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Microsoftis own Windows XP will be the biggest competitor to Vista and be the main factor in Vistais slow growth according to Gartner. The Gartner report was cited at the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday. The Gartner report said that Vista would only end up on about 12 percent of PCs found in the home…

In an independent internal investigation that Apple commissioned, information surfaced that showed some members of the companyis management team were involved in improperly backdating stock option grants. The investigation concluded that the current management, including Mr. Jobs, were not involved in any misconduct. The government, however, is continuing its criminal investigation. Nell Minow, editor at…

TMO got together with the President and CEO Alykhan Jetha of Marketcircle at Macworld to talk about his company, their Mac only Daylite 3 productivity suite, and their new Billings 2 software. Daylite 3 is a software package that elegantly ties together calendaring, projects, tasks, contacts, and also integrates with Appleis Mail app. The Mac…

The loss of both Mr. Steskal and his supervisor, Mr. Ryan, could cause delays in federal investigations into improper backdating at Apple as well as several other companies while new investigators are assigned to the cases. A spokesperson for northern Californiais U.S Attorneyis office commented “US Attorney Ryan is taking care to ensure a smooth…

Parallels Software revealed that it is controlled by SWsoft on Monday. Mr. Ben Rudolph, Parallelis Director of Marketing, characterized this as a substantial announcement, but affirmed that nothing has changed as a result. He told TMO: “Parallels will still have its own brand, site, and team, we will simply be leveraging SWsoft?s substantial experience, talent…

Using your cell phone as a modem to connect your Mac to the Internet can be a complex and frustrating chore, especially if you have to manually enter archaic Hayes modem commands to get everything working correctly. The better – and painless – way to accomplish the task is by using nova mediais launch2net. Many…

The Airline 77 is priced at US$449, and additional information is available at the Samson Web site. iListen allows you to control your Mac and many applications with your voice, as well as dictate to applications instead of typing. iListen is priced starting at $99.

Many, including The Mac Observer, expected Apple to announce an update to iLife at this yearis Macworld Expo, the venue for most iLife announcements. Said announcement did not, however, take place. While iLife doesnit have a major impact on Appleis sales throughout the year, it does have a positive impact on the companyis gross margins,…

The idea of using your Mac like a free-form tablet or sheet of paper isnit new, but ways to effectively make that happen are few and far between. inkBook from Mage Software does just that, and it actually works. inkBook takes advantage of the Ink technology thatis built into Mac OS X. With an Ink-aware…

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Hog Bay Softwareis WriteRoom was already a good option if you wanted a full-screen distraction-free writing environment, but some people found its feature set just a little too limiting. Now that version 2.0 is out, however, many of those excuses to stay away are gone. In its default mode, WriteRoom works in a full screen…

Iill come right out and say it: Iim a bag junkie. I love backpacks, daypacks, courier bags, you name it – I want it. I also have very high standards and expectations for the bags I use, so the fact that I enjoyed testing RadTechis Evolution laptop pack says quite a bit about the product.…

Mr. Wu also said that Apple will announce improved Windows capability, including the possibility of a full-blown virtual machine, for the next Mac OS X release, Leopard. He did not predict a release date for the OS. Apple said it would be ready by the Spring of 2007, but some (including The Mac Observer) believe…

When we last met on the subject of reading Appleis tea leaves, I was prognosticating about the brave new world of 2004. Back then, I was calling for iPod minis, where I was a little off on the name and really wrong about the price (although a lot of my reasoning eventually saw its way…

Not every Mac ships with a built-in iSight camera, but that doesnit mean you have to go without. Ecammis iMage webcam adds video capabilities to most Macs without any special mounting hardware or drivers. The iMage requires Mac OS X 10.4.3 or higher and a USB 2.0 port, includes a swivel base that works as…

The beta of Sofa Control 2.0 requires Mac OS X 10.4.8 or higher, and is available for download a the CASE Apps Web site. Sofa Control 1.0 is priced at US$9.99, and includes a free upgrade to version 2.