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Parallels to make switching to the Mac easier, safe and painless August 24, 2009 by Dean Takahashi In the Windows vs. Mac war, we are at a crossroads. Apple is launching its Snow Leopard version of the Mac operating system on Friday at the low price of $29. Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system will launch in October with the primary aim of fixing the problems created by Windows Vista. There has never been a better time to switch to the Mac. Parallels, which makes software so you can run Windows or Mac software on the same machine and use them...

Intego Spots Malware Blocker in Snow Leopard August 25th, 2009 at 5:40 PM by Bryan Chaffin Snow Leopard contains a malware blocker, according to Mac antivirus software developer Intego. The company posted a screenshot of a warning dialog box on its blog that it said was from Snow Leopard, the Mac OS X 10.6 upgrade Apple is shipping on Friday. "We're not sure yet exactly how this works," the firm wrote, "but the above screen shot shows this feature working with a download made via Safari, detecting a version of the RSPlug Trojan horse in a downloaded disk image." If...

Psystar Hit with $5K Fine for Discovery Abuse August 25th, 2009 at 11:03 AM by Jeff Gamet Unauthorized Mac clone maker Psystar was slapped with a US$5,000 fine for discovery abuse, indicating the company's "guns blazin'" legal strategy may have misfired. The ruling came as part of Apple's case against the company for selling PCs with Mac OS X pre-installed. "The $5,000.00 penalty means that judge Alsup has found that Psystar has violated the rules of discovery," an attorney familiar with this type of case told The Mac Observer. "That indicates that Psystar is in trouble with the court. However,...

iPhone users talk on the phone less than regular cell phone users [ ... ] they spend a whopping 50% more time using their phones than average cell phone users ... [ ... ] iPhone users spend 60 minutes per day on their phones versus 40 minutes for cell phone users. iPhone users talk on their phones about 45% of the time they use it versus 70% for cell phone users. [ ... ] What makes up the difference? It's not texting - each type of user spends about 15% of their phone usage texting. [ ... ] iPhone users...

Apple's 99-Cent Apps Are Too Cheap, Microsoft Says By Barry Levine August 20, 2009 9:39AM Microsoft is wooing developers to Windows Mobile by promoting the idea that Apple, Inc. prices App Store apps too low at 99 cents. Loke Uei told developers "your app is worth more than that" in sessions preparing for Microsoft's launch of Windows Marketplace for Mobile. The BlackBerry, Palm and Android stores also plan to charge more than 99 cents. With Apple's App Store offering many free and 99-cent apps whose prices please buyers but frustrate many developers, Microsoft is wooing developers to its Windows Mobile...

Howdy folks, I apologize for the vanity post, but My Son needs a Mac for art school and I was wondering if any of you are in graphic arts and if so... Does any one have a Psystar? will it do the work that is necessary? It's running Mac OS X Leopard v10.5 Also, do you think there could be issue's in the future due to the Apple/Psystar court squabbles?

Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age? by Adam C. Engst Not long ago, Google produced a video that's making the rounds [1] on the Internet. In it, a Google employee asks people in Times Square in New York City a series of questions, such as "What is a browser?", "What browser do you use?", and "Have you heard of Google Chrome?" (Chrome [2] is Google's new Web browser; it's available for Windows and in pre-release test versions for the Mac.) Among the geek set, the video has gotten a lot of play because most of the people in the...

Letters from Microsoft: An Employee Tosses His Zune August 18th, 2009 by Daniel Eran Dilger Windows Enthusiasts like to paint me as biased against the Zune because I didn’t get a free gift basket from Microsoft and then turn around with a CNET-style gushing review of the me-too player that manages to consistently slink a year or two behind Apple. But what does one of Microsoft’s own developers think of the device? Here’s an independent report from a person deep inside the Zune maker. The developer, whom I’ll call “Mike Rosoft,” volunteered the following experience with the Zune in an...

'Store iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in a place where the temperature is between -20º and 45º C (-4º to 113º F). Don’t leave the device in your car, because temperatures in parked cars can exceed this range.' If the iPhone gets too hot, according to the firm, a warning will appear on the screen advising the user to switch it off. The warning continues: 'If this message appears, you should turn the device off, move it to a cooler environment, and allow it to cool before resuming use. 'Some conditions and activities that may activate the temperature warning message:...

Out with Treos, in with iPhones Monday, June 29th, 2009 by Scott Lowe Over the weekend, my family and I visited Louisville, Kentucky for TechRepublic’s tenth birthday and had a blast! The TechRepublic crew, as always, was a fun and friendly bunch.  While I was there, I mentioned to Jason Hiner that Westminster College was moving away from Windows Mobile-based Treos in favor of iPhones for mobile devices.  He tweeted this to the world (the guy has like 8 billion followers), so I thought I’d follow up on that conversation with a little bit of the background information. ———————————————————————————————– Obviously,...

Jobs Is Back, Apple's Still Standing, Life Goes On By Richard Adhikari at MacNewsWorld 07/01/09 4:00 AM PT Apple stock did not explode on news that Steve Jobs has indeed returned to the company following his medical leave. Indeed, shares grew at a fairly steady clip during the CEO's absence, and now they're nearly 100 percent above what they were when Jobs announced his leave. Meanwhile, the iPhone 3GS enjoyed a solid debut, but reports of excessive heat generation may spell trouble. After all the excitement about Steve Jobs' health, the market reaction to news that the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)...

Well, here's hoping you waited on that $99 refurbished iPhone 3G, because as of Monday you can get a new one for the same price. Apple just announced at WWDC 2009 that the 8GB iPhone 3G will stay on the market for $99. Forget refurbs--now you can get a new iPhone 3G for just $99.(Credit: James Martin/CNET) So what do you think? Now that you can finally get a shiny new iPhone with a full warranty (one year) for less than a hundred bucks, will you pull the trigger? Based on the comments in last week's aforementioned refurb post, I'm...

Rise of the machines: Arnold Schwarzenegger terminates school books and tells pupils to go digital Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: California is facing a $24billion budget deficit ...Arnold Schwarzenegger has a plan to save his state's failing economy - by terminating text books. The governor is telling children to give up the schoolbooks and turn to digital lessons to help the state avoid bankruptcy... ... he said: 'Textbooks are outdated, in my opinion.' He continued: 'For so many years, we've been trying to teach the kids exactly the same way. 'Our kids get their information from the internet, downloaded onto their iPods,...

Apple filed a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Miami on Friday requesting a modification of the stay that is preventing it from moving forward with its case against Psystar in the Northern District Court in California. Apple's case against Psystar for selling PCs with Mac OS X preinstalled has been on hold ever since the PC maker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the end of May. Psystar's bankruptcy filing put Apple's case in northern California temporarily on hold because all legal actions involving the PC maker are automatically stalled while the bankruptcy court begins its proceedings....

JUNE 5, 2009 Jobs Ready to Return to Apple Helm As Company Prepares New iPhone, CEO Comeback on Track After Six-Month Sick Leave After months of uncertainty about Steve Jobs's health, the Apple Inc. chief executive appears on track to return from medical leave this month, said people familiar with Apple. The big question now among Apple's business partners, investors and fans: Will Mr. Jobs make his reappearance at Apple's annual software developers' conference next week in San Francisco, possibly to unveil a new iPhone? Mr. Jobs, a survivor of pancreatic cancer, went on medical leave in January. He had...

Apple today released Life Support 9.0.3 (55.1MB) which provides system software resources that are shared by iLife and other applications, iMovie 8.0.3 (35.56MB) which addresses general compatibility issues, improved overall stability and fixes a number of other minor issues, iDVD 7.0.4 (27.5MB) which addresses general compatibility issues and fixes an issue where iDVD is unable to add title/comment to an image in the image details list, and iPhoto 8.0.3 Update (96MB) which addresses general compatibility, improves overall stability and fixes a number of issues. All of the above app updates are available via Software Update and also as standalone installers....

Has Microsoft, after more than 20 years of work, finally come up with an operating system that rivals the Mac OS? Are the two just different flavors of the same GUI?Hadley Stern, writing for Apple Matters, thinks this might be the case. It may have taken Microsoft 20 odd years to figure this one out but there is some pretty big news on the horizon. Of course the market-share battle is lost for Apple, although it continues to chip away here and there. But the innovation-share battle continues. And the big big big news:Windows 7 Doesn’t Really Suck …Unless Apple...

"With roughly five days to go before Apple kicks off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, signage spotted around the Moscone Center can already be seen paying homage to all things App Store," AppleInsider reports. "AppleInsider reader Alan Jackson burnt the midnight oil on Wednesday to deliver this Flickr album of 22 photos he snapped outside the Moscone West Tuesday evening, the conference hall where Apple will deliver its inaugural keynote early next week and proceed into individual training sessions," AppleInsider reports. "Nothing related to Mac OS X or Snow Leopard can be seen from the photos, suggesting...

OK - so - I do 90% of my work using my Macs - a 12" iBook (last generation) and a PowerMac Dual G5 desktop. The other 10% I spend with an HP Pavilion Laptop (Vista). So - Working with Powerpoint on both platforms - I have found that there is a huge difference in functionality - with the Mac version generally being for more tolerant of media files (both audio and video) With Powerpoint 2008 (Mac), I can throw pretty much any popular format audio file or video file and it just works. Take that same presentation (saved on...

Apple, along with more than a dozen other firms conducting e-commerce, have been hit with a lawsuit from a patent trolling claiming first rights to technology that simplifies the re-billing process for repeat customers making purchases through online stores. The 28-page formal complaint was filed late last month by little-known Actus, LCC in its home town of Marshall, Texas, the undisputed patent lawsuit capital of the United States. It alleges that 15 companies, including Apple, Best Buy, and Amazon, are infringing on one or more of several similarly structured patents -- No. 7,328,189, No. 7,249,099, No. 7,376,621 and No. 7,177,838...

June 02, 2009 Apple's Nehalem Xserve serves the need for speed Sleek, new Mac OS X rack server sets a far higher bar for performance and power efficiency Apple's Nehalem Xserve packs more into one rack unit than any other server. For one price, you get a best-in-class server and a commercial Unix OS with unlimited client licenses, plus a foolproof management GUI. The 2.26GHz eight-core model outguns and out-greens the original 3GHz, eight-core Harpertown Xserve if you fill it with RAM.From the start, Apple's Xserve has ranked best-in-class in build quality, engineering, durability, and serviceability among 1U x86 rack...

Apple today released GarageBand 5.0.2 which addresses general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and fixes a number of other minor issues. The issues addressed include: • Improved purchasing experience for Artist Lessons in the GarageBand Lesson Store • Accessing installed Jam Packs in the loop browser The update is recommended for all users of GarageBand '09 and required to use the Lesson Store. GarageBand 5.0.2 is available via Software Update and also as a standalone installer. More info and download link (108MB) here.

Apple today released QuickTime 7.6.2 for Mac and QuickTime 7.6.2 for Windows, both of which include changes that increase reliability, improve compatibility and enhance security.This release is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users. QuickTime 7.6.2 is available via Software Update and also via standalone installers. More info and download links: • QuickTime 7.6.2 for Mac • QuickTime 7.6.2 for Windows

Apple today released iTunes 8.2 for Mac and iTunes 8.2 for Windows, both of which now support iPhone or iPod touch with the iPhone 3.0 Software Update. iTunes 8.2 also includes many accessibility improvements and bug fixes. iTunes 8.2 is available via Software Update and also via standalone installers. More info and download links: • iTunes 8.2 for Mac • iTunes 8.2 for Windows (64 bit)

Dell has seen its latest quarterly profits decline by almost two-thirds as the worldwide recession continues to hit sales of computers. The world's second-largest maker of personal computers made a net profit of $290m (£182m) in the three months to 1 May, down 63% from $784m a year ago. Revenues at the firm fell 23% to $12.3bn. However the results were better than analysts had feared. Dell said the global trading environment remained "challenging". 'Cutting costs' Dell has already moved to cut costs in the face of falling sales, reducing its global workforce by more than 9,000 positions over the...

The University of Virgina collects and compiles information about students' computer use. The information has been collected over the past decade by student employees of ITC, known as Student Consultants (SCs) and formerly, Computing Advisors (CAs), a group of first-year students hired to advise and assist their peers with computing. The data is based on SC and CA surveys of first-year residence halls each fall.

"WASHINGTON (AP) - Law enforcement computers were struck by a Mystery computer virus Thursday, forcing the FBI and the U.S. Marshals to shut down part of their networks as a precaution. The U.S. Marshals confirmed it disconnected from the Justice Department's computers as a protective measure after being hit by the virus; an FBI official said only that that agency was experiencing similar issues and was working on the problem."

RussianMac is the latest company to release a Mac clone and test Apple's resolve to stop companies from selling its operating system. RussianMac Pro, Entertainment Center, Russian MiniMac RussianMac Standard, RussianMac Book, RussianMac MiniBook On its Web site, RussianMac says that a full version of Mac OS X Leopard comes pre-installed on its computers. The company also confirms that the operating system is able to receive automatic system updates from Apple once installed. This is where Apple seems to have the clone-makers over a barrel. Apple's Mac OS X End User License Agreement (EULA) clearly forbids anyone from installing the...

Several Mac security companies, Intego and SecureMac, have issued warnings related to an unpatched Java vulnerability that affects OS X. The flaw could be exploited to allow local code to be executed remotely, leaving the computer open to "drive-by-attacks" which can install malicious software just by loading a website containing a specially crafted Java applet. Hackers could also access or delete files on a system. Intego and security researcher Landon Fuller both claim Apple has been aware of the issue for over five months. The vulnerability poses particularly high risk because of the potential for hackers to use privilege escalation...

<p>ASBURY (AP) — Mary LaMour can't understand why her computer works at other people's homes, and outside, but not inside her house.</p> <p>Neither can a computer technician.</p> <p>"It's uncanny," said Chuck Freisinger, of Phoenix Computer Services in Dubuque. "My other technician and I looked at that situation. When it's in their house, it doesn't work. When it's outside, it works fine. She took it to a friend's house and it worked fine."</p>

Are Macs more Safe than Secure? No May 16th, 2009 Daniel Eran Dilger Everyone seems to get lost in their own words when talking about security and Apple. The Daring Fireball recently cited security blogger Dennis Fisher, who insisted it was “demonstrably false” to say there were not “any virus attacks on Macs.” However, rather than pointing out what a horrible pile of trash Fisher’s article was, John Gruber praised it (apparently to be nice) and then got lost in his own semantics on the subject. Sometimes you need to say “he’s wrong, here’s why.”Instead, Gruber wrote, “That [blogger's...

For those seeking the smallest, sexiest notebooks on the market, there are no closer two choices than Apple’s trend-setting MacBook Air and its late-coming competitor, the Dell Adamo. Though strikingly similar in many ways, they differ enough that true fashionistas will want to take a good hard look before plunking down $2,000 for either one. We’ve poked, prodded and broken out the calipers on both units to figure out which belongs in your chic Italian leather notebook bag. Read on to see which emerges victorious. DimensionsWe never thought we would see the day when laptops would duke it out over...

Earlier this week, a company called Tune Hunter accused music-finding service Shazam as well as a host of consumer electronics makers, wireless service operators, and digital music retailers of infringing on its patent on a music identification system. Shazam is named along with Samsung, Apple, Amazon.com, Napster, Motorola, Gracenote, Verizon Wireless, LG Electronics, AT&T Mobility and Pantech Wireless in a suit filed Tuesday over U.S. Patent No. 6,941,275, which was issued to Remi Swierczek/Tune Hunter in September 2005. The suit accuses Shazam's music discovery and identification service of violating the patent and the other companies of benefiting directly from Shazam's...

Mac OS X 10.5.7 is available via Software Update and also via standalone installers. OS X.5 Leopard users may update by selecting "Software Update..." under the Black Apple Menu in the upper left corner of your screen and following the prompts.

A few days ago, Apple filed a motion with the court seeking to compel Psystar to hand over financial documents pertaining to revenues, profits, purchase receipts, and invoices. Psystar responded by saying that it wasn’t in possession of the documents sought by Apple, and that some of mentioned financial records didn’t even exist. In a somewhat dubious series of claims, Psystar asserted that a) it lost pertinent documents in a move and b) it doesn’t keep basic financial records such as profit/loss statements because they’re a relatively new and small company. Not surprisingly, the court didn’t buy what in my...

Symantec says a new worm targeting Mac OS X spreads via email and network shares. But is it really a threat?According to Symantec, the Tored worm spreads through network shares and by emailing itself to addresses gathered from the infected computer's Address Book. It opens a back door to the computer, allowing it to be conscripted into distributed denial of service attacks as well as logging keystrokes (which could be used to steal passwords and other confidential information). There is no indication that Tored can execute without user intervention. For example, Symantec does not seem to suggest that there are...

In a minor coup against Microsoft' claims of better value for money in Windows notebooks, Apple has earned the crown in Consumer Reports' latest computer study for its current generation of MacBooks -- as well as in tech support and, very nearly, desktops. The new overview from the researchers' June report gives the Mac portables the lead in every size category, ranging from near-ultraportables up through desktop replacements. Consumer Reports' study covers not only performance but design, versatility, the screen quality and battery life. In the 13-inch category, the lead was substantial enough that Apple occupied the top three spots,...

Lately I've been thinking about why I enjoy working with Macs so much. Since switching to Macs from Windows a little over a year ago I've tried as much as possible to approach it objectively, calling out both the good and bad as I learned my way around OS X, and recording my findings here in this blog. It's easy to cite the UI consistency I enjoy with Mac based applications. As a software developer that obsesses with user interface design I have a deep appreciation for disparate applications using similar controls and metaphors. It's difficult enough for people to...

A CHANGING VIEWFor a long time, the only places where you would see an Apple Macintosh computer in a station were in the production or on-air studios. Macs had gotten a bad rap in the past for being incompatible with Microsoft networks, many printers, and other peripherals. For example, ProTools is often considered the “gold standard” in audio production software – and it is designed to run on the Mac operating system. In the studio, the venerable VoxPro system was originally offered only on the Mac platform, though now there is a version available for Windows. Often it was the...

New info from the MetaFacts research group shows that there are differences between the typical Mac user and the typical Windows users. I’m not saying we’re better, just different (in a, ahem, good way). According to MetaFacts: Sixty-three percent of Mac users spend more time using their computer than watching TV, compared with 57 percent of non-Mac households. (The national trend away from TVs passed the half-way mark between 2007 and 2008.) Fun is only slightly stronger among the Apple crowd. Sixty percent of Apple households say they keep finding more ways to use the Internet for fun, compared with...

To help soldiers make sense of data from drones, satellites and ground sensors, the U.S. military now issues the iPod Touch.Tying the hands of a person who is speaking, the Arab proverb goes, is akin to "tying his tongue." Western soldiers in Iraq know how important gestures can be when communicating with locals. To close, open and close a fist means "light," but just opening a fist means "bomb." One soldier recently home from Iraq once tried to order an Iraqi man to lie down. To get his point across, the soldier had to demonstrate by stretching out in the...

Traditionally, botnets have spread through PCs running Windows, and not Macs, in part because of the low market share worldwide of computers like the iMac, shown here behind Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a 2006 photo. (Paul Sakuma/Associated Press) A piece of malicious software unwittingly shared over a peer-to-peer network in January was the key tool in what security researchers are saying was the first known attempt to create a botnet of Mac computers. Researchers at Symantec say the Trojan, called OSX.Iservice, hid itself in pirated versions of the Apple application iWork '09 and the Mac version of Adobe Photoshop...

Ever since they started in the '80s, Apple's Mac operating system and Microsoft's Windows have followed different paths to attaining different goals. Windows went after market share; Mac focused on a seamless user experience. Beneath the superficial surface features, what are the real core differences between the two operating systems? Ask a Mac OS X fan or a Windows fan what the difference is between the two operating systems, and the short answer might be something like, "The difference is, the one I use doesn't stink." That response may underscore the emotional pull an operating system has with a particular...

What do you know? Macs DO crash! Has your computer ever crashed? No, I mean REALLY crashed? Like from 10,000 feet? Well, here’s the story of a Mac that did and lived to tell the tale. Above: Oh don’t worry, that will buff right out. When a Turkish Airways Flight crashed in Amsterdam earlier this year, killing nine people and injuring 121 others, there was one survivor that makes a pretty convincing case for unibody Airline construction: Passenger Sefer Baris’ MacBook Air. Sefer’s friend Bulent tells us: “He is working for documentary project in Turkey. A couple years ago he...

Apple has debuted four new ads in its "Get a Mac" campaign on broadcast and cable television networks across the U.S. The new ads take direct aim at Microsoft Windows and the various woes it inflicts upon its sufferers. The "Biohazard Suit" spot targets Windows' inherent insecurity, rampant viruses, worms, and other assorted malware. "Legal Copy" highlights the fact that every Windows boast requires extensive legal disclaimers and qualifiers. "Stacks" explains iPhoto's facial recognition capabilities; sounds expensive, but it's free with every Mac. In "Time Traveler," PC takes a trip into the future to the year 2150 to see how...

Apple today officially announced that customers have downloaded one billion applications from its revolutionary App Store, the largest applications store in the world. The one billionth app, "Bump" created by Bump Technologies, was downloaded by Connor Mulcahey, age 13, of Weston, CT. As the grand prize winner of Apple’s one billion app countdown contest, Connor will receive a $10,000 iTunes gift card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule and a MacBook Pro. “The revolutionary App Store has been a phenomenal hit with iPhone and iPod touch users around the world, and we’d like to thank our customers and developers for...

"Apple has filed a letter brief, redacted, asking the court for an order compelling Psystar to turn over financial documents in discovery and to designate a knowledgeable person to testify as to Psystar's finances. They've been asking for a while, and they did a deposition with the CEO of Psystar, but they tell the judge it didn't work out well, since over 90 times he said he didn't know or couldn't recall even basic things," Groklaw reports. "The unredacted portions of the letter brief show Apple telling the judge that Psystar's CEO and founder Rudy Pedraza 'would not answer basic...

But lack of netbooks could stymie Apple's growth, adds analystThe first uptick in consumer confidence in 17 months is good news for Apple Inc., market research firm ChangeWave said Thursday. According to Paul Carton, ChangeWave's research director, the company's April survey of 3,200 consumers showed a two-point increase, from 6% to 8%, in the number of people who said they planned to buy a laptop in the next 90 days—the first gain since November 2007. If it pans out, the increase means Apple can breathe a little easier. "The economy is finally starting to move in Apple's direction," Carton said...

Just a little while ago, Psystar filed its response to Apple’s letter brief alleging discovery violations. The letter alleges that Psystar has produced all of the relevant documents in its possession, and it is Apple who has impeded the discovery process by producing reams of irrelevant documentary information. Psystar further alleges that Apple’s request for the Court to compel a supplementary Rule 30(b)(6) deposition was moot at the time that Apple submitted the request to the Court as supplementary dates had already been given to Apple. In many cases, documents sought by Apple simply do not exist since Psystar is...

When I blog about applications that I've found I generally wrap up my posts with an open invitation to readers: Got any you like? Many folks have been generous and shared links and applications that I've used to expand my virtual toolbox and make my Mac experience more fun and productive. This time I turned that process around a bit and used Twitter up front. I put out this question: Looking for cool little Mac utilities that nobody knows about... I promptly received replies from a number of people with some cool applications that I had never heard of or...