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Macworld Team

>> Postings for December 2008

Possibly Apple faulty adapters on the loose

Wed, 31 Dec 2008

We waited and waited for Apple’s Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adapter to start shipping.

Then we waited some more.

Dan Moren | Read more...


Intel releases quad-core notebook processor

Wed, 31 Dec 2008

The problem with computer chips? You can’t run just one, these days. Seems like everything’s got multiple chips or dual core - it’s enough to make your head spin.

The current king of the heap for the Mac is, naturally, the Mac Pro, boasting your choice of one or two quad-core Intel Xeon chips.

Dan Moren | Read more...


Tis the season for breaking and entering

Tue, 30 Dec 2008

‘Tis the season for breaking and entering. Following in the tradition of Santa Claus - the world’s greatest cat burglar - a pair of men appear to be robbing Apple stores in the Silicon Valley area.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that two thefts occurred last Sunday morning: one at the University Ave. store in Palo Alto, and another at the Los Gatos store about half an hour away.

Dan Moren | Read more...


Teen uses Apple GarageBand, MacBook to record album

Thu, 25 Dec 2008

I've had the opportunity to meet and talk music with some great talents in the music industry. Little did I know that a young talent lived only a couple of miles from my house in Bedford, Nova Scotia.

Sixteen year old songwriter Richard Wile contacted me on Facebook after seeing an article a local newspaper did about me last week. A Mac user himself, Wile asked if I would take a listen to a new album he just released.

Jim Dalrymple | Read more...


Will Google and Microsoft own the Web?

Wed, 24 Dec 2008

It’s something of an open secret that Mozilla, the organization behind the open source Firefox Web browser, gets most of its funding from Google 91 per cent, to be exact. The deal gives Google top placement in Firefox’s search engine bar.

But now that Google is also shipping Chrome, its own branded browser, some critics are asking whether the search engine giant’s deep pockets have allowed it to gain too much influence over the Web browser market.

Neil McAllister | Read more...


MacHeist spreads holiday cheer with Mac Giving Tree

Tue, 23 Dec 2008

It's that time of the season when kids get crazy excited and grown ups get crazy stressed out. Fortunately, the folks at MacHeist are letting us be kids again.

While MacHeist is generally known for selling application bundles, it's getting very much into the spirit of Christmas with its Mac Giving Tree, which gives registered users of the site free apps just for Christmas.

David Dahlquist | Read more...


The ever-evolving Macworld Expo

Mon, 22 Dec 2008

I've been attending Macworld Expos regularly since about 1991 or so, first as a civilian, then as a booth worker, and, for the past decade or so, as a journalist. I've seen the show evolve and change a lot over the years.

Before the ascendancy of the Internet as a commerce vehicle, Macworld Expo was largely a flea market; a bazaar where vendors would go to hawk their wares, where people would come to get discounts on products that they had only read about in magazines.

Peter Cohen | Read more...


RIAA stops suing individuals: Are we home free?

Mon, 22 Dec 2008

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has set aside its gavel and will stop prosecuting individuals for pirating digital music files, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Does this mean you should hop on Limewire and fill an iPod with illegal tunes? Not quite.

Instead of its usual strategy of pinning scofflaws and wringing them through the court system, the RIAA will shift the burden to ISPs.

Brennon Slattery | Read more...


Apple shocks world, reveals it is a huge corporation

Mon, 22 Dec 2008

I'm just as bummed as you are that this Macworld Expo will be Apple's last (and that last year's Expo was apparently Steve Job's last), but I am a little shocked by the Mac community's reaction to what was ultimately a business decision.

g--

Scott McNulty | Read more...


Apple co-founder to advise ModBook maker

Sat, 20 Dec 2008

There are signs and portents everywhere in life if you just keep your eyes open and know where to look--eldritch harbingers that presage the terror of days to come.

Just such an omen arrived yesterday when an email was slipped over the transom at MacUser HQ from Axiotron, makers of the ModBook, announcing that a shadowy figure had silently glided onto the company's board of advisors on a pair of electrically-powered wheels.

Dan Moren | Read more...


Ad stats: iPhone users sure love Wi-Fi

Fri, 19 Dec 2008

Yeah, your iPhone has access to that high-speed cellular data network. But admit it: you use Wi-Fi whenever you can, right? Why, these days I’m tempted to walk into every Starbucks I pass and log in for free Wi-Fi just because I can! 3G may beat EDGE, but Wi-Fi beats both.

Turns out we’re not alone. According to a report (PDF download) released on Thursday by mobile ad network AdMob, iPhone users divide their time almost evenly between cellular and Wi-Fi-based networks.

Jason Snell | Read more...


Apple MobileMe helps nab iPhone thief

Fri, 19 Dec 2008

If I got my iPhone stolen, I'm not sure I would have been as quick on my feet as TUAW reader, Rob.

Apparently, Rob had his iPhone stolen near his home in Kennesaw, Georgia. Bummed, but unphased, Rob headed down to his nearest Apple Store to buy a new one.

Cyrus Farivar | Read more...


Apple turns money into Imagination with UK investment

Fri, 19 Dec 2008

Apple's pretty judicious when it comes to investing their cash in other companies (or, at least, they're good about keeping it quiet).

So the announcement from a small British-based tech firm, Imagination Technologies Group, that Apple has bought 8,200,000 of its shares is a bit out of the blue.

Dan Moren | Read more...


A walk down Expo's memory lane

Fri, 19 Dec 2008

Everyone loves a good origin story. So with Apple's decision to pull out of Macworld Expo after the 2009 event causing many in the Mac community to reflect on the end of an era, perhaps it's instructive to turn our gaze back to the very first Macworld Expo, held in January 1985.

That's the idea behind this op-ed piece in Thursday's San Francisco Chronicle penned by David Bunnell, who not only founded Macworld Expo but Macworld magazine as well. It's a short-but-sweet article containing a number of Expo Fun Facts, including:

Philip Michaels | Read more...


New York governor proposes digital download "iPod tax"

Thu, 18 Dec 2008

Hey, you New York State residents - you've been getting a free ride on them fancy digital music downloads for too long now.

On Tuesday, New York State governor David Paterson unveiled proposed new taxes to help combat a $15.4 billion budget shortfall. These taxes would supplement plans to cut spending in a number of places - in fact, Paterson's proposed budget would be the smallest increase in spending in years.

Dan Moren | Read more...


Apple's departure leaves a hole in Expo, the community

Thu, 18 Dec 2008

It seems like many of my colleagues have, in some fashion, chimed in with their opinion over the news that Apple will no longer be exhibiting at the annual Macworld Expo in San Francisco and Steve Jobs will no longer be giving the keynote presentation.

I don't know how long Macworld Expo will survive after Apple exits the show, but I certainly hope it can keep chugging along.

Dan Moren | Read more...


Quadriplegic Mac user launches apparel line

Thu, 18 Dec 2008

Assistive technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the last few decades, thanks largely to the birth of the personal computer, which has revolutionized the way people with disabilities can live their lives.

The fact that a man paralyzed from the neck down is able to launch his own clothing line is a great indicator of how far we've come.

David Dahlquist | Read more...


The end of an era for Macworld Expo

Wed, 17 Dec 2008

For several years, trade shows - technology trade shows in particular - have been in serious decline. From Comdex to E3, large trade shows have been dying out or drastically changing their focus.

Even Mac Expo hasn’t been immune, as the east coast show was canceled after the 2005 event. (The Expo was moved from New York in 2004, and Apple declined to participate in the Boston show that year; the show lasted only one more year before being canceled.)

Rob Griffiths | Read more...


AOL releases AIM 1.0 for OS X

Wed, 17 Dec 2008

Please tell me that you haven’t been waiting, breath bated, for a “True AIM Experience.”

Honestly, you should really know better. But if you were jittering with anticipation, you'll be happy to know that AOL has finally released AIM 1.0 for the Mac, a couple months after the program was in beta.

Dan Moren | Read more...


AT&T now selling refurbished iPhone 3G units

Wed, 17 Dec 2008

I have a friend who refuses to buy anything used: he insists that all his purchases be untouched by human hands before his.

Sure, I can see the appeal to getting something brand-new, but it’s also a pretty expensive habit. Fortunately, if you don’t have the same hold-ups as my buddy, you can now snag a refurbished iPhone 3G from AT&T.

Dan Moren | Read more...


Tis the season to donate your old Mac to art

Tue, 16 Dec 2008

If you're anything like me, you're probably a horrible packrat and the worst of your collecting habits is your collection of Macs.

How can you let go of any of those machines when each of them was so important to you? I still harbour feelings for that horrible PowerMac MDD that filled my domicile with wind-tunnel level fan noise.

Derik DeLong | Read more...


Rumour: iPhone Nano at MacWorld?

Tue, 16 Dec 2008

What's Macworld without rumours? According to an iDealsChina report, Apple will soon launch a Nano iPhone-or perhaps an iPhone Nano - which purportedly is a smaller, cheaper version of you-know-what.

There's even a photo of the Nano iPhone's case, which iDealsChina claims is designed by silicone-case designer XSKN.

Jeff Bertolucci | Read more...


iPod touch ad is the funnest banner ever

Mon, 15 Dec 2008

Apple has a history of producing innovative web-based advertisements for the 'Get a Mac' series and now they've published a clever new web banner on Yahoo Games (also available here), advertising the gaming capabilities of the iPod touch.

In the thirty-second video - which is basically the same as the existing iPod touch ad - the entire top half of the webpage starts dancing along to the movements of the iPod touch.

Aayush Arya | Read more...


Pastebud brings Web-based copy and paste to iPhone

Sun, 14 Dec 2008

"Copy and paste." The words are shouted like a slogan whenever anybody starts discussing the limitations of the iPhone's operating system.

There have been several attempts by third parties to bring the functionality to the iPhone platform, such as the MagicPad app and OpenClip framework, but they've all been limited in what they can accomplish without the backing of Apple.

Dan Moren | Read more...


App marketing falls on developers, not Apple

Fri, 12 Dec 2008

As reported in Macworld, The Iconfactory's Craig Hockenberry recently posted an open letter to Steve Jobs excoriating the proliferation of what he called “ringtone apps”—essentially, 99-cent applications available for purchase and download from the App Store.

Hockenberry notes—as a lot of App Store developers have, almost since the day the App Store opened—that developers feel pressured to lower the prices on their products in order to secure favorable placement on the App Store’s Top Paid Apps lists.

Peter Cohen | Read more...


Design, quality could drive holiday sales for Apple

Fri, 12 Dec 2008

Technology companies are not immune to the struggles an economic downturn brings to consumers, especially around the holiday shopping season.

But although Apple hasn't commented on its recent sales and we won't see the next quarterly sales figures until January, the analysts Macworld spoke to think that all signs point to a good season for Apple.

Jim Dalrymple | Read more...


Nerd rapper posts iPhone-created music video

Thu, 11 Dec 2008

Ever heard of GOSHone? Neither had I, nor anyone else for that matter (his My Space profile has only under 200 friends at the moment).

But this mysterious nerd-core rapper has accomplished something that can only be described as "pretty cool." The self-described "mad scientist with computers, gadgets, and musical equipment" filmed his first music video entirely on a jailbroken iPhone.

David Dahlquist | Read more...


iPhone developer writes open letter on App Store

Thu, 11 Dec 2008

And so, with the death of the restrictive terms in the iPhone development non-disclosure agreement and the refinement of customer reviews, everything at the App Store is peaches and cream, right? No problems to speak of?

Really, come on: you should know better than that. While those issues certainly affected developers and their business, they were hardly the only impediment coming out of Cupertino. There’s the still-mysterious application approval process, for one. And, for another, the fact that the store has been inundated with 99-cent apps.

Macworld Team | Read more...


Remember, engraved iPods are yours for life

Wed, 10 Dec 2008

Times are tough, we know, so here's something to consider if you're planning on asking for (or giving) a personalised iPod for the holidays.

Apple's made it easier and easier to engrave an iPod with a special message - a two-line message is free and doesn't add anything in the way of shipping time. But there's a catch: engraved items aren't returnable.

Dan Moren | Read more...


Nintendo's Animal Crossing called gamers "nigga"

Fri, 05 Dec 2008

I turns out the Apple isn't the only company to have offensive content slip through its vetting process. Nintendo's big Christmas hit Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City has had to be changed at the last minute after reviewers discovered it included a racial slur.

When players discover a character called Baarbara The Sheep, she says to the player: "I almost forgot about you, Nigga. So got any juicy gossip for me, Nigga? Just thinking about it gets me all excited, Nigga."

Mark Hattersley | Read more...


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