PC World’s six products include the Macintosh IIvi and IIvx, Macintosh TV, Pippin, Power Mac 4400, the “Hockey Puck” USB mouse for iMac, and the one controversial choice (in our view), the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (the TAM). The full article offers the specifics on each product, including what it was and why the magazine picked…
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 COO Says No to Apple Netbook, Denigrates Existing Models
The comments came during Apple’s quarterly conference call with analysts when one analyst asked CFO Peter Oppenheimer and Mr. Cook what they thought of the netbook space, which saw enormous growth during the December quarter for PC companies such as Acer. “We’re watching that space,” said Mr. Cook. “Right now from our point of view,…
Motley Fool on Apple in 2012: Tim Cook CEO, iTunes Subscription Music, More
The prediction piece is based on the artifice that Mr. Munarriz, one of the founders of The Motley Fool, has a time machine that he uses to report on how some companies are faring in the future, in this case, in the year 2012 (no mention was made of Quetzalcoatl). He first did with Apple…
Time Out For the Macintosh Boogie
Mr. Straub wrote the tune way back in 2000 following a time when he tried to convince the Reverend Billy C. Wirtz (a boogie-woogie performer) that writing a song about Macs was a surefire path to bringing him new fans. The Reverend didn’t buy it, and so Mr. Straub decided that if someone were going…
Steve Jobs Stands for Reelection at Disney Despite Leave of Absence
Mr. Jobs is Disney’s largest shareholder with approximately 7.4% of outstanding shares, as noted in a Wall Street Journal article. Mr. Jobs acquired the shares as part of the deal for Disney to buy Mr. Jobs company Pixar, a deal that also landed him on Disney’s board. The Financial Times of London found experts in…
Steve Jobs Steps Down on Medical Leave Until June, Share Trading Halted [Update]
In a letter to employees, Mr. Jobs said that his health was continuing to be a distraction to both Steve and his family, as well as Apple employees. “In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health,” he told employees, “and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering…
Apple Extends Relationship with LG with 5 Year Display Contract
“Although LG Display already had a relationship with Apple, the deal’s duration and the size of the advance show that the two companies are involved in a long-term, strategic alliance,” Son Young-jun, a spokesman for LG Display, told Reuters. LG Display already provides some 70% of Apple’s displays for notebooks and Cinema Displays.
Piper Jaffray Finds Macworld Announcements "Underwhelming, As Expected"
Mr. Munster also said that Apple’s move to a DRM-free iTunes catalog by the end of the current quarter will have a “slight positive impact” on iPod sales. He believes that DRM restrictions on iTunes music downloads had been a “significant barrier” to many music customers. As for the keynote, the firm said it believed…
AAPL Up 5% Following Steve Jobs Health Revelation
Though Mr. Jobs and Apple’s Board of Directors have insisted that his health was a private matter, investors reacted vigorously to the public news , pushing the stock higher. As of this writing, AAPL was trading at $95.30 per share, a gain of $4.55 (+5.01%) on moderately strong volume. Investors had been spooked in recent…
Rumor: Apple Working on Mac Home Server
Details provided by 9to5Mac.com include a tie into MobileMe that handles much of your personal file sharing and server needs, but through a MobileMe.com URL that would make your account accessible anywhere. The device would also serve all iTunes media, and be able to specifically serve media out to your iPods and iPhones. Lastly, it…
Psystar (Incorrectly) Claims Apple Failed to Copyright Mac OS X
Both copyrights are dated October 26th, 2007. Psystar is a vendor of unauthorized Mac clones that run Mac OS X “Leopard” 10.5 through a third party firmware hack. Apple has sued the company for copyright infringement and for violating the End User Agreement License for Mac OS X. More recently, Apple added a claim that…
Steve Wozniak Joins Modbook Maker's Board of Advisors [Update]
Axiotron’s Modbook
IDG: Macworld 2010 Still On
“While we are obviously disappointed by Apple’s decision not to participate in Macworld 2010,” IDG said in a statement, “we are on track for a terrific show this year, with strong attendance numbers and nearly 500 exhibitors showcasing their products at the January event.” Looking for life after Apple, IDG added, “Macworld Conference & Expo…
Analyst Offers Detailed Prediction of Apple Netbook for Macworld
In the research note obtained by The Mac Observer, Mr. Ezra predicts an Apple netbook with a closed structure and limited abilities that build on the software distribution model of the App Store. He expects such devices to carry a price point of US$599, which would place them well below Mac pricing, but at a…
Analyst Sees Up to One Million iPhone Gift Cards for Holidays
“We think there is strong reception of AAPL’s new iPhone 3G Gift Card program, where the process of giving the iPhone as a gift is greatly simplified without the need for activation and personal information,” Mr. Wu wrote. “We estimate several hundred thousand to one million units could be impacted.” That said, he also noted…
Another Unauthorized Mac Cloner Appears: OpeniMac
OpeniMac, which was first spotted by Engadget, is promoting its computers under the tagline, “Prestaciones de Mac. Precio de PC,” which translates as “The Benefits of a Mac. The Price of a PC.” Accordingly, the company offers visitors to its site comparisons between its computers and Apple’s Mac mini and iMac. We should note, though,…
Apple Advocates Use of Multiple Antiviral Programs for Macs
Apple is now advising Mac owners to use “multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult.” The company specifically recommended Intego VirusBarrier X5 ($64.99 – Amazon), Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 11 for Macintosh ($31.99 – Amazon), and McAfee VirusScan for Mac.…
Podcast - Apple Weekly Report #135: Apple Lawsuits, Banned iPhone Ad, Green MacBook Ad
Direct Link: MP3 Version Listen Now: The Apple lawsuit express picked up another passenger, the UK axed an Apple iPhone ad, Facebook scored a judgement against a spammer, MYOB has a new owner, Apple’s laptop ads went green, and we announce out Macworld Expo contest winners. The Apple Weekly Report will be included in TMO’s…
FaceBook Wins $873 Million Judgement Against Spammer
FaceBook has won a US$873 million judgement against a Canadian spammer who used a phishing techniques and other methods to gain control of FaceBook user accounts that then spammed other members. Max Kelly, FaceBook’s Director of Security, made the announcement on the FaceBook blog, saying his company had successfully sued the spammer under the Controlling…
Psystar Lawsuit Filings Reveal Potential Document Policy Problems at Apple
The Industry-Standard first noticed the issue in Filing 28 of the court case, which included a statement from Apple concerning evidence preservation: “At Apple, individual employees are tasked with maintenance of their own files including hard copy documents, emails, voicemails and other electronically recorded materials. Apple has not implemented any programs that result in the…
Intel Warns, Markets Rise -- AAPL Up 7%
Late on Wednesday, Intel warned that it expected revenue for the December quarter to come in substantially lower than previously forecast, an event that pushed stocks lower in early Thursday trading, but the markets shrugged it off and tech stocks shot up in a broad rally late in the Thursday trading session. Shares in Apple…
TMO Scoop - Apple Sr. VP of Enterprise Sales Leaving Apple, Won't Be Replaced
Al Shipp, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Enterprise Sales, will be leaving the Cupertino company, and he won’t be replaced. Mr. Shipp joined Apple in 2004. The Mac Observer has confirmed that the changeup includes having everyone that formerly reported to Mr. Shipp now reporting directly to John Brandon, the Senior Vice President of Sales,…
Steve Ballmer to Yahoo: Not Interested Anymore, Later
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer In response to comments from Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang that, “To this day, I would say that the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo!,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was blunt, saying, “Weive moved on.” The back and forth started with Google pulling out of a deal Wednesday…
AAPL Drops 6.9% as Employment Figures Push Markets Lower
AAPL ended the day at US$103.30 per share, a loss of $7.69 (-6.93%), on volume of some 44.7 million shares trading hands. Nonfarm private employment dropped in October by some 157,000 jobs, a significant decline unseen since the 2002 post 9-11 slowing of the economy. In addition, ADP (the author of the employment report in…