iPod Sewer Durability Test

Spring semester at the Santa Clara University in California left students a little backed up while maintenance crews worked to free an iPod mini that was accidentally flushed down a toilet. Once stuck in the College of Arts and Sciences building plumbing, the diminutive iPod proved next to impossible to extract. According to NBC 11,…

Analyst: Apple Tracking to Sell ~8 Million iPods This Quarter

Mr. Munster noted that Appleis iPod market share in May was 76%, which was flat with April. However, he said: “The iPod number will likely be a nonevent for the June quarter. More importantly, we believe the Mac number has room for upside. We expect new versions of iPod and positive seasonality will be a…

Podcast - Mac Geek Gab #57: One Year Old and Going Strong

Show notes for TMO To Go: Mac Geek Gab For June 13th, 2006 Direct Links: MP3 Version or AAC Enhanced Version (courtesy of Michael, aka Computernap!). One year later, Dave and John are still at it. As has become typical, Dave and John answer your questions about all things Mac and beyond, including topics such…

Analyst: Apple to Enter Cell Market, But Not Today

Appleis entry into the cell phone market will require FCC approval, and Apple would have to file for approval at least three months in advance. To date, no filing has been made. Since the filing is public, the company would likely make a product announcement at the same time as the filing, offering consumers several…

Mac Author Michael Bartosh Dies

The Macintosh community suffered a tragic loss on Sunday with the untimely death of Mac OS X Server expert and author Michael Bartosh. AFP548.com is reporting that he fell from a balcony in Tokyo, Japan, in what police are ruling as an accident. Mr. Bartosh was a former Apple systems engineer, and traveled the world…

Hidden Dimensions -- It's No Game at Apple

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. – Abraham Lincoln Every once in awhile I read a story on the Internet that just doesn’t seem to sync with my experiences at Apple. Most of the time, the story is derived from what the author…

TMO Reports - Analyst: 'Huge Merit' to an Apple/RIM Collaboration

Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek last Friday issued a research report in which he saw “huge merit” to a potential collaboration between Apple and Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM), which could result in a mobile phone with iTunes capabilities. A partnership between the two companies could take advantage of Apple’s lack of “wireless capabilities and…

Adobe, Microsoft Offer Perspective On PDF Discussions [Updated]

Microsoft spokesperson Stacy Drake commented “Adobe has long claimed that PDF is an open standard and dozens of companies, including a number of our competitors, have implemented that standard, but Adobe insists we need to charge a price.” Microsoft offered to make the PDF export module available as a free download, instead of bundling it…

Microsoft Preparing for Adobe Lawsuit

Negotiations between Microsoft and Adobe over the use of PDF technology in the Office Suite have broken down, prompting Microsoft to prepare for a possible antitrust lawsuit from Adobe. According to The Wall Street Journal, the two companies have been involved in discussions for the past four months, but now that they are at an…

Just a Thought - iPod Killer?

You know, one thing that irks me to no end is when news people, when writing about a new technology that could compete with existing technology, call the new technology ‘a _____-Killer’. A while back every new word processor was labeled a Microsoft Word-Killer, every new OS (especially Linux) a Windows-Killer, every PDA a Palm-Killer,…

Safari, Firefox Market Share Slipped in May

Internet Explorer rose from 83.88 percent to 85.89 percent. Exploreris market share has been generally declining over the past year, but occasionally shows a small increase. The last increase was in January of this year when it inched up to 85.31 percent from December 2005is 85.05 percent. In comparison, Safari and Firefox have been on…

Parallels Final Pre-release Adds Compressor

Parallels Desktop for Mac RC2 is available for download at the Parallels Web site. The official version will be priced at US$79.99, or $49.99 during the first 30 days after it is released. Customers that pre-ordered Parallels Desktop for $39.99 will get the enhanced version at no additional cost.

Just a Thought - Visualizing Apple Virtualization

You know, waaaaay back when computers ran MVS and UNIX, and computer makers had names like IBM, Honeywell, Univac, and Burroughs, virtual systems and thin clients were the normal way of doing business. Of course, we didn’t call them virtual systems and thin clients, mainframes had terminals (dumb terminals usually) and Unix systems ran X-Servers and…

Apple Sells PowerSchool to Pearson [Updated]

Pearson has agreed to acquire the PowerSchool division from Apple Computer according to a report from Reuters. The deal terms were not disclosed, but Pearson does plan to develop iPod compatible content for students and teachers. Pearson will develop a series of podcasts for educators that cover topics like professional development and working with students…

Ted Landau's User Friendly View - DVD-RAM reconsidered. Seriously.

Back in late 1999, when Power Mac G4 computers first arrived on the scene, most came with a DVD-RAM drive. It’s not a mystery why Apple initially put its faith in this format. They had the advantages of floppy disks but without their downsides. Specifically, DVD-RAM discs offered much greater capacity and reliability than floppies;…

iPod Class Action Team Deals with More Controversy

The law firm of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro was thrust back into the spotlight on Wednesday after an open letter from the man they named as a plaintiff in a class action law suit against Apple claimed that the firm used his name without consent. In October 2005, the firm filed a suit against Apple…

iPod Growth Still in Early Stage

Analyst Robert Semple commented “We believe Apple is still in the early stages of its product expansion and that the company can grow its iPod units at least 20% for the foreseeable future.” Europe is poised as a potential growth target with its limited 7.1 percent market penetration, compared to 15.5 percent in the United…

Hidden Dimensions -- A Technical Analysis of Apple's New TV Ads

"Had him, and we lost him." — Apple "Restarting" TV commercial There is a lot going on in the new Apple TV ads that hasn’t been discussed. No one has really analyzed them from a no-nonsense marketing standpoint, so I think it’s time to do that. To get some perspective, let’s look first at what…

Podcast - Mac Geek Gab #53: Troubleshooting Prejudice Strikes!

Show notes for TMO To Go: Mac Geek Gab For May 15th, 2006 Direct Links: MP3 Version or AAC Enhanced Version (courtesy of Michael, aka Computernap!). Dave talks about a tech support issue he had with his Mac setup this weekend, and how it’s bad to assume anything without confirming it first! John and Dave…