First to Fight is a first-person shooter that puts the player in charge of a four-man U.S. Marine fire team sent to Lebanon to quell internal strife. It was released in April for Mac, Windows and Xbox. A more realistic version is in use by the Marine Corps as a training tool. The two companies…
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Abel Cine Hosting Post-NAB Open House Featuring the HVX-200
You can find out more about the event at the Abel Cine Tech Web site. The event is scheduled for May 11th from 12PM until 6PM at the New York location.
First on TMO - Apple Exec: Shuffle Grabs 58% of Flash Player Market; What Cell Phone Threat?
On the market less than six months, Apple’s iPod shuffle has grabbed a 58% share of the flash-based digital media player market, up from 43% in February, company chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer has told Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich in a recent interview. In a report to clients released Wednesday and obtained by The…
Mac Gaming News - Aspyr to Publish CSI: Dark Motives
Aspyr Media on Monday announced that this summer it will publish CSI: Dark Motives, the follow-up to the CSI: Crime Scene Investigations game that the company released late last year. Like its predecessor, Dark Motives places gamers in the shoes of a forensic detective tasked with solving five crimes that have happened throughout Las Vegas.…
2,000 People in Two Hours at SoHo Apple Store
S ome 2,000 people went through Appleis doors in the first two hours of Tiger availability last Friday, according to a report at Forbes magazine. The article, penned by frequent Apple commentator and reporter Arik Hesseldahl, covered the release of Tiger, including background information on Appleis Tiger and Microsoftis as-yet-to-be-released Longhorn Windows update, the importance…
Analyst Steven Milunovich Foresees Apple Market Share Gains, Reiterates 'Buy' Rating
Mr. Milunovich used the release of Mac OS X v10.3 “Panther” in the fall of 2003, which brought in US$60 million in revenue for Apple during that quarter, as a basis for comparison and said that he expects Tiger to net $84-$100 million in sales this quarter, given the increased size of the Mac install…
Just a Thought - Advertise, Please!
One of the biggest differences between Microsoft and Apple is not just the 90 + percent delta in the number of the world’s desktops they can claim, nor the comparatively broad differences in perceived security of the operating systems either sells; no, the biggest difference, in my view, is the way Big Redmond advertises versus…
Just a Thought - Confused Over Tiger And Tiger Direct? So Am I
Oh Gawd! Feel their pain! Tiger Direct is suing Apple over its use of the name ‘Tiger’, which Apple has code-named its next OS X release (see TMO’s full coverage for more information). The suit alleges that Apple Computer engaged in trademark infringement and unfair trade practices in connection with its recent marketing campaign for…
Tiger: Think Evolutionary, not Revolutionary
I tis been more than eighteen months in the public eye, and has taken center stage at every major Apple event in the last year. Like the opening act for a sold-out headliner, itis been used by Apple CEO Steve Jobs to delay satiating the crowdis anticipation for Appleis new hardware announcements. Itis been heralded…
Tiger Pre-Orders Ship
W eive begun hearing from Observers who pre-ordered Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" and have received shipping notification. Delivery for most pre-orders was promised for Friday, April 29th, the same day the software will be released in retail stores. For those who didnit pre-order the Mac OS X upgrade, Apple announced in-store "Tiger World Premiere"…
Rock the Room with Altec Lansing's FX6021 Speakers
I f you think the aural experts at Altec Lansing only make portable speakers for the iPod, youire forgiven: the companyis marketing efforts mention little else. Such speakers donit really interest us — weid sooner use an iPod with a decent set of headphones. Altec Lansingis FX6021 speaker system. In reality, though, portable speakers are…
Mac Gaming News - Aspyr to Release 4 Free Battlefield 1942 Maps, Drops Prices
Aspyr Media has announced that it will release four free maps for the Mac version of the team-based first-person shooter Battlefield 1942. The maps, which were created by a group of fans, are the same ones contained in the Match Map Pack released on the PC side in February. The company also lowered the prices…
Real Fires Another Shot at iTunes With New Versions of Rhapsody
Rhapsody 25 is a free service that allows anyone who downloads the jukebox software to listen to 25 tracks from the Rhapsody library each month. Real said that it will offset the cost of paying music labels for the songs with its new Chrysler sponsorship. The company is also in a business relationship with Google…
BBC Editorial Looks at Mac Community
I n an editorial for the BBC published Thursday, Stephen Evans examined the culture of Mac owners and Apple fans. Dredging up the controversial "cult" word, the article compared the Manhattan Apple Store to a church, Macworld keynotes to church event, and even considered the idea that Mac users were comparable to Catholics, while Windows…
Apple Shareholders Approve Board-Sponsored Proposals; CEO Blasts Protesters
I n its annual shareholder meeting Thursday, Apple Computer shareholders approved all of the proposals sponsored by the companyis board of directors, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the opportunity to blasts environmentalists that have been protesting against the company. According to a report on the meeting by MacCentral, Mr. Jobs denied all of the…
NAB Attendees Vote Apple Tops Twice
L AS VEGAS — Attendees at the 2005 National Association of Broadcasters trade show in Las Vegas voted Apple products among the top five in two different categories, the NAB trade group announced late on Wednesday. Appleis Final Cut Pro 5, which was announced Sunday, April 17th, and QuickTime Broadcaster were each selected as one…
Three Overlooked Announcements Made During the Show
L AS VEGAS — Nestled within the halls of every trade show lie the overlooked: product releases and other announcements that donit generate as much coverage as the news made by the big companies. The Mac Observer was on hand, however, to bring you three announcements that were overlooked during this yearis National Association of…
'05 Crowd Hits 127,800
104,427 attendees were registered for the event, including 23,401 international visitors. Those numbers compare to 97,544 in 2004, plus 22,320 international attendees. NAB 2005 is being held at the Las Vegas Convention center between now and April 21. It is the worldis largest electronic media show covering the development, delivery and management of professional video…
Pay-Per-Song Still Most Preferred, Study Says
The new study showed buyers prefer the pay-per download model. 24% of current downloaders indicated a preference for obtaining music through a fee-based online offering, with an a la carte pay-per-download method most preferred at 19%. 5% preferred an on-demand PC-tethered streaming subscription service. Downloaders who have experience paying for online music are most pronounced…
Adobe Systems Agrees to Buy Macromedia for $3.4 Billion
Under the terms of the merger, which has already been approved by both boards, San Jose, California-based Adobe Systems will pay 0.69 of its own shares for each Macromedia share. After the deal, Macromedia?s stockholders will own approximately 18% of the combined company on a pro forma basis. The deal values Macromedia?s share at $41.86,…
Apple Announces Shake 4 with 3D Features, Distributed Rendering, More [UPDATE]
< A href="http://www.apple.com">Apple Computer announced Sunday Shake 4, an upgrade to the companyis compositing solution for film editing. The new version features 3D multi-plane compositing, cutting-edge optical flow image processing, and what Apple called “unprecedented integration with Final Cut Pro 5.” The announcement was made in advance of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade…
Apple Announces Soundtrack Pro [UPDATE]
< A href="http://www.apple.com">Apple Computer announced Sunday a new version of Soundtrack, the companyis editing software solution for film soundtracks. Soundtrack Pro brings new editing options and features, new features for fixing problems in a soundtrack, plugins from Logic Pro 7, and tighter integration with Final Cut Pro HD. The announcement was made in advance of…
TMO Reports - Apple U.S. PC Market Share Up .5% to 5th Spot, Study Shows
Apple Computer took a jump from 3.2% to 3.7% in U.S. PC market share for the first quarter of 2005, according to the Gartner Dataquest research firm. The increase in shipments of Macs now puts Apple in fifth place among the top manufacturers. Apple shipped 571,000 Macs to capture 3.7% of the market share, compared…
Cagey Apple Sold 138,000 mini's in Q2, Analyst Believes
Using Appleis own data, Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster came to his conclusion based on the total number of flat panel iMacs, eMacs and Mac miniis sold, the total revenue of the group and the approximate average selling price of each model. With only 69 days to sell the Mac mini in the…