MacMinute reader Alarik Skarstrom reports that Apple purchased a two-page ad for the Power Mac G5 on the inside front cover of The Economist… [MacMinute]
Looks that way to me… I’ve seen the ads in Business Week as well as Fortune.
Apple changing its basic strategy?
With Apple’s entry into the digital music business with the iTunes Music Store, which will be made available to Windows users later this year, “a fundamental shift in Apple’s strategy may be afoot,” David Zeiler writes in a SunSpot.net column. [MacCentral]
Is this laziness or ignornace?
In the NYT Business Section, page C4 there is a picture of an iBook running Safari with the Intel centrino page open. The caption reads, ” A customer at McDonald’s in Times Square takes advantage of the Wi-Fi capabilities there with a laptop that uses Intel’s Centrino chip” Aside for the fact that you can read the word iBook at the base of the screen, the guy is sitting on the other side of the machine — facing the back of the laptop…
If they wanted to use Intel Centrino, why not just place a PC machine in the photo? Is this laziness or ignornace?
The Good, The Bad, and the Avie
A look at Avie Tevanian’s legacy overseeing Apple’s software engineering. [Daring Fireball]
Pretty solid, yet highly opinionated at the OS X development under Avie Tevanian.
Macworld’s Last Tango in New York
The Apple faithful gather this week at the last Macworld expo in the Big Apple. Steve Jobs won’t even be there, so few expect fireworks — but plenty of nostalgia is likely. By Michelle Delio. [Wired News]
iTunes Addict Confesses
But, I rarely take advantage of this capability. I have to, gulp, admit that I’m kinda addicted to this iTunes Music Store thing. Is it a new disorder? You betcha. And one I highly recommend catching.[Joe Wilcox]
PowerBook Shown On Microsoft .NET Homepage
diskiller writes “It seems Microsoft is using a Titanium Powerbook on their .Net website! I wonder if they know that it is an apple laptop? This reminds me of the dell debacle earlier, when a powerbook was shown on a dell advertising page…” Sure enough, it’s a 15″ PowerBook right there at the top…irony thy name is Microsof [MacSlash]
How Apple’s DRM works
The author of the excellent PodWorks iPod utility is working on reverse-engineering the DRM in Apple’s iTunes Store AAC files, documenting the ways in whcih the DRM restricts your use of the file, and how those restrictions may be defeated.Link [via Boing Boing]
To be bored with Microsoft….
To be bored with Microsoft is to be bored with life. It makes me want to … drop by that Apple Store in Palo Alto. [Stuart Alsop]
Design According to Ive
At the launch of Apple’s new Power Mac G5, Wired News was granted an exclusive tour of the new machines by Jonathan Ive, Apple’s lead industrial designer. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
“It’s really much more potent when you don’t put on a veneer pretending to be powerful,” he said. “I see (the G5) as a tool. It’s an extremely powerful tool. There’s not a plastic façade that adds to the fact that it’s a really powerful tool. It’s very, very obvious that it is what it is.”
He continued, “From a designer’s point of view, it’s not an appearance game we’re playing. It is very utilitarian. It’s the use of material in a very minimalist way.
Apple Says New G5s Will Scream
CEO Steve Jobs claims the line of Power Macs set for release in August will be the world’s fastest personal computers. People who’ve seen the 64-bit monsters in action tend to agree. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Where is it???
Where the heck is the revised 15.4″ Aluminum PowerBook? What is taking so long for this to make an appearance? I can’t believe that Apple would just EOL the middle size.
Apple and Microsoft: Can this divorce be saved?
I remain concerned that there needs to be more great Apple software to help the platform along. But I don’t think that Microsoft’s withdrawal from that market will prove fatal for Apple. Steve and company are quite capable of filling any gaps Microsoft’s departure would leave.
I’d like to be concerned that someday I’ll have an Apple Macintosh for which the only interesting software comes from Apple. But when I think about it, I also have to wonder whether this is terribly different than Microsoft and a Windows machine.
The third-party software business isn’t nearly what it used to be.
Apple out to acquire Napster owner?
Roxio takeover makes sense [The Register]
iLife for Windows…beyond Napster.
Panther vs. Longhorn: The Rematch
The OS X transition must be completed now
Rather than argue back and forth as to why only 25% of all Mac users have moved to OS X, I really wanted to know the ‘real’ reasons. So began my research into why OS 9 users refuse to join the rest of us in OS X-land. My non-scientific answers are very disappointing, but are worth discussing. [MacNETv2]
Microsoft prepares reply to iTunes
As the recording industry swoons over Apple’s 99 cent download store, the software giant renews its bet on more-advanced subscription services. [CNET News.com Entertainment & Media]
Will it be a premium service for MSN, or just a service that runs Windows only?
BusinessWeek: Summer of Mac?
Alex Salkever suggests that this may be the Summer of Mac in his latest Byte of the Apple column for BusinessWeek Online. Salkever’s supposition comes from a convergence of events that he sees as important to Apple’s future — and its stock prices. He suggests that this summer may be one of Apple’s “best seasons in a long time,” in fact. [MacCentral]
Krakow Responds…
Gary Krakow responds this week to the response he received to his pretty negative review of the iTunes Music Store from last week…
I’ve received thousands of e-mails in the past week on the subject of Apple’s new iTunes Music Store. Many wrote to say they couldn’t hear the sound quality differences I spoke about, others said I should have been more clear that the problems with compressed music go beyond Apple’s format. And, of course, there were the usual e-mails from people who think Bill Gates dictates every word I write. Below is a sampling of the more printable reader reaction, along with my responses.
Apple vs Microsoft…
Apple executives took obvious glee last week in noting that the software centerpiece of the Microsoft conference, new graphics software that is scheduled to appear in “Longhorn,” Microsoft’s 2005 version of its Windows operating system, apes features that have been in Apple’s OS X operating system since 2001.
“You don’t have to look too far to see that this is almost a direct copy of Quartz,” said Philip W. Schiller, Apple’s vice president of marketing, referring to the Macintosh software that controls the computer’s display.
Microsoft executives declined to take the bait. “We only showed glimpses of the future of Longhorn,” said a Microsoft spokesman. “Wait until the fall when we’ll go into more detail at the Professional Developers Conference.”