Apple announced Shake 2.5 yesterday, and buried in the technical specs is a little tidbit that we found both ironic and interesting, a three button mouse. The irony comes from the fact that Apple doesn’t offer a three-button mouse, despite cries from its customer base for such an Apple branded device. From the company’s technical…
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
Steve Jobs Hints Of Move To Intel As A Possibility
W ill wonders never cease? Reuters has published an article about MACWORLD New York that includes a very tiny mention of a very large subject: Mac OS X on Intel. In that mention, the way it is presented by Reuters, Steve Jobs hints that moving Mac OS X to Intel is a possibility. From the…
Announcing A New Logo For TMO!
W e are delighted to introduce our new logo, which you can see at the top of this very page. We also have a new navigation menu for your navigating pleasure, including a couple of new features at TMO. There is a link to our DealsOnTheWeb.com site, which has so far been a raging success.…
Apple Lays Off Manufacturing Employees In Laguna Plant
A pple is in the process of laying off some of its manufacturing employees in Luguna, California, near Sacramento. The story was broken on Wednesday afternoon by two Sacramento television stations, KCRA and Channel 10. According to the stories, Apple is laying off up to 7% of its employees at the facility. KCRA reports that…
Apple Receives Orders For 4000 Xserves, Begins Shipping (Updated)
[Updated: We misplaced a decimal place in our original story. The correct estimate on Xserve sales is included in the story below. Thanks to Observer Tom for alerting us to our error.] Apple has begun shipping its rack mount server solution, the Xserve. Announced in April, the company is also touting orders for 4,000 Xserve…
Apple IPO Advisor, Former NeXT Board Member, Dies Age 44
Dan Case, one of the Venture Capitalists (VC) who helped cause and shape the Internet boom, has died, at age 44. Mr. Case died of brain cancer. Dan Case worked for investment banking firm Hambrecht & Quist (H&Q), and worked with Apple when his company helped Apple with its IPO in 1980. Other early clients…
MacPlay Ships Puzzle Game Bundle: Bejewled & Alchemy
MacPlay, a subsidiary of United Developers, announced today that the Mac versions of PopCap’s wildly popular puzzle games, Bejeweled and Alchemy are shipping. Bejeweled, enjoyed over 17 million times online, is a fast paced gem-matching puzzle that will keep players coming back again and again. Players swap gems on the board to align at least…
Apple Partners With TechTV To Showcase Mac Developers & Software
Apple has announced a very exciting opportunity for Mac developers, in conjunction with TechTV. Brett Larson, TechTV’s Mac expert on TechLive! and The Screen Savers, will accept developer submissions for possible review on TechTV through the Apple Developer Connection (ADC). In other words, Apple’s ADC is making it possible for Mac developers to get national…
The Back Page - Keeping The Faith While Apple Executives Sell Their AAPL Holdings
I was a believer. When Apple execs first began selling off stocks at the end of April, I was a believer. "Well heck, I said, "one sell-order doesn’t mean anything." When the selling continued I said, "Look, Apple execs haven’t sold any of their stock in years. It’s about time." Another sell-transaction and I said,…
The Back Page - In Memory Of Rodney O. Lain
Rodney O. Lain: the loudest-mouthed S.O.B. to ever set virtual pen to virtual paper. The man had the nerve to write things designed to piss me off, and worse yet, to make me think. I loved him for both of those things, and for many more reasons. Rodney O. Lain passed away this weekend, and…
Gartner Study Says Macs Cost Less To Maintain Than PCs
Macworld UK noted this morning that a new Gartner study backs up what Mac users have known for years: it’s cheaper to operate a Mac than it is a Windows-based PC. According to the Macworld UK article, the study was conducted at Melbourne University’s Faculty of the Arts. That facility uses some 4,676 Macs and…
Analyst: "Apple In Better Position To Gain Share In 2002 Than 2001"
CNN ran a story on Apple’s new "Real People" ad campaign that contained some interesting quotes from an analyst. Apple’s campaign features Windows users who have switched from Windows to the Mac platform and are quite happy about it. Most of the article features the same information that Mac and mainstream publications alike have been…
Apple Releases QuickTime 6 As Preview Release
Apple has released QuickTime 6 as a preview release. QuickTime 6 is a massive upgrade of the QuickTime platform, and includes support for the industry standard MPEG-4 video and music encoding technology. It also includes new tools for Apple to push QuickTime Streaming Server, as well as improved content streaming for consumers, even ones on…
Maine iBook Purchase Threatened With State Budget Shortfall
According to the Wired.com article, the stateis portion of the funding for the program was to be handled through a US$25 million endowment. The contract itself is worth US$37.2 million over four years, with the difference in the endowment and the total being made up of funding from other sources. The problem being encountered is…
1394 Trade Association Formally Licenses "FireWire" Brand Name From Apple
The 1394 Trade Association (1394 TA) and Apple have formally announced that the trade group has licensed the "FireWire" name. The 1394 TA is a platform neutral body whose purpose is to promote the development and use of IEEE 1394, FireWire to most Mac users. The 1394 TA is comprised of the many patent holders…
Record Label Uses (Mac OS) System 6 Look For Web Site
W ired has published a story about a small record label that has adopted a blast from Appleis past. bremsstrahlung recordings, a record label catering to the "lowercase sound" scene, is using a very good implementation of System 6, the 68k Mac OS, as the interface for its Web site. lowercase sound is a minimalist…
Apple CFO Files To Sell More AAPL Shares
R euters is reporting that Apple CFO Fred Anderson has filed to sell more of his AAPL holdings this week on Monday. Since April 22nd, Apple execs have filed to sell shares of the company on 11 different occasions, counting this latest filing. SEC regulations require executives of publicly held companies to file all stock…
TMO Reports - Apple's iChat Meets Mixed Reaction From Mac Users
During last week’s World Wide Developer Conference, Apple introduced the next major revision of Mac OS X, code named Jaguar. One of the features of the new OS is an Instant Messaging application called iChat, which Apple said would be built into Jaguar. iChat is based on AOL’s AIM network, and allows iChat users to…
The Back Page - AOL: The Next Mac Cloner?
There have been all sorts of interesting developments going on between our favorite computer company and our least favorite online service. Apple and AOL seem to be getting cozy of late, with iChat using the AIM network, a recent ad for Mac OS X aimed at Unix users featuring a Netscape icon in the Dock,…
AOL Drops IE From AOL For Mac OS X, Replacing It With Netscape
J ust when you thought the browser wars were over, AOL has thrown a new twist into it. ZDNet is reporting that the company has dropped Internet Explorer from its latest beta release of AOL for OS X. In its place, the company is using its own Netscape browser. Netscape was bought by AOL in…
Apple Updates Hot Deals Page
A pple has updated its J&R Computing Hot Deals page at the Macintosh Product Guide. The Mac Product Guide is a list of Mac compatible hardware and software products one the market. The Hot Deals section of the Product guide feature several Mac retailers and special offers that one can only get, at least in…
Apple Announces Dual Processor Rackmount Servers
Apple has released its first rackmounted servers ever. The company has released a new series of G4-based servers called Xserve at an event in Cupertino today. Hinted at during last week’s World Wide Developer Conference by Steve Jobs, the new servers come in a 1U enclosure (meaning it takes up one space in a rack),…
Apple Asks For Your Help In Redesigning Support Site
A pple is in the process of redesigning the AppleCare Support site, and the company is asking for feedback from Mac users. Apple has put in place four different designs, and wants you to rate them, and offer any feedback on which one you prefer. From Appleis Web site: The AppleCare Support site is undergoing…
Free Speech, Fair Use Both Take Another Blow From US Courts
A US court has handed yet another defeat to free speech and fair use in the US. ZDNet is reporting that U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte has ruled that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) does not violate free speech. The ruling came in the process of denying a motion to dismiss charges against the…