The year's Top 10 Mac stories

I don’t know about you, but I’m about ready to file 2008 under “L� for “Let Us Never Speak of This Again,� before padlocking the file cabinet and heading on into 2009 with nary a glance in the rear view mirror. But before I can do that, let’s put a final stamp on the past year with a look at the top 10 stories that hit the Mac market in 2008, a grand and glorious tradition that dates all the way back to last year.

Stories are ranked 10 to one in ascending order of importance, based on a number of factors including the overall impact on the Mac market and Mac users as well as the potential to influence events deep into the coming year. The 10 entries were selected by a panel of me, following a lengthy debate between me and the voices in my head. This is one man’s opinion, in other words�if you think that I overlooked, overemphasized, or overrated a Mac-related happening, feel free to let me know about it in the comments.

Let’s begin the countdown, shall we?

10. Unibody laptops
Apple brought the MacBook Air's unibody construction to the MacBook and MacBook Pro.The revamped MacBook and MacBook Pro lines introduced by Apple in October did more than just give Apple’s two mainstream laptops a look in line with the ultra-thin MacBook Air�the new design introduced a number of environmentally friendly changes in line with Apple’s stated goal of producing greener products. And, in the case of the MacBook, replacing that model’s Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics that share more memory with the system RAM, improved the performance of those laptops, particularly in graphics-intensive tasks. It’s a sign that Apple is intent on keeping the best-selling segment of its Mac product line as attractive to consumers as possible.

9. Psystar and "Hackintosh"

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

• Email
• Print
• Share
  • Slashdot
  • Digg
  • Stumble
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine