[mac-hardware] Forum Topics

Lots of news from Apple this week. There is of course [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/technology/personaltech/12pogue-email.html?em"]the new Shuffle[/URL] which has the web abuzz with chatter because the controls are on the headphones and not the device (stupid design doomed to fail) and there is the standard [URL="http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/G-8Z2A_yWvk/another-patent-hints-at-mac-tablet.ars"]Mac Tablet[/URL] rumor (Yawn; call me when they …

[URL="http://skype.com/welcomeback/"]Skype[/URL] is an excellent VoIP phone service for telecommuters or company employees who travel a lot. You can make and receive calls from your computer for free, and get a personalized phone number, voicemail, and other upgrades for a small fee. Skype announced a new fee-based feature this week, voice-to-text …

So the analysts are saying computers are going to decline in volume shipments this quarter, for the first time in ages. I'm not surprised. The circumstances are probably worse for the IT industry than they were last time this happened, in 2002. The people who make these things have made …

Few things are more cringe-inducing than admitting to your boss that you lost your company-issued laptop. No matter how careful you are about securing your computer, sometimes all it takes is a second for it to vanish in a crowded airport or bus. To increase the chances of getting your …

Are small company software stocks – especially medical technology companies -- a safe, even profitable, haven for investors these days? Could be – especially if you’re looking to forego higher-risk plays like oil and financials – that your focus should be on smaller med tech companies, one institutional investor advises. …

I've never made it a secret that I'm a big fan of Apple products. I love my Mac Book Pro and my iPhone, but I have to say that Apple has been pissing me off lately. The company has decided to throw its legal weight around to protect its market …

This is absurd. Last week came the news that [URL="http://www.microsoft.com"]Microsoft[/URL] was going to launch a retail store - and now [URL="http://www.nokia.com"]Nokia[/URL] is going to do the same in the online world. The Microsoft idea is the most interesting as it's going to be imitating [URL="http://www.apple.com/store"]Apple's operation[/URL] much more directly, both …

[I]Hans plays with Lotte, Lotte plays with Jane Jane plays with Willi, Willi is happy again ~Games Without Frontiers, Peter Gabriel. [/I] I'm forever fascinated with the gamesmanship that goes on between Google, Apple, and Microsoft. You expect them to undercut each other at every turn, to do whatever it …

Microsoft is readying a new cloud service called [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/myphone/myphone.aspx"]My Phone[/URL] that enables users of Windows Mobile 6 or later to sync contacts, calendar appointments, photos, and other information with the My Phone web site. According to an [URL="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/02/06/microsofts-skybox-site-live-branded-my-phone/"]Engadget report[/URL] on Friday, Microsoft will officially launch the service at the[URL="http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/"] Mobile …

Are you an Android or an iPhone? Maybe you are undecided, which could be he best position to be in as it seems that the smartphone market is set to be spoilt for choice in 2009. It would appear that Apple is set to release no less than three new …

Beacon Research is out with its monthly, and highly useful take on technology stocks, focusing on Google and Yahoo, among others. In its “Traders Alert” report, Beacon says that a new alliance between Google and IBM make the latter a good buy. "Google Inc. (GOOG) shares slipped .38% to $341.70 …

Since Palm introduced its [URL="http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/daily-news/090109-CES-2009-Palm-Introduces-Smartphone-with-GPS/"]new smart phone[/URL] at CES last month, the buzz has been deafening and for that alone, Palm deserves a lot of credit. Let's face it, they were up until that moment, a company on life support, but with one smoothly-presented product announcement they were on the …

So Google has announced a new service that effectively lets you track where your friends are at any time via Google Maps and mobile phones. [URL="http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html"]Google Latitude[/URL] is either a mobile real time social networking work of genius, or a big brother work of the devil depending upon your viewpoint. …

Topping the news this morning is an announcement by Citigroup that it will finally crack open its wallet, stuffed with over $45 billion tax-payer funded TARP cash, and start lending again. The financial giant had come under fire in recent months for taking the TARP money and sitting on it. …

Last week Apple and Microsoft released their fourth quarter MP3 player sales figures, which Apple chooses to call its first quarter for some odd reason, and the numbers were a startling contrast. On one hand you had Microsoft with a 54 percent drop off in sales from the fourth quarter …

Apple has updated the iPhone and iTouch software to 2.2.1 with immediate effect. The new software is more a bug fixing patch than being packed with exciting new features. So if you were expecting to get that much waited for cut and paste functionality, for example, you will be disappointed. …

I've seen it all now - the most expensive phone in the world, probably, and of course it's an iPhone. Not just any iPhone from Apple, mind you, but a diamond-encrusted one. Here's a [URL="http://www.dialaphone.co.uk/blog/?p=2564"]picture[/URL]. It's yours for $1.6 million. OK, it's hideous and it's a gimmick and nobody would …

There’s a lot of news coming out of the technology sector today. Let’s start with Apple and the growing chorus among shareholders for an SEC review. Bloomberg has the story this morning, and it has to be at least slightly troublesome for the Apple brain trust. Says Bloomberg; "U.S. regulators …

It’s earnings week in Silicon Valley, even as the world is focused on the historic events in Washington today. Some heavyweights are on the financial reporting docket, including Google Inc., eBay Inc., Apple Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Here is a quick run-down of what we can expect this …

There has been a lot of chatter this week about the health of Steve Jobs. On one level, it's a perfectly understandable discussion. Jobs is a public figure and as such what happens to him--good or bad--interests us. But a friend of mine suggested that any discussion of Jobs' health …

Apple shares have fallen, although not as steeply as many traders had imagined, after CEO Steve Jobs announced that he was taking a six-month medical leave of absence. My first reaction was surprise. Six months? That sounded serious. Then disgust, as Internet trolls had Jobs on his death bed. As …

A wild news day for tech stocks, with Sony posting its first quarterly loss in 14 years and rumors running rampant that Microsoft will start laying off employees after all. A week or so ago, Microsoft issued a statement saying that the company would avoid layoffs, and would instead focus …

Not a good Friday on Wall Street, but then what else is new? The Dow is down 100 points, and the Nasdaq off 31 points, to 1,585 after a lousy jobs number (but not as lousy as many thought) and a seller’s run on Apple, Cisco Systems, and on semiconductor …

Let's face it, when you have Macworld and the Consumer Electronics Show in the same week, it's an overwhelming amount of news to deal with, even (maybe especially) for a technology journalist like myself who gets paid to follow the latest and greatest and report back to you. I've been …

Tech talk has more predictions for 2009, and the news continues to be grim. Economist Gary Shilling, president of A. Gary Shilling & Co., was on the show this morning with a laundry list of dark projections for the economy and the stock market. Specifically, Shilling says the recession will …

I was carrying around the headline of this post all day yesterday since I saw a [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/05/steve-jobs-apple-health-letters-full"]Guardian article[/URL] yesterday morning with the text of a letter Steve Jobs wrote to the Apple community. Jobs explained that he felt compelled to let everyone know that he was sick, but he was …

It looks like Apple, in spite of the absence of Steve Jobs from Macworld this year, is going to release something fairly special in its last appearance at the event. The [URL="http://cultofmac.com/apple-introduces-amazing-macbook-wheel/6665"]Macbook Whee[/URL]l has been leaked to a select audience and the Cult of Mac site has the exclusive video …

Sophos, the security outfit, has issued a [URL="http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/01/04/phishing-scam"]warning[/URL] for users of Twitter to be on the lookout for an evolving phishing attack which could steal personal data if they are not very careful. Already thousands of Twitterers are thought to have received messages from their friends which invite them to …

Martin Sosnoff, writing in Forbes.com today, offers one of the most comprehensive, clear-minded takes on the U.S. economy in 2009. He’s not bullish on tech stocks – yet – but he is cheerleading the biotechnology sector, which could offer investors some significant upside in a year where profits will come …

The new year is here and while I wonder what apple, microsoft, google, Rim(research in motion), have in store for us in 2009 I am looking back at what they gave us in 2008 and all the bugs and glitches they also gave us. Apple Apple brought us quite a …

An interesting report from the BBC this morning suggests that smartphone sales will decline worldwide except in developing nations over the coming 12 months. Well, duh. It's been known for a while at least in the UK that there are now actually more handsets than there are people. And as …

No Santa Claus rally for Wall Street today, with trading activity light and most investors taking it easy before the grind begins anew next Monday. The markets were down, slightly with the Dow off by 31 points and the NASDAQ down 19 points. Some odds and ends worth noting, however. …

Following my colleague's excellent blog yesterday about [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3724.html"]what Apple should produce in January[/URL] one rumour appears to be gaining increasing amount of ground - that there will be an iPhone Nano within weeks. The reason this apparently makes sense is that someone is making a case for it and there's …

This is the time of year for wish lists, so why not make a list of products I would like to see Apple make in 2009. I'm not under any illusions that Apple will actually listen to me, but this is a fun exercise and some of these would be …

So Dani (of Daniweb fame) was asking me to go through a few gadgets for the Christmas season. So of course I've left it until the last minute - with prices going the way they are at the moment (we're into closing-down sales and stuff over this side of the …

There’s a light trading load on Wall Street this week, with trader’s thoughts turning to visions of sugarplum martinis dancing in their heads. Anything to help forget 2008, right? Although 2009 looks like it won’t be any better. This, from Subir Gokarn, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s, Asia Pacific. …

So, Apple isn't going to do the whole razmatazz thing again, the European Macworld is off and Steve Jobs isn't doing the annual presentation in January. Let's get the last item out of the way first: Mr. Jobs' absence has led to a load of speculation about his health. I …

The stock market is up today on news that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates to spur lending and, hopefully, economic growth. The Dow is up 78 points and the Nasdaq is up 24 points in mid-morning trading. Analysts say that the Federal Reserve will lower the key U.S. …

Cnet [URL="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10122751-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5"]reported[/URL] the other day that Microsoft has placed an app, Seadragon, in the Apple AppStore, even before releasing it on the Windows Mobile platform because, get this, the iPhone is the only phone platform with the graphics chops to handle the application. There is such delicious irony in all …

To start hinting that you're going to make the best ever media phone this close to Christmas could of course save many of us a lot of money. "Of course, darling, I was going to spend £500 on a media phone for you but the [URL="http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/12/rumor-zune-phon.html"]Zune phone[/URL] is apparently coming …

It really should come as no surprise that Apple apparently does not consider the iPhone to be a phone at all, but rather what John Geleynse, Apple Director of Technology Evangelism [URL="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/12/12/apple_declares_iphone_a_challenger_to_nintendo_ds.html"]calls[/URL] "a console experience." That's what Geleynse told an iPhone Tech Talk developer event in San Jose, putting the …

It's an odd thing, being a journalist. Your job is to report what other people have said and only occasionally should your own view creep in, if at all. It's the same in America; the serious newspapers were exemplary in being fair to both sides in the recent election, at …

The stock market seems to be stabilizing after yesterday’s selloff, with the Dow Jones average up 120 points, and the Nasdaq up 24 points in early trading. We’re starting to see a trend where we have more days in positive territory than not – a historical sign that suggests the …

I love my iPhone, but like any device, it's far from perfect and there are several missing pieces. Fortunately, the App Store gives third party developers the opportunity to fill in these holes. Today, I'm going to review five tools that provide functionality missing on the standard iPhone. [B]Flash for …

I like to follow news about Apple and its products as much as anyone. It's interesting and fun and watching the speculation is a kind of voyeurism, a way to get inside a company that keeps a tight lid on information, but much like baseball trade rumors, which I also …

The iPhone App Store has been open for just five months, since July 11th to be precise. Yet in this time, so an Apple advert running in the New York Times informs us, no less than 300 million applications have been downloaded. Now those are two hugely important numbers, 300 …

Investors were banking on a lousy jobs number, and the last two days of trading have reflected that point That’s what I’m hearing from the traders I know – shrewd peope I shared trading pits with back in the day – almost to a man (and woman) saying that next …

Call it a tale of two headlines: "Microsoft and Yahoo in talks again on online unit": 30 Nov 2008/Reuters "Microsoft-Yahoo deal "total fiction:" 30 Nov 2008/Reuters So which is it? One of the key players originally mentioned as a possible replacement for Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang has told a Wall …

Mobile phones have become many things, and I am just waiting for the first to appear which does away with that 'make and receive voice calls' requirement. Mind you, there is some argument that the iTouch does that, considering that it is an iPhone without the phone bit. But I …

There is of course nothing wrong with Apple getting a slapped wrist because of its current advertising campaign for the iPhone in the UK. Essentially the ad demonstrated how simple it is to download and install applications to the phone, followed by how easy it was to surf the Internet …