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Disney Buys Pixar And Steve Jobs For $7.4bn
Jobs' Apple Connection Is Key in Disney-Pixar Megadeal
Red Hat Linux Distro To Boot On Intel Macs
Best Time to Buy a New MacIntel
Macintel Stumbling Block: Sometimes You Need Classic
One Reason .Mac Stinks
Page Shows Google.com May Get Makeover
Apple abandons plan to charge US$49 for Aperture Universal Binary crossgrade
Intel Ships 1m 65nm Dual-core Chips
Isle Of Man To Become 'Switzerland Of Space'
Casual Comfort: Why I Use a Mac
BlackBerry blackout threat terrifies CEOs
eWeek: Microsoft to License Windows Source Code
Disney Buys Pixar And Steve Jobs For $7.4bn
IDG News Service's Stephen Lawson reports:
Disney has bought animation studio Pixar for $7.4 billion. The long-anticipated deal with see Apple CEO, who is also head of Pixar, join Disney's board of directors...
Jobs is chairman and CEO at the studio and owns approximately 50.6 percent of the outstanding shares of Pixar. Pixar shareholders would receive 2.3 Disney shares for each Pixar share in the all-stock deal, the companies said, and Jobs would become the largest individual shareholder of Disney following the deal's close, according to news reports.
For the full report visit here.
Jobs' Apple Connection Is Key in Disney-Pixar Megadeal
E-Commerce Times' Keith Regan reports:
The Walt Disney Co. will pay US$7.4 billion to buy Pixar, the groundbreaking animation studio co-founded by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The deal is noteworthy not only for the potential future benefits entailed in an Apple-Hollywood link, but also because it immediately vaults Disney back to the top of the industry it all but invented.
Jobs, who is also Pixar's CEO, will take a seat on Disney's Board of Directors and become the company's largest individual shareholder.
The deal, which unites two partners that have experienced a sometimes tumultuous relationship, was made official Tuesday following days of rumors that a buyout was imminent......
The other shoe in the deal is the Apple connection, which was downplayed by the principals in the deal but is widely viewed as a significant element.
The executives acknowledged that new means of distributing content were a consideration in the merger discussions, but they did not reveal any firm plans.
For the full report visit here.
Red Hat Linux Distro To Boot On Intel Macs
tuaw.com's Fabienne Serriere reports:
They haven't mentioned exactly HOW they will make Red Hat Linux boot on the new Intel-based Macs, but a Red Hat spokesperson has confirmed they are committed to creating a distro for the new hardware. This may take a while because they haven't yet purchased any Intel Macs. Secondly Red Hat Fedora hasn't even begun to discuss whether they will be taking a grub or lilo tactic as a bootloader.
For the full report visit here.
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/01/25/red-hat-linux-distro-to-boot-on-intel-macs/
Best Time to Buy a New MacIntel
MacDevCenter's Derrick Story says:
....even though an Intel processor is tempting, what I really need is a better video card, more RAM, and a bigger hard drive. This is what will drive my decision to buy a laptop. Yes, the CPU is important. But it's not my sole consideration for buying a new computer. I need the whole package. And that's when I'll make the leap.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/wlg/9099
Macintel Stumbling Block: Sometimes You Need Classic
Low End Mac's Jeff Adkins says:
Apple has no Classic support in its new Intel-based Macs, and from what I read Apple has no plans add it. This means that for the first time, there is no compatibility path for older, pre-PowerPC, or even pre-OS X software to run on an Apple computer.
The problem is, there are any number of critical applications that people use that require OS 9 or Classic Mode, and while we've been content with booting up Classic to make them work, we don't even have that option with Intel Macs......
For my part, there are still a few Classic programs I need to run that require OS 9, so I guess I'll put off upgrading for the time being. It's not just a matter of upgrading or picking another vendor; these functions run only in OS 9.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/lab/06/0125.html
One Reason .Mac Stinks
oreillynet.com's Matthew Russell says:
Like many of you, I too am a paid .Mac user, and I have been for a couple of years now. But if it weren't for all of the pain involved in transitioning from one e-mail address to another, I wouldn't renew it. Heck, I might just chock up the loss of time and people I may never get back into contact with again and still not renew it -- but I'll just be totally honest here and tell you that I haven't decided yet.
......I'll go ahead and get to my point: iCal support stinks. It's plain and simple. No, I'm not the busiest man in the world, but I would like to be able to do more than view my calendar online. Rather, I'd like to be able to edit it too. Sounds simple doesn't it? Well, to tell you the truth, I think that for $100/yr, it is a pretty simple request, because Backup, Virex, and my quirky iDisk sure aren't worth it -- at least not to me.
So what's better? Well, I think we all know of at least one web-based e-mail client that does a pretty darn good job of integrating calendar support.
For the full commentary visit here.
Page Shows Google.com May Get Makeover
IDG News Service's Juan Carlos Perez reports:
Some Web users are reporting seeing a reformatted Google results page that has the links to specialized search pages listed in the left-hand column instead of placed horizontally across the top of the search box.
In addition, these links to the image, groups, news, Froogle, and local search pages are each accompanied by a horizontal bar graph with a gray background and a green fill.
Google.com's minimalistic and uncluttered look is famous for its simplicity and effectiveness, and has been emulated by many other Web sites. The design went against the grain as Google gained popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the favored model was the significantly more cluttered home pages of portals such as Yahoo's Yahoo.com.
For the full report visit here.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/01/25/74777_HNgooglemakeover_1.html
Apple abandons plan to charge US$49 for Aperture Universal Binary crossgrade
Rob Galbraith reports:
Apple has abandoned their plan to charge current Aperture owners a fee to obtain the Universal Binary version of the application. Earlier this month, the company had said it would be US$49 to "crossgrade" from the PowerPC version of the program - which will not run on Macs with Intel processors - to the Universal Binary version, which is compatible with both PowerPC Mac and Intel Mac architectures.
Now, the Aperture product page on the online Apple Store web site states:
"A Universal version of Aperture, which will run natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Mac computers, will be available before the end of March 2006. New and existing owners of Aperture will be able to crossgrade to the Universal version at no additional charge via Software Update."
For the full report visit here.
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-7890-8175
Intel Ships 1m 65nm Dual-core Chips
The Register's Tony Smith reports:
Intel has shipped more than one million 65nm dual-core processors, the chip giant announced today.
That figure comprises all the Core Duo chips, 'Presler' Pentium D 9xx parts and the Pentium Extreme Edition 955 that have gone out to makers of notebook and desktop PCs, not to mention the products Apple's using in its latest iMac and upcoming MacBook Pro.
For the full report visit here.
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/01/25/intel_ships_1m_65nm_dualies/
Isle Of Man To Become 'Switzerland Of Space'
The Register's Lester Haines reports:
It may have been described yesterday by one reader as "70,000 alcoholics clinging to a rock", but the Isle of Man has made its pitch to become a space industry giant equivalent to a "Switzerland of Space", according to treasury minister Allan Bell.
Indeed, the island is looking to invest £955,000 over the next couple of years in a marketing drive aimed at attracting space business - in particular, satellite comms-related cash.
For the full report visit here.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/25/isle_of_man/
For my recent feature "The Manx and The MacIntosh, visit here.
Casual Comfort: Why I Use a Mac
Low End Mac's John Martorana says:
I Work, Therefore I Mac (corny, I know, but stay with meÖ)
Let me first touch on a key factor that has kept mine a Mac household for lo these many years - I use PCs at work.
Now, now, this isn't going to turn into a fire-and-brimstone tirade about Macs being the only true path to computer salvation. I'm not going to consign all Wintel boxes to the trash heap as utterly useless wastes of plastic, metal, and silicon.
No, I'm not going to go there, because I really don't have anything against PCs.....
With few exceptions, I've found the variety of different PCs that I've used to be good tools for doing my job. When I boot up my Dell OptiPlex GX270 every morning, I really don't say to myself, "Man, I really wish I had a G5!"....
For me, the difference between Macs and PCs is like the difference between work clothes and casual clothes. When I go to work, I dress a certain way because it is both expected and necessary for my business. However, when I come home each evening, the first thing I do is change into something more comfortable.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/martorana/06/0125.html
BlackBerry blackout threat terrifies CEOs
Reuters reports:
It's not the sub-zero temperatures that have the corporate kingpins shivering in Davos this year but the prospect of life without their "BlackBerry."
After Angelina Jolie, the wireless portable e-mail device is the thing every business leader wants by his side at the annual World Economic Forum, where hundreds of chief executives, dozens of heads of state and the odd celebrity couple gather to discuss world woes and corporate trends....
But the chance of a BlackBerry-less future at next year's Davos summit loomed large this week when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a major patent infringement ruling against maker Research In Motion Ltd......
Now, a federal judge could issue an injunction to block RIM's U.S. business.
For the full report visit here.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/25/news/newsmakers/davos_blackberry.reut/index.htm
eWeek: Microsoft to License Windows Source Code
"Microsoft Corp.'s top lawyer said on Wednesday that the U.S. software giant would offer licences for some of its source codes in a bid to comply with antitrust requirements set by the European Commission.
"We will also license the Windows source code itself," Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith told a news conference. He added he did not know what percentage of the company's source codes would be licensed."
Read more at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1915219,00.asp
Charles W. Moore
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