Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Friday, April 18, 2008
Apple Mac Shipments Outpace Other Top Five U.S. PC Vendors
Apple Pushes Past Toshiba In US Sales Race
Intel: Laptop/Desktop Crossover Coming Sooner Than Expected
Apple Orders Aluminum 13-inch MacBook shells, 3G iPhone chips - Rumor
Powerbook to Desktop Recycling Conversion
Safari 3.1.1 Update Patches MacBook Air Hijack Flaw
Office Suite Smackdown
New Battery Prototype May Mean The End Of Exploding Laptops
PsyStar Saga Day 3: Mac Clone Maker, Payment Processor Trade Charges
Psystar: I Smell A Rat
Hitachi Determined To Boost Hard-drive Business
Apple Files For Patents On Laser-based Head-mounted Displays
Head Mounted Display System - United States Patent Application 20080088937
The Mac Night Owl: When Apple Says No, Sometimes They Mean Yes!
Apple Mac Shipments Outpace Other Top Five U.S. PC Vendors
InformationWeek's Antone Gonsalves reports:
Apple's growth rate in terms of Mac shipments in the first quarter outpaced that of the other top five U.S. PC makers, a research firm said Wednesday.
Apple shipments soared by 32.5% to 1 million units, compared with the 762,000 Macs shipped in the same quarter a year ago, Gartner said. Apple ended the quarter with a 6.6% market share that placed it No. 4 among the top vendors in the U.S.
For the full report click here.
Apple Pushes Past Toshiba In US Sales Race
The Register's Tony Smith reports:
Apple grabbed 6.6 per cent of the US personal computer market during Q1 on the back of a leading year-on-year 32.5 per cent jump in unit shipments, research company Gartner said yesterday.
The move saw Apple push past Toshiba to become the quarter's fourth most successful computer maker in terms of units shipped....
Third-placed Acer saw shipments drop 18.3 per cent between Q1 2007 and Q1 2008, resulting in its share of the US market falling from 11.5 per cent to 9.1 per cent. That's just 2.5 percentage points ahead of Apple....
For the full report visit here:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/04/17/gartner_q1_sales_figures/
Intel: Laptop/Desktop Crossover Coming Sooner Than Expected
The Register's Tony Smith reports:
Intel will sell more mobile CPUs than desktop processors this year, the chip giant's CEO claimed this week.
"The crossover from the desktop to the notebook [is] happening essentially a year sooner than we first had thought," said Paul Otellini at Intel's earnings conference.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/04/17/intel_laptop_desktop_crossover/
Apple Orders Aluminum 13-inch MacBook shells, 3G iPhone chips - Rumor
Appleinsider's Aidan Malley says:
Separate reports have revealed that Apple's next wave of products for 2008 is soon to enter various stages of production, with orders placed for aluminum shells for the company's next-generation 13-inch MacBooks and a manufacturer chosen for the iPhone's 3G chipset.
A worker at a Taiwanese case manufacturer posting to one of the Taiwan's largest technology forums claims (link withheld to protect identity) that his unnamed employer has just this week received orders to produce enclosures for new MacBook systems....
The report appears to corroborate AppleInsider's source information on the subject, echoing assertions that white cases will disappear from the MacBook lineup, replaced instead by a silver, anodized aluminum enclosures reminiscent of those used in the MacBook Air and latest iMacs.
To read more, click here.
Powerbook to Desktop Recycling Conversion
MacMod.com's Richard Hunt says:
My old PowerBook has led a tough life. I bought it a few years ago with the screen hanging off (broken hinges). Having successfully repaired the hinges and resprayed it (the paint was peeling of the Titanium) it was as good as new. However, after a few years of hard use everyday, it eventually developed a screen fault and collected some new knocks and scratches. It seemed a shame to throw out such a tough old machine because of a screen problem. So I decided to join the case modding fraternity.
So he converted it into a desktop tower Mac which actually looks pretty cool and dosen't take suspension of belief to imagine that it's something Apple might have built.
You can check it out at:
http://www.macmod.com/content/view/1118/2/
Safari 3.1.1 Update Patches MacBook Air Hijack Flaw
eWeek's Ryan Naraine reports:
The Safari 3.1.1 update includes a patch for the flaw that allowed the hijack of a MacBook Air laptop at the CanSecWest "PWN to OWN" security contest.
Apple has slapped a Band-Aid on its Safari for Windows browser to cover four vulnerabilities that could lead to code execution, cross-site scripting and URL spoofing attacks.
The Safari 3.1.1 update includes a patch for the flaw the allowed the hijack of a MacBook Air laptop at this year's CanSecWest "PWN to OWN" security contest.
For the full report click here.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Apple-Patches-MacBook-Air-Hijack-Flaw/
Office Suite Smackdown
Macworld's Jeffery Battersby, Rob Griffiths, and Franklin N. Tessler, answer the rhetorical question: "Can iWork '08 challenge Office 2008?"....
For years, Microsoft Office was the undisputed champion of Mac software suites. Then came Apple's iWork. At first it consisted solely of Pages and Keynote - not enough to take on Office head-to-head. But when Apple added Numbers to iWork '08, the suite became a viable alternative to Microsoft Office.
How viable?....
You can check it out at:
http://www.macworld.com/article/133050/2008/04/office_main.html?lsrc=top_1
New Battery Prototype May Mean The End Of Exploding Laptops
Ars Technica's Jacqui Cheng reports:
The Great Laptop Battery Recall of 2006 had everyone paranoid that their MacBooks or ThinkPads could catch fire and cause havoc at any moment. Although that string of incidents appears to be over, the most commonly-found batteries can still catch fire under the right conditions. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in Germany hope to eliminate that concern, though, by developing lithium-ion batteries with no flammable materials.....
According to ISC, the polymer is derived from an inorganic compound that allows organic side chains to attach to it, called Ormocer. The challenge, however, is to create a non-flammable polymer that retains its shape, but doesn't suffer when it comes to actually transmitting the energy....
For the full report click here.
PsyStar Saga Day 3: Mac Clone Maker, Payment Processor Trade Charges
Computerworld's Gregg Keizer reports:
The Miami company that claims it's selling Mac clones said today that it will take payment only via PayPal because its credit-card processor "dropped the ball." That processor, PowerPay Inc., has disputed the charge and said it cut PsyStar Corp. loose because the company violated the terms of their agreement.
In one of the first extended comments PsyStar has given this week by telephone, it said PowerPay's only stated reason for closing its account was that it had exceeded its transaction allowance.
For the full report click here.
Psystar: I Smell A Rat
The Apple Core's Jason D. O'Grady says:
Yesterday The Guardian did some ol' fashioned gum shoeing to find out more about the elusive yet seductive Psystar – the purported Mac cloner that many have been following. They found out that Psystar changed their address from what appeared to be an average row of suburban houses to a second address that "looks far more office-y, or at least industrial."
Well today Gizmodo's crack team of readers descended on both addresses and submitted photos of the locations for review......
Tom's Hardware has a brief interview with Psystar president Rudy Pedraza. In it he laughs about the whole thing, while still claiming it's legit.
For the full report visit here:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1580
Hitachi Determined To Boost Hard-drive Business
Reuters reports:
Japan's Hitachi has dropped plans to sell a stake in its troubled computer disk drive business and aims to turn the business around by going after market share and cutting costs, the head of the unit said on Thursday.
Hitachi's determination to go it alone comes two days after Seagate Technology's outlook, hurt by price falls, missed expectations and sent its shares plummeting.
For the full report visit here:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,39386077,00.htm
Apple Files For Patents On Laser-based Head-mounted Displays
Appleinsider's Slash Lane reports:
A new series of patent filings by Apple outlines attempts to modernize head-mounted displays (HMDs) that can be plugged into iPods or iPhones by decoupling the image generation components from the headsets themselves, which would pave the way for more lightweight and comfortable designs.
In the primary filing, the electronics maker notes that with most HMDs the displays and optics are typically embedded in the helmet, glasses, or a visor, which is worn by the user. However, this arrangement has several drawbacks.....
To read more, click here.
Head Mounted Display System - United States Patent Application 20080088937
Abstract
A head mounted display system is disclosed. The head mounted display system includes a remote laser light engine that generates laser light associated with a display signal. The head mounted display system additionally includes a head mounted display apparatus that is separated from the laser light engine and comprising a display unit that displays laser images. The head mounted display system further includes an imaging device coupled between the remote laser light engine and the head mounted display apparatus. The imaging device creates laser images from the laser light transmitted through an optical cable in accordance with the display signal. The laser images are delivered to the display unit in order to create display images that can be viewed by a user of the head mounted display apparatus.
You can check it out here.
The Mac Night Owl: When Apple Says No, Sometimes They Mean Yes!
A normal part of child psychology is that, if the parent asks for something, the response will often be the opposite of what they expect. This is part of the process of establishing the child's own independent personality. Now I wouldn't say that Apple's strategy shows a childlike veneer, but they certainly have long-term marketing goals that may often seem inscrutable.
Here's the link to the story:
http://macnightowl.com/2008/04/when-apple-says-no-sometimes-they-mean-yes/
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