Intel to monitor social networks on Super Bowl ads

Intel executives are monitoring social networks like Facebook and Twitter to gauge consumer reaction to commercials that it ran during Sunday's Super Bowl.

Intel preparing six-core chips for desktops, serversIntel is preparing six-core chips for high-end desktops and servers for release in the first half of this year.
Apple releases firmware update for iMac screen flickeringA firmware update released Monday promises to address issues that may cause intermittent display flickering in iMacs released in late 2009. It's the second firmware update to tackle screen flickering since December.

Product	Score	Price
13-inch MacBook Pro/2.26GHz	104	$1,169.00
13-inch MacBook Pro/2.53GHz	239	$1,474.00
13-inch MacBook/2.26GHz	111	$899.00
17-inch MacBook Pro/2.8GHz	256	$2,398.99
15-inch MacBook Pro/2.53GHz	118	$1,678.99
15-inch MacBook Pro/2.8GHz	139	$2,238.99
15-inch MacBook Pro/2.66GHz	127	$1,948.99
MacBook Air/2.13GHz	72	$1,728.99
MacBook Air/1.86GHz	156	$1,438.99

Product	Score	Price
Mac Pro/Quad-Core Xeon 2.66GHz	203	$2,388.00
27-inch iMac Core 2 Duo/3.06GHz	162	$1,694.99
21.5-inch iMac Core 2 Duo/3.06GHz (ATI graphics)	164	$1,489.00
21.5-inch iMac Core 2 Duo/3.06GHz (Nvidia graphics)	148	$1,193.99
Mac Mini Core 2 Duo/2.26 GHz (Late 2009)	104	$579.98
Mac Mini Core 2 Duo/2.53 GHz (Late 2009)	118	$769.98
Mac Pro/8-Core Xeon 2.26GHz	206
27-inch quad-core iMac/2.66GHz		$1,999.00

One way to access the Mac's boot menu If you have more than one bootable drive (or partition) on your Mac, you know you can get to the boot menu by holding down the Option key at boot time. Learn another less-expected way to get to that same menu in this hint.
The unbootable Mac mini Why would a perfectly good Mac mini suddenly refuse to boot? Dan Frakes takes you through the torturous path to the solution, which ended up being obvious in retrospect.
Troubleshoot an ailing hard drive Do your applications quit without warning? Is your Mac stalling during start-up? Are you finding unusual numbers of corrupted files? You may have a faulty hard drive. Joe Kissel explains how to diagnose and fix the problem.
Macworld's complete Mac buying guide In this buying guide, we'll cover all the Macintosh models available, tell you how they've changed over the previous model, and how well they did in our benchmark tests.
Can an SD card startup disk be used on any Mac? Can an SD card startup disk be used on any Mac? Roman Loyola does a little bit of testing, and finds the answer may be yes.

Opinion: What analysts should ask Apple In advance of Monday's quarterly earnings call in which Apple fields questions from Wall Street analysts, MacJournals.com has some advice on what those analysts should and shouldn't ask.
The Macalope Weekly: Free Apple tablet! Did the Macalope say free apple tablet? He meant Apple tablet-free, because this week's installment focuses on the Nexus One-iPhone battle that wasn't, PC market share numbers, and one writer's lonely campaign to paint Apple as the new Microsoft.
Insanely bad: Ten Apple duds of the decade As great a decade Apple may have had, not every product to come out of Cupertino hit its mark. Simon Jary of PC Advisor in the UK looks at 10 Apple duds from the past 10 years.
Opinion: Will 2010 be the year of the Mac? Apple was a bright spot in 2009 in terms of PC sales, but Infoworld's Galen Gruman says the signals are mixed as to whether the Mac can grow beyond its niche.
Opinion: Mac mini will serve you well The version of the Mac mini that Apple has configured to be a server won't find its way into the enterprise any time soon. But IT maven John C. Welch says Apple's desktop can be surprisingly useful to business users who set their expectations realistically.

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