Apple Edges Google as Top Brand, Apple Still Leads, Apple Grows Healthy Software Business, What’s in
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Apple Edges Google as Top Brand
Apple Still Leads In Visits To Computer Hardware Sites
America's Premier Guru Of Gadgets Is Doing It Again
Beyond iPod, Apple Grows Healthy Software Business
What's in Store for iWork?
Hitachi Brings IDE to 1.8in HDD Line
Tech Guru Pitches $100 Laptop
Dell: Beware the Beige-Box Blahs
How to Change Copyright Law so It Once Again Serves the Public Interest
eWeek:Apple Offers Incremental PowerBook Upgrades
Mac Night Owl: How Much Computing Power Do You Need?
ExtremeTech: The Homebrew PC in 2005
Firefox 1.1 Delayed
Computing's Silent Revolution
Unloading An Older Apple Powerbook
Hormel Spam Trademark Case Canned
Computing Network Warns Of Massive Climate Change
ExtremeiPod: iPodderX update adds AAC conversion
Linux Is Mission Critical For Czechs
eWeek: The Importance of Microsoft Being Earnest
The Tech Night Owl: Consumer Reports and Rear-Projection TV[/url]
Apple Edges Google as Top Brand
Reuters' Trevor Datson reports:
"Arabic media channel Al Jazeera has been voted the world's fifth most influential brand in a poll of branding professionals that gave the top slot to U.S. iPod and computer icon Apple.
"In the survey of almost 2,000 ad executives, brand managers and academics by online magazine Brandchannel, Apple ousted search engine Google from last year's top spot, but the surprise to many will be Al Jazeera's entry into the top five."
For the full report, visit here.
Apple Still Leads In Visits To Computer Hardware Sites
internetretailer.com reports:
"Apple Computer Inc. maintained its lead in the number of unique visitors to computer hardware e-commerce sites for December, with 21.71 million visitors, 24% more than the 17.54 million visitors to second-ranked Dell Inc., Nielsen/NetRatings Inc. reports....
Nielsen/NetRatings reports that Apple also led in the average amount of time per visit, with 31 minutes, 5 seconds, followed by IBM, 26 minutes, 53 seconds; and Dell, 22 minutes, 47 seconds; Alienware.com, 20 minutes, 8 seconds; palmOne, 19 minutes, 57 seconds; Cisco Systems Inc., 11 minutes, 9 seconds; Toshiba America Inc., 10 minutes, 54 seconds; XM Satellite Radio, 10 minutes, 41 seconds; and Creative Technology Ltd., 10 minutes, 29 seconds."
For the full report, visit here:
http://internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=13978
America's Premier Guru Of Gadgets Is Doing It Again
The Christian Science Monitor's Patrick Dillon reflects on:
"....Jobs's breathtaking audacity. Daring has helped him — a college dropout, an Apple founder at age 21, humiliated and sent into oblivion by the soft-drink executive he hired for company president — to return to rescue Apple from certain oblivion. It has helped him run two profitable companies that are changing entire industries — consumer electronics, music, and motion pictures. It has helped make him a icon of the world's technology, business, and, indeed, cultural frontier.
"Nearly 30 years after he helped start the personal computer revolution with the introduction of the Apple as the 'computer for the rest of us,' Apple maintains a top spot in the top tier (along with Nike) in global brand recognition by fulfilling a consumer lust for cool with what Jobs likes to call 'experiential tools.' Apple's iPod digital music player has become such a 'must have' item that it has staked out an 85% share of the global market. The new Mac Mini, which went on sale last week, has launched the company into another frontier — competitive pricing. It signals that the company is serious about turning out personal computers for the rest of us and adding to its current 5% global computer market.
"Along the way, Jobs managed to found a company NeXT, whose work stations were so technically advanced they enabled the origination of the World Wide Web. And he purchased a marginal computer animation studio that now produces breakthrough feature stories: Its latest has been nominated for four Academy Awards."
For the full commentary, visit:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-01-31-stevejobs_x.htm?csp=34
Beyond iPod, Apple Grows Healthy Software Business
The San Francisco Chronicle's Matthew Yi reports:
"Apple Computer Inc., which has generated plenty of buzz with its sleek-looking Macs and iPod music players, is quietly building momentum in another category of personal computing: software.
"Last fiscal year, the Cupertino firm's software sales came in at $503 million, a 39 percent improvement from the previous year.
"Beyond Apple's hugely successful iPod and online music store, software -- which includes its iLife set of multimedia programs, tools for professional musicians and filmmakers and the Mac operating system -- has become the fastest-growing part of its business....
"Apple is also getting more help from its third-party developers, whose number has grown two-and-a-half times in the past two years to hundreds of thousands, Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said. "
For the full report, visit here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/01/31/APPLE.TMP
What's in Store for iWork?
CMUG's David Lang says:
"Ever since Steve Jobs returned to Apple, I've stopped paying as much attention to the Mac rumor sites, and I've generally stopped trying to predict what Apple will do next. Jobs has proven to be so mercurial that it's never clear what his next move will be. And he guards Apple's secrets so jealously that would-be Apple prognosticators are left with little to go on. But sometimes, Steve drops a hint so tantalizing that one can hardly help dreaming about what it might mean for the future of the Mac. So while I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet (Amos 7:14), allow me to indulge in a little wild speculation about the future of iWork.
"Jesus said that 'unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit' (John 12:24, ESV). Jesus used this parable to illustrate the necessity of His own death on the cross, but the principle also applies to Apple's cycle of new product development. In other words, when it appears that Apple is allowing a product to languish, it's a fairly sure bet that they're about to come out with something new and 'insanely great.'....
"Ever since Safari and Keynote were released a couple of years ago, the Mac web has been abuzz with speculation that Apple would eventually develop its own suite of office applications and finally break its dependence upon Microsoft Office. As time passed, however, people began to worry that Apple was afraid to challenge Microsoft in the office space. In fact, last year's unfortunate slogan for iLife '04—"it's like Microsoft Office for the rest of your life"—seemed a sure sign that Apple was bending over backward to play nice with Redmond.
"But in my mind, there was one clear indicator that Apple had to be working on something: namely, the lack of attention being paid to AppleWorks. Ever since AppleWorks was half-heartedly ported to Carbon, it has been left to languish, with no significant updates other than a few minor bug fixes. Why would Apple let such a key piece of software wither on the vine? The only explanation that made any sense at all was that it had to preparing something far better to replace it.
"Sure enough, at this year's MacWorld, Apple debuted iWork, a suite of productivity applications made up of Keynote 2.0 and Pages, a hip new word processing/page layout app. I got to play with Pages a little at MacWorld, and was largely impressed, though I did discover that there is currently no easy way to rearrange and delete pages you've created.... Pages' current shortcomings aside, it is clearly a shot across Microsoft's bow, and as Pages matures, I have little doubt that it will begin to cut into sales of Office for Mac."
For the full commentary, visit:
http://www.cmug.org/pulpit/iWork.html
Hitachi Brings IDE to 1.8in HDD Line
The Register's Tony Smith reports:
"Hitachi's hard drive operation has added 40GB and 60GB models to its line of 1.8in hard drives, which it has refreshed with an IDE interface the better to broaden its appeal from MP3 player manufacturers and the like to notebook makers.
"The 20 and 30GB models launched last September had ZIF interfaces; the new models support Parallel ATA-100 at all drives capacities."
For the full report, visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/31/hitachi_60gb_1-8in_hdd/
Tech Guru Pitches $100 Laptop
The New York Times' John Markoff reports:
"Nicholas Negroponte, the technology guru from the MIT Media Laboratory, prowled the halls of
the World Economic Forum holding the holy grail for crossing the digital divide: a mock-up of a $100 laptop computer.
"The machine is intriguing because Negroponte has struck upon a remarkably simple solution for lowering the price of the most costly part of a laptop--the display--to $25 or less.....
"Now, in partnership with Joseph Jacobson, a physicist at MIT, he wants to persuade the education ministries of countries like China to use laptops to replace textbooks....
"Negroponte said that he had found initial backing for his laptop plan from Advanced Micro Devices and said that he was in discussions with Google, Motorola, News Corp. and Samsung forsupport. The device includes a tentlike pop-up display that will use the technology now used in today's rear-projection televisions, in conjunction with an LED light source....
"Negroponte said he was confident that his computers, which run the free Linux operating system, would find a ready market as early as 2006."
For the full report, visit here:
http://news.com.com/Tech+guru+pitches+100+PC/2100-1003_3-5556823.html
Dell: Beware the Beige-Box Blahs
BusinessWeek's Nicholas G. Carr says:
"The tech business has a lot of trash talkers, but Dell CEO Kevin Rollins isn't one of them. Reserved and circumspect, he chooses his words carefully.
"So it was quite a surprise to hear him launch a verbal attack against rival Apple Computer in a recent interview. Rollins dismissed Apple's mega-selling iPod as a 'fad,' calling it a 'one-product wonder,' and he pooh-poohed the eye-catching Mac mini as inconsequential.
"Rollins' comments are more than uncharacteristic. They're troubling -- and not just for their snippiness. They raise real questions about how well Dell understands the home market.
"Up to now, Dell has been able to use pretty much the same strategy in selling computers to consumers as to business buyers: Offer functional, standard machines at cutthroat prices. Focus relentlessly on cutting supply-chain costs. Don't worry about product design."
Carr goes on to analogize how Henry Forde in the 1920s made the same blunder, stiking with the austere Model T while General Motors' President Alfred P. Sloan introduced a string of attention-grabbing Chevrolet models with smart new features. "By 1927, Chevys were actually outselling Model Ts. The market had gone, to use Sloan's terms, from 'mass' to 'mass class.'
The once dominant Ford Motor Company never regained its market lead over GM.
"Ford's fall stands as a cautionary tale for all companies that have thrived by riding the commoditization wave of a new consumer product," Carr concludes.
For the full commentary, visit:
http://yahoo.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2005/tc20050131_5798.htm
How to Change Copyright Law so It Once Again Serves the Public Interest
Low End Mac's Dan Knight says:
"Copyright law was created to protect writers from pirate publishers in the early days of affordable printing presses. Historically copyright was for a limited period of time - 28 years in the U.S., and renewable to 47 years or even 67 years.
"After copyright expired, works entered the public domain, which meant anyone could use them. All works created prior to 1923 - with the notable exception of "Happy Birthday to You" - are in the public domain.....
"Enter Mickey Mouse on May 15, 1928. The embodiment of the Disney corporation, Mickey Mouse remains under copyright protection. As noted in the Wikipedia, 'Disney has lobbied for and achieved repeated copyright term extensions from the United States and the European Union that have prevented the character from entering the public domain. Disney's lobbying efforts have contributed to the ability of other copyright owners to extend their copyrights as well.'
"Today copyright extends 70 years beyond the author's death - or 95 years in the case of a work made for hire.
"Copyright law has gotten out of hand. Copyright was created so the author of a work could benefit from it for a limited amount of time, after which the work would enter the public domain. Today copyright has become virtually unlimited, because Disney and others lobby for longer and longer copyright terms.....
'I'd like to see everyone go back to the old way of doing things. Copyright forever - which is what is happening with changes in copyright law - doesn't serve the public interest. There must be a mechanism whereby works can fall into the public domain after a certain time if copyright is not renewed."
I agree.
For the full commentary, visit:
http://lowendmac.com/musings/05/0131.html
eWeek:Apple Offers Incremental PowerBook Upgrades
"Apple Computer Inc. quietly updated its line of PowerBook laptop computers on Monday. The three models, which range in size from 12 to 17 inches, now feature either 1.5 or 1.67 GHz processors, with bumps to the default RAM and hard-drive configurations, while base pricing has decreased.
Despite previous reports of development of a notebook-ready version of IBM's PowerPC 970 family, also known as the G5 that powers most of Apple's line of desktop computers, these PowerBooks rely on G4 processors, built by Freescale Semiconductor Inc., previously the semiconductor division of Motorola Inc.
And despite rumors that had circulated on the Web, the new PowerBooks do not use Freescale's dual-core G4 processors."
Read more at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,,1758120,00.asp
Mac Night Owl: How Much Computing Power Do You Need?
"When does fast become too fast? When it comes to autos, just about all cars accelerate faster these days than they did back in the 1950s, when the American car was king. Of course they cost a whole lot more. In the personal computer business, though, products become both cheaper and faster. No model today, whether Mac or Windows box, can be regarded, on raw specs alone, as slow."
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://www.macnightowl.com/index.htm#need
ExtremeTech: The Homebrew PC in 2005
"It was in late 1999 that Internet Explorer finally toppled Netscape, becoming the preferred web browser for over 60% of web surfers. In the five years since then, its market share only grew more, until it had over a 95% share. Five years of dominance may not seem like forever, but in the computer business it's a lifetime, and on the web it's an eternity.
How did Microsoft beat Netscape? By building a better browser and giving it away free. Of course, building it into the operating system that's sold with almost every PC didn't hurt. Still, back in 1999, IE was faster, more robust and feature rich, and easier to use than its rival. Oh how times have changed.
Today, Internet Explorer is rapidly losing market share to the upstart open-source Firefox project. Firefox has garnered more than 20 million downloads, and IE is down to about a 90% market share. Nothing to sneeze at, to be sure, but it's not hard to see the downward trend. How is Firefox doing this? Why, by building a better browser and giving it away free, of course. Amazingly, about one third of our readers here at ExtremeTech reach us using Firefox."
Read more at:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,,1758084,00.asp
Firefox 1.1 Delayed
ZDNet UK's Ingrid Marson reports:
"Firefox 1.1 will be released three months later than originally planned, according to Ben Goodger, the lead programmer on Firefox....
"Some reports have speculated that the change in date was caused by Goodger's recent move to Google. But Goodger denied these reports in a later post....
"Firefox 1.1 was initially scheduled to be released around March 2005. But the final version has been delayed until June 2005, as shown on the updated Firefox roadmap on the Mozilla Web site.
"David Hallowell, a Mozilla contributor, said that one of the primary goals for Firefox 1.1 is to improve the browsing experience for non-Windows users."
For the full report, visit here:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/applications/0,39020384,39186042,00.htm
Computing's Silent Revolution
CNET News.com's David Becker says:
"PC noise is raising a ruckus as more powerful computers require stronger and often louder cooling systems and PCs begin to move from the office into living rooms and bedrooms.
"The quest for quiet computing has inspired a cottage industry of specialist manufacturers, growing attention from major PC makers and a small underground of acoustic cultists. Will average consumers pay more to dim the decibels?
"Once a minor annoyance, noise from PCs has become a growing concern as ever-more powerful computers require stronger and often noisier cooling systems--especially with PCs moving out of the office into living rooms and bedrooms. The quest for quiet computing has inspired a cottage industry of specialist manufacturers, growing attention from major PC companies and a small underground of acoustic cultists who'll go to any extreme to eliminate another decibel of PC din....
"Most PC noise issues come down to heat. As processors and other components have become more powerful and electricity-hungry, they've required bigger and faster fans to keep them from burning to a crisp."
For the full report, visit here:
http://news.com.com/Computings+silent+revolution/2100-1042_3-5555285.html
Unloading An Older Apple Powerbook
Chris Muldrow says
"Making the decision to upgrade isn't always easy
Well, I'm doing it. I'm selling my laptop at home and hunting for a new one.
"I have an Apple Powerbook. It's one of the titanium models with a G4 processor in it. I bought it barely used from a guy up in D.C. a couple of years ago. It's served me well.....
"I've decided to take advantage of the last couple of years' worth of technology improvements. I'm looking for a small laptop--either the Apple iBook or the Powerbook G4 with a 12-inch screen. That screen's a little smaller than I'm used to, but it's also much more portable.....
"So my laptop is on eBay as I write this--it will be sold by the time this column runs. And oddly enough, it's already up to an amount higher than what I thought it would sell for. I might even get enough from the sale to get a new machine, which is pretty cool!"
You can check it out at:
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2005/012005/01292005/1652705
Hormel Spam Trademark Case Canned
The Register's Kieren McCarthy reports:
"The UK High Court has decided that the curse of email - spam - is of greater significance than the meaty heart of a nutritious packed lunch - Spam canned meat.
"Deputy judge Richard Arnold QC was asked to invalidate the trademark 'Spambuster', owned by email company Antilles Landscapes Investments, because it infringed the 'Spam' trademark of Hormel Foods, which has produced its pink pork-shoulder-and-ham since 1937. He declined.
"In fact, Judge Arnold blasted the Minnesota company for an "abuse of process", citing an obscure 1843 judgement that has come back into vogue. So an argument from the 1800s decides that a new technology in the 2000s is more important than a product from the 1900s....."
For the full report, visit here.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/31/spam_ruling/
Computing Network Warns Of Massive Climate Change
The Register's Lucy Sherriff reports:
"The world could be as much as 11°C hotter inside 50 years, according to the first results from climateprediction.net, an experimental distributed computing network set up to simulate climate change.
"The researchers ran more than 50,000 simulations of the potential future climate, based on a doubling of pre-industrial carbon dioxide levels. What they found has surprised them. David Stainforth, from Oxford University, explains that carbon dioxide levels could have a much greater impact on global temperature than previously thought.
"The project was designed to find out the possible range of temperature change in the 21st century. At the lower end of the scale, we are looking at over a 2°C increase in temperatures across the planet. At the upper end, things are much more serious, and even if carbon dioxide levels stay as they are now, we could be in for some very noticeable changes in climate."
For the full report, visit here.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/31/global_warming/
ExtremeiPod: iPodderX update adds AAC conversion
"iPodderX, the Mac application for downloading and managing podcasts, has been updated to include the ability to automatically convert files into AAC format, as well allowing users to "bookmark" files.
Podcasting has become one of the more popular buzzwords of the past year, with hundreds of sites now offering audio files for download, usually in MP3 format. iPodderX can automatically parse an RSS feed looking for audio downloads, and, when it finds one, download it and place it in a playlist ready for synchronizing to the iPod."
Read more at:
http://www.extremeipod.com/article2/0,,1757489,00.asp
Linux Is Mission Critical For Czechs
ZDNet UK's Ingrid Marson reports:
"The Czech postal service has moved a mission-critical application used by 3,400 post offices across the country to Linux.
"Czech Post, the company that runs the postal service in the Czech Republic, has installed Novell's SuSE Linux on 4,000 servers and 12,000 client terminals. The number of client PCs is set to increase to 15,000 in the near future, according to a Novell spokesman.....
"Previously, APOST ran on a cocktail of operating systems including Windows and DOS, which Novell says meant Czech Post was spending a lot of money administering the software across 3,400 locations and was experiencing downtime and security issues."
For the full report, visit here:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39186055,00.htm
eWeek: The Importance of Microsoft Being Earnest
"At next week's VSLive conference in San Francisco, Microsoft Corp. will be announcing the status of such tools as Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2, SQL Server 2005 Beta 3 and the first Community Technology Preview of Indigo. S. "Soma" Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft, who is one of the show's keynote speakers, sat down with eWEEK Senior Editor Darryl K. Taft to discuss the company's plans for these tool releases, as well as the developer ecosystem, dealing with open source and more. Prior to his current role overseeing the developer division, Soma served as corporate vice president of the Windows Engineering Services and Solutions group within the Windows Division. Prashant Sridharan, senior product manager for Visual Studio Team System, joined Somasegar in the interview."
Read more at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,,1757512,00.asp
The Tech Night Owl: Consumer Reports and Rear-Projection TV
I've spent so much time complaining about how Consumer Reports magazine treats Macs that I haven't devoted much attention to the rest of the magazine. That's about to change.
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://www.technightowl.com/newsletters/2005/01/270.htm#tv
Charles W. Moore
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