News

The way to maintain the reputation of an OS is to make it appeal to the resident geeks because they are the ones who make or break its reputation, according to Don Reisinger at CNET on Monday. Microsoft didnit do that with Vista, but Apple did with Mac OS X. The downfall of Vista was…

Microsoft launched its third in a series of special ads to spruce up the image of Windows on Thursday night. The ad features a selection of cameos, some famous and some not, showing that Windows is used by all kinds of people. The ad opens with a comment by a John Hodgman lookalike, Microsoft employee…

On Thursday, the Surfini Safari blog announced the next generation Javascript accelerator, SquirrelFish Extreme. Benchmarks show that it is over three times faster than Webkit 3.1. “Just three months ago, we announced SquirrelFish, a major revamp of our JavaScript engine featuring a high-performance bytecode interpreter. Today weid like to announce the next generation of our…

Valleywag broke the news Wednesday, and Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw told the LA Times that the move was planned, despite the appearance that the company is reacting to negative reaction to the ads. According to Mr. Shaw, the Seinfeld portion of the campaign, for which he was reportedly paid some US$10 million, was always intended…

A bug in QuickTime 7.5.5 has been discovered which could be exploited for a malicious attack, but right now the risk is characterized as low. The QuickTime tag fails to handle long strings correctly. The bug was announced by Intego on Thursday, but was first discovered by Symantec researcher Aaron Adams. Intego described the exploit…

Steve Jobs was in Brussels on Wednesday to participate in a European Union meeting on the state of music and technology firms in Europe. The meeting was held to discuss how the promise of a “union” in Europe hasnit been completely successful on the Internet. That was the tone presented by EU competition commissioner Neelie…

On t oday’s menu is a trio of comments regarding recent news items: Podcaster and Apple’s “success” Yesterday, the Observer reported that “Apple has rejected an iPhone app, Podcaster, on the basis that it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes. The author is greatly annoyed, as are some other developers and observers.…

about Appleis policies regarding the App Store and what applications are permissible. While some argue that Apple can do as it pleases to insure its revenue stream, thatis exactly the argument that got Microsoft into trouble. Apple is no longer the underdog in many areas. Itis not fighting the worthy fight to survive and flourish.…

Sharp-eyed photographers have spotted what appears to be a Mercedes that belongs to Steve Jobs outside the Yerba Buena Gardens during last weekis “Letis Rock” event and have noted that it has a bar code instead of a California license plate, according to the iPhone Savior. Immediately after the pictue was posted, a controvery started…

Dan Lyons who formerly wrote as the “Fake Steve Jobs” published a story at Newsweek about how Appleis is becoming just another Microsoft and a “monopolist in training.” The essay struck CNBCis Jim Goldman as odd, so he took a closer look at the issues involved and came to a different conclusion. Mr. Goldman noted…

Macworld Expo includes sessions and classes geared toward Mac, iPod and iPhone users, designers and developers, along with an expo hall where attendees have the opportunity to talk with companies that make Apple compatible products. Attendees can register for the expo and sessions at the Macworld Expo Web site. Pricing varies depending on classes and…

CNBCis Jim Goldman sat down with Steve Jobs after Tuesdayis “Letis Rock” event to ask some follow-up questions. While the interview focused on Music and Macs, Mr. Goldman did inquire about Mr. Jobsi health off camera — which was described as good, even if he could stand to gain 10 or 15 pounds. Mr. Jobs…

Tom Pilla, Microsoftis general manager of corporate communications, isnit comparing the Microsoft Gurus to the Apple Genius bar team. “Think of that as borrowing a page from Nordstrom with that retail customer experience,” he said. The Gurus will be placed in stores to help potential customers select Microsoft solutions and to offer pre-sale support. They…

Perhaps Microsoft wanted to make a splash with its annoucement for a manager to run Microsoftis own version of Appleis App Store, according to Internetnews on Wednesday. However, the job posting has been withdrawn, and Microsoft wonit comment. The advertisement was found at ComputerJobs.com and described a services for Windows Mobile called SkyMarket. The lead…

Designing a professional looking Web site requires good coding and good design skills — a combination that isnit overly prominent in the Web design world. Freeway Pro 5.2 helps overcome that problem by giving designers the tools they need to build great sites without requiring them to develop strong coding skills, and it does it…

A ChangeWave Research Report says that amongst those planning to purchase a PC in the next 90 days, Apple leads all competitors. Of the Alliance members surveyed, 34 percent plan to buy an Apple notebook and 30 percent an Apple desktop, numbers that continue to rise. The study, conducted August 4-12, asked pver 4,400 Alliance…

Despite their appeal, Solid State Drives (SSD) wonit make real sense for laptops for several more years, according to Computerworld. The curent technology is still too expensive, slower on I/O and has a more limited lifespan. Right now, consumer grade SLC SSDs use a different structure that has good capacity and price, but suffer compared…

The locations of Appleis U.S. retail stores closely track the U.S. Census Bureau for the highest density population centers, according to ifoAppleStoreon Thursday. However, there are a few notable exceptions. “Apple claims that over 90 percent of the countryis population is within 15 minutes of an Apple retail store, and a population analysis seems to…