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Peter Scheer, Huffington Post
Competition between Google and Apple should assure that consumers will have choices. If Apple persists in rejecting apps merely because they make fun of public figures, for example, the rejected apps should be available on the Google platform (and vice versa). That is the best we can hope for. It is also a better outcome than anything that might be achieved through litigation.
David Morgenstern, ZDNet
What was this legal action that gave Apple so much leverage over Redmond? It was a strange one: the Apple Computer v. San Francisco Canyon Co. lawsuit.
Simon Dumenco, Advertising Age
Apple's increasingly infuriating restrictions on free speech are damaging its brand.
Paul Nesbitt, PC Authority
Wouldn't it be great if there was a PC which was secure, easy to use and yet free to do with you as you please? It's called the Mac.
Don Norman and Jakob Nielsen
Toby Young, The Guardian
Christopher Hitchens hasn't mislaid his passion for polemics in this unapologetic account of his life.
John C. Abell, Wired
Skype on Saturday released an upgrade to its iPhone app that allows calls to be made and received under AT&T’s 3G network, but there’s a catch — they won’t be free for very long, even for Skype-to-Skype calls or for people who have all-you-can-eat calling plans with the internet telephony company.
Roger Tan, The Star
Sadly, we are more influenced by rivalry and pride whenever we deal with one another, always forgetting that serious ramifications will follow as our peoples are closely related in family ties.
For now, though, Johoreans can only hail this latest breakthrough as it will bring long-term improvement to many ordinary lives on this side of the Causeway.
Matt Warman and Andrew Hough, Telegraph
Tax-free purchases at Heathrow airport could save Apple fans more than £20.
Claire Atkinson, New York Post
According to several sources, the Justice Dept. has contacted a handful of the country's biggest media and technology companies to get their views on Apple, which, after years of casting itself as the tiny outsider, has become an 800-pound gorilla calling the shots in several arenas.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune
Gavin Clarke, The Register
Apple has removed an application from the iPhone App Store after the Free Software Foundation complained that the store's terms of service undermined the application's open source license.
Pierre Igot, Betalogue
As far as one can tell, Microsoft’s MacBU is a completely ossified institution that just keeps churning out version after version of the same old crap.
Lukas Mathis, Ignore The Code
We shouldn’t discard an idea simply because paper did it. Some ideas that made sense for paper, but didn’t make sense for the web, actually do make sense again when designing for the iPad.
iA
Good pictures speak for themselves. But text is a different story. It needs a lot of rhetoric skill and typographic care to do what it should: to communicate. On the screen things become even more complicated. While WIRED journalists and graphic designers are still at the top of their game, the typography and the interaction design of the iPad app doesn’t come even close.
Mark WebsterView, New Zealand Herald
Why has Apple been so successful? Many say it's because Apple is 'just' a marketing company. I absolutely refute this. Apple has brought innumerable innovations to market over the last three decades, and even creates the manufacturing processes to make its products as good as Apples insists they have to be. Besides, Apple hardly does any real marketing (think Carlsberg, Nike, even Toyota for marketing campaigns that readily spring to mind).
Eric A. Taub, New York Times
A new home monitoring service designed for the elderly can also keep track of them when away from the home.
Sarah Jacobsson, PC World
Basically, plugging an up-to-date, non jail-broken, PIN-protected iPhone (powered off) into a computer running Ubuntu Lucid Lynx will allow the people to see practically all of the user's data--including music, photos, videos, podcasts, voice recordings, Google safe browsing databases, and game contents. The "hacker" has read/write access to the iPhone, and the hack leaves no trace.
Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica
This American Life's solicitation for donations may not have been much more than an annoyance, but it highlights how developers could potentially abuse the notification system to nag users for money.
Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu
I've been very annoyed with the practice of some web sites that changed the agreement between me and my computer on exactly what is been copied and pasted. As John Gruber describes it: "what happens is that when you select text from these web pages, the site uses JavaScript to report what you’ve copied to an analytics server and append an attribution URL to the text."
Like Mr Gruber, the nature of my hobby involves a lot of copying-and-pasting. This means that I have to also make use of my backspace key a lot when linking articles from websites that uses this stupid technique. In fact, I've removed many of these stupid web sites from my RSS reading list. (I still link to articles from these web sites, but only I've discovered them from other people, not from my own RSS reading. And I still hate to link to these web sites.)
Mr Gruber outlined two possible solutions to block the copy-and-paste technique used by these web sites. I'll try them today.
Ted Landau, Macworld
Dave Winer, Scripting News
Computers are meant to be more than DisneyLand, they are meant to solve societal problems and help our species evolve. That means we must have freedom. And freedom and control are exact opposites.
Jason Kottke
It inverts the usual "wander around the grocery store searching for items" shopping practice; instead you wander about the house looking for what you need.
UPI.com
Wayne Rash, CTO Edge
Jeff Carlson, Macworld
iMovie ’09 is ideally suited for creating short movies, but Apple included a feature that appeals specifically to people who want to make music videos: beat markers.
John Paczkowski, Wall Street Journal
Who was it, again, who said Apple’s iPhone “doesn’t appeal to business because it doesn’t have a keyboard”?
Because the device clearly does appeal to business. In fact, quite a few of the iPhones sold today are purchased by business users, according to Ron Spears, chief of AT&T’s (T) Business Solutions unit.
Stephen Page, The Guardian
The iPad's arrival is unlikely in itself to create a revolution in ebook sales but, like Amazon's Kindle electronic reader before, it will accelerate the reading universe that's coming. That's great news for readers. It should also be good news for writers, as these are genuinely new ways for their work to be discovered, paid for and read. But what about publishers?
Claire Atkinson, New York Post
Sources said several large media companies, including Time Warner and NBC Universal, told Apple they won't retool their extensive video libraries to accommodate the iPad, arguing that such a reformatting would be expensive and not worth it because Flash dominates the web.
In addition, one media executive pointed out that Apple's ability to dictate terms to the media giants will be weakened further by Google TV, a software product that enables viewers to watch online video on their big-screen TVs.
Jonathan Browning and Matthew Campbell, Bloomberg
In the basement of Paris’s Louvre museum, the early line for Apple Inc.’s iPad far surpassed that for entry to see the Mona Lisa.
Nobuhiro Kubo and Jens Hack, Reuters
Diehard fans mobbed Apple Inc stores in Asia and Europe as the iPad tablet computer went on sale outside the United States for the first time on Friday.
Dan Moren, Macworld
Self-publishing has long been a venue for those who have been unable to publish their books through other means, but the addition of self-published titles to the iBookstore removes even more of the barrier to entry for aspiring writers. For one thing, it legitimizes their endeavors by putting their books on equal footing with titles from the major publishers.
AppleInsider
A new lawsuit filed in California takes aim at Apple's forthcoming iAd mobile ad network, alleging that the name is in violation of a registered trademark and will deceive consumers.
Stephen Shankland, CNET News
Dave Caolo, TUAW
Michael Gartenberg, Macworld
The key to Apple’s success is that the company often takes the time to explain things to the consumer that no other vendor bothers to do. By keeping a laser focus on key features and introducing them one at a time over a period of years, Apple taught and evangelized everything the consumer needed to know to understand the iPad from day one. Without that foundation, it’s not likely the product would have been nearly the success it has been.
Chris Holt, Macworld
Depending on your perspective, Half-Life 2 is either the most epic and ambitious title Valve has ever done, or the most bloated and unfocused. But even with its missteps, there’s a reason why Half-Life 2 appears on virtually every “best games of all time” list. It pushes the FPS genre in new and ambitious directions—the gravity gun, the physics engine, the visuals, the story, the AI, are all innovations that would carry other games.
James Galbraith, Macworld
With its faster processor, improved graphics and longer battery life, the MacBook makes an attractive option for budget conscious laptop shoppers. Performance-wise, the MacBook isn’t different from the 13-inch 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro—the extra $200 for the MacBook Pro buys more RAM, a FireWire 800 port, an SD card slot, an an aluminum case.
Daisuke Wakabayashi, Wall Street Journal
The debut of Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet computer in Japan is generating a level of hype and excitement rarely seen these days for a new electronics product in this gadget-loving nation, underscoring the paucity of buzz-worthy, homegrown devices.
Chris Foresman, Ars Technica
Since Apple is the distributor of any App Store software, then according to the terms of the GPLv2 Apple must also comply with all terms of the GPLv2. According to Smith, that means not placing any restrictions on what a user can do with the software. "Even if the original developers distributed the software to Apple in full compliance with the GPL's terms, Apple would still violate the license when it distributed the software through the App Store and subjected the program to their terms of service's usage rules," he said.
AppleInsider
Two of the leading solutions for running Microsoft's Windows operating system within Mac OS X received new feature improvements over the past week, including Parallel's Upgrade to Windows 7 and VMWare's Fusion 3.1.
Kevin Voigt, CNN
As Apple's iPad is released in nine overseas markets on Friday, industry watchers wonder if they are seeing the birth of a new market or a geek niche product.
Miguel Helft and Ashlee Vance, New York Times
Wall Street has called the end of an era and the beginning of the next one: The most important technology product no longer sits on your desk but rather fits in your hand.
The moment came Wednesday when Apple, the maker of iPods, iPhones and iPads, shot past Microsoft, the computer software giant, to become the world’s most valuable technology company.
AppleInsider
As part of its corporate infrastructure shakeup revealed this week, Microsoft will consolidate its Mac Business Unit -- the team that produces software for Mac OS X -- into the company's Business Division.
David Chartier, Macworld
Leading VMware’s list of improvements in Fusion 3.1 is performance. The company claims that the new version provides a 35 percent boost in application performance over Fusion 3.0. Likewise, scrolling and 2D graphics in Windows Vista and Windows 7 are almost four times faster than in 3.0, and 3D graphics performance is up to five times better. VMware Fusion 3.1 also now supports hardware-accelerated OpenGL 2.1 under Windows Vista and Windows 7 as well.
Glenn Fleishman, Macworld
How to diagnose and resolve Wi-Fi slow-downs.
Kirk McElhearn, Macworld
Apple Remote app can help you control iTunes from afar, and in interesting ways.
Sally Zahner, Macworld
Tim Culpan, Bloomberg
Hon Hai Group opened its largest manufacturing complex to the media to defend its working conditions as a mounting number of worker suicides in China prompted probes from clients Apple Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.
Russell Adams, Wall Street Journal
Wired magazine’s iPad application is expected to hit Apple’s app store on Wednesday, capping a nearly year-long effort that thrust the Conde Nast publication into the middle of the public feud between Apple and Adobe.
Brooke Crothers, CNET News
Would another 12-inch MacBook work? Who knows? But it would fit neatly into Apple's current lineup.
Nat Ives , Advertising Age
The New Yorker wants to let readers pay once for digital access across the iPad, the Kindle and other platforms, hoping to improve on the current industry practice of charging even subscribers for each edition on each device.
Jeff Bennett, Wall Street Journal
There is always that moment in the car dealership when the customer, seated in their potential new purchase, is pulled from the vehicle and led to a cubicle only to sit and watch as information is slowly entered on a desktop computer.
A new approach, being tested by Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz dealerships starting this week, aims to keep shoppers near the car rather than in a cubicle by allowing dealers to access information from Apple Inc.'s iPad.
Chris Holt, Macworld
Dungeon crawlers are a niche within the larger RPG genre and not surprisingly, appeal to a smaller audience. But Torchlight is a really good introduction for novice role-playing gamers because it combines intuitive hack and slash combat with an obtrusive leveling system.
Troy Wolverton, McClatchy/Tribune
Apple Inc. shares have been surging, bringing the iPhone maker within spitting distance of displacing longtime rival Microsoft Corp. as the most valuable tech company in the world and having the second-largest stock market value among all U.S. companies.
Investors' appetite for Apple shares has been swelling as the tech giant introduced a slew of new products in recent years, including the iPhone and iPad.
Ryan Singel, Wired
The New Yorker editor-in-chief David Remnick has a message for Apple’s penchant for policing the content of its app store: “The hell with it.”
Brad Stone, New York Times
The Department of Justice is examining Apple’s tactics in the market for digital music and its staffers have talked to major music labels and Internet music companies, according to several people briefed on the conversations.
People briefed on the inquiries said investigators had asked in particular about recent allegations that Apple had used its dominant market position to persuade music labels to refuse to give the online retailer Amazon.com exclusive access to soon-to-be released music.
Patrick May, San Jose Mercury News
Wilson Rothman, New York Times
As long as you can avoid slathering it with grease or dusting it (lightly or otherwise) with flour, the iPad beats a mobile phone and a laptop for overall kitchen-counter friendliness, and is poised to be an indispensable tool, once enough of the cookbooks we all love go digital.
Warren Buckleitner, New York Times
Any seasoned traveler knows how to reduce the risk of being mugged. Wear a money belt, and stay in public places. But these days you can add one more tip: turn off data roaming.
Ken Segall's Observatory
Who knows what the new campaign will be, or if Apple even believes a Mac campaign is required at the moment. But I’ll go way out on a limb and predict that whenever a new campaign begins, it will not be a list of benefits with the theme line Why you’ll love a Mac.
Serenity Caldwell, Macworld
The patches are available for users running either 32- or 64-bit versions of Windows on their Macs, and fix an issue “that causes the Boot Camp Control Panel applet to display an error when the brightness tab is selected and an issue that results in no headphone sound.”
Nick Spence, Macworld UK
David Chartier, Macworld
Fans of Chrome for Mac should receive a surprise today: a new version that takes the browser out of beta. After five months of testing, Google has declared Chrome to be stable and ready for the masses.
Aayush Arya, Macworld
Joe Kissell, Macworld
Don’t worry about getting rid of every last crumb—because you won’t be able to and it probably won’t make any real difference. If you find some support files that you aren’t sure you can safely delete, chances are they’ll do no harm if you leave them where they are.
Counter Notions
Digital maps, once a wondrous novelty that started with Google Maps on the desktop, are no longer a mere destination app on mobile devices. Mapping frameworks are beginning to be tightly integrated at the OS level and maps are becoming primary UI conduits to ever more sophisticated location-based services. Apple’s acquisition of Placebase was an affirmation of that reality and, hopefully, we’ll get to see the early results next week.
Jonny Evans, Computerworld
David Chartier, Macworld
The Student Survival Kit includes five templates for organizing lecture notes, courses, group projects, special events, and job searches.
Lukas Mathis, Ignore The Code
In a way, gestural user interfaces are a step back, a throwback to the command line. Gestures are often not obvious and hard to discover; the user interface doesn’t tell you what you can do with an object. Instead, you have to remember which gestures you can use, the same way you had to remember the commands you could use in a command line interface.
Peter Preston, The Guardian
The iPad won't deliver newspapers the revenue streams they dream of because it's seen as more than just a news device.
Dan Moren, Macworld
Twitterrific presents a compelling, elegant Twitter experience that makes the most of what the iPad has to offer.
Megan Lavey, TUAW
Apple has launched its annual Back to School program for the US, enticing buyers with a free 8GB iPod touch after a $199 online rebate (you can also apply the same rebate to larger-capacity iPods).
Alexander Vaughn, App Advice
AFP
Hong Kong labour activists said Tuesday they plan to kick off a worldwide boycott of Apple's newest iPhone after a spate of suicides at a southern Chinese factory that makes the iconic device.
Joshua Topolsky, Engadget
Collette Derworiz, Calgary Herald
Canadian doctors will now be able to look at a stroke patient's brain scan and other diagnostic images on an iPhone after a Calgary research team received Health Canada approval for its software application.
Robert McMillan, IDG News Service
Two years after fixing a security bug in the Windows version of its Safari browser, Apple apparently has decided that Mac users can go without a fix.
AppleInsider
Walmart has revealed that it will begin selling the 16GB iPhone 3GS for $97 this week, more than $100 off of Apple's $199 suggested retail price.
Henry Blodget, The Business Insider
If iPad prices follow the trend of iPod, iPhone, and other gadget prices, we should be able to buy the low-end version for $299 in two years and $199 in three years. At $199, especially, the whole game changes.
Kathleen Lange, Salon
For those of us who want it all and want it all now, it's a bit frustrating to have to wait.
Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note
The almost unavoidable conclusion is that Apple could build itself a nice MobileMe 2.0. Tomorrow, Apple could play the freemium game.
Nick Bilton, New York Times
What’s left to talk about?
New Mac ads! :-)
Mike Loukides, O'Reilly Media
Apple will not be able to take Google on in the areas of connectivity and cloud computing as long as they insist on a closed platform.
Ollicle.com
Dave Caolo, TUAW
Jonathan Seff, Macworld
Elgato on Monday introduced the EyeTV HD, a video-capture device designed to let you watch and record SD and HD programs from cable or satellite sources on your Mac.
Dan Moren, Macworld
Apple announced on Monday that the CEO will be kicking off WWDC 2010 on June 7, with a presentation at 10 a.m. Pacific time in San Francisco’s Moscone West conference center. What he’ll be talking about? The iPhone and iPad would be a pretty good guess. What he'll be wearing? Bet on the classic turtleneck, jeans, and sneakers. Will he mention the Mac? Well, that may have to wait until next year.
Joe Kissell, Macworld
Even though there’s no iPad version of Word, you can work with Word documents on your iPad if you’re willing to accept a few compromises.
David Karlins, Macworld
Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune
Wait until Apple's developers conference, he tells a reader, "You won't be disappointed."
Garett Rogers, ZDNet
I am convinced that Apple will need to do something really big during WWDC this year to make sure they don’t lose their mobile mojo. Since the iPhone 4 hardware has already leaked, and they have already announced new features for their new mobile operating system, they better have something else up their sleeve for developers attending this year’s event.
I don't think Apple will have any more surprises. No "one more thing".
Jin Hyun-joo, The Korea Herald
The popularity of Apple’s iPhone does not show signs of subsiding in Korea, with its sales surpassing 700,000 units as of May 22, just six months since its launch here.
Chris Matyszczyk, CNET News
Wherever you feel the need to have your iPad, I am happy. So, it seems, is the TSA. The New York Yankees, though, seem to float on a different boat. A report from Yahoo Sports suggests that the Yankees have decided in all their infinite, historic wisdom that the iPad falls under its "No laptops" policy.
Chris Matyszczyk, CNET News
The strange thing inherent in suggesting that Apple is Big Brother is that the company seems to know so little about people, in the literal, data-driven sense. It doesn't even seem to do that much research, because it knows that so much of it is wet tripe.
Yet it seems to know so much about people in the instinctive, human sense. It's accused of "marketing", as if this were some obscene, drug-addled sorcery. But how much of it is anything other than creating value by giving people what they actually enjoy?
Dave Winer, Scripting News
Virginia Heffernan, New York Times
People who find the Web distasteful — ugly, uncivilized — have nonetheless been forced to live there: it’s the place to go for jobs, resources, services, social life, the future. But now, with the purchase of an iPhone or an iPad, there’s a way out, an orderly suburb that lets you sample the Web’s opportunities without having to mix with the riffraff. This suburb is defined by apps from the glittering App Store: neat, cute homes far from the Web city center, out in pristine Applecrest Estates. In the migration of dissenters from the “open” Web to pricey and secluded apps, we’re witnessing urban decentralization, suburbanization and the online equivalent of white flight.
Robert Scoble, Scobleizer
Now that more and more people are getting iPads we are seeing just how they change everything, especially art and music.
John Gruber, Daring Fireball
The big loser this week, though, was Microsoft. They’re simply not even part of the game.
MG Siegler, TechCrunch
Charlie Sorrel, Wired
Gordon Haff, CNET News
The ubiquity of cell phones and even the widespread use of personal smartphones with data plans starts to make separate dedicated business devices seem a bit anachronistic for many situations. More and more corporate applications have Web front-ends that can be accessed from any securely-connected browser. The workforce is more mobile; employees don't just do business from a desktop system in the office. In short, for many people, there's a blurring of the personal and the professional that makes a clean separation of personal devices and professional ones difficult at best.
Dan Frakes, Macworld
It’s the program’s no-nonsense interface and unique features that hooked me.
Lauren Hirsch, TUAW
Ted Landau, Macworld
Chris Foresman, Ars Technica
The Steam for Mac client has been in the hands of gamers for a week now and Valve is collecting some useful data about Mac users. Among the statistics the company has gathered so far: two-thirds of Steam for Mac users run on laptops, and after one week, 11 percent of all Steam purchases are for Mac. One surprising result, however, is that the same version of Portal is five times more stable on Mac OS X than on Windows.
Jim Dalrymple, The Loop
The Mac may not be a big part of this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, but Apple certainly hasn’t forgot about it. It launched “Why you’ll love a Mac” campaign on Friday to educate potential switchers.
AppleInsider
Checks with 50 Apple retail stores found that the iPad 3G remains completely sold out in the U.S. weeks after its release and 7 days ahead of the device's international launch.
Georgina Prodhan and Paul Sandle, Reuters
The co-founder and president of British chip designer ARM Holdings sees no sense in iPhone maker Apple, one of the original investors in ARM, buying the company today.
Dennis Sellers, Macsimum News
An ex-Apple employee, Kenyon Zahner, who filed a class action lawsuit against the company in August 2009, says Apple “ruined his life.” The lawsuit complained that Apple forces its staffers to work long hours without overtime pay.
Lee Givens, AOL
This was months before the iPod was released and many people still had Mac OS 9 running on their multi-colored iMacs.
Chris Clark, Black Pixel
To this day we’re stuck with two numpad layouts that are incredibly similar, but just different enough to slow you down when you switch between them.
Ben Worthen, Wall Street Journal
The punches that Apple Inc. is throwing in its fight against Adobe Systems Inc. are beginning to land, prompting some companies to shift away from Adobe's video and animation technology and forcing Web designers to work with competing standards.
Programmers and Web designers say clients increasingly are asking that their websites or applications be compatible with Apple's iPhone and iPad. Those sites can't be built with Adobe's Flash technology, which is used widely for online video and animation but which Apple has banned from its devices.
AppleInsider
James Galbraith, Macworld
We put them though their paces and found that these optional upgrades, not surprisingly, improved overall performance. Whether they’re worth the additional cost is debatable.
Dan Miller, Macworld
Digital Arts
DAZ 3D-Gizmoz has released Carrara 8 and Carrara 8 Pro, new versions of its 3D modeling, animation and rendering suites that promise improved animation tools, enhanced lighting, new vegetation tools and optimized rendering.
Jonny Evans, Computerworld
Ceding the front room entertainment market would take a chunk from iTunes dominance of the digital entertainment sector.
Ryan Singel, Wired
Google is taking aim at Apple’s dominance of online music, offering Android users the opportunity to buy music on the web and have it automatically sync to their mobile devices — as well as stream all the music on their home computers to their phones.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet
Apple obviously has a dislike for Flash, and unless Adobe come out with a far superior platform, I see the iPad and iPhone remaining Flash-free.
Apple, I don't think, have a dislike only for Flash. It just so happen that Flash is the poster-boy of all things Apple dislike.
Jessica Guynn, Los Angeles Times
During a keynote address at the company's developers conference in San Francisco, Google's Vic Gundotra repeatedly took issue with Apple for trying to monopolize the mobile phone market, for walling off its products and platforms and for having hardware and software limitations.
Will customers benefit? I sure hope so.
Sue Halpern, The New York Review of Books
You don’t have to be a technophobe or a Luddite to dismiss out of hand the idea of reading on a machine. Maybe it is muscle memory, but there is something deeply satisfying about a “real” book, a book made of pages bound between hard or soft covers, into which you can slip a bookmark, whose pages you can fan, whose binding you can crack and fold as you move from beginning to end. E-books, by contrast, whatever platform delivers them, are ephemeral. Yes, you can carry thousands of them in your pocket, but what will you have to show for it? What will fill your bookshelves? Then, one day, you find yourself housebound, and Wolf Hall has just won the Booker Prize, and you download a sample onto your iPhone, and just like with a book printed on paper you are pulled into the story and are grateful to be able to keep reading, and your resistance disappears, and you press the “buy” button—it’s so easy!—and that is how it starts.
Seth Weintraub, Fortune
Throughout the last two days of Google I/O, just about every product and service that Google has announced is a partnership with Adobe and another shot over the bow of Apple.
Jason Hiner, Tech Republic
There’s plenty to like about the Apple iPad (see my business review of the iPad), but there are also some serious annoyances that hinder the overall product experience.
Loretta Chao, Wall Street Journal
A recent survey of 2,000 mobile users in China between the ages of 22 and 32 by China Market Research Group, or CMR, suggests that the cause of the iPhone’s performance in China may stem from the relative unpopularity of Apple’s (AAPL) partner, China Unicom, among its target users, as well as a lack of desire among those users to sign up for two-year contracts and subscribe to 3G services.
David Chartier, Macworld
Continuing its careful pace of polishing MobileMe, Apple has improved sync for a couple of apps and finally added SSL encryption to all of its Web apps.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune
How to turn bad publicity into a public relations coup for less than $500.
Michael Grothaus, TUAW
Jonathan Stempel, Reuters
A federal judge has dismissed a plaintiff's lawsuit against Apple Inc that accused company employees of waiting like "vultures" to spy on her every time she used an Apple laptop to access the Internet.
Chris Thorman, Software Advice
Erica Sadun, TUAW
In response to the public outcry over Apple's no-cash-for-iPad policy, Apple has relented. You will now be able to purchase iPads in-store using cash and gift cards. Yes, you'll also have to set up a traceable Apple account at the same time, but the lack of credit or debit card will no longer bar the sale of iPads to consumers.
Mitch Wagner, Computerworld
Apple has a right to lock down its device. You, on the other hand also have a right to refuse to buy that device, and go buy someone else's unlocked device.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune
Adam Curry
24 hours after the release of my first foray into the world of iPhone app development, I must admit that I’m pretty stoked about the whole experience. What started over the Christmas holiday as a sketch on a page in my “idea book” looks to be a new page in my life as a multimedia performer.
Serenity Caldwell, Macworld
Apple has denied reports that the next major version of its Final Cut Studio suite of professional video applications will be a big departure, focusing less on the professional audience it’s always been for.
Jonathan Seff, Macworld
David Chartier, Macworld
Jumsoft has released a major upgrade to Relationship, its CRM (contact relationship management) tool for the Mac. In version 2, Relationship gains strong project management, e-mail integration, and a handful of other new features.
Christopher Breen, Macworld
Time Capsule and a multi-function printer are generally not a good combination. Have you explored OS X's printer sharing feature?
Christopher Breen, Macworld
Macro utilities--which let you trigger a complex series of actions with a single keystroke--enable you to automate the repetitive parts of your workflow. But which one is best for you?
Stephen Shankland, CNET News
Andy Ihnatko, Macworld
The bigger problem with the evolution of iPad software will be in developing the core philosophy. What is an iPad app? What sort of statement is the user making when he or she leaves the house with the intention of prosecuting the day’s goals with an iPad instead of a notebook?
Pariah S. Burke, Macworld
Sify
iPhone has made it to the list of the 'Most Important Inventions Of All Time'. The cell phone, ranked eighth in the list, ahead of both space travel and the combustion engine.
CBC News
While some teachers might see devices like the iPod Touch as an unwelcome classroom distraction, staff at the Elmwood School view them as a potential learning tool.
Thomas Fitzgerald
People are arguing for choice. They don’t want you to have choice, they want their choice. There’s a big difference.
The Inquisitr
Can anyone please explain to me why the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted a trademark to Apple for a computer store?
Don Reisinger, eWeek
Philip Michaels, Macworld
Both updates promise, in Apple’s words, “improved compatibility, security, and reliability.”
Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet
Here’s one way that Apple can beat Google at its own game: by improving iWork.com and making it more functional that Google docs. Notice that I didn’t say better, I said more functional.
Bianca Male, The Business Insider
One 'revolutionary' product alone won't keep you at the top of the list of the most successful companies in the world. A major key to Apple's continued success is its ability to keep pushing the boundaries of innovation.
钟布, 联合早报
从这款苹果新产品的产业链可以看到，苹果凭借自己的原创设计拿走了利润的最大头，韩国公司凭借其掌握的技术也获得了可观利润，台湾公司拿去的只是小头，而中国工人得到只是微不足道的小利。不难发现，这个产业链上拥有原创技术和专利越多，获取的利润也越高。苹果公司和台湾人开的加工厂的利润差额高达20多倍，更不知比中国工人的那点微薄收入多了多少倍。更糟的是，这些产品从中国运往美国销售后还要把贸易逆差的棍子打在中国身上。中国工人拿到那点微不足道的辛苦钱后，计算中美贸易额时，中国要承担向美国出口了每台278美元的货物的名声。
Brian X. Chen, Wired
Along with questionable App Store rejections, Apple occasionally makes peculiar approvals. Take for example the app Mirror, which is nothing short of a black screen with a frame.
Don Reisinger, eWeek
Dan Moren, Macworld
Overall, the beta version clearly signifies a major shift in design: instead of an interface based on Apple’s Mail client for Mac OS X we get one that’s styled after the iPhone and iPad Mail apps.
Serenity Caldwell, Macworld
Both math geeks and duds can rejoice: Acqualia Sofware has released Soulver 2, the next version of its unique calculation software.
Erica Sadun, TUAW
Jobs has said "no" (and "nope") before. Sure, we at TUAW love Uncle Steve, but when Jobs says "no," we're not always sure that he really, really means it.
Glenn Fleishman, Macworld
Worried that your teen or tween is spending all night wired to the iPod touch or iPad? Glenn Fleishman walks you through a way to set timed access in a manner that sticks if you're using an Apple Wi-Fi base station on your network.
Joel Santo Domingo, ExtremeTech
The Apple iMac 27-inch (Core i7) is an excellent multimedia-oriented all-in-one desktop, particularly for people that actually create media instead of just viewing it.
Chris Versace, Benzinga
Rob Griffiths, Macworld
Whatever kind of work you do on your Mac, it probably requires thousands of keystrokes a day. That’s why every Mac user should install some kind of text-expansion utility.
Joel Johnson, Macworld
I don’t have a pundit’s drunken courage to say that this first iPad is going to be a smash hit. But I don’t think it puts me too far out on a limb to say that we might look back on it in a few decades and say, “Hey, that was the first real computer.”
Raw Meat
No, the question isn’t whether Apple gets to control the World Wide Web. The question is whether Adobe gets to.
Jim Dalrymple, CNET News
The new MacBook now has a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of memory. The notebook has a 250GB hard drive and boasts battery-life of 10 hours, up from the seven hour battery of the previous model. The MacBook is also now using the NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics card, the newest mobile card from the company.
Louis Gray
In the same vein as Apple refusing ported Flash apps on their platform, I too want to enjoy applications designed for the device I am taking in, and not somebody's quick and dirty recompile. We went through the strain of Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X, and I hope Apple has proven themselves enough by this time that the call to arms for more native apps will occur much more quickly.
Michael Finney, KGO-TV
Apple Computer has come a long way since its old renegade pirate days when it was all about making computers accessible to everybody. Now, it seems the company is more worried about guarding against piracy.
Brett Arends, MarketWatch
Apple chief blunders on options swap.
Me think he will survive.
Dave Girard, Ars Technica
If you glanced at the new features in Aperture 3, it would seem easy to pass off the audio/video and Faces and Places features as gimmicky things for hobbyists, but the value of these features will grow on even for hardened studio nuts. Seeing the power of the Places features makes me wish I'd GPS-logged our trip through Japan, because it would be satisfying to navigate those squiggly tracks and photos with my girlfriend.
For pros who just want to get work done, Aperture 3's improved interface, flawless curve adjustment, multiple maskable edits, and 64-bit update are more than enough reason to upgrade. Add the metadata improvements and the high-ISO RAW conversion, and you have an essential upgrade. If Apple can rein in the glitches, give pros a toggle for the gooey effects, and polish the masking tools, then the rest is just gravy.
Jim Squires, Gamezebo
Apple’s pride also rears its ugly head in their recent battle with Flash. Refusing to add it to their mobile platforms, regardless of the reason, means that they’ve created an opportunity for the competition. Google was more than happy to explore that opportunity.
But if Apple is right, Google -- or at least Android -- will die because of Adobe, just like the IBM PC died because of Microsoft.
Chris Matyszczyk, CNET News
Some researchers are starting to believe that using your gadgets late at night, or leaving them on in the bedroom, affects sleep patterns.
Mike Elgan, Computerworld
In a nutshell, the e-book reading on the iPad is generally great. But the list of things the iPad does badly is identical to the list of things the Kindle does well. And vice versa.
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
Microsoft on Monday said it is working with Apple to solve problems that iPad users have had with Windows Live Hotmail. iPad users have reported problems with Microsoft’s Web-based e-mail service, including the iPad’s Safari browser freezing and an inability to compose new messages or reply to received mail.
Dan Frakes, Macworld
Two popular Mac utilities, MaxMenus and LiteSwitch X, appear to be back from the dead with Snow Leopard-compatible beta versions.
David Dahlquist, Macworld
Mireth Technology has released Version 3 of Music Man, an app that rips, converts, burns, and plays digital music. Version 3 adds the ability to make iPhone ringtones, and adds ID3 tag editing as well as FLAC and Apple Lossless playback.
Erica Sadun, TUAW
If there's any point to this little post, it's this. Apple has entered into its most successful period by providing devices that work with the tasks that people want to experience on the go, whether it's making calls, checking location-based resources or handling e-mail and surfing the web. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple took that same highly-focused, user experience-centered design and migrated it back to the desktop.
Dan Frakes, Macworld
Third-party programs that make up for the OS X clipboard's shortcomings.
John Gruber, Daring Fireball
One can certainly make the case that the trade-offs are worthwhile — that it’s a beneficial state of affairs that extremely similar versions of apps like Photoshop and Illustrator run on both Mac OS X and Windows. But it’s not credible to pretend the trade-offs don’t exist.
Jeff Foster, Macworld
Kevin Lim and George Chen, Reuters
British bank Standard Chartered is replacing the Blackberry, currently its standard corporate communication device, with the iPhone, a move that could eventually result in thousands of its bankers switching to the Apple device for business communication on the go.
Bankers at other financial institutions such as HSBC Holdings Plc and Morgan Stanley have so far been restricted to the Blackberry as the standard device issued by their firms for business communications. Despite some indications of change, it may take time for a broader switch to take place, mainly because of security concerns, according to financial professionals and information technology analysts.
Bloomberg
Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications told companies not to import “too many” of Apple Inc.’s iPhone as the government tries to cut purchases of luxury items to narrow the trade deficit.
Michael Grothaus, TUAW
If you've ever added custom album artwork to an iTunes song, you get the basic idea of how to change the cover art of a Project Gutenberg book in your iTunes library.
Thomas Fitzgerald
Jacob Weisberg, Slate Magazine
Why publishers should beware the App Store.
Ryan Tate, Valleywag
Yukari Iwatani Kane, Wall Street Journal
An Apple spokeswoman verified that Japanese 3G iPads will only work with Softbank’s 3G service in Japan. But outside of Japan, those iPads are unlocked, so they can be used with SIMs for local carriers in their respective markets. Whether 3G iPads purchased outside of Japan will work in Japan will depend on the roaming agreement that the users’s home carrier has established in the country, the spokeswoman said.
Victoria Ho, ZDNet
With Apple declaring war against Adobe's hold over Web video, some reports say the Cupertino company has already won.
Brooke Crothers, CNET News
The iPad cannot be considered a replacement for the MacBook Air, which offers a long list of advantages over the tablet.
David Carnoy, CNET News
Nick Bilton, New York Times
Andrew Orlowski, Register
Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek
Let market forces rather than a Jobsian decree decide Flash's fate.
And why isn't Apple part of the market force?
Dan Moren, Macworld
It’s a sue-or-be-sued world, or so the lawyers would have you believe. You can’t get to be as big as Apple and not expect to hear the distinctive slap of lawsuits from time to time. That’s a sound that can only mean another issue of Under the Gavel, our semi-regular look at who’s going toe-to-toe with the folks from Cupertino.
Don Reisinger, CNET News
Bluebox Avionics, a company that offers in-flight entertainment products to airlines, said this week that it will start delivering its service on Apple's iPad in July.
Ted Landau, Macworld
AppleInsider
Apple this week rejected "Wi-Fi Sync," a third-party application that allows the iPhone and iPod touch to sync wirelessly with iTunes.
Macworld
Diane Bartz, Reuters
The ITC said in a brief statement that it would investigate assertions by Apple that Kodak has violated Apple patents having to do with digital still and video cameras.
Quarter Life Crisis
Stephen Shankland, CNET News
Adobe has begun a new effort to bring imaging software such as Lightroom to the iPad and other tablet computers--but the leader of the work also is fretting over the control Apple has over it.
Magw.at
Screw being 'open,' let's just be honest.
David Chartier, Macworld
John Nack On Adobe
You shouldn't care about this stuff because you love or hate Adobe*. You should care because these issues affect your choices as a customer & a creative person.
Michael Gartenberg, SlashGear
The instant on capabilities, fast performance combined with a full XGA screen make the iPad experience unique, not quite a laptop but certainly more than just a large iPod touch. For me, it’s now a valuable travel companion.
John Gruber, Macworld
So of course this iPad—the one which, a few years from now, we’ll refer to off-handedly as the “original iPad”—does less than we’d hoped. That’s how the people at Apple work. While we’re out here poking and prodding at the iPad, they’re back at work in Cupertino. They’ve got a little gem of a starting point in hand. And they’re beginning to roll.
Mel Martin, TUAW
Apple still says that the Apple TV is a hobby, but I pay attention to my hobbies and keep them up to date. If "hobby" means "neglect," then Apple is doing well.
Kirk McElhearn, Macworld
The Voice Control feature lets you use the included Apple earbuds with remote and mic (or compatible earbuds or headphones) to tell your iPod or iPhone what to do: what to play, when to change tracks, and when to shuffle. On top of that, the iPod touch can talk back, telling you the names of tracks that are playing if you’re not sure what you’re listening to.
Jason Snell, Macworld
Apple late on Wednesday announced a new beta program for the mail component of its MobileMe internet service. The new beta offers new interface views, server-based mail rules, SSL-based security, and improved performance, according to the company.
Ryan Kim, San Francisco Chronicle
In a full-page ad in this section, Adobe tries to shame Apple into reconciling their differences. Look, Adobe says, we love a lot of the same things like creativity, innovation, apps, HTML5, Flash ... er, OK, maybe Flash is not mutually beloved.
Alexander Vaughn, App Advice
Apple has just begun airing “What is iPad”, its second TV commercial for the iPad and it’s quite an interesting one. Indeed, as some noted the ad is actually an homage to Apple’s unsuccessful tablet past; the Newton.
Robyn Weisman, TidBITS
While many of the people I spoke with said they are selling and developing apps for other mobile platforms like Android and BlackBerry OS, all seemed to view iPhone OS apps as a crucial part of their mobile strategies. And they consider debates over open versus closed environments as mostly minutiae.
Rich Brown, CNET News
Though we can't say that Steam will bring Mac gaming on-par with the experience on a Windows system, with this release, Mac gamers finally have something to be excited about.
Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld
Another leaked iPhone 4G prototype has allegedly been spotted in Asia -- so much for Apple's unhealthy obsession with secrecy.
Associated Press
Chris Holt, Macworld
Steam, Valve’s digital distribution service for gamers, is now live. Steam, for the uninitiated, is essentially an iTunes Store for games, except with more social features and demos of many games.
Erica Sadun, TUAW
In an impassioned blog post, Rentzsch has explained his reasons for shuttering C4. He writes that Apple's insistence on top-down control over its platforms (presumably more the iPhone OS than the Mac) crushes innovation and makes developers overly reliant on Apple for moving technology forward.
Kirk McElhearn, Macworld
The first thing you need to do is learn how to get documents off of your Mac and onto the iPad, and then—after you’ve edited them or created new ones on the iPad—how to get them onto your Mac. There are two easy ways to do this, so read on to find out which is best for you.
AppleInsider
Taiwanese smartphone company HTC has responded to Apple's patent suit with a lawsuit of its own, accusing the iPhone maker of violating five patents.
"As the innovator of the original Windows Mobile PocketPC Phone Edition in 2002 and the first Android smartphone in 2008, HTC believes the industry should be driven by healthy competition and innovation that offer consumers the best, most accessible mobile experiences possible," said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of North America, HTC Corporation. "We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones."
Derrick Story, Macworld
If you find that iPhoto is running a bit sluggish on your Mac, here are a few suggestions for speeding it up—some tried and true such as rebuilding the library, and others a bit more esoteric such as vacuuming the database.
Lesa Snider, Macworld
Jim Dalrymple, The Loop
Apple is being sued for patent infringement by Softview over the way it displays mobile content on its iPhone and iPod touch devices.
Chris Holt, Macworld
A triumph of gameplay—Valve launches on the Mac with a bang.
Bruce Tognazzini, AskTog
Seekingalpha.com
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet
It seems that yesterday’s NPD data which suggested that Android had a 28% market share and the iPhone a 21% touched a nerve at Apple HQ and prompted a response. But Apple’s response interestingly bundles the iPod touch in with iPhone sales, seriously fudging the numbers.
If you are comparing devices, you cannot lump all the Android devices (mostly phones) together. Especially since they are all running different operating systems and with different UI. If you are comparing OS, you cannot exclude the iPod Touch and iPad. I think Apple is more right than wrong in this case.
David Chartier, Macworld
Remember that analog clock iPad app Apple rejected for “having limited functionality,” despite plenty of apps like it already in the App Store? Apple doubled back, unbidden, and approved it.
Chris Foresman, Ars Technica
Erica Ogg, CNET News
COO Tim Cook has said two different times that though Apple has seen increased sales in countries where it has added a secondary carrier, it doesn't mean the results would be the same in every country.
That could be Cook avoiding giving any real hints about Apple's plans. Or it could be the sign that Apple has plenty of room to renegotiate its carrier contracts.
Kirk McElhearn, Macworld
If you want a tool that will streamline your workflow, LaunchBar has long been as good as it gets—and this latest version makes it even better. You’ll need to take some time to understand just how much it can do, but once you start using it, I’d bet you’ll never want to give it up. I’ve been using LaunchBar for what seems like forever, and I simply couldn’t use a Mac without it.
Macworld
A bug in iTunes 9.1 can cause it to recopy every song on your iPad everytime you sync. Here's how to stop it.
Michael Grothaus, TUAW
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
Apple’s Safari browser contains a critical, unpatched bug that attackers can use to infect Windows PCs with malicious code, researchers at US-CERT and other security firms said Monday.
Register
Apple's iPad is available for pre-ordering, but only via Apple's own stores, not its retail partners. Even Apple's approved resellers are not allowed to take deposits or pre-orders from customers keen to try and lay hands on the genius-tablet.
John Battelle, Searchblog
Ahh…there it is: The gift. Steve Jobs’ brilliance lies in his ability to make everything seem magical. The true gift Apple is selling right now? A Golden Ticket into Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory. A chance to be associated with the greatest marketer in the history of the industry.
Think I’m kidding? Then consider this: Apple is telling marketers willing to pony up for the launch that Steve Jobs will mention their brand on stage as he launches iAds this summer. “That is worth a hell of a lot,” one agency chief told me.
Steven Stern, CNN
The iPhone and other portable devices seem ready to turn into the hottest kitchen accessory since the food processor. A lot of that might be because of high-tech digital cookbooks that can do much more than gravy-stained hardcovers ever could: making shopping lists, sharing recipes with friends, helping to use leftovers efficiently, figuring out, instantly, what words like "julienne" mean.
Chris Holt, Macworld
A month’s worth of game playing has given me an idea of what’s working and what’s not. It comes down to a matter of control—a gaming platform is ultimately tethered by its control system. I’ve found the iPad’s to be suited for certain games, but not others. Here’s a rundown of which control schemes are suited for which games on the iPad.
Don Reisinger, Los Angeles Times
Steve Jobs reportedly replied to an Apple customer's e-mail, saying that printing would eventually make its way to the iPad.
Nilay Patel, Engadget
Here's the deal: an ongoing California class-action lawsuit filed in 2007 claims that Apple and AT&T illegally exerted a monopoly over iPhone service by telling customers the iPhone's required service contract was two years long when the Apple / AT&T exclusivity deal was actually for five years -- thus requiring buyers to re-up with AT&T for three years (and not, say, T-Mobile) if they wanted to keep using the iPhone. Obviously Apple had to respond to these allegations, and in addition to arguing that no one was ever promised an unlocked iPhone after two years, the company's lawyers repeatedly confirm the existence of the five-year agreement while noting it was publicly reported in USA Today.
Pariah S. Burke, Macworld
Jakob Nielsen, Useit.com
iPad apps are inconsistent and have low feature discoverability, with frequent user errors due to accidental gestures. An overly strong print metaphor and weird interaction styles cause further usability problems.
Alexander Vaughn, App Advice
Apple announced that German iPad prices will be a bit higher than average. The reason for that, as explained by Steve himself, was a newly introduced €15 copyright tax that Apple added to every model. The thing is; that wasn’t right.
We’re not going to hold a grudge Steve, but think twice next time before you tell customers to “educate themselves“.
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Apple appears to have reversed course in Japan on a key feature of its iPad 3G: It won't offer a version capable of being used with different cellular carriers there.
All Japanese models will be SIM-locked to Softbank Mobile, Apple's iPhone partner in Japan, Apple said late Monday. The company confirmed the presence of a SIM lock but couldn't immediately explain why it was enforcing the restriction in Japan.
Joseph Plambeck, New York Times
The last decade has brought an explosion in dazzling technological advances — including enhancements in surround sound, high definition television and 3-D — that have transformed the fan’s experience. There are improvements in the quality of media everywhere — except in music.
David Murphy, PC Magazine
Gianduia allows one to write Web apps in a kind of Objective-C environment to recreate OSX-, iPhone-, or iPad-like interfaces within a Web browser. It's a framework, not a Flash-killer—at least, not now.
Shane Richmond, Telegraph
Of course, Apple is bound to make this case – they don’t want Britons to think that the iPad is poor value. But they are right that the price difference is considerably smaller once VAT is removed.
The Economist
What has Apple got against eastern Europe?
Dan Sorenson, Arizona Daily Star
The iGods want to save your iPods, iPhones and other out-of-warranty iStuff from the junk pile. Many of us are used to hearing that the little electronic marvels that connect and entertain us are unfixable, disposable.
"We are doing our part not just for the environment, but to help people that didn't know that they had that avenue, repair, open to them," says the man behind The iGods.
Claire Cain Miller, New York Times
Leave it to the early adopters to find a way to get their hands on an iPad even if they live abroad, where Apple will not begin selling iPads until the end of May. Their solution, to avoid going on living without an iPad for even a month longer than the Americans? EBay.
Apple Insider
As Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight duke it out over their plugin-based, HTML-alternative web platforms, Apple is using Gianduia, its new a client-side, standards based framework for Rich Internet Apps, to create production quality online apps for its retail users.
Marco Arment
When so many obviously spammy and trademark-infringing apps are getting through, it makes every trivial rejection by real developers even more frustrating.
Farhad Manjoo, Slate Magazine
If you have to ask whether either Google or Apple is too big for the mobile business, isn't that a pretty good sign that neither one of them is?
Joel Santo Domingo, PC Magazine
The Apple iMac 27-inch (Core i7) is a powerful system for people who need the multimedia computing power. You can even replace your Mac Pro tower, as long as you don't need internal expandability. The new iMac is as powerful as Mac Pro systems from last year.
Dan Frakes, Macworld
If you forget to turn off your Bluetooth keyboard, or to disable the iPad’s Bluetooth, before tossing your gear in your bag, chances are you’ll arrive at your destination with an iPad in lockout mode. The keyboard’s keys will get pressed in transit, those key presses will be interpreted by the iPad as attempts to enter your passcode, and unless your luck is very good, those attempts will all be wrong.
Eric Slivka, Macrumors.com
Jim Dalrymple, The Loop
Nokia on Friday filed another patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, claiming the iPhone 3G devices infringe on five of its patents.
Connie Guglielmo and Rochelle Garner, BusinessWeek
Apple Inc. retail stores in 13 U.S. cities said they sold out of all three versions of the iPad 3G, which went on sale last week, and had no information about when they will get more to sell.
Christopher Breen, Macworld
Licensing and protection issues aside, QuicKeys is a powerhouse macro application that can do wonderful things for your workflow. It's not the easiest utility to use, but if you take the time to learn its intricacies, you'll make your Mac a more productive (and less tedious) machine.
Michael Rose, TUAW
Paul Denlinger, Forbes
China Mobile is the largest mobile telecom operator in the world (more than 522 million subscribers as of March 2010), and it was not used to not having its way in business negotiations with any company.
Except for Apple. With Steve Jobs, they met their match.
Nicholas Kolakowski, eWeek
9 To 5 Mac
Chuck Hollis
I don't think I'll be buying any more desktops going forward. I don't think I'll even be buying any more laptops going forward.
Tom Kaneshige, CIO
It seems Adobe is in the process of fixing many of the technical hurdles, if it hasn't already. So why can't Apple wait for Adobe?
Okay. No more iPhones until Adobe fixes everything. :-)
Jonny Evans, Computerworld
The iPad has changed the game. Which is why it has become the fastest product launch in history.
Rob Griffiths, Macworld
To get the most out of Spell Catcher X, you really need to dive into its thorough in-app help, and spend some time with the PDF user manual. Even then, there’s a steep learning curve to get through before you’ll feel comfortable with the program. But if you’re willing to put in the effort, Spell Catcher X has much to offer.
Rob Griffiths, Macworld
Typinator is a solid text expander with some features not found in its competition. However, it’s also lacking in a few key areas, namely the capability to easily create abbreviations based on the Clipboard or selected text, as well as support for some variables. If you don’t need either of those features, Typinator is worth considering.
Sharon Zardetto, Macworld
Rosalyn Page, PC Authority
The ACCC tells us that mobile phone retailers cannot escape an obligation to deal with a consumer's faulty handset - including iPhones - when provided as part of a 24-month contract.
Jonny Evans, Computerworld
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
AT&T and Apple probably have a quid pro quo in place that has extended the mobile carrier's exclusive deal with the iPhone in exchange for heavily discounted data plan pricing for the iPad, an analyst said today. "AT&T had to do something dramatic to get the iPad," said Brian Marshall, a Wall Street analyst at BroadPoint AmTech. AT&T's move was to discount its normal wireless data plans by 50 percent to iPad customers.
AppleInsider
Apple subsidiary Quattro Wireless is promoting a new "Verification of iTunes Purchase" feature as a competitive advantage enabling iPhone app developers to link to iTunes to obtain data on download conversion rates.
Mark Webster, New Zealand Herald
So, it looks like Apple has a strategy.
Ramu Nagappan, Macworld
If you’re a multitasker who wants to catch up on the latest news while doing half a dozen other things, Basil Salad Software may have a Mac app for you. The company has just released News Anchor, an RSS/Atom feed manager that reads the stories aloud.
Gabriel Madway, Reuters
Software developers expect a windfall in ad revenue from games and other applications they are designing for the iPad, but Apple Inc's push into mobile advertising is raising some industry hackles.
Eric Savitz, Barron's
Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi this morning took a close look at the economics of iAds, and concludes that this could turn out to be a substantial business for Apple - and soon. “iAd’s unique value proposition is that it can serve interactive, multimedia advertisements within apps; moreover, these ads are likely to be highly targeted based on location, intent and demographics,” he writes in a research note.
Network World
Talk show host/comic Ellen Degeneres has apologized to Apple after the company let it be known it wasn't laughing at an iPhone spoof she ran on her program this week.
Apple
For the top-tier IT professionals at Unisys, iPhone makes security simple.
Matt Asay, CNET News
To beat Google, Apple needs more robust cloud services. To beat Apple, Google (and the Linux crowd, generally) needs a simpler consumer interface with a more consistent developer message.
Game on.
Stephen Williams, New York Times
Because the iPad was designed with an exposed screen and without a camera, separate keyboard, memory card slots or U.S.B. ports, you could say it was built for accessories. Many owners will have an inclination to modify it in some way, whether for mere decoration or hard-core protection.
Brian X. Chen, Wired
Although the keyboard will enhance your productivity on the iPad, it won’t completely solve the tablet’s shortcomings as a work device.
TJ Luoma, TUAW
The cloud will not save us.
TJ Luoma, TUAW
So what happened during the hiatus?
Dan Moren, Macworld
After a month of living with the iPad—and an intensive weekend spent reviewing the 3G models—I’ve had a chance to to type more than a few words on it and figure out whether or not it lives up to expectations. The verdict? It’s better than you might think—but not as good as you might hope.
Ted Bade, Inside Mac Games
Nicholas Kolakowski, eWeek
David Morgenstern, ZDNet
For Mac users, and iPhone and iPad users, quality is a central value.
Chris Foresman, Ars Technica
Developers are keen on using the launch of the iPad to "re-calibrate" app pricing expectations, though an analysis by Distimo reveals that average iPad app prices are less than one dollar higher than average prices for iPhone-only apps. Despite these numbers, plenty of developers are having success charging far more than 99¢, the most popular price point for iPhone apps.
Alex Wilhelm, The Next Web
Jenna Wortham, New York Times
Is there a reluctance among us to be viewed as conspicuous consumers, perhaps a lingering sentiment hanging on from the darker days of the recession? Or is the iPad possibly still too new and not yet as widely adopted to use in public without attracting attention and even embarrassment, as some have noted?
Jeff Gamet, The Mac Observer
NetAirus Technologies filed a lawsuit against Apple over claims that the iPhone infringes on a patent it owns. Unlike other patent cases that target specific technologies, the NetAirus lawsuit alleges that entire iPhone concept infringes on its patent.
Sam Gustin, Daily Finance
If Jobs really does feel like he's running out of time -- as the quote from the Auletta piece suggests -- that may help explain his somewhat frenetic recent behavior, during a time in which he has dramatically thrust himself onto center stage with his latest creation, the iPad.
Apple watchers can't help but notice a sped-up, almost frantic quality to the way Jobs has been operating this year. It's almost as if he views himself as a besieged general -- surrounded by advancing forces and running out of time -- intent on making one last stand against the enemy, which, in Jobs's case, may be time itself.
We are all running out of time.
Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek
Apple doesn't stoop mingling with the masses. That might ruin its carefully cultivated mystique. But as Battelle observed in a comment on his post, while Apple has long based its communication strategy around secrecy, "what's changed is how deep and ubiquitous it is now, and how removed the company has become from the public square compared to its past (when it was always removed, but not so deeply)."
Dave Caolo, TUAW
The kit is a collection of ready-to-use templates for business owners who don't have the time or inclination to build a system for themselves, but want to get right to work. It includes solutions for tracking customer and vendor contacts, sales, product information, invoicing and shipping.
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
Antitrust charges against Apple over its decision to ban rivals’ development tools from the iPhone would likely fail because the company doesn’t have a stranglehold on the mobile market, an expert said Monday.
“The government has to show that Apple’s conduct is adversely affecting competition for consumers, and that requires that it show the absence of choice.” said Hillard Sterling, an antitrust attorney at Chicago-based law firm Freeborn & Peters LLP.
Adam C. Engst, TidBITS
Dan Moren, Macworld
Christopher Breen, Macworld
Mac DVDRipper Pro is a reasonably capable and affordable tool for those who want to create archives of the DVDs they own. In my experience, RipIt has more success with difficult-to-rip discs, but at twice the cost.
Mike Industries
It’s scary to people because they remember the harm other companies have done when they reached monopoly status, but with Google, Microsoft, Nokia, RIMM, and now HP all keeping the market healthy with different alternatives, there is no excuse for not voting with your feet if you’re unhappy. When the biggest problem in personal technology is that the leading company is getting a little too exceptional, it’s a good problem to have.
James Rowley and Arik Hesseldahl, Bloomberg
U.S. antitrust enforcers are considering an investigation of Apple Inc. following a complaint from Adobe Systems Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
Adobe says Apple is stifling competition by barring developers from using Adobe’s products to create applications for iPhones and iPads, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to discuss the case.
Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica
Fans of Red Sweater Software's blog publishing tool MarsEdit got a surprise Tuesday morning with the release of MarsEdit 3. The most significant update to the software is the addition of a rich text editor, though those who fiddle with the HTML for their blog posts got an updated syntax highlighter. A new media manager rounds out this solid update, one that the company hopes will attract new users and get old ones writing again.
Christopher Breen, Macworld
RipIt’s strength remain its simplicity and ability to rip just about any disc you throw at it. The compression feature, once finalized and faster, will be welcome.
Owen Fletcher, IDG News Service
Chinese regulators last month approved the frequency ranges used by a new Apple mobile phone with 3G and wireless LAN support, the Web site of China's State Radio Monitoring Center shows. The device appears to be an iPhone and uses GSM and the 3G standard WCDMA, just like iPhones currently offered in China by local carrier China Unicom.
Apple removed Wi-Fi on the iPhones now sold in China because regulators there began approving mobile phones with WLAN support only last year -- and only if they supported a homegrown Chinese security protocol called WAPI (WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure).
Brett Arends, MarketWatch
Topher Kessler, CNET News
Apparently, in order to register your iPad 3G with AT&T you need a physical address, which puts a number of people at odds who use either PO boxes or businesses as billing addresses for their credit cards.
Jim Dalrymple, The Loop
The iPad may be considered a mobile device, but Apple built-in a lot of intelligent features, like its ability to work seamlessly with iPhoto and Aperture on the Mac.
Elizabeth Armstrong Moore, CNET News
After months of planning, May 3 marks the first day of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons first paperless annual meeting in Philadelphia this week. Each of the roughly 3,000 medical attendees will receive a free iPod Touch in place of what used to be a 165-page program book and briefcase-size bag.
Tristan Louis, The Business Insider
If the thinking in Cupertino is that third party development tools are bad, then what about the Mac and non-Apple development tools on OSX? Where would those stand. And, while the introduction of new features are great, what happens if Apple decides to remove old ones? That is question left unanswered by this note and one that may leave the door open for more concerns.
On the Mac, there is only one development tool and one framework that make sense today: Xcode and Cocoa. If you think that other tools -- be it Qt, carbon, Mono, or (gasp!) AIR -- are viable, you are not reading history correctly.
Connie Guglielmo, Bloomberg
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs is accelerating the rate of acquisitions as his company vies with Google Inc. for mobile technologies and talent.
With more than $23.1 billion in cash, Apple has plenty of money to keep purchasing small startups. To avoid publicity and possible rival bids, Apple in some cases has offered a target only a three-hour period in which to accept the terms of a sale, according to one executive with knowledge of the situation. Patent filings may provide clues to potential targets, said Will Stofega, program manager at researcher IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Fraser Speirs
Simply put, I believe, the choice is this: the iPhone OS train is leaving the station in a big way with the iPad; much more so than when it was just for smartphones. I have to ask myself if there's a train that I would rather be on. I don't see one right now, and I don't see one coming down the track.
David Chartier, Macworld
Apple on Monday released Mac Pro Audio Update 1.1, which “addresses an audio anomaly that some customers may hear coming from inside their Mac Pro computer when using FireWire audio devices.”
John Martellaro, The Mac Observer
Adobe’s Flash is cooked, done for. This is a minor scuffle. In the grand scheme of things, no one will miss it by 2015. Apple’s competitors will still be playing catchup then because they have no strength of vision, no real goal other than to pad their own pockets and no genuine, self-tested belief in their authority. Meanwhile, the Sheriff will live on to fight the good battle.
AppleInsider
"One million iPads in 28 days -- that's less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, in a statement released Monday. "Demand continues to exceed supply and we're working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers."
David Carr, New York Times
Apple has an admirable history of innovation and marketplace performance, but this time the company and Mr. Jobs are drawing attention for all the wrong reasons. Everyone knows that it is his show, his call. But in engaging the long arm of the law on behalf of his corporate interests, Mr. Jobs may lead us to think, um, differently about Apple’s growing cultural dominance.
Yukari Iwatani Kane And Geoffrey A. Fowler, Wall Street Journal
Apple stores reached in San Francisco, New York, Boston and Houston said they didn't have any iPad 3G models left by Sunday. A spokeswoman for Best Buy Co. Inc. said it had "very limited inventory" for sale on Friday afternoon. She said some of its stores were sold out as of Sunday, but couldn't provide details. A spokeswoman for Apple declined to comment.
Wolfgang Gruener, Tom's Hardware
Apple’s march into gaming and its continued marketing pitch about how well the handheld devices work with certain games can only help Valve to expand this vision to the traditional desktop. Indeed, Valve may even help Apple make the Mac a much more attractive gaming platform and create more hardware choices for Mac buyers.
Kevin Kelleher, Gigaom.com
In the early days of the web, ISPs faced a similar choice and decided not to control what customers could read. Apple will always favor a closed architecture that lets it offer a web experience on its terms. But in time, even its curated experience will look more more like the messy reality we see on the web today.
Mark Bernstein
And somewhere in the recovery was a moment when Apple stood on a hill, before the setting sun, and shook its fist at the heavens and vowed that it would never be hungry (and powerless) again Never again would another company decide whether the Macintosh lived or died.
Steve Outing
There’s no way that I’m going to pay for individual magazines as individual iPad apps! This approach completely misunderstands the device. First, the single-edition iPad purchase is fleeting; psychologically, I resist buying iPad apps that are read or viewed once and then deleted (since if I don’t and I continue buying iPad Time editions, my iPad screen will fill up with Time icons for various editions).
Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS
Brooke Crothers, CNET News
The iPad does not follow conventional PC design because the user interface is the starting point, said Derek Lidow, chief executive at iSuppli, in a research note released on Thursday. "Apple started by designing the screen, the touch pad and the battery," he wrote. Less focus was placed on chips and where they should be designed into the system. "This design is what gives the product a unique feel and functionality," according to Lidow.
MG Siegler, TechCrunch
Reports are already coming in that some of the most popular iPad apps — the ones that stream video — are being restricted on the new iPad 3G.
Dan Moren, Macworld
Charles Stross
Unless they can turn themselves into an entirely different kind of corporation by 2015 Apple is doomed to the same irrelevance as the rest of the PC industry — interchangable suppliers of commodity equipment assembled on a shoestring budget with negligable profit.
The PC revolution is almost coming to an end, and everyone's trying to work out a strategy for surviving the aftermath.
John Gruber, Daring Fireball
de Icaza’s perspective — that these decisions and risks should be up to individual developers to make — is utterly sensible. Siracusa is exactly right that this is a wager from Apple. Apple is betting its entire mobile future that their developer platform is better than everyone else’s.
Ted Landau, Macworld
WindowShade X is a System Preferences utility that (among its several useful features) “rolls up” a Finder window to its titlebar with a double-click. This functions as an alternative to minimizing a window to the Dock (which you can still do if you want). For quickly and temporarily getting an open window out of your way, there is nothing better.
Rob Griffiths, Macworld
Assuming that WWDC 2011 is more focused on Mac OS X—I’d imagine 10.7 will get a lot of coverage—then we’ll be there. But for this year, at least, we’re taking a pass on buying our WWDC passes.
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