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A $50 Microsoft iPod Killer? Feh!!
Interface Burdens and Mac Usability
$2,500 Can Buy Power In A PC
Mac Bible Software Updated
Google's Power Overstated
Apple Winds Down Buggy Panther OS
Microsoft's Internet Explorer Global Usage Share Is 93.9 percent According To OneStat.com
Mac Night Owl: The Spam Report: Two Solutions Examined
They Can Take Your Personal Information, but They Can't Take You
Mac OS X Update Fails To Fix Vulnerability
Spamhaus assaults 'Great Wall of Spam'
Lindows Wins Some In The Netherlands
Skype Internet Phone Service Tries Hard Within Limits[/url]
A $50 Microsoft iPod Killer? Feh!!
oreillynet's Hadley Stern says:
"Microsoft is apparently preparing to battle the iPod. Not satisfied with decimating the Macintosh with undercut pricing (and, admittedly, a more sound distribution model) Microsoft wants the iPod to have a more Apple-like 5 percent market-share.
"But will it work? Yes, and no.
"Yes, because there is a significant percentage of people out there who simply don't appreciate the stunning combination of design, technology, and usability that is Apple. These people appreciate a cheap price, languish in the familiarity of all things Microsoft, and don't appreciate good design.
"No, because this percentage of people is not 5 percent! The only reason Apple currently has such a low percentage of market share is because of the corporate market. Fueled by cost savings (helped along by Microsoft’s more sound distribution model as above) corporations flocked to Windows. Yes, they have suffered with buggy systems, viruses, and more but that is beside the point. To the bulk of working America a PC is, well a PC. This has led to parents demanding more and more that their children have a "real-world" experience with computers in schools which leads to less and less Macs in the school. It is a downward spiral that leads to 5 percent and until the Mac conquers the corporate domain I'm afraid it’s going to stay that way....."
You can check it out at:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/4970
Interface Burdens and Mac Usability
MacNewsWorld's Paul Murphy says:
"The Mac's commitment to standardization doesn't just have the effect of knowing what the main controls do in a rental car. It removes the need to focus on the interface from the process of learning to use the application. In other words, that Windows interface barrier is completely missing in the Apple world because the Mac OS transparently hosts the applications without imposing itself on the user's attention.
"It's generally clear that the tools you use influence the way you think. To a two-year-old with a hammer, everything looks like a nail, just as PowerPoint's indented bullet lists both structure and limit much business thinking about more complex issues.
"We often think we know how to do something because we know how to use the tool that does it, but don't stop to think that other tools might produce better results or to question whether the tool we know might not be dictating the results we expect. In part, that's what those jokes about the Microsoft car or airplane are about, not the products, but the habituation that leads us to accept them: a generalization to human behavior of the story about frogs not jumping from boiling water if you bring the heat up slowly enough."
For the full comentary, visit here.
http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/34066.html
$2,500 Can Buy Power In A PC
The Washington Times' Mark Kellner says:
"For several years in the personal computer business, it seemed as if $2,500 or so was the "sweet spot" in pricing.
"Ante up that kind of moolah, the thinking went, and you were sure to get one of the more powerful computers around, one that wouldn't go stale before you got it home from the store.
"On the Windows side, prices are much lower.
"You can spend about $1,500 to get a spiffy desktop PC; even $800 will buy a system that's more than enough for most users' needs, we're told.
"You can even get a decent notebook PC for that same $1,500, if not less.
"So is it absurd to spend $2,500 on a desktop computer?
"Well, that depends on who you are and what you want to do. If, like me, you are an Apple Macintosh fan, the $2,500 invested in a dual-processor Power Mac G5, with the CPU chips running at 1.8 GHz is not a totally bad idea....."
You can check it out at:
http://washingtontimes.com/technology/20040524-092702-5351r.htm
Mac Bible Software Updated
CMUG's David Lang reports:
"A free update to Accordance Bible Software is now available, offering a number of new features and enhancements
"An update to MacSword, the open-source Bible program for OS X based on the Sword Project, is currently being beta-tested. MacSword 1.1 promises to offer the following improvements...."
For the full report, visit here:
http://www.cmug.org/articles/Update2.html
Google's Power Overstated
CNN/Money reports:
"With Wall Street agog for the Google IPO, a new study has found that the technology thought to separate the search engine from its competitors isn't that much different from its rivals'.
"In a survey of 2,000 adult Web users, competitors Yahoo!, Ask Jeeves, MSN and Lycos delivered correct or useful results almost as often as Google, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing a study conducted by San Mateo, Calif.-based Vividence Corp."
For the full report, visit here:
http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/25/technology/google_study/index.htm
Apple Winds Down Buggy Panther OS
internetnews.com's Michael Singer says:
"Apple Computer is winding down the focus on its Panther operating system as it prepares developers for the debut of Tiger next month.
"On Wednesday, the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker released what may be considered the last update to its current Macintosh operating system (OS X v10.3.4) with downloads now available for 10.3.3 servers, older Panther servers and consumer desktops.
"Apple does not publish an exact roadmap for incremental enhancements but usually sticks to a pretty regular schedule of issuing an update before introducing a new platform. The company is getting ready for its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next month, when it is scheduled to distribute a beta version of its next Mac OS X release, version 10.4x (code-named Tiger) to developers."
For the full report, visit here:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3360541
Microsoft's Internet Explorer Global Usage Share Is 93.9 percent According To OneStat.com
OneStat.com ( http://www.onestat.com ), provider of real-time web analytics, has reported
that Microsoft's Internet Explorer has a total global usage share of 93.9 percent. Microsoft's Internet Explorer still dominates the global browser market.
Microsoft's IE 6 is currently the leading browser on the web. Microsoft's IE 6 global usage has increased with 1.2 percent from 68.1 percent to 69.3 percent since July 2003. Mozilla's global usage share is 2.1 percent and Opera 7 has a global usage of 1.02 percent.
The global usage share of Apple's Safari browser has increased with 0.23 percent from 0.48 to 0.71 percent since January 2004.
The most popular browsers on the web are:
1. Microsoft IE 6.0 69.3%
2. Microsoft IE 5.5 12.9%
3. Microsoft IE 5.0 10.8%
4. Mozilla 2.1%
5. Opera 7.0 1.02%
6. Microsoft IE 4.0 0.6%
7. Safari 0.71%
For more information, visit:
http://www.onestat.com/html/
Mac Night Owl: The Spam Report: Two Solutions Examined
More coverage of spam-blocking solutions.
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://www.macnightowl.com/index.htm#reviewed
They Can Take Your Personal Information, but They Can't Take You
Low End Mac's Adam Robert Guha says:
"I've never used the AutoFill Forms option in Internet Explorer, and I don't plan to.
"Why not? What happens if I click "AutoFill Form" and give a site a little bit more information than I'd like them to have? Companies love getting email addresses, snail mail addresses, and they especially love telephone numbers.
"I keep a separate email address just for those sites that require you to receive a confirmation email, follow a link, and type in a code. I'm not going to give them my personal email address!
"However, I recently read the latest Mark Morford column, Amazon.com Does Not Know Me, where he states that even though companies have a wealth of information about him, "They cannot touch me. They cannot actually reach me in any significant manner, ever...."
You can check it out at:
http://lowendmac.com/archive/04/0528.html
Mac OS X Update Fails To Fix Vulnerability
The Register's John Leyden reports:
"A major revision of Apple's Mac OS X operating system released this week fails to come bundled with a vital, recently-issued security fix.
"A security patch (2004-05-24) which guards against a vulnerability in the Help viewer sub-system is absent from the Mac OS X version 10.3.4, despite claims to the contrary by Apple."
For the full report, visit here.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/28/mac_bug_mishandled/
Spamhaus assaults 'Great Wall of Spam'
The Register's John Leyden reports:
"Anti-spam organisation Spamhaus is opening up operations in China with the launch of a new site, Spamhaus.cn, this week.
"For some time China has acted a 'safe-haven' for spammers offering so-called bullet-proof hosting - in reality, unscrupulous ISPs who pull the plug on spammers when enough complaints are received by their upstream provider. Acc
ording to Spamhaus, China currently has three of the world's most spam-friendly ISPs: PCCW, Chinanet in Chongqing, and Chinanet in Guangdong. Foreign spammers (many from the US) have exploited China's historically lax attitude to junk mail to offshore spam runs to Chinese ISPs.
"But attitudes in the Chinese ISP market are changing and local service providers have already shown their willingness to work with Spamhaus is rooting out illegal spam gangs, prompting Spamhaus to set up shop in the country."
For the full report, visit here.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/28/spamhaus_china_opens/
Lindows Wins Some In The Netherlands
The Register's Jan Libbenga reports:
"Lindows has won the latest round in its trademark fight with Microsoft, with a Dutch court ruling that it can keep its name for general corporate purposes in the Netherlands.
"The Linux distro had lost an earlier case in the Netherlands over the use of the Lindows name and had to change the name of its operating system and its web site to Linspire. However, it kept Lindows as its official company name.
"The company originally changed the name of its software to Lin---s, but Microsoft lawyers claimed this was pronounced "Lindash" and therefore bore an "auditive resemblance to Windows". But when Lindash became Linspire, Microsoft again took the company to court, claiming that the word Lindows was still appearing on its website."
For the full report, visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/28/lindows_dutch_ruling/
Skype Internet Phone Service Tries Hard Within Limits
The Saint Paul Pioneer Press's Mike Langberg says:
"Skype is not hype.
"This new Internet service really does let you make computer-to-computer phone calls anywhere in the world absolutely free, and the audio quality is outstanding.
"There are some significant drawbacks, however, that will keep Skype from becoming hugely popular in the United States."
"There are no announced plans to offer Skype for Macintosh or Linux, or for older versions of Windows."
For the full report, visit here.
http://crm.ittoolbox.com/news/dispnews.asp?i=115490&t=99
***
Charles W. Moore
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