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 The Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go 8 GB Flash drive looks like all the rest, but it stands out in two ways. It has a retractable USB connector that avoids losing a cap, and it has a password protected private zone for personal data and a public zone to use in the normal fashion, even on…

According to the court order, Psystar has also been blocked from filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for six months, and Judge Mark, the Judge overseeing the company’s bankruptcy case, is maintaining jurisdiction over the case so he can enforce the terms of his order.An attorney familiar with this type of case told The Mac…

The motion to postpone the meeting was jointly filed by Apple and Psystar so that it would fall after the August 21st fact discovery deadline, and because Psystar’s new legal team was still familiarizing itself with the case.Apple filed a lawsuit against Psystar in northern California claiming the company was violating the Mac OS X…

Here are the Mac applications that have been reviewed to date: StoryMill Takes a Novel Approach 03 April 2009 Scrivener Brings Out the Scribbler 07 April 2009 Ulysses is a Heroic Writer’s Application 15 April 2009 Jer’s Novel Writer is a Memorable App 21 April 2009. CopyWrite for Writers has the Write Stuff 07 May…

Ulysses 2 is the next generation of the well-known writing tool developed by Blue Technologies in Leipzig, Germany. Now, Ulysses 2 has been revamped, simplified slightly, made more robust, and gained added features. The developer has also re-imagined itself and has been reborn as The Soulmen. Ulysses 2 is now a worthy competitor to the…

Nature had decided to put on a show of her own.  She was constantly threatening to pass a storm our way which would delay the process as we scurried to shutdown the electrical equipment, tarp over the lumber, and sandbag items to keep them from blowing away.  However, we had come prepared with iPhones.  With…

“Consider the iPod, she wrote, “small, elegant and curvy, it’s everything that stereo equipment never was. Traditional stereo shops seem as out of date as vinyl, and stand in contrast to Apple stores, which are light, bright and bursting with women. Though pink is offered as one of many color choices, women buy iPods because…

Apple acquired Shake in February of 2002 when it bought its maker, Nothing Real. At that time, Apple was in the process of building it’s Mac-based video editing portfolio, having already purchased Final Cut from Macromedia. Since then, however, Shake hasn’t gotten much public attention from Apple, and the 4.1 release referenced above included a…

“Microsoft should abandon Zune and follow Apple’s strategy to try to make its presence felt in the high-growth smartphone sector,” commented Tradition Capital Management vice president George Kurian, according to MarketWatch.Overall interest in the device doesn’t seem to be very high, either. “The market reception for Zune is so disappointing that many retailers have even…

Storyist is the sixth novel (and screenplay) writing application covered in this series of reviews. Storyist, for many writers, may be just the kind of application they were expecting. A major focus is on the creation and linking of the a novel’s elements, plot outline, characters and settings. Storyist requires mastery to exploit fully, but…

While the deal isn’t as far reaching as it could have been, it still signals a big win for Microsoft. The company now has control over a much more credible search engine, and it can potentially become a bigger threat to Google — the reigning king of Internet search dollars.In exchange, Yahoo! gets to partner…

In the press release he sent out to commemorate the event, he noted that in 1999, 70 percent of users played games over dial-up modems connected to computers equipped with 128MB of RAM and 8GB of hard drive space. Age of Empires II was, and continues to be, the most consistently-played game. In addition, he…

In the research note obtained by The Mac Observer, Mr. Reitzes wrote, “We believe the 3Q09 report was very strong with solid demand for AAPL products combined with solid execution.” “Most importantly,” he added, “Apple continues to demonstrate how its unique business model can deliver industry-high margins over the short & long-term. We look forward…

If there was ever any doubt that Apple is on the right course with its notebook philosophy, which is most of its Mac sales, this Earnings Report removed that doubt. Apple sold 2.6 million Macs, just shy of its record of 2.611 million sold just before the economic collapse in the fall of 2008. Today,…

The Q3 also features a 2.4-inch LCD display that includes audio level meters, battery indicator, time elapsed and video display. It accepts up to a 32 GB SDHC card allowing up to 16 hours of movie making. Users can upload videos to their computer with the USB cable for immediate editing and sharing.  Powered by…

Judge Alsup, the Judge overseeing Apple’s case against Psystar in northern California, granted Psystar’s request to replace Carr & Farrell with Camara & Sibley on July 16. Camara & Sibley, along with their local representative, David V Welker, agreed to take on the case even though it has already progressed well into the discovery stage.An…

Microsoft is said to be ready to pay several billion dollars in exchange for Yahoo!’s search advertising business. Microsoft has also agreed to make additional payments back to Yahoo!, too.Considering the rocky road Microsoft and Yahoo! have taken to get to this point, there’s no guarantee that the deal won’t fall apart at the last…

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men to set foot on the moon.Serial numbers for the Mac versions of the applications will be available at Carina Software’s Web site, and the free iPhone and iPod touch versions SkyVoyager and SkyGazer will be available at Apple’s App Store.

Apple’s senior executives like to believe that there is no value in reading the Mac and iPhone related Websites, and they tell their staff that. After all, Apple employees are too busy to dabble in rumors and speculation. So it’s just a time waster. Or is it? I was in an Apple retail store recently,…

“An annual decline in unit shipments is highly unusual in the PC market,” Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst, compute platforms for iSuppli, said in a statement. “Even in weak years, PC unit shipments typically rise by single-digit percentages.” For perspective, he added, “The last decline — in 2001 — was a 5.1 decrease in unit shipments…

Take even a simple device, like the smoke detector in my hallway. A few months ago, I needed to replace its battery. I spent over thirty minutes trying to get the cover off without breaking the case. I gave up and called the alarm company that had installed the device. Their service tech couldn’t figure…