In a technological tale of two cities, Microsoft reported quarterly sales of its Zune media player fell by 54 percent as demand for Apple’s dominant iPod rose by 3 percent.
The $100 million drop in Zune sales came amid word Friday Microsoft would lay off up to 5,000 employees.
A number of factors are part of the contrasting sales picture. “It’s the category, it’s the business, it’s the economy,” Zune marketing director Adam Sohn told Macworld.
The BlackBerry Storm, RIM’s first touch-screen handset, has gotten off to a rough start in its bid to compete with Apple’s iPhone, according to a report Monday.
The phone, plagued by technical problems, sold 500,000 units a month after RIM unveiled the device Nov. 21, according to the Wall Street Journal. By contrast, Apple sold 2.4 million iPhone 3Gs in its first quarter.
Jim Balsillie, RIM’s co-chief executive, said swatting bugs after a product hits the shelves is now the “new reality” as cell phone makers attempt to duplicate Apple’s success with the iPhone.
A new trojan horse variant has been found in pirated versions of Adobe’s latest version of the Photoshop suite, security researchers warned Monday. The trojan horse is considered a “serious” security risk, opening Macs to malicious takeover by remote users.
The Trojan horse, OSX.Trojan.iServices.B, is included in Photoshop CS4 cracking software distributed on file-sharing networks such as BiTorrent, according to security software developer Intego.
“The actual Photoshop installer is clean, but the Trojan horse is found in a crack application,” Intego announced in a statement.
James Savage from the RetroMacCast got in touch to share his story of original Mac ownership.
James owns up to having a collection of 170 Macs. I’ll let him explain more…
When a computer gives up the ghost, there are a lot of things you can do to keep it around the house.
Here are a few ways we’ve found, if you’ve found a new way to give new life to your dead Mac, let us know.
Macquarium: when your mac is swimming with the fishes.
There are a ton of these — flickr counts nearly 700 — but this slick black version was made by Dave D’aranjo who rescued a Mac from a Singapore sidewalk and turned it into an aquarium. He spent a couple of months fashioning the fish bowl, following the how-to in low end Mac, then adding his own touches and getting a custom logo to give it a screen-saver look.
This is a page from The Magazine, an ezine-in-an-app that’s now available on the App Store for a dollar.
By itself, it’s not much to write home about in my opinion. The presentation is amateurish and the content not terribly interesting. And there simply isn’t very much of it. Not my kind of magazine at all, frankly.
But what’s more interesting is the concept of a mag-as-an-app.
Australian Cult reader Dirk Spennemann is one of those lucky people who, on starting a new job where everyone’s on Windows boxes, can insist on a Mac. His fabulous photo set demonstrates just how much he admires these old Macs, but we wanted to know how he got his hands on that 128k.
Over the last 25 years, Apple has put out legions of Macs. In honor of the anniversary of the world’s greatest computer, I’ve taken the liberty of classifying all of Apple’s industrial design into six eras, starting with putty, and continuing to the current black and aluminum hey-day. Click through and come take a trip with us back to 1984!
SOURCES
Walking the desolate streets of the Information Superhighway this morning, I thought I’d never find that slippery textured, geometric laptop modification of my dreams…
*(and it's not owned by Apple, inc)
Lacking the network of preexisting business customers, and B2B distribution channels of it’s principal rival IBM, Apple’s success was midwife’d by a hodge-podge of independent resellers and enthusiasts.
It seems apropos, on this the 25th anniversary of the Macintosh, to celebrate one of the few that remain of this early band of crazy ones, misfits and rebels, without whom Apple Computer would be little more than a footnote.
Image © 2009 Nik Fletcher
This post is really more about Macworld, the trade show and conference, than it is about the device that spawned it. But for 24 of Mac’s 25 years, the two have gone hand-in-hand.
While indications seem clear the Mac and Apple are both healthy and vital at 25, with years of relevance and innovation ahead despite whatever rough patches the economy may present in the near term, the fate of what has been for many years the Apple community’s most anticipated event is very much up in the air.
Of course the entire world is aware by now Apple decided to make 2009 its final appearance at the huge trade show held the first week or so of January at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. The smart money immediately proclaimed Apple’s move to quit Macworld spelled doom for the event.
Rumors swirled during this year’s show that Apple itself might be moving next year to the larger, far more ambitious International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held in Las Vegas right around the same time as Macworld.
Just this week, iLounge announced plans to fund a high-profile unified pavilion area for iPod and iPhone products at CES in 2010.
Blogger John Gruber penned Friday a misty paean to the City and the Expo, one of the smarter, more comprehensive assessments of the overall picture I’ve yet seen.
Gruber and I agree on a couple of points worth noting: as he wrote,
1) “There is nothing else like Macworld Expo, and if it fades away, there will be nothing to take its place.” With Apple gone, Macworld will be different and if it is to survive, it will have to be different in a way that keeps it vital and active for the diverse mix of large and small exhibitors that make up a healthy event; and
2) The great majority of exhibitors who make up Macworld, 90 percent of whose products are not available at the Apple Store, want the conference and expo to survive, but almost to a one they confirmed to me, as I walked the floor at this year’s conference (and to Gruber as well), – they will wait and see who else is going to stay on board.
This week a quiet campaign began, led by the community of Mac-o-philes who most definitely want to see Macworld survive and prosper. IDG, the event promoter, has agreed to give anyone who pre-registers now for next year’s event, January 4 – 8, 2010, a free Expo pass. Not buy one get one free, just register now and go for free.
IDG has also placed a big SUGGESTION BOX graphic on the front page of the website, a mailto: link the IDG PR representative I spoke with assures me the promoter will pay close attention to for feedback from attendees and exhibitors alike.
It may well be true that Apple no longer has a need for Macworld, that its growing chain of Retail Stores and increasing market awareness make it a bad business decision to spend millions of dollars to be the anchor tenant at the sprawling event.
For the hundreds of other businesses who’ve come to rely on Macworld as an opportunity to get their products in front of and tell their stories to thousands of people over four days in San Francisco, the stakes are very different.
Story and photos by Natalie Guillén
SANTA FE, New Mexico — As Arch Sproul unpacked half a dozen Macintosh Classic IIs, all six of his employees hovered around in excitement.
It was fall of 1992, and most of the employees had never used a computer before.
Today, four of those original computers are still in use, working overtime seven days a week at the Virginia Trading Post arts and crafts store, nestled next to dozens of other shops downtown. They are used mainly as cash registers, scanning bar codes, and keeping tabs on inventory.
The machines are rare examples of aging Macs that are still in daily use. They are a testament to the utility and longevity of the Mac, which celebrates its 25th anniversary on Sunday.
Times they have changed: a quarter of a century ago, reporter Michael J. Miller was on the West Coast bureau of Popular Computing. (Now he blogs for PC mag.)
A few choice extracts about his trip down to Cupertino to see the first Mac:
“I met with Steve Jobs, who was then Apple Chairman and heading up the Mac project, along with key designers including Burrell Smith, the original hardware designer and software designers Andy Hertzfeld and Bill Atkinson.”
“Most of the time I was meeting with other members on the team, but I remember Jobs coming in — he was very charismatic: intense, proud of the work and a bit prickly about any criticism. He and his folks were quick to put down the IBM PC and its clones for not pushing the envelope and settling for “mediocrity.”
“Jobs and the team were rightly proud of the new machine, which was very different from the IBM PC that then dominated the industry. Maybe it was the famous “Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field,” but even then I was entranced by the new machine and the possibilities it offered – particularly the graphical user interface.”
Miller’s trip down memory lane — complete with anecdotes about the Mac II, Apple’s first laser printer and the role of industrial design at Apple — is well worth a read.
Some iPod nano owners may being getting refunds after Apple agreed to pay $22 million to settle a class-action lawsuit, according to a report Friday.
Consumers who purchased the original nano introduced in 2005 could receive $25 as part of an agreement yet to be signed by the court, CNBC reports.
“Apple has agreed to provide a cash settlement of $22.5 million,” the Cupertino, Calif.-based company told nano owners this week. A $25 refund will be given to nano owners who purchased the digital music player without a “slip case,” designed to prevent the screens of early nanos from scratching.
Tarus Balog got in touch to tell us this fantastic story of an original Mac that got dumped. Tarus rescued it from certain doom, gave it a little TLC – and found a little software surprise waiting for him.
Get the full story, and some more great pics, after the clicky jumpy thing.
Palm said Friday it won’t be threatened by Apple’s hint of lawsuit should rivals mimic too closely its best-selling iPhone. The maker of the new Pre smartphone did some trash talking of its own, bringing up “fundamental” handset patents it owns.
“If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves,” Palm spokewoman Lynn Fox told the Wall Street Journal’s AllThingsD.
Fox said Palm controls a “robust patent portfolio” that includes possibly vital aspects of cell phone design. Palm’s Treo handset is seen as breaking ground for Apple and other smartphone makers.
Apple has delayed shipment of some of its new unibody MacBooks by up to a more than a month after originally promised, according to a report Friday.
In one case, a 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro ordered earlier this week won’t ship from its Chinese plant until February 26th and may not reach the buyer until early March, a reader told Apple Insider.
In another instance, Apple has automatically upgraded shipping to overnight for MacBook buyers.
I suppose it had to happen.
If you’ve been online since forever, you’ll remember the Hot or Not meme that was briefly that year’s Lolcats, until something more interesting came along.
But Hot or Not has continued to be hot (or not) ever since. And now you can download the Hot or Not app to your iPhone.
Or you could not.
I can’t decide if this is a delightful sign of the caring Mac community, or if it’s a sickening sign of people who can’t just leave a sick man alone.
Look, over here: it’s Prayers for Steve. Except most of them aren’t prayers, most are simply “Get well” messages. You can add yours. There are, of course, Google ads at the bottom. Could be worse: they could be plastered all over the top and sides too.
I don’t know, maybe I’m being too grumpy. Is this a good idea? You tell me.
A new Trojan Horse is currently hidden in pirated copies of Apple’s iWork ’09 available via various BitTorrent tracker sites, according to a marketing pitch, uh, report from security software manufacturer Intego.
While the pirated software is complete and functional, the installer contains a “bonus” called iWorkServices.pkg. This software is installed as a startup item where it has read-write-execute permissions for root: in other words, it has all the powers of a system administrator. This malicious software connects to a remote server over the internet, alerts its maker that it has been installed and gives this person the ability to connect to the affected Mac remotely.
Given this alert came from Intego, it is no surprise their software, VirusBarrier X4 and X5, protects you against this Trojan horse as long as your virus definitions are dated January 22, 2009 or later.
Meanwhile, SecureMac, has made a free and handy iWorkServices Trojan Removal Tool that does what its name says it will do.
Of course the very best defense of all against this kind of evilware is to get copies of your software legitimately.
Via MacMerc
Boxee released a new version of its free, open source social media software for Mac Thusday that includes support for ABC. Included, of course, in ABC support is access to one of the most popular network TV shows, “Lost,” which serendipitously had its season premier,…wait for it, Wednesday.
The Boxee peeps are duly excited because ABC also produces two other ragingly popular TV shows, “Desperate Housewives,” and “Gray’s Anatomy.”
News from torrentfreak indicating “Lost” was the most downloaded TV Show on Bittorrent in 2008 dovetails with Boxee’s plan, according to a spokesperson, who told Cult of Mac, ” we strongly believe that given the option, most users will opt for streaming a TV Show (with a reasonable amount of ads) rather than using a file-sharing service.”
Online streaming offered by ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, etc. has made progress over the past 12 months in terms of quality, breadth of selection and release windows (i.e. the time it takes for the show to be available online after it originally aired). In this respect, a service such as Boxee is a great alternative to the file-sharing networks.
Boxee hopes to release an Apple TV version within the next few days and is still working on making it available for Windows and Ubuntu.
Check out this 1,474 megapixel image of President Barack Obama delivering his Inauguaral Address.
David Bergman was fortunate enough to have a photographer’s press pass for the Presidential Inaguration in Washington Tuesday, and he used his access wisely. With a Gigapan Imager and his Canon G10, Bergman shot 220 images and took more than six and a half hours using Gigapan software to put them all together on his Macbook Pro. The completed TIF file is almost 2 gigabytes.
You can view the image in minute detail using flash controls at Bergman’s website, in full-screen mode here (I found this the best viewing on my machine), and at the Gigapan site.
Bergman has only just started exploring the photograph himself, but says he found YoYo Ma taking a picture with his iPhone. The first reader who solves “Where’s YoYo?” wins a great Cult of Mac prize!
iPhone application developer AppCubby has slashed prices on all its apps to 99¢ to combat what App Cubby founder David Barnard describes as, “the challenges of selling in the App Store.” Apps formerly priced up to $10 will now sell at a flat dollar fee, with satisfied users invited to make “donations” to the developer to fund future app development.
“The App Store [has] continued to frustrate me and foil my best efforts. So I’ve decided to try a little experiment,” Barnard says, echoing concerns he’s expressed before over the financial ecology of Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch application marketplace.
Barnard’s frustration, that “artificial market forces are driving down the price of apps, which in turn drives down the perceived value of the products we have invested significant time and money to create,” has also been widely expressed by developer Craig Hockenberry, who published a wish list of changes he’d like to see made to the AppStore back in December.
AppCubby’s “experiment” will be interesting to follow insofar as it appears to push beyond Apple’s AppStore pricing guidelines, which prohibit “sales” of software outside the approved channel. If App Cubby can gain greater exposure for its products by pricing them at a buck and fund additional development operations through donations made outside the AppStore, it could look like a better deal for everyone – including Apple – than trying (and failing) to move the same apps for $5 – $10.
Via iLounge
Documentary film maker Gary Hustwit recently got to interview top Apple designer Jonny Ive for Objectified, a movie he’s making about industrial design.
The interview took place inside Ive’s ultra-secretive design studio near Apple’s campus, which is harder to get into than Fort Knox. This is the first interview I’ve ever heard of taking place inside the studio. Quite a coup for the film. I can’t wait to see it.
In the meantime, I’m dying to know what machines are in the background of this still. I knew the studio was filled with CNC mills and 3D fabricators. Does anyone know what machines are shown in this shot?
The makers of the Boxee media center are reportedly investigating whether to emded its television streaming software in a variety of hardware, including game consoles.
“During CES we were approached by several device makers that wanted to speak with us about embedding boxee into existing or future products,” Avner Ronen wrote Thursday at the company’s blog.
Choosing a hardware solution would avoid requiring consumers either stream video from a computer or modify an Apple TV, a process that could interfere with using the Apple device to stream Netflix videos to your television.
Although embedding Boxee software is not in the near future, Ronen offered a poll, asking customers what hardware (set-top box, TV tuner, blu-Ray DVD, etc.) they would prefer and at what price.
In 2008, Boxee fixed their software after an update to Apple TV disabled the media streaming service. Boxee has received $4 million in venture funding from CBS, Netflix, Hulu and others.