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Sometimes it seems that Apple couldn’t get a break if it paid top dollar for it. Not long ago, Apple’s fortunes, and misfortunes, were tied to the ability of Motorola to produce the CPUs that were the heart of Apple’s computers. Many complained bitterly that Motorola’s inability to produce faster chips in large enough quantities…

There are lots of interesting things happening this week in Apple History. For instance, this week in 1984 we bear witness to the slow start of Macintosh when the Apple IIc sells more units in one day than the Mac had in the preceding three months. Perhaps that’s why Apple released it in a celebration…

Videoconferencing company Forgent Networks, Inc. filed suit Thursday against 31 defendants, including Apple Computer, for using its JPEG digital image compression patent without paying a licensing fee. In making the announcement, a company spokesman said damages could end up being in the millions of US dollars for each company. Among the other companies being sued…

Recently, I discovered a box full of pictures that I had taken with the 35 mm camera that my mother-in-law gave me and my wife for our wedding gift. There were hundreds of prints going back for thirteen years that we had practically forgotten about since the arrival of our bundle of joy. That’s right,…

A fundamental flaw has been discovered in TCP, and the AP is reporting that this flaw could "cripple" the entire Internet. TCP is the protocols that sits underneath all of the other protocols and technologies that makes up the Internet. In effect, it is the technology that controls/allows digital traffic to get to its destination.…

[Editor’s Note: Please note that we are behind in publishing this series. This install covers the week of April 11 – 17, but is being published in May. I very much hope to get caught up next week. – Editor] It’s another busy week in Apple history; This week we have Apple cofounder Ron Wayne…

Despite wide-spread media reports of static or distorted audio problems with Apple’s iPod mini portable digital-music player, an Apple executive said Wednesday the problem is “isolated” and is affecting very few users. During an analyst conference call regarding the company’s second-quarter earnings results, Tim Cook, Apple’s Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Operations, said…

Apple’s board of director, including CEO Steve Jobs, has a thorn in its collective side. That thorn comes in the form of the California Public Employee’s Retirement System (Calpers), one of the company’s largest shareholders. Calpers has announced that it will withhold its 1.48 million votes for Apple’s entire board of directors because the board…

For Mike Yrabedra, the word ‘fun’ has always been synonymous with ‘Macintosh’. "It started out to be a fun business and it just so happened that the Mac was really the nucleus of the whole idea." And so in 1997, Mr. Yrabedra started MacSurfShop.com to make Mac-related T-shirts. Today, the company is known as MacShirt.com…

BusinessWeek’s Alex Salkever says the jury is out on Apple’s retail store effort. This is partially in response to many in the Mac community gloating over Gateway’s decision to shut down its remaining 188 retail stores. Mr. Salkever says that not only should we not be so quick to judgement, but that Apple’s market share…

We reported earlier today that Gateway will be shuttering its fleet of retail stores on April 9th. The real question for Apple watchers, of course, is how does this reflect on Apple’s own retail stores. After all, when Apple first announced its stores, the immediate comparison from many, especially the doomsayers, was to Gateway’s stores.…

In the future, you may see widespread use of Power-based CPUs, but they won’t all be the same chip. According to IBM, future chips from the company will have the ability to be configured based on the needs of the customer. One processor could be optimized for use in anything from a supercomputer to a…

You may be wondering, after reading the title of this column, why I am answering mail after only having written five columns. That’s easy; I am very lazy, and these things just write themselves. Actually, I did receive quite a bit of feedback, and much to my surprise, most of it was positive. I even…

Matt Loney of ZDNet’s UK offices has penned an interesting editorial on the patent application we reported (in a scoop) last week. Mr. Loney questions whether or not Apple truly has anything original that it can properly patent, and he uses an old tit-for-tat story involving Microsoft, General Motors, and Apple to help illustrate his…

It’s early evening, and you are out for a stroll. You are so caught up in the euphoria from the music streaming from you iPod, and the soothing sight of a magnificent sunset, that you don’t notice that a shadowy figure has fallen in behind you. You turn onto a deserted path. From the corner…

Mac users tend to love their iPod minis, but what about Windows users? Forbes is addressing this question with an article looking at the iPod mini and its interaction with Windows. The article looks at the iTunes software, the iPod mini and its accessories, and more. From Forbes: Apple Computer’s iPod mini looks as if…

Apple has been somewhat circumspect about its re-entry into the enterprise and IT markets. Realizing it is the new kid on the block, and that the competition in these markets are already very well established, Apple made it clear from the beginning that it was feeling its way around, but that it was also very…