Other Sites
Why Snow Leopard Should Be (Almost) Free
The $200 "Mac" Netbook
Beat the 'Mac Tax' by Buying Used
17 Reasons Why Your Mac Runs Slower Than it Should
Google Rolls Out Search Changes
P2P Pirates More Likely To Buy Music - Study
Sharp Demos 10.1-inch Netbook With LCD Trackpad
Win an Espionage License
Lessons of Conficker: closing the Windows on more malware
Symantec Warns Mac Botnet Could Strike Again
Crippled Windows 7 Version For Netbooks and are Netbooks Notebooks?
Will Postbox Replace Apple Mail?
In-Stat: 66.3 Million US TV Viewers are Simultaneously Using a PC While Watching TV
The Mac Night Owl: Assuming Facts Not in Evidence
Why Snow Leopard Should Be (Almost) Free
Tidbits' Adam C. Engst poses an excellent argument that at some point in the next two to six months Apple will unleash Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, which Apple has said will feature only the under-the-hood improvements, so Apple should release it for free, or at least a more nominal upgrade fee than the $129 price of typical OS X version upgrades -- perhaps $29.95.
Apple has been taking some stick from Microsoft about charging full price for its much more frequent major system software upgrades compared with Windows' much more leasurely pace of sustem version rollouts, and they do have a valid point.
Engst argues that charging the full $129 price for Snow Leopard could have deleterious effects including a high proportion of users reluctant upgrade, further fragmenting of the the installed base, making it harder for developers to justify new Mac products that take advantage of Apple's latest technologies, and the risk of being seen as nickel-and-diming users, which could hurt Snow Leopard's adoption rate.
I agree.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://db.tidbits.com/article/10228
The $200 "Mac" Netbook
The Apple Core's Jason D. O'Grady says that pound for pound the best value for a machine running Mac OS X right now is the Dell Vostro A90 netbook, currently on sale for $199, an noting that for less than the price of an iPod touch you can buy a computer that runs desktop-class Mac OS applications and a Web-browser with Flash.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=3747
Beat the 'Mac Tax' by Buying Used
Low End Mac's Frank Fox says that uf you are holding onto a 7- or 8-year-old Mac because you think the price of a brand new Mac is too much, don't just go ahead and get an upgrade. What you have is used, so buying a newer used model is no worse and will be a lot faster.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/ed/fox/09ff/beat-the-mac-tax.html
17 Reasons Why Your Mac Runs Slower Than it Should
Chriswrites blogger Chris says:
Day by day, bit by bit your Mac has got slower and slower. You don't really notice because it has happened so gradually.
Until one day you have a chance to use another machine, that's when you realize what your beloved Mac has become, as slow as an asthmatic ant carrying some heavy shopping.
Well all is not lost, while this list is unlikely to make you mac into a speed demon overnight, one of the following suggestions may just help....
You can check it out at:
http://tinyurl.com/cbefmj
Google Rolls Out Search Changes
The BBC's Maggie Shiels reports that Google has launched two experimental products it hopes will change the way users search for pictures and news.
You can check it out at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8009400.stm
P2P Pirates More Likely To Buy Music - Study
In your humble editor's experience, people he knows who are prolific P2P music downloaders also tend to be prolific music CD and iTunes recording buyers. Now a study conducted by the BI Norwegian School of Management puts some scientific weight behind that subjective observation.
Electronista reports that the research found those who frequently download music through file sharing services are 10 times more likely to buy music than those that cling only to legal purchases.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/04/21/study.on.piracy.and.music/
Sharp Demos 10.1-inch Netbook With LCD Trackpad
Electronista reports that the Japanese division of Sharp Electronics has announced the 10.1-inch Mebius NJ70A netbook which is said to be the first netbook in the world with an LCD trackpad that can run apps directly from the screen and recognizes multi-touch gestures similar to those on Apple's MacBook.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/04/21/sharp.mebius.nj70a.netbook/
Win an Espionage License
AppStorm's David Appleyard says:
It's competition time again, and this week we have three licenses for Espionage up for grabs. Espionage is a data encryption app for OS X, which we recently reviewed. If you don't want the system wide performance hit of FileVault but do have the odd application/folder to encrypt, it's a great solution.
As promised, we have three copies to give away....
For details, see:
http://mac.appstorm.net/general/competitions/win-an-espionage-license/
Lessons of Conficker: closing the Windows on more malware
Business in Vancouver's Alan Zisman says:
As I write, it's a couple of days past the Conficker worm's April Fool's non-event. It was given lots of media attention in the days leading up to April 1 even though it rated hardly any attention earlier in the year when it infested an estimated 10 million to 12 million systems.
These sorts of media firestorms are unfortunate. They drum up fear and hysteria before the fact and, after, when worst-case scenarios don't occur, they leave many people with an unwarranted sense of invulnerability about real computer-security issues.....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.zisman.ca/Articles/2009/BIV1017.html
Symantec Warns Mac Botnet Could Strike Again
Internet News's Alex Goldman reports that Symantec, which discovered the first Macintosh worm in 1998, warns that a botnet recently identified as infecting iWork is flexible and adaptable, and that more versions may be on the way.....
For the full report visit here:
http://www.internetnews.com/security/article.php/3816381
Crippled Windows 7 Version For Netbooks and are Netbooks Notebooks?
Technologizer's Harry McCracken observes that netbooks aren't just changing the world's perceptions of how powerful a computer must be to be useful. they're also having a major impact on Microsoft's business model, and things will only get more complicated when Windows 7 arrives because 7 designed to perform reasonably well on modestly-equipped netbook, which Vista isn't, therefore a crippled Windows 7 "Starter Edition" is reportedly in the works that will only run three applications at a time, which sounds frustratingly idiotic to me, but some beta testers say it's not as bad as it sounds.
Harry segues into the rhetorical question: Are netbooks really netbooks or are they a distinct class of computer from traditional notebooks? - arguing that a case can be made for either proposition.
You can check it out at:
http://technologizer.com/2009/04/21/resolved-netbooks-are-notebooks-period/
Will Postbox Replace Apple Mail?
Smoking Apples' Milind Alvares says:
Postbox is a new email client that helps you keep track of all the photos, attachments, and links buried in your email, as well as organize your email. Postbox is in fact based on a good chunk of Thunderbird's code, a lot of its company's founders and lead developers worked on Thunderbird or other email programs at Netscape or Mozilla. In fact, 5 seconds after launching the app, I could immediately tell that it was not a native Cocoa app.
For the full review visit here:
http://smokingapples.com/software/reviews/post-box-not-just-another-mail-replacement/
In-Stat: 66.3 Million US TV Viewers are Simultaneously Using a PC While Watching TV
[Press Release]
Over 66 million consumers across demographic categories are using the Internet while camped out on their sofas watching TV, according to market research firm In-Stat ( http://www.in-stat.com ). Based on In-Stat's recent survey, 33% of all male respondents, across age groups, reported that they are sometimes using a personal computer simultaneously while watching TV. Among some male age groups the behavior was as high as 50%. In contrast, about 25% of female respondents reported using a PC while watching TV.
"Consumer multitasking represents an important emerging opportunity for the TV industry," says Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst. "Local TV stations, TV networks, pay-TV networks, 24-hour news networks, sports leagues, and music channels, can instantly connect to some of their viewers, right now, on both the TV screen and on a laptop computer screen."
Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
<ul>
<li>One-fifth of all respondents reported doing instant messaging while watching TV, with similar responses among females and males.</li>
<li>US consumers could drop spending on mobile, broadband and pay TV services by nearly $5 billion due to economic turmoil.</li>
<li>About 15% of US respondents intend to cut back spending on subscription-TV, broadband, and mobile services in response to economic pressures.</li>
</ul>
The research, "US TV Viewers Response to Economic Turmoil" (#IN0904557CM), covers TV viewing habits in the US. It includes:
<ul>
<li>Analysis of impact of current economic downturn on consumer behavior regarding TV viewing, broadband use, and spending across mobile, broadband and subscription TV.Results and analysis of a late 2008 US consumer survey on TV viewing, Internet usage habits and multitasking while watching TV.</li>
<li>Examination of consumers' interest in Internet TV services.</li>
<li>Exploration of new hybrid "Lite" subscription TV services.</li>
<li>Detailed demographic segmentation.</li>
</ul>
For more information on this research or to purchase it online, visit:
http://www.instat.com/catalog/mmcatalogue.asp?id=212
or contact a sales representative:
http://www.instat.com/sales.asp
The price is $3,495 (US).
The Mac Night Owl: Assuming Facts Not in Evidence
Depending on which survey you've read, Apple's market share has either gone up or down slightly so far this year. If you assume the more pessimistic results, you might be inclined to want to tell Apple what they need to do next in order to survive, although you just know they won't listen.
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://www.macnightowl.com/2009/04/assuming-facts-not-in-evidence/
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
Tags: News ď Tech-Industry ď
