The mentally challenged tech press, pundits and analysts covering Apple are going to give him and Apple no peace. Most every single article regarding the company and its CEO, from here on out, will harp on, allude to, and/or call into question his health, his likelihood of not returning, and potential unclean hands on the…
John Kheit
Articles by John Kheit
The Devil's Advocate: MacWindows: The New Trojan Wars
In trying to make some sense of Apple’s joining BAPCo, a Windows benchmarking group, I’ve been thinking history may be repeating itself. The great Trojan war, as everyone probably recalls, was waged because a beautiful woman, Helen, was swifted away from her people. As is not uncommon when issues stemming from affairs of the heart…
The Devil's Advocate: Mac Punditry: Deranged and Dumb on any Processor
I wonder if the Atlantic ocean has as vast a collection of spineless jellyfish as seemingly comprises significant portions of the Macintosh user base and its ass-kissing punditry. With far too few exceptions, this is a group that just days ago was smugly debunking, dismantling, and railing against the notion of Intel processors in their Macs, only…
The Devil's Advocate - Apple's Up-Sell Equals Switcher No Sale
Apple has been practicing the art of up-selling for a while. Go to any Apple store, and beyond being greeted by patronizing and obnoxiously condescending employees, you’ll be faced with the up-sell. You can experience this even on Apple’s Web site just by perusing their prices on the G5. The premise of the up-sell works…
The Devil's Advocate: iMac Designs Do's & Don'ts: Don't Mix Pyramids and Snakes
What do you get when you combine Apple’s Pyramid iMac and it’s Snake iMac? Why you get this mess: Images from Apple’s design patent The Pyramid Snake iMac–no, it’s not a joke. On August 31, 2004, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USTPO) issued United States Patent Number D495,332 to Apple Computer, Inc. for…
The Devil's Advocate: Apple Files for Trademarks on iWork, ProBand, and Pods [TMO Scoop]
Apple has been quite busy of late with its patent and trademark applications. Coming to light today through the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) are a slew of new trademark applications, three of which are particularly interesting. [Author’s Addendum: You can also read more about iWrite, another mark filed by Apple, in a…
The Devil's Advocate - Apple Files For New Multiple "Persona" Patent For Use In PDAs
This is not an Apple PDA? For a company that swears it has no plans on releasing or pursuing a PDA, Apple has a funny way of showing it. And "it" looks something like this: (Click each image for a larger, more legible version.) The above device can be found in a patent application, 20030107606,…
Apple Files For New Multiple "Persona" Patent For Use In PDAs
This is not an Apple PDA? For a company that swears it has no plans on releasing or pursuing a PDA, Apple has a funny way of showing it. And "it" looks something like this: (Click each image for a larger, more legible version.) The above device can be found in a patent application, 20030107606,…
GNUstep, Mac OS X Compatible On Intel Hardware
Macintosh OS X for Intel processors has long been a topic of debate for Apple aficionados. Regardless of where you stand on that debate, whether you’re for or against Apple using Intel processors, there is another option brewing: GNUstep. In the Beginning There Was NeXTstep What is GNUstep? Well let’s step back just a bit.…
Apple Awarded Patents On Handwriting Recognition & Adaptive Throughput Optimization
T wo Apple patents issued on April 29, 2003. Apple filed for a patent application for a "Methods and apparatus for handwriting recognition" on May 23, 1996 — relatively eons ago. The abstract states: Method and apparatus for handwriting recognition system for ideographies characters and other characters based on subcharacter hidden Markov models. The ideographies…
Debunking Dvorak With Napkin Math For OS X On Intel
L et me get this out of the way first. I think John Dvorak is great. I love his Macintosh articles the most because they tend to piss everyone off. I also like them because they make me think a lot more than articles written by apologists. However, as often as I enjoy his articles,…
A Place For Everything, & Everything In Its Place, Except In Mac OS X
< B>File System encapsulation There are few good reasons for programs to strew files all over your hard drive; since OS Xis release, however, more Mac users have to deal with programs that install in ways they cannot control. In contrast, one of the few great things about older versions of the Macintosh operating system…
The Devil's Advocate - Apple Display Dyslexia
Why is Apple losing the resolution race to Dell? When it comes to laptops, PowerBook users are always left whimpering like puppies for just a few more pixels of resolution when they look at their PC counterparts. Case in point, Dell and others have been offering laptops with 1600×1200 resolutions (1.9 Megapixel) for a long…