Moore’s Tech Web Reader - Monday, December 3, 2007
Mac/iPhone OS Market Share Hits 6.89% in November
Browser Market Share for November, 2007
Apple Mac Hits Record 6.81% Market Share In Net Applications Survey
Poll: Which Browser Are You?
SHOOTOUT: Hitachi versus Seagate 200GB 7200rpm Notebook Drives
Ugly view mars Windows Vista birthday
The Year Is Proving Golden For Apple
iWork '08 Review
5 reasons the MacBook Pro Ain’t Just For The Pros
Democrats Vote for the Mac?
Subcompact MacBook nano At Macworld 15% Short Of A Sure Thing
Why is a Macbook 30.8% more expensive in the UK than the US?
Apple Product Cycle Playing Havoc With NAND Flash Market
Faster Processor Means Modest Bump For MacBook Pro
Leopard Brings About a Few Changes for Boot Camp Users
Mac OS X 10.5: When to use Time Machine or .Mac Backup to back up data
Mac OS X 10.5: Included Printer Drivers
Restoring An Entire Backup With Time Machine
I Want You To Die, Leopard
All Eyes On Apple - The World's Hottest Company?
Uncovered: Evidence that Mac OS X could run Windows apps soon
eWEEK: McAfee Updates VirusScan for Mac Leopard
eWEEK: OpenOffice.org 2.3 Impresses
eWEEK: Myths Stymie Linux Growth
PC Mag: Firefox 3 Beta 1 Review
PC Mag: Zonby Launches 'Green' Laptop
The Tech Night Owl: Welcome to the Ministry of Stupid Audio Design Decisions
This Week's Tech Night Owl Radio Update
Mac/iPhone OS Market Share Hits 6.89% in November
Operating System Market Shares for November, 2007
http://www.netapplications.com reports:
Operating System/Market Share Percentage
- Windows 92.42%
- Mac 6.80%
- Linux 0.57%
- iPhone 0.09%
- Playstation 0.02%
- SunOS 0.01%
- Nintendo Wii 0.01%
- AIX 0.00%
- NetBSD 0.00%
- OpenVMS 0.00%
- SCO 0.00%
- OpenBSD 0.00%
- SCP 0.00%
- HP-UX 0.00%
- FreeBSD 0.00%
You can check it out at:
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=8
Browser Market Share for November, 2007
http://www.netapplications.com reports:
Safari in third place at 5.14%
Browser / Total Market Share
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 77.35%
- Firefox 16.01%
- Safari 5.14%
- Opera 0.65%
- Netscape 0.60%
- Mozilla 0.09%
- Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer 0.04%
- Opera Mini 0.03%
- Playstation 0.02%
- Danger Web Browser 0.02%
- Blazer 0.02%
- WebTV 0.01%
- ACCESS NetFront 0.01%
- Konqueror 0.01%
- BlackBerry 0.00%
- ANT Galio 0.00%
- Lotus Notes 0.00%
- iCab 0.00%
You can check it out at:
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=0
Apple Mac Hits Record 6.81% Market Share In Net Applications Survey
Apple 2.0's Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports:
After taking a brief October dip in advance of Leopard’s release, Apple’s share of
the operating system market grew 3.34% in November to hit a record 6.81%, according to the results of a Net Applications survey issued today.
Microsoft’s Windows in its various flavors continues to dominate with a 92.42% share, as measured by the Web metrics firm. Among the operating systems gathered in the “other” category are Linux (.57%), Apple’s iPhone (.09%), Sony’s Playstation (.02%), SunOS (.01%) and Nintendo’s Wii (.01%).
Insert link name here
Poll: Which Browser Are You?
MacApper's Austen Saltz says:
There is a large number of browsers available for OS X; considerably more than for Windows or any other platform. Which, obviously, is a good thing! Depending on your needs however, any of these browsers could be the best one in your mind. What follows is a rough breakdown of 7 browsers for OS X with a quick note outlining their base appeal, along with some pros and cons for each.
Right after the quick breakdowns is a poll asking you to select which browser you prefer. I'm really looking forward to hearing your preferences and opinions, so here we go…
Firefox
Camino
Safari
OmniWeb
Flock
Shiira
Opera
[Editor'e note: Uhhhh, where are Netscape and SeaMonkey (my two favorite Gecko browsers), and he says Opera is "bloated"? As copared to what?
Opera (application) 25.7 MB
Camino (application) 39.2 MB
Firefox (application) 50.2 MB
Safari (2.0.4) 24 MB
And Opera includes a full POP 3 email client, a BitTorrent and an RSS reader, which the other three don't.
CM]
For the full commentary visit here:
http://macapper.com/2007/11/30/os-x-browser-poll-review/
SHOOTOUT: Hitachi versus Seagate 200GB 7200rpm Notebook Drives
Barefeats' rob-ART morgan reports:
Seagate now has a 200GB 7200rpm SATA notebook (2.5 inch) drive, the Momentus 7200.2 ST9200420AS and ASG. We were curious how it compared to the 200G 7K notebook drive from Hitachi Travelstar 7K200 (HTS722020K9SA00).
We tested them on both FireWire 800 and SATA ports. And we included results from the Western Digital Scorpio (WD2500BEVS) 250GB 5400rpm notebook drive.
Conclusions:
The Hitachi 7K 200G notebook drive posted the fastest times for large sustained transfers. However, the Seagate 7K 200G was fastest in the small random transfers - which implies it would make a better boot drive. I'd be pleased to have either drive in my MacBook Pro....
For the full review visit here:
http://www.barefeats.com/hard96.html
Ugly view mars Windows Vista birthday
The Register's Gavin Clarke reports:
Like the queen, Windows Vista gets to celebrate two birthdays in close succession. November 30 marks the first, with the "business" launch a year ago at venues across the planet. Next January will mark the second birthday date.
While the past 12 months have been dominated by headlines over sales and uptake - or lack thereof - the operating system's first year will also be remembered for a lack of buy-in from software developers and hardware partners.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2007/11/30/vista_birthday/
The Year Is Proving Golden For Apple
Bloomberg News's Connie Guglielmo reports:
For Apple, analysts forecast a 31 percent jump in total sales this quarter to $9.31 billion as customers snap up iPods, iPhones and Macintosh computers. Apple is making shopping easier with concierges at the door, portable devices that speed checkout and express bays stocked with its most popular items.
''They now produce some of the most-wanted products on the planet,'' said Maggie Gilliam, a retail consultant at New York- based Gilliam & Co. ''The idea of getting one of these super-sexy products at one of these cool stores has great appeal.''
For the full report click here.
iWork '08 Review
Macworld UK's Neale Monks reports:
If you grow weary while waiting for Office 2008, give iWork '08 a go
If iLife is 'office for your home life', then iWork is 'iLife for your office'. It's the older, grown up sibling of iLife that handles work stuff: writing documents and doing presentations.
Not that many people use iWork though. Earlier versions of the suite suffered on two fronts: the absence of a spreadsheet application and the lacklustre functionality of its word processing application, Pages. With the arrival of iWork '08, both these problems have largely been eliminated. Apple has dramatically improved Pages as a word processor and brought a spreadsheet application called Numbers to the mix. Let's take a look at the three applications one at a time…
For the full review visit here:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/business/reviews/index.cfm?RSS&ReviewID=2380
5 reasons the MacBook Pro Ain’t Just For The Pros
mac.blorge.com's Triston McIntyre says:
You’re standing in the Apple store, looking up and down the row of MacBooks and MacBook Pros; one is silver and slightly bigger, and one is white or black…but when it comes down to your bank account, is silver really all that worth it? The answer is a thousand times yes, and here are 5 reasons why.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://mac.blorge.com/2007/11/30/5-reasons-the-macbook-pro-aint-just-for-the-pros/
Democrats Vote for the Mac?
Market share by region for November, 2007 reveals fascinating red state/blue state resonances
http://www.netapplications.com reports:
One of the first things we did with our latest upgrade was to get a view of Apple's market share by measuring the usage share of all Macintosh operating systems. This map jumped out at us as having a striking resemblance to the U.S. red/blue election map from 2004...
For the full report click here.
Subcompact MacBook nano At Macworld 15% Short Of A Sure Thing
lacyiceplusheat.blogspot.com says:
A Piper Jaffray analyst puts the probability of an "ultra-portable" MacBook being introduced at MacWorld at 85%.
That's as close to being a certainty as anything rumored to be about to sprout forth from Apple ever is, which is to say don't count on it until you hear Steve Jobs say that it's true, but be listening for it...
And, as always with Apple, the truth may turn out to be even more interesting than anticipated.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lacyiceplusheat.blogspot.com/2007/12/15-short-of-sure-thing.html
Why is a Macbook 30.8% more expensive in the UK than the US?
seopher.com's Steven York says:
It's the festive season and everyone is geared up for some shopping. As it happens my old Pentium IV laptop isn't doing so well anymore so I felt inclined to purchase a more mobile computing solution; the Apple Macbook was the obvious choice. But what are Apple doing with their pricing structure?
The Macbook is an excellent piece of kit; the build quality alone is leagues ahead of most laptops and given I don't game on notebooks anymore it seems logical to accept a Mac as the most stable, high quality tool for my mobile computing needs. However upon shopping around the obvious price differences between the UK and US became more than an annoyance, they became insulting.... there is one crucial question that I would like a definitive answer to:
Can someone explain why there is such an epic difference in price between the UK and US markets?
To read more, click here.
Apple Product Cycle Playing Havoc With NAND Flash Market
Ars Technica's Justin Berka reports:
I must say, I'm glad I'm not in the NAND flash industry these days. In March, NAND flash shortages were predicted for the fall, as manufacturers reduced output in an attempt to raise prices. Cut to the summer, and prices for the memory were still falling while sales continued to grow. Now, according to the EE Times, flash manufacturers may be facing another crunch due to Apple's product timing.
The product at fault here is the iPhone, but the specific issue is related to the timing of Apple's release of new and updated iPhones.....
For the full report click here.
Faster Processor Means Modest Bump For MacBook Pro
Macworld's James Galbraith reports:
Apple began November introducing a revamped line of MacBook laptops. Let's close out the month with a few words about another product announced alongside the MacBook updates—a build-to-order configuration of the MacBook Pro.
If you remember, on the same day Apple boosted the processor speeds and made other internal changes to its MacBook line, it also announced the availability a new, faster 2.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor for the MacBook Pro. The 2.6GHz processor is a $250 upgrade over the $2,499 and $2,799 models that ship with the 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo.
Macworld Lab ordered and received a 15-inch MacBook Pro with the faster processor. It should come as no surprise that this custom-built MacBook Pro is the fastest portable Mac to date.
For the full review visit here:
http://www.macworld.com/2007/11/firstlooks/26ghzmacbookpro/index.php
Leopard Brings About a Few Changes for Boot Camp Users
Low End Mac's Alan Zisman reports:
With the release of Leopard, a number of things have changed with Apple's Boot Camp technology for setting up an Intel Mac to dual-boot between Mac OS X and Windows XP or Vista. Some of these changes were anticipated; some are a bit of a surprise.
As anticipated, OS X 10.4 users running the Boot Camp beta are being told that the pre-release beta program ends on December 31, 2007. Along with the OS X 10.5 Leopard release in October - which includes Boot Camp as a standard feature - Apple had stopped making the Boot Camp beta software available for download. On November 28, Apple noted: "With the introduction of Leopard, the Boot Camp Beta program has ended. The Boot Camp Beta software will expire on December 31, and Apple won't offer further updates of Boot Camp Beta for Mac OS X Tiger." Existing Boot Camp partitions should continue to work after that date, though users of the beta software would be unable to use the Boot Camp Assistant to create or remove Windows partitions or create Windows driver disks.
For the full report visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/mac2win/m2w07/1130.html
Mac OS X 10.5: When to use Time Machine or .Mac Backup to back up data
A new Apple Knowledge Base article says:
If you have Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and are a .Mac member, you may be wondering when to use the (.Mac) Backup application or Time Machine to back up your important files and data. The answer depends on which files you will be backing up and where they will be backed up.
For the full tutorial, visit here.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307050
Mac OS X 10.5: Included Printer Drivers
A new Apple Knowledge Base article says:
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard includes printer drivers and PostScript Printer Description files (PPDs) for many printers. This article lists all printer drivers and PPD files included with Mac OS X 10.5. Some printer files might not be included with previous Mac OS X versions, and vice-versa.
Please note that some of these drivers were created by open-source projects (refer to the "Install Package" column in the list to find the driver source) and may not be supported by Apple or the respective printer manufacturer.
You can check it out at:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306684
Restoring An Entire Backup With Time Machine
macapper.com's Alec Feld says:
I don’t backup. Correction, I didn’t back up. When Leopard was released into the wild, my MacBook Pro began backing up my data hourly, a good precaution. Just weeks after my external hard drive became overflowing with backups and Time Machine had been hard at work, 10.5.1 was released, which ended up causing more problems than it was supposed to fix. My Mac froze during the installation, and the OS, plus some of my files, became corrupt.
Prior to having Leopard and Time Machine, my first thought would have been to do an Archive and Install, an option in the OS install that keeps all of your files, moves them, and drops shiny new system folders in. Sadly, since many files were also corrupt an Archive and Install wouldn’t help me there. Luckily, I had those backups Time Machine had been making for the past couple of weeks. I plugged in my external hard drive, popped in my Leopard Install DVD, and started the restoration process.
The process to restore backups is unbelievably easy.....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://macapper.com/2007/12/02/restoring-an-entire-backup-with-time-machine/
What Leopard Means For Getting Things Done
Ed Eubanks, Jr.
Apple’s Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard was one of the most anticipated upgrades for Apple’s operating system ever. With many new features and improvements to old features (more than 300, Apple reports), combined with a renewed interest out of response to Microsoft’s Vista and a record 30-month interval since the last major upgrade, Leopard’s reception was a virtual lock. More than two million copies sold in the first weekend confirmed it: Mac users are excited about Leopard.
Now that it has been out for over a month, many of the features and improvements are becoming familiar. Yet, many people (especially those still deciding whether to upgrade) may be asking, What does Leopard offer me for better exercising my Getting Things Done (GTD) fu?
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.atpm.com/13.12/next-actions.shtml
I Want You To Die, Leopard
Crunchgear's Peter Ha says:
I know I’ve bitched and moaned about Leopard in the last few weeks, but I just can’t handle it anymore. I’m going to search for my Tiger disc and reinstall it over the weekend. Leopard has too many kinks and it’s not worth the headache. It pisses me off that Apple has screwed up so badly. I’d rather go back to XP then use this shit anymore. Sounds crazy doesn’t it? Considering the fact that I’ve been worshipping OS X like it was some higher entity or something. Like I said, Tiger is great and I’ll be going back to it if I can find the install disc or I’ll be scouring the torrent sites for it. Do you have beef with Leopard? I’m sure you do. Here’s why I want it to die. A slow and painful death. Umm. No. I’d rather push it in front of a train if it were a physical being. I guess I could smash the DVD....
My MacBook will eventually burn my apartment down if Leopard is left as is. I’m sorry but I don’t want my fans blasting 24/7 at 5,000RPMs nor do I like 150+ burning Fahrenheits on my lap.....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.crunchgear.com/2007/11/30/rant-i-want-you-to-die-leopard/
All Eyes On Apple - The World's Hottest Company?
Fast Company's Adam L. Penenberg reports:
This promises to be a joyous holiday season for Steve Jobs and the incandescent Apple. Over the past year, the company's numbers have been stunning: Sales are up 24%, earnings up 75%, margins topping 30%, stock price up 146%. The popularity of the iPod and its snazzy young cousin, the iPhone, has lifted other Apple products, helping boost market share in personal computers in the United States from 2% a few years ago to 8% this past quarter, with Apple leapfrogging Gateway to take third place behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard. The latest upgrade to Apple's operating system - Leopard - is getting strong reviews, in contrast to the indifference that greeted Microsoft's new Vista OS. Apple's market cap is now north of $160 billion; 18 months ago, the crew in Cupertino, California, was worth a mere $60 billion. This $100 billion increase alone equals the combined value of Motorola and Sprint-Nextel....
Yet this is also a dangerous moment for Apple. In a way the company has never seen, the barbarians are massing at the gates. From hardware to software to services, major competitors with serious R&D and marketing budgets are laying siege to the House of Jobs......
For the full report visit here:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/121/all-eyes-on-apple.html
Uncovered: Evidence that Mac OS X could run Windows apps soon
Ars Technica's David Chartier reports:
Once Intel chips landed inside Macs and Boot Camp made its debut, it got a lot harder to blame rumor mongers for making a certain leap: Mac OS X could one day run Windows apps sans-Windows. Indeed, projects like the open source Wine have facilitated some of this functionality, albeit in a limited fashion, for some time now. But a new discussion on a Wine mailing list could refresh hope for those looking to get their Frankenstein on with Mac OS X and Windows computing.
To read more, click here.
eWEEK: McAfee Updates VirusScan for Mac Leopard
McAfee has included new features in its VirusScan for Mac v8.6 to improve file scanning and management.
To read more, go to:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2224553,00.asp?=kcEWKDT112907
eWEEK: OpenOffice.org 2.3 Impresses
Review: OpenOffice.org 2.3 sports a nifty set of feature improvements, but the suite's sweetest features remain its low cost (free) and its strikingly broad platform support.
To read more, go to:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2224467,00.asp?=kcEWKDT112907
eWEEK: Myths Stymie Linux Growth
"Year after year, industry pundits state, "This is the year of Linux," and year after year, those same pundits say, "The market is just not ready yet." So the big question here is, "Where are the Linux desktops?" For the most part, they're not anywhere.
Regardless of the advantages offered by Linux, no one seems to be adopting it wholeheartedly in the business world. What makes that even more fascinating is that the backlash against Windows Vista is not reason enough to fuel the move to Linux.
The problem here is that the powers that be have created enough FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about Linux that most decision makers feel it is safer to stick with Windows (including XP). That FUD is fueled by many myths and misconceptions about what Linux can and cannot do. Let's explore the top five myths and see what the real truth is here."
To read more, click here.
PC Mag: Firefox 3 Beta 1 Review
"If you're looking for a shiny new interface and major new features in this first beta of Firefox 3, you'll likely be disappointed. It looks nearly identical to FireFox 2. But beneath that same old skin beats an entirely new, updated heart. Though the interface is largely unchanged, the browser's page-rendering engine has been completely revamped for performance, stability, and security. And a few ease-of-use additions find their way into to product, too, making surfing a tad smoother. Most exciting-for developers at least-is this new version's support for off-line Web applications. The beta is available in versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux in 20 different language editions."
To read more, go to:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2224594,00.asp
PC Mag: Zonby Launches 'Green' Laptop
"Zonbu, maker of the Zonbu Mini desktop PC, has announced a notebook computer along the same lines, to be manufactured by Everex.
The Zonbu Notebook is designed to be environmentally friendly, with lower power usage and less hazardous material than normal laptops, and proper recycling techniques."
To read more, go to:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2224442,00.asp
The Tech Night Owl: Welcome to the Ministry of Stupid Audio Design Decisions
You might think that the company that touts its products as “Ultimate” driving machines would pay close attention to making those machines consumer friendly, in deference to their well-heeled customers.
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://macnightowl.com/newsletter/2007/12/02/newsletter-issue-418/#decisions
Notes: You can also access our new RSS feed, available at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/rss
Or our new Atom feed at:
http://www.macnightowl.com//atom
This Week's Tech Night Owl Radio Update
All right, you just know that the iPod, iPhone and MacBook are going to be super popular this holiday season, and lots of high definition TVs will be moving into homes around the world too, at least in the more prosperous nations. But there’s a lot more gear that has plenty of potential. So on this week’s episode of The Tech Night Owl LIVE, we checked out the hottest gadgets for the holidays with Steve “Mr. Gadget” Kruschen. Some of it, such as a sophisticated oven, may not seem to contain much in the way of technology, but you’ll be surprised when you learn the truth.
Here's the URL for this week's update on the show:
http://macnightowl.com/newsletter/2007/12/02/newsletter-issue-418/#update
Notes: You can also access our new RSS newsletter feed, available at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/newsletter/rss
Or our Atom newsletter feed at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/newsletter/ atom
Charles W. Moore
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