According to a fresh Knowledge Base article, a properly formatted SD card can be used to boot OS X from the internal slot. As (vaguely) described, this could be a valuable backup and restoration tool, or a convenient way to maintain a semi-portable install of your OS. In proper giveth/taketh fashion, Apple states in the same posting that, despite being the clear, inevitable replacement for the SDHC standard, SDXC card’s won’t be supported, meaning storage will effectively be capped at 32GB.

If Apple really wanted to make this useful, they’d extend Boot Camp to support external storage devices; a feat which is currently only manageable through complex and unwieldy hacks. On this, the article is tellingly silent. [Ars—SDXC tip from Richard L.]

There will be three chips, successors to the CPUs in high end notebooks today: Core 2 Quad P1 (1.6GHz priced at $364 with 6MB cache,) Core 2 Quad P2 (1.73GHz at $US536 with 8MB cache,) and the Core 2 Extreme XE (running at 2GHz with 8MB cache and a whopping $US1,054 price tag.)

Don’t hold your purchases for that, though. According to AppleInsider, there could be another refresh to the current Montevina platform, with higher speeds and price cuts “as early as this spring if it so chooses.” But then again, Steve Jobs may appear naked and throwing iPhone 3.0s while dancing to Wagner’s Die Valkyrie in the next WWDC as well. If he so chooses. [Apple Insider]

They noted this apparent GPU acceleration when playing back 1080p trailers from Apple’s site, which saw CPU utilisation drop from 100 percent in previous gen MacBook Pros to just 28 percent in current MacBooks, even though the CPU is the same speed and the Pro has more RAM (new MacBooks have a faster FSB, but it wouldn’t account for this kind of bump). Nvidia cards do have hardware support for video decoding, so this would make sense, but Apple hasn’t used it before.

The other possibility that MacRumors floats is that these changes could be based on improvements slotted for Snow Leopard, namely Quicktime X, “which optimises support for modern audio and video formats resulting in extremely efficient media playback.” Apple hasn’t confirmed this, so if you’ve got one of the new MacBooks and old one to compare, check it out and let us know how it looks. [MacRumors]

Says one of their readers:

Apparently, Apple doesn’t want anybody talking about the lack of FireWire ports on the new MacBooks, because they keep deleting every thread that people are posting about the lack of FireWire ports on the New MacBooks! I was participating in 3 different threads on the Apple Discussion Boards regarding the lack of FireWire from the new MacBooks, and Apple has removed every single thread regarding this topic. There are no threads left on the Apple Discussion Boards regarding this issue!”

Yes, it’s possible that these threads were totally unproductive circle jerks, but there are legitimate technical issues to discuss here—workarounds for Target Disk Mode, what to do with FireWire cameras, etc., so if they’re deleting every thread, it’s definitely overboard. The official Apple word from an employee in at least one thread though, regarding how no FireWire gimps out some camcorders with iMovie ‘08, is that “USB is the preferred interface for iMovie ‘08.” You know, even though a ton of cameras use FireWire.

Apple might not let users talk about the loss of FireWire, but their message seems to be loud and clear: Deal with it. [MacFixIt]

Before Tuesday, there was no way a MacBook and a MacBook Pro could appear in a single review. Too much separated the two systems, from outer appearance (build materials and backlit keyboard) to inner nitty gritty (graphics processors, etc.). To group the two classes together would have been like simultaneously reviewing a Ford Focus and a Ford Mustang. But the new MacBook and MacBook Pro are far more similar than they are different. From the glass-bezel screen to the front side bus, these computers finally deserve to share the name MacBook. They’re brothers, one a pro, the other a vastly accomplished amateur. Here’s our verdict, after two days of thorough nonstop testing.

In the past, Steve Jobs was always the Star of the Show. Like his dear Johnny Cash, this man in black would come out on stage with an orchestra behind him, enthusing his audience with his voice and inflections, make his magic moves and leave everyone hypnotised until he left the building. He wasn’t the best singer or the best guitar player, but he had it. Like Johnny, he also shared the limelight with others from time to time, but it was only for a song or two. The concerts were always “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash”. The keynotes were always “Hello, I’m Steve Jobs.”

It was Steve’s Show from beginning to “one more thing,” and there was no doubt about it.

Today it was the confirmation that those days may be over forever. It seems like Steve has decided it’s time not to appear like Johnny Cash anymore, but time to become Mick Jagger. And with him, he brought Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Ronnie Wood. Today Steve’s band played all the tunes in harmony, showing to the world that there’s more to Apple than just the frontman, even while his DNA is deep inside every single aspect of the company’s culture.

Instead of kicking off with a market analysis to prepare the ground, this time it was Tim Cook who took the stage wearing Steve’s colour scheme: Blue jeans and black top. Psychologically, this puts them at the same level, easing the future potential power transition. Seems stupid, but you can bet it wasn’t coincidental, even while Cook has zero appeal when compared to the rockstar CEO. Then came “Jony” Ive to talk about the design and aluminium laser making, and it wasn’t until minute 18 that Steve took over to present the actual toys. 27 minutes later, for a man that has taken on two-hour presentations without even blinking, the MacBook 2008 video kicked off only to be followed by a short Q&A–with Cook and Phil Schiller as wingmen–after which he had time to crack a quick joke about his own health.

Obviously, that’s what lies at the heart of this transition. He joked about his blood pressure, taking a dig at this obsession with watching him decline, with the World’s Press looking for the Biggest News Ever in Tech History this side of Steve Ballmer announcing his sex change and a new name (probably Dorita Estevez). But while, like I said before, it’s not your business or mine to get into his private life, the man clearly understands that his baby, the company he created with the Woz from scratch, deserves a plan and a bright future.

It’s part of him. He created it, he was pushed off it, and then he rescued it back from the pits of hell to the top of the world. Along that path he made plenty of mistakes, but getting together the team that have been directing the company with him during the last few years is not one of those mistakes. It may prove to be his biggest lasting achievement.

I’m sure we still have a lot more shows like this, and that Steve Jobs will always stay at Apple like Bill Gates will always stay at Microsoft, even after his retirement. But the play we saw today was the prologue of the new Apple Without Steve but With Steve Era, Jobs signalling that he’s not alone at the helm, and that if he moves on, nobody should panic. Not explicitly, but the message was there in big neon letters for everyone to see.

Or maybe he just had diarrhea.

Apple has confirmed their new way to make laptops in the new MacBook 2008 line-up. Previously, manufacturers–including Apple–would add layers to form a body, welding each of them to give the laptop rigidity. Now, they have changed the whole game: instead of adding pieces, they will eliminate matter from solid pieces of aluminium using lasers and other machinery to create the new MacBook bodies.

The whole thing starts with a solid block of aluminium. This goes through an extrusion machine, in which the block is flattened on a thick, continuous metal sheet, like giant aluminium tagliatelle, which then get cut into the blocks that make the base of the MacBooks.

These blocks go through a whopping 16 different milling operations, using all kinds of machinery including lasers, until the part is completely finished and ready to be sent to the assembly line.