Applelinks.com Moore’s Tech Web Reader

Moore’s Tech Web Reader - Tuesday, July 3, 2007

By Charles W. Moore Tuesday, July 03, 2007.
Filed under: News � Tech-Industry �

490

AOL Updates Macintosh Applications
World's Biggest Label Kneecaps iTunes Store
Universal Music Won't Renew Apple Deal, Person Says
Apple Faces A Rebellion Over iTunes
Why Universal Bit Apple Back
Mac OS X 10.4.10: Damage in Pages and BBEdit
Apple Store ended Its LinkShare Affiliate Program with Mac Web Sites
Rumor Control: Multi-Touch MacBooks Coming This Year
MacBook Pro 15" Santa Rosa Review
Validate HTML Files in BBEdit
Okay, the iPhone's here; time to revisit the Mac and iPod
Why We Hate E-mail
I Can Understand Why Some Want To Downgrade From Vista to XP
The Mac Night Owl: The iPhone Feeding Frenzy Report: Safe to Talk About Macs Again?
eWEEK: Women in Technology: At Lunch with the Sisterhood
PC Mag: Apple Safari for Windows 3 (Beta) Review

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AOL Updates Macintosh Applications

BetaNews reports:

AOL pushed updates to several of its products for the Macintosh platform on Monday, including added functionality that would help its applications work more smoothly with native Mac OS X programs. The enhancements come as part of a recommitment to the Mac platform, including a new AOL Instant Messenger for the Mac platform coming in the next several months.

For the full report visit here:
http://www.betanews.com/article/AOL_Updates_Macintosh_Applications/1183408663

World's Biggest Label Kneecaps iTunes Store

The Register's Andrew Orlowski reports:

Universal Music Group (UMG) has dealt a serious blow to Apple's music ambitions by refusing to renew its contract with the iTunes Store.

The New York Times reports that the decision not to continue the annual contract was made by UMG executives last week.

It appears likely that Universal's repertory will disappear from the online store, unless the two parties can reach a new agreement.....

For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/02/universal_snubs_apple/

Universal Music Won't Renew Apple Deal, Person Says

Bloomberg's Don Jeffrey reports:

Universal Music Group refused to renew a long-term contract to sell songs on Apple Inc.'s iTunes because it wants to remain flexible in negotiations with other retailers, a person with knowledge of the talks said.

Discussions between Universal and Apple broke off last week after Apple asked for a two-year licensing contract to replace a one-year deal that ended in June, said the person, who declined to be identified because the talks were confidential. Apple said today it is still negotiating with Universal.

ITunes will continue to sell music from Universal artists such as U2 and Gwen Stefani under an "at will" accord, without a contract, the person said.....

For the full report click here.

Apple Faces A Rebellion Over iTunes

The New York Times' Jeff Leeds reports:

Steve Jobs, the co-founder and chief executive of Apple, is an emerging force in the cellphone business, as evidenced by the snaking lines of gadget fans who lined up last week to buy the iPhone. But now he faces a headache in an industry Apple already dominates - digital music.

The Universal Music Group of Vivendi, the world's biggest music corporation, last week notified Apple that it would not renew its annual contract to sell music through iTunes, according to executives briefed on the issue who asked for anonymity because negotiations between the companies are confidential.

For the full report visit here:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/02/business/universal.php

Why Universal Bit Apple Back

Forbes' Louis Hau reports:

It's about time.

That'd be the opinion of any sane music industry observer looking at Universal Music Group's decision not to renew its annual contract with Apple's iTunes Store.

The move means that Universal will treat Apple like pretty much any other retailer it does business with, marking a first step in restoring some balance in the relationship between Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs and the struggling recording industry.

A revolution it isn't. Vivendi's Universal Music will continue providing iTunes with access to its new releases and older catalog titles. Apple isn't about to drop the inventory of the world's largest music company from iTunes. And consumers won't notice any difference.

For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.forbes.com/media/2007/07/02/apple-itunes-universal-biz-media-cx_0702music.html

Mac OS X 10.4.10: Damage in Pages and BBEdit

Betalogue's Pierre Igot reports:

Computing can be a very cruel experience.

Here I was bragging about how stable my computing environment with Mac OS X 10.4.9 was, with 23 consecutive days of uptime and no sign of degrading performance!

At the time, I noted that I really had little incentive to install the 10.4.10 update and the security update that had come out a week earlier, simply because they would force me to restart my machine and rebuild my current work environment.

Well, yesterday, after a few more days of uninterrupted computing bliss, I decided that I should install those updates after all....

And that's when Mac OS X decided to punish me.....

I went to BBEdit to write a post about that, and at some point wanted to look up a word in the dictionary. So I right-clicked on the word in my BBEdit document and - bam! The application crashed....

Then for some reason I tried to launch Pages. Instead of the usual blank document, I got an alert saying, "Pages cannot open the 'Blank.template' template." No explanation, no suggestion for troubleshooting, just a single "OK" button. Nice.....

Pages was suddenly completely unusable.

For the full report visit here:
http://www.betalogue.com/2007/07/02/mac-os-x-10410-damage-in-pages-and-bbedit/

Apple Store ended Its LinkShare Affiliate Program with Mac Web Sites

MacsOnly!'s Bill Fox reports:

As of June 30, the Apple Store ended its affiliate program via LinkShare.com. Unfortunately, canceling the program ends a modest but important revenue stream for Macs Only!

For the full report visit here:
http://www.macsonly.com/index.html#_24

Rumor Control: Multi-Touch MacBooks Coming This Year

Wired blogger Adario Strange says:

CrunchGear reports that Apple will roll out slimmer MacBooks with iPhone-like multi-touch functionality built into the touchpad later this year. This of course begs the question that most Mac fans have pondered for a couple of years now: When will Apple release tablet computers?

For the full commentary visit here:
http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/07/rumor-control-m.html

MacBook Pro 15" Santa Rosa Review

digitalartsonline.co.uk's Neil Bennett says:

The new 15-inch MacBook Pro is the first laptop we've seen to use Intel's new version of its Centrino platform, codenamed Santa Rosa.

Santa Rosa offers slightly faster processor speeds than the Intel's previous Centrino - so instead of a choice of 2.16GHz and 2.33GHz chips you can now choose from 2.2GHz and 2.4GHz models. Our review unit features the 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo T7500. The new processors communicate with the rest of the components faster, through a front-side bus (FSB) that been upped from 667MHz to 800MHz.

The end result is more than the minute speed bump that you would expect. The new 2.2GHz model was slower at After Effects video rendering and Cinebench 3D rendering than the 2.33GHz model we looked at in our June issue - but much faster than the 2GHz Sony Vaio FE41Z we looked at in the same group test.

For the full report visit here:
http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/reviews/index.cfm?ReviewID=759

Validate HTML Files in BBEdit

MacInstruct's Justin Busch says:

Validating HTML documents is an important step in web development that can sometimes be overlooked in the hasty attempt to publish web pages. Validation checks your HTML against the formatting standard developed and maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium. Valid HTML markup ensures that a web browser will be able to correctly interpret what you have coded.

Thank goodness BBEdit, one of the best Mac web development applications, can do this right out of the box! Here's how to do it....

You can check it out at:
http://www.macinstruct.com/node/168

Okay, the iPhone's here; time to revisit the Mac and iPod

MacsimumNews's Dennis Sellers says:

Now that the iPhone is here, hopefully Apple will return some of its attention to its other product lines: the Mac and the iPod (for now the Apple TV is just a "hobby," Apple CEO Steve Jobs has said). Wouldn't it be nice if the next Macs and iPods have some of the "wow" factor that's gotten everyone so worked up about the iPhone (which, actually, is a little Mac)?...

Now, of course, Steve isn't known as someone who undersells Apple products, so his talk could be a bit exaggerated. But I have a gut feeling that we will indeed see some jaw-droppingly good Macs and iPods in the weeks ahead.

And as much as I admire the iPhone, all I can say is: "It's about time."

For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/okay_the_iphones_here_time_to_revisit_the_mac_and_ipod/

Why We Hate E-mail

Business 2.0 Magazine's Om Malik says:

E-mail, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing! But it wasn't always so. A lifetime ago, I signed up for CompuServe and received my first exposure to electronic messaging. My reaction: Cool. Now I don't have to call people and leave voice-mail. Zapping information back and forth at the speed of light will be a big productivity boost.

How naive I was. E-mail became the Internet's first killer app -- and therein lies the problem. As software goes, e-mail is almost socialist: From each according to his ability, to each whether or not he needs it.

E-mail ought to be reinvented to meet the needs of our always-connected lives.....

For the full commentary visit here:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/07/01/100117059/index.htm

I Can Understand Why Some Want To Downgrade From Vista to XP

ZNet blogger Adrian Kingsley-Hughes says:

Last week my ZDNet blogging colleague Mary Jo Foley reported that Microsoft is to make it easier for some Vista users (specifically those using Windows Vista Ultimate and Vista Business) to roll back to Windows XP until they are ready to make the move. This is a good move for everyone, except Microsoft.

Personally, I can understand why users who jumped onto the Vista train might want to get off. Even if you buy (or build) a PC specifically with Vista in mind, you can still end up with some nasty headaches when you try to slot a Vista PC into your hardware/software ecosystem.

For the full commentary visit here:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=579

The Mac Night Owl: The iPhone Feeding Frenzy Report: Safe to Talk About Macs Again?

After all the heightened anticipation, and this past weekend1s excitement, it's clear that, despite a few blips along the way from AT&T in handling online provisioning, the vast majority of new iPhone owners absolutely love their new gadget. When was the last time you saw that level of excitement focused on a mobile phone - smart or otherwise?

For the full report click here.

Notes: You can also access our RSS feed, available at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/rss

Or our Atom feed at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/atom

eWEEK: Women in Technology: At Lunch with the Sisterhood

Opinion: A luncheon honoring women in technology opens one man's eyes.

To read more, go to:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2153718,00.asp

PC Mag: Apple Safari for Windows 3 (Beta) Review

"Safari 3 for Windows beta is a good browser, but not a great or terribly innovative one. Many people have been asking me why Apple is even bothering to spoil a good thing by opening up this will-run-on-Windows can of worms anyway. The answer is simple: survival."