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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...

Everyone knows creative types love their Macs, but a new breed of Mac enthusiasts is emerging in the most unlikely place. — CIO — At Simply RFiD, a half-dozen software developers yearned for Macs at work. They liked the power and reliability of the Apple machines. Oddly, Simply RFiD made the switch to Mac Pros for its developers to write code for Windows computers. "We're small and don't want to deal with tech support issues, and that's what Windows has become," says Carl Brown, a software engineer and president of Simply RFiD, which helps companies use radio frequency identification technology....

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...

Apple has released three new "Get a Mac" ads starring Justin Long and as "Mac" and John Hodgman as "PC." My Favorite takes a stab at the Microsoft PC Search ads: Elimination. PC shows that PCs have good customer service just like Macs in Customer Care. Finally, PC has his own talk radio show PC Choice Chat".