Today, Apple updated its consumer and professional Macintosh computers.

The company, in response to current economic conditions, lowered the price of its iMacs, with the 20 – inch model starting at $1,199 and the new 24 – inch iMac at $1,499, the starting price for the previous generation of iMacs.

Under the hood, the 20 – inch iMac has a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics, which is the same video chipset used in Apple’s notebook line. The computer comes with a 320GB Serial ATA hard drive and includes 2GB of DDR3 memory.

The high-end 24 – inch iMac can be upgraded to the 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo processor and can be purchased with an NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 or an ATI Radeon HD 4850 dedicated video card for playing video games. The system includes a choice of 640GB or 1TB SATA hard drive and 4GB of DDR3 memory.

Apple refreshed its Mac mini line by updating its innards while keeping the mini’s exterior the same. The Mac mini comes uses a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with either 1GB of DDR3 memory and a 120GB SATA hard drive for $599 or 2GB of memory and a 320GB hard drive for $799.

The Mac mini was the subject of numerous rumors of its imminent upgrade over the last couple of years.

Both the iMac and the Mac mini use the new Mini DisplayPort, which was introduced by Apple with their notebooks last year.

Apple also touted their commitment to greening their hardware, which exceed current Energy Star 4.0 requirements, use PVC-free components and doesn’t contain brominated flame retardants.

The Mac Pro also got an internal update along with its consumer cousins. Starting at $2,499, the Pro uses Intel Nehalem Xeon processors that go up to 2.93 GHz and includes 3GB or DDR3 memory upgradeable to 32GB of memory and holds up to 4TB of hard drive space.

Nice speedy upgrades, at a cheaper starting price point. Guess even Apple is feeling the heat from the recession ^^;;

After Facebook changed their user policy claiming ownership of their users’ content, the angry users struck back and forced the company to back down.

Now Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and founder of Facebook, announced that its users would be give a voice in how the company is run.

According to CNN, the new policy would have allowed Facebook to own their users’ posts and media, such as photos and videos, even if a user closed down their account.

Facebook will hold virtual town hall meetings to let users comment on the proposed new Facebook Principles, which will protect their rights on the social networking Web site.

The company also plans to create a council of users to represent its customers in future policy changes.

Who knew that Facebook would become powerful enough for the company itself to bend to its collective users’ wishes? O_o

Earlier today, all peanut products made by the Peanut Corporation of America at its plant in Plainview, Texas were recalled by the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Inspectors found dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers in the plant’s production area. They were spread from a crawl space by the ventilation system into exposed peanuts as they were being processed.

According to CNN, Texas Health Department press officer Doug McBride said the company sold to other food manufacturers, not directly to consumers.

Company officials voluntarily halted operations since Monday.

The plant produced oil-roasted peanuts, dry-roasted peanuts, peanut meal and granulated peanut since it opened in March 2005.

Another peanut plant owned by the company in Blakely, Ga., caused an outbreak of salmonella poisoning that affected over 600 people and killed nine.

Here is a link to a health alert widget from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with the latest information on the peanut recalls.

Great. After the milk debacle over in China, we need to worry about peanuts here. -_-

Nearly 500 miles over the skies of Siberia, two communications satellites ran into each other in orbit, creating debris that could put the International Space Station at risk.

On Tuesday, a Russian satellite launched in 1993 was out of control, running into an Iridium commercial satellite launched in 1997.

The Russian satellite weighed nearly a ton while the US satellite weighed 1,235 pounds.

Yahoo News also reported the risk of damage also includes the Hubble Space Telescope and nearby Earth-observing satellites, according to Nicholas Johnson, an orbital debris expert at NASA.

Iridium is a system of 65 satellites that relay phone calls through special satellite cellphones. The company was originally launched by Motorola before going into bankruptcy in 1999 and relaunched by New York-based investment firm Greenhill & Co. in 2001.

Sounds like Goldeneye got activated. Where’s 007 when you need him? ;-P

Guess techies should have brought some mosquito repellent to the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference this week.

Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, opened up his TED speech by saying, “Not only poor people should experience this,” and released a swarm of mosquitoes on the unsuspecting audience.

According to Switched, the stunt was meant to promote the efforts of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to eradicate malaria.

Thanks to real-time Twittering by Ev Williams, CEO of Twitter, and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, the rest of the Internet soon heard about Bill’s stunt. 

Yeah, maybe Gates is sort of going stir-crazy at home ;-P

Guess the last-minute rush for digital converter boxes and digital HDTV sets will have to wait for another four months.

The New York Times reported earlier today that the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill to delay the deadline for requiring consumers to switch to digital TV, which was originally set for Feb. 17.

However, television stations will be allowed to switch over to their digital signals before the new deadline, which could result in some people losing their signals before they can upgrade their TVs.

The House voted 264-158 to extend the deadline to June 12. The Senate already passed a similar bill last week. President Obama is expected to sign the bill.

Yay for  procrastination! At least until June… ;-P

At the University of California, Berkeley, you can now take a class that discusses the finer points of Starcraft.

In an article by Tumeroks, The class is for students with an “interest in real-time strategy games and the competitive gaming landscape.”

The topics covered in the class include theory of war within Starcraft and  computational aspects of battles in the game.

Students are expected to have knowledge of calculus and differential equations and there will be homework assigned for the class.

Released in 1998, Starcraft is a real-time strategy game is based in the future, where exiled humans colonized a distant part of the galaxy in the 26th century and fight against two different groups of aliens, the Protoss and the Zerg. The game is currently popular in South Korea, which hosts professional teams in televised matches.

Today’s homework will be to challenge seven of your classmates in a deathmatch using the BGH map. Please bring your saved replay file with a 1 page kill ratio analysis using the Zerg/Protoss/Human cycle equations that we derived in class ;-P

Last Friday, electronics retailer Circuit City announced that it would shut down and liquidate its merchandise.

The company’s 567 U.S. stores will close and over 34,000 employees will soon be unemployed.

According to CNNMoney.com, Circuit City’s acting CEO James Marcum said the company was unable to restructure the company while it was in bankruptcy protection, which was further hampered by the current recession.

Liquidation sales started last Saturday and until the end of March. Employees will receive 60 days of pay and benefits.

Circuit City’s 765 retail stores and dealer outlets in Canada will continue its operations.

Gift cards issued by the company will be honored during the liquidation process.

Circuit City was the second largest electronics retailer in the U.S., behind Best Buy.

Yes Toto, we’re in a recession alright. :-(

Star Trek fans rejoice, or at least those who prefer speaking in Klingon, for now there is a keyboard that can type your favorite language.

Offered by Cherry Corporation’s England division, the keyboard has 105 keys, a PS/2 connection, and comes in black.

This exclusive keyboard will be available for a limited time.

Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam… or rather to type :-P

Guess even the president of the United States has some limits when it comes to tech gadgets.

President-elect Barack Obama will have to give up his Blackberry when he becomes president next week.

According to TG Daily, the Secret Service, FBI, and the National Security Agency believe that Obama would have been susceptible to hackers on RIM’s network.

Generally, federal employees are allowed to use Blackberry smartphones since data is encrypted before it is sent out into a cellular network.

Security officials are also worried that his Blackberry may be used as homing device, since cellphones sends a constant signal to nearby transmission towers.

A third issue Obama faces is that his e-mails and text messages will become a public archive under the 1978 Presidential Records Act, which all administrations are required to follow.

Looks like the next president will need to find other ways to keep up with his increasing amount of e-mails.

It seems a bit ridiculous that Obama can’t use his Blackberry. Maybe he’ll need to give snail mail a second chance then ;-P