Sprint reportedly will launch the Palm Pre in May, timing that could steal the thunder of an expected new version of Apple’s iPhone.
According to the Boy Genius Report Web site, Sprint documents suggest Palm could begin shipping its touch-screen phone in May, a month before many believe Cupertino will introduce its next-generation iPhone.
The Pre, a touch-screen smartphone widely viewed as a rival to Apple’s popular handset, essentially replaces the Treo 755p.
Confirmation came Tuesday from Fortune on just how popular games are to iPhone users. Games comprise about 21 percent of the almost 19,000 applications from Apple’s App Store.
“Six out of the top 10 paid apps on Apple’s App Store are currently games or entertainment programs,” Fortune’s Philip Elmer-Dewitt wrote.
The nugget of information comes from 148Apps, a site that tracks applications offered to iPhone and touch owners.
The report echos ComScore, which recently announced iPhone users outpace every other segment for game downloads: 32.4 percent versus 3.8 percent for most cell phone owners.
This is why we use Macs. Well, it’s one reason, anyway.
There’s always a lot of talk in the blogosphere how one day Macs will no longer be impervious to computer viruses and malware, but every time there’s a real-world example of a computer network going down due to some kind of security issue or DOS attack, it seems PCs are the machines that get hit and Macs are the machines that keep going and going.
A computer virus hit the Vancouver school district on January 7, forcing 10,000 PCs off-line so district IT staff could wipe them clean, an arduous undertaking that, three weeks later, remains unfinished.
An online student forum by Point Grey secondary students identified the virus as Win32.Krap.b trojan, a bug that affects mostly Windows operating systems, shutting down computers as soon as users try to start them. Vancouver School Board spokesman David Weir said each of the district’s Windows machines were shut down, taken off the network and are being individually scanned and repaired as necessary. The project has caused major disruption throughout the school system, and frustration among teachers and students alike.
The report in the Vancouver Sun describing the situation noted that a Macintosh computer lab funded by the Parents Advisory Group at one school in the district was unaffected by the problem. Smart parents of the kids at that school.
Via Edible Apple
Apple now reaches a record 9.9 percent of Web users, according to an Internet monitoring firm. Net Applications reported a 0.3 percent jump in January of Macs surfing the Web.
A year ago, 7.57 percent of Internet access was Mac-based.
The number seems to run counter to fears the economy coupled with a post-holiday slowdown might hurt Apple’s online percentage.
Eagle-eyed CoM reader Joaquin Jang spotted what looks like a either a Pismo, the last G3 PowerBook launched in 2000, or its close cousin, the Lombard PowerBook G3 laptop launched a year earlier, in a recent Wells Fargo bank banner.
He writes, “Imagine my surprise when I went to log in to my bank account at Wells Fargo’s website and found this picture which appears to show my first Mac laptop, the Pismo, it could also be a Lombard which had a similar form factor.
While the Pismo still does some work for me, it’s not my everyday machine since it is nearly ten years old. Yet, it still makes it into a website ad nine years after it was introduced.”
So, which one is it?
Many thanks to Joaquin for the tip and screenshots.
CoM readers: if you spot other interesting Macs starring in ads, let us know!
FastMac is selling t-shirts with three new retro-inspired designs for $5.25 until midday tomorrow or until supplies are exhausted. This is a Special 1-day only sale, limit 1 per customer of any 25th anniversary design @ $5.25, additional shirts will be priced @ $9.99.
The designs include an homage to Apple’s classic 1984 commercial, and two other designs formed using a “word cloud” that lists every Mac ever made. This is probably one of those “don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-it” kind of deals.
CAVEAT EMPTOR: The FastMac store pretty much sucks with respect to navigation and, as of this posting, the special pricing is either not loaded or they have already sold out of the specially priced gear.
UPDATE: I just spoke with FastMac tech support and they are working on getting the pricing into the store as we speak. Check in after 3pm PST.
Via Gizmodo
Back in the dark mists of Time before the internet, Playboy magazine was among the more popular media vehicles serving up a stimulating cocktail of news, opinion, creative writing, gadget reviews and naked flesh. And over the years, the Playboy Interview gained quite a reputation for getting the most interesting newsmakers and personalities of the day to open up about their lives and philosophies in ways other mainstream publications could never quite match.
The Playboy interview with Steve Jobs was published in the February 1985 issue of the magazine, just a little more than a year after the debut of the Macintosh and a few short months before the Apple CEO would be ousted from the company he helped found. The long piece finds a 29 year-old Jobs at the top of his intellectual game and elicits commentary that, looking back on it now, makes Jobs appear both prescient and consistent in his views and in his dedication to Apple’s success.
Follow after the jump for a few choice comments from the interview and be sure to click through to the full piece from the Playboy archive.
Via Edible Apple
Can’t afford an iPhone? Me neither. That’s why I was so excited to see this photo of a Nokia phone dressed up as a Mac on Flickr. My old phone could use some panache.
A quick search through the comments shows that this is a theme from Dan Schwartz, and it’s compatible on quite a few different phones. It’s hard to find on his website, tucked into the About pages, but you can get the theme for your Nokia phone here.
Source: Dan Schwartz
The theme imitates the Mac without interfering with the phone’s functions. Dan used the application icons from Mac OS X’s system and one of the gorgeous Apple default backgrounds to give you the full experience. The theme even goes so far as to closely imitate the fonts used in the Mac system. All in all, these themes are an excellent escape for those of us who want to keep a little Apple with us all the time.
Meet Rob Baca. He’s a serious vintage Mac collector, with a total of 75 machines in his possession. He’s also the man who co-directed the documentary Welcome to Macintosh, which counts among its interviewees our very own Leander Kahney.
One of Rob’s computers – bought from a friend on the condition that Rob would give it a loving home – is this original 128k Mac.
What can you tell us about it, Rob?
The Apple Mactintosh Division, 1984
The Macintosh Division, 2009
Apple’s Macintosh Division had a 25th Anniversary reunion at the home of Alain Rossman (software evangelist) and Joanna Hoffman (the division’s conscience and first marketing person) to celebrate the unveiling of the Macintosh on January 24, 1984 – and Guy Kawasaki has a bunch of pics up from the event, complete with interesting tidbits and backstory info on the people and events that drove the evolution of Apple’s groundbreaking invention.
He’s also got a couple of interesting videos up, one of which we’ve posted here, showing Steve Jobs unveiling the Mac for the first time.
Time flies when you’re having fun, eh?