And like that, we’re off. It’s a new year, a new decade, and a new crop
of articles from the talented, attractive, and eminently wonderful
staff of Mac|Life. Go on, have a look. You know you want to.

Features:

-
CES: Attack of the eReaders! – Of course, last week was the week of the
2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and there was as
much tech to geek out on as there were industry honchos to make you
swoon or choke. Turns out, everyone’s got Amazon in their sites with
eReaders galore for the new decade.

-
CES: Invasion of the Tablets & Slates! – Not content with taking a
whack at Amazon, the other Big A was under assault at this year’s CES
as everyone and their grandma rushed out their version of the tablet.
Curiously enough, hot on the heels of it being revealed that Apple had
trademarked the name iSlate, everyone and, of course, their grandma
followed suit with their range of "slates." What’s that they say again
about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery?

Reviews:

-
Shirt Pocket SuperDuper! – Sometimes making a backup of what you’ve
saved can be a tricky process. Like TimeMachine, Shirt Pocket
SuperDuper! helps take the sting out of what can frustrate even Mac
pros and it does it with style. It’s kinda rocking and we liked it a
lot.

-
Targus Bluetooth Comfort Laser Mouse & Compact Optical Mouse – Does
anyone really think Apple’s mice are great? We haven’t yet met the
person who raves about them, which means substitutes are a necessity.
Targus comes through with a decent wireless option and they’ve even
made a wee tiny one for those of you on the go.

-
Rogue Planet – Fun for the most part, this turn-based-strategy game
from Gameloft boasts awesome graphics, but some wordy dialogue scenes
that bog down the action. Packed with options, the game is mostly a win
and for $4.99 what are you complaining about?

How-Tos:

-
Create a Slideshow to Go – One of the best aspects of Apple software is
how easy it is to do complicated tasks. iPhoto ’09 gives you the
ability to make slideshows on the quick, burn them to DVD or CD, or
even just export them to iTunes and synch it up to your iPod. Plus,
it’s a snap to make an uploadable version for Facebook or Flickr.
There’s a reason people say once you go Apple, you don’t go back.

News:

We
did mention this was CES week, right? Intel’s rocking some new mobile
processors that should be appearing in the next generation of on-the-go
computing….They also managed to give a little demonstration of their Core i5 for the next generation of MacBooks…Boxee continues to tackle
the space carved out by Apple TV and they’re making viewing your shows
on your biggest screen a snap….FloTV’s and Morphie are trying
something similar, but this time it’s for your mobile devices…Your
App Shop, a totally legit App Store alternative for those of us who
don’t want to risk bricking our iPhones by jailbreaking them….For
those of you who want to totally tweak out an alarm clock on the
iPhone, iHope has you covered with enough tweaks and personalizations
to make any nerd sigh.

In tablet/ereader/slate news, at CES
Microsoft and HP decided they’d better get into the "slate" game and
subsequently busted out their versions, for those of you who are
satisfied with inferior to Apple products…an iPhone developer thinks
hard about the upcoming tablet and gives a few of his best educated
guesses…a former marketer for Apple decides to give you a behind the
scenes glimpse at how some of your favorite tablet rumors might just be
controlled misinformation from Cupertino…and in news you already knew,
some random dude says the tablet OS will have a good bit of new sexy to it.
Duh, dude, duh….and some say the Apple tablet will be a Verizon
joint. We’ll see about that, controlled leakers….and lastly the day
of Apple’s big announcement gets bumped back one to January 27th. We’ve
waited this long; what’s one day between friends?

Filling
out the miscellaneous category, Greenpeace did an about face and now
loves Apple above all computer manufacturers…AT&T finally starts
to upgrade their 3G network, only about a year too late and you still
won’t see any major speed improvements…the Facebook app gets push
notifications in case you weren’t on it enough hours out of your
day…Google’s Nexus One drops at the tradeshows; see what you think
about the latest Android phone…and CNBC takes a look at those app thingies and wonders, what’s it all about.