For 25 years, a very loyal and passionate Mac community has descended upon the halls of Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA to see, hear, and learn more about the computers they love. By announcing their departure from this beloved show hosted by IDG, Apple is sending a message to the entire community–professionals, hobbyists, media, Mac User Groups, and even IDG themselves–that they care nothing for the community who supported them through thick and thin.
Category: Apple
Some Historical Context, Re: Macworld
Later on, Sculley confided to me and to my partner, Bart Rhoades, that the first Macworld Expo had saved Apple. He complained that Jobs and his team were so burned out from getting the Mac out the door that they had accomplished virtually nothing since. Users were clamoring for more memory, a hard drive, faster boot-up, a color monitor and other enhancements. Macintosh sales had started off with a bang, thanks to the 1984 Super Bowl commercial and to the Mac’s ease of use and graphic capabilities, but by 1985, sales had slowed considerably.
Mactini: All the Apple Netbook You’ll Need
British comedian Peter Serafinowicz has come up with the “Mactini.” [Via Gizmodo.]
Shift of Leadership at Apple?
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, one of the most outspoken figures on all things Apple, told clients on Wednesday that Steve Jobs’ absence from this year’s Macworld Expo signals “the beginning of a shift in leadership roles” at the company.
“Steve Jobs remains CEO of Apple, however, yielding this year’s Macworld keynote to Phil Schiller, along with the participation of Tim Cook and Phil Schiller at the October event is, in our view, a clear message that a leadership shift is underway,” he said.
On Macworldgate
Let’s cut to the chase. Cue Apple PR:
Apple today announced that this year is the last year the company will exhibit at Macworld Expo. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the opening keynote for this year’s Macworld Conference & Expo, and it will be Apple’s last keynote at the show,
Wait, what?
Today’s announcement has taken the Internet by storm, but not many believe it to be about Jobs’ health.
MobileMe, Leopard Get Some Love
Apple updated their MobileMe service today. Highlights include:
- Resolved an issue that could cause some contacts to temporarily disappear on iPhone or iPod touch when syncing with MobileMe over an intermittent network connection; iPhone Software 2.2 is required to take full advantage of this
Contacts, calendars, and bookmarks on a Mac sync automatically within a minute of the change being made on the computer, another device, or the web at www.me.com; Mac OS X 10.5.6 is required
This Makes Me Want to Buy a Newton Again
NCX is an application designed by Simon Bell to mimic the original Newton Connection Utilities functionality in the pre-OS X days. As you can see from the home screen above, it offers tons of options for your Newton data, including backup, package installation, Newton Works import and export capabilities, and Mac keyboard functionality.
Being able to exchange data reliably with an OS X machine is the trickiest part about using a Newton these days.
On Silly Workarounds
Macworld, on the Office 2008 + Spaces bug:
Symptoms of this bug include: an inability to bring Word document windows to the foreground by clicking them, an inability to assign two Word documents to separate spaces, and plain old crashes of Office applications.
The work-around for now is to not use Spaces if you plan on using Office 2008. Or at least don’t start switching among different spaces while Office 2008 applications are open.
x86: An Invite for Mac Hacks?
Apple wasn’t always opposed to Mac clones. For a brief period in the 1990s – when Steve Jobs was still exiled from Apple – Apple CEO Michael Spindler licensed the Mac operating system to several manufacturers: Power Computing, Motorola, Umax, APS, Radius and DayStar. When Jobs retook the helm in 1997, one of the first items on his agenda was to destroy the clone program and eliminate these cheaper alternatives to Apple’s goods.
Apple Adjusts App Store Listings
In the wake of recent criticism of the App Store, Apple has adjusted the way free and paid applications are listed in iTunes. AppleInsider:
TouchMeme’s Krishna Vegesna tipped AppleInsider off to the overnight design tweaks, which “accomplished three important things,” according to the iPhone app developer. First, he said, Apple now highlights the most popular applications on each category page.
As part of this new grouping, the Cupertino-based company has also separated the most popular Free Apps – which previously dominated the most popular listings – from most popular Paid Apps, breaking each out into separate sidebar modules that flank the general listings for each category. In addition, the new layout is more consistent in design with the AppStore application on the iPhone, Vegesna noted.
David Watanabe Unveils Ski Lodge, Plays With Our Emotions
David Watanabe, creator of the popular NewsFire RSS reader, has announced a new iPhone application called Ski Lodge ( iTunes Link). The application shows off his talent of making bold, sharp design choices, also seen in his other applications, Xtorrent, Acquisition, and Inquisitor.
NewsFire, while now free on the Mac, is expected to show up in the App Store at some point, based on a single teaser Watanabe posted on Flickr. Comments on the image show a strong desire among users:
Next Build of 10.5 Tomorrow?
Apple has seeded yet another build of Mac OS X 10.5.6 (9G55) to developers. This latest seed reveals no known issues and has addressed a few outstanding issues.
They believe the update to be out tomorrow. I agree.