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iMac End-Of-Lifed; New Model Coming In September
iTunes Music Store Begins Countdown to 100 Million Songs with iPod, iTunes & PowerBook Giveaways
Consumer Groups Rally Against Orrin Hatch's Induce Act
Disk Optimization, Fragmentation, And Mac OS X
Spam Host Nations Named And Shamed
Sony Unveils HDD Walkman
ExtremeTech: Sony Takes on iPod With New Music Player
Cell Phones Heading Into iPod Territory
Microsoft, MYOB to Exhibit at Macworld Boston in Apple Specialist Pavilion
eWeek: Longhorn Versus Tiger -- Who's Copying Whom?
Mac Night Owl: The Tiger Report: Make it Simple for Beginners
Apple Seeks Rendezvous with Windows, Linux Developers
Mac Night Owl: The Tiger Report: The Perilous World of Third Party System Utilities
eWeek: Apple Seeks Rendezvous With Windows, Linux Developers
Gene and Grayson Steinberg talk about Tiger with Macworld Editor-in-Chief Jason Snell and Contributing Editor Christopher Breen this week on The Mac Night Owl LIVE.
eWeek: New WLAN Security Has Its Challenges[/url]



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iMac End-Of-Lifed; New Model Coming In September

Apple has posted the following message on it's Apple Store iMac page:

"Apple has stopped taking orders for the current iMac as we begin the transition from the current iMac line to an all-new iMac line which will be announced and available in September.

"We planned to have our next generation iMac ready by the time the inventory of current iMacs runs out in the next few weeks, but our planning was obviously less than perfect.

"We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers."

It is highly unusual for Apple to comment on unreleased products, so this must indicate an unexpected delay in the availability of some key component -- perhaps G5 chips?

Reuters notes that:

"The delay means that Apple will miss the crucial back-to-school season for the new iMac. Apple earlier this week held its annual developer conference earlier this week and it often announces new products at the gathering."

However,

"In the education market, Apple has historically emphasized its iBook notebook PC and the eMac desktop machine rather than the iMac computer...

"An Apple spokesman declined to comment beyond the statement issued by the maker of the Macintosh computer and iPod digital music players."

iTunes Music Store Begins Countdown to 100 Million Songs with iPod, iTunes & PowerBook Giveaways

As the number of songs downloaded from Apple’s iTunes Music Store crosses 95 million tomorrow, Apple will begin the countdown to 100 million songs by giving away 50 special 20GB iPods—one to the purchaser of each 100,000th song downloaded between 95 million and 100 million songs. In addition, the person who downloads the 100 millionth song will receive a 17-inch PowerBook, a 40GB iPod, a gift certificate for 10,000 iTunes songs to create the ultimate music library for their iPod and the opportunity to create their own Celebrity Playlist to be published on the iTunes Music Store. All iTunes Music Store customers in the US, UK, France and Germany are eligible.

“As we approach the unprecedented milestone of 100 million legally downloaded songs, we want to thank our customers who have made the iTunes Music Store such a stunning success,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iTunes is pulling even further ahead of its competitors, and it's all due to the wonderful customers we have.”

The iTunes Music Store is the world’s top online music service, with more than a 70 percent market share of legal downloads for singles and albums. iTunes will sell its 95 millionth song tomorrow, including over 1.5 million songs sold in the UK, France and Germany since iTunes was launched in Europe two weeks ago.

The iTunes Music Store in the US, UK, France and Germany offers an extensive music library of over 700,000 songs in each country. With Apple’s legendary ease-of-use, pioneering features, personal use rights and breakthrough pricing of $0.99, €0.99 and £0.79, the iTunes Music Store is the best way for PC and Mac users in the US, UK, France and Germany to legally discover, purchase and download music online. The iTunes Music Store in the US, UK, France and Germany gives users the ability to play songs on up to five personal computers, burn a song onto CDs an unlimited number of times, burn the same playlist up to seven times and listen to their music on an unlimited number of iPods.

The iTunes Music Store is available for free download and more information on the promotion can be found at:
http://www.apple.com/itunes






Consumer Groups Rally Against Orrin Hatch's Induce Act

The Register's Andrew Orlowski asks:

"Have you faxed your Senator yet? The opposition to Senator Hatch's 'Induce' Act may have got off to a spluttering start, but is now hitting its stride. Hatch wants to introduce a new crime of "inducement" to infringe a copyrighted work in order to close down the P2P networks. The RIAA says it isn't designed to target manufacturers - but no one believes them.

"The Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports has produced a very articulate sample letter to your Senator, urging Congress debate the issue...... A petition by Mac fans to "Save the iPod" has also produced a sample fax, and according to the website over 2,500 have been sent."

You can check it out at:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/01/fax_back_against_induce/






Disk Optimization, Fragmentation, And Mac OS X

Apple has updated its Knowledge Base Article about disk optimization and fragmentation.

"Disk optimization is a process in which the physical locations of files on a volume are "streamlined." Files and metadata are re-arranged in order to improve data access times and minimize time moving a hard drive's head.

"Files can become "fragmented" over time as they are changed and saved and as the volume is filled, with different parts of a single file stored in different locations on a volume. The process of collecting file fragments and putting them "back together" is known as optimization. However, if a failure occurs during optimization, such as power loss, files could become damaged and need to be restored from a backup copy."

However:

"You probably won't need to optimize at all if you use Mac OS X."

Find out why here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668







Spam Host Nations Named And Shamed

The Register's John Leyden reports:

"Five countries are hosting the overwhelming majority - a staggering 99.68 per cent - of spammer websites, according to a study out yesterday.

"Most spam that arrives in email boxes contains a URL to a website within an email, to allow users to buy spamvertised products online. While 49 countries around the world are hosting spammer websites, unethical hosting firms overwhelmingly operate from just a few global hotspots. Anti-spam vendors Commtouch reckons 73.58 per cent of the websites referenced within spam sent last month were hosted in China, a 4.5 per cent decrease from May. South Korea (10.91 per cent), the United States (9.47 per cent), the Russian Federation (3.5 per cent) and Brazil (2.23 per cent) made up the remainder of the "Axis of Spam"....

"Meanwhile, the United States continues to lead as the main origin of spam, with nearly 55.69 per cent of all spam being sent from the U.S......"

For the full report, visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/01/commtouch_spam_survey/






Sony Unveils HDD Walkman

The Register's Tony Smith reports:

"Sony today announced yet another attempt to displace the iPod from the top of the digital music hardware charts.

"But unlike the clunky-looking players launched in the Japanese market, the European model appears a serious challenger for Apple's market leadership.

"The NW-HD1 is a "credit card-sized" 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.4cm unit fitted with a 20GB 1.8in hard drive. There's enough RAM on board to provide 25 minutes of skip-free playback. There's a seven-line LCD for track information and player status data."

For the full report, visit here.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/01/sony_hd_walkman/






ExtremeTech: Sony Takes on iPod With New Music Player

"Sony Electronics on Thursday challenged the Apple iPod by unveiling a pair of digital music players, including one with an LCD to display still images.

The move marks Sony's first direct challenge against the Apple iPod, a formidable foe backed by Apple's iTunes music service. Both the VAIO Pocket digital music player and the Network Walkman will connect to the Connect music service."

Read more at:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,,1619319,00.asp






Cell Phones Heading Into iPod Territory

CNET News.com's John Borland and Ben Charny report:

"Jingles on cell phones are going beyond ring tones, calling up a day when wireless devices might double as mini MP3 players with the potential to replace stand-alone products such as Apple Computer's iPod.

"A glimpse of the future could been seen this week here at Sun Microsystems' JavaOne conference, where Motorola displayed its newest mobile phone, done up like a discotheque.

"The sleek, candy bar-shaped E398 makes and receives calls like any other phone. But it also has a built-in MP3 player, vibrating stereo speakers, an oversize color screen for playing MPEG-4 video clips and rhythmic flashing lights."

For the full report, visit here.






Microsoft, MYOB to Exhibit at Macworld Boston in Apple Specialist Pavilion

IDG World Expo and the Apple Specialist Marketing Co-op (ASMC), an organization of Apple Specialist dealers formed to increase brand awareness of the Apple Specialist channel, today announced that Microsoft and MYOB have signed up to exhibit at Macworld Conference & Expo(R) in Boston as part of the Apple Specialist Pavilion. Momentum is growing for the upcoming event, as industry-leading companies continue to sign up to showcase their products and services on the exhibit floor.

The Apple Specialist Pavilion will be located in Booth #302 on the exhibit floor at Macworld Conference & Expo, which will take place July 12-15, 2004 at the new Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC). The Macworld exhibit floor will open on Tuesday, July 13.

Sponsored by the ASMC, the Apple Specialist Pavilion will showcase products from a variety of leading industry vendors. Microsoft and MYOB join HP and Wacom as exhibitors in the pavilion, which will feature vendors who distribute their products through the network of independently-owned Apple Specialist dealers nationwide.

"The Apple Specialist Marketing Co-op is doing a great job of educating the Mac community about the best products around," said Gregg Truex, Mac VAR product manager at Microsoft. "We are really proud and excited to demonstrate Office 2004 for Mac alongside people who are as committed to Mac customers as we are."

"The Apple Specialists are thrilled to welcome Microsoft and MYOB to the Apple Specialist Pavillion at Macworld Boston," said Kevin Langdon of the ASMC. "Office 2004 is a fantastic product and there is clearly a great opportunity for Microsoft to promote Office 2004 at Macworld. We are very excited to have Microsoft join us in Boston."

"We are also very pleased to have MYOB in our booth," continued Langdon. "When others were leaving the Macintosh platform, MYOB stuck with the Mac. MYOB has just released the best Mac OS X accounting solution on the market, MYOB Accountedge Network Edition, and they will be showing it off in our pavilion all week."

In addition to Microsoft, MYOB, HP and Wacom, other companies showcasing Mac-based products at Macworld Boston include Quark, Sophos, Harman Multimedia and Guitar Center. The exhibit floor at Macworld Boston will also feature an extensive line-up of educational sessions, interactive exhibits and community-themed events, which run throughout the event and are open to all attendees.

For more information on Macworld Conference & Expo or to register, visit:
http://www.macworldexpo.com
and
http://www.applespecialist.com






eWeek: Longhorn Versus Tiger -- Who's Copying Whom?

"Now that Apple has previewed publicly its "Tiger" Mac OS X 10.4 release, everyone's raring to pit Tiger against "Longhorn."

And there's plenty of fodder for a grudge match. Both Apple and Microsoft are set to showcase new search systems, built-in RSS readers, new scripting shells and 64-bit support in their next-gen operating systems.

But instead of focusing on features and functionality, many operating system (OS) aficionados-from Apple CEO Jobs on down-are dwelling on the no-win contest regarding who's the biggest copy cat."

Read more at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1619131,00.asp






Mac Night Owl: The Tiger Report: Make it Simple for Beginners

Make it simple, please.

Here's the URL for today's commentary:

http://www.macnightowl.com/index.htm#beginners






Apple Seeks Rendezvous with Windows, Linux Developers

Technology - Ziff Davis reports:

"Apple this week released updated versions of developer tools designed to boost acceptance of its Rendezvous zero-configuration networking software in the Windows and Linux (news - web sites) developer communities.

"At the annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Apple announced new versions of both the Windows Rendezvous SDK, and the source code to Rendezvous for use with POSIX-compatible operating systems, including Linux and FreeBSD. The source code is available under Apple's Apple Public Source open-source license."

For the full report, visit here.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/zd/20040701/tc_zd/130697






Mac Night Owl: The Tiger Report: The Perilous World of Third Party System Utilities

Dashboard and Konfabulator, QuicKeys and Automator. The list goes on.

Here's the URL for today's commentary:

http://www.macnightowl.com/index.htm#utilities






eWeek: Apple Seeks Rendezvous With Windows, Linux Developers

"Apple this week released updated versions of developer tools designed to boost acceptance of its Rendezvous zero-configuration networking software in the Windows and Linux developer communities.

At the annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Apple announced new versions of both the Windows Rendezvous SDK, and the source code to Rendezvous for use with POSIX-compatible operating systems, including Linux and FreeBSD. The source code is available under Apple's Apple Public Source open-source license."

Read more at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,,1619240,00.asp






Gene and Grayson Steinberg talk about Tiger with Macworld Editor-in-Chief Jason Snell and Contributing Editor Christopher Breen this week on The Mac Night Owl LIVE.

July 2, 2004: This week, Gene and Grayson will talk about the next great version of Mac OS X, Tiger. We’ll be joined by Macworld’s [www.macworld.com] Editor-in-Chief Jason Snell and Macworld Contributing Editor Christopher Breen.

Special Notice: We are now able to take your calls on the air toll-free from any location in the U.S. We'll announce the number during show time so stay tuned.

You can tune into the broadcast from 6:00 to 8:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 to 11:00 PM Eastern, at: http://www.macradio.com/Friday






eWeek: New WLAN Security Has Its Challenges

Opinion: Robust 802.11i security is finally here. IT managers must now decide if it's worth it.

Read more at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,,1619137,00.asp


***



Charles W. Moore


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