As we recently showcased here at TUAW, filmmaker Dennis Liu's Mac-inspired video for the group The Bird And The Bee combines his love of music, filmmaking and the Mac to create a very entertaining and innovative piece of work. In fact, we liked it so much here at TUAW, that we decided we wanted to know a bit more about Dennis and his creative process.

I spent some time talking with the filmmaker recently and got some info on how he made the video, why he made it, what he hopes to gain from it and what's next for this very talented guy.

CHRIS ULLRICH: Tell me a bit about how you came up with the idea for the video? What inspired you to do it?

DENNIS LIU: I'm a 23 year old college grad trying to become a full-time director/creative. Right now, I'm a producer at an ad agency, but I've always had some ideas for Apple commercials and always wanted to shoot one. Apple has some of the world's finest advertising, and I wanted to play at their level.

The film industry is so competitive these days, that you really need to do something innovative and different to stand out, and I wanted to really make something that would get some attention from my peers. So the result was this viral video for my reel, Apple, and one of my favorite musicians - The Bird & the Bee.

For Apple, I figured it was a cool idea that shows the beauty, style, and most importantly - the function of Apple computers. People think they're really cool looking, and I totally agree, but they are also wickedly powerful machines.

So the video combines style and function.

According to a recent Macworld UK post, the Mac's sales are surging, and Apple has ramped up production on the Mac lines. Macworld received its information from recent Banc of America Securities research, which leads to the conclusion that along with raising Mac production, Apple has lowered production on the iPod lines (keeping in mind that this research predates the product announcements today). According to researchers, the production orders of Macs rose nearly 20%, while the production orders of the iPod fell 10-20%. The analyst speculates that Apple will be seeing an increasing demand for Macs.

On a related note, Macworld UK also posted about the Mac and iPhone online usage being slightly up. The post states that Apple's hardware accounted for 7.57% of internet traffic for the month of January. iPhone traffic was also up, .13%, of total traffic from .12% in December. The iPod touch accounted for a whopping 0.04% of internet traffic. Contrast this with Windows Mobile traffic, which accounts for .06% -- Macworld states that this figure has remained constant since June 2007, which (oddly enough) is when the iPhone was released.

Our pal Ajit Anhony at our sister blog DV Guru has reviewed Montage, a new screenwriting app from Mariner Software, makers of the popular MacJournal. Overall Ajit is satisfied with Montage and sees a bright future for this app in a (finally) growing industry of Final Draft competitors. However, Ajit can't help but compare Montage to his personal favorite, Celtx, especially since Celtx's price of $0 and innovative feature set make it hard to beat.

Check out Ajit's review for in-depth details on what this new screenwriting app can offer.

Gundeep Hora at CoolTechZone has taken a critical eye to what some consider are Apple's recent and rocky 1st generation product launches. The article utilizes two examples - the iPod nano scratch issue and MacBook heat complaints - to illustrate what Gundeep argues is Apple's faulty process of releasing products and then reacting to serious flaws when the public outcry spreads across enough blogs and petition sites.

Whether you're already hastily typing a comment to flame Gundeep or you have one of those aforementioned petitions already open in a separate tab, Gundeep has written an interesting piece that I think could strike a deeper chord if he used a find/replace command to swap the word 'Apple' with 'the computing industry as a whole'. Similar criticism of Apple's 1st generation production quality crops up on the web every couple of months like clockwork, and I think it's because there is an unusually high level of expectation surrounding their products. I'm not saying Gundeep's criticism is misplaced; quite the contrary: my first Mac ever was the 1st generation of 12" PowerBooks (867 MHz baby!) and I had to go through four of them to get one that didn't overheat or have a hard drive that choked itself to death within hours of bringing it home. To make matters worse, the Apple Store, including its snotty manager, treated me only slightly better than that sticky stuff you try to scrape off the bottom of your shoe. My next Mac experience was the 1st gen 15" Aluminum PowerBook that was a part of the 'white spots' debacle - case in point: I feel Gundeep's pain, but Apple isn't the only computer and electronics company to exhibit these kinds of mass production complications. Other computer makers have had to recall batteries and entire batches of one computer model or another. Dell recently had to replace some faulty displays, and I can't remember which mobile phone company's batteries are exploding this week.

To wrap this all up: Apple sets the bar high with their unique design and flashy marketing, and because of that, I think their customers and the media at large simply hop on board for the honeymoon each and every time the company whips out a shiny new toy. Criticism like Gundeep's seems to appear when the fantasy inevitably hits speed-bumps that are simple facts of life and mass production. In the end Apple is a company, like any other, that is susceptible to hardware defects, firmware botches and software hiccups. Then the conversation turns to products, quality and accountability of the industry as a whole - but I think that discussion might be better suited for a different post. Granted, none of these issues are any fun when you're the one stuck with the bad apple (yes, a pun), but sensationalizing the situation isn't going to solve anything. Keeping a level head, however, and understanding that 1st gen hardware can sometimes be a gamble - no matter who it's from - just might save a few headaches, and perhaps then you won't need to sign that petition after all.

MacSlash has come across a report from analyst firm iSuppli that claims the materials used to build the latest Intel iMac cost Apple roughly $898. This includes an estimated price of $265/Intel Dual Core chip, which is based on prices from Intel's site that are $294/chip in orders of 1000. The estimate, however, does not include other elements such as the mouse, keyboard or advertising. I won't regurgitate the rest of the price breakdown though, so check it out for yourself.

While I'm no professional analyst, most of the pricing in that report sounds just a little bit high to me. I'm sure Apple is *probably* buying Dual Core chips in batches that are slightly larger than 1000, and $265/chip sounds nuts. Heck, a computer that costs $898 in mere parts (nevermind designing, building, advertising, shipping, etc) that sells for only $1299 sounds pretty nuts to me too, even for a company like Apple who could probably benefit from news like this hitting the streets.

Just in case this report is right, though: that is one expensive computer, and one heck of an expensive chip. Here's hoping this big transition is ultimately worth it.