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Excerpt - Just got a nervous call from my lawyers who said they wanted to give me a "heads up" about a "situation" at Broadcom. See more about it here. Basically the feds are going after some Broadcom execs over some options backdating stuff. I'm like, So what? I don't work at Broadcom. They're like, Um, well, see, Broadcom did its own internal investigation and already cleared these guys, and the SEC isn't buying it apparently, and though the company itself has already settled the whole thing the SEC is still going after the executives as individuals. Now you do...

Apple is one of the top US gay-friendly brands, community research showsApple is among the top six gay-friendly brands in the US, recent research reveals. The company shares the status with Bravo, Showtime, HBO, Absolut and Levi’s. Apple is seen as gay-friendly by 39 per cent of the gay and lesbian population in the US, just behind Bravo’s 52 per cent share. But WalMart, Dunkin Donuts, Cracker Barrel, Exxon Mobil and Samsung score the lowest marks in survey results taken among gay and lesbian consumers, claims the 2008 Prime Access/PlanetOut Gay and Lesbian Consumer Study released. The survey is one...

Apple's iPhone will be available from more than one mobile operator in Australia and India later this year, further signs that Apple is breaking with its history of exclusive iPhone distribution agreements with operators in other markets. On Monday, SingTel announced it had struck a deal with Apple to distribute the iPhone in Singapore, India, Australia and the Philippines. The announcement follows Vodafone's agreement with Apple, announced last week, to sell the iPhone in 10 countries including Australia, India and Italy. On the same day, Telecom Italia announced that it too would distribute the iPhone in Italy, the first sign...

O2 has confirmed reports that the iPhone is not currently available anywhere in the UK, and customers may have to wait for the putative 3G Apple iPhone.

I am considering getting the Mother-in-Law a new iMac to replace her 5 year old W2K box. I don't know a lot about Mac's but this is the model I have picked out. They are a bit pricey, but I just can't buy her a MS Vista PC. What do you think?

BREAKING NEWS: Apple's profit and revenue surged, as Mac shipments jumped 51%, allaying concerns of a consumer pullback. Full article coming shortly.

BURLINGAME, CALIF. - Late Tuesday, in response to questions from Forbes.com, an Apple spokesman said Apple has agreed to buy a boutique microprocessor design company called PA Semi. The company, which is known for its design of sophisticated, low-power chips, could spell a new future for Apple's flagship iPhone, and possibly iPod products as well. The 150-person chip company, P.A. Semi, was founded in 2003 by Dan Dobberpuhl, who was a lead designer for the well-regarded Alpha and StrongARM microprocessors developed by Digital Equipment in the 1990s. "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do...

Rivals trying to come up with an iPhone slayer will need more than fancy features to outdo the leaderSince the iPhone hit the market in mid-2007, competing phonemakers and wireless-service providers that don't have a deal to sell the Apple (AAPL) device have tried their best to betray no envy. They rolled out a few devices mimicking the iPhone's touch screen, but they mostly hoped the phone, offered exclusively by AT&T (T), wouldn't become a hit. Too bad. By the fourth quarter of last year, Apple had grabbed more than a quarter of the U.S. market for what are known...

Personal technology enthusiasts yearning for the Mac Experience without the Apple Tax—that huge markup that Mac users pay for off-the-shelf PC hardware with OS X—your days of gnashing teeth may be over. Psystar, a plucky little company from Miami, Florida is, for the moment, selling OpenMac, a Mac clone with Leopard pre-installed for $554. You also get: 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU 250 GB Hard Drive (7200 RPM) 2 GB DDR2 667 RAMIntel GMA 950 integrated graphicsDVD+/-R Optical Drive4 USB ports For another $110, you can get an NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT, and for another $50, you can get...

Thanks to either crappy sales figures, the introduction of the 16GB iPhone or the looming shadow that is the 3G iPhone (or more likely than not a combo of the lot) T-Mobile Germany is, from this Monday, offering up the 8GB iPhone at the bargain price of 99 euros - around £78 at the current exchange rate.

Excerpt - Over the past few years, we have watched Apple climb the music sales chart courtesy of the iTunes. Last month we learned that Apple passed Best Buy to become the number two retailer in the the US in December. Now, Apple has ascended to the top of the charts, surpassing Wal-Mart for the first time ever, according to an NPD MusicWatch Survey for the month January contained in an internal Apple e-mail which was leaked to Ars Technica but has not been officially published. The news was announced in an e-mail sent this afternoon to some Apple employees,...

Excerpt - The iPhone gets the most press and the iPod sells in the largest quantities, but it’s the Macintosh that really drives Apple’s growth, says Gene Munster. In the second installment of a multipart report on Apple’s “3 Cylinder Engine,” Piper Jaffray’s chief Apple (AAPL) analyst looks at the Mac business over the next couple of years and likes what he sees. In particular: Growth: After Apple introduced the Intel Macs, Mac sales grew 37% in 2007, more than double the industry-wide rate of 15%. Munster is modeling 2.0 to 2.1 million Macs for the March quarter (vs. the...

Safari browser allows Mac to be easily taken over at hacker convention, Vista, Ubuntu machines survive the day It has not been a good couple weeks for Apple and Safari. First Opera knocked it from its position as sole 100 percent compatible Acid3 browser. Then it tried to force iTunes users to unintentionally download the browser as part of an iTunes update, which included a pre-checked install option for Safari. The move was met with broad criticism, including from Mozilla's CEO, who commented that Apple was bordering "on malware distribution practices." Finally, Safari users who updated to v3.1 reported many...

The heated debate over whether Apple is tricking you into believing you can see millions of colors on your Mac has come to a quiet conclusion. The Chicago Tribune noted last week (spotted by AppleInsider) that Apple has settled a lawsuit brought by two professional photographers claiming that the company falsely advertised the capabilities of their MacBook Pros as being able to display "millions of colors." The plaintiffs claimed that Apple could achieve those heights only through "dithering."How many colors can you see? Thousands? Millions?(Credit: Apple) There's an option in the Displays screen, under System Preferences in Mac OS X,...

For the first time in ages, the sale of new PCs with Windows as a percentage of the PC market is declining sharply. The new winner is the Mac, but, while no one does a good job of tracking the still-new, pre-installed Linux desktop market, it's also clear that Linux is finally making impressive inroads into Windows' once unchallenged market share. The Mac numbers are especially revealing. NPD, a global market research company, has revealed that Apple's share of the U.S. computer market jumped to 14 percent in February 2008. This was up from 9 percent in February 2007. In...

Apple today released Security Update 2008-002 which is recommended for all users and improves the security of Mac OS X. Previous security updates have been incorporated into this security update. Security Update 2008-002 is available via Software Update and also as standalone installers. More info and download links:• Security Update 2008-002 v1.0 (Leopard) - 50MB• Security Update 2008-002 v1.0 (Universal) - 103MB• Security Update 2008-002 v1.0 Server (Leopard) - 108MB• Security Update 2008-002 v1.0 Server (PPC) - 82MB• Security Update 2008-002 v1.0 Server (Universal) - 107MB For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307562.

Apple today announced that more than 100,000 iPhone developers have downloaded the beta iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) in the first four days since its launch on March 6. The iPhone SDK provides developers with the same rich set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and tools that Apple uses to create its native applications for iPhone and iPod touch. “Developer reaction to the iPhone SDK has been incredible with more than 100,000 downloads in the first four days,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, in the press release. “Also, over one million people have watched...

ZapMedia Services, Inc. today announced that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, Inc. for unspecified damages related to the company’s iTunes internet site and related media players such as the iPod. The lawsuit comes after multiple attempts by ZapMedia Services to resolve its concerns with Apple over infringement of ZapMedia Services’ patents. According to ZapMedia Services, "Beginning in the late 1990s, ZapMedia, Inc., the predecessor of ZapMedia Services, created a unique platform and vision for the enjoyment of digital media assets. In connection with this vision, ZapMedia developed a system by which it could provide hardware, software...

Yeah they're really bad all right. A while back George Ou was ouing about how Microsoft fonts were so much better than Apple's. Maybe it's about time for a side by side comparison. Same page but first with Microsoft's tugboat browser Internet Explorer and then the same page with Apple's Safari running not under the latest but under the next to latest - Tiger. First a screenshot taken with Internet Explorer from a page off the web. It's from a segment Brian Krebs offered on a bit of a scandal presumably involving Microsoft again. Note the font has no antialiasing...

Last week Steve Jobs took the stage at the Apple Town hall meeting and announced two major things for the iPhone: 1) support for Microsoft Exchange and 2) the iPhone SDK. The Exchange support was a relatively unexpected move, but in retrospect it makes perfect sense. In order to unseat Blackberry as the number one wireless player in the US, Apple needed to have an enterprise story. What's more, Apple has realized that the days when people carried two phones are over. With support for the enterprise (one device for both home and business use), together with its utility as...

RUSH: Last time I was in New York or maybe two times ago, I asked on air, an open-air plea to Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, Inc., to help out with a couple problems I was having with the new operating system: OS 10.5 Leopard. Let me review the problems because it was funny. You know, every time I talk about Apple... I read a lot of Apple Web blogs just to keep up with the latest what's happening with Macs and iPhones and so forth. Any time I talking about Apple it's just guaranteed that some of these...

Bear Stearns analysts Andy Neff, Bill Hand and Ted Chung sent a note to clients this morning following Apple's (AAPL) announcement of a new developers' platform for the iPhone. Key excerpts: WHY NOW? EIGHT COMPELLING REASONS. Despite current anxiety, we view current weakness in AAPL shares as an opportunity to add to positions based on our assessment of several positive inflection points: 1. WIDgets. With iPhone SDK launch today (3/6), AAPL further extended its lead in the emerging WIDget (Wireless Internet Devices: GPS, email, TV/video, social) market. Making media content portable is a 200mm unit (annual) market; making phones portable...

Apple today previewed its iPhone 2.0 software, scheduled for release this June, and announced the immediate availability of a beta release of the software to selected developers and enterprise customers. The iPhone 2.0 beta release includes both the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) as well as new enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide secure, over-the-air push email, contacts and calendars as well as remote wipe, and the addition of Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to private corporate networks. "We're excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community with potentially thousands of native applications...

In October 2003, as the computer world buzzed about what cool new gadget he would introduce next, Apple CEO Steve Jobs - then presiding over the most dramatic corporate turnaround in the history of Silicon Valley - found himself confronting a life-and-death decision. During a routine abdominal scan, doctors had discovered a tumor growing in his pancreas. While a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is often tantamount to a swiftly executed death sentence, a biopsy revealed that Jobs had a rare - and treatable - form of the disease. If the tumor were surgically removed, Jobs' prognosis would be promising: The...

Popularity of Apple among students, MacBook’s dual-boot option, and the benefits of standardization lead university to offer only Apple MacBooks to studentsNEWBERG, Ore. – Beginning next fall, George Fox University will supply every incoming traditional undergraduate student with a MacBook laptop. While the university has provided a computer to each undergraduate since 1991, the shift to all-Apple brings the university’s Computers Across the Curriculum program full circle. After offering a Macintosh Classic computer to all incoming undergraduates, the university transitioned to all PCs in the late 1990s. For the last several years, it has offered both options and seen an...

Russian security vendor Kaspersky Lab has announced it has virus protection software waiting in the wings, just in case Apple’s Mac OS X suddenly becomes a target for hackers. Kaspersky, based in Moscow, has no immediate plans to release a Mac product, but one could "be ready in just days," spokesman Timur Tsoriev said at the CeBIT show in Germany. Kaspersky's anti-virus technology is flexible enough to work on different operating systems, said CEO Eugene Kaspersky. The company's analysts have also cracked open an iPhone, which runs a slimmed-down version of OS X, to see how it runs. Whether to...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) affirmed on Wednesday its iPhone sales goal for this year and said it will give details next week of how outside programmers can create software for its iPhone, a move expected to spur demand for the multifunction device. Apple's Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, speaking at a Goldman Sachs investment conference, said he had "really good confidence" the company could hit its oft-stated goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of the year. Apple shares rose 3.7 percent in extended trading, building on a 3.2 percent increase to...

I am converting from blackberry pearl, outlook 2007 to iphone and entourage 2008 on macBook Pro. Anyone have any idea what to do and how to sync notes from outlook? I still can not believe that you can not just simpluy export from outlook, and import in entourage. Speaking of stupidity in software design.

(SHANGHAI) — Factories here churn out iPhones that are exported to the United States and Europe. Then thousands of them are smuggled right back into China. The strange journey of Apple’s popular iPhone, to nearly every corner of the world, shows what happens when the world’s hottest consumer product defies a company’s attempt to slowly introduce it in new markets. The iPhone has been swept up in a frenzy of global smuggling and word-of-mouth marketing that leads friends to ask friends, “While you’re in the U.S., would you mind picking up an iPhone for me?” These unofficial distribution networks help...

BAINS — West Feliciana Middle School sixth-graders left school last Tuesday with laptop computers and words of encouragement and caution. The students are participating in “Turn on to Learning,” a $5 million initiative to put Apple MacBook computers into the hands of more that 3,500 sixth-graders and their teachers across the state. West Feliciana’s students received their computers last fall, and Tuesday was their first opportunity to use them at home. “I think the kids are so excited about it, that they’ll take care of them,” Principal Darryl Powell said. “The parents are excited, too. They’re so proud their kids...

According to 9to5mac, Apple is preparing to drop the prices on its very popular iPhone and iPod Touch models, possibly as soon as next week. The rumored price cut will be $100 USD for both the Touch and the iPhone and the smaller capacity 8 GB Touch will be completely dropped from the line just as the 4 GB iPhone was last year.

RUSH: I have an announcement to make: Apple corporate called. Somebody from high up the corporate ladder at Apple Computer in California, out in Cupertino, called the office. When did you get the message? When did they call, late yesterday afternoon? All right, they called at nine o'clock this morning, very, very, very nice guy, put my IT guy in touch with them, working -- No, it was not Algore. Ha! No, Mr. Snerdley, it was not Algore. I'm not going to mention the gentleman's name because the Mac user community that hates me will start bombarding this guy. He's...

CONSERVATIVE shock jock Rush Limbaugh has asked Apple CEO Steve Jobs to fix a bug in his computer that has been annoying him for months. Even if he is annoying and some would say pig ignorant, Limbaugh does not otherwise conform to Apple's target market. For a start he is too old and a bit independent of thought. However, Limbaugh is a bit of an Apple fan boy and has four Apple Mac Pros.

ORLANDO, FL -- A small Florida company has turned one of the world's most popular high tech gadgets into a tool for American troops that can help save lives. "They speak with their hands -- a lot," US Army Sergeant Darren Williams said, remembering the times he worked to communicate with the local people during his year as a soldier in Iraq. "If you grab something, or if you say, 'Hold it.' Or, 'Pick it up. Pick it up.' You use that a lot, too," the Jacksonville-based Army recruiter said, waving his hands through a series of gestures. For Williams,...

Hi All, My step mother is looking at buying a MAC and she (and I) really don't know too much about them... Well, let me put it this way: She knows nothing about computers, while I've never even seen a MAC up close, though I work in IT. We both have a number of questions. My first bit of advice to her was to go to an Apple store, sit down with a sales rep, and see if the computer can do what she wants it to do. She currently has a Windows XP PC, and primarily uses paint programs...

Microsoft released Windows Vista to the world one year ago with ads likening the new PC operating system to such awe-inspiring moments as the first American spaceflight and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Charles Walling just wants it to work with his printer. The retired Seattle warehouseman has spent hours on the Dell tech support line, installed all the drivers and, yes, double-checked all the cords and plugs. No luck. The cause of the problem isn't clear, but Walling knows one thing: The same printer worked with Windows Vista's predecessor, Windows XP. "You can see the frustration," Walling said...

Analysts looking at both Apple's results and those posted by AT&T - Apple's iPhone partner in the US - have noticed a large discrepancy in the figures. Apple says it has sold 3.7m iPhones in total. AT&T says it has sold 2m iPhones, and European operators are believed to have sold between 300,000 and 400,000 handsets. Which means there are either 1.3m iPhones being used as bookends, or ....

Pros: Beautiful looks, great screen, innovative touchpad, lightCons: Expensive, no expansion, sealed batteryBuying advice: Apple has cut a lot of corners to meet its goal of the thinnest laptop. If you don't mind paying a high price (as usual bulked up further in the UK) and living without no CD drive and only one USB slot, then go right ahead. Apple Macbook Air With various rumour sites predicting a subnotebook Macintosh for weeks - and months in some cases - it didn't come as a surprise when Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the company's new super-svelte laptop at his Macworld...

Apple has lowered its projected shipments of iPhones from two million units to around 1-1.2 million units for the second fiscal quarter, which will end March 2008, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) quoted sources at Apple's handset component suppliers in Taiwan as indicating. Sales of iPhones in Europe have been lower than expected, pushing Apple to slash its shipment projection for the second quarter, the EDN quoted the sources as saying. Apple shipped more than 2.3 million iPhones in the first fiscal quarter, bringing total shipments of iPhones to close to four million units since its launch, the paper...

On January 22, 1984 during the Super Bowl, Apple ran their famous "1984" commercial. The voice-over intoned: Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology. Where each worker may bloom secure from the pests of contradictory and confusing truths. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own...

Californians may soon have to deal with climate change on a different scale -- and this time the culprit isn't greenhouse gas. The California Energy Commission is proposing a plan which allows the government to regulate household thermostats in the event of an "energy crisis." Under the proposed rules, all new thermostats will be fitted with technology that will allow the government to adjust the temperature of someone's home by plus or minus four degrees. Originally the plans called for mandatory compliance; however, amid public outcry, the plans have been slightly altered to allow an individual to turn off the...

Mac users are more likely to be open minded and liberal than the rest of the population, according to research conducted at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco this week.. Mindset Media, which operates an online ad network that targets people with the personality traits that fit its clients' brands, has released a Mindset Profile of Mac users. Mac enthusiasts descending on San Francisco in droves this week to see the latest Apple innovations are likely to have a lot in common with the open minded, liberal population they will find in the city, according to Mindset. The survey of...

Apple has officially announced movie rentals for iTunes. Studios involved include Touchstone, MGM, Miramax, Lions Gate, Fox, Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, Paramount, Universal, and Sony, just to name a few. The new feature will launch today with 1,000 available films by the end of February -- prices will come in at $2.99 for a regular rental, and $3.99 for new releases. You'll be able to begin watching your movie in 30 seconds, and will have the rental for up to 24 hours, during which time you can transfer the file to an iPod or iPhone and take it on...

In a year in which both Microsoft and Apple shipped major desktop operating system updates, one new computer-based system stands out above the others. Yes, I'm talking about Apple's innovative iPhone, with its multi-touch user interface, rotating screen, highly portable form factor, and multi-faceted capabilities. Because I didn't trip over myself praising the iPhone and ignoring its many problems like most other reviewers, some have misunderstood my feelings about the device. Allow me to be clear, though I think I already spelled this out in my multi-part iPhone review: Apple's smart phone is an important, trend-setting device, with a user...

TOYMAKER Apple has decided that Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage is so wonderful that it is trying to patent something similar. Apple have been doing wonderful things this year to really miff its loyal fan base and it seems it wanted to close the year by nicking the thing that annoys even the most loyal Microsoft user.

Apple has signed News Corp’s 20th Century Fox studio to a new online video-on-demand service in a deal that could change the way people pay for online film content. The agreement will allow consumers to rent the latest Fox DVD releases by downloading a digital copy from Apple’s iTunes platform for a limited time, according to a person familiar with the situation. Walt Disney is the only Hollywood studio selling its new releases on iTunes but these are available to buy rather than rent. Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate sell older library titles. The Apple-Fox deal, likely to be announced at...

It’s official, manufacturers are starting to dump Windows XP support entirely and some new models won’t even have Windows XP drivers or any kind of support available, anywhere. One reader, “Mark” contacted us regarding installing Windows XP on his HP V6610 (AU) laptop which is the V6620 in the US. “Mark” said when he went to the HP driver/downloads section that very few Windows XP drivers were available for it and he was right, there were almost no useful drivers for the laptop there. His call to HP support didn’t get very far as “HP is no longer supporting Windows...

If you haven’t upgraded yet - don’t!I bought my first Apple computer in 1978 - the original Apple ][ - and the obvious quality of the products has kept me coming back for more. Good thing the Leopard upgrade wasn’t my first experience of Apple quality. 10.5.1 isn’t it, either.I had great hopes that the first dot release of 10.5 would fix most of the problems. Sadly, that is not the case. Most Leopard installs are trouble-free. But if you rely on your Mac to make a living, you have to ask yourself if it is worth the risk to...

Apple and Think Secret have settled their lawsuit, reaching an agreement that results in a positive solution for both sides. As part of the confidential settlement, no sources were revealed and Think Secret will no longer be published. Nick Ciarelli, Think Secret's publisher, said "I'm pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and will now be able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic pursuits."

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: