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Kenmos and Nano-Op supply LED notebook BLUs to Dell and Apple
Apple, Dell to debut more LED-lit notebooks?
Why We Acquire Macs
MacBook Replaces PowerBook: The Name Grows on You [Or Not]
Mac Gift Guide 2007: 10 picks for your favorite Apple fan
An Indigo iBook: My First Modern Notebook Mac
LimeWire gets schooled in law by RIAA members
Acer Gives Dell Notebook Business A Kicking
Is Apple coding Leopard to run Windows apps natively?
ExtremeTech: Intel, AMD Both Gain Third-Quarter Sales Share
eWEEK: Adobe Debuts New Flash Products
FMPug Launches FileMaker Developer Conference Workshop Wish List
The Mac Night Owl: So Is All Quiet on the iPhone Front?
Kenmos and Nano-Op supply LED notebook BLUs to Dell and Apple
DIGITIMES' Rebecca Kuo and Rodney Chan report:
Kenmos Technology and Taiwan Nano Electro-Optical Technology (Nano-Op) have become suppliers of notebook-use LED backlight units (BLUs) for Dell and Apple, with the makers' shipments to the segment expected to soar, according to industry sources.
Nano-Op has already started shipping 12.1-inch notebook LED BLUs to Dell via AU Optronics (AUO), and its 13.3-inch LED notebook BLUs have already been validated by Apple, the sources said.
The sources disclosed that Nano-Op's LED notebook BLU shipments in November were only about 10,000 units, but Apple orders are expected drive up shipments to over 90,000 units in December.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20071203PD212.html
Apple, Dell to debut more LED-lit notebooks?
MacNN reports:
Both Apple and Dell are already set to receive large quantities of small LCDs with LED backlights for imminent notebooks, according to a new report from Taiwan manufacturers. Local firms Kenmos and Nano-Op are said to be producing the thinner, more power-efficient backlights for LCD display makers AU Optronics (AUO) and Chi Mei respectively that will be used for compact notebooks by both of the American notebook designers. Although details of Kenmos' production plans are unclear and may include existing systems such as the 15-inch MacBook Pro or the XPS M1330, AUO and Nano-Op are allegedly producing a 13.3-inch screen for Apple and a 12.1-inch screen for Dell, the report's industry sources claim.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/12/04/apple.and.dell.led.laptops/
Why We Acquire Macs
Low End Mac's John Carlson says:
Once upon a more innocent time, I had a Macintosh. Please note that I say "a Macintosh". As in one and only one.
It was a Macintosh SE, which I got new and used for years. I was determined that I'd avoid buying a different computer until I had to. I was able to keep that SE going for nearly nine years, at which time the video circuitry started to fail. I replaced the SE with a Classic.
Logically, there was no reason to keep the old SE. But I could not bear to just toss it out. It was an old friend. It had seen me through a lot. I had used it for every task imaginable - writing college papers, writing some bad short stories, and more. This SE held a lot of history. It had been the computer that allowed me to explore the Digital Wilderness. So I kept the SE without even thinking. I knew I'd probably never use it again, although I figured - what is one unused and unusable computer when it holds personal history?
Two months later, I bought an SE/30 to replace the Classic. I decided to keep the Classic as a backup. It's understandable that one using old hardware would have an extra Mac for backup.
What's harder to understand is what happened over the next four years. I went through four Macs. Each step was a definite step up. Yet I kept every computer I'd had before! I'd become a Man with Macs!...
[Editor's note: This one certainly resonates. I still have every Mac I've owned since my first used Mac Plus in 1992 (currently nine - six laptops and three desktops. They all still work, too! CM).
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/myturn/my07/1204.html
MacBook Replaces PowerBook: The Name Grows on You [Or Not]
Low End Mac's Trevor Wale says:
A Mac by any other name?
It's hard to believe, but the MacBook Pro has been around for almost two years now. I can still vividly remember watching the Macworld keynote in 2006 when Steve jobs used his trademark "one more thing" technique to surprise the audience with a final Mac revelation. As a result of Apple delaying the release of the keynote online until the day after the event, I did my best to avoid any kind of news regarding what was announced during the presentation.
Unfortunately, practically every news site on the Web with a technology column posted the new products Steve revealed as soon as it happened. This meant that I was already aware that there was a replacement for the PowerBook G4, and it was called the MacBook Pro.
"The MacBook Pro?" I thought to myself. "Could Steve find a cornier name?" Straight away, I didn't like the name change... I still have fond memories of the PowerBook brand, but I like the way that MacBook tells you exactly what sort of computer you're talking about in a way that PowerBook didn't...
[Editor's note: I've got to disagree with Trevor on this one. Two years on, I still think the MacBook Pro/ MacBook nomenclature is not only lame, but gratuitously confusing and cumbersome. PowerBook/iBook was much more elegant.
Also, Steve Jobs' rationalization that "We're kinda done with Power and we want Mac in the name of our products," doesn't wash either. The PowerBook name pre-dated Apple's use of PowerPC CPUs in laptops by four years. CM]
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/wale/07/1204.html
Mac Gift Guide 2007: 10 picks for your favorite Apple fan
ComputerWorld's Ryan Faas says:
With Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday now behind us, the holiday shopping season is in full swing. Last month, we offered our Holiday Gift Guide to help you sort through this year's gadgets and techie toys.
But shopping for Mac users and Apple fans can sometimes be a challenge -- especially if you want to get something other than the obvious choices, or if you're not as big an Apple fan as the person you're shopping for. With that in mind, here are 10 great gift ideas for the Mac user on your list.
To read more, click here.
An Indigo iBook: My First Modern Notebook Mac
Low End Mac's Tommy Thomas says:
Bong! . . .. . . Welcome to Macintosh!
I hope everyone had a safe and blessed Thanksgiving!
After another hiatus, Welcome to Macintosh is back - this time with Low End Mac's very own Clamshell iBook in hand. Thanks to Dan Knight, LEM's publisher, I've had in my possession the official Indigo Clamshell iBook from LEM's headquarters for about a month now.
I love the little bugger. The hard drive tends to whine, and with 128 MB of RAM, it's not exactly a speed demon under Mac OS X 10.3.9, but it's convenient. Ya just gotta love the thickness and the handle on it. This was one of the more cool and practical designs Apple came up with for a laptop. I'm all for thin, but give me something durable. The Clamshell screams durability.
This iBook is my first modern Mac laptop. I'm very impressed with it so far.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/thomas/tt07/1204.html
LimeWire gets schooled in law by RIAA members
The Register's Chris Williams
A federal judge dismissed all claims yesterday by the P2P file-sharing network LimeWire that the record industry illegally blocked its attempts to build a legitimate digital music service.
LimeWire's suit was a counter-claim to a copyright complaint bought by the labels last year.
The 13 labels named in the complaint, including the four majors, were accused of price-fixing, hacking LimeWire users, falsely claiming that Lime Wire promotes child pornography, and pressuring artists not to deal with P2P networks.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/04/limewire_antitrust_riaa/
Acer Gives Dell Notebook Business A Kicking
The Register's Joe Fay reports:
Dell was kicked into third place in the worldwide laptop market last quarter, as Acer and its associated brands took second slot behind HP.
A grand total of 29 million laptops were shipped in the third quarter, according to researcher firm Displaysearch, up 42 per cent on the year. The firm expects full year shipments to hit 103 million.
The figures show HP consolidating its lead in the third quarter, shifting 6.22 million units, up a whopping 72 per cent on the year. This gave it 21.4 per cent of the market.
Dell shifted 4.01 million units, up just 12 per cent on the year, giving it 13.8 per cent of the market.
Acer shifted 3.72 m units, up 54 per cent and grabbing 12.8 per cent of the market. However, once shipments by recent purchases Gateway and Packard Bell are included, the Taiwanese firm's shipments come to 4.7 million, giving it 16.2 per cent of the market.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/12/04/notebook_market/
Is Apple coding Leopard to run Windows apps natively?
The Register's Tony Smith reports:
Is Apple covertly working on a direct Windows application compatibility for Mac OS X? Some observers have suggested that it may well be after it was discovered that Leopard will attempt to load Portable Executable (PE) files when asked and even try to find relevant Windows Dynamic Linked Libraries (DLLs).
For the full report visit here:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/04/apple_win32_support/
ExtremeTech: Intel, AMD Both Gain Third-Quarter Sales Share
"Both Intel and AMD stole market share from other microprocessor vendors, according to third-quarter rankings released Monday from iSuppli."
To read more, go to:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2227960,00.asp
eWEEK: Adobe Debuts New Flash Products
Adobe announces its new Flash Media Server 3 family as well as a new Flash Player 9 update.
To read more, click here.
FMPug Launches FileMaker Developer Conference Workshop Wish List
[Press Release]
FMPug, the world wide member organization of FileMaker Pro developers and IS/IT supporters of FileMaker products, today announced the immediate availability of an on-line site where all members of the FileMaker community can register preferences and suggestions for workshop sessions for the 2008 FileMaker Developers Conference (DEVCON) to be held in Phoenix in July.
The site can be accessed directly via the FMPug home page.
May Offer to Assume Responsibility For Recruiting Presenters. According to Andy Gaunt, FMPug Founder, "After analyzing the results of our recent post DEVCON 2007 survey it became apparent that our members very much like the new workshop format and want to see it expanded. We are providing this new web page for all members of the FileMaker community to offer topic suggestions. We will provide FileMaker, Inc. and Advisor Media, Inc. with a ranked report of all the suggestions. FMPug may also offer to assume responsibility for putting on a number of these workshops if our members express sufficient interest in our doing so."
The popular workshop format has long been a favorite request of FileMaker developers, and in 2006 it was introduced into the official DEVCON schedule, after having been informally employed by multiple groups of developers since 2001.
"FMPug is dedicated to expanding educational opportunities for our members so that their careers are enhanced and so that they can help spread the use and acceptance of FileMaker products throughout the world," Gaunt added. "When there's a lot of FileMaker out there, both in expanded use for existing customers and in creation of new new customers, that's good both for FMPug members and for FileMaker. That's why, subject to our members' expressions of interest, FMPug would be willing to assume responsibility for producing some of these workshops."
FMPug.com - A Developer's Best Friend
FMPug DevCon Workshop Wish List:
http://www.fmpug.com/devconworkshopwishlist.php
Join the FMPug Network:
http://www.fmpug.com
The Mac Night Owl: So Is All Quiet on the iPhone Front?
After this past summer's iPhone frenzy, I suppose if you don't see a story about this hot-selling gadget for more than a few days, you can speculate that the fever has died down. Or, perhaps more accurately, that people are too busy enjoying them to complain about them.
Here's the URL for our latest commentary:
http://macnightowl.com/2007/12/04/so-is-all-quiet-on-the-iphone-front/
Notes: You can also access our new RSS newsletter feed, available at: http://www.macnightowl.com/rss
Or our new Atom newsletter feed at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/atom
Charles W. Moore
Tags: News ď Tech-Industry ď
