Apple announced today that the 20-inch Cinema Display has been discontinued. Apple killed off the 23-inch display when the 24-inch LED Cinema Display (the shiny, Mini DisplayPort-bearing one) hit stores, so now the only other display Apple ships is the beastly 30-inch.
Time will tell what this means. New Macs are imminent, and Apple has announced that Mini DisplayPort is the new standard for the Macintosh family, so maybe the 20-inch was just due to be buried.
Dan Knight, of Low End Mac:
Income per page doubled in 2003 and kept moving upward, peaking in 2005/06, then slipping just a wee bit in 2007. Then came 2008. Through June, income was close to the 2006 level, but July fell well short of the previous year’s level. Through October, income seemed to hold steady, and then came the crash.
November income was less than half what it had been in 2007, and December was even worse. We’d hoped to see things turn in January, but instead it was lower still. We don’t know what February holds (checks usually arrive the last week of the month), but we’re looking at our options.
From The Gadgeteer’s interview with Marisa Giancarla, who is developing an e-book reader for the Newton OS:
I have not seen the iPhone SDK so I don’t know how it compares development-wise to the Newton, but the lack of pen and ink support and handwriting recognition still haven’t been reached on the iPhone. There is a natural draw to try and compare the two, both being handheld computing devices from the same company, but they are still quite different. I would love to see a tablet device from Apple, then at least the hardware features would be comparable.
On this first touch, the keyboard felt cramped, probably a result of the screen size, which is smaller than the iPhone’s—which is the obvious soft keyboard reference, since it was the first one to implement a finger-touch software keyboard.
It’s going to be hard to beat the virtual keyboard on the iPhone.
CNN:
Thousands of indignant members either canceled their accounts or created online petitions. Among them were more than 64,000 who joined a group called “The People Against the new Terms of Service.”
On Monday, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg tried to quell the controversy by saying the company’s philosophy is that “people own their information and control who they share it with.”
But members were not appeased because the site did not fix its Terms of Use. The company, in its post Wednesday, said it was returning to its previous Terms of Use because of the “feedback” it had received.
The problem with desktop email clients is that they’ve gone nowhere, and appear to be going nowhere fast. While Google has delivered solutions that make email less excruciating, Apple, Mozilla, Microsoft, and now Postbox are twiddling their thumbs and staring at the ceiling. The primary recommendation for a desktop email client is that you end up with a copy of your messages on your hard drive, and even that argument is moot.
iPhone and Mac developer Craig Hockenberry:
I’ll pass on a small reminder that an Apple employee gave me during Macworld: the App Store has only been live for a little over six months. Last month’s 25 year anniversary of the Mac should also remind us that this new market for our products is still in its infancy. Yes, it’s a wild ride at the moment, but if you think about your costs, customers and revenue streams, I think you’ll enjoy a very long journey.
Facebook’s new Terms of Agreement include this little jewel:
You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.
Apple’s MobileMe service has several limitations, but one got removed this week: iDisk file sharing:
We’re pleased to announce that you can now use your MobileMe iDisk to share files with others simply and easily. Instead of attaching a large document to an email and hoping it’s not too big to be received, you can place the file in your iDisk and use the new Share File command in the iDisk web app. It lets you send your friends, family, or colleagues a link they can click to download the file directly. You can password protect the link if you choose to and even set how long it will be available.
Safari140 - a Safari plugin that adds simple tweeting to Apple’s browser - was released last night. It’s activated using Control+T and automatically fills in the title of the current page and a shortened URL, using the is.gd service.
After using it this morning, I do like how much smoother SAfari140 makess sharing a link, but I don’t see this replacing Twitterrific on my Macs. Go check it out - the price is right, at least - $0.
The vote was 246 to 183, reflecting the Democrats’ considerable majority in the House and the Republicans’ deep dissatisfaction with the measure, whose estimated price tag has fluctuated daily and was finally placed at $787 billion on Friday. Not a single Republican voted in favor of the bill.