Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Celeb Spills Beans On New Apple Notebook
Instant Expert guide to Macs
Dell XPS vs. Apple iMac - Which Is Better?
Apples For The Army
Mammoth Update Ahead For Leopard
WYSIWYG web editors for Mac OS X
18-inch LCDs in works, coming to Acer first
XO Laptop versus Apple eMate
Firefox 3.0 Beta 2 better than Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7
AOL Tosses Netscape Into The Dustbin Of History
Clues that Apple will release a Mac Touch
Dump the DVD player for Apple hard drive
MacBook Pro loses Bluetooth- a fix
Tech Startup Bridges Mideast Divide
Wal-Mart Cans Video Download Service
Linux-Watch: Glub, Glub: SCO Drops Off the Nasdaq
eWEEK: Wal-Mart Kills Movie Download Service
Celeb Spills Beans On New Apple Notebook
The Register's Scott Snowden reports:
Rumours abound that hip hop star Just Blaze has told all about Apple's much talked-about sub-notebook, after he was promised one for performing at a recent Apple Christmas party. The mystery machine is allegedly to be announced at Macworld in January.....
However, according to website boygeniusreport, Mr Blaze was one of several music celebrities who performed live at the company-sponsored music event for Apple's employees. In exchange for their work, each artist was promised a free notebook that will be unveiled at the Macworld expo in San Francisco.
For the full report click here.
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/28/celeb_spills_beans_on_new_apple_notebook/
Instant Expert guide to Macs
WebUser's Karl Foster says:
Wander around a computer superstore and you'll encounter rows of Windows PCs loaded with Microsoft Vista.
Lurking among them, however, are computers with seemingly lesser processor speeds, and yet they're more expensive. Badged with an apple that's had a bite taken out of it, they present a different interface to that of Vista. Menus march along the top of the screen, while a dock of icons at base gives access to select applications.
Liveried in silver, white, or in some cases black, and available as laptops, mini desktops, workstations and even integrated monitor/processor units, they are Apple Macs and are the machines of choice for creatives working in photography, design, music, video, animation and more. Why? Because they're easy to use and the operating system employed - OS X - is supremely robust.
To read more, visit here:
http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/170824.html?aff=rss
Dell XPS vs. Apple iMac - Which Is Better?
PC Mechanic's Rich Menga reports:
There's been a lot of talk going 'round the internet lately about the new Dell XPS One. It is built as an all-in-one monitor+computer similar to the iMac.
After some intense research, I offer the following well-thought-out and poignant anecdote:
They both suck.
Now I'll explain why:....
The reason why these slabs can fit so much into such a compact space is because the parts are smaller, i.e. laptop parts.
Let me give you the 101 on laptops.
Any laptop is designed to last 2 years. That's it. If you can get more than 2 years out of any laptop, consider yourself fortunate. It doesn't matter who makes it because the parts are essentially all the same across the board.
You can check it out at:
http://www.pcmech.com/article/dell-xps-vs-apple-imac-which-is-better/
[Editor's note: I won't dispute that desktop computers with their generally larger internal components inside a more commodious and better-ventilated case are *generally* more robust than laptop computers, but.... the Apple PowerBook G3 2000 "Pismo" laptop I'm typing these words on right now was built in October, 2000, and has been in regular use ever since. Still going strong, with no problems whatsoever other than that the display backlight (a $15 part) is a bit dim for a short while after startup and really should be replaced if I can get around to it.
I also have a 1996 PowerBook 5300 that served as my main production workhorse for three years, then served as my daughter's computer through high school and her first year of university. My old 1999 PowerBook G3 WallStreet did suffer a processor failure at 3 1/2 years (the only hardware failure I've experienced in nearly a dozen years of using Apple laptops), but has been serving my wife as her Internet and word processing computer for the past several years until she moved up to our five-year-old iBook G3 (completely trouble-free) this week because she finally needed an application that wasn't available for OS 9. Then there's the other Pismo , a PowerBook 1400, and my 17" PowerBook - all of which are more than two years old, and they're all still in good working condition - even the old 5300.
CM]
Apples For The Army
Forbes' Andy Greenberg reports:
Given Apple's marketing toward the young and the trendy, you wouldn't expect the U.S. Army to be much of a customer. Lieutenant Colonel C.J. Wallington is hoping hackers won't expect it either.
Wallington, a division chief in the Army's office of enterprise information systems, says the military is quietly working to integrate Macintosh computers into its systems to make them harder to hack. That's because fewer attacks have been designed to infiltrate Mac computers, and adding more Macs to the military's computer mix makes it tougher to destabilize a group of military computers with a single attack, Wallington says.
Insert link name here
Mammoth Update Ahead For Leopard
ITWire's Stephen Withers reports:
Developers have received their first pre-release build of the Mac OS X 10.5.2 updater, and it's a biggie.
Changes have reportedly been made to the Finder, iCal, iChat, Mail, Safari and Time Machine, along with fixes for Rosetta......
The 10.5.2 update could appear as early as next month, possibly to coincide with Macworld Expo.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/15882/53/
WYSIWYG web editors for Mac OS X
Si;verMac says:
This is the list of WYSIWYG html editors for Mac OS X. Please note this list doesn't include any applications that are code-only, or those where you have to code and then preview in WYSIWYG mode.
Adobe Contribute
Adobe Dreamweaver
Adobe GoLive
Create
Freeway
Goldfish
iWeb
Microsoft Front Page 2008 for Mac
Mozilla Composer
SeaMonkey Composer
Nvu
KompoZer
RapidWeaver
Sandvox
ShutterBug
[Editor's note: Who knew there were that many?! CM]
For full details, see:
http://www.silvermac.com/2007/wysiwyg-web-editors-for-mac-os-x/
18-inch LCDs in works, coming to Acer first
Electronista reports:
LCD maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes today revealed that a new panel is in the works that could affect the designs of both desktop and notebook displays. Measuring 18.4 inches, the display will sit between 17- and 19-inch LCDs in cost but will adopt a wider, HDTV-like 1366x768 resolution versus the taller pictures of its smaller and larger models. The screen will be designed for distance viewing and will boast a relatively high 1,000:1 contrast ratio and 5ms pixel response time, Chunghwa claims.
The larger display can be used for desktops but will be used for desktop replacement notebooks -- including a future Acer system, the LCD producer says...
For the full report visit here:
http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/12/28/18.inch.lcd.panels/
XO Laptop versus Apple eMate
rikomatic.com says:
My XO laptop arrived in the mail today! From my first couple of hours experimenting, I can tell that it's an impressive little machine. I look forward to playing with it for the next weeks, which I will be sure and blog about.
One of the first things I did was put the XO side-by-side with my old Apple eMate subnotebook. Despite the ten year age difference, they are surprisingly comparable machines....
Okay, it hardly seems fair to compare a computer developed more than ten years ago with a sub-notebook just released by the One Laptop Per Child folks. But since they both were designed as child-friendly, educational devices, it seemed like a logical comparison. Plus, they are both green......
The eMate compares quite favorably to the cutting edge XO laptop, which is surprising giving how old the device is. Just another reminder of what an amazing tech company Apple has always been.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.rikomatic.com/blog/2007/12/xo-laptop-versu.html
Firefox 3.0 Beta 2 better than Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7
ZNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes says:
Here's something that I didn't expect to be saying in 2007 - Firefox 3.0 Beta 2 better than Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7.
I've been running Firefox 3.0 Beta 2 on several system since it was released and I have to say that I'm majorly impressed. Sure, I know there's a known issues list that's quite long, and I know that extension compatibility isn't great, but that doesn't stop me liking it. In the two areas that counts - performance and reliability - Firefox 3.0 Beta 2 beats both Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7....
For the full report visit here:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1092
AOL Tosses Netscape Into The Dustbin Of History
The Register's Drew Cullen reports:
AOL is abandoning all work on the Netscape browser and wants users to migrate to Firefox. Not that there are many left: in the mid-1990s, Netscape commanded well over 80 per cent of the internet browser market. But it has been moribund for many years, with share down to one per cent, at best.
In an obituary on the Netscape blog, lead developer Tom Drapeau threw in the towel today. "AOL's focus on transitioning to an ad-supported web business leaves little room for the size of investment needed to get the Netscape browser to a point many of its fans expect it to be", he wrote.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/29/aol_kills_netscape/
Clues that Apple will release a Mac Touch
Computerworld's Seth Weintraub says:
Apple, of course, is tight-lipped about its plans on future product announcements. It does seem, however, that Apple has definite plans to release a Macintosh-like product that utilizes the iPhone/iPod Touch's interface.
Ink(well) - The Macintosh's handwriting recognition system introduced in Jaguar hasn't been updated since 2006. As such a significant aspect of computing, it would seem irresponsible for Apple to abandon this important technology. Apple has to be working on a successor. Most likely it is the multitouch interface. Or Ink 2.0?
Multitouch already exists on Mac platform. Using the touchpads on MacBooks and MacBookPros, you can scroll around a webpage using two fingers on the touchpads. A few other multitouch tricks exist but most people don't take full advantage of them. When the multitouch moves to the screen from the trackpad the usefulness will become much more apparent - like it is on the iPhone/iPod touch.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://blogs.computerworld.com/clues_that_apple_will_release_a_mac_touch
Dump the DVD player for Apple hard drive
Dallas News' Jim Rossman says:
I've ditched my DVD player in favor of an Apple Macintosh mini in my home entertainment system.
I was hesitant to do it because of the WAF (wife acceptance factor), but I think I won her over.
My theory is that the mini has a DVD player built in, and the fact that it has an operating system and a hard drive means I can copy movies from the DVDs onto the hard drive and access them instantly.
The only thing I needed besides the mini was a DVI-to-HDMI cable
To read more, click here.
MacBook Pro loses Bluetooth- a fix
jkontherun says:
I can't just bash Vista and ignore Mac problems when they arise and today for the first time one did on my MacBook Pro running Leopard. I booted into Vista Ultimate using Boot Camp and played Call of Duty 4 for a while. I am totally impressed with how well Vista runs on the MBP under both VMWare Fusion and natively with Boot Camp.
After I finished playing COD4 I restarted the MacBook Pro and booted into Leopard and was I surprised to find that not only was Bluetooth not working but the system didn't realize there was a Bluetooth module installed. I had a brief moment of panic thinking the hardware module must have been fried but I went online and in just a minute found a fix......
You can check it out at:
http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2007/12/macbook-pro-los.html
Tech Startup Bridges Mideast Divide
BusinessWeek's Neal Sandler reports:
Zvi Schreiber is a British-born serial entrepreneur who established the headquarters of his latest tech startup, a software company called Global Hosted Operating System (G.ho.st), in Israel last year. G.ho.st has developed a "virtual PC" that saves all of a person's files online so data and programs can be gathered from any computer. As Schreiber sees it, the Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh operating systems that cram applications and documents all inside one physical computer will soon be obsolete.
"Our G.ho.st virtual computer will enable users to get their computing environment from any browser - and we'll eventually compete head-on with Microsoft," Schreiber predicts.
Taking on Microsoft is tough enough. But Schreiber is embracing another challenge: He's helping create a high-tech economy in the Palestinian territories, one of the most poverty-stricken, crisis-riddled spots in the world. He has located the development center for G.ho.st in the West Bank.
To read more, click here.
Wal-Mart Cans Video Download Service
The Register's Lester Haines reports:
Visitors to Wal-Mart's video download site are being greeted with the message "The Wal-Mart Video Downloads Service closed on 12/21/07" after the retail giant quietly canned the service because "Hewlett Packard discontinued the technology that powered it".
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/28/wal_mart_video_downloads/
Linux-Watch: Glub, Glub: SCO Drops Off the Nasdaq
"In the almost five years since SCO launched its attack on Linux and IBM, open-source and legal experts have predicted that SCO would fail and the company would collapse with its lawsuits. That day is one day closer at hand. On Dec. 27, SCO was delisted from the Nasdaq."
To read more, click here.
eWEEK: Wal-Mart Kills Movie Download Service
The giant retailer rues the pace of change and an uncertain business model.
To read more, click here.
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