Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Top Stories
Inside Look At Birth Of The iPod
Ben Knauss is a former senior manager at PortalPlayer, the company Apple Computer approached to help develop an MP3 player that would eventually become the wildly popular iPod.
Announcement
News
Shooting Montana's West Glacier Fire
John Kinsey discusses what it takes for him to gain access to the hotspots, the equipment he used to help craft his story, and opinions on his latest acquisition: a Power Mac G5 running Final Cut Pro.
GUI Now Too Complex — Longhorn
The classic graphical user interface was well suited to an early Macintosh with 128kB of RAM that ran a few applications and about 50 files, "but it doesn't scale", says usability design specialist Don Norman.
Apple At New Digital Lifestyle Expo
Apple will be featured at the Digital Lifestyle Expo, a new education and direct buying symposium series intended to show educators and the public how to harness the latest in digital technology.
iPod Mini Plays 'Hard To Get'
The sheer demand for the product has caused some readers to report longer-than-anticipated waits for their new music players.
Mac Users Petition For Russian Localization In 'Tiger'
School Gives Students Apple iBooks
East Central High School is giving 100 of their students Apple iBooks to be used for class work. The computers will allow students to create digital projects using video, audio and digital music compositions.
DJs Defensive At iPod Assault
Two prominent radio programmers told The Post they've got what computers don't — and never will.
iPods
The iPod is expensive, the software can be a pain to use for those with PCs instead of Macintosh computers, and battery life has been nothing to brag about. Not that any of that has slowed sales.
Apple Settles Rendezvous Trademark Dispute
Sources say that, as part of the deal, Apple ahs agreed to phase out its use of the "Rendezvous" name.
Sculley Named 'Honorary President' Of Newton Group
Former Apple CEO John sculley has been named "Honorary President" of the Worldwide Newton Association, which was founded to promote the Newton computing platform.
Apple, Microsoft Sued Over Online Software Updates
Both companies have been named as defendants in a lawsuit recently. Teleshuttle Technologies LLC alleges that Apple and Microsoft are infringing a patent that covers online software updates.
Opinion
Is It Dot Mac Time Again?
There is one pernicious detail that will probably be the key reason people decide not to renew this year. It's Google.
Scaled-Back Macworld Endures Apple Absence
Are The New iPods Really Cheaper? Depends On What You Want
The touted price cuts of US$100 are true only if you don't mind the lack of some items that were included along with previous full-sized iPods, but are no longer.
Time For Apple To Take A Chance Financially
Apple Must Work To Keep iPod Hot
Apple has a monster hit on its hands today. But it'll have to keep innovating to maintain that status.
New iPods: Exclusive Non-Review!
Apple makes a terrfic, but imperfect and not-quite-revolutionary, product, and then Steve Jobs' reality-distortion field causes folks to forget that A) Apple didn't invent the category that the product falls into; and B) the product isn't necessarily the best in its class simply because it hails from Cupertino.
Macworld Expo In Boston: Past, Present, And Future
I'd count this Macworld Expo a success, at least on its own terms, and if that means that these mid-year shows are significantly different from both previous shows and Macworld Expo in San Francisco in January, so be it.
Rating Macworld Expo Boston 2004
Macworld Expo Boston 2004 Superlatives
Despite Macworld Expo's small number of exhibitors and reduced attendance, there was no lack of superlatives, both interesting products and notable observations.
Review
Can't Sing. Can't Dance. But I Make Music
What's impressive about GarageBand is that it works.
Digital Hub: Create Your Own Music Video
Web Mail Supersizes: As Storage Capacikty For Web-Based E-Mail Expands, So Do Choices
IPNetMonitorX 1.4: Network Management App Adds Power To OS X's Free Tools
If you spend a lot of time troubleshooting network connections, IPNetMonitorX will be a valuable addition to your bag of tricks.
Mac GEMS: Keyboard Commands, Browser History, And More
.Mac Isn't Worth The Investment
Apple won't like what I'm going to tell you. The .Mac service is an expense you almost certainly can do without.
How To Fall In Love With Your iSight, Again
Twelve Inch Ibook Vs Twelve Inch PowerBook Revisited
Cascading Style Sheet Editors: Style Master 3.5, CSSEdit 1.6 Take Drudgery Out Of CSS Coding
CSSEdit is inexpensive and great for hand-coders, while Style Master 3.5 makes creating and learning about style sheets fast and easy for both novice and advanced users.
Sidetrack
New York "Kerry-Gephardt" Post: Steve Jobs' Pixar Animation Studios is likely to renew a lucrative movie-making partnership with Disney, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The swing in the alley.
Wintel
Why Microsoft Won't Change
Swallowing companies works well.
Microsoft Shareholders Rake It In
Microsoft plans to pay out a substantial chunk of its cash hoard directly to shareholders through a combination of dividends and stock buybacks totalling up to $75 billion over four years, the software maker said Tuesday.
Will Consumers Tune In To Portable Video?
Manufacturers are set to release portable digital media players, but there's little expectation they will transform the market overnight in the way that MP3 players such as the iPod changed the music industry.