the new macbook pro is here!

by Simon Strantzas (procurement@loop.ca), Product Specialist

As one of our customers commented to me the other day "Finally, Apple's made a good laptop," and I couldn't agree more (unless he'd said "portable")

Apple's new MacBook Pro is a marvel of engineering. Carved from a single piece of aluminum, the unibody of the machine allows for a thinner, lighter product. Also new to the 15" line is the use of an LED backlight in the display to conserve space and light the display to full brightness instantly. But that's not all that's different about the display: it's edge-to-edge glass which helps support the frame and again make the unit lighter. The last physical change to note is the removal of the latch (which I know will make many of you happy) and the introduction of the buttonless trackpad. Where did the button go? The trackpad IS the button. Again, more glass, but it gives you the tactile sensation of a button, yet all the space necessary for the multi-touch gestures recently introduced to Apple's portable line. As Apple says, it's the largest, most ergonomic MacBook Pro trackpad ever!

An interesting addition to the line is the dual graphic processors. They don't work together, but rather are used for different situations. Use the integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M for general, on- the-road use. It's plenty for everyday use, and doesn't present too much drain on your battery. But when things really need to kick in, and you need a full powered processor, switch over to the NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT.

The new MacBook Pro ships as two models, both 15.4" in size. If you require something smaller, the MacBook line is very similar to the Pro line, though missing some key components that make the MacBook Pro the only choice for the serious user. Choose between the 2.4GHz model, shipping with 2GB of RAM, 250GB SATA hard drive, and 256MB of VRAM. Or, spring for the 2.53GHz model, with a full 4GB of RAM, 320GB SATA drive, and 512MB of VRAM.

These models are already shipping from Apple. If you've been on the fence about upgrading your portable, now is the time to do it. Contact your Looop corporate account manager for more information or email sales@loop.ca.

extensis suitcase fusion 2…. finally a reason to upgrade

by Mike Bevilacqua (mbevilacqua@loop.ca), Corporate Account Manager

Font management has always been a necessary requirement, especially in a graphics environment. I will be the first to admit that Suitcase 10 and X1 were not the best versions of the software, a bit too buggy for my liking and the auto-activation feature did not always work as advertised. Having said that, I would rather run Suitcase 10 and X1 than allow the system folder or Font Book take care of my font management.

Suitcase Fusion was a huge improvement over previous versions; auto-activation worked as advertised, and it played a lot nicer with OS X.

Suitcase Fusion 2 builds on those improvements with some added features:

Support for CS4/3 InDesign and Illustrator, and QXP 8/7
Suitcase Fusion 2 is an early adopter with seamless auto-activation support for Adobe InDesign and Illustrator CS4 and QuarkXPress 8. Not there yet? No worries, Suitcase Fusion 2 also supports CS3 and QuarkXPress 7.

An Interface Worth the Face Time
The new interface gives you the perfect excuse to mix a little play with your work. It’s sleek, straightforward design makes it easy to locate, group, examine, preview and activate any font in your library.

Font Sense™
Suitcase Fusion 2 is equipped with industry tested, patented Font Sense technology. Font Sense uses multiple criteria to uniquely fingerprint each version of a font, delivering precise font matching and auto-activation.

Font Auto-Activation
Suitcase Fusion 2 comes with professional-grade auto-activation plug-ins for critical design and publishing apps, including InDesign®, Illustrator®, and QuarkXPress®. These plug-ins utilize Font Sense to precisely match and auto-activate the right font types when you open a document. To avoid other conflicts, these plug-ins will also auto-deactivate the fonts upon closing a document.

Breathtaking Previews
Suitcase Fusion 2 offers unprecedented font and glyph preview options including a slick slider bar that lets you dynamically resize your font preview. See how typefaces stack up side-by-side even down to their individual glyphs. Tear off your previews and drop them into your document to see what they look like in action.

Suitcase Fusion 2 has been written from the ground up for OS X Leopard. In fact, Fusion 2 will not run on previous versions of OS X, something to keep in mind if you decide to upgrade. I definitely recommend upgrading from Suitcase X1 and previous versions to Suitcase Fusion 2 for the improved stability and feature list. You can upgrade directly from Suitcase X1 and Fusion to Suitcase Fusion 2. If you are running any version prior to X1 then you will have to purchase a full version of Suitcase Fusion 2.

Talk to your Loop corporate account manager about Extensis Suitcase Fusion 2 or email sales@loop.ca.