os x

What Happens If Apple Grows Too Fast?

Chris Dannen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:39:54 -0500

CNBC is predicting that Apple may top Microsoft as computing's most valuable firm. But that kind of success might be self-defeating.

As CNBC rightly acknowledges, Apple has a long way to go before it can dethrone Redmond, but estimates that the guard may change as sooner than anyone could have predicted just two years ago. While Windows still wins the marketshare battle with around 90% of all PCs, Apple's annual revenue has more than doubled in the last four years, while Microsoft is growing more slowly.

Apple's Tablet Apps Will Live and Die by One Nerdy Thing

Chris Dannen — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:20:19 -0400

For an Apple Tablet to be a hit, it will have to be more than a big-screen iPhone. And the difference between a lithe, touch-based Mac and a giant, lame iPhone comes down to one crucial nerd-factor: memory management.

Apple's Snow Leopard Is an Unlikely Green Beast

Kit Eaton — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:10:00 -0400

Apple's Snow Leopard upgrade to OS X has many subtle behind the scenes powers that assure it'll remain cutting edge for a good while, but it also seems to have unexpected green skills: It could save the world 50GigaWatts of power.

Get the Speed of Apple "Snow Leopard" Without Buying a New Mac

Chris Dannen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:25:49 -0400

Apple just announced that it's next update to OS X, dubbed Snow Leopard, will ship on Friday. That's great news if you own an Intel Mac, but if you own an older machine, you're out of luck--version 10.6 won't support PPC Macs. But that doesn't mean you can't have all the refinements packed into Snow Leopard. Here are six workarounds that will keep your old warhorse running with the best of them.

Optimize & Clean

Apple Snow Leopard To Ship August 28

Chris Dannen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:01:48 -0400

After a period of downtime early Monday morning, Apple has reinstated their online store with one seminal addition: the ability to preorder Mac OS X, dubbed Snow Leopard, for shipping on August 28.

What Would a Facebook Collaboration With Apple Look Like? It Almost Happened...

Noah Robischon — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:38:32 -0400

How would Facebook be different today if its social operating system was built into Apple's OS X? The two companies spent a lot of time collaborating early on.

Is This a Microsoft Renaissance?

Kit Eaton — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:06:59 -0400

New data suggests Microsoft's Bing search engine is continuing to grow well, weeks after its launch. It's great news for the team at Redmond...but it started us wondering: Are we in the middle of a Microsoft Rennaissance?

The Smartbook Race Is On, and China Is at the Starting Line With an XP-Capable Phone

Kit Eaton — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:22:26 -0400

Yesterday I wrote about the smartbook--a half smartphone, half netbook device that's being pushed as the future of mobile computing. And now it looks like a Chinese firm has beaten everyone, and released a cellphone that runs XP.

Microsoft Turns Nice Guy? Windows 7 Release Candidate Free for a Year

Kit Eaton — Fri, 01 May 2009 09:24:12 -0400

Microsoft, corporate bully, evil monopolist, purveyor of buggy virus-ridden software and gargantuan money-making machine, is about to make the Windows 7 May "release candidate" OS entirely free to download, and functional until June 2010. Wait...what!?

Two Signs RIM is Revving Up Blackberry's Style

Kit Eaton — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 05:49:51 -0400

Blackberry, for all its success, suffers from one core problem: It's the boring corporate suit at the funky smartphone office party. Now two bits of news have popped up to suggest that RIM is trying to inject a bit of hipster design thinking into its products.

Why Won't the Apple Tablet Rumors Go Away?

Chris Dannen — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:25:07 -0400

Digitimes reported today that LCD manufacturer Wintek will produce displays for a new Apple [AAPL] netbook to be released this summer. We've been hearing about the non-existant Apple netbook for months. Why won't these rumors die?

When Will Microsoft Get a Clue?

Chris Dannen — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:24:24 -0500

It's been a tough year for Redmond: bricking Zunes, class-action suits, and the people-hate-Vista debacle. You'd think those three catapstrophes would be enough to make the PC giant shape up. You'd be wrong.

Microsoft Unleashes Windows 7 Beta As Free Download

Kit Eaton — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:10:44 -0500

As part of his CES keynote speech yesterday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer surprised the crowd by announcing that Windows 7 is now available as a Beta test version for free download.

MSDN and TechNet subscribers can get it immediately, and it'll be available to everyone to "test-drive" starting early January 9th.

MacWorld 2009 Rumor Round-Up

Kit Eaton — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:40:10 -0500

With the doors of the Moscone center in San Francisco soon to burst open upon a Jobs-less Macworld 2009, the Internets are predictably alive with rumors--some more believable, some less believable, some just stuffed with desperate hope. Here's a summary so far.

iPhone Nano

HP's New MediaSmart Home Servers To Play With Macs

Kit Eaton — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 06:04:43 -0500

HP's EX485 and 487 servers have just hit the network-attached storage scene, and they're likely to make a bit of a splash: they're apparently the first NAS devices not made by Apple that are officially compatible with the Time Machine back-up feature built into OS X.

XP Just Won't Die, So Microsoft Sorta Gives Up On Vista

Kit Eaton — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:25:25 -0500

While Apple is busy trying to protect its current-generation operating system, Microsoft has been trying to kill off its elder one. Windows XP use has rumbled on far longer than Microsoft would've wanted (original termination was scheduled for January 2008) thanks to poor reception of Windows Vista. And now Microsoft has caved a little further, and extended the deadline for incorporation of the OS into new PCs from original equipment manufacturers until May.

Apple Hasn't Copyrighted OS X Says Psystar

Kit Eaton — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 06:08:32 -0500

The Psystar saga has rumbled on for while now, but the latest move proves how bizarre the head-to-head with Apple has become. Psystar's lawyers are now claiming that Apple has not properly registered a copyright claim on OS X, meaning Apple's copyright infringement and DMCA suit against Psystar should be null and void.

Is Apple Planning A "Mac Nano?"

Chris Dannen — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:47:00 -0500

A Chinese company says it's producing a case for an upcoming iPhone Nano. Bits of code inside the latest version of OS X suggest a new Mac Mini. Are they one in the same?

Should Mac OS X Be Open?

Chris Dannen — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:30:48 -0500

There's a little computer company in Florida called Psystar making cheap Macintosh clones, that thinks that OS X should be open. But Apple [AAPL] thinks the company may be the puppet of a larger enemy.

HP Developing An OS?

Chris Dannen — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:24:16 -0400

Businessweek is hypothesizing that HP [NYSE:HPQ] might be ready to ditch Microsoft's [NASDAQ:MSFT] Windows and develop its own operating system.

Apple Sues Clone-Maker Psystar

Chris Dannen — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:59:35 -0400

Apple Adds a New Cat to the Pack

Rachel King — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:45:37 -0400

If you weren’t listening closely to the first couple of minutes during Steve Jobs’ keynote speech yesterday, you might have missed another significant product announcement: Snow Leopard OS X.

Mac OS X "Snow Leopard" Revealed at WWDC '08

Chris Dannen — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:44:29 -0400

As Apple WWDC 08 Nears, Rumors Mount

Chris Dannen — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:13:14 -0400

With less than five days until Apple's [NASDAQ: AAPL] Worldwide Developers' Conference in San Fransisco, Mac fanboys are getting some exciting peaks into the coming announcements. Spy shots taken at the Moscone Center, where the event is to be held, reveal large overhead banners displaying what seems to be a rebranding of OS X as a two-headed platform: one banner reads "OS X iPhone" and the other "OS X Leopard."

Apple Rumor Mill Buzzing About iPhone 2; OS 10.6

Chris Dannen — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:43:41 -0400