As summer’s 97 degree days slip by, a combination of free time, air conditioning and the best of shareware gaming have created a comfortable geek nest in which to dwell. Kill Dr. Cote First on this list is Kill Dr. Cote, Justin Ficarrotta’s Mac OS X recreation of the classic overhead twitch-shooter. Simple, to the…
News
Continental Airlines, Logan Airport Fight it Out Over Wi-Fi
The Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates the airport, claims Continentalis Wi-Fi service interferes with other wireless devices. It believes Continentalis service poses an “unacceptable potential risk” and said it would take all necessary steps to have the service turned off and removed. Continental argues Massport has no legal authority to restrict its Wi-Fi use and…
The Evolution of a Mouse
Mr. Hesseldahl quotes analyst Rob Enderle of The Enderle Group, who noted that “adding a second button and a trackball to the mouse is neither innovative nor unique. These are things that others were doing in the mid-1990s.” Still, Mr. Enderle praised the move as one that will help bring more switchers to the Mac…
Mighty Mouse Selling Well After First Day
Calls by The Mac Observer to 10 Apple retail locations in states like Virginia, Ohio, Georgia, Florida and New York showed nine of the stores sold out of the new mouse. Only one store — Appleis flagship store in the SoHo district of New York City — had remaining stock of less than five. “Itis…
Vista's Real Competition is Leopard
Apple has said very little about Leopard, beyond its ship date, but writer John Rizzo notes that it “will need to be a compelling alternative to Vista,” if the company wants to maintain the momentum of its recent market share wins. Among the things Mr. Rizzo believes Apple needs to do are add “some of…
Alias Announces Maya 7, MotionBuilder 7
Alias Maya version 7, its 3D modeling and animation software, and MotionBuilder version 7. Both updates are expected to begin shipping this month, the company said. Maya version 7 features a redesigned render layers function which lets multiple versions of objects, including materials, lights and cameras and post processes like Maya Fur and Paint Effects,…
Analysts Don't See Much Damage to End of HP iPod Deal
Analysts Shaw Wu of American Technology Research and Needham’s Charles Wolf on Monday issued research reports that cover the end of Hewlett-Packard’s agreement to resell iPods, which happened last Friday. Both reports, copies of which were obtained by The Mac Observer, see little damage to either company from the termination of the deal, but both…
TMO To Go Podcast - Mac Geek Gab: Shareware Picks
Show notes for TMO To Go: Mac Geek Gab For July 29th, 2005 Podcast Link: TMO To Go: Mac Geek Gab, July 29th, 2005 John’s heading off for vacation, so the show comes early this week. Today’s topic is shareware, and John and Dave talk through a few of their favorites, plus one recommended by…
Griffin Announces iFM for iPod
Griffin Technology announced Friday the iFM, a handheld device with a built-in FM tuner, iPod remote control functionality and the ability to record audio notes and radio broadcasts. The iFM is a stand-alone device (see photo below) that connects to the Apple iPod. Users can switch seamlessly between controlling their music library and listening to…
HP to Stop Selling the iPod (UPDATED)
Hewlett Packard plans to stop selling Aplpe’s iPod digital media device through its retail distribution channels, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The article quotes Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton as saying HP “decided that reselling iPods doesn’t fit with their company’s current digital media strategy.” WSJ reporters Nick Wingfield and Pui-Wing Tam said that HP’s…
Microsoft Executive Admits the Halo Effect is Real
A New York Times article detailing the demonstration also noted that “many features [of Windows Vista] shown today are ones already introduced in Apple Computeris OS X Tiger operating system.” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer promised better revenue growth from the company; his plans include premium versions of Windows and the Office productivity suite, although he…
iPod shuffle Chip Maker SigmaTel Acquires Rio Technology, Design Team
D&M Holdings Inc. has announced the sale of the intellectual property and other technology assets for the Rio MP3 player to SigmaTel Inc., which provides flash chips for Apple’s iPod shuffle as well as the chips for MP3 players from Creative, Samsung and other companies. Under the deal, SigmaTel will also acquire most of the…
Epson Intros Three New Consumer Scanners
Epson on Thursday introduced three new USB 2.0 scanners aimed at the consumer market: the Epson Perfection 4490 Photo, Perfection 3590 Photo and Perfection 3490 Photo, all of which will ship next month. All three scanners include the third generation of Epson Easy Photo Fix technology, which improves the color restoration of faded images, and…
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 to Ship Aug. 15
The game also offers more PGA Tour players than the last edition, with opportunities to play against not only Tiger himself but also Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and other legends. Players can also take on those golfersi personas and steps into their shoes for 18 holes. The new Tiger Proofing course modification feature…
SANS Institute Report Highlights iTunes, Tiger Exploits
Chief Research Officer Johannes Ullrich told The Mac Observer that while Apple issues security updates for its operating systems on a regular basis, the ones released in May and June were particularly troublesome and merited the SANS Instituteis attention. While the holes in the OS were fixed, Mr. Ullrich said that he is seeing more…
iTunes Phone Not Announced; Coming in Next "66 Days" (UPDATE)
Before a packed crowd of reporters, Motorola CEO Ed Zander began the event by announcing, “Weire not going to launch the iTunes phone today.” Mr. Zander then read a prepared statement explaining when the phone would debut, but giving little reason for the continuing delay of a mobile product that has been talked about for…
MakeMusic Ships Finale 2006 Music Notation Application
Upgrades from earlier versions of Finale are US$149.95, except for Finale 2005 users, who only need to pay $99.95. Suggested retail price for the full version is $600, with discounts available for volume license purchases and educational users. System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.2, a G4 processor, 256MB RAM and 200MB hard drive…
TMO To Go Podcast - Mac Geek Gab: Backing up for AppleCare
Show notes for TMO To Go: Mac Geek Gab For the week of July 25th, 2005 Podcast Link: TMO To Go: Mac Geek Gab, July 25th, 2005 John’s PowerBook went to AppleCare (and came back) this week. As such, John and Dave discuss AppleCare and what you should do when you’re sending your machine off.…
Microsoft's Windows Vista May Infringe on Another Co.'s Trademark
“Itis further confusion to a confusing mark,” Mr. Wall told Mr. Dudley, referring to the fact that the word “vista” has been trademarked by various companies for different uses. He plans to “consider our options and talk to them.” A Microsoft spokeswoman told Mr. Dudley that no companies had addressed problems with the trademark as…
Apple Hires Delicious Monster Co-Founder, Designer
In an online blog posting, Mr. Matas said he would be moving from Seattle, Wash. to Cupertino, Calif. to work at Apple and “will be designing user interfaces and drawing icons for Mac OS X.” “Unfortunately this means I will be leaving Delicious Monster, the software company I founded with Wil Shipley about a year…
A Network Administrator Responds to Winn Schwartau's 'Mad as Hell' Declaration
In an interview with The Mac Observer conducted by e-mail, Mr. Rumble, who has little experience with Macs, said: “I think Winn has his finger on the pulse with most of these topics. Keep it simple, stupid (KISS) is a mantra recited over and over in the security field, especially in IT. I also think…
H-P to Layoff 14,500 in Major Restructuring
Hewlett-Packard Co. said Tuesday it will cut 14,500 jobs, or about 10% of its full-time staff, in a restructuring plan aimed at saving US$1.9 billion a year. The job cuts will occur over the next six quarters, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based personal-computer maker said. “After a thorough review of our business, we have formulated a…
29 Music Reviews at iPodObserver
However, for the nonce they donit appear in the headlines, and you can only find the reviews by visiting iPOis home page, or by visiting the Music page at the site. We will be changing this in the future, but until then we have put together a list of reviews we have already published to…