or a Windows laptop.

Money is no object, best computer: Air. We would have said the 13-inch Pro a year ago, but you might as well consider splurging on a 256GB 13-inch Air with an upgraded 1.8 GHz Core i7 processor, and get a Thunderbolt-connected storage array along with a Thunderbolt Display to dock with. It'll cost a fortune, but you said you were rich, right?

Executive with expense account: Air. See above. The MacBook Air is finally as fast as the 13-inch Pro, so there's less of a sacrifice between size and speed.

Conclusion: Very tough call. Now it's a split. We give it to the 13-inch Pro on a technicality, for now, for the average person looking to replace their everyday laptop. The 13-inch Pro still a bit more value, even though the Air is arguably a better pure portable Mac. The Air did earn an Editor's Choice award on CNET while the 13-inch Pro didn't, but that's also a factor of accomplishment for its size class: the 13-inch Air is the best thin MacBook, while the 15-inch Pro is technically the better larger-form MacBook. Even though Apple's website suggests that new users start with the MacBook Air, technically, if you're considering a 13-incher, you should start with the $100 cheaper 13-inch Pro.

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