Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Thursday, October 30, 2008
MacBook Airs ship; Psystar plans Mac notebook, Blu-ray desktop
iMac, Mac Mini Updates November 11 According to… Pure Speculation
Alternate Gmail Modes
Two Macs: Fail
Is Time Machine Enough?
6 easy steps to migrate your Mac using Time Machine
Apple Among "10 Most Overrated Brands"
Apple's iPod is no Longer a Cash Cow
Apple's Snow Leopard To Offer Text Auto-correction
How Netflix is Killing Apple TV
Apple's $24.5 billion: The Case For A Big Stock Buyback
Side by side: Windows 7 vs. OS X Snow Leopard
Super Talent Offers Solid-Gold USB Drive
HP introduces stylish VIA Intel-based netbook
Corey Tamas Joins iGame Radio As New Co-Host
The Mac Night Owl: Apple and the 50% Factor
MacBook Airs ship; Psystar plans Mac notebook, Blu-ray desktop
AppleInsider reports:
Apple is making good on a promise to have its new MacBook Airs in the hands of customers early next week. Meanwhile, unofficial Mac clone maker Psystar has announced a Blu-ray-enabled Mac desktop and says its also working on a Mac notebook.
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/5s5yh5
iMac, Mac Mini Updates November 11 According to… Pure Speculation
The Apple Blog's Darrell Etherington says:
When it rains it pours, and the current outlook is calling for torrents of speculation regarding iMac and Mac mini updates from Apple. Just to show how desperate people can be for any shred of "information" regarding Cupertino, let's look at the latest bit of "news" making the rounds......
For the full commentary visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/5zdwz7
Alternate Gmail Modes
Google says:
If you can't access Gmail, try some of these URLs:
Safe mode - http://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0
Secure mode - https://mail.google.com/
Older version - http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=1
Basic mode - http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html
Mobile mode - http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=mobile or http://m.gmail.com
iPhone mode - http://mail.google.com/mail/x/gdlakb-/gp/
iGoogle gadget - http://www.google.com/ig/gmailmax
"No browser checking" mode - http://mail.google.com/mail?nocheckbrowse
For full details see:
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/10/gmail-modes.html
Two Macs: Fail
Blogger Fraser Speirs says:
An experiment I've been running for more than two years now is over: running two Macs is more hassle than it's worth. I write not to praise synchronisation technology, but to bury it.
In 2006 I acquired a Mac Pro which was my first desktop Mac since the beige G3/266 desktop I owned in 1997. It's very fast and has two very big displays connected to it. It's got space for hard drives out the wazoo and you can do a whole lot with it. At the same time I had a laptop - first a Core Duo 17" MacBook Pro and, this year, a MacBook Air.
It's also a world of pain, and I'm done with it.
It's a world of pain because, whilst sync technology is definitely better than it was two years ago, I have never reached the point where I just don't have to think about where my information is.....
Today I ordered a new MacBook Pro and threw my current Mac Pro and MacBook Air up for sale on Twitter.... Because this laptop is going to be my one and only machine, I went beefy: 2.8GHz, 512MB on the graphics. I downgraded the hard drive from 320GB to 250GB because I'm going to throw it away on day one in favour of a WD 500GB drive.
I'm also hoping that, in the not too distant future, MCE Technologies will update their OptiBay unit for the new laptops. OptiBay is a dummy optical drive replacement with a cut-out for a second hard drive. The possibility of having 1TB of internal storage in a laptop is just crazy, given where we were a couple of years back.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://speirs.org/2008/10/28/two-macs-fail/
Is Time Machine Enough?
O'Rellly's Todd Ogasawara says:
My MacBook's hard drive died back in December 2006. And, my first generation Mac mini (the old G4 model) decided to give it up around August of 2007. Since Leopard didn't arrive until October 2007, neither of these incidents could take advantage of Leopard's Time Machine.
Since then, I've actually had to use Time Machine twice to recover files that weren't backed up elsewhere. And, I tested a full restore on my MacBook by wiping out the drive (on purpose) and then restoring from a Time Machine backup. This is not enough testing to fully trust the process. On the other hand, Time Machine is batting 100% so far.....
For the full report visit here:
http://blogs.oreilly.com/digitalmedia/2008/10/is-time-machine-enough.html
6 easy steps to migrate your Mac using Time Machine
TUAW's Cory Bohon says:
If you use Time Machine in Leopard, then transferring your stuff to a new Mac might be a bit simpler than you thought. With Migration Assistant, you can easily transfer Applications, Documents, Settings, and more. In this Mac 101, we're going to show you how it's done, and how you can do it yourself!....
You can check it out at:
http://tinyurl.com/6hvcj8
Apple Among "10 Most Overrated Brands"
TUAW's Dave Caolo reports:
Boston.com has produced a list of the 10 Most Overrated Brands. Apple is at number nine. How so? According to Boston.com, it's the hype that sustains us.
"...while Apple has made its name combining sharp design with great technology, the brand's true appeal comes from the fact that consumers are hooked on the hype."
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/29/apple-among-10-most-overrated-brands/
Apple's iPod is no Longer a Cash Cow
Daily Tech's Jason Mick says:
Apple's core business has shifted to being driven by computer, iPhone sales....
....In Q1 2006, just 5 years after the launch of the iPod, the iconic device accounted for 55.6 percent of Apple's sales.
However, over the last couple years, something curious has happened - the iPod has grown increasingly insignificant to Apple.....
With the king - the iPod - dead, Apple is entering a new era - the era of the iPhone. Make no mistake - the iPod is still king of the MP3 player market - but it's just not that important to Apple anymore.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.dailytech.com/Apples+iPod+is+no+Longer+a+Cash+Cow/article13316.htm
Apple's Snow Leopard To Offer Text Auto-correction
Appleinsider's Sam Oliver reports:
Modern text-handling technologies made popular on Apple's iPhone should turn up on the Mac next year as part of the company's Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard release.
Purported screenshots making the rounds from build 10A190 of the OS overhaul show that a new version of Apple's TextEdit application will offer preferences for at least three new text handling operations.
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/5cfcd4
How Netflix is Killing Apple TV
The Mac Observer's John Martellaro says:
I did a financial analysis of Netflix and Apple TV and got numbers I wasn't expecting.
You may be interested....
From time to time, Apple has made impressive sounding announcements about the success of its Apple TV, but the facts show that during the time that Apple has failed to work with Netflix, the DVD rental company has been slowly killing the Apple TV. The result is that the Apple TV will linger on, by Mr. Jobs' admission, as a hobby throughout 2009.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.macobserver.com/columns/hiddendimensions/2008/10/28.1.shtml
Apple's $24.5 billion: The Case For A Big Stock Buyback
Apple 2.0's Philip Elmer-DeWitt says:
Here's a headache most companies would love to have.
Apple is sitting on a huge cash reserve - $24.5 billion as of September and growing at the rate of $8 to $10 billion a year - that's doing almost nothing for it.
The money is earning about $1.55% interest after taxes, according to a report issued Wednesday by Bernstein Research's Toni Sacconaghi, at a time when the company's stock is trading at a unusually low (for Apple) multiple of 15 times earnings.
That makes conditions ideal for a massive buyback of Apple shares, says Sacconaghi.
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/57ec4j
Side by side: Windows 7 vs. OS X Snow Leopard
TG Daily's Christian Zibreg reports:
We could not [stop] thinking about how well Windows 7 may stack up to Apple's Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Microsoft has shown Windows 7 for the first time earlier today and there is every indication that this (Vista) Maintenance release may turn into the Vista Microsoft should have offered to begin with. We haven't seen Snow Leopard yet, but have a good idea how the operating system may offer. Apple will go in a slightly different direction and we wondered how the two will compare. Here is what we have come up with....
You can check it out at:
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/39945/140/
Super Talent Offers Solid-Gold USB Drive
InformationWeek's Antone Gonsalves reports:
For people who can still afford wealth-flaunting luxury despite the global economic crisis, Super Talent Technology is offering a limited edition solid-gold USB drive.
Besides style for the rich, the 28-carat Pico-C offers 8 GB of storage and boasts data-transfer speeds of up to 30 MB per second, the company said. The device is also water resistant and includes an 18-carat gold key chain, encryption software and a serialized certificate of authenticity.
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/6d262x
HP introduces stylish VIA Intel-based netbook
The Register's Tony Smith reports:
It's official, HP has launched its new netbook, the Mini 1000, and it's ditched VIA's C7-M processor in favour of Intel's Atom.....
The CPU is Intel's 1.6GHz Atom N270, but HP said the 1000 will be offered with a choice of 8.9in and 10.2in glossy displays - with a 1024 x 600 resolution in each case. There's a choice of operating system too: Windows XP or Linux....
Prices start at $400
For the full report visit here:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/10/29/hp_launches_netbook/
Corey Tamas Joins iGame Radio As New Co-Host
[Press Release]
iGame Radio has announced that noted Mac game reviewer and commentator Corey Tamas has joined the show as co-host. Tamas joins host Omaha Sternberg on the iGame Radio podcast, the original podcast about gaming on the Mac.
Corey Tamas is a long-time Mac gaming aficionado and pundit. As the Editor in Chief of MacGamer.com for seven years, he was the author of hundreds of Mac game reviews, interviews and editorials. He's also been a contributing game reviewer to The Mac Bible and MacHome Journal, chaired panel discussions on gaming at MacWorld Expo and rocks a level 70 Blood Elf Warlock with a talent for Destruction.
"I have really been wanting a co-host on the show," said host Omaha Sternberg. "Talking with another person on the show has always provided a much more diverse conversation about the Mac gaming community and industry. And my friend Corey has such a history in the Mac game community, he was just the perfect choice. I was very happy when he accepted my invitation."
"I'm very excited to be part of the iGame Radio lineup," Tamas said. "With so much potential coming back to the Mac gaming market right now, it's going to be fun talking about it every step of the way with my long-time friend Omaha."
Omaha and Corey will be dishing regularly on Mac gaming news together, giving reviews of popular Mac, iPod, iPhone games, gaming hardware, and peripherals, and conversing on their opinions about the Mac gaming world.
iGame Radio episodes are available as a basic or enhanced podcast from iGameRadio.com, where listeners will also find archives of past broadcasts, information about past, present, and future games, and the iGame Word, the official iGame Radio blog. QuickTime 5 and above, or iTunes 4.9 or other MP3 enabled software (such as Juice), are required for access to the podcasts. Listeners can also subscribe to the enhanced podcast through the iTunes Music Store, and other popular podcatching applications.
For more information, visit:
http://www.igameradio.com/
The Mac Night Owl: Apple and the 50% Factor
There's a key figure that's touted at every recent quarterly meeting with financial analysts, and it may give a clue why Apple's sales are soaring. You see, some 50% of the people buying Macs at an Apple Store are new to the platform.
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://www.macnightowl.com/2008/10/apple-and-the-50-factor/
Notes: You can also access our new RSS feed, available at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/rss
Or our new Atom feed at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/atom
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