WochenendMacOrama

In der Washington Post wird erneut das iPod Akku Thema ausgepackt und die Neistat Brothers dürfen dabei natürlich nicht fehlen:

"When you buy an iPod, nothing in the fine print of the owner's manual prepares you for the eventual, final power drain, or gives you any estimate of how far down the road death awaits. This appears to be less an omission or deceit on Apple's part and more of a callous assumption: All electronics go to heaven, kids. Apple and other manufacturers are carefully pushing consumers further away from the battery age, when consumers could try to fix broken things, or replace their power sources.

"There's a whole culture evolving," says Stan Ng, Apple's director of worldwide marketing for the iPod. "The iPod is a labor of love for everyone at Apple, but we still don't really understand just how much of a role it's playing in people's lives, how important it's really become. It's this emotional, visceral field."

Ng says everyone is learning together: Apple doesn't yet know how often consumers will want or can afford to replace their iPods, nor has the product been around long enough for the company to know accurately how long most iPods will last. (It's commonly thought the battery is good for about 500 full recharges. "We're hearing from people who bought theirs in November 2001 when it was first released," Ng says, "and they're still listening to their music.")"

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Bei O'Reilly nimmt man sich gewohnt lesenswert 'File Vault' an, inklusive FAQ und genauer Anleitung zu bestmöglicher Inbetriebnahme:

"However, like any such feature, it has not been designed to play with and requires that you pay attention to what you do. Therefore, while it is perfect for the business user or the frequent traveler, it is not something you want to use on your kid's gaming account or on grandma's tangerine iBook to protect her healthy cooking tips database -- unless she also beta tests Mac OS X v.11 for Apple. But that's another story."
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Gerüchteweise will Apple zukünftig Software per 'Software Update' verkaufen, inklusive Rabattmöglichkeiten für .mac-Mitglieder.
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iPodlounge.com berichtet vom neuen 'Grouping' (Gruppierung) feature in iTunes 4.2:

"In the latest release of iTunes appears a new feature called 'Grouping.' Grouping is another field you can edit and search on. Grouping is useful for Classical music, where a "work" or "piece" of music is multiple tracks but not the whole CD. It shows up in Get Info, View Options, and when you right click on column headers," as explained by 'iTunes Mike' in the Apple Discussions forums."
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Schöne Q&A Geschichte bei Forbes.com mit Arik Hesseldahl, der dort besonders über Apple berichtet:

FDCEDITORS: What happens when and if he leaves again? Is this a one-man company, or can Apple prosper without Jobs at the Helm?
AHESSELDAHL: Apple is very much a product of what Steve Jobs wants to project to the world about himself, and about how he thinks the world should be. I remember he was quoted on a TV program once saying that he didn't have any problem with Windows or with Microsoft, but he did say, "They just have no taste."
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Zusätzlich gibt es bei Forbes.com noch 'Apple's CEO Soap Opera':

"The roller coaster-like fortunes and performance of its computers are only half the story. Boardroom drama, corporate intrigue and egomaniacal personalities are the other half."

Natürlich kann man auch gleich seine Stimme für den schlechtesten CEO abgeben.
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Apple hat eine spezielle 'Academic Research' Seite online, welche Apples steigendes Engagement in diesem Bereich spiegelt. Dort besonders vorgestellt natürlich der Virginia-Super-Cluster, der als drittschnellster Supercomputer der Welt nicht nur gehörig Schlagzeilen machte, sondern vor allem auch vergleichsweise günstig gebastelt werden konnte.
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Ein 3,6MB großes Security Update wurde nachgeschoben:

Security Update 2003-12-19 delivers a number of security enhancements and is recommended for all Macintosh users.

This update includes the following components:
AFP Server
ASN.1 Decoding for PKI
cd9660.util
Directory Services
fetchmail
fs_usage
rsync
System Initialization
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Die nächste Camino Version 0.8 soll hoffentlich im März kommen, die Roadmap ist hier einzusehen.
(via macmegasite)
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CBS Marketwatch im Apple Lobesmodus:

"THE VISIONARY: Steve Jobs: He bears watching every year. First, Jobs conquered Silicon Valley in the 1980s with Apple Computer. Then he helped transform animated movies in the 1990s with Pixar Animation Studios. Now he is revolutionizing the way that people listen to music, with the iPod and iTunes. Stay tuned."

Ebenso bei den Gewinnern des Jahres 2003:

"Steve Jobs - At a time when legit music downloads were catching on about as quickly as, well, Apple computers, Steve Jobs came along and did it right with ITunes. Still, the most successful online music-seller isn't profitable, but its intent has always been to drive sales of IPod music players. With nearly 20 million songs sold since its April launch, not only has the cult of Apple embraced Jobs' brainchild with the vigor that only they can muster, but the concept has also sent competitors like Dell and Microsoft scurrying to get their own music services up and running."
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Das nur aufgrund der im Deutschen albern erheiternden Schlagzeile:
Apple to exhibit at BETT 2004
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Etwas Software für .mac-Mitglieder, Photostudio X von ArcSoft zum kostenlosen Download:

"PhotoStudio is a powerful, full-featured, easy-to-use photo editing application. It provides a huge collection of photo editing and retouching tools, plus a large assortment of enhancements and special effects with unlimited levels of modification. A highly affordable package, the program also offers many other high-end features such as image management, multiple undo/redo, multiple layers, editable text, macros and batch-processing."
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Real Networks verklagt Microsoft, mehr bei Mac-TV:

"Real Networks hat am Donnerstag eine Klage gegen Microsoft eingereicht. Auf einen kurzen Nenner gebracht behauptet Real, dass Microsoft durch das Bündeln von Windows und Windows Media Player eine unfaire Verdrängungsstrategie verfolge, die zu Umsatzeinbußen bei Real geführt haben, die nach Ansicht des CEOs von Real gut über einer Milliarde Dollar liegen könnten."