News

Apple Computer will likely introduce a flash-based iPod in early 2005 and a color iPod in the first half of next year, Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich predicted Monday in a 10-page report to clients obtained by The Mac Observer. Mr. Milunovich focused primarily on future iPod products, of which Apple did not deny any…

Electronic News has published an error ridden article that attempts to look at the burgeoning music player market. A hodgepodge of facts, fallacies, strange interpretations, and other mistakes, the piece is not an attack on Apple, by any means, but just a pad piece of journalism. Since it’s out there, I felt a bit of…

In David Pogue’s latest column for the New York Times, titled The Security Paradox, he discusses the odd state of affairs Microsoft and its patch update strategy, and the virus ad worm writers who take advantage of the holes in the Microsoft products the patches are suppose to fix. Mr. Pogue relays a story in…

Step Aside If you use a modern Mac, then you are likely already familiar with the ease and elegance of using OS X. I’ve said it before, and it doesn’t hurt to say it again; OS X, unlike any other OS, tries its damnedest to get out of your way to let you work. It…

BusinessWeek’s Alex Salkever has turned his attention this week to one of Apple’s suppliers, PortalPlayer. The company supplies the chip that powers both the iPod and the iPod mini. With Apple’s massive iPod success, one could be excused for thinking PortalPlayer, a fabless chip maker, might be doing well, making its impending IPO attractive. According…

Apple Computer will announce a new special edition U2 iPod promoting the band’s forthcoming album at an invite-only event next week, according to report’s by Think Secret and Forbes magazine. Forbes reporter Matthew Miller reported Monday that sources close to the band have confirmed the U2 edition of the popular digital music player will come…

Gefen has announced that its HDTV Switcher, 4×1 HDTV Switcher, and HDTV Splitter products have been re-engineered. The company has done so "to address connection issues between new DVD players and set-top boxes with DVI or HDMI ports and HDTV displays with HDMI inputs." In their place, Gefen is announcing the HDMI Switcher, the 4×1…

After months of wrangling over a 78-year-old, 17,000-square-foot mansion in southern California Apple CEO Steve Jobs doesn’t want, it appears someone is willing to take it off his hands, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday. The paper reports 30 enquiries have been made into the property. Mr. Jobs, who has described the house as “one…

24 Days In The Valley: The Life And Times Of An HD Production In South Texas In Part I and II of this series, I introduced readers to the production of Harvest of Redemption, a High-Definition narrative feature I shot in the Texas Valley. In Part III I will cover the technical aspects of the…

Just in case you somehow missed it; Archos, Virgin, and Dell have announced iPod or iPod mini killers. These are just the latest in a series of iPod wannabe. There are some features in this batch that might catch the attention of a few, but ultimately, I believe these will wind up as the other…

Aside from the main headlines of Apple’s stronger-than-expected earnings, the announcement of six mini retail stores and Hewlett-Packard selling over 100,000 iPods, a number of other important pieces of news came out of the analyst conference call on Wednesday. Here is a short synopsis of other interesting developments: Apple’s total direct revenue through online and…

Consumers wanting G5-based Macs may have to wait a while as supplies of G5 processors from IBM continue to fall behind demand. In a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Apple said Wednesday that inventories were getting better, but that it didn’t expect supply to meet demand until sometime this quarter. Apple sold 229,000 iMacs…

I have often said, and will say again, that the Mac version of Microsoft Word is far superior to the PC version of the same application.  It is also, in my opinion, superior to AppleWorks as a word processing application. However, that does not mean that I particularly like Microsoft Word.  It only takes me…

M-Audio has released two new virtual instruments for the Mac, Darbuka and Latigo. The two new instrument packages focus on the percussive, with Darbuka specifically aiming for a "Middle Eastern" sound, and Latigo catering to Latin American sounds. Both products were developed by Wizoo, and are being distributed by M-Audio: From M-Audio: Darbuka and Latigo…

First Albany Capital has issued a ‘Buy’ rating for Apple’s stock, raising its target from US$35 to $44, saying the company is likely to report its fiscal fourth quarter earnings per share one cent ahead of the industry concensus of 18 cents. Analyst Joel Wagonfeld told clients in a report obtained by The Mac Observer,…

David Frith has penned an editorial for Australian IT that rounds up all the recent trends away from Windows and towards the Mac. From those trends, he concludes that Windows security issues and the strength of Apple’s iPod has put a chink in the armor of the Windows dominance of the computing world. From the…