With Windows 7 coming up, it's time to yet again ponder on whether Microsoft has the upper hand in operating systems,it doesn't.
Warne's 15 reasons Macs are still better than Windows:
1. Reliable sleep mode 2. Extremely fast boot times 3. Apple uses good quality parts 4. Less blinking lights 5. Mac OS X + Windows is better than just Windows 6. Easier to troubleshoot Macs 7. A culture of good quality community software 8. More useful apps out of the box 9. Neat and contained system settings 10. Apple doesn't load the system up with crap 11. Tons of small reasons make Mac OS X better 12. Still no need for additional security software 13. Apple seems largely to be lameness free 14. Power of the Linux command line with Photoshop CS4 15. File sharing is much easier
Macs just let you get stuff done, whereas Windows computers constantly find ways of annoying you.
Samsung today surprised the cellphone business by claiming the lead in US phone sales for the summer based on a Strategy Analytics report [membership required]. The company edged out Motorola, the long-time holder of the position, by earning 22.4 percent of the American market versus US-native Motorola's 21.1 percent. LG followed close behind and now threatens to overtake either of the two leade... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
No one doubts that the BlackBerry continues to own the enterprise space, but the iPhone's acceptance in corporations is rising. Apple will have a tough time cracking industries such as finance and government, which have higher email security requirements - SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's new iPhone, already racking up blockbuster sales with consumers, appears to be making small but steady inroads into the coveted U.S. corporate market dominated by Research in Motion Ltd's BlackBerry. While most companies are unwilling to abandon their trust... [ Full story from Baseline Update ]
J.D. Power and Associates released the results of a survey yesterday, showing Apple's iPhone ranked highest in terms of customer satisfaction among 1,388 business wireless customers queried between August and September.
Apple scored 778 (out of 1,000), higher than Blackberry-maker RIM (703) and Samsung (701). The scores were derived from survey answers in five categories: ease of operation, operating system, physical design, handset features, and battery aspects.
Apple owners reported the highest average purchase price for a smartphone, $337. Motorola owners paid the least, averaging $169. The average across all smartphone brands was $216.
The survey also found that a quarter of all smartphone users have at least one software-related problem with their current handset. Forty-four percent had to reboot their device at least once a week. Sixty-nine percent own a hands-free device, and 74 percent of them are wireless.
The Associated Press' Jessica Mintz notes that Apple increased its payroll by 48 percent this fiscal year, with most of the new employees starting at Apple retail stores.
The data came from Apple's 10-K filing, an annual financial document required by law for public companies (Apple has not produced a 'glossy' annual report in several years). A direct link to the PDF is available here. Steve noted this morning that Apple reported earnings of $3.3 billion via iTunes store sales in the filing.
Apple employed 32,000 full-time employees, and 3,100 temps and contractors as of September 27, up from 21,600 and 2,100 (respectively) a year ago. Of the 11,400 new additions, 8,000 went to Apple's retail segment, while the others started elsewhere in the organization.
The filing also said that Apple spent 40 percent more on research and development this year, compared to 2007: $1.1 billion. Electronista also notes that Steve Jobs was paid $189,000 for the use of his personal jet, a gift from Apple several years ago.
So apparently Apple knew what it was talking about after all. Research firm Canalys says that Apple stole the rug out from underneath RIM in the third quarter to become the world's number two pusher of smartphones, taking a hearty 17.3 percent market share compared to RIM's 15.2 percent and Windows Mobile's 13.6 percent. For what it's worth, the firm says RIM could very well bounce back in the fourth quarter with the Bold, Storm, and Pearl 8220 all ramping up in time for the holidays, but either way, number one platform Symbian needn't sweat any time soon; Nokia's baby managed to lose 21.5 percent share year over year, but they're still sitting pretty with 46.6 percent.
How'd Apple manage to steal so much BlackBerry thunder (pun painfully intended)? Part of the evidence might lie in J.D. Power's just-released 2008 Business Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study, revealing that suits adore their iPhones, like their BlackBerrys just alright, and despise their Palms. Amusing to us was the iPhone's rating of a 5 out of 5 in the Features category -- the only contender to get a perfect score there -- despite the fact that virtually every other smartphone platform continues to outstrip it for raw capability. Usability, though, well... that's arguably another story altogether.
US District Judge William Alsup is preparing a ruling on the ongoing Apple-Psystar drama, wherein Apple is calling for a dismissal of Psystar's countersuit, regarding whether the former holds a monopoly on its own market. Macworld writes that the ruling is expected to occur within two weeks, detailing whether Psystar has a case against Apple, over their tight grip on the Mac ecosystem. A potential... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
The Mac OS X implementation of the Jack Audio Connection Kit fixes compatibility problems with Audio Hijack and fixes a problem with iTunes. [ Full story from MacInTouch ]
Have you ever been on a blind date that you really wanted to get out of? How about participating in the world's most boring meeting or wanting to get away from the in-laws?
iPhone owners now have a great tool available for making that quick exit, and it's called Fake Calls. From iPhone startup Magic Tap, Fake Calls sells in the App Store (clic k opens iTunes) for just US$0.99. In order to make it appear that you have just received a phone call from someone important, you can change the wallpaper for the Caller ID, set the phone to ring or vibrate, and customize the caller number or name. You set a time for the fake call (i.e., 15 minutes into that really dull date), and at that predefined time the fake call comes in. Voila! Instant excuse!
Since you're not really being called, no airtime charges apply. Magic Tap is also planning on donating 10 percent of earnings from Fake Calls to several charities -- could it be to assuage their guilt over an app that helps you to lie?
Considering how creative Fake Calls is, it will be fascinating to see what their Magic Tap's next iPhone app will do.
Apple's annual SEC 10K filing showed that music-related sales increased by US$844 million (or 34%) to $3.34 billion in fiscal 2008, up from US$2.5 billion in 2007. Apple cited "heightened consumer interest in downloading third-party digital content" as the reason for the hefty increase.
Apple noted increased net sales from the iTunes Store in each of its geographic regions. An increase in the amount and types of content available at the iTunes stores was pegged as part of this growth.
The US Patent Office today published two Apple patent filings that reveal the company having researched a unique head-tracking display technology designed to replicate the theater experience. Noting that watching a fixed view on a screen may be tiring, the company says it has developed a system that would let users mimic an auditorium, a baseball park, a movie theater or other environment by givi... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
Two new patent filings published this week reveal Apple to be working on digital theater software for handheld devices that would give users the impression that they are attending a sporting or entertainment event, and a new version of the Apple Remote that wouldn't be plagued by interference from stay light sources. [ Full story from AppleInsider ]
Welcome to last year, Business Week. Their writer Arek Hesseldahl has a story up about how Apple seems poised to take over the mobile gaming world this holiday. He's been playing with an iPod touch and the games available on the App Store, and he's ready to drink the Kool-ai d: what Apple's assembled on their mobile devices rivals some of the experiences on the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP.
Not really news to us here at TUAW, of course, but he's right about one thing: this holiday is all-important for Apple in finding a foothold with the iPod touch. Halloween's over, gift shopping is only a few weeks away, and Apple needs to prove why people interested in handheld gaming should pick up a touch before the DSi (and its App Store-style online store) or a new Sony device make their way to our shores.
The good news for Apple is that the games are getting better, and that the touch brings a lot more functionality to the mix (iPod, utility apps) than a dedicated gaming device would. But then again, Nintendo and Sony are established brands for gamers, and even k ids looking for a game machine from Santa probably won't have an iPod touch first on their list. We'll have to see how it all plays out.
German blog Schimanke.com publishes new screenshots from the iPhone 2.2 firmware that reveal that Apple has activated iTunes and App Store features that will make their debut in the next iPhone update. Prior to this past week, these new feat... [ Full story from MacRumors : Mac News and Rumors ]
On Wednesday, Apple released its annual 10-K reports which detailed revenue and spending for fiscal 2008. eWeek has kindly organized the information into a number of charts, including this one showing Apple's revenue growth over 2007:
As enthusiasm grows around the Apple brand, the pressure mounts to support it in the enterprise. But a peek inside three businesses reveals that has its challenges. [ Full story from Computerworld Macintosh News ]
Apple's iPhone was the hot topic during a session at the Web 2.0 Summit. The 451 Group's Raven Zachary and other panelists discussed the market potential for the smart phone in the mobile and wireless sector. Can Google, Nokia, Microsoft and RIM catch up? Here are some compelling data points that make the iPhone seem like Mt. Everest for those challengers. - SAN FRANCISCO What is the growth potential for Apple's iPhone? That was the subject of a panel discussion at the Web 2.0 Summit here Nov. 5. The 451 Group analyst Raven Zachary and others provided some statistics that clearly show the iPhone, the most popular smart phone, in the driver's seat ... [ Full story from eWEEK Technology News ]
Realmac Software has updated their easy Web site creation tool RapidWeaver to version 4.2 (not 2.2! Sorry). The new version is primarily a bug fix, but also adds a couple of new features.
The bugs that were squashed include:
An issue when undoing set/remove links
Blog plugin confused image file names in body and summary fields
Growl notifications no longer occur when RapidWeaver is in the foreground
The application no longer hangs on quit
No more "System Exception 11" when duplicating themes
Now able to add 3GP and M4V files to Movie Albums
The new features include the ability to hold down either the Command or Option key while starting RapidWeaver to disable all third-party add-ons until the app is restarted, and the ability to add and remove links from the sidebar is available again.
This is a free update for existing RapidWeaver owners.
Ziphone creator Piergiorgio Zambrini has discovered a bug with the iPhone that causes the phone to crash when it starts to play a specially-created video. Forbes.com recorded a demonstration.
The bug apparently affects the audio track of the video, which takes down the iPhone operating system. I could not independently verify the bug, because the links to the movie (and the movie file itself) shown to Forbes were no longer available online.
The bug does not permanently damage devices, according to Zambrini. He said he hasn't yet contacted Apple's security response team. Forbes.com informed an Apple spokesman about the flaw and is still awaiting an official comment.
Zambrini claims he emailed Steve Jobs personally about the bug; around the same time, he applied for employment at Apple. Apple has not yet responded to his resume. It strikes me that Zambrini is trying to appeal to Apple in the same way that your ex-girlfriend tries to appeal to you by spray painting the front of your house.
In the Forbes.com article, Zambrini now claims his goal "...is not to work for Apple."
Zambrini created Ziphone, a popular iPhone unlocking tool.
Despite the server-side updates Apple detailed last week, the company's beleaguered Mobile Me service is still problematic for many users. Yesterday, we received a number of e-mails complaining that Apple's Me.com domain was reporting 404 errors. Today, the fine folks at Pingdom.com (which monitors website uptime), posted some details about what was going on.
It appears that there was an issue with the Me.com redirect. If a user directly typed in http://me.com/mail, he or she could successfully access the server. Trying to access the Me.com domain, however, led 404 HTTP error response with the words "Not Found: Resource does not exist," appearing on the page. This outage lasted nearly seven hours, from 2:29 AM EST - 9:25 AM EST on November 3, 2008. Because the outage occurred at night in the continental United States, most affected users were from Europe, where the outage lasted for most of the work day.
If this was a simple redirect error (which it appears to be), why did it take seven hours to fix? My guess is that no one at Apple was alerted to the problem until someone came into work at 6:00 AM PST and started seeing error request e-mails or had problems accessing the domain.
This is a problem. If Apple is truly dedicated to making Mobile Me a service it can be "proud of by the end of this year," the company should really consider having either dedicated 24-hour Mobile Me IT support (or more support) or figure out a way to resolve errors like this in a more timely matter. Redirect errors or glitches are not uncommon, but any company trying to run an international communications service needs to get on the ball.
Despite my vocal misgivings about the service, before it even launched, I signed up for a 60-day trial in early July -- so I could "eat my own dogfood" -- as they say. And even though my service was extended for free until December, I canceled in September. Why? Because the service proved it wasn't reliable enough for any sort of e-mail communication, its calendar syncing was complete junk, and it seemed like every time I tried to access the service, it was either slow as all get out or unavailable. Free or not, that just isn't worth the hassle. At least with Google, it apologizes when it has an outage and if you pay $50 a year, you get actual phone support that doesn't just go to a random Apple Care person with no knowledge or information about the issue.
Are you still a Mobile Me subscriber? Sound off in the comments!
Is it just me or is it pretty mindblowing what Moore's Law is doing to our computers these days? I remember when 64mb of RAM was great, and even a few years ago, I wondered why anyone would ever use 1GB of RAM (I've got 2GB in my gaming PC, and I still almost think it's too much). But apparently TidBITS has been doing some testing, and they've discovered that no t only can the new MacBooks hold 4GB of RAM as Apple recommends for a limit, but stuffing a whopping 6GB in there is possible and doable. There are two DDR3 slots in the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros, and they come with either 1GB or 2GB in each DIMM slot.
TidBITS says you can switch out one of those 2GB DIMMs for a 4GB, and voilà, as long as they're the same speed and type, apparently almost everything is hunky-dory. TidBITS says there are two drawbacks: one, that dual-channel architecture requires identical DIMMs, so that's out if you're running a 4GB and 2GB configuration. Plus, it'll cost you an arm and a leg, especially if your leg is priced at around $600, which is what a 4GB stick runs. Even the DDR2 is pricey at that level (then again, if you don't like memory prices, just wait about five mi nutes, because that's basically how often they change).
And for some reason, there's an issue with running two 4GB sticks in there (for a total of 8GB), but TidBITS surmises that may be fixed by the time Snow Leopard rolls around. Personally, I'd love to see a program that needs 6GB of RAM -- maybe a high end 3D modeler or a financial simulator of some kind. But it's good to know that if you really need that much memory (and have the cash to spend on it), there you go.
Another Friday Favorite, our weekly opportunity to get all sloppy over our most-loved applications.
I'll admit that when I first started trying out Instapaper, as a quick and dirty "bookmark this for later" web service, I didn't see that many advantages to it. There's delicious.com for bookmarking and Evernote for saving clips and PDFs; NetNewsWire for following my preferred sites... I felt like I had the bases covered. Sure, Instapaper was fast and dead easy (you would expect as much from Marco Ament, lead developer at microblogging service Tumblr), and having a personal 'newspaper' page of items to review at leisure was nice, but nothing earthshaking. Then, wouldn't you know it, everything changed.
The catalyst, of course, was the App Store version of Instapaper Free (since happily upgraded to the $10 Instapaper Pro). Suddenly, with the ability to wirelessly sync my reading list to my iPod touch, I had a two-click process that freed me from my browser for almost anything I wanted to read online. At first, the relationship with Instapaper was tentative; I threw a few NYT articles or TUAW posts-in-progress onto the list, just to see how they looked in the iPod's plain text view (answer: just fine) and how Instapaper cached the full, pictures-included web layout if I needed it.
Over the next few weeks, as my election-commentaryaddiction reached intervention-worthy levels, Instapaper became my savior. No longer was I locked to a browser tab or to my computer when something intriguing crossed the transom. If it was mostly text: boom! Instapaper's bookmarklet to the rescue. I began diligently syncing Instapaper on my iPod wherever the WiFi permitted (a very quick process) so that I could follow up on my reading list on the subway, in the elevator... wherever and whenever I wanted. It's the low-rent, DIY Kindle and it simply, totally rocks.
Instapaper's current mobile build isn't quite perfect; it switches from portrait to landscape too easily, losing your place in your list (could use a lockout switch) and it has a slight tendency to crash on longer articles. None of that makes me love it any less; with the Pro version's flexible display options and tilt scrolling (I never realized how tired my fingers got with swipe-scrolling on long articles until I enabled the tilt feature and didn't have to swipe any more) I'm satisfied and still eager to see the next version's inevitable improvements. If you're an avid reader of web content and blogs, you owe it to yourself to try Instapaper.
Earlier this week, Apple told Macworld Magazine (in so many words) that all hardware updates are complete for 2008. "Our holiday line-up is set," said spokesman Bill Evans. There was a rumor of an iMac update, but that's now be squashed. What you see is what you're going to get.
With the recent updates to the laptop and iPod lines (and less recently, the iPhone), the iMac is ripe for a refresh at January's Macworld Expo. The Mac Pro will be ready by January as well, but I don't expect an update to their pro-level machine at a consumer show.
At any rate, Apple's product line is ready for your holiday shopping dollars. Our shopping series of posts will begin soon, so keep an eye out.
Opera Software CEO Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner said in a New York Times interview yesterday that its engineers have developed a version of the Opera web browser that works on the iPhone, but Apple has rejected it for the App Store because it competes with Safari.
Daring Fireball's John Gruber suggests that Apple rejected Opera because the browser included its own JavaScript interpreter, something forbidden by the iPhone SDK developer agreement.
Opera makes two flavors of its mobile web browser: Opera Mini for most mobile phones, BlackBerry, Palm, or Windows Mobile; and Opera Mobile, a more featured version for Symbian and Windows Mobile. A beta version of Opera Mini for Android is also in development.
Newer updates to Mac OS X Leopard seem to have an interesting problem with their spelling databases: they include words that are most certainly wrong. The problem first appeared in 10.5.2 (U.S. English), and has not yet been corrected.
Canspice.org points to an Ars Technica discussion from March highlighting the misspelling knswledgable. If you open TextEdit, for example, and intentionally misspell the word "knowledgeable" (say, by spelling it "knowledgable"), then control-click to show a spelling suggestion, you might see the erroneous option.
The word "cartgriqdge" also appears to be similarly affected. Both words do not appear in the Mac OS X Dictionary application.
Urban Dictionary seized upon the new word, defining knswledgable as having "inordinate amounts of knowledge about useless spelling trivia."
Last week, my previously-very-anti-Mac dad started using a Mac mini, and I wrote about his experience -- positive, to say the least. If you haven't read the story of his first day with the Mac, you might want to read that first. Yesterday, one week in, I checked in to see how he's doing.
So far, Dad has nothing but positive things to say about the Mac. Even when I asked him specifically for things he dislikes, he had to think for a second. "It's such a breath of fresh air from what I'm used to, I can't come up with anything specific that I dislike." High praise indeed from the man who doesn't like The Daily Show because of its intro music.
He also just discovered that, in Leopard, there's a little light underneath each application that tells you it's running. That was his huge discovery yesterday, and something he was proud of finding on his own.
Asked about what he does like, he mentioned the ease of application installations. He loves Dashboard widgets, and installed the MySQL Health widget that comes with the MySQL GUI tools. He did this without my help, too, which is great progress.
Thanks to diligent tips from readers, we're aware of some issues with our RSS feeds. Depending on what you use to pull our feed (Bloglines, NetNewsWire, Netvibes, Google Reader, etc.) your subscription may be "stuck" and won't automatically update. Rest assured we are working on this with the major feed reader folks and hope to have a resolution soon. Sorry about that!
Also, we are working to allow mobile Safari users to access the full site in addition to the i.tuaw.com optimized page. Again, sorry about the delay.
Yet another MMO on the Mac -- EVE Online and World of Warcraft are already there, of course, and now NCSoft has announced that City of Heroes is coming to the Mac. Unfortunately, they're using Transgaming's Cider software to port the game, and as we've said before, the software isn't only unreliable, but it's got the dreaded SecuROM DRM attached*, as well. Not to mention that even the MacBook can basically run any game through BootCamp now, making a separate Mac version unnecessary in many cases.
But there is one thing we really like about this release, and that's that NCSoft is actually releasing the game on the Mac as a "special edition": players who buy the Mac expansion (which apparently will be a digital-only release) will pick up a free ingame teleporter item, as well as a special "Valkyrie" costume set usable on their superhero character. So if you do go for Transgaming's software, at least you can pick up some free ingame stuff for it. We're not so much for the DRM-laden emulation, but the free stuff we do like.
Update: NCSoft has contacted us to say that the Mac Special Edition of City of Heroes will not contain the SecuROM DRM. It was our understanding that all Transgaming releases would use the technology, but NCSoft says that theirs won't, so there you go.
Last month we went a little nuts and started handing out free stuff -- giveaways for Frameline 47, Clips and CardScan all went up in October, with thousands of entries. Congratulations to Gregory, Scott, Will, Andy, Jay, Brian, Alex, Hal, Aaron, Phil, Thomas, Josh, Simon, and Andrey for entering and winning! Also thanks to the folks behind those products who generously provided licenses or gear for the giveaways.
We'll have at least one more giveaway before we close out 2008, so stay tune d.
How many times have you been away from your computer and wanted to give someone your contact information? With a new app called Handshake [iTunes Link], you can send another iPhone (or iPod touch) user any contact information stored on your iPhone. The application works by using Core Location coupled with other technologies to send address book cards over the air.
When you first launch Handshake, it will attempt to find your address book card; if it can't, it will ask you to specify a card. Handshake will then connect to its servers, and you will be able to send either your card, a contact's card, or a picture -- just by tapping on one of the main three buttons. You can also change your default card by tapping the wrench in the top-right corner of the application and choosing the blue arrow under "My Card."
This is a very simple application, with a very simple idea, that just works. The application will send data over WiFi, 3G, and EDGE connections. Since the application uses Apple's Core Location framework, it relies on GPS, cell triangulation, or WiFi positioning. The lack of GPS on the iPod touch makes the app less reliable than the iPhone, but a new feature in version 1.1 hopes to fix this by allowing users to search for others who are sharing cards. Version 1.1 will also give users the ability to send industry-standard vCards through email to other people, regardless of whether they're using an iPhone or not.
Handshake is currently at version 1.0.1, and can be downloaded from the iTunes Store in two flavors: free or paid. The paid version removes the ads. Version 1.1 should be out sometime this week. You can look at our gallery of screenshots to see the additions to version 1.1.
According to a press release issued by Apple this morning, two Apple vice presidents are leaving the company for personal reasons, "as they devote more time to their young family."
iPod division senior vice president Tony Fadell and his wife, Danielle Lambert, vice president of human resources, will "reduce their roles" at Apple. Lambert will stay until the end of the year to transition to a successor.
"Tony and Dani have each made important contributions to Apple over the past eight years. We're sorry to see Dani go, and are looking forward to working with Tony in his new capacity," said Steve Jobs in the press release.
Former IBM chip executive Mark Papermaster will be joining Apple later this month to replace Fadell, and will gain the new title of Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering. He's expected to bring his 25 years of experience to Apple's server technologies, as well.
Papermaster unfortunately arrives with some baggage: IBM filed suit against Papermaster attempting to forbid him from taking his knowledge of the Power chip architecture to other companies.
IBM said in a statement to CNET that "Mr. Papermaster's employment by Apple is a violation of his agreement with IBM against working for a competitor should he leave IBM. We will vigorously pursue this case in court."
Since the iPhone's introduction at Macworld in 2007, a large number of people have wanted a tactile keyboard. So far, Apple has not obliged. So, one iPhone owner took the initiate to make his own iPhone keyboard. Using a bit of Ruby code on a jailbroken iPhone, this user is able to conne ct a Palm keyboard via a 30-pin Dock Connector. The end result is an iPhone with a tactile keyboard. While we can't vouch for the validity of this video, it does look like a cool hack.
Here's a video and setup instructions for getting Mac OS X to run on a HP TouchSmart. The machine's main feature, of course, is the touch screen. It kind of works with OS X in that elements respond to touch, but the calibration is way off and, as the guy in the video says, there's no wa y to adjust it. He does offer to test out any other aspect of OS X on the Touchsmart, so speak up.
The setup instructions were written for a HP TouchSmart IQ507 and do require you do "grab a torrent" as the kids say. It doesn't look too tricky, though. The author notes that audio, the wireless card, Bluetooth and the TV Tuner won't work under OS X.
Still, it could be a fun project for anyone who's got a spare Touchsmart lying around. Don't we all?
By now, you've probably heard about Drobo. It's the ultimate RAID-like array, with USB and Firewire 800 connections, that allows you to store up to 6 terabytes using 4 hard drives (you get about 4.1 TB of usable space, since some of the room is used for RAID redundancy -- see the Drobolator capacity calculator for the details). Not too long ago they released DroboShare, a way to turn Drobo into a NAS (network attached storage device) with Gigabit Ethernet. If you have both a Drobo and DroboShare, you can now run DroboApps.
Because Drobo is built on a small version of the Linux open source OS, you are able to run these lightweight applications that can do some awesome things. There are currently around 20 applications that can create an iTunes media server (Firefly), or limit the total size of a Time Machine backup (Time Tamer), among other functions.
If you're a Drobo owner, you might want to check out these cool new applications. And if you're a developer, why not take a look at the Drobo development SDK?
Last week on the talkcast, we had a visitor -- Engadget columnist and market analyst Ross Rubin helped us assess Apple's quarterly results and the impact of the iPhone on the cellphone sector. We had so much fun, the show ran over the hour mark. You can listen in via the Talkshoe page, or download the show in iTunes / via RSS< /a>.
Be so kind as to join us tonight 11/2 at 10 pm ET (did you set your clocks back?) for this week's live show, hosted by me and featuring guest Geof Bowie, president of ThinkFixed. Geof will fill us in on the Mac's increasing role in the enterprise and how companies are taking advantage of specialized Mac support to enable OS X users to reach their full potential.
You can join the conversation on TalkShoe by using the shiny browser-only client; you can also use the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client that we all know and love. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. You can also listen in on the Talkshoe page or call in on regular phone or VOIP lines: dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8. Talk with you then!
The videos aren't cheap -- each track (iPhone, Mac, or IT) costs $499, or you can get all of the sessions for the entire conference for "just" $999. The latter collection of geek video features 146 presentations from the conference, perfect for those mid-winter coding marathons.
Apple is getting rid of physical media, so you purchase the videos, activate them, and then log into ADC through iTunes to download the videos and presentation slides. You need to be either a free ADC member or registered iPhone developer to activate the videos.
If you did attend WWDC 08, you are entitled to access the videos for free and should have received an email from Apple with instructions. If you've lost that email or never received it, contact ADC for details.
Ready for Halloween on your iPhone? The App Store provides a quick fix for trick-or-treaters, and the offerings provide a little of each category. I happened to grab a random assortment of freebies (several were temporarily free) themed around Halloween. Here's a quick review of each. Hit the gallery for sample screens. All app names are iTunes links.
Bust-a-spook A simple tap-and-score game using some gradient-heavy backgrounds and simplistic artwork to keep you entertained. The audio, like most of the Halloween-themed apps, is appropriately annoying. I found this one to be too hard and pointless to play with it long. When ghosts, pumpkins or bats are "busted" they grow larger and fade away. That's really about it, except for choosing levels of difficulty. Price: $.99
Carve3D Clever way to carve a 3D pumpkin on the iPhone. You swap between "rotate" and "carve" modes and carve into the pumpkin by tapping corners. A final tap near the first point closes the loop and carves a hole in the geometry. As an interesting touch, the light actually shines through the geometry, so you can project the face you carve, though getting the camera in a good spot is tough. Price: $.99
Crazy Pumpkin eZone has a slew of nifty, gimmicky apps (they remind me of the Joh nson Smith Co. products). Around Halloween several went free, including Crazy Pumpkin. It's a very simple app: swap the eyes, nose and mouth of a virtual jack-o-lantern. I like the pulsing colors and the audio is well-done. Kids love this one. Price: Free.
Crazy Metal Head Essentially a ventriloquist's dummy in the form of a chrome skull with fire in its mouth. You can toggle metal music on or off. The head bounces around, like a bobblehead. That's about all it does, but it still is fun if you do crazy voices and have no shame. Price: $.99
Crazy Skeleton Another freebie from eZone, this time a skeleton with eyes that bounce around. You can control the mouth (like Metal Head), but shaking the device makes a random video play, animating the skeleton. There are maybe a dozen cute performances here, and my kids found this one the most entertaining. $1.99
A brewing battle between Apple Inc. and its frenemy, IBM Corp., over the role of an executive who at one time managed Big Blue’s PowerPC chip business may be an early sign that the Silicon Valley wunderkind is considering designing some of its own semiconductors. [ Full story from MarketWatch.com - Top Stories ]
Unfortunately, TA didn't get a price or a strict release date out of Young for Rolando, but he does say that the game's shaping up well -- he even says creator Simon Oliver "could be the first Miyamoto of the iPhone," which, even if an exaggeration, is an interesting idea. They also discuss the plan behind ng:moco, a company which, like EA in the earlier days of PC gaming, aims to bring together pu blishers, designers, and promotion and sales all under one big roof. And the volatile issue of iPhone App pricing comes up, but I agree that the big balance on price always seems to be quality -- looking at a system like the Xbox 360's marketplace, you can justify almost any price for a game, as long as the user has an experience that feels worth what they paid.
And finally, they hit on the iPhone's competitors, and it sounds like Young thinks Android phones have a ways to go -- the difference is not in the hardware (touchscreen, size, and so on), but it's in the usability and interface, and in those arenas, Young says, Apple still has the edge. Very nice interview with a company that seems destined to play a big part in the iPhone gaming market.
Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, a division of Enderle Global Enterprises, represented by Enderle, Enderle & Enderle, and a block south of Enderle Toyota*, says Apple has made mistakes with its marketing that mirror those of the Republican party in this year's presidential race.
In a meandering article (littered with mild expletives) that very thinly connects the election with Apple and Microsoft, Enderle says a winner for either contest will benefit from its opponent's negative advertising.
"In the U.S. election, the negative campaigning probably has done more to motivate the Democratic base and get moderate Republicans to switch sides than anything the Democrats could have done alone. Apple's campaign has truly pissed off Microsoft, and Windows 7 is that company's way of saying, 'Steve Jobs can kiss my a**,' or more simply, 'enough,'" he wrote.
Enderle continued, "Apple would have been better off to fix its crappy laptop keyboards" than to focus on marketing.
The Kremlin has released photos of Russian President Dimitry Medvedev holding a meeting with his aides and what appears to be a new MacBook Pro.
The president also recently addressed the nation in a video blog post, where his MacBook Pro was seen in a similar meeting. The logo had been removed from the video early on, but is visible around the 1:20 mark. Other videos on the Kremlin's website show Medvedev with a variety of computers.
Medvedev has previously been photographed using an iPhone, though some speculated it was a black-market acquisition. At the time the photo was taken, the iPhone was not yet available for sale in Russia.
This follows in the footsteps of other high-profile world leaders using Apple products, including former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt's switch to a Mac last month.
If you enjoy Tap Tap Revenge and you're a fan of Nine Inch Nails, you're in luck. Tapulous has released Tap Tap Revenge Nine Inch Nails Edition (iTunes link). Featuring 13 tracks picked by NIN frontman Trent Reznor, it's the first game on the iPhone that had my wife playing through toothbrushing time with the kid s. After getting the device back I discovered there's a giveaway that you enter when you post scores of 150,000 or higher online. The prize? A signed Les Paul guitar and tickets to the NIN show of your choice.
On top of all this, the game feels more responsive and flows better than the original Tap Tap Revenge. Tracks from Ghost seem made for Tap Tap, adding to the gameplay instead of distracting from it. The app costs $4.99, and is worth it if you're a fan of the later works of Nine Inch Nails or you love punching the screen with your index finger for hours.
Have you ever been stuck on a train, plane, or bus and wanted a good book to read? With Classics [iTunes Link], you can easily pick up your iPhone and begin reading a small collection of classic literature and novels. As I mentioned last week, Classics takes a new approach to reading books on the iPhone.
The book selection interface reminds us of Delicious Library, as it has a wooden bookcase with the library of books stacked on it -- the developers will add new books with future (free) updates. You can re-arrange your books by tapping on a book and dragging it around. Once you select a book, it will load, and you will see the reading view. If you are continuing where you left off, a bookmark will appear and slide off the page; otherwise, you will presented with the first page of the book. To turn the page, you simply slide your finger in a page-turning motion (right to left or left to right, depending on if you want to go forward or backwards respectively). The page turning is really addictive, and you'll find yourself reading quickly through the text just so you can flip to the next page -- yes, it's really that addictive.
By tapping on the list icon in the top-right corner, you will be presented with an index of the chapters; you can tap on any of these chapters to jump to the beginning of the section. When you tap the back button in the top-left, a bookmark will slide onto the page, saving your place for later.
After extensive testing over the past two weeks, I have become addicted to reading in Classics. But, there are some improvements I would like to see. There is a good selection of books to read, but I would like to see this list expand (and bring more recent books to the bookshelf). I would also like to be able to search through one (or all) of the books to find a single passage. In addition, the ability to control the font size would be nice. Overall, this application is stellar, and while there is some room for improvement, I would have to agree that this is a great way to read older books on the go. Classics is definitely not a mainstream eBook reader, because you cannot add your own books. So, if you're looking for a reader that gives you more flexibility, you might want to try Stanza [iTunes Link].
You can download Classics from the iTunes Store for an introductory price of $2.99. Be sure to take a look at our gallery of screenshots.
While a lot of us have had internet banking for years, who would have thought that AT&T would have come up with a mobile banking app that lets you check accounts and pay bills for a number of banks through a single iPhone app?
Mobile Banking on AT&T (click opens iTunes) from Firethorn Holdings, LLC is exactly that -- an iPhone app that gives you full control over your money at 50 different banks nationwide. While the majority of the banks listed appear to be in the southeast USA, several nationwide banks including Wachovia, SunTrust, and USAA are participating in the program.
I was pleased to see that my business bank, FirstBank, with brick and mortar banks in Colorado, Arizona, and California, was one of the companies on the AT&T list. You need to sign up through your bank's secure website, enter your iPhone number, pick a six-digit PIN, then perform an authorization from the device using a code displayed on the website. Once activated, you can see balances, make transfers, and pay ebills.
What's your favorite iPhone banking app? Or have you moved all of your funds to a coffee can buried in the back yard? Leave a comment!
Things, one of the top contenders in the Mac GTD application lineup, has updated to 0.9.6 on their way to a planned 1.0 release at the Macworld Expo. The update includes some interface polish, but the biggest news is the addition of global search.
It's been one of the most requested features, and I've seen plenty of comments here at TUAW bemoaning the absence of this capability. The newly added feature allows searching through all projects while still being able to confine the query to various scopes, including Title, Notes or Tags. This, of course, makes the tagging system in Things even more useful, allowing all tasks with a given tag or tag combination to be listed. Personally, I'd say this is the most important new feature added to (the desktop version of) Things since iCal sync. I'm betting we'll see more of these highly-requested features implemented as the development pace amps up to meet the Macworld deadline.
A blog post at Cultured Code details all of the new features. You can download a free trial at the Cultured Code website, and a license can be had for $39USD ... if you sign up for the newsletter before the January 6th launch (after which the price will be $49USD).
Handmark has released one new game for the iPhone and iPod touch, and updated one of their existing titles.
The new game is Glyph, a game in the jewel-matching genre that has been a hit on PCs and other handheld platforms. The game has more than 200 levels across 2 different modes. In the Quest mode, you are trying to break through layers of rock by matching like-colored stones to make the glyphs visible. In Action mode, you touch groups of stones to clear them as they come up from the bottom of the screen. Your task is to try to keep the stones from making it all the way to the top of the screen. There's beautiful music playing in the background, although you can choose your own soundtrack from your music.
Glyph is available now in the App Store (click opens iTunes) at an introductory price of US$1.99 -- the regular price will be US$4.99.
In other news, Handmark has announced an update to GTS World Racing that provides a two-player mode so you can race against friends over Wi-Fi. The update is available for free through the App Store.
We noted a little while back that Netflix is finally bringing its Watch Instantly streaming TV and Movie service to the Mac. They began by rolling out the service slowly and it wasn't initially available to all Netflix subscribers. Now, however, it appears that there's a way for all Mac-using Netflix subscribers to get in on the action.
The Netflix blog has instructions that will allow you to activate Watch Instantly on your Ma c via Microsoft's Silverlight browser plugin. It is worth noting that if you switch over to the Silverlight player you must use that on any Windows machines you might have as well, which means that you'll have access to less streaming content (at least at the moment) than the old Windows Media option. Also, as VentureBeat notes, you're limited to a total of six devices for streaming content, which includes both computers and stand-alone set top boxes. Nonetheless, if all you want is to get Netflix's Watch Instantly on your Mac, there's pretty much no reason to wait.
Here at the TUAW home office, we're quite distracted by the pending election of the USA's 44th President. However, since this is an Apple blog, we can't go all political -- but we can combine our interests.
Here are four ways you can prepare for the big day with your iPhone.
1. Quiz yourself about the candidates
How well do know the man who'll receive you vote? Fit 2 Vote [App Store link] displays a quote made by either John McCain or Barack Obama. Your job is to identify the quote's origin. Once you've correctly attributed 50 quotes, you're deemed "fit to vote." Fit 2 Vote costs $0.99US.
2. Report on your polling place
Vote Report [App Store link] is the mobile end of the Twitter Vote Report, a network of software developers, designers, and others that allows voters to instantly share the conditions at their polling places. Use your iPhone to alert the media, your neighbors, friends or anyone involved about wait times, machine malfunctions, and especially clever signs in the parking lot. Vote Report is free.
[Incidentally, has anyone ever, in the history of democracy, been swayed by a posterboard sign viewed minutes before voting? You've got to wonder why those people are standing out there in the rain.]
3. Track live results
By now the rhetoric has nearly died down and all that's left is the results. Election [App Store link] provides real-time polling results that can be sorted by state, candidate, percentage and more. You can even limit the results to your candidate, and best of all, there's no stumping. Election only reports the numbers. Election costs $0.99US.
4. Perform electoral math
Votetastic [App Store link] lets you fiddle with electoral votes and observe the results. For instance, you can select a contested state like Ohio and either turn it "red" or "blue." Doing so moves th ose electoral votes from one side to the other.
Votetastic is really more of a game than a tool, as it doesn't report on real data, but it could be fun to see if your own predictions come true. Votetastic costs $0.99US
Yes, it's the day of goblins, ghosts, and gorging on candy -- and we're here to help. Public service announcement: if you're out this Halloween and snap pics of Apple-themed costumes or Mac-o-lanterns, and if you upload those images to Flickr, please tag them "tuaw." Those will appear in our Flickr stream on the right, further down the page. Thanks to hifimac for this cool iMac-O-Lantern!
The Macintosh Business Unit of Microsoft, that company we love to hate, has announced that a new General Manager has taken over the group. Craig Eisler, the former Mac BU big cheese, has moved onwards and upwards into the bowels of the Redmond-based software giant in a position with the Entertainment & Devices division.
His new replacement is Eric Wilfrid, a 14-year veteran of the company who has been with the M ac BU since it was organized in 1997. Wilfred started with Microsoft in 1994, working on the Mac version of PowerPoint. He was also involved in all five releases of Office for Mac, the Mac versions of Internet Explorer and MSN, and Virtual PC.
Wilfred announced the change in a post to the Mac BU blog today. I don't know about you, but I'm hoping that Wilfred takes the Macintosh development team in a new direction -- preferably away from Steve Ballmer's recent comments about Mac users not getting "the full version" of Office.
If you had one thing to tell Mr. Wilfred as he takes over the helm of the Mac BU, what would it be? Leave us a comment!
Several people who own the new, unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros are reporting trouble with the glass trackpads. Specifically, it's been failing to register clicks, seemingly at random. One user even told PC Pro, "I don't even attempt to use this machine unless I'm at a desk using a mouse."
Personally, I've only used a new MacBook for a few hours and didn't experience any issues. We'll let you know as soon as this update becomes available.
Customers that have placed orders for the new entry-level MacBook Airs will now have to wait until after Thanksgiving to receive them, according to Apple Insider. The products were originally scheduled for shipment on November 5th, with delivery expected by the 10th. "Due to an unexpected delay, we are unable to ship your MacBook Air by the date originally quoted to you," explained an email sent t... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
Customers who ordered one of the new MacBook Airs from Apple with the regular hard drive will have to wait a little longer, but Mac Mini mavens should be patient. [ Full story from CNET News.com ]
In its annual 10K filing with the SEC, Apple Inc. cited what it called as "heightened consumer interest in downloading third-party digital content" as part of why music-related sales increased by some US$844 million (34%) to $3.34 billion during fiscal 2008, up from 2.5 billion in 2007 [ Full story from The Mac Observer ]
Apple has responded via telephone to one customer that inquired about the Internet rumors suggesting that the Mac mini is set to be discontinued, according to Apple Insider. The concerned owner reportedly sent an email to the fresh hardware engineering chief, Bob Mansfield. He did not receive a response from the executive, however, but was contacted instead by an employee of the executive care div... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
Apple Inc. saw sales of its Macintosh computers grow 38% year-over-year during fiscal 2008, both in terms of dollars and unit sales. In the company's annual 10K SEC filing, Apple revealed that iPod sales were up 10%, with unit sales up 6%, while the company sold some 11.6 million iPhones during... [ Full story from The Mac Observer ]
The Apple iPhone has taken the consumer world by force, leading to a number of growth opportunities for application developers. The 451 Group's Raven Zachary, who has been tracking the smart phone's progress since it launched in 2007, leads a presentation on what factors are driving iPhone growth at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco Nov. 5. - ... [ Full story from eWEEK Technology News ]
According to AppleInsider, Apple is currently apologizing to customers this week who had placed orders for its late 2008 entry-level MacBook Air notebook. The company cited that, due to an unforeseen issue, it's unlikely to deliver those systems until shortly after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Shares in Apple Inc. dropped 6.9% in moderate volume Wednesday as the broader markets reversed an election day rally with post-election profit taking and losses based on poor economic data. The DOW, the NASDAQ, and the S&P 500 each dropped more than 5% [ Full story from The Mac Observer ]
Company filing shows Apple hired around 11,000 people during its past fiscal year, and the vast majority went to work for its retail operation. [ Full story from CNET News.com ]
Livestrong.com today announced the Livestrong.com Calorie Tracker application for iPhone and iPod touch is now available... [ Full story from MacDailyNews ]
Problems with the buttonless trackpads on the latest MacBooks and MacBook Pros should be solvable via software update, Apple is said to have stated. A variety of users have been complaining that while they can feel and hear their trackpads click, the pads will occasionally fail to register the action through Mac OS X. This is not a fundamental hardware flaw, an exchange with Apple's CEO is said ... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
Apple may be cutting back slightly on its iPhone 3G production during the December quarter, according to UBS analyst Maynard Um. Based on his supply chain checks, Apple looks set to ship between 4 and 5 million iPhones in the quarter, down between 1.7 and 2.3 million units based... [ Full story from The Mac Observer ]
Two analysts have issued research notes to clients this week indicating that their checks with supply chain sources suggest forward looking iPhone build orders are experiencing some incremental weakness due to concerns about customer demand. [ Full story from AppleInsider ]
Apple likely will be taking a hand in designing the ARM-based processors it now buys from rival handset maker Samsung... [ Full story from MacDailyNews ]
Apple added yet another iPhone commercial to its Web site this week. The latest ad, Dilemmas, touts the App Store while showing off the restaurant-finding application Urbanspoon... [ Full story from The Mac Observer ]
Apple released Digital Camera Compatibility Update 2.3 late on Tuesday. The update added Nikon D90 and Coolpix P6000 compatibility to Aperture 2 and iPhoto '08 [ Full story from The Mac Observer ]
Ever since Mac OS X started shipping, licensing it for use on any other hardware than a Mac would have been crazy. Mountains of text have been written about why Mr. Jobs cancelled the clone licenses of the 90s and how it would damage Apple's hardware business today. However, times change, and three key changes to Apple's business could make the move as natural as the move to Intel CPUs [ Full story from The Mac Observer ]
Apple on Tuesday released Digital Camera Raw Compatibility 2.3, which it says extends RAW file compatibility for Aperture 2 and iPhoto í08 for the following cameras: Canon EOS 50D, Nikon D90, Sony DSLR-A900, and Nikon Coolpix P6000. Apple also noted that the update also addresses issues related to specific cameras and overall stability. The 4MB update is available via the Web as well via the Softw... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
Firefox now boasts 20 percent global market share, according to a new document published by Net Applications, showing the spike during October. ReadWriteWeb reports that the Mozilla-developed web browser has seen a recent surge in possibility due to users seeking asylum from Internet Explorer's notoriously insecure nature. Firefox is facing increasing pressure in the web market, both from Apple an... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
Our DealsOnTheWeb.com site noted that Apple has good stock of factory refurbished MacBook systems today. The systems include free ground shipping and a 1-year warranty [ Full story from The Mac Observer ]
A recent topic of interest in the MacNN forums revolves around one user questioning the benefits of the rumored update to the Mac OS, Snow Leopard. One forum member expresses their interest in the Netbook segment that has been gaining in popularity, and hopes that Apple will be coming out with a model to compete. Complaints about the MacBook Air bogging down when viewing such websites as YouTube... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
SingTel Group and its associates launched the iPhone 3G in Australia on 11 July 2008 and in Singapore, India and the Philippines... [ Full story from MacDailyNews ]
Apple's online store is currently offering five refurbished Mac models for under $1000. Starting at $799 is the 2.0GHz MacBook with 1GB of RAM and 80GB hard drive. Next up is the 2.1GHz MacBook with 1GB of memory and 120GB hard drive priced at $849. The refurbished 20-inch iMac has a 2.0GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive for $949. Another 20-inch iMac with 2.4GHz processor, 1GB... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
Chip design wizard Mark Papermaster is taking control of Apple's iPod and iPhone hardware engineering as the portable music player of the last decade becomes a computer. [ Full story from CNET News.com ]
IBM's playing tough, but if Apple gets to keep Mark Papermaster, don't expect Steve Jobs to suddenly go ga-ga for enterprise computing. [ Full story from CNET News.com ]
As the man considered the father of Apple's iPod steps down, it becomes clear why the company was eager to hire Mark Papermaster, an IBM chip designer. On this Daily Debrief, CNET's Kara Tsuboi and Tom Krazit discuss the reasoning behind the move and why a consumer product company like Apple would want a guy with server experience heading up their lucrative iPod division. [ Full story from CNET News.com ]
Maxell has replaced its long-running MXSP-1000 cradle speaker for Apple's range of iPod music players with the MXSP-1100, which is compatible with the iPhone and refreshed iPod range. The cylindrical speaker system features two 1.8-inch, 4.2W speakers. Frequency response ranges from 80Hz to 20kHz. The speaker system has controls for the attached Apple music player's play, pause track control and v... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
One of Apple's most crucial executives is stepping away from the company, an announcement states. Confirming earlier reports, Tony Fadell, senior VP of Devices Hardware Engineering, is said to be "reducing" his role at Apple in order to spend more time with his family. For the same reason, Fadell's wife -- Human Resources VP Danielle Lambert -- is expected to leave the company before 2009, but o... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
Several new trends in TV and Internet viewing have been observed lately. Traditional TV viewers are asking themselves how they can better mix and match their services, and some viewers have been found to be simultaneously multitasking TV and the Internet. John Martellaro looked at the trends... [ Full story from The Mac Observer ]
Apple's Tony Fadell, one of the company’s top executives responsible for the success of the iPod, is stepping aside and will replaced by a longtime IBM executive. Apple may face suit over noncompete clause. [ Full story from MarketWatch.com - Top Stories ]
Craig Berger, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets, says that Apple may cut production of the iPhone 3G by up to 40 percent because of weaker demand for consumer electronics. But many Apple observers dismissed that prediction. [ Full story from Macworld ]
Apple announced on Tuesday that iPod division senior vice president Tony Fadell is pulling back on his role in the company for personal reasons. While Mr. Fadell cuts back on his involvement, former IBM exec Mark Papermaster will be coming on board as senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering [ Full story from The Mac Observer ]
Apple shot down the rumors on Tuesday that it still has new product announcements to spring on shoppers before the holiday buying season. Rumors had been circulating that Apple was planning on introducing new desktop Mac models in early November [ Full story from The Mac Observer ]
Everyone is jumping on the news concerning the amount of games that is available for the iPhone. Messages like ‘move over,Nintendo’ are popping up everywhere. Within the app store, there are already over 1,500 games available. With Apple making their SDK available to the public, it makes it much easier to create [...] [ Full story from Go Nintendo ]
Gigawiz' data analysis and charting application gets its last update before the release of Version 3, with optimization for opening of database metaphors, some workarounds for system bugs up to Mac OS X 10.5.5, and other changes. [ Full story from MacInTouch ]
In iPhone news, analyst Craig Berger has issued a prediction stating that Apple is likely to cut production of its best-selling iPhone 3G handset by up to 40% during the quarter as a result of the global economic downtown and changes indicating a weakened demand for consumer electronics according to Macworld UK [ Full story from The Mac Observer ]
Former IBM executive Mark Papermaster joined Apple as senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering. Papermaster will report directly to Steve Jobs. [ Full story from Macworld ]
Apple has abandoned any plans for a store on West 34th street in Manhattan, claims the New York Post. Apple currently leases 21-25 on West 34th, which is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenue, and within a short distance of the Empire State Building. The real estate is capable of supporting up to 18,000 square feet, but Apple is said to have lost interest in establishing a store on the site, an... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
The longtime Apple executive is set to leave the company, to be replaced by IBM's Mark Papermaster as head of Apple's iPod division, according to a report. [ Full story from CNET News.com ]
While the iPhone has an on-againoff-again relationship with the Chinese market, seemingly unable to commit to that most populous of nations, unlocked HTC G1s are said to be selling like gangbusters there, a tidbit that surely didn't escape HTC's notice. By the sound of it the company is ready to make its feelings official, pledging its undying love (and Android handsets) to arrive in Asia-Pac markets in the first half of 2009. Additionally, the Touch 3G should be on sale in Taiwan as of now, with the Touch HD hitting there before the end of the year. While China isn't specificall y mentioned in the report, it's certainly the major market in that region. If HTC could beat Apple to the streets of Shanghai that would be a coup of epic proportions, setting the stage for a global battle of smartphone dominance. Place your bets, folks.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Tony Fadell, the senior vice president of the iPod Division at Apple, is leaving the company for personal reasons.
One of Apple's most crucial executives is stepping away from the company, an announcement states. Confirming earlier reports, Tony Fadell, senior VP of Devices Hardware Engineering, is said to be "reducing" his role at Apple in order to spend more time with his family. For the same reason, Fadell's wife -- Human Resources VP Danielle Lambert -- is expected to leave the company before 2009, but o... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
Tony Fadell, a senior executive who was instrumental in the development of the iPod, is leaving Apple for personal reasons... [ Full story from MacDailyNews ]
Tony Fadell, senior vice president of Apple Inc.'s iPod division, is reducing his role at the company and will serve as an adviser to Chief Executive Steve Jobs, the computer and gadget maker said Tuesday. Mark Papermaster, a former IBM Corp. vice president,... [ Full story from SFGate: Business & Technology ]
Slowing demand could force Apple to scale back production of its popular iPhone, an analyst says. - FBR Capital Markets said on Monday that production of Apple's iconic iPhone might plunge more than 40 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous period. quot;Previous checks indicated that iPhone production would fall about 10 percent sequentially in calendar 4Q, quot; said FBR's note by Cr... [ Full story from Ziff Davis CIO Insight Update ]
The longtime Apple executive is set to leave the company, to be replaced by IBM's Mark Papermaster as head of Apple's iPod division, according to a report. [ Full story from CNET News.com ]
Apple on Monday evening silenced circulating rumors by saying that consumers should not expect updates to its product lineup before the end of the year. Outting to rest earlier rumors of pending updates to its iMac and Mac mini product lines, the company says it allow its Mac mini models to languish a bit longer and allow its aluminum iMac lineup to age a few more months. Though its mainstream des... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
An Apple spokesperson has cooled down expectations of a last-minute refresh to the Mac line, or any other products, before the start of the new year. [ Full story from AppleInsider ]
An Apple spokesperson has cooled down expectations of a last-minute refresh to the Mac line, or any other products, before the start of the new year. [ Full story from AppleInsider ]
Things to do in Denver during election week? Here's one: Defrag. A few hundred attendees flocked to the Mile High City Nov. 3 for the Defrag conference. Professor William Duggan, an associate professor of management at Columbia Business School, discussed the concepts behind his book, 'Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement.' Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Apple and Google are all examples of people and entities that took existing ideas and revolutionized markets, Duggan says. - ... [ Full story from eWEEK Technology News ]
Itâs rare for consumer-oriented companies such as Apple to take sides in political debates on controversial issues. But while there are risks to such stands, they may be outweighed by the rewards. [ Full story from Macworld ]
Apple is done with Mac product releases in 2008, a company representative confirms in a rare response to speculation regarding the Mac Mini and iMac. [ Full story from CNET News.com ]
Google and Apple took pages out of the playbooks of other companies to create the powerhouse desktop computers and search engines we benefit from today, Columbia Business School Associate Professor William Duggan says. At the Defrag conference, Duggan discusses what he calls the strategic intuition of Steve Jobs, Larry Page and Sergey Brin that led to their accomplishments. - DENVER Apple and Google revolutionized the PC and search engine markets, respectively, but company leaders borrowed their key concepts from others who came before them. That was the crux of the Defrag opening keynote speech here Nov. 3 from Columbia Business School Associate Professor William ... [ Full story from eWEEK Technology News ]
Piergiorgio Zambrini -- creator of the iPhone jailbreaking tool Ziphone -- claims to have found a bug that can crash the phone along with a variety of other Apple devices, according to Forbes. The bug exists in the audio portion of Apple's video format, and can be exploited to crash the system when attempting to play a video file containing malicious code. The vulnerable code library is common to ... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
Those eager to capture a slice of Apple's early history will soon have the chance to bid in an auction for a sign and a toolbox that are estimated to command a surprisingly high bidding price. [ Full story from AppleInsider ]
Squashing any rumors to the contrary, Apple confirmed for Macworld on Monday that the company will not release any new products before the holidays. [ Full story from Macworld ]
A proposal that would have had Apple and unauthorized Mac clone maker Psystar settle their legal dispute outside of court appears to be off the table, with the two firms more recently asking a judge to approve a lengthy discovery and court schedule that would end in a trial next fall. [ Full story from AppleInsider ]
One analyst thinks Apple is reducing iPhone production by up to 40 percent as it works through inventory and prepares for an economic slump. [ Full story from CNET News.com ]
An Opera spokesman said his company hasnât yet submitted a version of Opera Mini for approval on the App Store, contradicting reports last week that Apple had barred the browser from the iPhone. [ Full story from Macworld ]
The glass trackpad and display hinge found in the new aluminum MacBooks have been problematic for some owners, prompting Apple to investigate, according to AppleInsider. The trackpad allegedly fails to detect clicks occasionally when pressed; as one user has described the malfunction, "You hear and feel the click -- it just doesnít register the click." The owner also complains about the lack of fr... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
FBR Capital Markets predicts that production of the Apple iPhone might drop more than 40 percent in the fourth quarter. - SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) FBR Capital Markets said on Monday that production of Apple Inc's iconic iPhone might plunge more than 40 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous period. quot;Previous checks indicated that iPhone production would fall about 10 percent sequentially in calendar 4... [ Full story from eWEEK Macintosh ]
There are rumors floating around now about a possible Apple event on November 10 announcing new iMacs. It started me thinking that, unlike the situation with the MacBooks, Apple should retain FireWire on any new iMacs [ Full story from The Mac Observer ]
Apple artificially limited the scope of a repair program for defective PowerBooks, a new class-action lawsuit alleges. Filed by Giorgio Gometsky via northern California, the suit makes reference to a problem with the PowerBook G4, in which memory added to the computer went unrecognized, thereby depriving people of performance or generating additional problems. "Unfortunately for consumers," the ... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
Google and Apple took pages out of the playbooks of companies to create the powerhouse desktop computer and search engine markets we enjoy today, Columbia Business School associate professor William Duggan said at Defrag 08. Duggan discussed the strategic intuition Steve Jobs, Larry Page and Sergey Brin experienced during their flashes of insight. - DENVER -- Apple and Google revolutionized the PC and search engine markets, respectively, as we know them, but company leaders borrowed the concepts from others before them. That was the crux of the Defrag 08 opening keynote speech from Columbia Business School associate professor William Duggan ... [ Full story from eWEEK Technology News ]
An advance out-of-court settlement in the dispute between Apple and Psystar is now unlikely to happen, filings show. The two companies have been involved in a process called Alternative Dispute Resolution, designed to avoid the time and cost of a court battle; both corporations are recently, however, said to have asked a judge to authorize a proposed court schedule, in which fact discovery would ... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
Mac users who are also Netflix subscribers, can now watch videos and TV shows online. The company just rolled out its second generation media player, which uses Microsoft's Silverlight player to stream video online. Unlike Apple iTunes Store, which enables users to download videos and transfer them to an iPhone or iPod or view them on a television using Apple TV, Netflixs service streams content to a Mac only theres no way to transfer the video to another device. IBM is suing former CEO, Mark Papermaster, to prevent him from accepting a position at Apple. Papermaster is the former vice president of IBM's Blade Development unit and has been with the company for 26 years. IBM says Papermaster's move goes against a noncompete agreement. In the suit filed at the United States District Court in Manhattan, IBM said Papermaster was one of its top 300 managers and had access to a wide range of the company's intellectual property and trade secrets. IBM and Sun Microsystems have made good on a promise to make open source code from the OpenSolaris operating system- available on IBM System z mainframes. Last week, NASA awarded a $206.5 million dollar contract to longtime contractor, United Space Alliance. The contract will provide mission and flight crew logistics, training, and flight support for the International Space Station and subsequent space exploration activities after the space shuttle program is ended in 2010. - Video Content.... [ Full story from eWEEK Technology News ]
Apple could be getting ready to make some tweaks to its desktop Macs next week, adding the touches unveiled last month with its new MacBooks. [ Full story from CNET News.com ]
A New York Times article last week that said Apple had denied the Opera Mini Web browser for the iPhone may not have been accurate, according to PCWorld article on the subject. Daniel Ionescu quotes an Opera executive as saying that the company hasn't yet even submitted a mobile browser release to Apple [ Full story from The Mac Observer ]
News has surfaced that Apple is currently facing a new class-action lawsuit alleging that the company failed to fully recognize the scope of a memory slot defect present in its PowerBook G4 notebooks that left thousands of customers responsible for paying for repairs costs on their own [ Full story from The Mac Observer ]
An official Apple forum has become a sounding board for numerous complaints that the MacBookâs new multi-touch glass-covered trackpad isn't behaving itself.â¦
Anticipated refreshes of the iMac and Mac mini could happen as early as next week, according to anonymous sources. Described only as "persistent," the sources say that an announcement is scheduled for November 10th, rather than Macworld, Apple's next confirmed publicity event in January. The primary reasoning is said to be Mac Pro, which is also due for an update, but which may not have enough c... [ Full story from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network ]
In a profile this past week of Opera Software, the New York Times had indicated that Opera's Mini Browser had been rejected from the App Store based on anti-competitive grounds. Apple has rejected other applications claiming the submitted applicatio... [ Full story from MacRumors : Mac News and Rumors ]
the new trackpad, Migration Assistant problems, Smart Scroll, FireWire 400-800 cables and some kind of problem that Apple engineering wants to examine [ Full story from MacInTouch ]
In a profile this past week of Opera Software, the New York Times had indicated that Opera's Mini Browser had been rejected from the App Store based on anti-competitive grounds. Apple has rejected other applications claiming the submitted applicatio... [ Full story from MacRumors : Mac News and Rumors ]
Standing as the single largest change to an Apple portable in recent history, the 13" MacBook completely overhauls the system with a switch from plastic to a strong, thinner aluminum shell and a totally new platform that puts it into a new performance category -- albeit with key sacrifices to meet its goals. [ Full story from AppleInsider ]
The day we brought my new-born son home to our Brooklyn apartment, an article in the New York Times pointed out that "a black male who drops out of high school [in the US] is 60 times more likely to find himself in prison than one with a bachelor's degree". These are the kind of statistics I often quote in my work. But this time it was personal. Looking down at him as he snoozed in the brand new car seat, I thought: "Those are not great odds. I'd better buy some more children's books."
Over the next few weeks, a s we fumbled with the nappies, pram, barfing and burping, a new, previously unthinkable option for black American males emerged: the presidency of the United States. Osceola was born on the weekend Barack Obama declared his candidacy. This prompted conversations that I would not have had otherwise. His success, I was told, would signify great things for my son. Osceola would grow up with an assumption that the highest office in the land was open to him. That the future could be his. That there was, I was told, nothing that this child could not achieve.
Back in February 2007, when Obama announced his candidacy, this never made much sense to me. The fact that my son suddenly has a tiny theoretical chance of getting to the White House is less important than the more real chance of his ending up behind bars (one in three black American boys born in 2001 will do so) or dead (three black kids are shot every day). I wanted a president who could change the odds for the many rathe r than raise the stakes for a few. I didn't care what they looked like. It wasn't that I didn't understand the symbolic importance of his bid. I just did not want to mistake it for substance.
On a political level, I have always thought he was interesting. Obama's announcement came 18 months after hurricane Katrina put black America's collective deprivation and individual success clearly on display. One man can rise to the presidency and a whole community can sink into the Gulf of Mexico: anything, I thought, really is possible. And with three days to go before election day, it looks like the US stands on the verge of making the historic decision to put a black man in the White House.
This was no reflection on Obama. Everything I'd heard about him - not least his opposition to the Iraq war at a time when such a position was unpopular - was impressive. But his two years in the Senate suggested he was pretty mainstream and even, at times, a little suspect. He'd supported Joseph Lieberman (a Democrat who is now supporting John McCain) in his primary Senate campaign against an anti-war campaigner. And he voted to confirm Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state. It wasn't obvious to me that he would be any better than some other generic Democrat with different pigmentation. The idea that his presidency would mean anything for Osceola's life never really crossed my mind.
To express such scepticism before many Obama supporters was to be accused of cynicism. The true believers do not just want you to drink the Kool Aid. They demand that you chug it.
The people my scepticism vexed most were white liberals. Obama had become prey to the soft bigotry of unreasonable expectations. Describing the crowd's reaction to him in Rockford, Illinois, Time's Joe Klein noted: "The African Americans tend to be fairly reserved ... The white people, by contrast, are out of control." They had found a black politician they felt comfortable with, and wanted him to be everything: Martin Luther King, John F Kennedy, a griot, president, vice-president, motherhood and apple pie. They prattled on about a post-racial America as though the Jena Six never happened and Sean Bell, a unarmed black man from Queens who was riddled with bullets on his wedding day, was still alive.
My wife, who is African American, shared my reservations about Obama, but saw things differently. She remembers the thrill of being a young girl when the black Democrat Harold Washington was elected in her hometown, Chicago. She liked him because her parents liked him. She could see it was important, but she didn't know why.
"My dad grew up being told a black person couldn't be a pilot, and my son is growing up knowing that a black person can be president," she said. "It's not that racism is gone, it's just that it's not about the idea that all black people are excluded on the basis of their race from any part of society or any particular job. That was the racis m my parents grew up with and that is now one generation removed from Osceola." Her dad became a pilot, as did her brother.
Of course, Obama isn't standing for Osceola's benefit - which is just as well, because if Osceola could vote he would most likely support Elmo for mayor of Sesame Street. But in a sense these projections lie at the heart of any thoughtful appraisal of the racial dynamics underpinning Obama's candidacy. The desire to believe we are in a paradigm-shifting moment must be set against the fact that not every historic first changes the course of history. Changing our understanding of what is possible doesn't, in itself, create new possibilities.
I watched Obama accept the Democratic nomination with my mother-in-law, Janet, in a cinema on the southside of Chicago. Janet was raised in the South with the laws that put her at the back of the bus. As a teenager she went with her mother to see Martin Luther King speak in Philadelphia, listening in the overf low in the vestry because there were too many people in the church.
She was the one who first told me about Obama in 2003. She got involved in his primary campaign for the Senate when he didn't have a prayer, after she'd seen him on the local public channel, when he was a state senator. "He seemed like a bright guy," she says. "He reasoned his way through things and was always very impressive." She particularly liked his stance on the war. When he said he was running for Senate, she signed up as a volunteer.
And now, here we were just five years later seeing him clinch the deal in Denver on the big screen. At one point, when he recalled his anti-war speech in 2002, she punched my arm. "I was there." As she drove me to my hotel, she would occasionally say to no one in particular: "I just don't believe it."
Whether Osceola would ever be able to relate to what a momentous time this is for Janet remains to be seen. But her response made me think that the late comed ian George Carlin was wrong. Symbols are too important to be left to the symbol-minded. By that time, my thinking on Obama had evolved. Not so much because of the man, but the moment. The atmosphere during this campaign has been unlike anything I've ever seen in a western country. To see so many people - particularly young people - engaged and hopeful about their political future after eight depressing years is inspiring. The last time I saw it was in South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994.
Walking down Sumter Street during Charleston's Martin Luther King day parade, watching white volunteers chant: "Obama '08! We're ready. Why wait?" gave political voice to an America I never doubted existed, but had yet to see. Among them was a young man who was "so depressed" after Obama's New Hampshire defeat that he had dropped everything he had been doing in Guatemala and flown back to help out. Local African Americans lined the sidewalks, cheering encouragement. Obama's v ictory in Iowa had proved that a black candidacy was not a pipe dream.
It was a moment. Fleeting and maybe even fatuous. But nonetheless a political moment that produced hopeful human engagement. Within half an hour it had evaporated. The white volunteers went back to the office and black people went back to their homes in the poorest parts of town and waited for change. But that didn't mean it didn't happen or that it couldn't happen again. Nor was there anyone else who could make it happen.
A couple months later came Obama's race speech in Philadelphia in response to the attacks on his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, in which he addressed black alienation and white disadvantage, set them both in a historical context, and then called on people to rise above it. It was a tall order. He pulled it off.
That weekend, a friend invited us to brunch with a group of other black people to discuss the fallout. There were nine of us (10 if you include Osceola, who yanked a blin d from the window). It was a typical boho (black bohemian) Brooklyn crowd of voluntary sector workers, teachers and the like. Most, like me, had been ambivalent about Obama at the outset. But his candidacy was becoming a vehicle for something bigger: a teachable moment about the potential of anti-racist discourse.
A year before, Hillary Clinton's chief strategist, Mark Penn, laid out a plan of attack against Obama. "All of these articles about his boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared towards showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light. Save it for 2050. It also exposes a strong weakness for him - his roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited. I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his centre fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values ... Let's explicitly own 'American' in our programmes, the speeches and the values. He doesn't ... Let's use our logo to make some flags we can give out. Let's add flag symbols to the backgrounds."
Clinton rejected Penn's advice, but McCain pretty much adopted it. And at this point it appears to have failed. This time Republicans have misread white America's appetite for divisive racial rhetoric and overestimated its fear of the other. The fears and division are still there. But whatever the result on Tuesday, they are clearly no longer the decisive mobilising force they once were.
If there is promise in here for my son, it is not so much that he is capable of doing anything he wants - I am his father and it's my responsibility to teach him that - but that white people won't necessarily stop him. What that does for his odds of finishing high school or going to jail remains to be seen. In the meantime, I'm off to the bookshop.
J.D. Power and Associates released the results of a survey yesterday, showing Apple's iPhone ranked highest in terms of customer satisfaction among 1,388 business wireless customers queried between August and September.
So apparently Apple 
Have you ever been on a blind date that you really wanted to get out of? How about participating in the world's most boring meeting or wanting to get away from the in-laws?
Apple's annual SEC 10K filing showed that music-related sales increased by US$844 million (or 34%) to $3.34 billion in fiscal 2008, up from US$2.5 billion in 2007. Apple cited "heightened consumer interest in downloading third-party digital content
Welcome to 
Realmac Software
Ziphone creator Piergiorgio Zambrini has discovered a bug with the iPhone that causes the phone to crash when it starts to play a specially-created video. 
Despite the server-side updates Apple 
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Another 
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Newer updates to Mac OS X Leopard seem to have an interesting problem with their spelling databases: they include words that are most certainly wrong. The problem first appeared in 10.5.2 (U.S. English), and has not yet been corrected.
Last week, my previously-very-anti-Mac dad started using a Mac mini, and I wrote about his experience -- positive, to say the least. If you haven't read 
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Last month we went a little nuts and started handing out free stuff -- giveaways for 
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Ready for Halloween on your iPhone? The App Store provides a quick fix for trick-or-treaters, and the offerings provide a little of each category. I happened to grab a random assortment of freebies (several were temporarily free) themed around Halloween. Here's a quick review of each. Hit the gallery for sample screens. All app names are iTunes links.
Touch Arcade has 
Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, a division of Enderle Global Enterprises, represented by Enderle, Enderle & Enderle, and a block south of Enderle Toyota*, says Apple has made mistakes with its marketing 
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If you enjoy 
Have you ever been stuck on a train, plane, or bus and wanted a good book to read? With Classics [
While a lot of us have had internet banking for years, who would have thought that AT&T would have come up with a mobile banking app that lets you check accounts and pay bills for a number of banks through a single iPhone app?
We 
Here at the TUAW home office, we're quite distracted by the pending election of the USA's 44th President. However, since this is an Apple blog, we can't 
The 
Several people who own the new, unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros are reporting 
IBM VP to become Apple of Jobs' eye 
One analyst thinks Apple is reducing iPhone production by up to 40 percent as it works through inventory and prepares for an economic slump
