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Apple's cheeky TV ads Exploit Vista Delay
The Problem With Airplanes And The MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro Temperature Monitor
Unravelling The Repair Disk Permissions Controversy
Apple Heads For New Carrier Collision with Wireless iPod Patent
Early MacBook Pros hit by battery glitch?
Apple Sues Itself In The Foot (Again)
Reports of battery problems tarnish its new MacBook Pro laptop line
Top PC Companies Support New VESA DisplayPort Standard
he Mac Night Owl: Reviewing the Reviewers of Apple's New Ads
Publish: Why 'Lost' is the Future of Online Media
eWeek: Avian Flu: Can IT Handle a Pandemic?
eWeek: Grid Computing Efforts Fight Avian Flu
eWeek: Microsoft and Qualcomm Ink Smart Phone Pact
eWeek: Wi-Fi to Cellular Convergence to Ship Soon
Apple's cheeky TV ads Exploit Vista Delay
CNET News.com's Greg Sandoval reports:
Windows is cast as a stuffy businessman and a sneezing, virus-riddled PC as the Macintosh maker launches a campaign to get buyers 'thinking different' once again
With Microsoft's Vista operating system suffering setbacks, Apple has seized the opportunity to promote its Macintosh in the US with the first national ad campaign for Macs in more than a year.
The ads, which began appearing on television Monday night, poke fun at some of the problems with the Windows operating system and play up Apple's user-friendly reputation. The commercials also come at a crucial time for the Mac.
For the full report visit here:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/060504/152/garyu.html
The Problem With Airplanes And The MacBook Pro
PowerPage's Jason O'Grady reports:
Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig has started an excellent discussion on the Apple Discussion forums about the lack of a good airplane charge solution of the MacBook Pro. It looks like Apple needs to take some action on this issue or risk losing a lot of frequent flying potential MBP sales.
For the full commentary visit here.
MacBook Pro Temperature Monitor
The Apple Core's Jason D. O'Grady reports:
There is now a way to read the internal temperature of the MacBook Pro, something no other software has been able to do to date. A creative developer has figured out a way to get data from the internal monitors via a kernel extension (kext).
For the full report visit here:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=190
Unravelling The Repair Disk Permissions Controversy
MacFixIt's Ted Landau says:
Repairing Disk Permissions. Not exactly a topic that you would expect to spark much controversy. Yet, surprisingly, it is the focal point of a rather heated debate.
The command itself is innocuous enough. It is included as part of the First Aid component of Disk Utility. Apple's Help for Disk Utility states: "User permissions associated with files, folders, or applications can become damaged and prevent a file or application from opening. Permissions problems can also cause your computer to run slowly. Using Disk Utility, you may be able to fix these permissions problems...Repairing permissions may also be recommended after updating the system or installing new software."
Consistent with this, many users and Web sites (including MacFixIt and at least some postings on MacinTouch) recommend the use of Repair Disk Permissions, not only for specific signs of trouble, but as a part of generic troubleshooting and ongoing maintenance for your Mac.
In contrast, other members of the Mac community (writing in locations such as the Daring Fireball , Unsanity, and the MDJ) argue that running this command just for maintenance, in the absence of any particular symptom, is essentially worthless. Some critics go even further and claim there is no justification for ever selecting to repair permissions. Not only is it useless, they contend, but it may even cause new problems to appear. This viewpoint is often expressed with inflammatory rhetoric such as "covering yourself in Vaseline and rolling around naked in the dirt and repairing permissions are just as likely to fix your Mac OS X problem" (Unsanity).
Regardless of who's right or wrong, I don't believe that insulting users is merited here, especially when these users are simply following advice suggested by Apple itself. As it turns out, I also do not agree with the position of these critics. So, although I may be stepping into a minefield, here's my own take on this subject and my resulting recommendations.....
You can check it out at:
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=2006050407462364
Apple Heads For New Carrier Collision with Wireless iPod Patent
The Register's Andrew Orlowski reports:
The US Patent and Trademark Office has published two patent applications today which offer some clue to the future shape of the iPod, and also Apple's ambitions as a digital media distributor.
As well as an intriguing glimpse of what a wireless iPod could do, it potentially sets Apple on a collision course with the major cellular phone networks.
Patent application (#20060095339), filed 18 months ago, describes an iPod that's fully wireless enabled - but envisages it as a portable shopping cart rather than a device for sharing media.
It's sure to be read with great interest by lawyers at the giant cellular phone carriers. It also describes a method of tagging a digital media file on one device and network and downloading it to another device on another network. That's very similar to how Sprint and Verizon - to name but two - allow you to buy a song over the air, and then tag it for downloading to your PC when you get home.
And this has the potential to bring Apple into a head-on collision with the carriers, once again.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/04/apple_wireless_ipod_patent/
Early MacBook Pros hit by battery glitch?
The Register's Tony Smith reports:
Apple has apparently added battery problems to the list of woes potentially affecting its MacBook Pro notebook family. Online reports allege a small number of early versions of the Intel-based machines may have shipped with troublesome batteries. Apple is said to be replacing the power units on a customer-by-customer basis.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/04/apple_macbook_pro_battery_issue/
Apple Sues Itself In The Foot (Again)
The Register's Andrew Orlowski reports:
Apple Computer's legal policy of shoot first, and ask questions later, has got the company into trouble again.
Apple's lawyers have gone after the popular humor community site Something Awful for posting a link to one of Apple's own internal service manuals. The link resolves to a third party website, and was posted in a useful and informed discussion about Apple's troubled MacBook Pro.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/04/apple_sa_deep_links/
Reports of battery problems tarnish its new MacBook Pro laptop line
Business 2.0 Magazine's Owen Thomas and Fortune reporter Oliver Ryan report:
.... Still haunted a decade latter by memories of the exploding PowerBook 5300, Apple has quietly replaced the batteries in some customers' MacBook Pro laptops.* Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris denied that there was a recall, as some blogs had reported, calling the cases "very isolated."
For the full report visit here.
Top PC Companies Support New VESA DisplayPort Standard
Dell, HP and Lenovo have jointly announced their support for the newly released DisplayPort 1.0 digital display interface standard developed by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). Dell, HP and Lenovo are VESA members. DisplayPort is designed for broad application in PCs, monitors, TV displays, projectors, and other sources of display content.
DisplayPort enables a common interface signaling approach for both internal and external display connections. This approach can reduce overall design complexity, making digital displays such as LCD monitors easier to use and more affordable for customers.
The new display interface standard addresses low-voltage operation, enabling integration into the latest generation of silicon process geometries for graphics, while still supporting cost-effective integration into the current generation of LCD panels.
"DisplayPort is an excellent customer solution that can provide advantages over current and other emerging interfaces. DisplayPort can enable more-affordable flat-panel displays, support protected high-definition content, and scale performance to meet the demands of next-generation displays by enabling new features and usages. With VESA administering the specification, the industry can take advantage of an open and extensible path for support, compliance, and future upgrades," said Kevin Kettler, Dell's Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
Legacy compatibility with DVI 1.0 is also possible for DisplayPort products, providing a means for interoperability with legacy equipment when needed.
"HP is proud to be a supporter of the DisplayPort development effort within VESA," said Phil McKinney, vice president and chief technology officer, Personal Systems Group, HP. "This new open standard provides an innovative approach to meeting the future digital display interface needs of the industry and will enrich customers' technology experience."
DisplayPort is also designed to efficiently accommodate the higher display resolutions and color depths enabled by Microsoft's next-generation operating system, Windows(R) Vista. This new operating system is designed to provide greatly enhanced support for higher-resolution displays.
"Compared with proprietary specifications, DisplayPort introduces an open and extensible solution that protects past investments and supports future innovation, which will ultimately benefit our customers," said George He, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Lenovo.
The DisplayPort specification also addresses the industry need for a ubiquitous digital interface standard with a compact connector, as well as optional content protection, that can be deployed widely at low cost. A protected digital interface that can be easily deployed on a PC enables broad access to premium content sources such as high-definition movies.
The DisplayPort interface is designed to be used for all types of digital display connections, including internal connections in a notebook, monitor, or TV. This capability makes it possible to avoid the costly signal translation from one display format to another that is required with today's display interfaces.
Going forward, the micro-packet architecture of DisplayPort can support new innovative features and display product usages that are not possible today with DVI or HDMI.
he Mac Night Owl: Reviewing the Reviewers of Apple's New Ads
I don't know how often I've wondered why Apple isn't pushing Macs these days, but now it seems those ads are all over the place. Apple has made some heavy-duty media buys, and you see the "Get a Mac" commercials on many of your favorite shows. That is, if you haven't sped past them on your TiVo (feel free to replace that with whatever DVR you use).
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://www.macnightowl.com/news/2006/05/week1.htm#ads
Note: You can also access our RSS feed, available at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/index.xml
Publish: Why 'Lost' is the Future of Online Media
Opinion: "Lost" is the first truly pan-media experience, and that holds lessons for content producers everywhere.
Read more at:
http://www.publish.com/article2/0,1759,1957294,00.asp
eWeek: Avian Flu: Can IT Handle a Pandemic?
"VeriCenter Chief Technology Officer Dave Colesante is a rare bird.
Unlike many IT executives, Colesante has actually thought about a potential avian influenza virus, or bird flu, pandemic and reckons his company, which provides technology services, is relatively prepared if the virus becomes transmitted through human contact.
After all, Colensante's 225-person support staff is used to managing VeriCenter's seven data centers from home.
And that's a good thing if a bird flu pandemic hits, because the federal government would encourage "social distancing" to prevent further illness. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, a severe bird flu pandemic would make 30 percent of the population, or 90 million people, ill and result in 2 million deaths. Companies would have absentee rates of about 40 percent. "You would have to set up to remotely manage IT," said Colesante in Houston. "You'd have to leverage connectivity.""
Read more at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1957612,00.asp
eWeek: Grid Computing Efforts Fight Avian Flu
Read more at:
"Over the last few months, a number of major international grid computing collaborations have been working to uncover more effective treatments for avian flu. Scientists are focusing on a particular research target in the strain of avian flu known as H5N1.
In April in the United States, The Rothberg Institute for Childhood diseases released the avian influenza target for H5N1 to the distributed computing project Drug Design and Optimization Lab, or D2OL. This information allows the D2OL software to model target proteins identified from the avian flu and then to simulate the binding of drug molecules with these targets to identify promising combinations that can potentially inhibit important disease pathways. The process is like searching through a collection of keys (drug candidates) to find the one that will fit a specific lock (target protein)."
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1957670,00.asp
eWeek: Microsoft and Qualcomm Ink Smart Phone Pact
"Microsoft and Qualcomm detailed a new partnership through which they plan to integrate respective wireless technologies in the name of accelerating smart phone development.
The two market leaders said that they will specifically work on porting Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system onto Qualcomm's Convergence Platform MSM (Mobile Station Modem) wireless chip sets."
Read more at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1957657,00.asp
eWeek: Wi-Fi to Cellular Convergence to Ship Soon
"Wireless mobility provider Trapeze Networks has teamed with DaVitas Networks, a new provider of mobility software and appliances, to deliver the ability for handset users to roam freely between Wi-Fi and cellular networks without interrupting a call.
DaVitas will deliver handset software and an appliance for enterprise networks.
Together with the Trapeze Mobility System Software and the company's new LAN Mobility Exchange switches, companies will be able to give users the ability to communicate using VOIP (voice over IP) over internal wireless data networks."
Read more at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1957347,00.asp
Charles W. Moore
Tags: News ď Tech-Industry ď
