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Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note
So: A clean, fresh iOS; we’re not abandoning the Mac…What are we to make of these competing messages?
Mike Cassidy, San Jose Mercury News
Now everyone is going to want an Apple store. Yes, please, absolutely in my backyard. Think of the subway rehab as part of Steve Jobs' own Works Progress Administration.
Federico Viticci, MacStories
Emily B. Hager, New York Times
Owen, 7, does not have the strength to maneuver a computer mouse, but when a nurse propped her boyfriend’s iPad within reach in June, he did something his mother had never seen before.
He aimed his left pointer finger at an icon on the screen, touched it — just barely — and opened the application Gravitarium, which plays music as users create landscapes of stars on the screen. Over the years, Owen’s parents had tried several computerized communications contraptions to give him an escape from his disability, but the iPad was the first that worked on the first try.
Steve Cheney, TechCrunch
I believe it’s pretty clear: Apple wants to use OS X, running on an incredibly battery efficient MacBook Air-like form factor, as a bottoms-up strategy to attract loyal iOS fans over to the Mac franchise. After all, there are around 150M users of iOS worldwide. Apple knows that iOS is a secret weapon to bring both consumers and corporate users to higher end Mac products.
AppleInsider
Kirk McElhearn, Kirkville
It’s good to see that Apple has heard the many users who found the Ping sidebar useless, but who did appreciate the Genius recommendations in the old sidebar. The combination of the two makes more sense, and it’s likely that we’ll be seeing other changes to Ping and its related features over time as well.
Harry McCracken, Technologzer
I’ve been using the 11.6″ MacBook Air over the past week and a half, and judging from my experience, Apple’s estimate of five hours is indeed realistic. It’s about what I’m getting–which is a pleasant surprise considering that I’m used to discounting the battery life claims made by laptop manufacturers (including Apple) by anywhere from thirty to sixty percent.
Glenn Fleishman, Boing Boing
The letterpress work is first rate, but the textured paper doesn't hold laser printing well. The type is spaced oddly between characters--in the parlance, poorly kerned--and looks rather blocky. The cards also have rather trite designs, necessary for mass sales, I suppose.
Mark Gurman, 9 To 5 Mac
"No support from Intel, for example."
John Hatchett, Low End Mac
I just can't let lustworthy technology overwhelm my practical nature.
Josh Ong, AppleInsider
Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin considered hiring Apple CEO Steve Jobs as the company's first CEO, according to a new documentary.
Michael Grothaus, TUAW
The update addresses issues that, in extremely rare cases, could result in data loss when upgrading a library from an earlier version of iPhoto.
Christina Warren, Mashable
David Chartier, Macworld
DevonThink To Go is a new travel edition of Devon Technologies’s popular document manager and information sifter, bringing its document organization and searching features to the iPad and iPhone. You can use it on its own to organize documents from other apps, create new notes, and search through it all.
Gene Steinberg, Tech Night Owl
Paul Venezia, Computerworld
Chris Rawson, TUAW
MobileMe's product packaging hasn't changed a bit in three years, other than the name on the front. The package still occupies the same footprint as the boxes for AppleCare, OS X Snow Leopard, and even an Airport Express -- all products which contain DVDs with installable software inside. Those products have a reason to be the size they are. MobileMe doesn't.
Alex Dobuzinskis, Reuters
Greg Spierkel, chief executive of Ingram Micro, said Apple has preferred to sell the iPad to retailers but that the company is increasingly letting his firm sell it to businesses.
One significant use of tablets by businesses is by sales representatives in the field, he said.
M.I.C. Gadget
Apple’s new online store in China is not only the easiest way to shop online for Apple products, but also the best way for scalpers to get iPhone 4.
TJ Luoma, TUAW
Edward C. Baig, USA Today
Air models are pleasing to look at and use, unlike most netbooks. The relevant question is not so much how Air measures up to rival ultraportables but if you'd want one instead of or in addition to an iPad.
Stephen M. Hackett
In short, buy AppleCare. You don’t want to be caught without it. If you never need it, consider yourself lucky and move on. It’s as simple as that.
Foliovision
In the end, there's no substitute for a single main machine.
Telegraph
There’s no getting away from the fact that this is a pricey machine, but given its specs, its capabilities and its impress-your-clients looks, it’s still good value.
Brian Warmoth, MTV
HD video can be a real pleasure to watch on the the 13" Air's 1440 x 900 screen, though some streaming HD video sources (YouTube HD, CBS.com HD) produced less desirable, slightly rougher experiences — and it should come as no surprise that Flash doesn't come pre-installed for Safari. For most media, you'll feel like you're using a thinner MacBook rather than a netbook with a bigger monitor. It's not made for handling lots of memory-heavy video editing, but for playback and casual tinkering, it won't roll over.
Michael Grothaus, TUAW
From a purely consumer standpoint, I don't think any of these apps offer the ease of use that Apple has so successfully built into iWeb and iDVD, but given that iDVD seems all but abandoned -- as should the MacBook optical drive be -- and the future is uncertain for iWeb, it's always nice to know you have some alternatives.
Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet
I retried the WiFi configuration four different times with no success. I tried restarting both machines and even restarted the Airport Extreme just for good measure, and no dice. Same “network connection failed” error every time.
Dave Caolo, TUAW
The US Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, has officially stated that travelers passing through US airport security with the 11.6-inch MacBook Air will not have to remove the little laptop from their bags for inspection. Unfortunately, that's not the case with the 13-inch model.
Duncan Davidson
There’s the obvious real-time point-of-sale and visitor data. But that’s not what catches my attention. Instead, it’s the data that’s generated at the Genius bar that fascinates me. This data, in aggregate, can tell Apple a lot about what machines break, how they break, and after how long in a much more direct way than what would come out of a third party service center. And, when Apple is interested in more information about certain failures, they can start asking customers for more information with very little delay.
Dan Moren, Macworld
Previously, the site had displayed both the black and white versions of the iPhone 4, along with a notice that the white version was not available either online or for in-store pick-up. Now the white model has completely vanished, plucked from the page as though excised from the very fabric of the universe.
Kevin Whipps, Apple Gazette
IT.Enquirer
In many ways, I think Dragon Dictate gives a glimpse of how we will deal with computers more than some other interfaces that are rumoured to be in the making. In its current version Dragon Dictate is accurate enough to be useful 90% of the time.
Dave Winer, Scripting News
Ohhhh they've so got me trained to give them money.
Jeffery Battersby, Macworld
If you use Microsoft Word, you're no doubt aware that the program doesn't have a standard Mac OS X print dialog window. That sad fact can sometimes leave you feeling a bit lost. Here are a some pointers for printing with Microsoft Word 2011 and an explanation of its major dialog box contents.
Neil Mcallister, InfoWorld
I understand the intent of each of these provisions. Apple doesn't want the Mac App Store to become known for distributing buggy, broken, redundant apps. Users who buy from the store should receive only high-quality software from reputable vendors, not shoddy apps knocked out to make a quick buck. But taken together, they seem to be holding desktop app developers to an almost impossible standard: be absolutely unique, don't ship with any bugs, and never, ever fail. Or else.
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
Microsoft has saddled the new Office for Mac 2011 with an activation process that's significantly more draconian than that demanded of customers running the Windows version of the suite.
Nick Spence, Macworld UK
Apple has announced it has 46,600 full-time employees as of 25 September 2010, up from 34,300 a year-ago and 32,000 in 2008.
Walter S. Mossberg, Wall Street Journal
Despite a few drawbacks, they really do offer the different, more iPad-like experience Apple claims they do. Battery life is strong, and the wake up from sleep is almost instant, even after long periods of being unused.
MG Siegler, TechCrunch
While the spend was $691 million this year, total revenues were over $65 billion, so Apple only spent about 1 percent of their revenue on this. Last year, that percentage was 1.37. In 2001, it was 5 percent.
Rob Griffiths, Macworld
Seagate calls the Momentus a “hybrid” hard drive, as it combines a relatively-small 4GB SSD with a standard 500GB hard drive. From a user’s perspective, though, the SSD is hidden—the drive appears as a standard 500GB hard drive, and there’s no user access to the SSD. That’s because the drive’s firmware manages the SSD, identifying the most commonly-used disk sectors—not files, as you might suspect—and then moving those bits to the SSD. You as a user simply work with files as you always do, letting the drive do the management for you.
Dan Moren, Macworld
While SecureMac contends that Boonana is a “Critical” risk, security firm Intego—which says it has been monitoring the malware for some time—deems it only a low-risk threat, due to the fact that the implementation of the malware program is itself flawed and many of the remote servers it seems to rely on are inactive.
TJ Luoma, TUAW
Along with some bug fixes, it also adds the ability to easily backup and restore your shortcuts, including automatic backup and keyboard shortcuts to expand top search results.
Leander Kahney, Cult Of Mac
The white iPhone 4 has been delayed because it can’t take good pictures, a source with connections at Apple tells me. The white case leaks light back in — especially when the flash is used to take pictures.
Christopher Breen, Macworld
Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet
The MobileSync/Backup folder is used to store your iOS backups. Every time your iPhone, iPad or iPod makes a backup via iTunes, it’s stored in the MobileSync/Backup folder. If you have a 32GB iPhone and a 32GB iPad, this can add up fast.
Jeff Carlson, Macworld
iMovie '11 has a few standout features that show off its capabilities, like Movie Trailers, long-awaited sound editing, and One-Step Effects. But there are also plenty of other enhancements indicating that this release has depth and character, like the return of a traditional timeline in Single-Row View, a fix for rolling shutter artifacts, the People Finder feature, audio effects, and even little things like the Side by Side and Blue Screen edits.
Eli Hodapp, TouchArcade
If you're an iOS developer out there trying to come up with what your next project will be, consider looking up who currently holds the rights to your favorite retro game. Since most of these games are freely distributed as abandonware, you might find that the owners may be willing to strike an amazingly reasonable deal with you, or just give you their blessing to breathe some new life into their projects of the past for nothing at all.
AppleInsider
New orders of the $999 11.6-inch MacBook Air are now estimated to ship within 1 to 3 business days, suggesting demand for the entry-level version of Apple's new thin-and-light notebook lineup has been greatest in the first week of sales.
The Shape Of Everything
Andy Ihnatko's Celestial Waste of Bandwidth (BETA)
There are two different kinds of notebook users out there. Some people need a notebook that’s just as capable as a desktop. Others are more consumer-oriented; they have simpler needs that don’t go far beyond the Web, Email, Office, and basic photo and video editing and sharing.
Neither Air is a great answer for either user.
Anand Lal Shimpi & Vivek Gowri, Anandtech
Dan Miller, Macworld
David W. Martin, Cult Of Mac
Ninemsn
Proview Technology Co, Ltd, which is based in the southern city of Shenzhen, registered the iPad trademark in January 2000 and still owns the rights to its use in China, the Beijing News said, citing government archives.
Josh Ong, AppleInsider
Ben Brooks, The Brooks Review
There is certainly a large contingent of Mac users that have an overwhelming amount of data storage needs, but if you fall in that group than I doubt that even a 500GB 2 hard drive will suffice for you. So let’s go ahead and just throw out the ‘needing more storage space’ arguments against the MacBook Air, most people can and will figure out how to deal with that if it is even an issue for them, even then I don’t think it is an issue for the average user.
Jeff Porten, Macworld
New features in the update include syntax recognition for HTML5 entities, allowing for improved performance when working with the latest Web markup.
David Winograd, TUAW
CleanMyMac by Macpaw software is an amazing bit of Mac utility software that has one purpose in life: to streamline your hard drive by getting rid of all the extraneous stuff that you probably don't know is there and almost certainly don't need.
John Paczkowski, Wall Street Journal
The company tells me that the device wont hit the market until next year. Said a company spokesperson, “We’re sorry to disappoint customers waiting for the white iPhone yet again, but we’ve decided to delay its release until this Spring.”
Harry McCracken, Time
Charles McLellan, ZDNet UK
The 2010 Mac Pro is a very fine workstation-class desktop. Its stylish and practical design is little changed from previous versions for a good reason: it works.
Pocket Lint
iLife 11 sees a handful of incremental rather than revolutionary updates and new features that will tease you into upgrading rather than making it a must. iPhoto seems to have had the lion's share of them too, although some of the new features in iMovie are just as helpful.
Neil Bennett, Digital Arts
Derrick Story, Macworld
If you have an Intel Mac running Snow Leopard, the $49 iLife Upgrade may be worth the price for iPhoto ‘11 alone. The improved code and polished UI certainly improve the overall experience. But before you plunk down your money, spend some time looking at the new features such as Full Screen Mode, e-mail attachments, and the user interface in general. If these don’t appeal to you, then the added benefits of improved Facebook and Flickr integration, Letterpress cards, and the redesigned book making tool may not be enough to warrant an upgrade.
Joel Mathis, Macworld
The Guardian app offers endlessly customizable headlines, allowing you to shape the homepage according to your interests and the amount of coverage you want.
Lex Friedman, Macworld
I’d argue that the loss of the hardware orientation lock certainly degrades my iPad experience. Perhaps the device is no less powerful or fun to use, but a bit of what Apple might call its “magical” sheen has worn off.
Alan Zisman, Low End Mac
Mark Milian, CNN
Frequent travelers may appreciate the convenience of the 11-inch MacBook Air, which can remain in a passenger's bag when going through airport security, a Transportation Security Administration spokesman told CNN.
Dan Frakes, Macworld
Apple’s iPhoto and Aperture programs let you turn your high-resolution photos into posters, and other photo services offer similar poster-printing options. But unless you’re making billboards or signs, chances are you don’t want a huge, poster-sized version of a single photo. Instead, you want a collage of your favorite photos, artfully arranged, and Posterino 2 is perhaps the best tool for doing just that.
Sharon Machlis, Computerworld
Rob Crossley, Develop
Apple boss made angry Ballmer call when Xbox bought Mac experts and Halo creators Bungie.
John Brownlee, Cult Of Mac
One of the little secrets that has made Apple the most profitable company in tech is their ability to achieve high margins on their gizmos, but the new MacBook Airs might set a record even for Apple: according to analysts who have estimated its bill of materials, the entry-level, 11.6-inch MacBook Air costs only $718 to make.
Dave Caolo, TUAW
Just as the rumors suggested, Apple updated the official Apple Store app to include support for customer check-ins, reservations and other location-based services.
Kirk McElhearn, Macworld
Some see this as a slippery slope that Apple has embarked on and that will kill of the computer as we know it today. Others see this as a new way of working with computers, which become appliances rather than complicated tools. Which approach will win out? Time will tell.
Whitson Gordon, Macworld
Rafe Colburn, rc3.org
MG Siegler, TechCrunch
I know that sounds outrageous. Or like hyperbole. But it’s not. When I wrote up my initial thoughts, it was after only a few hours of usage. I hadn’t even used it outside the house yet. But now I have. I’ve used it almost everywhere I’ve been for just about a week now. There’s no question in my mind that this has replaced my MacBook Pro as my go-to machine.
Marco Tabini, Macworld
Like its predecessor, this move is going to take time, planning, and a lot of work on both hardware and software. In the meantime, we can look forward to our laptops getting thinner, lighter, and cooler—in every possible sense.
MG Siegler, TechCrunch
Yes, pointing and clicking can still be involved for some of this, but it seems that it’s more of the fallback now.
John Gruber, Daring Fireball
The new MacBook Airs — particularly the 11-inch model — don’t compete against the other MacBooks so much as they do the iPad. It’s like a “pro” solution for the same “in between a smartphone and a full-size laptop PC” market segment that the iPad sits in.
Josh Lowensohn, CNET
iLife '11 is a welcome, and long-overdue update to Apple's suite of digital media applications. This year's version adds a handful of advanced features to iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand without making them more difficult to use.
Stephen McDonell, ABC
Workers in southern China, who say they were assembling Apple laptops and iPhones, have become seriously ill after using a dangerous chemical.
Federico Viticci, Macstories
With a combination of sleep / power button and a fake emergency call, it is possible to access the iPhone’s contact list and phone keypad even if the device is locked.
Mike Schramm, TUAW
PBS for iPad is available for free right now on the App Store, and has full streams of lots of classic shows.
P. J. Connolly, eWeek
I wonder when people are going to wake up to the reality that the CPU of a mobile computer is no longer the factor that determines how useful the device is.
Shawn King, The Loop
Adam Pash, Lifehacker
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
Apple last week joined forces with Google, Facebook, Yahoo and others in an effort to dismiss patent infringement charges brought by billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
Christopher Breen, Macworld
All the changes that have been made—expanded lessons, How Did I Play, the greater variety of guitar amps and effects, and the addition of Flex Time and Groove Matching—are useful for those who take advantage of them. As both a musician and podcaster, I’ve found GarageBand to be an invaluable tool. And it remains so. If you’re one of the many people who have never bothered with it, perhaps it’s time to dig out that old Casio keyboard or Sears guitar and give it a try.
Christopher Breen, Macworld
Daniel Eran Dilger, AppleInsider
Apple has contracted with Unisys Corp to help it sell the Mac, iPhone and iPad to corporations and US government agencies outside of the company's core markets in education and consumers.
TJ Luoma, TUAW
Daniel Eran Dilger, AppleInsider
Stuart Dredge, Mobile Entertainment
Great business for tech mags. Not so great for others.
Brian X. Chen, Wired
Even though the 11-inch Air is roomier and sexier than a netbook, it still feels claustrophobic over extended periods of use. Staring at a crisp 11-inch screen induces squinting, and the idea of doing any serious work on this note is painful.
Shawn Blanc
Wilson Rothman, MSNBC
Apple's new MacBook Air doesn't take your breath away, like the original one did back in January 2008 when Steve Jobs yanked it from a Manila envelope. In the age of iPad, slender laptops are blasé. What Apple did do, with this relaunch, is turn a niche style statement into a mass-friendly option. It's MacBook Air, minus the early-adopter tax.
Eric Gwinn, Chicago Tribune
Newest MacBook edges out iPad to earn recommendation for first computer.
Noam Cohen, New York Times
Rather than exploit the multimedia potential of an app book, Mr. Elliott said he wanted to include tools that cater to a special group: Stephen Elliott readers.
Paul Venezia, InfoWorld
Apple's track record in the past 10 years reads like fiction. So what's next?
Electronista
For our money, the 11-inch MacBook Air is just about spot-on. A better processor would be great, as would a backlit keyboard and more battery life, but these aren't deal killers unless the 13-inch Air isn't an option. At this size, weight and level of comfort, the Air can win simply because it's the system you'd most want to carry with you. It's also arguably the true speed leader in the category.
Indo-Asian News Service
China's state-owned television network China Xinhua News Network Corporation (CNC) will provide a 24-hour free broadcast to iPad users in the country.
MG Siegler, TechCrunch
Apple has said that they’d like to get the first version of this Mac App Store out there in 90-days. They’ll undoubtedly have a range of third-party developers on board for the launch. But it will be shortly after that when we’ll begin to see exactly how this new distribution model will be used. And I suspect a lot of $5 micro-apps and small games may end up being the apps that drive the store.
David Morgenstern, ZDNet
What is significant is that in the new Air models we continue to see that Apple keeps driving its high-end technology down to the masses.
Tim Beyers, Motley Fool
What makes this OS important for investors is that it's anything but a Big Idea. No new product categories were created. No paradigms were shifted. Instead, Apple introduced enhancements that should make Macs more usable. In a word, Apple executed.
Joseph Menn and Chris Nuttall, Financial Times
Gdgt
What happens when Apple’s growing need for control over its ecosystem meets the inexorable trend of software migrating to the cloud? Will there even be much left to sell in an App Store in a few years?
Liz Castro, Pigs, Gourds, And Wikis
Upon upgrading to iPhoto 11, I got the revolving gray wheel for a very long time, and the Finder said that iPhoto had "stopped responding" so I force quit and started again. I was finally able to upgrade and rebuild my library, but there was nothing there.
ABC7Chicago
Apple invested $4 million in the North and Clybourn station next door to its new Lincoln Park store in a deal with the Chicago Transit Authority.
Leander Kahney, Cult Of Mac
Dan Frakes, Macworld
If the App Store becomes the de facto method for getting new programs, we could end up in a situation where developers feel forced to write software that meets Mac App Store guidelines. And if that happens, and if those guidelines don’t change dramatically, we’ll all lose.
The Small Wave
Netbooks are slow and cramped, the 11" MacBook Air is not.
Amanda Kooser, AOL Small Businesses
Loyal netbook users may still be dissuaded by the higher price tag and lingering wish list of hardware capabilities. But like it so often does, Apple has quickly become the category leader -- in a category of its own creation.
Lukas Mathis, Ignore The Code
I hope that the Mac App Store will serve as a showcase for the best Mac apps, rather than as a horrible mess of as many apps Apple can accept in the shortest time possible.
Mark Gurman, 9 To 5 Mac
Vincent Nguyen, Slashgear
As with the previous MacBook Air, the style will win hearts in the Apple Store; what makes the difference is that the day-to-day experience is strong enough to win over your head and wallet, too.
Jefferson Graham, USA Today
Jeff Carlson, Macworld
iMovie ’11 offers more than just the flashy movie trailers.
Cecilia Kang, Washington Post
Thursday's sit-down highlights a growing tension for the company, a once-forgotten relic that has transformed the music, publishing, mobile phone and television industries over the past 10 years with must-have mobile devices. Apple's expanding influence in the marketplace and its soaring market value, which hit $280 billion as of Friday, have garnered it closer scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers.
Apple's lobbying staff in Washington remains small and low-key. Analysts say that the company risks following in the footsteps of other high-tech firms that ignored political pressure until they were hit with antitrust investigations and regulatory complaints.
Craig Howie, Los Angeles Times
The wallet-size device gives users access to plenty of shows, movies and music without having to subscribe to a service. But sports fans won't find much to cheer about.
David Chartier, Macworld
John Blackburn, Watching Apple
You might think that animating in a new page to replace the old would simply slide the two in lock-step, like two cafeteria trays on a serving rail, but it’s more subtle than that.
Manton Reece
Every developer I've talked to uses at least some private APIs on the Mac, often to work around bugs or limitations in current APIs. It's disappointing that the Mac App Store is shipping before 10.7, because 10.7 would be a good opportunity to find out why developers still need private APIs and bake support directly into the next version of Mac OS X to solve common issues.
52 Tiger
Basically, PlainText invites the iPad into my workflow; it does not require me to force my workflow around my iPad.
Sarah E. Anderson, ComputerShopper
The 2010 MacBook Air is well worth buying—and we haven’t always felt that way about the MacBook Air. If you're a Mac loyalist (or a curious potential Mac adopter) looking for an exquisitely designed small machine, you've found your new best friend. And if you like the size—but not the performance—of netbooks and have the extra cash to spend, this machine is a killer-good choice for you, too.
John Gruber, Daring Fireball
This also absolves Apple of responsibility for the distribution of Flash Player security updates.
rc3.org
I don’t know what the future of Java on the Mac is, but I think it’s foolish for Apple to turn its back on hosting development environments that they don’t fully control.
Anil Dash
Arnold Kim, MacRumors.com
"Sun (now Oracle) supplies Java for all other platforms. They have their own release schedules, which are almost always different than ours, so the Java we ship is always a version behind. This may not be the best way to do it."
Electronista
Michael Grothaus, TUAW
Does that mean Jobs was lying? Not lying so much as 'selectively answering.' The developer asked Jobs a two-part question to which Jobs answered truthfully to one part (you will still be able to install & run OS X apps on the Mac that are not bought through the Mac App Store) and left out the part where Apple was actually working on a Mac App Store.
The Chosunilbo
Apple would be willing to improve its customer service policy for Korean iPhone users if a directly operated branch in Korea is established, Farrel Farhoudi, a senior director for the IT company's iPhone service, said in a parliamentary audit on Thursday.
John Carney, CNBC
David Gewirtz, ZDNet
It’s that OS X with a Mac App store could inspire other vendors to shut down software freedom and finally, drunk on DRM, make the nightmare of Orwell’s 1984 into a reality.
Dan Moren, Macworld
Portable speed demons who like to wring every last megahertz from their MacBooks have a new option as of Thursday as Apple has added an option for a 2.8GHz Core i7 processor to certain MacBook Pro models.
Brett Terpstra, TUAW
David Chartier, Macworld
The software makers Macworld spoke to—a range that includes both independent developers as well as some from established and sizable shops—are generally enthusiastic about this turn of events. But most have more questions than answers about the Mac App Store at this stage.
rc3.org
My sense is that we’re going to see people using App Store apps and traditionally installed apps side by side for a long time. The review requirements make it clear that users will be unable to install the kinds of applications they need for many kinds of work by way of the App Store, so the Mac will need to remain an open platform in order to accommodate those users.
AppleInsider
Christopher Breen, Macworld
Victor Agreda, Jr., TUAW
Chris Foresman, Ars Technica
All the developers we spoke with agree that Apple made the right move by making the Mac App Store just one of several ways to install applications. Unlike iOS, Apple is still allowing users to install applications from any source they choose.
Still, many are concerned about the future direction of software distribution if the App Store becomes so popular that users begin ignoring other sources.
Richard Gaywood, TUAW
In an announcement on developer.apple.com, Apple states that "As of the release of Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3, the version of Java that is ported by Apple, and that ships with Mac OS X, is deprecated." It now seems likely that OS X 10.7 will not have a Java install built into the OS, although the current runtime will continue to be supported during the regular support cycles for Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6.
Peter Kirn, Macworld
Reason 5 is a must-have upgrade for anyone who uses audio inputs or samples, or wants to program beats. For those who haven’t used Reason for a while, Kong is worth a second look. Superior sound design power coupled with elegant, efficient editing makes for one of the most accessible, fun-to-use drum machines in software yet.
David Pogue, New York Times
What follows, then, is an extremely personal review of Word and Outlook. A rant about polish and priority, really.
AppleInsider
Chris Foresman, Ars Technica
The combination of Core 2 Duo processor and NVIDIA 320M graphics is more powerful than the Atom and Intel IGP combo used in notebooks of similar size. While some comparable ultraportables use newer Arrandale chips in them, most also cost significantly more than the revised MacBook Air models.
Heather Kelly, Macworld
iPhoto ’11, Apple’s latest version of its popular photo editing and management software, doesn’t introduce dramatic new features, like iPhoto ’09 did with Faces and Places. But what it does debut are some well designed new features and inspired integrations.
Jason Snell, Macworld
After an afternoon with Apple’s smallest laptop, we share some first impressions.
Jackie Dove, Macworld
There are more Websites online now than ever. And despite iWeb’s considerable issues, it’s still a great app for the consumer audience it was intended to serve. And there’s plenty of enthusiasm around iWeb—just note the constant stream of new templates for it, for example.
Dave Winer, Scripting News
I know intuitively that we took the next step yesterday toward the day when the Mac is not an open platform in this sense. I'm not going to say it's right or wrong, or a betrayal of trust, or make any moral judgements. I'm not even going to say it's not wise, for all I know it's the best business decision Apple could make.
But for me, it sucks. Makes me sad.
MacNotes.de
While many users are happy about having FaceTime on their Mac, we are a little anxious about some security glitches present in the current beta of the software. With a few clicks others can make use of the user’s Apple ID and reset the password with ease.
Dan Frakes, Macworld
When it comes to the everyday experience of your typical Mac user, the announcement of the Mac App Store—and the fact that it will be available in the next 90 days—just may be the biggest Mac news in quite a while.
Philip Michaels, Macworld
Rixstep
Ross Miller, Engadget
Amusingly enough, you know what's missing from the new MacBook Air models? Adobe Flash Player.
Jonathan Seff, Macworld
The Aperture 3.1 update includes loads of changes, fixes, and improvements in the areas of the Aperture library, adjustments, Faces, printing, slideshows, Places, metadata, search, importing, tethering, importing from iPhoto, exporting, Web sharing, video, books, and plug-ins.
Miguel Helft, New York Times
Over the last few years, Apple used technologies from its Macintosh computers to create the iPhone and the iPad, building a multibillion-dollar mobile computing business that now accounts for 60 percent of its revenue.
Now Apple is doing the reverse, taking technologies like the multitouch user interface from the iPhone and the iPad and using them to refresh its Mac business.
TJ Luoma, TUAW
Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek
Some Mac OS developers see problems with Apple's 'onerous' terms.
Sam Grobart, New York Times
Nick Bilton, New York Times
This might seem like a benefit for traditional software developers like Adobe and Microsoft, but in reality, it will put them up against a whole new range of competitors that can distribute desktop software in a way that consumers are now familiar with.
Marco Arment
Josh Helfferich, TUAW
John Biggs, CrunchGear
To sum up, the App store is a great move for programmers and it’s an especially good move for Apple. Depending on how cynical you are, you can say Apple is expanding the potential audience of app buyers or locking down devs in an arduous financial deal. Either way, Apple makes money.
Michael Grothaus, TUAW
Apple today has announced a Mac App Store based upon their popular iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad App Stores. The Mac App Store will offer one-click download of Mac apps, auto-installation, auto-updates, a 70/30 split for developers, and all the apps you buy are licensed for use on all your personal Macs.
David Dahlquist, Macworld
Objective Development has released an update for its network monitoring utility, Little Snitch, adding new domain rules, a redesigned connection alert window, and numerous bug fixes and improvements.
Brooke Crothers, CNET
Daniel Eran Dilger, AppleInsider
The technology invested in making a mobile version of Mac OS X to power the iPhone, and in adapting that to serve the iPad, is now coming full circle back to the Mac, Steve Jobs said, as the company now works to fold many of its mobile innovations into the next version of Mac OS X 10.7, codenamed Lion.
Casey Johnston, Ars Technica
At today's special event in Cupertino, CA, Apple CEO Steve Jobs saved the expected hardware announcement for last ("one more thing"). We expected new MacBook Airs, and that's what we got: new versions that are thinner and lighter than their predecessors, and come in 13.3" and 11.6" sizes. With lightweight processors, they're not powerhouses, but they do offer flash-only storage, instant start-up, and up to a month of standby time on a single battery charge.
Joel Mathis, Macworld
Aron Trimble, TUAW
Serenity Caldwell, Macworld
Apple on Wednesday unveiled iLife ’11 at its Back to the Mac event in Cupertino, demoing three of the suite’s updated applications—iPhoto, iMovie, and Garageband. Features showcased included a new, iOS-like full-screen mode for iPhoto, redone audio editing and trailer templates in iMovie, in addition to revamped recording and teaching tools for GarageBand. The updated suite was released Wednesday and will cost $49. It will also come preinstalled on all new Macs.
Karen Haslam, Macworld UK
Cancom has opened an Apple retail shop onboard the Queen Elizabeth.
Christopher Breen, Macworld
Given the new Apple TV’s lower-price, more responsive performance, and Netflix support, it’s likely that owners of the original Apple TV are unplugging the things by the score and replacing them with the current model. But, when doing so, they’ve surely wondered what to do with the old one. We have some suggestions.
Sam Oliver, AppleInsider
New sections on the Apple Discussions page added Wednesday include iMovie '11, iPhoto '11, and GarageBand '11, all part of the iLife software suite. There is also a forum titled "MBA (Need official name)" which will likely be the discussion home for the newly redesigned MacBook Air.
Topher Kessler, CNET
Thomas Kaplan, New York Times
More intriguing, perhaps, would be if Apple instead switched gears from components and began to pursue companies that deal in the world of content — either companies that deliver content or make it.
The most headline-grabbing acquisition Apple could make would likely be in the realm of social networking.
Charles Hamilton, GigaOM
Gabriel Madway, Reuters
Apple's first margin miss in at least two years renewed chatter among some investors that its profitability may have peaked, as prices fall in the smartphone industry and the lower-margin iPad became a bigger part of the mix.
Erica Ogg, CNET
Balsillie is calling out Jobs for comparing RIM and Apple's sales periods when they don't perfectly overlap, and for using the number of iPhones shipped to retailers and carriers instead of actual devices sold to consumers.
Caroline McCarthy , CNET
Dodsworth elaborated, "We only have two guys developing on Android TweetDeck so that shows how small an issue fragmentation is."
Alexander Vaughn, AppAdvice
Tom Kaneshige, CIO
Philip Michaels, Macworld
Users of Bare Bones Software’s Yojimbo information organizer can now take their data with them. Bare Bones has released an iPad companion app for Yojimbo that stores the notes, passwords, PDFs, bookmarks, and images you’d stash in the desktop version.
Christopher Breen, Macworld
Scott McNulty, Macworld
Amazon's updated reader now lets you add and edit notes and highlight passages, both of which are synced across all Kindle devices and apps using the company's Whispersync technology. This update also includes the ability to search within a book, a much-requested feature. Multi-column reading mode, which was just added to the iOS Kindle apps, makes its debut on Kindle for Mac with this release as well.
Monifa Thomas, Chicago Sun-Times
Emergency room doctors are using them to order lab tests and medication. Plastic surgeons are using them to show patients what they might look like after surgery. And medical residents are using them as a quick reference to look up drug interactions and medical conditions.
Since Apple's iPad hit the market in April, doctors at Chicago area hospitals are increasingly using the hot-selling tablet as a clinical tool.
Neil Hughes, AppleInsider
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs hinted this week that his company is eyeing a few major acquisitions with its massive $51 billion in cash, with just "one or more" deals possible in the near future, rather than a spending spree.
Dan Frakes, Macworld
From within the PowerTunes window, you can create as many new iTunes libraries—or add as many existing libraries—as you like, each with its own media and settings.
Stephen Shankland, CNET
Apple has plenty to worry about when it comes to Android competition. But touting the ability to build Android from scratch is probably the easiest part of the Android threat for Apple to laugh off. As Apple has demonstrated, technology customers prefer finished products to raw materials.
Tony Bradley, Macworld UK
While rivals unveil prototypes, the iPad has already sold millions and is available almost everywhere you look.
Macworld
Steve Jobs had a lot to say Monday during his conference call with analysts following Apple's announcement of record earnings and sales. Here's the Apple CEO in his own words.
Daniel Eran Dilger, AppleInsider
On the heels of a record breaking quarter, Apple's retail operations are set to dramatically expand over the next fiscal year, with 40 to 50 new locations slated to open worldwide.
Lex Friedman, Macworld
Between neither “actively investing” nor “actively planning” Tweetie 2 for Mac, it seems that the once-innovative Twitter client may now slowly wither away. The current incarnation still works, though it lacks integration with not-so-new Twitter features like native retweets and lists.
Gabriel Madway, Reuters
Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs went on the offensive on Monday after a rare sales disappointment by the iPad maker sent its shares tumbling, but his biting words failed to reverse market sentiment.
AppleInsider
AppleInsider
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs on Monday took pause during his company's fourth quarter conference call to extinguish rumors that the company is working on a smaller iPad based around a 7-inch screen.
Troy Wolverton, San Jose Mercury News
Apple posted record results today, blowing through analysts' expectation, thanks in large part to stellar iPhone sales. In the wake of the stellar report, the Nasdaq halted trading in Apple's stock.
The company sold 14.1 million iPhones in the quarter. That was a record number for a quarter and up 91 percent from the number it sold in the same period a year ago.
Reuters
Apple Inc posted better-than-expected profit and revenue, and issued strong forecasts again as iPhone sales took off, but its weaker-than-expected gross margins and iPad shipments disappointed investors.
Andy Affleck, TidBITS
MacGourmet 3.0 features a completely revamped interface, including greater control over marking recipes made, flagged, starred, and more in the summary view, along with new themes and greater flexibility in theme appearance.
Erica Ogg, CNET
For its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings, revenue clocked in at $20.34 billion, and earnings at $4.31 billion, or $4.64 per share. That's an increase in revenue of 67 percent from the same quarter a year ago. Investors were expecting revenue between $17.87 billion and $19.86 billion, and earnings between $3.43 and $4.41 per share.
David Dahlquist, Macworld
Objective Development has released its first LaunchBar update in nearly a year, adding support for Firefox bookmark folders, extra Calculcator and Phone number functions, and a ton of minor tweaks and improvements.
Jonathan Seff, Macworld
Joe Kissell, Macworld
Yukari Iwatani Kane, Wall Street Journal
Oh, to have Apple Inc.'s kind of problem. While consumer confidence remains weak, the strength of Apple's quarterly results Monday will depend largely on how fast it has been able to meet demand for products such as iPhones and iPads.
Joab Jackson, IDG News Service
Adobe has launched the new version of its Reader PDF viewing software, and with it comes a number of changes: a new Roman-based numbering scheme (“Adobe Reader X”), tightened security and, for the browser version, a substantially reduced user interface. Adobe’s flagship PDF creation software, Adobe Acrobat, has been upgraded as well.
Joe Kissell, Macworld
Some alternatives to MobileMe and Google.
Josh Holat, Appletell
Steven Sande, TUAW
James Galbraith, Macworld
The 12-core Mac Pro is certainly not for everyone. It is expensive and unimpressive when performing everyday computing tasks. However, for anyone who makes a living working on high-end applications that can use and abuse the 24 virtual cores, the amount of time saved on processor-intensive tasks results in the 12-core Mac Pro being a bargain.
Jay Palmer, Barron's
Apple TV lives up to the hype, letting you access video libraries from Netflix, YouTube, and the iTunes Store on your HDTV.
Devin Coldewey, CrunchGear
Powerful and easy to use, this is probably the best cross-platform photography management software out there — though navigation and organization aren’t the most intuitive. Version 3 adds some useful features, but whether they are useful enough for you to upgrade is for you to decide.
Jeff Carlson, Macworld
Being a mobile app, some capabilities aren’t available—or are they? Here are some tips for expanding the editing features of iMovie 1.1.
Dan Frakes, Macworld
If you’ve never used MaxMenus, it’s a Mac OS X System Preferences pane that lets you create multiple custom, hierarchical menus for quickly accessing your favorite files, folders, and programs. The number of menus you can have is, for practical purposes, unlimited.
Jonathan Seff, Macworld
David Dahlquist, Macworld
The 9.1.2 update delivers the usual “general stability and compatibility” improvements, as well as improved compatibility with 6 and 12-core Mac Pro systems and support for iOS control surface apps that utilize the OSC protocol.
David Chartier, Macworld
Jeff Carlson, TidBITS
As you can tell, I'm a big fan of Photoshop Elements—not just because it offers professional photo editing capabilities in a reasonable price, but because Adobe has done a good job of figuring out how it can best help photographers who don't push pixels for a living.
Karl Hodge, Macworld UK
Mark-up text for conversion to speech with a reading tool that puts your Mac’s core features to good use.
Brett Terpstra, TUAW
You may know that you can expand and collapse Finder folders in a tree view using the left and right arrow keys. But did you know that you can expand or collapse all of the root-level folders at once?
Scott Blitstein, GigaOM
After six months I think I have reached a plateau of sorts in terms of productivity. I am feeling very comfortable with my current setup and am ready to move onto scripting, adding more utilities for file processing, and my personal goal of mastering the Services menu.
Leander Kahney, Cult Of Mac
"Looking back, it was a big mistake that I was ever hired as CEO. I was not the first choice that Steve wanted to be the CEO. He was the first choice, but the board wasn’t prepared to make him CEO when he was 25, 26 years old."
Jeffrey Mincey, Mac 360
Jennifer Valentino-Devries, Wall Street Journal
The rise of mainstream tablet computers is proving to have unforeseen benefits for children with speech and communication problems—and such use has the potential to disrupt a business where specialized devices can cost thousands of dollars.
Kirk Hiner, Appletell
AppleInsider
Both AT&T and Verizon announced Thursday that they will begin selling Apple's iPad in their brick-and-mortar retail stores on Thursday the 28th, with the latter offering the device in conjunction with its MiFi mobile hot spots.
David Winograd, TUAW
It's been over six months since the release of the iPad on April 3rd, and the simultaneous launch of iBooks and the iBookstore, which promised to give Amazon's Kindle and Kindle Store a run for its money. I figured that this would be a good time to see just how the iBookstore has progressed. The answer, in a word: poorly ... very poorly.
Dan Moren, Macworld
The highlight of the new Calendar, besides a streamlined and updated Web interface reminiscent of the iPad’s Calendar app, is a bigger emphasis on sharing.
Michael E. Cohen and Adam C. Engst, TidBITS
For those of us who have spouses, companions, siblings, children, or parents with whom we share both musical tastes and living quarters, the "one person, one media collection" model doesn't work well. Nor does it work well even for one person, if that one person has, for example, a computer in a home office and another in the living room, and wants access to the same iTunes library in both places. What we want is a central iTunes library that everyone on a home network (or using separate user accounts on a single Mac) can share when each of us runs iTunes. But that's not quite what Apple has given us.
Andy Ihnatko's Celestial Waste of Bandwidth (BETA)
But yes, the big deal is that Apple and Verizon have clearly allowed themselves to be seen holding hands in a restaurant. Perhaps they’re planning a summer wedding.
New York Times
Apple isn’t commenting on reports that it will release a new iPhone for use on Verizon Wireless’s network next year. We find the prospect of a non-AT&T iPhone tantalizing. Could it mean that wireless service providers will finally have to accept real competition?
Walter S. Mossberg, Wall Street Journal
Microsoft’s new Mac Office is by far the best Mac version of the suite I’ve used, and I can recommend it.
John Boudreau, San Jose Mercury News
Apple infatuation has officially arrived in the land of 800-million-plus mobile phone users.
Karl Hodge, Macworld UK
While other FTP tools for the Mac disguise the process, Yummy FTP lays it bare – and it’s all the better for it.
Bryan Wolfe, AppAdvice
T-Mobile’s exclusive deal to sell the iPhone 4 in Germany is dead. And with it, the last of the exclusivity deals in Europe is no more.
Christopher Breen, Macworld
Dave Caolo, TUAW
The latest application from The Iconfactory, Take Five, is meant to eliminate one pesky problem: the realization that you've been wearing headphones that aren't pumping out any music. I'm glad to say that it succeeds.
Nick Spence, Macworld UK
Local lawmakers will ask Apple to explain the company’s after-sales service policy, which officials and consumers complain is unfair.
Andy Ihnatko's Celestial Waste Of Bandwidth (BETA)
What will they talk about? Well, you can see a lion peeking out from behind the logo there. Soo…
Joshua Topolsky, Engadget
According to a statement from the company issued late in the day, beginning some time "later in 2010" Mac users will be able to live the dream along with their PC counterparts by downloading a beta OS X application which will allow you to sync "select content" from a Mac of their choosing to a Windows Phone.
Reuters
Hon Hai, the world's largest electronic parts maker, will raise prices from October for some clients, including Apple, according to a Citibank analyst, a Taiwan newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Josh Ong, AppleInsider
Apple announced Tuesday that its newly redesigned Apple Retail Store in Saint Louis, Mo., which will feature a first-of-its-kind lounge area, will open Saturday, Oct. 16 at 9 a.m.
Alexis Kayhill, Mac 360
Joel Mathis, Macworld
Chris Foresman, Ars Technica
SquareTrade, a company that offers a third-party warranty for consumer electronics that covers accidental damage, has released an analysis of damage rates comparing the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 3GS. According to damage reported by warranty holders, the GorillaGlass-clad iPhone 4 suffers from damaged screens almost twice as often as the iPhone 3GS before it.
Charles Moore, GigaOM
Fake allows you to drag discrete browser Actions into a graphical Workflow that, once configured, can be saved and run to perform various online tasks automatically.
Austin Carr, Fast Company
This is what happens when Apple creates a social network: Ping has been designed to be as sanitized as an Apple store. Can you even think of another social network that hands VIPs a book of rules before joining?
Rob Griffiths, Macworld
I’ve been quite happy with the macro experience in Excel 2011. Now that Tools -> Macros does something useful once again, I can finally retire Excel 2004.
Dave Caolo, TUAW
Apple has published official Ping usage guidelines for artists which describe exactly how to create an artist profile and begin posting content.
Derik DeLong, Macworld
Publishing your sceenshots to the web for quick sharing is easily done with many free apps. GrabBox is yet another to add to the ranks. While it’s not the first to try to fill this niche, it separates itself from the rest with a couple unique features, including using Dropbox as its online service.
Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times
DeNA, the Japanese social game giant, said Tuesday that it would acquire Ngmoco, a Silicon Valley iPhone game developer, for $400 million — one of the largest deals ever involving an iPhone application developer and another sign that the iPhone is fast becoming the hottest game device on the market.
Joshua Schnell, Macgasm
Apple stores have taken a while to make their way to Canada, but now that they have reached our borders, more and more continue to come. We can’t really complain much about it though — the more the merrier. This time, Quebec is being graced with another Apple Store, this time in the picturesque Quebec City.
AFP
US technology giant Apple is seeking approval to sell its iPad in South Korea, the telecommunications regulator said Tuesday, after the iPhone's local popularity fanned interest in the tablet computer.
Josh Ong, AppleInsider
Yahoo has updated its Messenger iPhone app to allow video calls from the iPhone to a computer, a feature that Apple has yet to release for its FaceTime standard.
Electronista
Steven Sande, TUAW
Dave Caolo, TUAW
Apple has been awarded a trademark for the phrase, "There's an app for that." The tagline has been used to promote the App Store and iOS devices almost since their inception, and has really caught on. From tech articles to jokes told around the water cooler, many people have adopted the phrase.
Christopher Breen, Macworld
Chris Foresman, Ars Technica
We spoke with Dominique Leca and Dihn Viêt Hoà about their motivation to create a Mac OS X e-mail client, fueled by innovative iPad apps and frustration with vaporware projects. We also spent a little time with the beta of Sparrow to check out its Twitter-influenced user interface.
Renai LeMay, ZDNet.com.au
Telstra chief executive David Thodey last week said there were problems in the telco's relationship with notoriously demanding manufacturer Apple and criticised what he called the company's lack of openness, in a speech in which he praised Google and demonstrated Telstra's upcoming Android tablets built by Chinese vendor Huawei.
Jonny Evans, Computerworld
Just over six months since iPad reached the shops it has already built for itself the visibility it takes to attract interest from those at the heart of corporate finance. It has motivated banks, financial houses and world-class firms such as Bloomberg to produce apps for the platform.
Why?
Asher Moses, Sydney Morning Herald
The consumer watchdog has taken Apple to task over warranty issues as reports surface of new design problems relating to the iPhone 4's glass body.
UPI
Eminem's publisher is demanding Apple pay more than $2 million in a settlement over iTunes downloads, court records in Detroit reveal.
Josh Ong, AppleInsider
Apple has pressured the Chinese smartphone maker into halting production and freezing sales of its M8 smartphone due to alleged patent violations.
Whitson Gordon, Macworld
Jim Rossman, Dallas Morning News
Apple has a funny way of doing things sometimes. It's rare for a company to release a new version of a product and take away key features.
Josh Ong, AppleInsider
Despite earlier references on the Apple website to a "vibrating alert" for the fourth-generation iPod touch, the new device lacks a vibration motor.
Chris Foresman, Ars Technica
James Savage, Macworld
Chris Holt, Macworld
Left 4 Dead 2 has shrugged off the predecessor's underdog status, and has now become an expansive, varied, and beautifully atmospheric standard for which all other survival horror games are judged. It's no wonder some consider it the scariest video game of all time.
Michael E. Cohen, TidBITS
If you have handcrafted pages in your Sites folder, no worries (at least until Apple changes the rules again): your site will go on. But, if any of those pages link to media in your Movies or Pictures folders (as a few of my pages do, and as the picture in this article did until I moved it into the new /Sites/Pictures folder that I just created), those pages will no longer show the linked media.
Michael deAgonia, Computerworld
Latest version is streamlined for streaming video -- but more content would be good.
Karl Hodge, Macworld UK
With cloud storage and file sharing becoming the norm, Mac users work in increasingly mixed platform environments. While open standards for audio, video, documents and images make that easy on one level, there are some remaining idiosyncrasies. Filerr concentrates on one problem in particular: incompatible file names.
Jim Dalrymple, The Loop
Apple said that content published with iWeb, the company’s Web publishing tool and part of its iLife suite, will not be affected by the change.
Michael Kan, Macworld UK
Chinese users wanting to buy an iPhone 4 best first place a reservation before venturing to an Apple Store. With the device selling out in retail outlets across China, Apple is now requiring all potential customers to first reserve the device online, before they can come buy the device at one of their stores.
Rich Jaroslovsky, BusinessWeek
The Apple TV is the company's boldest foray yet into the living room.
Walsingham, ZDNet UK
Sharon Zardetto, Macworld
Smart folders can save you time when you would otherwise need to rebuild a search from scratch, helping you find, track, and organize files and folders.
Josh Ong, AppleInsider
A new firmware fix for older MacBook and MacBook Pro models solves a charging issue that takes place when using the latest MagSafe power adapters.
MacNN
A strange bug discovered when eastern and southern Australia (excluding Queensland) changed to Daylight Savings Time last weekend will be patched by the company in an upcoming software update, Apple told Australian media today. The bug caused iOS devices with recurring alarms set to go off an hour earlier than they should, ignoring the time change. Some users reported their alarms simply didn't go off at all.
Jim Lewis, Slate Magazine
Why art books won't become e-books any time soon.
Yumi Wilson, SF Gate
It was Friday, just after 1 p.m. when I arrived at Apple. I had to go to Apple, in Stonestown, because my brand-spanking-new power adapter had quit working.
Kirk Hiner, Appletell
Dan Frakes, Macworld
QuoteFix is a plug-in for Mac OS X's Mail that "fixes" replies and forwarded message by placing replies below quoted text, stripping previous signatures, and removing quotes above a certain level,
Paul Miller, Engadget
Apple weathered that Antennagate storm surprisingly well, but now there's another potential cloudburst on the horizon, and it's been pre-named for your convenience: "Glassgate." Or maybe "Glass-That-Shatters-If-Scratched-By-A-Casegate."
Negar Salek, CRN
Apple has dramatically overhauled its premium reseller partner program (APR) by bolstering support for its top-tier channel partners while increasing requirements for entry.
The vendor has also begun co-funding renovations of reseller stores which are prepared to follow the formula of Apple's own retail stores. Apple representatives were strictly enforcing compliance to Apple's retail formula, right down to measuring the distance between displays on the counters.
Kirk McElhearn, Kirkville
Greg Sandoval, CNET
Motorola, one of the major telephone handset makers, has accused Apple in a lawsuit of violating 18 patents. In an announcement on Motorola's site, the company said that Apple incorporated in the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, and certain Mac computers, or in associated services, technnology that was developed by Motorola.
Neil Hughes and Kasper Jade, AppleInsider
Supplies of Apple's MacBook Air have dried up throughout the company's indirect sales channels, fueling rumors that a significant makeover to the lightweight notebooks is fast approaching.
Jay J. Nelson, Macworld
Every design studio should have Fontographer 5 for its wealth of font creation, editing, fixing, and conversion abilities. Individual designers will have to weigh its price against their needs. If all you need to do is convert fonts among formats and platforms, FontLab's TransType Pro and FontGear's FontXChange are simpler and more economical options. But for font creation and enhancement, Fontographer is a must.
Zeljka Zorz, Help Net Security
Knox (v. 2.0.5) is a Mac application that will allow you to create password-protected and encrypted vaults on your computer or to turn an external drive into one in order to securely move data from one Mac to another.
Brett Terpstra, TUAW
Tweet Library is a Twitter client, but its main feature set revolves around archiving and organizing your tweets.
John Letzing, MarketWatch
Apple Inc. has agreed to settle a securities class-action lawsuit related to alleged stock-option backdating for $16.5 million, the New York City Employees’ Retirement System said Wednesday.
Kirk McElhearn, Kirkville
The 2x icon shows what the correct speed should be, and the user’s manual for the nano confirms this. So there’s a bug on the iPod nano, causing the speed to be less than it should, but ending up with what Apple should have used.
Bill Ray, The Register
Apple has removed a previously approved BitTorrent client from the iTunes app store - though even the developer admits it only got approved 'cos it didn't mention the protocol.
Kirk McElhearn, Kirkville
Shawn Blanc
Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS
Alexis Kayhill, Mac 360
Geoffrey Goetz, GigaOM
While the press and the entertainment industry are looking for a revolution in television, Apple could quietly and quickly swoop in and take over the kiosk market, placing an iOS device if not in the hands of, at least within 100 yards of every consumer on the planet.
Dan Nosowitz, Popular Science
Ashby Jones, Wall Street Journal
Tim Chaten, App Advice
Just like Bluetooth, AirPlay remains the default output unless you tell your iOS device otherwise. Users with the beta of iOS 4.2 can actually turn on AirPlay mode in the iPod app. They can then jump into apps that currently don’t support AirPlay: Pzizz, Pandora on the iPad, and even Hulu Plus, and stream audio to Apple TV (or Airport express).
Philip Michaels, Macworld
Adobe rushed out a pair of updates to its Reader and Acrobat Pro products on the Mac Tuesday to tackle security holes in the software. The updates also improve stability of Reader and Acrobat, according to Adobe.
Michael Rose, TUAW
Dan Frakes, Macworld
Alarms takes a novel approach to task-tracking, giving you a timeline onto which you can drop files, e-mail messages, and URLs you want to deal with by a particular date and time.
David Chartier, Macworld
Benj Edwards, Macworld
9 To 5 Mac
Chapter 31
What I did was to create a case sensitive partition on the Mac and move my “Workspace” (project folders and files) and “MySQL” install to the new partition. Now any case sensitive issues will be found during development which is much preferable to finding them in staging/production.
Philip Neches, Huffington Post
When I was a kid, I'd smuggle a book and a flashlight into bed. The iPad is better.
Alexander Vaughn, App Advice
Christopher Breen, Macworld
You can password protect any folder by turning that folder into an encrypted disk image.
Neil Hughes, AppleInsider
The new, improved, $99 Apple TV is a step in the right direction for the set-top box famously referred to as Apple's "hobby," but the incremental upgrades it offers are, for now, just a tease of bigger and better things to come for the platform.
Minimal Mac
Adrian Gostick And Chester Elton, Fast Company
The release of the iPod has famously revolutionized the music business, and that was exactly what Apple CEO Steve Jobs and the iPod team set out to do; they are an ideal example of a team with a big dream. But it's interesting to note that their dream wasn't entirely original, which in some ways made it even more ambitious. MP3 players had already been on the market from other manufacturers. But Apple dreamed of making a player that would be transformative, that would be world class.
Wayne Rash, eWeek
In the tech world there’s innovation, there’s competition through innovation, and, for Microsoft, Oracle and Apple lately, there’s litigation.
Andrew Flocchini, GigaOM
If you need a smarter alternative to Apple’s Mail, Postbox 2.0 may be just the thing. It’s a Mozilla-based email client that prides itself on saving you time. It also has support for plug-ins, native archiving, to-do tags and tabs. All these features are aimed at creating a more organized inbox.
Miguel Helft And John Schwartz, New York Times
Apple is challenging a jury verdict that could force it to pay as much as $625.5 million to a company founded by David Gelernter, a Yale computer science professor, for infringing three patents related to how files are displayed on the iPod, the iPhone and Macintosh computers.
A federal jury in Tyler, Tex., on Friday awarded the company, Mirror Worlds, $208.5 million in damages for each of the patents infringed. They include a patent related to Cover Flow, a central feature of Apple’s computers and mobile devices that allows users to scroll through album covers, photos and other files.
Elizabeth Fish, PC World
Who needs an iPad when you have a broken MacBook? Matt at Enigma Penguin decided that he would recycle his old laptop and turn it into a tablet.
AppleInsider
Shawn Blanc
In many ways Dropbox and Google are driving the iOS / OS X relationship more than MobileMe is. While MobileMe is syncing my contacts and calendars, Dropbox is syncing my most-dear files: the projects, articles, and notes I’m interacting with every day. What are iWork.com and MobileMe for if not for the sharing and syncing of everything between our Macintoshes, iPhones, and iPads in sync?
Wang Shanshan, Caixin
Plans to sell USIM cards for 3G service for iPad froze September 1, disappointing many consumers as well as the market, which had expected a fast track for the telecom's 3G. Now, as Chinese consumers queue in Apple stores for iPads with WiFi, not 3G, the telecom operator is being forced to reassess its position.
A spokesman for China Unicom said the company had received no advance information about Apple's decision to sell iPads independently. As a result, he said rather bluntly, "some actions taken by Apple Inc. are making things awkward for China Unicom." The spokesman added that "preparations for the sale of the Unicom version of the iPad are still in process, and it's not likely to be launched in the near future."
Brier Dudley, Seattle Times
Compared with the growing pile of gadgets that already connect TVs to the Internet, the Apple TV is fairly limited. It's the smallest and most stylish of the bunch, but like with a high-heeled shoe, you'll trade some capabilities for those looks.
Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica
Rene Ritchie, TiPb
Apple TV (2010) isn’t a leap forward, it isn’t even a step. It’s a shuffle to the side. But that shuffle cuts one heck of an angle and positions Apple’s hobby to perhaps finally break through into something more. A lot will depend on the next 12 months, how much Apple pushes it and how fast content fills out. A lot also depends on those myopic Hollywood studies who still haven’t gotten on board with volume pricing (much less subscription services, which would be killer).
Eric Smith
Every Apple iPhone shipped since its introduction in 2007 contains a unique, software-visible serial number -- the Unique Device Identifier, or UDID. Apple provided this functionaly to allow application developers to uniquely identify the iPhone being used for purposes such as storing application preferences or video game high scores. While the UDID does facilitate the process of collecting and storing certain types of data, it also creates a tempting opportunity for use as a tracking agent or to correlate with other personally-identifiable information in unintended ways. In this paper, we investigate where and how UDIDs are being shared, with whom, and how the UDIDs are being used.
(Note: Link goes to a PDF document.)
Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica
The user data collected by some iOS apps can be correlated to real-world identities, posing a privacy risk to iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users. According to research from Bucknell University, a majority of iOS apps transmit user data back to their own servers. But because some store more info than others—and in some cases, in plaintext—it can be easily pieced together to reveal more about individual users than they bargained for.
Randall Stross, New York Times
The Jobs of the mid-1980s probably never could have made Apple what it is today if he hadn’t embarked on a torment-filled business odyssey.
Dan Frommer, The Business Insider
Adidas supposedly pulled its $10+ million ad campaign from the iAd program because Apple CEO Steve Jobs was being too much of a control freak. According to one industry exec, Adidas decided to cancel its iAds after Apple rejected its creative concept for the third time.
TorrentFreak
John Paczkowski, Wall Street Journal
According to a new survey from NPD, only 13 percent of iPad owners bought the device in lieu of a PC. For the other 87 percent, it was an incremental purchase, a luxury purchase.
MG Siegler, TechCrunch
J.D. Biersdorfer, New York Times
Josh Ong, AppleInsider
AppleInsider
Christopher Breen, Macworld
Its continued reliance on iTunes and the iTunes Store make it a less-than-universally-desirable device.
Of course there’s always the possibility that we’re seeing just the first step in The Bigger Plan—the one where the Apple TV embraces its iOS roots and becomes the iPad for TV, allowing you to install any app you like (including games as well as media apps). Should that day arrive, goodbye hobby, hello necessity.
Steven Sande, TUAW
John C. Welch, Macworld
Outlook 2011 is different enough that Entourage users will have to make big adjustments. Users from current versions of Outlook for Windows will probably have the fewest issues. As a 1.0 product, there are a number of feature holes and bugs that need to be fixed and fixed quickly, but none were major inhibitors. If you need an Exchange client on the Mac, Outlook 2011 is the king. It’s not cheap (being part of Office 2011), and there’s no way to just buy Outlook 2011, but if you need Exchange, or just want something more than Mail, iCal, and Address Book give you, Outlook is a no-brainer.
Philip Michaels, Macworld
In addition to the new user interface, GraphicConverter 7 offers a new window for multiple conversion as well as stepless zooming of preview images in the browser.
Allan Hoffman, The Star-Ledger
The thing is addictive, and if you think you’ll buy one and consider it yours, rather than also your roommate’s and your kid’s and anyone else in your household, guess again. In my experience, the iPad is something like a video game console, a television or a stereo — a semi-communal device more than a personal one.
Michael Gartenberg, Macworld
Apple has carefully balanced iPod features over the years with interesting segmentations. And this year, the lineup is quite clear and linear. They are all called iPod, but they all do something different for Apple.
John C. Dvorak, PC Magazine
The tech scene in general could use some more of the buzz and energy you can find any night in an Apple store. Now that everyone knows exactly how to do it right, what are they waiting for?
Wall Street Journal
Matthew Moskovciak, CNET
The Apple TV's new low $99 price makes it an easy impulse buy for Apple fans looking to bring Netflix into the living room, but you may want to wait until more content--or Apple's forthcoming AirPlay update--becomes available.
AppleInsider
The chief technology officer of social networking site Facebook said he expects that his company will reach a deal with Apple to integrate with its own music-centric social networking service, Ping.
Doug Aamoth, Techland
Silicon Republic
“AirPlay represents another effort by Apple to stake a leadership position in the burgeoning connected home market,” said Jordan Selburn, lead analyst of consumer electronics for iSuppli. “The technology leverages Apple’s dominant position in the MP3/PMP player market.
“With AirPlay, the iPad, iPod and iPhone can be the servers for a home filled with music — and music distribution via iTunes,” said Selburn.
Loretta Chao, Wall Street Journal
Apple customers who were hoping the company’s recently expanded presence in China would mean easier access to officially sold iPhone 4s have been disappointed, but a run on the devices has been kind to at least one group: gadget scalpers.
Jonny Evans, 9 To 5 Mac
Dave Caolo, TUAW
Carrie-Ann Skinner, PC Advisor
Medical students at the University of Leeds are being given Apple iPhones to ensure they can access text books when away from campus.
Jonathan Seff and Jason Snell, Macworld
The new Apple TV is a spectacular hardware upgrade from the old model. The device is easy to use, and excels at three tasks: playing back content from local iTunes computers, renting iTunes content over the Internet, and playing back Netflix streams. But it’s somewhat hampered by a limited selection of TV shows available for rent, and locked out of the larger catalog of items available for purchase. And until Apple expands the Apple TV’s capabilities, either by adding support for other Internet streaming services or by opening the device to third-party development, the product is locked in to only a few content sources.
Gene Steinberg, TechNightOwl
It’s all happening not as the result of Apple making a huge sales push into the enterprise, but — sometimes anyway — as the result of savvy executives trying out new toys and finding that Apple indeed offers the right tool — indeed the best tool — for many business tasks.
Andrew Mayne
We're all used to the idea of Apple products being called "magical" both by Apple marketing and users who interact with them. It may be surprising to some to know that in the actual physical design of iPods, iPhones and iPads, Apple engineers use some of the same techniques that magicians have used for years to deceive audiences.
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