APPLE'S MACBOOK PRO LINE GETS SILENT SPEC BUMP

Apple on Monday quietly updated its line of MacBook Pro notebook computers with faster processors and more storage. The late-2011 MacBook bump comes a bit later than expected, but it is somewhat in line with various reports. Apple’s low-end $1,199 13-inch MacBook Pro laptop now includes a 2.4GHz dual-core Core i5 processor with 500GB of storage, and $1,499 will now buy a 2.8GHz dual-core Core i7 with a 750GB hard drive.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro includes a 2.2GHz quad-core Core i7 and an AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics card for $1,799 or a 2.4GHz quad-core Core i7 and AMD Radeon HD 6770M GPU for $2,199.

On the top end of Apple’s laptop lineup, the base-level 17-inch MacBook pro now includes a 2.4GHz quad-core Core i7 processor and the AMD 6770M for $2,499, and a fully-loaded 17-inch model includes a 2.5GHz quad-core Core i7 CPU and a 512GB solid state drive for $3,849. Apple’s updated MacBook Pro notebooks begin shipping immediately.

NEW YORK TIMES SAYS NO APPLE iPHONE NANO

The New York Times is reporting that Apple will not be releasing a smaller version of their popular iPhone. The article goes on to state that Apple will be releasing a less expensive version, to compete with Android phones. To achieve the lower cost, Apple would use lower cost internal parts such as a lower quality camera and smaller memory modules.

The article doesn't specify if this new cheaper model will roll out when Apple launches the next generation of the iPhone in June or not.

HARD TO READ FONTS COULD LEAD TO BETTER INFORMATION RETENTION

A new study from Princeton University says those simple fonts might cause to you retain less. A font that's easy to read lets your brain relax, so the information doesn't stick as well. Harder to read fonts cause your brain to work that little bit harder. The extra effort tells your brain the information might be worth remembering.

SPEED UP FIREFOX BY MOVING CACHE TO RAM

Since your computer can access data in RAM faster than on a hard drive, moving cached data to RAM can improve your page load times. In Firefox, all you need to do to move your caches to RAM is open up about:config and make a few tweaks.

Once you get into about:config, type browser.cache into the filter bar at the top. Find browser.cache.disk.enable and set it to false by double clicking on it. You'll then want to set browser.cache.memory.enable to true (mine seemed to already be set as such), and create a new preference by right clicking anywhere, hitting New, and choosing Integer. Call the preference browser.cache.memory.capacity and hit OK. In the next window, type in the number of kilobytes you want to assign to the cache (for example, typing 100000 would create a cache of 100,000 kilobytes or 100 megabytes). A value of -1 will tell Firefox to dynamically determine the cache size depending on how much RAM you have. [Gizmodo]