News

–Scott Adams. I am not a big fan of prediction articles for the new year. They require lot of hubris, and, honestly, no one can really make good technical predictions, even us who follow Apple very closely. If one tries, the author and the readers waste time fretting about how good the predictions were. As…

The software then interpolates that to determine what word you’re typing, and if it’s not sure, it presents a list of options. Tests between Swypers and iPhone typers have been showing up on the Internet showing the Swyper as being the faster input method. Swype Inc.’s self-titled technology was developed by T9 predictive text inventor…

OFT taps into the iPhone’s abilities and features, including the built-in compass, global positioning system, accelerometer, 3G networks, WiFi, and multitouch screen. The company also said it has designed, “disruptive-tolerant networking, content-centric networking and augmented reality, incorporating security guards for tactical operations.” In the screenshot to the left, a battlefield map is shown with soldiers…

14 Jan 2010. Apple stock (AAPL) reaches an all time high of $228.61. 26 Jan 2010. Apple announces its earnings for the holiday (1st Fiscal) quarter. 13.5 million iPhones, 3.3 million Macs, US$14B in revenue, profit of US$2.1B. “The best Apple quarter ever,” says Peter Oppenheimer. 09 Feb 2010. On the eve of Macworld, Apple…

While Psystar had a non-Mac business — it’s main business model was making cheap PC computers on which one could run one’s OS of choice, including Mac OS X with the help of software (more or less) developed by Psystar called Rebel EFI — it’s not yet clear if the company intends to try and…

Tests tweets with words that aren’t allowed on prime time television showed the first letter with stars for the remaining letters, like “f***.”Censoring isn’t the only problem Zune HD owners will face with their new Twitter client. It seems the app also offers poor performance and fails to respond to button taps, and the Zune…

In the 1990s, the heyday of Macintosh e-mail programs, Eudora shone with a strong light. (As did Claris Em@iler.) But as time passed, events conspired to force Eudora to end of life. Today, MailForge, from Infinity Data Systems, continues the spirit and tradition of Eudora as a ground up rewrite. Those who were bumped off…

With all of that in place, what device would I pick? It took me almost no time to come up with the answer: an iPhone. For me, the iPhone unquestionably and undeniably emerges as the device of the decade. Nothing else comes close. Checking online for “gadget of the decade” lists, I found one from…

Finding the right colors for your project, and then picking colors that work well with your choice, can be a little intimidating. Pantone’s myPantone app for the iPhone can help with that, and it works as a great color reference for designers, too. myPantone is an application that puts Pantone’s color reference libraries in the…

In short, Apple won what amount to a complete and total victory in its legal battle to stop Psystar from selling unauthorized Macs or from selling and/or distributing Rebel EFI. Holiday Season in Cupertino “This ruling will mean a Merry Christmas for Apple, Inc.,” an attorney who has been following the case told TMO, “but…

Apple filed its motion for a permanent injunction after Judge Alsup ruled in a summary judgement that Psystar infringed on Apple’s copyrights by selling PCs with Mac OS X installed, and it violated the DMCA by circumventing the code that binds Mac OS X to Apple hardware.Apple filed a lawsuit against Psystar in Northern California…

The premise of the article is that AT&T gets a bad rap for its network, but that the facts don’t back that up. “When I set about looking for independent data to confirm the superior performance of Verizon’s network” Mr. Stross wrote. “I was astonished to discover that I had managed to get things exactly…

NOTE: While the Mac Observer content management system says that I wrote this review, it was mostly written by my 17-year old son Jacob. As a junior in high school I think he has a much better handle on what high school is like, how well this simulation/game emulates the real deal, and how much…

This week (12/11/09), however, Pocket Girlfriend appeared as #4 on the top ten paid apps list at the App Store. Now, that got me really curious. What could possibly be so great about an app that purports to be a virtual girlfriend. Apple’s app reviewers would not let an app through that displayed anything racier…

Apple would, according to the report, leverage Lala’s existing technologies and engineering talent to move iTunes to a browser-based online store and service, though the article did not address whether this would be in addition to or instead of the standalone software we know today as “iTunes.” As Apple relies on iTunes to manage iPods…

The Mac Geek Gab was listed in the “Classic Audio” category, which includes such podcasts as This American Life, Onion Radio News, Twit, Grammar Girl, 60 Minutes, NPR’s Planet Money, and several more — and we humbly note that’s not bad company to keep. Congrats to Dave Hamilton and John F. Braun for a job…

I was reminded of this recently when, via some chatter on Twitter, I was alerted to aaplinvestors.net’s iPhone Death Watch. The page consists simply of a collection of quotes — from a variety of journalists, analysts and corporate executives — all predicting bad things for the iPhone’s future. The most fun quotes to read are the ones…

Flurry also said that Android user sessions grew from 10% to 14% during the same time. While still dwarfed by Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch usage, Android’s user session usage is growing the fastest of the three platforms. The company also postulated that iPod touch represents a more important piece of Apple’s future revenue growth…

Mr. Um also tied the purchase into Apple’s data center development in North Carolina, writing, “We believe the Lala acquisition fits into our view that Apple is building a data center for a service to provide seamless access and mobility of digital content across all its products including media-focused content of iTunes and user-generated content…

MovieWedge is one of the most ingenious gadgets I’ve ever seen and the most flexible stand I’ve ever seen for an iPhone. It looks like a tiny beanbag chair with a little lip across the lower front edge to secure your iPhone (or other device). It’s so flexible, in fact, that it also works great…

On Monday, Ars Technica weighed in with some thoughts on why Apple made the purchase and what it will do with the company: “Apple has also been rumored to be testing a streaming service for video content; adding music to the menu seems like an obvious choice,” it said.Looking closer at the situation reveals some…

You can’t touch stress, but sometimes touching can make you stressful. You can’t see stress, but you can see its results. About the only thing you can do is feel stressful, but in reality what you feel is likely the result of one of our most basic animal instincts and quandary; to run away or…

Lala is, in some respects, a would-be competitor to iTunes. The service offers some eight million songs from major labels, indie labels, and from services like TuneCore that represent the growing ranks of unsigned bands self releasing music. For instance, and for full disclosure’s sake, this reporter’s band, The Atomic Love Bombs, are on Lala.…

Also on Monday, I laughed out loud when I read about a Nokia strategist talk about how they’ve focused too much on the technology of their smartphones instead of ease of use. Also mentioned was the glacial response to the Apple iPhone, borne of a bit of overconfidence. Anssi Vanjoki, chief strategist and number two…