Category: Apple

CNET’s Don Reisinger:

But now, as a new Microsoft operating system starts making its way to store shelves, it’s incumbent upon us to forecast its expected impact. And after downloading the Windows 7 beta and immersing myself in its environment, I think I can say, both as a Mac user (I’m writing this on my iMac) and what some may call an Apple nut (I own just about every Apple product released over the past five years), Windows 7 will not only stymie Mac OS X’s growth, it will push Apple’s market share back down to pre-Vista levels.

Continue reading ⇢

Check this out:

In a telephone interview today, Jobs said he won’t comment further on his health.

“Why don’t you guys leave me alone – why is this important?” Jobs said.

These guys give journalists a bad name. I mean, even as the CEO of a major company, the man is a human being. And last time I checked, there are bigger economic stories than Apple at the moment.

Continue reading ⇢

For a long time, Twitterific was top dog on the Mac and on the iPhone when it came to Twitter clients - and rightfully so. It’s interface is clean and simple, putting regular tweets, replies and direct messages all in the same list. This simplicity is a much-appreciated design element, especially on the iPhone’s touch screen. The Iconfactory (the makers of Twitterific and some other great apps) did one thing that was ingenious - they offered a free, ad-supported version, and a “premium” version without the ads. This model worked for them on the Mac, and they elegantly brought it to the App Store before most others had figured it out.

Continue reading ⇢

CNN, on the man filling Steve Jobs’ shoes for now:

Cook’s stamina is the stuff of legend at Apple. He often begins e-mailing the executives who work for him at 4:30 a.m.; worldwide conference calls can take place at any time of day. For years, Cook held a standing Sunday night staff meeting by telephone in order to prepare for yet more meetings on Monday morning.

[…]

As long as Jobs stays healthy, Cook won’t need to worry about personal visibility. He can just keep doing his thing, grinding away offstage. But if he does get tapped for the CEO job someday, Apple may not suffer from acute Stevelessness as much as the world seems to think.

Continue reading ⇢

As the whole Internet reported today:

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

Continue reading ⇢

This takes the headache out of running the nightly WebKit build as my main browser on my Macs. It also makes the customer Automator script I wrote a few months back useless.

Continue reading ⇢

Engadget is good at it: “iPhone nano now rumored for June, Unicorn delayed again until September.”

Continue reading ⇢

Cult of Mac:

Apple is ditching MacWorld to instead exhibit at CES next year instead, according to one source.

No. No. No.

At Macworld, Apple was the big dog. At CES, they would have to compete with every other electronics company on the planet for press time. Not to mention the reasons Apple left Macworld - 1,000s of Apple Store visitors each week means far more customer exposure, January is a horrible time to release products, trade shows are expensive as hell - would also apply to CES. From now on, when an Apple executive takes a stage to show off something new, it will be at an Apple-crafted event, not a trade show. Not even the granddaddy of them all, CES.

Continue reading ⇢

David Pogue of the New York Times:

What the media wants to see is the annual Steve Jobs keynote speech, where Apple’s latest products are often unveiled. So: no press throngs next year. The software companies in those hundreds of booths want to be near the mother ship, to bask in its glory and be seen by its admirers. So: fewer booths next year. And the regular Apple fans want to see that keynote, try out those Apple products and explore those booths. So: fewer attendees.

Continue reading ⇢

Apple is bribing users to upgrade to iLife ’09 offering a special deal on iLife ’09 some customers:

If you buy a qualifying Mac between January 6, 2009, and March 28, 2009, and it does not include iLife ’09, you’re eligible to receive iLife ’09 for just $9.95 plus tax.

Continue reading ⇢

Pandora, (iTunes link) everyone’s favorite musical iPhone app hit 2.0 status this week.

Continue reading ⇢

Apple is offering users an easy way to upgrade their music libraries to DRM-free tracks:

It’s also easy to upgrade your iTunes library to iTunes Plus. You don’t have to buy the song or album again. Just pay the 30¢ per song upgrade price. (Music video upgrades are 60¢ and entire albums can be upgraded for 30 percent of the album price.)

I upgraded my tracks tonight when I got home from work for a grand total of $26 (I previously tweeted I spent $12, but forgot to upgrade my other account until afterwards) with no issues. But some users are experiencing issues. Twitter user toddw sent me this:

Continue reading ⇢