News

The stock markets are really dull this time of year and will remain so until September when everyone returns from vacation. Tomorrow when the Fed announces its interest rate decision at 2:15 EDT there could be some unusual volatility due to the low summer volume combined with large hedge fund trades on the news. Appleis…

Steve Jobs will appear on CNBC this afternoon at 5:45 EST to talk about Pixaris (PIXR) earnings, announced this afternoon at $0.16 per share, better than analystsi forecast of $0.14 per share for the second quarter. Revenues increased to $18.3 million from $13.5 million a year ago. Apple gained 1/4 to 47 3/4 on volume…

Over the past few years, the Macintosh community of users has been largely responsible for the growth of Macintosh web sites. They have either been fervent readers, or equally fervent contributors to the web sites or message boards that comprise the Macintosh web. Currently, we are troubled by tendencies that have appeared on the Macintosh…

When a game comes out for the PC, it gets exposure. This drives sales of PCs and related hardware like graphics cards. This kind of exposure helps to sway computer buyers. Remember all those years ago how many people bought Macs just so they could play Sim City 1.0? Today we more often than not…

This is interesting, because at these feature and price points, it makes sense for many customers to buy the dual-processor machines. The last time Apple offered a dual-processor machine (the Power Mac 9600/200MP in 1997), there were other high-end, single-processor alternatives available at much lower prices with similar features. Furthermore, the fastest Mac at that…

During MACWORLDis keynote address, Steve Jobs previewed a series of commercials for the newly released iMacs. The clear audience favorite was the ad for the new Sage colored machine, which was displayed with Kermit the Frog singing “It Ainit Easy Being Green” in the background. Despite the early popularity of the machine, Apple pulled the…

The Stock Marketis Catch-22: Many market observers see the stock market in a no win situation. If Alan Greenspan gets his way and the Federal Reserveis interest rate hikes cool the economy it will mean lower earnings for many companies. This could hit high flying tech stocks hardest, since we all know what happens if…

Did you know that Napster has a company song? It goes: "Iim fighting for freedom. Trade laws? We donit need iem! Especially when living in the Information Age." While having a company fight song is an embarrassment in itself, whatis really horrible is that the folks at Napster donit believe a word of it. Like…

Design and creative professionals from around the world will gather in Boston this September for the “Creating for the Web” conference to be held September 28-30 at the Hynes convention center in downtown Boston. The conference will educate all levels of graphic designers and web site developers on the latest tools and techniques for creating…

Nokia (NOK), the worldis largest mobile-telephone maker, led the tech stocks lower after beating earnings estimates with a 62% surge in pretax profits, but then predicted earnings would slow going forward. A skittish Wall Street punished the stock cutting it back by 14 9/16 to 41 1/4. In Finland where Nokia is the largest stock…

The Wall Street Journal chimed in, "Investors are worried about continued growth in corporate profits if the U.S. economy cools down. Bonds edged higher and the dollar was mixed." Even in the latest quarterly results period where earnings are generally better than expected on the surface, with closer inspection many of the results announced have…

MACW ORLD is over, the dust has settled, and it is time to take a look back and try to figure out what it is that exactly happened. There are some obvious things, like the long overdue announcement of a new mouse and keyboard. And not only did they announce a new mouse, it is…

Havi ng missed MACWORLD SF 2000, the last Expo I attended was in New York last year. Upon walking into the Javits this time around, I immediately felt the Expo was huge. It takes up both sides of one floor of the Javits Center as it did last year, but this year itis full. Really…

CNET news reports that some analysts think the new dual processor Power Mac G4 is going to flop. Weire making a list of those analysts and checking it twice, in case the occasion arises in the next few quarters to recall who has been naughty and who been right. ; – ) In other news:…

Finally, what appears to be the answer to every abandoned QuickBooks useris prayers! MYOB held a press conference at MACWORLD Expo today to show off their new product, Account Edge. With this product, MYOB is now catering to the small business crowd using a “non-accountants” approach and streamlined interface. Perhaps accounting will once again be…

Mr. Greenspanis original words always deserve close inspection by serious investors. In essence, Mr. Greenspan said he believes that the economy shows signs of slowing as interest rates have been pushed to the highest level in almost a decade. However, he didnit rule out the possibility that more rate hikes may be appropriate later this…

Mr. Jobs announced refreshed product families that account for 75% of the companyis unit volume and a fifth element — the Power Mac G4 Cube — was added to the Macintosh four quadrant hardware strategy. Did we mention two new models of G4s, the first ever PC to come standard with dual processors? Not to…

MP3 Rage 2.6 change history: Added Volume Adjuster feature to analyze MP3 files and automatically adjust the volume of each MP3 file so they all play at a similar sound level. This also supports specifying a reference file so you can have the volume of each MP3 file adjusted to play at a sound level…