C|Net is reporting that Apple is offering a new deal for Mac OS X Server. The company is offering a three year subscription to Mac OS X that includes all updates during the period. The company is pricing the subscription at the same price of a single upgrade/license. The deal means that for the same…
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
MACWORLD Will Return To Boston In 2004
T he Boston Herald is reporting that MACWORLD will, in fact, be returning to Boston in 2004. Discussion on this has been raging for months as competition between New York and Boston for what Steve Jobs said is the largest technology show on the East Coast heated up. MACWORLD was hosted in Boston for many…
Misplaced Decimal Offers 125 GHz PowerMacs At Apple's Home Page
A n errant decimal place is offering 125 GHz PowerMacs to some visitors at Appleis home page. The announcement/link for Appleis top of the line dual-processor PowerMac line includes alt-text that says: Power Mac G4. All dual processors starting at just US$1,699. Dual 125 GHz now shipping. That text shows up automatically on most Windows…
Steve Jobs Resigns From Gap's Board Of Directors
T he San Francisco Chronicle broke the news that Steve Jobs has resigned from the Board of Directors at Gap, Inc. Mr. Jobs began serving on the board in 1999. At the same time, Mickey Drexler, the Chairman of Gapis board of directors, began serving on Appleis board. That arrangement recently drew criticism from Business…
Apple Extends iTools-To-.Mac Conversion Registration Until October 14th
Apple has announced an extension for iTools members wanting to convert their existing accounts to .Mac accounts. The company had set September 30th, today, as that deadline, after which iTools accounts would be cleared out, and closed down. The company has extended the deadline to October 14th, instead. Earlier this month, Apple announced that 100,000…
The Back Page - File Swapping Services Find New Ways To Leech Off Others
In the course of covering the RIAA’s and MPAA’s assault of our Fair Use rights, and of the rise and fall of Napster before that, I inevitably get accused of being a stooge for the pirates and the thieves, or of not recognizing that information (and therefore the creative works of artists, movie makers, and…
Mainstream Paper Offers Analysis Of .Mac
A mainstream Maryland newspaper called the Sun Spot has published a fairly comprehensive review of Apple’s .Mac service. The piece includes the history of Apple’s conversion of iTools to .Mac, a breakdown of the services offered, a balanced look at Apple’s conversion rate for .Mac accounts, and a very reasoned analysis of what those services…
The Back Page - Apple's Switch Ad Frightens It Networking Guru
David Kearns is a networking consultant who provides advice to clients, and helps other people write books on networking. For instance, he has co-writing status on Peter Norton’s Complete Guide to Networking. If you are wondering what scares a person who provides consultation services in Silicon Valley, take a look at an editorial he penned…
Larry Ellison Resigns From Apple's Board, Cites Time Commitment
[Update: The story below has been updated with information concerning Larry Ellison’s yacht racing.] In a surprise announcement, Apple said today that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has resigned from Apple’s Board of Directors. Mr. Ellison is a close friend of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and was one of the first people that Mr. Jobs personally…
New Gateway Ad Leaves the Realm Of The iMac, Takes Aim At Dell
T he Mac community has reacted with a great gnashing of teeth, pulling of hair, and terrible, angst-ridden wailing as Gateway launched an ad campaign aimed specifically at Apple and the iMac. That campaign used a study, which has been widely criticized in the Mac community as being inaccurate and misleading, to suggest that the…
Hiawatha Bray Asks "Why Switch? Do You Hate Your PC That Much?"
In what we see as an interesting, as in peculiar, article, Hiawatha Bray, long-time tech pundit for the Boston Globe, has written a piece called "Apple’s good, but that’s no reason to switch," that asks his readers why they should Switch to the Mac. The interesting aspect comes out of Mr. Bray’s technique for showing…
Country Of Greece Outlaws All Computer Games. Seriously
I n the midst of the assault on Fair Use in the US by the MPAA and the RIAA, and the assault on personal freedoms and privacy in the pursuit of security, itis sometimes easy to forget that other countries have their own bits of complete insanity. Fortunately, a ZDNet article reminded us of this…
Adobe Sues Over Emdedded Fonts In PDF Files, Company On Receving End Of DMCA Complaint
A dobe has announced a lawsuit against the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) concerning a dispute over PDF files. Adobeis Portable Document Format (PDF) allows users to design a document that can be read by anyone on any platform with a PDF reader. Fonts, images, and formatting are all embedded in the document itself, ensuring that…
Apple To Enter Best Buy For Third Time, Retailer To Sell iPod
Third time’s the charm, or so Apple appears to have said to Best Buy. Apple has entered into an agreement to sell its products at Best Buy for a third time. The company will be selling the iPod, its very popular MP3 player at both Best Buy’s retail outlets and Web site. Apple used to…
Apple: 100,000 Copies Of Jaguar Sold, 50,000 People Visited 35 Apple Stores
A pple has released official numbers from its hugely successful "100 Minutes to Jaguar" party (the event has been posthumously renamed "100 Minutes of Jaguar") this weekend. Apple opened up its 35 retail Apple Stores at 10:20 PM this past Friday night for pre-sales of Jaguar. According to the company, some 50,000 people attended the…
Gateway Publishes Report That Shows Its PC Outperforming The iMac
"Gateway Corporation: Profile PC versus Apple iMac Performance Comparison Test" reads the title of a new report released by Gateway Corporation in PDF. The company has released the report, which it commissioned, to help promote its newest PC, the Profile. Gateway has been gunning for Apple’s customers since the release of the Profile, specifically targeting…
Forbes Reports On... Steve Jobs' Wardrobe
Forbes Magazine has taken a closer look into an issue that many Mac users, and indeed tech observers everywhere, find important, Steve Jobs attire. Seriously. As an offshoot of a series on the best dressed billionaires (link leads to a slide show), Forbes has published a short series on those high tech honchos whose attire…
MacPlay Says Soldier Of Fortune II: Double Helix Has Gone Gold
MacPlay, a subsidiary of United Developers, announced today that Soldier of Fortune II®: Double Helix for the Macintosh has gone gold and that the product will begin shipping to retail within 2 – 3 weeks. Developed by Raven Software and Activision, Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix drops players into the ranks of Americais shadow…
Apple Updates Hot Deals Page With Recording, Software, & Hardware Deals
The AudioMIDI.com Hot Deals page has several keyboard bundles, as well as other recording gear. AudioMIDI.com is one of the newest additions to the Hot Deals section, and focuses mainly on recording technology. The CompUSA Hot Deals page has game offers, several monitors, external drives, printers, other storage products, a very cheap CD-R media offer,…
Wall Street Journal's Mossberg Loves Jaguar, Says Apple Will Introduce Family Pricing At US$199
The most interesting new Macintosh is the top-of-the-line, flat-panel iMac, which sports a 17-inch LCD screen instead of the 15-inch panel on the other iMacs. Thereis nothing special about most 17-inch screens, but the one on the new iMac is mesmerizing. It isnit square like most. Instead, itis much wider than it is high, so…
TMO Reports - Mac Web Site Shuts Down Forums To Protest Mac Whiners
[Correction: We originally reported Scott William’s name as Scott Williams. In addition, our original report said that the site was offering free e-mail accounts, when in fact MacOSX.com charges for its e-mail service, starting at US$9.95 per year. Both mistakes have been corrected in the article below.] Even as one of our own forum members…
The Back Page - How Much Should Jaguar Cost? How Much Is A Customer Worth?
It’s funny how one’s preconceptions affect the way we interact with the world every day. I was watching an episode of Gunsmoke the other day, and the show opened up with an out-of-control stagecoach. The driver was doing his best to reign in the team of six horses that were racing pell-mell for some unknown…
The Back Page - Is Apple A Company You Can Trust?
I’ve been on vacation for the last two weeks, and boy did I have a blast. My girlfriend, who is finishing up a two year stint in Japan, met me in Vietnam where we proceeded to laze about in Hanoi, Hue, and Hoi An. There was the State-run (that capital "S" is there for a…
PC Maker Offers All-In-One, Company Targets Mac Users
I n a somewhat unusual move, a company called Northgate Innovations has introduced a new all-in-one Windows XP machine that it is specifically targeting towards Mac users. In other words, Northgate wants a niche share of Appleis niche share. The PC is called the Integra, not to be mistaken for the wannabee sports car of…