News

D avid Pogue takes the new Olympus m:robe digital device to task in this weeks Circuits section of The New York Times. On the surface, the m:robe 500i seems like a formidable iPod competitor. Sleek design, large color touch-screen, 20GB capacity, and a built-in digital camera. Olympus believes the device is so hot the company…

W alter Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal, who has consistently praised Appleis products and frequently recommends to readers that they at least consider a Mac, outlines the reasons a Windows user would not want to switch to the Mac in his latest column. Cost and compatibility are Mossbergis most significant warnings. Accordingly, Mossberg suggests…

O tter Products today extended its Otter Box for iPod case to the iPod mini, brining waterproof, dustproof, dirtproof, sandproof, and drop-proof protection to the music player. The Otter Box for iPod mini features a waterproof membrane that protects the click wheel, and a hard plastic window for the screen that keeps it fully legible.…

Ms. Johnson leaves HP less than one week after Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina was fired. HP said Ms. Johnsonis departure wasnit related to Fiorinais departure and was made prior to the HP executive shakeup. Ms. Johnson was not available for comment. Ms. Johnson will assume the role of vice president of worldwide marketing communications…

Euro pean telecom firm Teleca AB has announced a “system integration relationship” with Apple Computer, Inc. According to a statement released by the company, the deal will make Teleca “a preferred system integrator of Apple media creation and delivery solutions in the European telecommunications market.” Telecais role in the relationship appears to focus on the…

MSNB C has published a very interesting Newsweek interview with Creative Technologies CEO Sim Wong Hoo. The piece examines Creativeis struggle in the iPod-dominated music player market. When asked about the iPodis success, Mr. Sim says, “Steve Jobs is a personality that we all have to reckon with….But he was not the first to come…

E ighty-eight percent of Henrico County students who received iBooks as part of the countyis four-year old laptop initiative bring their iBooks to school every day, a new study commissioned by the Henrico School Board found. Additionally, 91 percent of the 20,409 students surveyed — representing 80.5 percent of total students with iBooks — use…

The news of Appleis plan to split its stock this month has Wall Street abuzz. In a late-morning article, Reuters claims that the market was “lifted by gains in semiconductors and Apple Computer, Inc.is announcement that its stock will split.” In the wake of the 2-for-1 split announcement, AAPL is up US$2.85, or 3.64% to…

According to Napster CEO Chris Gorog, speaking to New Media Age magazine, the companyis Napster To Go portable subscription service will launch in March in Great Britain. Mr. Gorog said his company is “confident” music subscription paid by the month will win out over Appleis iTunes music service, which charges customers US99 cents for each…

Few non-Apple products generate as much short-term buzz as Better Energy Systemsi Solio did at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco last January. The product is a solar powered charger for all kinds of electronic devices. At the show, we interviewed the Soliois inventor, and Better Energyis CEO, Christopher Hornor. Since then the biggest development…

I n a surprise move Wednesday, Hewlett-Packard announced that Chariman and CEO Carla Fiorina has resigned, effective immediately. Fiorina cited strategic differences with the companyis board as the reason behind her departure. “While I regret the board and I have differences about how to execute HPis strategy, I respect their decision,” said Ms. Fiorina in…

F ile this one under useless but amusing: an iPod shuffle owner paired his 1GB shuffle with three of his friendsi to create a 3.9GB striped RAID array through a USB 2.0 hub. “Iim sure that normal folks would probably take these home, install iTunes 4.7.1 from the CD in the box, and happily start…

A pple has no interest in teaming up with satellite radio provider Sirius, CEO Mel Karmazin told investors and analysts at McGraw Hillis 2005 Media Summit Wednesday. With the iPodis ability to store thousands of tunes, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told Sirius that Apple doesnit see the need of adding satellite radio functionality to the…

Pepsiis 45 second spot was ranked 27th by testers with a score of 6.01. The ad featured teenagers opening and closing bottle caps as music starts, stops and reverses to their motions. The commercial illustrates how winning a free song from the Pepsi iTunes promotion is as easy as opening a bottle of Pepsi and…

A ppleis iPod is infecting every corner of the world including, to Microsoftis dismay, its own corporate campus. “About 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod,” one high-level manager who asked to remain anonymous told Wired “Itis pretty staggering.” That translates into about 16,000 iPods on Microsoftis Redmond,…

The company acknowledged that it capitalized “Tiger” development costs of approximately $4.5 million in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2004 and $14.8 million in the fiscal first quarter of 2005. “In the fourth quarter of 2004, the company began incurring substantial development costs associated with the upcoming upgrade of Mac OS X version 10.4,” the…

I n another move to fend off competition from Apple and others, Sony today announced the creation of a third electronics division that will handle digital and video cameras, car stereos, and navigation equipment, The Wall Street Journal is reporting. The move will reduce the burden on Sonyis PC division, responsible for computers and PC-connected…

W ith Apple Computeris (AAPL) stock at a five-year high of over US$73.00 a share, five company executives cashed in stock options and common stock purchasing plans in the last week. The transactions totaled in excess of $65.5 million, according to calculations by The Mac Observer from ownership statements filed with the US Securities and…

I n more coverage Tuesday on Apple, Technology Review published an article by Eric Hellweg that said that the battlefield for online music downloads is about to change considerably. That change is Microsoftis Janus technology that allows users to take subscription (rented) music on their digital media devices, something heretofore impossible. Mr. Hellweg believes that…

I n an interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told reporter Steve Alexander, "Without the iPod, Apple would be irrelevant," and that the "iPod has given Apple a second life." Mr. Munster is the most bullish analyst covering Apple, and the comments come in a report about how the iPod…

I n his regular column for the Chicago Sun-Times, TMO columnist Andy Ihnatko said that the thing that makes the iPod shuffle so good is that it simply works. Mr. Ihnatko added his own voice to the mainstream chorus of reviewers who have gushed over Appleis newest iPod family member. Mr. Ihnatko went over the…