Friday, August 18, 2000
Top Stories
Surprise! A Macintosh With Loose Parts
The problem isn't with the manufacturing. It's with the quality control.
From Apple, Cubist Art
Among other firsts, Apple's Power Mac G4 Cube, starting at $1,799 without monitor, introduces a new upgrade worry: furniture incompatibility. This little box—eight inches wide and about 10 inches tall—is the purest expression yet of Apple's obsession with improving the generally pathetic state of industrial design in the PC business.
Apple Seeks Intellectual Property Watchdog
Apple's recent brush with Mac-oriented Web sites publishing details of upcoming product launches has clearly forced the company to rethink its legal support. To beef that up, the Mac maker this week launched a quest for someone to pursue any it suspects of infringing its trademarks and copyrights.
Will Steve Jobs Keep Shining?
Jobs has a talent for making mountains out of what other chief executives would turn to dust. He may well shock us all for another three years. But don't be surprised if the noose tightens on Apple again in late 2001 and early 2002.
Power Mac G4 Cube
Perhaps most noticeable about our tests is that the Cube scored a surprisingly low 139 in our SpeedMark suite of real-world tests. This may be largely caused by the relatively slow 5400rpm Western Digital IDE drive included in the Cube.
Pondering The Cube
No one ever says "I love Windows," unless they're under interrogation in Redmond. But Mac users will often be found saying such things about their machines. Part of that comes from pride in the way it looks, the way it responds and how we respond in turn.
Back To Square One?
Now that Michael Cowpland has resigned as Corel's CEO, what happens to the graphics applications that the company acquired from MetaCreations? Early signs are not encouraging, but Corel's VP for creative products maintains that the company is on track with new Mac versions.
News
Gathering Of Democrats Parades High-Tech Gadgets
Apple Store May Be Misleading Customers
One AppleInsider source, who spent hours on the phone with the Apple Store in protest of some concrete shipping information on his dual Power Mac G4 order, was eventually transferred to an executive manager at the Apple Store. According to the source, at that time management fully admitted that the current accessory kit excuses that were being handed out to Apple Store customers were a blatant lie.
Darmouth's Incoming Freshmen Pick PCs Over Macs For First Time Ever
Come September, for the first time ever, a majority of members of the Dartmouth College incoming class will use a Windows machine rather than a Macintosh one — with the overall percentage approximately 60 to 40 percent in favor of PCs.
Corel Will Not Sell-Off Core Products
The lead technology officer and interim chief executive of Corel Corp. said Wednesday he has no plans to sell any of the company's core products — including those purchased in April from MetaCreations — as he begins to deal with the struggle to pull the 15-year old software maker out of a severe cash crunch.
Piranha Bites Into Digital Video
The developer has adapted its image-compression technology to video, claiming to produce QuickTime files one-third the size of those encoded with other technologies. But as with Piranha Byte, Piranha Stream encoding will also compress your bank account.
Opinion
The Name Game
Apple needs to rethink the name game before it confuses even itself.
Review
Mac's Nice Cube Wows Users
For all its breakthrough technology and acknowledged superiority in desktop computing, Apple Computer's lasting legacy will be industrial design.
Sidetrack
Think Really Different
I have an all-day meeting in Hong Kong, with just a hotel bed to go back with... I'm tired... So forgive me if this sound a little loony...
How about a new dual-processor machine with a 500 MHz G4 plus a 1.1 GHz G3? Kill two birds with one stone? Technically feasible, or happy daydream?
Wintel
Chip Newcomer Transmeta Files For IPO
Transmeta, the processor start-up that hopes to take on Intel in the lucrative market for notebook chips, filed today to raise $200 million through an initial public offering.
New Strain Of "Love" Virus Steals Passwords
Security experts say that a new strain of the infamous "I Love You" virus has hit some businesses located in Europe and in the United States.
"Love" Variant Could Spawn Targeted Attacks
Who hasn't worried that someone would steal their bank card PIN numbers and clean out their bank accounts? Today, the reason for alarm may have increased exponentially.
Paul Allen Unloads More Microsoft Stock
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who has sold 48.585 million Microsoft shares valued at about $4.2 billion since mid-February, plans to sell 2 million more common shares worth $140 million, according to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.