Microsft Chairman Bill GatesBill Gates statement, in full: I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work. Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over…
Bryan Chaffin
Bryan Chaffin is the cofounder of The Mac Observer and currently serves as Afternoon Editor. He has contributed to MacAddict and MacFormat magazines, and co-authored the last two updates of iPad and iPad Pro for Dummies with Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus and Ed Baig. You can find out more about Bryan at his personal site, GeekTells, or find his Twitter link below.
Articles by Bryan Chaffin
Apple Offers Up to $200 on iPhone 4 Trade-Ins
First, pick the product you wish to turn in. In the figure below, we picked a 32GB black iPhone: Choose your product Apple will then ask questions specific to the product that you picked. If it’s a computer, it will ask about your display and the case, for instance, but in the case of our…
Apple iPhone 4S vs. Moto Droid Bionic Spec Comparison Chart
With similar feature sets and release dates just a little more than a month apart, these two devices make for a great comparison, and the chart below lines up all of the relevant features we could find on both devices. Below the chart, we’ve rounded up some of the highlights from the comparison. …
Apple Announces iPhone 4S: New Antenna, 64GB Capacity [Update]
Apple is offering three sizes, 16GB (US$199 with contract), 32GB ($299), and 64GB ($399) for the first time. The device is also a world phone, meaning that one device will work on all of the company’s carrier partners, one of which is Sprint, the first time Apple has offered the device through the #3 carrier…
Psystar Attorney on Apple Victory: “This Is Far From Over”
The comments came in the aftermath of Psystar losing an appeal to a case won by Apple in 2009 that resulted in Psystar being barred from selling PCs with Mac OS X installed or in any way facilitating other people in installing Apple’s operating system on non-Apple hardware. A three judge panel of the U.S.…
iPad vs. Kindle Fire Spec Comparison Chart
At $199, it’s less than half the price of Apple’s entry-level iPad 2, putting it within reach of many more users than Apple’s $499 (and up) device. On the other hand, it’s smaller, runs a forked version of Android, doesn’t have a camera, runs a subset of the tiny number of Android apps that “work”…
China Arrests Five iPhone Counterfeiters
“It’s really hard for customers to distinguish the fake ones from the genuine ones,” a police officer told the unspecified Chinese newspaper. The devices apparently functioned as an iPhone, but suffered from shorter battery life. The police seized some 200 iPhones in the process of arresting the counterfeiting gang. China, long criticized for allowing…
Report: Apple Adds New SKUs for iPhone, iPod touch
9to5Mac reported Wednesday that an anonymous source sent the site information about the new SKUs. Apple usually adds SKUs, or Stock Keeping Unit identification numbers, to its system shortly before releasing new products, and Apple employees and third party resellers frequently leak that fact to Mac online sites. The two iPhone SKUs have attached to…
Foxconn Plant Catches Fire in China
A photo of the fire sent to MacCast by a listener in China Foxconn is one of Apple’s primary manufacturing partners, but this plant reportedly makes, “PCs, Sony laptops, computer components and printers.” The plant employs a mind-boggling 80,000 people. China-based M.I.C. Gadget wrote that, “So far as we know, there is no Apple product…
Sculley: Only Steve Jobs Could Have Saved Apple
“There is no question that nobody but Steve Jobs could have brought the company back to life,” Mr. Sculley said at the event, according to The Puget Sound Business Journal. “It shows there is a thin line between success and failure in technology.” John Sculley (right) at 30th Anniversary of IBM PC Celebration Source: Puget…
AAPL Closes Above $400 (Again), Up 7.2% Since Jobs Resigned
Near-record closings aside, Friday’s closing high represents a $26.78 gain since August 25th, the first day of trading after Steve Jobs announced he had stepped down as CEO from his company. That represents a 7.2% gain in approximately three weeks, an impressive feat for any stock, but even more so considering the angst that had…
RIM Smartphones & Tablets Miss Estimates, Stock Drops 18%
In the after hours-session, the stock was trading at US$24.08, down $5.46 (-18.48%). In the chart below, you can see that the stock traded in a narrow band throughout the day, and then dove off a cliff in the after hours session. After hours trading historically represents a more exaggerated reaction to both good news…
Microsoft Outlaws Flash on Touch-Interface IE 10
The Flash Tally so FarWindows 8 is the next major version of Windows, and it’s scheduled to be released in 2012. Part of the point of Windows 8 is to deliver a more or less unified operating system and experience to tablets and PCs, all in one fell swoop. Unified or not, however, the company…
Another Analyst Predicting Apple Dividend Within 18 Months
Abhey Lamba Interviewed on Bloomberg The central premise of Mr. Lamba’s research note was to compare the Walt Disney Corporation of the 1960s when Walt Disney lost its founder to the Apple of today, whose cofounder Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO in August. Mr. Lambda noted that Disney’s stock continued to perform very well…
Intel Chip Promises 24 Hour Use, 10-Day Connected Standby
In addition to extended battery life, the company showed off a prototype of a computer running off of a solar cell the size of a postage stamp. The figure below shows both the prototype and the intense interest in that prototype. Intel Prototype Computer Running on a Solar CellSource: Intel(Click the image for a larger…
Apple Open to Customers Wanting MobileMe Services in iCloud
From MobileMe-to-iCloud “Specifically, I bemoaned the loss of sync services (syncing application preferences, keychain, etc.) and the loss of iDisk,” the reader told AppleInsider of his initial email to Cook . “I was pleasantly surprised to get a call from his office just now.” The anonymous reader said that he was told, “Apple is open…
Analyst Finds No Hint of Redesigned iPhone 5 in Channel
At issue is whether Apple would seek to leave the so-called antennagate controversy behind by completely dropping the form factor of the iPhone 4, at least that was the way some reports were couched back when anyone still cared about the issue of Apple’s external antenna design. This would have made the iPhone 4 the…
Adobe Delivers Flash Video to iPhone & iPad
We should note right at the top that Adobe is not announcing (or delivering) Flash support on iOS devices. Apple has chosen not to support Flash on its mobile devices, citing a variety of issues centered around performance and battery life. Instead, Apple supports HTTP Live Streaming, which is what YouTube and other video streaming…
Apple Seeks “Product Security Managers”
The job could be one of the most high stress positions at Apple. According to the description, “The candidate will be responsible for overseeing the protection of, and managing risks to, Apple’s unreleased products and related intellectual property. The individual will collaborate with other security managers by contributing to, and managing execution of, strategic initiatives…
Anonymous Sri Lanka Attacks Apple & Others, Reveals Name Server Records
Anonymous Sri Lanka (ignoring the irony of the lack of anonymity such specifics impart) posted lists of all of the name server records with names like, “APPLE.COM – World’s Largest Consumer Electronics Leader DNSi,” and “FACEBOOK.COM – The World’s Social Media Giant – DNS R00T3D, Fuck3D and Leaked.” To that effect, the group offered a (vaguely…
Apple Launches iTunes Match Developer Beta
This basically matches what Apple offers users for all content purchased from iTunes, including apps, music, TV shows, movies, and iBooks ebooks. Once a user has purchased content from iTunes, they can access it from any of their devices and download it without actually syncing to a Mac or PC. That fantastic ability is available…