Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Wednesday, August 27, 2008
World+Dog predicts new iPods, Macs Imminent
MacBook and MacBook Pro Release Cycle Analysis - September 2008 Updates Likely
Even Without An Enterprise Strategy, Apple Quadruples Share
Macs Continue To Gain In Home, Business Share
Consensus Builds For Rumored Sept. 9 iPod Event
Google Rolls Out Tool That Suggests Search Queries
Apple's iTunes available again in China
China pardons iTunes (but not Sting)
Road to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: 64-Bits
Purposeful Reincarnation for Old Macs
Apple's Seasonal Sales Fluctuations Can Confuse Observers
Improve The Lifespan Of iPod Earphones
The Mac Night Owl: Is Something Rotten at Slate?
World+Dog predicts new iPods, Macs Imminent
The Register's Tony Smith reports:
The net's abuzz with anticipation as to what Apple's going to announce at an event said to be taking place on 9 September. At the very least, new iPods seem certain to be unveiled shortly, and quite likely new laptops Macs too.
First, it's important to note that Apple usually announces iPod refreshes late August/early September, so changes to the line should come as no surprise to anyone. Digg.com's Kevin Rose last week forecast a new Nano design - thank god; the current one's awful - and a cheaper, more iPhone-like iPod Touch.....
It's also been claimed that Apple will double-up and introduce new MacBooks too....
Earlier this month, Intel introduced its latest laptop chippery, Centrino 2, so the MacBook Pros could be updated too....
For the full report, visit:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/08/26/apple_mac_ipod_revamp_forecast/
MacBook and MacBook Pro Release Cycle Analysis - September 2008 Updates Likely
switchtoamac says:
Whenever someone considers purchasing something new one of the initial reactions is to determine if the current model(s) will be updated in the near future. This true for automobiles, gadgets, electronics and of course computers. This post will provide insight into how Apple updates and refreshes their line of Macintosh computers with particular emphasis on the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines.
The article includes some excellent timeline charts of MacBook and MacBook Pro product introduction/revision history, and observes that Apple's current Back-To-School promotion ends on Monday September 15, 2008, and while Apple has never released MacBook or MacBook Pro updates in the midst of a Back-To-School promotion, that doesn't mean that they won't..
Best guesses: September 9, 2008 or the week of September 15, 2008 (Tuesday September 16, 2008 highly likely).
For the full report, visit:
http://tinyurl.com/5c42nx
Even Without An Enterprise Strategy, Apple Quadruples Share
Computerworld's Gregg Keizer reports:
Even without a strategy to push its computers into corporations, Apple has managed to nearly quadruple its share of the enterprise market in the last 19 months, an analyst said Tuesday.
Apple’s Mac OS X currently accounts for 4.5 percent of the business operating system market, said Ben Gray, analyst with Forrester Research. As recently as January 2007, Apple held just 1.2 percent of the enterprise share, according to data collected from Forrester clients who visited the research firm’s Web site.
And that’s all happened without Apple lifting much of a finger. “…I haven’t seen anything from Apple that seems to show it’s attack[ing] the enterprise market,” said Gray.
For the full report, visit:
http://www.macworld.com/article/135216/2008/08/enterprise.html?lsrc=rss_main
Macs Continue To Gain In Home, Business Share
MSNBC's Suzanne Choney reports:
More home users, and a growing number in the small business sphere, are opting to move to Apple’s computers, their interest driven by positive experiences with Apple's other products, as well as disenchantment with the Windows world.
Analysts say the appeal of Macs is in part due to a “halo effect,” created mainly by Apple’s iPod, which has 71 percent of the digital music player market in the United States, as well as from the iPhone....
Among small businesses, defined as having 100 or fewer employees.... The company had a 4.4 percent share of the small business market in the United States at the end of the first quarter this year, compared to 2.4 percent in 2007, and 2.1 percent two years ago, according to Gartner....
For the full report, visit:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26392001/
Consensus Builds For Rumored Sept. 9 iPod Event
Appleinsider's Aidan Malley reports:
Spurred on by his own leak from the past weekend, Digg founder Kevin Rose has pegged a more specific date for Apple to unveil its new iPods and is garnering support from additional sources.
Listeners to the August 25th episode of This Week in Tech, which features Rose as a show guest, report the site creator mentioning a September 9th introduction for the new iPods that he himself broke word of a day before the podcast was recorded.
While he doesn't say whether this would involve one of Apple's characteristic press events to usher in the changes, the Digg head also sent what are allegedly further images of the redesigned iPod nano to show founder Leo Laporte, who didn't find any glaring problems with what he saw but was sworn to keep the product shots to himself; he quickly deleted them outright.
For the full report click here.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/08/25/consensus_builds_for_rumored_sept_9_ipod_event.html
Google Rolls Out Tool That Suggests Search Queries
Computerworld 's Heather Havenstein reports:
After more than four years in development, a new feature that suggests queries as letters and words are typed into Google’s search engine, is being rolled out over the next week.
Google Suggest, which the company began developing in 2004, aims to help users better formulate queries, reduce spelling errors and save keystrokes, Google noted in a blog post Monday.
The article notes that Google Suggest supports Internet Explorer 6.0 (or newer), Netscape 7.1 (or newer), Mozilla 1.4 (or newer), Firefox 0.8 (or newer), Opera 7.54 (or newer),or Safari 1.2.2 (or newer).
For the full report, visit:
http://www.macworld.com/article/135215/2008/08/google.html
Apple's iTunes available again in China
UPI reports:
Apple's iTunes online music store was available Tuesday in China after apparently being blocked by the government, the San Francisco Chronicle reported....
...An Apple spokeswoman acknowledged to the Chronicle that the service is available in China, although the newspaper said the Web page promoting "Songs for Tibet" remains unavailable.
For the full report, visit:
http://tinyurl.com/6yaaro
China pardons iTunes (but not Sting)
The Register's Austin Modine reports:
The People's Republic has pardoned iTunes after access to the online music store was apparently blocked in reaction to selling a new Tibet-themed album during the Olympic games.
Apple customers in China can once again access the iTunes store, although the contested "Songs for Tibet" album released by the US-based activist group Art of Peace Foundation is unavailable there. Internet forums in China had been flooded with complaints that music hasn't been available for download from iTunes since August 18....
The store was down just one day after the Art of Peace Foundation announced the release of the album, which features music by Sting, Alanis Morissette, Garbage and other mainstream acts. It also features a 15-minute lecture by the Dalai Lama, which is generally not a big hit at Chinese government parties....
... China.org.cn, a website operated by The People's Republic's Internet Information Center... does report, however, the album "has ignited strong indignation among Chinese netizens" and many have expressed they want to ban the album's singers and producers, especially Sting, John Mayer and Dave Matthews from Entering China"
For the full report, visit:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/26/china_pardons_itunes/
Road to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: 64-Bits
Appleinsider's Prince McLean reports:
Next year's 10.6 reference release of Mac OS X promises to deliver technology updates throughout the system without focusing on the customer-facing marketing features that typically sell a new operating system. Here's a look at what those behind-the-scenes enhancements will mean to you, starting with new 64-bit support....
You can check it out at:
http://tinyurl.com/6mj9qs
Purposeful Reincarnation for Old Macs
Low End Mac's Phil Herlihy says:
If I may quote The Matrix Reloaded for a moment: "It is purpose that connects us, that pulls us, that guides us. It is purpose that defines us."
Purpose is one of the larger struggles in bringing old dinosaurs back into operation. Most people lack purpose for these old 'puters. The trick is finding something for them to mull over or do nothing at all (I'll explain the latter later on).
Extending the life of an old machine can sometimes require the user to jump through certain hoops during preparation.....
As far as Old World Macs (pre-G3 models) go, I highly recommend hot rodding, which does add to the cost of preparation for use. There are G3 and G4 upgrades for almost every PCI Power Mac in existence, not to mention '040 upgrades for 68030 models....
You should avoid any Old World Mac that will cost more to get running then it's final product will be worth. If you're spending $400 to get a 40 MHz Mac IIfx machine in running condition, you had better have a good reason.
For the full commentary, click here.
http://lowendmac.com/ed/herlihy/08ph/purposeful-reincarnation.html
Apple's Seasonal Sales Fluctuations Can Confuse Observers
MacObserver's John Martellaro says:
Apple has been the happy or unhappy victim, depending on one's perspective, of seasonal fluctuations in its Macintosh sales for many years. The slides and gains from quarter to quarter are the result of customer buying habits and are often overlooked when analyzing Apple's growth trends.
Apple is a maker of high end, quality computers. As such, the purchases tend to be really good in Apple's Fiscal first quarter, Q1 (Oct through Dec). We've seen that trend amplified even more with iPod purchases, a favorite Christmas gift...
For the full commentary, click here.
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2008/08/26.12.shtml
Improve The Lifespan Of iPod Earphones
Instructibles' acaz93 says:
This time I won't show you anything fancy , nor properly mandatory , But believe me it will improve the life of the plug from 6.5 months to 2+ years......
You can check it out at:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Improve_The_Lifespan_Of_iPod_Earphones/
The Mac Night Owl: Is Something Rotten at Slate?
Depending on your point of view about a situation, you can either kick someone when they're down, or support them and give them a reasonable amount of time to recover. Since Apple Inc. is at the top of the world these days, you can bet that any problems they encounter will be amplified. After all, whatever goes up must come down. Yes, that's another old phrase, and I hope you're not getting sick of them.
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://www.macnightowl.com/2008/08/is-something-rotten-at-slate/
Notes: You can also access our new RSS feed, available at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/rss
Or our new Atom feed at:
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