You probably weren’t paying attention when a tiny company called Apple Computer introduced its second product, the Apple II microcomputer, at the West Coast Computer Faire on April 16 and 17, 1977. (I wasn’t.) You may never have owned an Apple II. (I didn’t.) But it’s still easy to get fascinated by the machine and its legacy. (I sure am.) And there are many ways to explore its world — many of which you can do without getting out of the chair you’re sitting in right now, thanks to the Web.
Category: Apple
Apple: Philippe Starck? Who?
On Bad Advice
What Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong. If it’s smart it will call the iPhone a “reference design” and pass it to some suckers to build with someone else’s marketing budget. Then it can wash its hands of any marketplace failures.
It should do that immediately before it’s too late. Samsung Electronics Ltd. (US:SSNGY) might be a candidate. Otherwise I’d advise you to cover your eyes. You’re not going to like what you’ll see.
Why is iCloud Free?
With the recent purchase of Instagram by Facebook, there has been a lot of chatter online about free services.
It all boils down to something pretty simple. If you don’t pay for a service, you will either:
- See ads
- Be sad when the service is bought or folds
The reality is that free services can’t run forever without one of those two things happening. In the case of Instagram, the service was bought by a company that offers a free-to-users-but-with-ads service. (It just so happens the service is disliked by many nerds, hence the outcry online.)
Apple Releases Flashback Removal Tool
This Java security update removes the most common variants of the Flashback malware.
This update also configures the Java web plug-in to disable the automatic execution of Java applets. Users may re-enable automatic execution of Java applets using the Java Preferences application. If the Java web plug-in detects that no applets have been run for an extended period of time it will again disable Java applets.
Good on Apple for handling this so quickly.
On iPad Styli
It really feels like the stylus is making a comeback, in very specific use cases.
I, for one, love my Cosmonaut.
Garret Murray, on the Das Keyboard
I’ll tell you this, friends: It’s hideous and it’s loud and it’s heavy and it’s huge… but I love typing on it. I love the feeling of rattling off a long paragraph of text uninterrupted while the air is filled with insanely loud clacking and I love the way the keys feel as I strike them. If I can just control my gag reflex each morning when I walk into the office and see the thing, everything will work out just fine.
On the Thunderbolt Display
The 27-inch Apple Thunderbolt Display is the North American market leader for LED LCD computer screens sized 24 inches and up, accounting for 26.2 percent of the market.
Though Apple leads sales in that market segment, its position has fallen considerably from 2010, when the Apple Cinema Display accounted for 53.3 percent of LED LCD monitors 24 inches and up, according to new data from NPD’s DisplaySearch.
A New ‘Sleek’ iPhone Coming?
According to Mac Rumors, the next iPhone might look a lot like a small iPad 2 or 3.
The site describes a phone with a flat back with rounded corners, unibody construction and 4G/LTE connectivity.
While I usually don’t get excited about rumors like this, I can’t help myself this time. That thing looks really good.
Marco, on Depositing Checks From iOS
Tweetbot Gains iCloud Sync
The update uses iCloud to sync Timelines, DMs and mute filters.
Now, where’s that Mac app?