The iPod had 51.3% of the MP3 player market in Japan at the end of 2005, up from around 32% in 2004 and dwarfing its nearest competitors, second-place Sony (16.2%) and third-place Panasonic (8.2%). BusinessWeek’s Ian Rowley explained that while Japan has “one of the most competitive consumer-electronics markets on the planet,” consumers in that…
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SmartDisk Announces PhotoBank Image Storage
The SmartDisk PhotoBank
Analysts: PortalPlayer Likely to Retain iPod Business
Mr. Berger and Mr. Schneider, however, think itis unlikely Apple will refresh the video iPod this spring, given the companyis history of updating iPods on an annual basis. They also donit see Apple moving the video iPod to a single chip solution, dropping PortalPlayer in favor of Broadcom, as their analysis of the iPodis power…
Clarifying the April 1st iPod Announcement Reports [UPDATE]
Some confusion has developed between three news outlets over a possible announcement on April 1st, 2006 from Apple, confusion that needs to be clarified. In the rumor-fueled world of speculation about Apple and its upcoming products, many people need nothing more than the whisper of a possible hope from CEO Steve Jobs to concoct their…
The Slacker's Guide - iAlarm and Growl
Alerting the Masses: Growl Notification has never been an easy thing, both in real life and within technology. Yes, we want something that will gently tug at our pant leg and point out that something important is happening. On the other hand, we also don’t want something that brings every minute detail to our attention.…
The Back Page - John C. Dvorak: Apple Plans Move to Windows
John C. Dvorak, the master cage-rattler, is at again, and this time his whip-up-the-Mac-masses angle is that Apple is going to dump Mac OS X, and move to Windows. This is one of his clumsier arguments, but it bears mentioning (and debunking) mainly because there are some folks worried about this very issue. Accordingly, let’s…
TMO To Go Podcast - Mac Geek Gab #39: Xgrid, Distributed Computing, and More!
Show notes for TMO To Go: Mac Geek Gab For February 13th, 2006 Direct Links: MP3 Version or AAC Version (coming soon courtesy of Michael, aka Computernap!). Dave and John spend some time discussing Xgrid and distributed computing in general. Listen in for their guide to getting started with Xgrid and also what you can…
Apple Store Coming to Boulder, CO
Apple has not announced official Grand Opening dates for either store yet. With the addition of the Twenty Ninth Street location, Apple will have four stores in Colorado.
TMO To Go Podcast - Mac Geek Gab #38: Tasty Tips including Persistent Search, Better Podcast Management, and More
Show notes for TMO To Go: Mac Geek Gab For February 6th, 2006 Direct Links: MP3 Version or AAC Version (courtesy of Michael, aka Computernap!). Our favorite Mac geeks, John Braun and Dave Hamilton dive in this week to talk about how to configure persistent search (and what it is!), better podcast management with Cast…
Apple Stock Rebounding
Tuesday is typically a busier day for Appleis music interests, and today is no exception. It launched a give-away promotion as a part of the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) countdown to selling 1 billion songs, the 1GB iPod nano was introduced, the iPod shuffleis price was lowered, and Showtime announced that it joined the iTMS.…
IBM, Freescale Look Beyond Apple
Mr. Dunn wrote that during a Monday news conference, IBM and Freescale executives said that their companies will be able to free up resources previously put toward developing the PowerPC as a PC processor. That will enable them to concentrate on “segments … where both the volume and innovation are more significant [than Apple],” according…
TMO To Go Podcast - Weekly Roundup: Sizing Up Verizon, Google, Adobe
Direct Link: MP3 Version Does V-Cast really compete with iTunes? Would Google actually want to buy Napster? Who’s afraid of Adobe? Find out as Jeff Gamet joins Ricky Spero in this week’s Context Machine�. The Weekly Roundup will be included in TMO’s main RSS feed, and also in its own feed if you’d like to…
The Slacker's Guide - Beefing Up the 98 Pound Weakling: MailTags
Maybe it shouldn’t have come this far in the first place. For as long as I’ve been using Mac OS X, I’ve tried to make Apple’s Mail.app program do everything I wanted it to do. To a certain extent, it did. Wrangle it enough and it’ll do everything you need to do: Searches, filtering, rules…
Apple Sued Over iPod-induced Hearing Loss
A class action lawsuit against Apple has been filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose claiming that the iPod is responsible for causing hearing loss in the people that use the music player. According to The Mercury News, the complaint states that iPods are “Inherently defective in design and are not sufficiently adorned with…
Adobe Intel Support: October at the Earliest
In an FAQ that lists Adobeis plans, the company stated that is is committed to supporting Intel-based Macs with most of its existing Mac products, and that it is transitioning its code development to Appleis Xcode so that it can build UB compliant applications. Adobeis document states “Adobe does not plan to re-release current products…
Report: Microsoft Mulls Making Its iPod Competitor, but With Games
covered this on Thursday, but todayis coverage includes a Spin that looks at what Microsoft might be missing.] Microsoft is contemplating making its own digital media device to directly compete with Appleis iPod, according to a report from BusinessWeek. Writing for the magazine, Jay Greene reported that the company is considering its own device as…
MacSoft Fixes Laptop Trackpad Problem in Zoo Tycoon 2
The strategy game lets players manage every aspect of a zoo, including animal exhibits, concessions, employees, and more. You can explore the zoo as a zoo keeper, or a park guest in 3D, and a bonus DVD with features from National Geographicis “Totally Wild” series is also included. Zoo Tycoon 2 is priced at US$39.99.
iWork Grabs Number 2 Office Suite Spot
Despite the fact that Apple has been fairly low key about iWork over the past year, it still came in with 17.4 percent of the Mac market, compared to Office for the Macis 82 percent. Microsoft, however, does have the upper hand in this battle, since Office is available for both Mac and Windows platforms,…
Disney Buys Pixar for $7.4 Billion; Jobs on Disney Board [Update]
Pixar president Ed Catmull will be the president of the newly formed Pixar and Disney animation studios, and creative mastermind John Lasseter will be the Chief Creative Officer of the animation studios. "Disney and Pixar can now collaborate without the barriers that come from two different companies with two different sets of shareholders," said Steve…
