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Steven Sande, TUAW
Since we're all going to get a lot more familiar with this format in the near future, we felt it would be a good time to provide our readers with more information about EPUB.
Victor Gooinez, Dallas Morning News
Dallas software developers play a big role in making sure there's an app for that.
John C Abell, Wired
After a big public announcement of the sort Apple had this week for the iPad CEO Steve Jobs often takes time in the day or two afterwards to have a Town Hall at One Infinite Loop, making himself available for questions from employees bold enough to stand up and take one right between the eyes.
Jobs, characteristically, did not mince words as he spoke to the assembled, according to a person who was there who could not be named because this person is not authorized by Apple to speak with the press.
Lockergnome
AFP
Hackers and scammers are cashing in on iPad fever by luring the curious to booby-trapped websites with false promises of information about Apple's new tablet computer.
John Gruber, Daring Fireball
Flash is no longer ubiquitous. There’s a big difference between “everywhere” and “almost everywhere”. Adobe’s own statistics on Flash’s market penetration claim 99 percent penetration as of last month. That’s because, according to their survey methodology, they’re only counting “PCs” — which ignores the entire sort of devices which have brought about this debate. Adobe is arguing that Flash is installed on 99 percent of all web browsers that support Flash, not 99 percent of all web browsers.
Matt Rosoff, CNET News
It's a golden opportunity for Apple to fix some of the glaring shortcomings in its portable music experience. Here are five things I'd like to see the iPad incorporate, perhaps through the next update to the iPhone OS (which it uses).
I'll add one feature request: all audio (not just the iPod app) should work with AirTunes.
Edo Segal, TechCrunch
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic
If the Apple iPad is going to change the way we think about computers, offer more flexibility in every part of the online world and save my professional life, then I have a simple question:
How come I don't want one? Or, more accurately, why don't I feel like I need one?
JR Raphael, PC World
It looks like Apple's iPad really is magical after all. Marketing materials for the iPad mysteriously morphed overnight following complaints that they misleadingly depicted the device showing Flash-based content. As of Saturday morning, presto-change-o: The Flash is gone.
San Jose Business Journal
A Chinese company that started selling a tablet device six months ago is threatening to sue Apple Inc. over the design of the iPad.
Steve Lohr, New York Times
In the universe of Steve Jobs, personal vision trumps the wisdom of the crowd. He’s ready when he thinks we’re ready.
Alexander Vaughn, App Advice
Warren Buckleitner, New York Times
Why Apple may have created the ultimate plaything for kids.
Paul Taylor, Financial Times
What differentiates Apple from its would-be competitors is that it is clearly targeting what it believes is a distinct gap in the market with the iPad which, to all intents and purposes, is a supersized iPod Touch/iPhone rather than a keyboardless PC or a relatively "dumb" e-book reader like the Kindle or Sony e-Reader.
Simon St. Laurent, O'Reilly Media
Arise, web developers! Our time has come to dominate!
Fraser Speirs
If the iPad and its successor devices free these people to focus on what they do best, it will dramatically change people's perceptions of computing from something to fear to something to engage enthusiastically with. I find it hard to believe that the loss of background processing isn't a price worth paying to have a computer that isn't frightening anymore.
Alan Boyle, MSNBC
If you want to see cosmic pictures on a compact screen, here are a few places to start.
Jason McC. Smith, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
If you don't get the iPad, if you don't see the point, if you can't see how it's a useful device, that's OK. You're not the target market. You're a pickup-driving contractor with plywood to haul, who doesn't get the Smart car. It doesn't fit your needs – at all.
Or mine, really. I don't think I'll buy an iPad for myself, except maybe as a curiosity to play with. But you can bet I'm recommending one to my dad. And my grandmother. And probably my great-aunt. What, you don't want to cut down on tech-support calls?
Steven Russolillo, Wall Street Journal
I’m mentally drained keeping up with the ridiculous amount of Apple coverage that has been floating through the blogosphere this week.
Tom Foremski, ZDNet
We don’t yet know what else is in the A4 chip. My guess is that there is a bunch of hardcore digital rights management (DRM) hardware on the chip. It’s essentially a large security dongle that happens to have its own processing and video/graphics capabilities.
Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service
Apple's iPad, announced Wednesday, has already led to one complaint to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in which a consumer charged Apple with false advertising by showing Adobe Flash working on the device.
AppleInsider
Apple is dramatically rethinking how applications organize their documents on iPad, leaving behind the jumbled file system and making file access between the iPad and desktop computers seamless.
Jeff Carlson and Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS
The iPad is something to be held and experienced, because so many of its advantages are tactile: how it feels in the hand, of course, but also how the software responds.
Mark Hachman, PC Magazine
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs was caught on camera, claiming that bestsellers from the forthcoming iBooks store will e comparably priced with Amazon.com.
Macworld
We’d like to help you separate the signal from the noise. We’ve taken some of your iPad questions, added a few of our own, and then set out to provide some answers based on Apple’s presentation Wednesday and our own hands-on time with the device.
Sayam Aggarwal, Cult of Mac
Jeff Porten, Macworld
Google released a utility which uploads e-mail archives into Google Apps e-mail accounts. It's point-and-click easy, if you've got a few days to kill.
Jeff Carlson, TidBITS
While you've read all about the iPad in TidBITS and other publications, here I'd like to give you a feel of what it's like to be there in person. I hope my photos capture the spirit of an incredibly long and exciting day: the crowds, the characters, and the feel of being among the first to see and handle a new Apple product.
Kirk McElhearn, Macworld
Many of these preference panes contain settings that can help you save time and make your computing experience better or more efficient. Here are five of my favorite.
Tom Negrino, Backup Brain
If you were to try to do video chats on an iPad, held in your hand, the video would shake and move all the time. And that's a bad user experience.
Craig Hockenberry, furbo.org
Steven Frank
Will the whole industry move to New World computing? Not unless Apple is demonstrably successful with this approach. So I’d say you’re unlikely to see it universally applied to all computing devices within the next couple of decades.
But Wednesday’s keynote tells me this is where Apple is going. Plan accordingly.
Chris Foresman, Ars Technica
iPhone OS may be ready for a camera-equipped iPad in the future, if Apple ever decides to include one. But we don't feel the lack of camera will have any significant negative impact on the current-generation iPad's sales.
Nick Bilton, New York Times
There are a few similarities between Wednesday’s Apple announcement and the blockbuster movie “Avatar.” They both cost many millions of dollars and took many years to produce. They both required vast amounts of technology to build, and of course they will both make hundreds of millions of dollars for their respective companies. But they will also share another category: too much hype before their launch, and a result that comes across as intriguing and entertaining, yet sadly anticlimactic.
Jimmy Yap, iMerlion
For some mysterious reason, Maps is missing from the iPad features page on Apple Singapore's website.
Peter Kirn, Macworld
Reason 4 has a lot of competition for your music-making hours, but especially if the idea of patching elaborate custom sound configurations appeals, it shouldn't be overlooked. Yes, there are other semi-modular synthesizers that can do subtractive, wavetable, and FM synthesis like Thor – but few are as gentle on your CPU or as easy to patch. Reason's sequencer improvements and arpeggiator aren't news to anyone using modern sequencers and digital audio workstations, but then, no other software combines these features with free-form modular patching in quite the same way.
Adam Richardson, CNET News
The launch of the iPad yesterday put an exclamation mark on an increasingly obvious point: Apple is the company that has captured the cultural zeitgeist. The massive hype leading up to the event--apparently achieved in a groundswell with very little effort on Apple's part--shows that it really is the "It" company right now.
John Fontana, Network World
Microsoft shouldn't be shaking in its boots after this week's unveiling of the Apple iPad, but the tablet computer could give the software giant fits in the future with its potential to define important device form factors as well as shape user attitudes toward alternative operating systems and cloud-based application adoption.
John Boudreau and Scott Duke Harris, San Jose Mercury News
Apple pioneered new business models with its online iTunes music outlet and App Store for the iPhone. But as it prepares to launch the iBooks electronic bookstore for its soon-to-be-released iPad, the company is playing catch-up.
Chris Dixon, Business Insider
Don Clark, Wall Street Journal
Stephen Fry
Well bless my soul and whiskers. This is the first time I’ve joined the congregation at the Church of Apple for a new product launch. I’ve watched all the past ones, downloaded the Quicktime movies and marvelled as Apple’s leader has stood before an ovating faithful and announced the switch to Intel, the birth of iPod, the miniMac, the iTunes Store, OS X, iPhoto, the swan’s neck iMac, the Shuffle, Apple retail stores, the iPhone, the titanium powerbook, Garageband, the App Store and so much more. But today I finally made it. I came to San Francisco for the launch of the iPad. Oh, happy man.
Jenna Wortham, New York Times
During a call to investors and analysts on Thursday, John Stankey, president of AT&T’s operations division, said the company was gearing up for the introduction of new smartphones and the iPad on its network.
Suzanne Vranica and Amir Efrati, Wall Street Journal
John Paczkowski, All Things Digital
Though it may have seemed like another of Apple's perfectly timed third-party leaks (and I certainly mistook it for that), McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw's remarks to CNBC earlier this week were nothing of the sort. The publisher tells me that it was not privy to iPad prelaunch details and that to conclude otherwise is a misinterpretation of McGraw's comments.
Neil Bennett and Matt Egan, Digital-Arts-Magazine
So the long-anticipated Apple iPad is finally here. It's a device that's supposed to take on netbooks at their own game and win. What are the benefits for artists and designers?
Rob Griffiths, Macworld
If you have more than one bootable drive (or partition) on your Mac, you know you can get to the boot menu by holding down the Option key at boot time. Learn another less-expected way to get to that same menu in this hint.
Christopher Breen, Macworld
You're a teacher who wants to show educational TV shows purchased from iTunes in the classroom. How?
Adam C. Engst, TidBITS
With the iPad as a model, is it that hard to imagine an "iDesk" that's the size and orientation of a drafting table, complete with advances to the iPhone OS that make it possible to work in multiple apps simultaneously?
Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service
Adobe Systems reached out to Flash developers in the wake of Apple’s iPad announcement, saying it plans to add support for the iPad’s higher screen resolution to its upcoming Packager for iPhone development tool.
Paul Krill, InfoWorld
Software developers already building applications for Apple's wildly popular iPhone are gearing up for the new Apple tablet device announced Wednesday, anticipating new opportunities for their software as well as tweaks they will have to make to their code.
John Gruber, Daring Fireball
Erica Ogg, CNET News
The new tablet epitomizes Apple's direction as a mobile device maker and gatekeeper of media.
Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times
Fujitsu, which applied for an iPad trademark in 2003, is claiming first dibs, setting up a fight with Apple over the name of the new tablet device that Apple plans to sell starting in March.
Jenna Wortham, New York Times
People who are lining up to place orders for an iPad will have a very important decision to make: whether or not to splurge for the spendier iPads, which will come outfitted for 3G connectivity over AT&T’s wireless network.
Nate Ralph, PCWorld
Here's an early look at the accessories that Apple plans to make available for its iPad tablet.
Matt Hamblen, Computerworld
Thomas Ricker, Engadget
Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek
Pairing with Apple had mixed results for the music industry, but the iPad may well give struggling publishers an opportunity to rebuild their businesses.
Walter S. Mossberg, Wall Street Journal
It’s about the software, stupid. While all sorts of commentators were focusing on how much Apple’s new $499 iPad tablet computer looks like an oversized iPhone, the key to whether it can be the first multi-function tablet to win wide public acceptance probably lies in whether consumers perceive it as a suitable replacement for a laptop in key scenarios. And that, in my view, depends heavily on the software and services that flow through its handsome little body.
Robert Scoble, Scobleizer
Connie Guglielmo, Bloomberg
Apple Inc.’s iPad tablet may take a year to turn into a “breakout” product with mass-market appeal as consumers wait for the price to drop below $499 and for more publishers to get on board, Piper Jaffray & Co. said.
Hollywood Reporter
David Morgenstern, ZDNet
Must we use just have one computer? Aren’t we now ready for a variety of computing devices, big and small, mobile and fixed, that can offer different values and performance?
Jason Snell, Macworld
The iPad’s 1024-by-768-pixel display, while in the unfashionable 4:3 aspect ratio, is just about the right shape for a comic-book page. And the iPad packs enough pixels that comic pages should be readable at full-size on the iPad.
Ars Technica
Executive leadership at Apple has arranged for a company-wide meeting—town hall style—in which the topic of discussion is expected to address the recent release of the iPad tablet, Ars has learned from multiple sources.
Claire Cain Miller, New York Times
When Apple announced the name of its tablet computer today — the iPad — my mind immediately went to the feminine hygiene aisle of the drugstore. It turns out I wasn’t alone.
Bob Tedeschi, New York Times
Quick, name the fastest-growing video game platform. Wii? PlayStation? DS?
Try the iPhone.
Hank Greene, Indiana Daily Student
There’s no denying that Apple has revolutionized the technological world and that its products make us want to jump for iJoy. But until we stop holding Apple up on a pedestal and start treating it like any other company, I fear it will continue to have an iGrip on our lives.
Rafe Colburn, rc3.org
What bothers me is that in terms of openness, the iPad is the same as the iPhone, but in terms of form factor, the iPad is essentially a general purpose computer. So it strikes me as a sort of Trojan horse that acculturates users to closed platforms as a viable alternative to open platforms, and not just when it comes to phones (which are closed pretty much across the board). The question we must ask ourselves as computer users is whether the tradeoff in freedom we make to enjoy Apple’s superior user experience is worth it.
Geoffrey A. Fowler, Wall Street Journal
With its introduction of the iPad, Apple Inc. has created a big brother to the iPhone. But it may also have redefined the laptop.
Motoko Rich, New York Times
Newspapers had a mixed reaction to the tablet, but most of the largest book publishers have signed on to provide e-book content.
Alexander Vaughn, App Advice
Roman Loyola, Macworld
Apple has posted the iPad event in its entirety. It's available as a video stream in three resolutions.
John Gruber, Daring Fireball
And so my takeaway from this — with the bragging about making their own CPUs and their annual revenue and their size compared to companies like Sony, Samsung, and Nokia — is that this is Apple’s way of asserting that they’re taking over the penthouse suite as the strongest and best company in the whole ones-and-zeroes racket.
Rob Griffiths, Macworld
Unfortunately, there are a handful of shortcomings with the iPad that I have to think about before I buy the tablet.
Brooke Crothers, CNET News
Along with the iPad, the Apple chip has arrived.
Dan Frakes, Macworld
Though this super-sized iPod touch is largely what we expected, Apple’s announcement included a number of nice surprises, as well as a couple bombshells.
David Pogue, New York Times
My main message to you, fanboys, is this: it’s too early to draw any conclusions. Apple hasn’t given the thing to any reviewers yet, there are no iPad-only apps yet (there will be), the e-bookstore hasn’t gone online yet, and so on. So hyperventilating is not yet the appropriate reaction.
At the same time, the bashers should be careful, too. As we enter Phase 2, remember how silly you all looked when you all predicted the iPhone’s demise in that period before it went on sale.
Philip Michaels, Macworld
As part of its new iPad tablet unveiled Wednesday, Apple has come out with an e-book reading app. Dubbed iBooks, the app lets you read e-books on the iPad’s 9.7-inch LCD screen.
Roman Loyola, Macworld
The new SDK (beta version 3.2) will allow you to take advantage of the iPad's 9.7-inch display. The SDK includes a Programming Guide that explains the features available on the iPad; iPad sample code; iPad Human Interface Guidelines that explain the controls available to developers; and an iPad Simulator that allows you to build, run, and debug iPad apps as you develop your software.
Sharon Zardetto, Macworld
Here's how to work more efficiently when opening or saving files and documents.
Dan Miller, Macworld
Demonstrating the iPad at an event in San Francisco, Jobs showed how it could be used for e-mail and Web browsing, viewing photos, managing calendars and contacts, listening to music, viewing video, and more. Senior Vice President Phil Schiller showed off a new version of iWork, specifically designed for the new device.
Nathan Alderman, Macworld
Thomas Jefferson, a compulsive note-taker, would have loved Eastgate Software’s Tinderbox, an innovative and endlessly versatile tool for recording, cataloging, and sharing notes.
Michael Pascoe, Sydney Morning Herald
Apple announces a record quarterly profit - but how much of that comes from ripping off Australian iTunes customers?
Pete Mortensen, Cult of Mac
Steve Jobs is king of the world right now because he hit on the idea for the Digital Hub.
Kevin McQuaid, Herald Tribune
When -- or if -- Apple Inc. unveils its long-awaited tablet computer this week, few will be watching as closely as Neil Hughes. But Hughes will not see the reported iSlate at its anticipated San Francisco debut. Nor will he attend the official confab of financial analysts, tech gawkers and traditional journalists.
Erica Ogg, CNET News
During a live taping on CNBC on Tuesday, McGraw-Hill Chairman and CEO Terry McGraw said the tablet will be introduced tomorrow, will have college textbooks on it, and will be based on the iPhone OS.
Rob Griffiths, Macworld
So here’s the trick…the Option key. Hold it down, then select File, and notice that Show Duplicates has changed to Show Exact Duplicates.
David Pogue, New York Times
Have an iPhone? Tired of waiting for a Google Voice app? There's a workaround from the folks in Mountainview.
Rob Griffiths, Macworld
Parallels 5 is, by both subjective and objective measures, the fastest virtualization application I’ve used. While Fusion isn’t slow by any means, Parallels both feels faster, and its test results show it is faster. This speed advantage isn’t in any one particular area, either—Fusion and VirtualBox only had a handful of wins in my testing, with the vast majority of the wins going to Parallels.
Rob Griffiths, Macworld
Fusion 3 improves on Fusion 2 in numerous ways, including faster performance, lower memory usage, and features that improve productivity and usability in both Windows and Linux guests. Overall performance lags behind that of Parallels, especially if you need OpenGL acceleration in Windows 7. Its handling of Windows HD media, on the other hand, is excellent—it matches Pararllels’ in playback quality, and does so with lower CPU utilization.
Rob Griffiths, Macworld
Overall, VirtualBox 3 works well for typical office tasks in Windows and Linux. Support for mulitple CPUs and OpenGL 2.0 in both Windows and Linux are both welcome additions, as are the revamped settings screen and toolbar in full-screen mode. VirtualBox is also the least expensive virtualization app for the Mac.
John Brownlee, Cult of Mac
Kirk Ladendorf, Austin American-Statesman
Dell Inc. is by far the biggest tech company in the area, with about 16,000 workers in Central Texas. IBM still counts more than 6,000 workers in the area. But Apple Inc., which launched a satellite customer and business service operation in Austin 18 years ago, is the one that's growing.
Bob LeVitus, Houston Chronicle
Philip Michaels, Macworld
Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update 1.1 improves battery performance of Apple's aluminum wireless keyboard when it's used with another Bluetooth device and tackles an issue where a key might repeat unexpectedly.
Farhad Manjoo, Slate Magazine
Why are computers so hard to use?
AppleInsider
Despite a howl of complaints and even lawsuits filed by some disgruntled iPhone users, Apple reiterated that it supports AT&T as a great mobile partner, despite rumored moves to expand its iPhone partnerships in the U.S.
Philip Michaels, Macworld
For the three-month period ending December 29, 2009, Apple tallied sales of $15.68 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion. That compares to year-ago figures of $11.88 billion in sales and $2.26 billion in net quarterly profit.
For the 2010 fiscal first quarter, Apple sold 3.36 million Macs, up 33 percent from the 2.5 million units the company sold in last year’s first quarter.
Ramu Nagappan, Macworld
Recosoft has announced the release of the latest edition of PDF2Office Professional. Version 5.0, which offers Snow Leopard support, converts PDFs to Microsoft Excel spreadsheets along with other Office formats.
Dan Frakes, Macworld
Some Gems become such an integral part of your Mac’s day-to-day operation that you take them for granted.
John Gruber, Daring Fireball
I would argue that it’s both — that Apple’s distaste for Flash Player is both a matter of engineering taste (that third-party software should only have access to high-level APIs) and politics. But objectively, regardless of what you personally wish Apple would do with regard to Flash, if Adobe needs Apple to grant them further access to the hardware to make the Mac version of Flash Player better, what are the odds that they’d get that sort of low-level hardware access on the iPhone OS? (Hint: zero.)
John Brownlee, Cult of Mac
Kirk McElhearn, Macworld
The On-The-Go playlist feature of iPods and iPhones lets you build a playlist wherever you are. Here's how.
Gene Quinn, IP Watchdog
Brooke Crothers, CNET News
A theory goes that a new MacBook Air has been delayed due to an Intel chip shipment snafu. So, what's going on?
Gregory T. Huang, Xconomy
Nick Bilton, New York Times
Where do Microsoft, Google, Apple and Yahoo compete? Take a look at our handy chart.
Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo
Florence Ion, Mac Life
Machinarium has everything that made point-and-click adventure games a success in the first place: a charming storyline, melodic music, and skillfully designed aesthetics. The mind-bending puzzles will keep you coming back...unless they break you.
Lex Friedman, Macworld
Matt Deatherage, MacJournals.com
Analysts: you may only get one shot at asking questions, so I'm here to help you with the do’s and don’ts of the conference call. I don’t have all the answers, but I haven’t missed one of these calls in nearly 14 years, so I have some experience. Our interests are temporarily aligned here—we all want more information from Apple, without spooking the executives so they run away from your questions. Here’s the basic map for the January 2010 conference call.
Nathan Alderman, Macworld
The Soulmen’s Ulysses 2.0.4 writing app is dense, complex, and well-designed.
Charles Stross, Charlie's Diary
One day, I hope, the entire PC industry will cotton on to the value of good industrial design and start taking it as seriously as Apple; or that those companies who don't will go bust.
Alexander Vaughn, App Advice
Aayush Arya, Macworld
Learn how to use LaunchBar to quickly search your favorite sites, and how to use Google's I'm Feeling Lucky feature to immediately jump to the results you (most likely) want to see.
Dan Moren, Macworld
Among the new end-user features in Firefox 3.6 are a theme capability called Personas that allows users to change the look of the browser without having to restart, a Plugin Updater that now detects out-of-date plugins, and form completion that suggests answers for common questions.
Lex Friedman, Macworld
Developer Brent Simmons and Mac pundit John Gruber have kicked off a project to make new email software for the Mac.
John Brownlee, Cult of Mac
Ben Long, Macworld
Learn how to use iPhoto's Adjust palette to tackle bad color, which is one of the most challenging image problems to solve.
Sam Diaz, ZDNet
During a Q&A conference call with analysts to discuss the Google’s fourth quarter earnings, someone asked about the company’s relationships with Apple. In a heartfelt answer, Schmidt made his “special place” comment and further praised Apple for being a very well run company that has “a lot of good stuff coming.”
Lex Friedman, Macworld
The 3D OS X desktop software, newly available for Mac, sports some cool and shiny features.
Brad Stone and Motoko Rich, New York Times
It’s a formidable high-tech face-off: Amazon.com versus Apple for the hearts and minds of book publishers, authors and readers.
MacNN
Apple is actively working to take the American "iPad" trademark away from Fujitsu, unearthed documents show. It was recently discovered that Apple is filing for the iPad name in Canada, Europe and Hong Kong, but that because of Fujitsu, the company cannot do so in the US. The Fujitsu iPAD is already a tangible product, a handheld device used by retail workers.
Mashable.com
Say hello to the new dynamic. It’s Apple + Microsoft vs. Google. May the new battle begin.
Yukari Iwatani Kane and Ethan Smith, Wall Street Journal
With the new tablet device that is debuting next week, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs is betting he can reshape businesses like textbooks, newspapers and television much the way his iPod revamped the music industry—and expand Apple's influence and revenue as a content middleman.
Nick Bilton, New York Times
Consumers are witnessing the beginning of a new war between computer companies. Instead of the Apple-Microsoft conflict of the early 1980s, this fight is taking place between Apple and Google.
Om Malik, GigaOM
Rafe Needleman, CNET News
You can fling folders, files, and notes around the desktop, smash them into each other, give them weight, and pin them on the 3D "walls" at the edges of your desktop.
Mike Elgan, Computerworld
Visionary companies like Apple have better ideas for how we do just about everything relating to computers and media. They know they can invent and build the products. The big problem is convincing us to use them.
I’ve written in this space before about how Google is systematically nudging us to accept less privacy. Now I’m going to tell you how Apple is transforming you and me and softening our resistance to the gadget future they envision for us all.
Michael Robertson, TechCrunch
Some are curious why Apple with thousands of engineers would need Lala talent and technology. For sure Apple could copy Lala technology, but time is of the essence and Lala lets Apple move faster in transitioning from their PC software business to a cloud service.
Damon Darlin, New York Times
Take one splatter-painted invitation. Add a news blackout. Enter reality-distortion field. The result? More hype about a mystery product. Genius.
Leander Kahney, Cult of Mac
The organizers of the Indie+Relief one-day charity sale have been overwhelmed by the response from Mac software developers.
AppleInsider
Apple on Tuesday updated its Boot Camp software and issued new drivers and utilities to allow users to run Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 7. The Mac maker also issued its first security update of 2010, addressing 12 vulnerabilities.
Lex Friedman, Macworld
A new command-line search tool, FTP improvements, and more fixes are the stars of this upgrade to Bare Bones Software's free text editor.
Rob Griffiths, Macworld
One of the nice changes in OS X 10.6 is greatly enhanced keyboard navigation of column view windows in the Finder.
Mark Webster, New Zealand Herald
Apple's Intel processor and the Boot Camp phenomenon of allowing Windows apps to run on Macs was probably the most serious threat to Mac gaming aspirations and yeah, that came straight from Apple.
That's one way of looking at it. The other way to look at it is that virtualisation means Mac users have access to all those PC game titles. But once again, talk about conceding the space to Microsoft's OS.
Philip Michaels, Macworld
The days of Apple tablet rumor-mongering may soon be coming to an end—Apple confirmed that it will hold an invitation-only event in San Francisco on Wednesday, January 27 to introduce its “latest creation.”
Rick Spence, Financial Post
If there is a rock star of entrepreneurs, it's Steve Jobs. Not just because the Apple Inc. co-founder and chief executive gave the music industry back its mojo (through iTunes), or even because he used to date Joan Baez.
Whether it is the disruptive hardware he's produced (Apple II, iMac, iPod and iPhone), or the way he owns the podium in his turtleneck, jeans and New Balance sneakers, Jobs is the coolest chief executive of all.
Tarmo Virki, Reuters
Finding a winner in the legal battle between Nokia and Apple will likely take years as the two cellphone giants use the courts to pressure each other into a licensing agreement.
Brooke Crothers, CNET News
Apple aluminum MacBooks are definitely cool--until you want built-in 3G connectivity.
Susan Decker, Bloomberg
Apple Inc. filed a new patent- infringement complaint against Nokia Oyj, seeking to block U.S. imports of mobile phones and increasing the legal battle between the two over smartphone technology.
Omar El Akkad, CTV
It's the most highly anticipated product in years, and there's no proof it actually exists.
Preston Gralla, Computerworld
Apple has worked for years to build a company image as freedom-loving and iconoclastic. But the truth is far darker: Apple is cooperating with the Chinese government to ban iPhone applications in China related to the Dalai Lama and Uighur activist Rebiya Kandeer, even though it once highlighted the Dalai Lama in its "Think Different" campaign. One word describes Apple's behavior: hypocritical.
MacNN
Philip Michaels, Macworld
Starting Monday, iPhone users can get an unlimited voice and data plan from AT&T for $100 a month -- less than they currently pay.
CNET News
Building an iPhone app is going to be much easier very soon. A Mac application called AppOmater will allow you to build custom iPhone apps with no coding experience.
Ted Landau, Macworld
Ben Sheffner, Slate Magazine
Apple is threatening to sue over Valleywag's tablet stunt. It's got a pretty good case.
Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet
Apple is notoriously stingy with its bankroll only acquiring 10 companies in the past 13 years. It's high time that Apple open up the vault and make some acquisitions.
Adam C. Engst, TidBITS
Although the cause of Warren's problem may seem obvious to anyone who has taken a photo with an iPhone, the iPod touch's lack of a camera muddied the issue for him.
Peter Kirn, Macworld
If you're looking for software that’s focused on recording and processing audio, Record should be on the top of your list to consider.
John Gruber, Daring Fireball
I think it’s OK for a 1.0 product to be ahead of its time, to be too ambitious. The trick is not to be too far ahead, and more importantly, for the follow-up products to improve practically. The Newton kept improving year after year, but not in the right direction. It kept growing in ambition.
Ixplora
Erica Ogg, CNET News
By sending a cease-and-desist letter to Gawker regarding its Tablet Scavenger Hunt, an Apple lawyer gives credence to the mass of rumors of the device's existence.
Actually, no. Still no real evidence that Apple is planning to sell one any time soon. Just that there exist, someone in Apple campus, one tablet prototype available for people to steal. :-)
Rob Griffiths, Macworld
Learn one possible method to restore messages that have gone missing -- not ones that you've deleted, but messages that really should be there, but simply aren't.
AppleInsider
Apple released its fifth first-party App Store application Thursday with the free MobileMe Gallery, allowing users to view photos and videos from the cloud-based service on their iPhone or iPod touch.
Rich Mogull, Macworld
While there are indeed some real Mac security threats, there are also some well-publicized threats that Mac users can ignore. Here's what they are and why you don't need to worry about them.
Ed Sutherland, Cult of Mac
Eastman Kodak sued Apple Thursday, claiming the Cupertino, Calif. company infringed patents used to preview images on the iPhone. The lawsuit, before the U.S. International Trade Commission, seeks a stop to the alleged infringement and unspecified damages.
David Chartier, Macworld
I went on the hunt to find iPhone apps that sync directly with iCal.
Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek
The company has hired a banker from Goldman Sachs and looks to be in a more acquisitive mode.
AppleInsider
After a worldwide promotional e-mail seemingly revealed a forthcoming Intel Core i5-equipped MacBook Pro, the chip maker has modified the contest and apologized.
Rosa Golijan, Gizmodo
We've teased that Apple Geniuses might not be the brightest in the bunch, but now Apple itself might make them feel stupid. The company is supposedly adding "experts" who'll roam retail stores and answer support questions without need for appointments.
Peter Kafka, All Things Digital
Brent Simmons, Inessential.com
Electronista
A new Customer Experience Index published this week by Forrester has given Apple the lead in computers but still well behind others in service.
Dan Moren, Macworld
The popular GoToMyPC remote access program now allows you to access your home Mac from any computer with a compatible Web browser.
Christopher Breen, Macworld
Even if you know the keyboard shortcuts for the Home and End keys on a MacBook, they won't help you in all applications.
Giles Turnbull, Cult of Mac
What you just saw was Gordon in action. It’s an open source Flash runtime written in JavaScript, written by Tobias Schneider. Flash doesn’t work on iPhones, but JavaScript? That’s no problem at all.
Philip Michaels, Macworld
Bento 3 Contact and Customer Manager offers a customized set of three new templates aimed at helping users organize contacts and customer details in a single location.
Chris Foresman, Ars Technica
It looks as though Intel has outed a forthcoming MacBook Pro update featuring Core i5 processors. We consider what to expect if Apple announces something later this month.
Ryan Faas, Computerworld
Is the iPhone at last ready for business or enterprise adoption? Even if admins say no, you face another question: Can you effectively ban the use of the iPhone in your environment?
MacNN
Apple's board is urging its shareholders to reject several proposals focused on environmental efforts. The company's annual proxy statement includes the board's recommendations for votes on seven proposals. Proposal No. 6, which will be submitted by John Powers from the activist group As You Sow, seeks to establish a sustainability report detailing information such as greenhouse gas emissions and toxic materials, while addressing employee and product safety.
Kathy Shwiff, Dow Jones
Apple Inc. (AAPL) chief executive Steve Jobs continued to receive $1 a year in compensation in 2009, the same salary he has taken for the past three years.
But chief operating officer Timothy Cook, who filled in for Jobs when the company co-founder took medical leave in the first half of last year, received $ 1.6 million in total direct compensation, 13% more than a year earlier.
GigaOM
Justin Yu, CNET UK
Arnold Kim, MacRumors.com
The content of Fingerworks.com has been removed this week after remaining online for nearly 5 years after the acquisition of the company by Apple. The removal seems to correspond with the impending announcement of an Apple tablet later this month. One possible explanation is that Apple will finally be implementing many of the same advanced multi-touch keyboard gestures that were originally pioneered by Fingerworks.
Dan Moren, Macworld
Apple rolled out Apple Remote Desktop 3.3.2 on Monday, improving the overall stability and performance of the remote-management tools as well as fixing a number of specific issues.
Lance Whitney, CNET News
Over the weekend, the company updated its Dragon voice dictation app for the Apple iPhone and unveiled a new Dragon Search app to let you find info via voice.
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
Microsoft will patch Word on the Mac to comply with a federal court's ruling requiring it to remove custom XML technology from its popular word-processing software.
Katherine Murray, Macworld
Your photos are the centerpiece of your digital scrapbooking pages, giving your friends and family a sense of what you felt that day. The vibrant colors, the light on the faces, or the majesty of the landscape all tell aspects of the story you capture on the page.
Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo
Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet
Got kids? Love Disney? If you answered yes, then I’ve got a couple of iPhone apps that you may want to bring along on your next trip amusement park hopping.
Laura Oleniacz, Sun Journal
Pamlico County Schools Superintendent James P. Coon said that the [iPod Touch] devices have been proposed to be used at the primary school for helping students learn math and reading. He said they could be used in the students’ reading stations in which they work on reading comprehension, vocabulary, phonics, phonemic awareness, and reading fluency.
Dennis Sellers, Macsimum News
Apple has updated the Mac OS X version Bonjour, also known as zero-configuration networking, to version Update 2010-001. It addresses problems with “Apple TV and iTunes connectivity,”
Kyle VanHemert, CNET News
Moto Development Labs devised a simple method of analyzing capacitive touch screens using drawing programs. They put the iPhone, the Nexus One, the Droid, and the Droid Eris through the paces and proved not all touch screens are created equal.
Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times
Before lunchtime I closed my eyes, commended my soul to God, and bought roundtrip airfare to San Francisco for the last week of January.
Adam C. Engst, TidBITS
It's always sad when something comes to an end, but thanks to its creator, Brian Thomas, the groundbreaking multimedia project "If Monks Had Macs" that started 21 years ago will live on as a free download.
Will Oremus, Daily News
Apple is quietly preparing to move its downtown Palo Alto store to a new, larger space just a block away on University Avenue, The Daily News has learned.
There it will build an Apple Store that project developers referred to in planning documents as "a new prototype for the company." The facade will be entirely transparent at ground level, vast skylights will flood the store with natural light, and trees will grow inside, fed by the sunlight from above, according to a proposal submitted to the city's architectural review board.
Dan Moren, Macworld
Greenpeace's quarterly ranking of the top electronics companies shows Apple gaining ground and snagging some new accolades.
Christopher Breen, Dan Frakes, Macworld
Dan Gillmor, Mediactive
This is not just about your right to read and use media as you wish. It is also about the way you will be able to make available what you create in the future. If you believe in freedom of speech, you should be deeply alarmed by the trends we’re seeing.
Suzanne Choney, MSNBC
While Apple isn't participating — and never has — in the annual Consumer Electronics Show, the company's presence has long loomed over it. That's no different this year, with non-stop buzz about an Apple tablet possibly being announced later this month. What is different is that Apple-related products are being given their own showcase at CES, a first for the world's largest trade show for consumer technology.
David Dahlquist, Macworld
DataViz's Documents To Go with Exchange Attachments has received updated functionality and a new name: Documents To Go Premium.
AppleInsider
A month after Apple's purchase of music streaming service Lala, iTunes Preview has been expanded to allow 30-second song samples within a browser.
David Dahlquist, Macworld
Second Gear has released version 2.0 of Today, its app that syncs with iCal and displays your daily schedule.
Jackie Dove, Macworld
Corel has launched an update to its Painter 11 software package that is available immediately as a free download for current Painter 11 users. The update delivers on numerous requests from the Painter community, including improvements to transformations, color management, copy and paste, performance, tablet functionality, auto-painting, and more.
Dan Frakes, Macworld
The moral of this story? First, when troubleshooting a problem with your Mac, don’t forget a basic step. Second, if you’re going to enable a firmware password, be sure there’s a valid startup volume selected in the Startup Disk pane. And third, if you do enable a firmware password, don't forget doing so (or forget the password, for that matter).
David Morgenstern, ZDNet
Is your Mac waking up from Sleep unexpectedly? For some this may be an increasing problem when running under Snow Leopard. A Mac developer points to the answer: a change of behavior in the Energy Saver preferences pane.
Don Reisinger, eWeek
Apple's App Store is now solidly established as one of the most important services this hardware company offers. In 2009 the App Store turned Apple into a major cloud distributor of third-party mobile applications at relatively little cost to itself. And as 2010 progresses, it will likely be the cornerstone for Apple's dominance. In fact much of Apple's success in 2010 will be directly attributable to the explosive growth of the App Store.
Dan Frommer, The Business Insider
So why is Apple getting into advertising? This is Apple we're talking about.
Whisky Van Gogh Go
Is an iPhone-optimized site even necessary?
Michelle Maisto, eWeek
Nokia, after filing a complaint against Apple with the International Trade Commission on Dec. 29, filed a lawsuit with the Delaware district court. The lawsuit echoes the complaint in that it alleges that Apple, with products such as the iPhone 3G and MacBook Air, is infringing on seven Nokia patents.
Dan Moren, Macworld
Matt Asay, CNET News
Open-source development could provide needed competition to the mostly proprietary applications that dominate the App Store. It also could supply fresh innovation.
Clint Boulton, eWeek
Apple has acquired mobile ad network Quattro Wireless in a deal worth a reported $275 million, or roughly one third of what Google bid to buy mobile ad provider AdMob.
David Chartier, Macworld
Got some apps that need to be "taken care of?" AppZapper 2.0's new Hit List lets you browse all the apps on your Mac, see how much space they're taking up, and quickly send 'em off to go "swim with the fishes."
Rob Griffiths, Macworld
LaunchCodes forces Snow Leopard to respect creator codes on documents you create so they open in the application that created them.
AppleInsider
Apple on Tuesday revealed that more than 3 billion applications have been downloaded worldwide from its App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Nick Spence, Macworld UK
Apple's Magic Mouse is reportedly draining the batteries of Bluetooth keyboards, according to the company's own discussion forums.
Jacqui Cheng, Ars Techica
Apple is a company known for many things, but embracing copyright freedoms has not been one of them.
Owen Fletcher, IDG News Service
Hanwang Technology, the Chinese company that owns the trademark "i-phone" in China, reached an agreement with Apple over the similarly named iPhone.
Glenn Fleishman, Ars Technica
Is the Mac mini server and OS X Server the right match for your office? It certainly depends. In my weeks with the combo, I found much to praise, and many elements improved significantly over the 10.5 release. For a straightforward start-to-finish setup, this combination seems like a steal at the price, despite the problems I found—and especially if you take my advice for tweaking spam-filter settings.
As with many Apple products, I would prefer if the experience were less frustrating at points at which the company should have tested and anticipated problems. But overall, Apple has kept most of the rough edges and hidden much of the configuration madness from the potential smaller-office audience.
GigaOm
As the next decade of the 21st century rolls around, it is becoming obvious that the battle between Google and Apple is going to dominate the headlines for years to come.
Arik Hesseldahl, BusinessWeek
In a 10-year span when so much went wrong, the maker of the iPod and Mac got a lot right.
Topher Kessler, CNET News
Joe Kissell, Macworld
Use different browsers for different tasks? Here’s how to keep them in sync.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.