I must apologize for the delay on today’s Manic Monday. If you haven’t been watching the Weather Channel at all, Fargo got hit with the worst blizzard seen since 1997, so I spent my day digging my car out of the snow (No, that’s not my car pictured above). That said, a very belated Manic Monday.

• Gmail Enables SMS Messaging From Chat
• Also added to Gmail, a To-Do List
• Google Chrome breaks out of beta. How about a Mac and Linux version?
• Mozilla to pull the plug on Firefox 2 “soon”. Time to upgrade!
• That said, Mozilla added multitouch gestures to Firefox 3.1 for Mac.
• And HP apparently will wipe your hard drive to fix a broken keyboard.
• Canada Increases ‘Music Industry Subsidy’ on Blank CDs. Good day, eh?
• And a Russian has apparently trademarked the emoticon.
• Apple gets official acceleration spec for Snow Leopard.
• Apple and AT&T bring back iPhone home activation.
• Finally, Seadragon is Microsoft’s first iPhone App. Voice Search Next?

And that’s this week’s Manic Monday. I did two installments of Wired For Gifts last week, and I plan to do the same this week, as well as some other tips and tricks in the middle. Enjoy!

If you’ve been looking at getting a MacBook Air, you’ll be happy you didn’t buy. Apple secretly cut the price of the MacBook Air when loaded with upgrades. A 80GB 1.6GHz MBA is still $1799, but it now only costs $100 more to get a 1.8GHz Processor (compared to $200 before). And if you want that 64GB Solid State Drive, this just gets better. The SSD upgrade, which before was a $1300 upgrade, is now a $800 upgrade- now for just $2598. Okay, I still won’t buy one, but if you’ve been in the market this may entice you to make a purchase. Mac on!

MacBook Air [Apple Store]

Yes folks, a Saturday post. I stopped back in January due to other things going on, and I would like to get back in the swing of it.

Moving right along, I’m not sure what makes this gadget compatible with the MacBook Air (versus not compatible with something else), but we’ll go with it. I give you the AirQueue.

Enter AirQueue, a 20cm (7.75in) USB 2.0 extension cable custom designed to enable USB devices with large or unusually designed connectors to work with the MacBook Air. Furthermore, AirQueue is the only USB 2.0 extender cable certified to work with Synchrotech’s MicroU2E USB ExpressCard reader. The AirQueue and MicroU2E combination allows deployment of a whole range of USB 2.0 based ExpressCards with MacBook Air.

Again, why it’s geared towards that MBA, I’ll never know. I’m pretty sure it’ll work just like any ol’ 8-inch USB extension cable, but it’s good to know people are thinking of the MacBook Air users. The best part? Only $6. Not too shabby at all.

AirQueue USB 2.0 Extender Cable [Product Page via Engadget]

Just when we thought there was no hope for poor Mr. iPhone, iPhone/iTouch 1.1.4 Firmware update came across the way just a bit ago. You can now download it through iTunes. Now, the rumor was that the iPhone SDK was delayed, and so far this update is showing that. But I would be willing to bet that it is setting up some stuff on the back end to get it ready. Besides that, 1.1.4 takes care of some bug fixes. As always, if you have a Jailbroken or Unlocked iPhone/iTouch, stay away from the update. The 1.1.4 update- download away from the usual places.

This has got to be like the 6th week in a row of new Apple products. But that’s okay! Here’s what we’ve got:

New MacBooks
To no one’s surprise, there are new MacBook and MacBook Pros.

MacBook

- Processor speeds now start at 2.1 GHz for the base model, 2.4 GHz for the $1299 and $1499 models
- 120 GB drive is standard for the base level MacBook, 160 GB for the $1299 MacBook and a whopping 250 GB drive for the BlackBook. All drives are 5400 RPM
- 2 GB RAM standard for all but entry-level MacBooks (that remains at 1 GB)

Prices here are same as always, $1099 for no superdruive, $1299 for a SuperDrive and $1499 for a blackbook.

MacBook Pro

Processor speeds now start at 2.4 GHz, and are available up to 2.6 GHz (2.5 GHz is standard for the 17″); the new 2.5 GHz chip has 6 MB of L2 cache

- The MBP 17″ now has an LED backlit screen option
- 200 GB is the starting HD size (this is up from 120 GB in the last revision), 250 GB standard for the upper 15″ and 17″ models. A 300 GB drive is available BTO, as is a 7200 rpm 200 GB drive
- NVidia 8600GT now starts at 256 MB of VRAM — 512 for the higher end 15″ and stock 17″
Multi-touch trackpad a la the Air.

The entry model starts at $1999.

Very cool, If I must say so. Although, you now have to spend $19 to get the Apple Remote. Oh well. Both the MacBook and the MacBook Pro can be purchased through the Apple Store.

The other update today was that the 2GB iPod Shuffle is now available to order. As mentioned, Apple cut the price of the iPod Shuffle to $49, and now made available a 2GB version of the Shuffle for just $69. If you can put up with an iPod Shuffle, then it is one helluva deal. You can get it at the Apple Store.

I don’t talk much in the way of furniture, but this is sure to get any geek to drool.

The FlipIT desk can accommodate dual 19″ monitors or one cinema wide screen display up to a 36″ case width. Screen angles can be adjusted to your liking,there are cable ports on both sides, and there is an option of having built-in power strips and / or cable connector boxes.

Okay, it may not be the prettiest, but it certainly looks effective. No word on pricing or availability, but it is sure to be a hit.

Product Page [SmartDesks via Gizmodo]

Side Note: I’m starting to come down with something, and am not feeling that great. I hope to have something tomorrow, but that may not happen. Thanks for understanding.

Let’s talk monitors today. What do you know about ‘em? Well, uh, you can see things. But are you seeing them the way they were intended? You can find out with Screen Check.

Screen Check displays two bars, one white-to-black for adjusting tone and the other covers the red/green/blue spectrum for adjusting color. Just follow the Screen Check instructions and Viola! You’re enjoying full color.

This is a great little tool to fix those setting you played with or to fix that monitor that’s never been right. It just takes minute to do and is well worth it.

Screen Check [via Lifehacker]

Okay, so it’s really 4:3 or 16:9. As promised, I’ve brought back Help Desk to help out Sean who is confused about aspect ratio on his new T.V. Sean write:

I just bought a new TV. It’s widescreen (16:9), which is cool, but all my 4:3 programming now looks messed up. The TV allows me to change it’s ratio, as well as zoom. Which one is best for the T.V?

This is always a troubling topic for me, too. I can tell you, though, that it’s not as troubling as it may seem. See what I mean after the break. READ MORE »

It’s been a while since I’ve shown off a unusual and completely useless project. Therefore, I will mention one today. Whether you’re wanting to show off, or just want to make your computer look cool, U-S-Blink might be worth considering.

I have found something to do with unused USB ports. I call it U-S-Blink and they are quick, easy and cheap to make. This is another product of boredom.

Since Flashing LED’s actually contain super small integrated electronic circuits for oscillation, a current limiting resistor isn’t necessary in most cases. This makes this project embarrassingly easy. Staying within the voltage range is still important. I didn’t have the specs for my LED, but +5VDC usually falls within the range of most blue SuperBright 5 mm Flashing LED’

Making your own U-S-Blink is very inexpensive, as you just need some parts from RadioShack. Enjoy!

U-S-Blink

Apple’s done it again with a great press event. The info I’m giving you is being constantly updated (as the keynote it still going), so it may be an hour or two before everthing is mentioned and linked. Here we go:

New iMac
What’d I tell ya! Apple came out with a new iMac complete with black and aluminum finish (Image Above). It’s got USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800. Slot load superdrive. iSight camera and microphone. Can add memory with just one screw. New iMac will come in two sizes: 20-inch display, and 24-inch display. Both will be glossy. “Customers say they love glossy displays.”

How about specs? Up to 2.4GHz Core 2 Extreme processor, up to 4GB of memory. ATI Radeon HD graphics card, up to 1TB of hard drive storage. 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.0 built-in. What models will we have? Up until now, 17-inch, 20-inch, and 24-inch. Well, today we’re replacing the 24-inch, lowering price by $200, 20-inch at same $1499. replacing 17-inch with $1199 model.

New Keyboard
We’ve seen mock-ups on the web for months, and here it is. Steve officially didn’t say it, but I take it to be the new official keyboard. Two USB ports. 0.33″, full complement of keys, including dedicated keys for screen dimmer and brighter, expose, media controls, volume controls, eject for optical drive. New wireless keyboard, beautiful, very compact.

New iLife + iWork
All new Macs supposedly are getting a new version iLife, deemed “iLife ‘08″ (because, honestly, it’s way too late to have an iLife ‘07 – there just gunna skip it and go from ‘06 to ‘08). All five apps have gotten an update. Once again, free with all new Macs, $79 to upgrade your current Mac.

Also new iWork. Same deal, update to Keynote and Pages. Just $79 and it’s yours.

As of 11:29am PDT (2:29 EDT), that all that Steve has. Once the new product pages and the Apple Store become available, I’ll get those up, as well as any updates that may come my way.

Update 2:45pm EDT: Apperently they silently upgraded the Mac Mini (it’s still alive!). The Apple store is comming back up right now, but internal links are not working. Hopefully in the next 30min we’ll have links.

Update 2:48pm EDT: Never mind – store’s back down.

Update 4:32pm EDT: Store’s finally back up. Links have been added.

iMac Product Page [Apple]
iLife ‘08 [Apple Store]
iWork ‘08 [Apple Store]
Live from Apple’s summer Mac product press conference [Engadget]