New Technology: Top Five Innovations for Business Owners

Apple MacBook Pro 2008 Edition

The follow-up to the super-thin MacBook Air, the Apple (AAPL Quote) MacBook Pro 2008 Edition adds more power and a larger screen. New 17-inch models have a backlit LED option, along with Penryn-class Intel CPUs (INTC Quote) and the touch-pad gestures already featured on the MacBook Air. The newer trackpad allows maneuverability to go back and forth in Safari's browser history or zoom in and out of photos or documents. Such user-friendly additions with the larger screen make the super-lightweight, one-inch-thick Pro a handy office tool.

For those with an eco-friendly mind-set, the Energy Star-compliant MacBook line of computers is among the greener models available with less packaging, recyclable casing and mercury-free LCD displays.

Apple's Mobile Me

One more from Apple is the new Mobile Me, designed to help you integrate your technical world into one mobile location. Using an online server, you can store email, contacts and calendars and use the "cloud" to update your Mac, PC, iPhone and/or iPod Touch all at once from anywhere.

Mobile Me software works with Microsoft Outlook (PC) -- with either Windows XP or Vista, as well as with iCal on Mac. Among other features of Mobile Me, you'll find Gallery, which lets you upload, post, rearrange and title photos in Web quality, and iDisk, a file management system with 20GB that can store emails, documents, photos and more. You can also drag and drop larger files as email attachments. The new subscription service (as of July 11, 2008) costs $99 for an individual and offers an additional 20GB of storage for $49.