“NPD data over the past thee years indicates a meaningful uptick in sales from May to June. Month/month growth has ranged from +44 percent to +72 percent,” Mr. Um said. “Assuming only a 40 percent month/month increase for June and using a range of correlation percentages, implies June quarter unit sales of 2.9-3.5 million units.”Based…
Mac
Apple Prepping Magic Trackpad
Support for the idea that Apple has been working on a trackpad version of its Magic Mouse comes from a trademark application for the Magic Trackpad name, although so far there isn’t any evidence that the company plans to introduce the device at WWDC.Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference is scheduled to run from June 7…
Virtual Programming Reissues X3: Reunion as Native Mac Port
“We weren’t happy with X3: Reunion’s performance when using Cider, and it turned out many of our customers weren’t either,” Virtual Programming CEO Mark Hinton said in a statement. “As a gesture of goodwill, we reengineered the game as a native port that’s a free update for existing customers. Starting today, new X3: Reunion customers…
Half Life 2 Comes to the Mac
The first person shooter-style game has won several awards over the years and has even been called the best game of all time. Valve’s Steam includes a long list of popular games such as Left 4 Dead 2, Counter Strike, Mac Payne and Half Life. The service hosts over 1,100 games and includes more than…
The Case of the Swollen MacBook Pro Battery [UPDATED]
My TMO workstation has my MacBook Pro connected to some external hard disks (Time Machine) and an older 23-inch Cinema display – with a DisplayPort to DVI connector. In place, the power cord tends to stay connected all the time. From time to time, I unplug all the connectors and take the MBP to another…
Mishap: An Accidental Haunting Released for Mac
The game is part puzzle and part mystery, and players must search through rooms find hidden objects that lead to clues. In addition, individual ghosts must be challenged in “unique minigames where you must play by their rules.” The games system requirements are modest: Mac OS X 10.4 or later, a G4 1.5 GHz or…
Why the Mac Look Hasn’t Changed
January 7, 2002 was a momentous day in the history of Apple Inc. At the Macworld Expo keynote that morning, Steve Jobs introduced the first major redesign of the iMac since its inception. Gone was the familiar CRT-display-based 1998 design, replaced by an LCD flat-panel unit that would be nicknamed the gooseneck iMac. At the…
Adobe Brings Captivate 5, eLearning Suite 2 to Mac OS X
Adobe Captivate 5 for the Mac The application can build tests into training modules, supports the SCORM database format that’s popular in educational environments, and test results can be stored on Acrobat.com as well. A special Adobe AIR-based application is available, too, for reading test result data that’s stored on Acrobat.com. Captivate 5 lets users…
Adobe CEO: Mac Flash Crashes are Apple’s Fault
The comments from Mr. Narayen came on the heels of an open letter from Apple CEO Steve Jobs that attacked Flash as a closed, proprietary solution that isn’t suitable for mobile devices. “Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice,” Mr. Jobs wrote in his letter. “Flash is a successful business…
Poker on the Mac: Rush Poker on FullTilt is Fast, Furious, & Fun
BackgroundLet’s start with some background, though, as I do obsess about context. Up until now, there have been a few specific advantages of playing poker on your computer. You can play whenever you want, in whatever state of dress you can manage. You can play many, many more hands than you can live, which is…
Amazon Releases Kindle for Mac Public Beta
The Mac version of the Kindle application supports ebook purchasing, multiple font sizes, displaying notes and highlights, and viewing books in color. Amazon plans to add text search support and the ability to edit notes and highlights soon.Kindle for Mac OS X is free and available for download at the Amazon Web site.
The Easy, Quick, Fairly Guilt Free Way To Ask For Help With Your Mac
Maybe you can make an appointment at the Apple store and carry your Mac in, but you really hate to do that every time you have a little question. If you are lucky you have a friend or family member who can help you. (If you are really lucky you belong to a Mac User…
Want to Talk to Your Mac's Serial Port? Check Out CoolTerm!
Once you start CoolTerm, the first thing you’ll want to do is select Options, which will let you select your serial port, as well as the baud rate (speed) and number of data bits, parity and stop bits. These are often represented in a shorthand such as 81N (8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no…
Lawsuit Alleges School Spied on Student by Remote MacBook Camera Activation
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on the suit, which was filed in a U.S. District Court by Michael E. and Holly S. Robbins on behalf of their son. According to the suit, unnamed officials at Harriton High School in Rosemont, PA, spied on the student through the camera, and an assistant principal at the school then…
Where Are the i5/i7 MacBook Pros?
One school of thought says that resources have been diverted from the new MacBook Pros to Mr. Jobs’ pet project, the iPad. I believe that because while Apple is rich in revenues and cash, it still runs very lean organizations. I’m betting that Bob Mansfield, SVP of Mac Hardware Engineering is busier than [fill in…
Telltale Brings Tales of Monkey Island to the Mac, Opens Voting For Next Release
Founded by former LucasArts employees who had a hand in Monkey Island and other adventure games released in the late 1980s and 1990s, Telltale publishes its games as “seasons” consisting of multiple episodes each released a few months apart. Tales of Monkey Island features five episodes that take hapless wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood on a…
MacSpeech Releases MacSpeech Scribe, Offers Peak at Dictate iPhone App
Like MacSpeech Dictate, Scribe requires the user to create an individual speech profile by training the software to recognize their voice. Scribe recognizes 13 different English dialects, and it supports up to six speech profiles. If the user wants to ensure punctuation is included in the final transcript, they’ll need to speak it while creating…
Touch Screen iMac = Stupid
What kind of stuff? Well, you can make menu selections. No, wait, you can do that far more easily with a keyboard or mouse, and you wouldn’t be smudging up the screen with your fried chicken/mustard/mayonnaise/gravy covered digits. Ok, you can do those cool Minority Report gestures. Except that the screen is only 22” and…
Touch Screen iMac May be In Development
The report claimed that Apple will add touch screen support to the iMac in order to better compete with all-in-one style PCs.Additional details on what features the alleged new iMac will sport are thin, but hopefully if the China Times report is accurate, the touch sensitive iMac will include a display that doesn’t show finger…
Israeli Security Caps MacBook 3 Times
Lily Sussman’s post-border check MacBookShortly after that, she heard three gun shots and was presented with her laptop bearing three new holes. Luckily, the hard drive wasn’t hit, and Israeli officials said they would replace her laptop.While Ms. Sussman’s experience is unfortunate, it’s also a great reminder to always back up your data before traveling…
Amazon Announces Kindle for Mac, Taking Signups for Availability
Amazon’s Kindle platform is currently the world’s largest platform for Ebooks and digitally distributed magazines and newspapers. With rumors that Apple will be making its much-expected, but still unannounced tablet device a major Ebook platform, Apple and Amazon could become competitors for the first time. For now, however, Mac users will have access to Ebooks,…
Apple Apologizes for 27" iMac Delays, "Working Hard to Fulfill Orders"
“We are working hard to fulfill orders as quickly as possible,” an Apple spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal. “We apologize for any inconvenience or delay in delivery this may cause our customers.” Both 21.5″ iMacs have an shipping estimate of 24 hours on the online Apple Store as of this writing, while both 27″…
Thunderbird 3 for Mac: Still Not Ready for Prime Time
It was just about a year ago that I reviewed Thunderbird 3 Beta 1. I said that version 3 was becoming a viable alternative to Apple’s Mail.app, and that’s still true. However, it’s one year later, and my personal expectation was that TB3 would not just become a viable alternative, but become the best mail…
Airlock Auto-locks Macs with iPhone Proximity
Airlock requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.5 or higher and an iPhone or iPod touch with built-in Bluetooth support. It is priced at US$7.77 and is available for download at the MHA Web site.