Exploring the Differences Between StarOffice and OpenOffice

Both StarOffice 9 and OpenOffice.org 3 will offer an office suite of tools compatible with Microsoft Office. Both are based on the same code base, and both will be native on the Mac, no longer requiring X11. Sun’s Louis Suarez-Potts explained the key differences to TMO and what the customer should know before selecting one…

YML Tonight: All About Photography with Scott Kelby

Your Mac Life (YML), with Shawn King, which airs every Wednesday night, will be all about one of YMLis favorite subjects: photography. Scott Kelby, photoshop guru, will be on hand to chat about it. “Photoshop Guru Scott Kelby is organizing a iWorldwide Photo Walki on August 23rd. He has asked Your Mac Life to lead…

iSync plugins 6.2 Adds Support for New Sony Ericsson, Nokia Handsets

New phones supported by the iSync plugins 6.2 include: Nokia 6124 classic, E66, E71, N78 Sony Ericsson W380i, C702, C702c, C902, C902c, G502, G502c, K530c, K550im, K610i, K610im, K818i, K858i, T658i, V640i, W350i, W380i, W580i, W580im, W712a, W715a, W760c, W760i, W830i, W888i, W908c, W980, Z710a, Z715i, Z750a, Z750i, Z780i iSync plugins adds iSync support to…

Apple Security Team Pulled from Black Hat Conference

“[Apple] Marketing got wind of it, and nobody at Apple is ever allowed to speak publicly about anything without marketing approval,” said Black Hat Conference Director, Jeff Moss. “It was them talking about security engineering and how they take security seriously,” Moss said. “It would have put Apple in a positive light.”The team was not…

Apple Security Update 2008-005 Fixes DNS Issue

Apple rolled out a late day security update on Thursday that addressed potential DNS-related flaws in Mac OS X Leopard and Tiger. Security Update 2008-005 prevents malicious attackers from forging Web sites — a trick that could potentially be used for phishing attacks where hackers trick Web surfers into giving up personal information like passwords…

Jobs: I'm OK, Butt Out

Public concerns over Mr. Jobsis health increased after The New York Post claimed “many” people were worried about his current condition. The article was published on the same day that Apple held its third quarter earnings report conference call, and Lehman Brothers analyst Ben Reitzes asked the company to comment on the article and Mr.…

Neverwinter Nights 2

Say what you will about the history of “Dungeons & Dragons,” poke fun at its stereotypes and the imagery of geeks eating bags of Cheetos while arguing over minute rules; it still makes for a terrific computer game. With this in mind, Neverwinter Nights 2, developed by Obsidian Entertainment, published by Atari and ported to…

AOL Cuts Back on Blogs to Save Cash

The moratorium on content is bad news for the impacted blog sites and their writers who earn their pay based on posts they publish, and also for readers that look to the blogs for news and other content. Diylife.com appears to have been handed the short end of the stick since it will be shut…

Bloxorz

For most of us, however, wasting time is an occasional endeavor remanded to those times when it is socially acceptable — kind of like belching or picking your nose (both of which can be excellent time wasters). Wasting time while at work is not acceptable, but the true practitioner can waste time while making it…

BW: Responsible Discussion of Steve Jobs' Health in Order

A proven and well informed source has said that Mr. Jobsi cancer has not returned, according to Arik Hesseldahl at BusinessWeek. Unfortunately, many of the recent discussions about Mr. Jobsi health are idle, speculative, and uninformed. “When questions were raised about his appearance at WWDC, spokeswoman Katie Cotton said he had been suffering from a…

AAPL Down 11% in After Hours Trading

Apple announced a record June quarter, with revenue of $7.45 billion and profits on $1.07 billion. The company grew iPod sales, and saw a record quarter for Macintosh unit sales. While those results beat analyst consensus of $1.07 per share in earnings, with revenue of $7.36 billion, Apple disappointed with its 4th quarter guidance. Apple…

Yahoo!, Icahn Reach Board Agreement

Also as part of the deal to drop the proxy takeover attempt, Robert Kotick will step down from Yahoo!is board of directors. Mr Yang commented “This agreement will not only allow Yahoo! to put the distraction of the proxy contest behind us, it will allow the company to continue pursuing its strategy of being the…

ATR Forecasts Strong June Qtr for Apple

American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu predicted on Thursday that Apple will show strong results for its fiscal 3rd quarter than ended in June. The expectation is US$7.3B in revenue, $1.10 EPS, 2.5 million Macs, 10.5 million iPods and 705,000 (2G) iPhones. In a research note to investors, obtained by TMO, Mr. Wu enumerated key…

Apple Lawsuit Against Psystar Filed

Apple has filed a lawsuit against Psystar, a Miami-based company that has been selling Intel computers bundled and running with Mac OS X. The note appeared in Jorge Espinosais blog on Tuesday. The suit was filed in the federal district court for the northern district of California against Psystar on July 3. “The suit alleges…

Yahoo Rejects Microsoft, Icahn Buyout Bid

“Carl Icahn and Microsoft presented us with a itake it or leave iti proposal under which we would be required to restructure the Company, hand over to Microsoft Yahoo!is valuable search business and to Carl Icahn the rest of the Company, giving us less than 24 hours to respond,” said Yahoo! Chairman Roy Bostock. “It…

Quantum Oscillations in the Applesphere

/> This was a significant week in Apple’s history. In the past, Apple’s well tuned marketing engine worked just as well, but the Mac faithful just weren’t present in sufficient numbers to jar the Applesphere. However, the decisions Apple made regarding the secrecy of the iPhone 2.0 and iPhone 3G rollout may have come back…

MobileMe/.Mac Services Still Down

as swiftly as it appeared in the first place. Currently, Appleis .Mac home page redirects to a maintenance page with the message, “The MobileMe transition is underway but is taking longer than expected. While core services such as desktop mail, iDisk and sync are available, the new MobileMe web applications are not yet online. Thank…

Why user interface design matters

The difference between great vs. poor user interface design can be hard to quantify. Similar to the supposed difference between art and pornography — you know it when you see it. You certainly can’t tell which is a better designed product simply by looking at a list of their features. Two products may have similar…

Microsoft: We Have a Noisy Competitor

Brad Brooks, Microsoftis VP of Vista consumer marketing, in a keynote address to to the annual Partner conference, admitted that the Apple “Get a Mac” TV ads have had an impact, and Microsoft is going to start countering. In his discussion of the Vista launch, Mr. Brooks was frank and acknowledged that his company screwed…

Segway CTO Joining Apple

Doug Field, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Segway will be leaving to join Apple, according to a post on the Segway Chat Forum by the administrator, John Grohol. “Doug has been the driving force in making the Segway what it is today and will be sorely missed at the company. However, with every change…

Yahoo! Still Working on AOL Deal

If the parties could come to an agreement, Time Warner would finally be able to dump its Internet service division, and Yahoo! would potentially be in a stronger position to keep Microsoft at bay. Yahoo! shot down an unsolicited buyout offer from Microsoft at the beginning of the year. At the time, Yahoo! executives said…