News

One of the new “Get a Mac” ads, “Legal Copy” throws up a lot of legal text on the screen that’s hard to read. Well, someone has captured it all and transcribed it. So if you want to know how all that (improvised) legal copy reads, here it is. I ran across this tidbit midweek…

Mr. Jobs’s testimony was part of the SEC’s investigation of then-General Counsel Nancy Heinen, whom the SEC accused of backdating the 10 million option grant to Mr. Jobs. Ms. Heinen eventually settled with the SEC, paid a fine, and was not required to admit any wrongdoing. Mr. Jobs himself was cleared of any wrongdoing. At…

First, the Java community is very large. My wife attended Java One last year and reported that it dwarfs WWDC by a considerable amount. There are, I’m guessing, billions of lines of code of Java in place all over the planet, seriously eclipsing C#. That creates a community that can bring to bear considerable pressure…

Some functions are strongly coupled and some are not. A significant rise in unemployment, for example, has domino effects. Add a little bit of slant from the media to get our attention, and things look pretty bad. There is no doubt now. Apple’s brand and products have weathered the worst recession in memory. Tim Cook…

The trade association will hold a Hall of Fame dinner and ceremony during its industry forum that will take place October 18-21 in Phoenix. It is recognizing Mr. Jobs because he “helped to create one of the first commercially successful PCs, the Macintosh (Mac),” the organization said in a press release. Other 2009 Hall of…

With no other backups, the data on all of these drives are gone forever as well. Now fully awake, I write a brief note to myself: “Do something so that this nightmare can never become a reality.” The question is: What exactly should I do? One possibility is to buy a safe and store a…

While Mr. Ellison was quoted as saying that Sun’s Solaris OS is “by far the best Unix technology on the market,” Anthony Frausto-Robledo wrote in a commentary for Architosh: “Sun could foster an interest in running Solaris in its own Virtualbox as an industry Unix workstation platform, giving Mac Pro customers even more options. Sun…

If the big and famous writing assistance apps, StoryMill and Scrivener, are like an aircraft carrier, a floating city with its own ZIP code and a flight deck, Jer’s Novel Writer is like a destroyer, fast, sleek and focused. A major feature is being a memory aid for the creative writer. Jer’s Novel Writer is…

Mr. Marshall is also expecting Apple to turn in a “solid” March quarter when the company reports on April 22nd, 2009. He believes the company will beat its own guidance and current Wall Street estimates with revenues of $8.3 billion and $1.20 in earnings per share (EPS). That compares to guidance from Apple of $7.6-$8…

Ulysses from The Blue Technologies Group is an ambitious, complex, capable writer’s tool that has emphasis on the free flow of the writer’s thoughts as opposed to the distracting task of deciding how the text should appear as it’s written. In some respects, it has the look and feel of Scrivener, but has additional tools…

Mr. Shapiro was consulting with an older couple in the late 1990s when the wife said, “Why don’t we show him the kidney PowerBook? Maybe he can answer some questions about that computer.” He asked why they call it the “kidney PowerBook,” she said, “My husband donated one of his kidneys to his sister. She…

One of the biggest complaints I hear from Mac users is lack of USB ports. Griffin Technologies has released a new product, the SmartShare USB, particularly designed for notebooks to help address that problem. This device includes two USB ports, and each port is on a flexible six-inch cable, so it can fit into pocket,…

I’ve had the same discussion over and over with highly technical colleagues who are not yet on Twitter. They say to me: “Isn’t Twitter for kids?” “I don’t do social networking.” “It’s a waste of time.” “I’m a boring person. I can’t think of anything to say.” A Technical TimelineAll these notions are derived from…

Apple sells millions of Macs each quarter. It’s their bread and butter. Apple conducts the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) every summer. Apple hired Jordan (Mr. BSD) Hubbard to work on Mac OS X. Mac OS X has full UNIX certification. Snow Leopard looks to be a major step forward in UNIX-based OS technology. So what’s…

There isn’t any word yet on exactly what Apple has in store for the flash chips, although is seems likely that they may be destined for iPods or the iPhone.Assuming the DigiTimes sources are correct, Apple’s big buy could mean that the company is ramping up for a big product push, and since chip supplies…

Microsoft won’t, however, have to start writing out all those zeroes right away because the company plans to fight the ruling. “We are very disappointed in the jury verdict. We believe that we do not infringe, that the patent is invalid and that this award of damages is legally and factually unsupported,” the company said…

Should Steve Return? I noted with interest a column last week by Shawn King that discussed whether Steve Jobs should return to his regular duties at Apple, assuming he is healthy. The gist of the argument was that Mr. Jobs’ real or fabricated health issues will always remain a distraction — because he is a…

Hope you don’t die of dysentery Intel-based Mac owners, however, can play the IIgs games by downloading a standalone emulator linked to from the Virtual Apple ][ site. A standalone Apple II emulator is also available. The site owners said they “will soon be offering a complete download package of all disks. We also are…

StoryMill is a writer’s tool that provides organization and composition support for writing a novel. It exploits the strengths of a computer, especially in the context of Mac OS X and a Cocoa application, to assist the novelist with scenes, timelines, characters, locations and some tactical assistance such as cliché detection. Story Mill is a…

In his research note, obtained by The Mac Observer, Mr. Misek said he raising Apple’s rating, ” based on positive feedback from our channel and increasing confidence that Apple’s product refresh cycle on both the iPhone and Mac could translate into meaningful gains for the back half of 2009.” He said he was raising his…

While I can recommend buying a GPS, renting one is a different story. A few months ago, when I rented a car for 10 days, the rental company offered to include a Garmin for about $14/day. That works out to at least $140 for the 10 days (probably more with hidden taxes and fees). For…

Not “he will not,” or guesses to that effect. He should not. It’s not necessary, he’s not needed and it can be argued it’s not good for him or Apple.Jobs said, in his open letter from mid-January, “…the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction…” If Jobs comes back to Apple as the…

— Steve Jobs No company with more than one employee is perfect. Changing companies often simply replaces one set of problems with another set. So if you’re thinking about going to work for Apple, or even some other company, and you’re wondering what’s great about Apple, here’s my Top Ten list, in no particular order,…