Have you ever wanted to video chat with your iPhone using friends but don’t have an iPhone yourself? Well, if you’ve wanted to use Apple’s FaceTime from the iPhone and only had a Mac, you were out of luck. That is, until this week.

The video chat service from Apple left Beta yesterday and is now a full fledged and polished App available at Apple’s App Store. This update was timed, it would seem, to come out at the same time Apple was refreshing its MacBook Pro lineup.

Now that it’s out of Beta, the App sports a new price, which is only 99¢. In case you’re not familiar with FaceTime, its an Apple provided service that allows Mac, iPhone, iPod touch and soon, iPad users to make video calls for free over land-based Internet connections.

The service itself is free and the App is bundled with any of Apple’s recent iOS devices such as the iPhone. However, as we said above, it cost just under a buck if you want the App for your Mac. However, the App is now pre-installed on all new MacBook Pro models so that’s a nice thing.

As was expected, today Apple updated its lineup of portable Macs with all-new MacBook Pro computers of various sizes and specifications. Although the updates are more evolutionary than revolutionary, that doesn’t mean they aren’t significant.

Some of the new updates include i5 or i7 “Sandy Bridge” processors across the lineup, AMD Radeon HD Graphics, Thunderbolt connector and all of the version have a larger trackpad, have dropped in weight and feature a new “Facetime HD” camera instead of the former iSight camera.

Here’s the full rundown:

13″ MacBook Pro

• 2.3 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with a 3 MB shared L3 cache or 2.7 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache
• 13.3-inch LED-Backlit with 1280×800 resolution; Glossy only
• 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM clocked at 1333 MHz (2×2 GB), supports up to 8 GB
• 320 or 500 GB, 5400 RPM Serial ATA hard drive; optional 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB solid-state drive
• Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 384 MB DDR3 SDRAM shared memory
• FaceTime HD camera, 8X slot-loading SuperDrive, Thunderbolt High-Speed E/A and Mini-DisplayPort, 802.11N WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, SDXC, FireWire 800, USB 2.0.
• Starting at $1199

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Like it is when pretty much anything new is released by Apple, their online Apple Store was down for a bit this morning. Now, the store is back and with it are new, improved MacBook Pro models for your purchasing pleasure. These updates were rumored to come for the last months and now they have and provide an impressive array of new features and models from which to choose.

The 15″ and 17″ models now use the i5 and i7 Intel dual-core processors (at 2.4, 2.53GHz or 2.66Ghz, respectively), giving them a big performance boost and permitting hyperthreading (up to 4 virtual cores). They also include the GeForce GT 330M graphics chip, and the NVIDIA-driven Optimus technology to switch from the high-end video subsystem to integrated graphics on the fly to improve power management.

Users of previous generation MacBook Pros will remember that this process used to involve logging out and in to switch, but now simply requires the click of a mouse. The improved power handling lets the 15″ and 17″ models supposedly go 8-9 hours on one battery charge. That, of course, remains to be seen. In addition, all models now include 4GB of RAM standard.

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Apple rarely, if every, discounts its products so this latest “leaked” brochure, which seems to showcase the consumer electronics giant doing just that should be taken with one of those ginormous grains of salt. Still, if true, these deals do look pretty sweet and seem far more reasonable than other reported “deals’ being shown around the Internets.

If its a little difficult to see the fine print, we’ll give you a hand and highlight some of the deals. They are available only at Apple’s online store, and include iMacs starting at $1098, iPod nanos starting at $138, iPod touch starting at $178, MacBook Pros starting at $1098, Apple TVs starting at $208, Airport Express starting at $88, Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard going for $64 each, and a whole lot more.

We realize that the deals are pretty hard to read over there on the right, so be sure and click through to see a much larger version. Good luck on Friday and be safe out there.

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Fans of Apple’s advanced operating system known as OS X have another reason to be happy this week. Besides the OS X’s stellar reputation for ease of use, security and reliability, its now going to get a brand new update in the form of OS X 10.6 (aka Snow Leopard). This new OS, which we’ve talked about before, is being released by Apple this Friday, August 28th, so you can go to the store and pick up the $29.00 upgrade version — if you’re already running Leopard — and go to town.

Conveniently, you can also pre-order the update version at Apple’s website for delivery on the 28th. Shipping is free but it will still cost you sales tax. No getting around that one. Finally, you can do what I did and pre-order it from Amazon and wait until Monday for it to show up. If you do that, you wait a couple extra days but pay no sales tax or, if you’re an Amazon Prime member, no shipping. That’s the best deal going right now.

Remember, before you go ahead and buy the upgrade version, you can only install the upgrade if you’re currently using Leopard on your Mac. If you’re not, you’ll need to buy the Mac Box Set, available for $169 for a single user or $229 for a Family Pack.

Let’s be honest, Apple makes some pretty great stuff. From iPhones to iPods, MacBook Pros to MacBooks, the company’s products are innovative, stylish and fun to use. They’ve carved out a well- deserved reputation for making some of the best products around full of great and useful features.

Up until now, the usefulness and features of Apple’s latest MacBook computers have been pretty well documented. Fortunately, there’s one more awesome new feature that most people don’t know about that we can bring you today in this video taken by Mac lover COREANOMAC.

Trying to put into words just how awesome this new, previously undocumented feature of the MacBook is would be an exercise in futility. You’ll just have to watch the video after the break and see for yourself. Believe me, once you’ve seen it, you’ll never look at your plain, old laptop the same way again.

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