Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Apple Has A Surprise Competitor In Notebooks: Samsung
10 Essential Tasks To Keep Leopard Purring
Running the 2008 Mac Numbers with Tim Cook
What Price Image Processing? From Free To Expensive
How To Replace Microsoft's Office For Mac For Free
OK, now OpenOffice is definitely good enough
Apple Sent NVidia GPU Testing Application to Apple Care Centers
Death of the iPod 'Way Off in the Future'
4 Ways to Extend Your Mac
Apple Has A Surprise Competitor In Notebooks: Samsung
BetaNews's Scott M. Fulton, III reports:
Samsung is actually known as an innovator in the notebook computer field, having equipped some models with solid state drives as early as two years ago. But it hasn't made its notebook presence known in America until today.
While the requisite drooling over the new MacBook Pro's slick glass surface goes on in Cupertino this morning, there's a tsunami under way in notebook computing, and its source appears to be Seoul. Samsung today announced it is storming onto the US notebook market with a complete lineup whose marketing structure has already been tested elsewhere in the world, and with price-competitive models that have intriguing features and a promise for quality.....
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/3tt92d
10 Essential Tasks To Keep Leopard Purring
Computerworld's Ryan Faas says:
One of the big selling points for Mac OS X Leopard is that it is a stable operating system that is not prone to crashes, freezes, corrupted or fragmented hard drives, viruses and spyware, or the seemingly inexplicable performance losses typically associated with Windows. Overall, Leopard lives up to its reputation of simply working, without the need for a litany of maintenance routines and utilities to keep it going.
However, even the best-engineered car still requires the occasional oil change and tune-up to keep it running at its best. Periodically performing a few key maintenance tasks can keep Leopard -- and earlier versions of Mac OS X -- running strong and prevent or resolve problems.
10 essential tasks
1. Keep software up to date
2. Check hard drive health
3. Don't overfill the drive
4. Delete cache files
5. Verify preferences files
6. Verify file permissions
7. Test your backups
8. Defrag the hard drive
9. Allow the maintenance scripts to run
10. Restart periodically
You can check it out in full detail at:
http://tinyurl.com/4h2bul
Running the 2008 Mac Numbers with Tim Cook
TidBITs Adam C. Engst reports:
During Apple's special event in Cupertino to announce the new models of the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air, Steve Jobs started off by introducing Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook to recap some of the numbers showing how well the Mac is doing. (There was some immediate speculation that Jobs intentionally handed the baton to Cook for this portion of the keynote as a way of acclimating the media to other Apple executives presenting; Jonathan Ive and Phil Schiller also handled chunks of the keynote.)
As with the article I wrote after the last special event (see "Running the Numbers with Steve Jobs," 2008-09-09), these numbers are only those Apple wishes to share, and there's seldom any independent confirmation of them. Nonetheless, they're as good as we get most of the time, and it's always interesting to see what Apple chooses to emphasize.
For the full report visit here:
http://db.tidbits.com/article/9810
What Price Image Processing? From Free To Expensive
Mac360's Alexis Kayhill reports:
My Mac has over 10,000 photos in iPhoto. That's 10,000 as in ten thousand. I collected that many photos in barely five years of using iPhoto.
My biggest problem is the photo enhancement tools in iPhoto. They're good for many Mac users, probably good for new Windows switchers to the Mac, but lacking for my tastes.
What else is available to enhance your photos? Oddly enough, there are plenty of applications with are expensive and yet easy to use, and others that are more complex, more Photoshop-like, yet less expensive. Far less.....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/4chr5k
How To Replace Microsoft's Office For Mac For Free
Mac360's Alexis Kayhill says:
Love it or hate it, one of the most popular software packages for Mac users is Microsoft's Office for Mac. Mac Office ranges in price from about $150 to nearly $500.
Is there a suitable alternative? Yes.
Open Office, popular for many years as an Office substitute on Windows PCs, is now looking great on the Mac, complete with a great price tag. Uh, that's no price tag, as in free....
For the full review visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/3uwoq2
OK, now OpenOffice is definitely good enough
ZNet's Christopher Dawson says:
There is a reason that the OpenOffice.org 3.0 servers are struggling to keep up with demand. OO.org 3.0 really is a serious upgrade over version 2.4 and makes NeoOffice irrelevant for Mac OS X users (previously, OpenOffice only worked within X11; While NeoOffice did a great job porting OO.org to native OS X, OO.org 3.0 works out of the box in OS X as a native Aqua application).
Last week I asked if OpenOffice was good enough. The general consensus? OO.org is good enough to start a flame war, but we're not really sure if it's good enough to be a serious competitor to MS Office.
Now that OO.org 3.0 is out, I'm having a much tougher time seeing both sides of the issue here....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1895
Apple Sent NVidia GPU Testing Application to Apple Care Centers
HardMac's Lionel reports:
As Apple officially acknowledged that MacBook Pro are also affected by the defective NVidia GPU, the company will have to take care of all GPU exchange operations, then send corresponding invoices to NVidia.
In order to avoid false positive, or defect not linked to defective GPU but other components, Apple offers Apple Care centers a defined set of test to be carried out. They will have to launch the procedure and the integrated application will define which component is the faulty one. If it is indeed a NVidia GPU, the application will automatically deliver a code for sending back parts (it is the NVidia GPU serial number) which will be used to apply the extended warranty program.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.hardmac.com/news/2008-10-14/#9004
Death of the iPod 'Way Off in the Future'
Low End Mac's Tim Nash says:
Steve Wozniak's remarks to the Telegraph show how easy it is to not see life outside the Valley - and that his strength for Apple wasn't marketing:
"The iPod has sort of lived a long life at number one," he says. "Things like, that if you look back to transistor radios and Walkmans, they kind of die out after a while.
"It's kind of like everyone has got one or two or three. You get to a point when they are on display everywhere, they get real cheap and they are not selling as much."....
One day the iPod will die - when Apple finds it is no longer profitable to sell standalone digital music and video players - but that day looks to be way off in the future.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/nash/08tn/death-of-the-ipod.html
4 Ways to Extend Your Mac
The Apple Blog's Darrell Etherington says:
Aside from being a fantastic computer and girlfriend/boyfriend substitute, your Mac is capable of some pretty amazing things. In fact, whenever I have a problem that needs solving or a gap that needs filling, I turn first towell, first to buying things, but once I realize (yet again) that I have no money, I turn to my MacBook. Here are a few of the more unexpected and useful ways you can put your Mac to work.
You can check it out at:
http://theappleblog.com/2008/10/14/mac-of-all-trades-4-ways-to-extend-your-mac/
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