The Mac Observer Blogs

The Mac Observer Blogs

Fewer Particles, More Debris ( Week of May 5) - Posted to StrangeCharm by John

This week, there was some discussion of what might be Apple's name for the next version of Mac OS X, 10.6. According to one writer who investigated last year, trademark filings show that Apple has only two names left: Lynx and Cougar. The hypothesis was that Apple wouldn't have two successive releases that start with the letter "L," but I don't really believe that. I also doubt that Apple would pay much attention to the current use of the term Cougar as an older woman in search of younger men. Lynx has two possible connotations. The first is.. (Read More)

Consumer Reports gets it right (at last)! - Posted to Ted Landau's User Friendly Blog by Ted

Consumer Reports finally gets it right! Consumer Reports may not be the most influential voice in determining which computers are most preferred by the buying public. But it matters. Each year, for the past who knows how many years, the magazine has dutifully provided its assessment of the best and worst in computers. And almost from the get-go, its overall assessment of the Mac has been negative. At best, the magazine viewed buying a Mac as an oddball decision, only advised for those willing to swim against the tide and venture beyond Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows universe. At worst, it downgraded and.. (Read More)

Particle Debris from the Week of April 28 - Posted to StrangeCharm by John

I really believe the TV networks are clueless when it comes to communicating with their viewers. If Steve Ballmer throws a book, let alone a chair, in his office, I hear about it. If Apple has something to say to its millions of customers, sending out a mass (opt-in) e-mail is not a problem. Intuit, which has millions of TurboTax customers, has no problem reminding me that it's time to purchase this year's tax program. But poor, whinny FOX TV. They move "House" from Tuesday to Monday, no one knows about it, and viewership is.. (Read More)

Talking to yourself on the Web - Posted to Ted Landau's User Friendly Blog by Ted

As is evident by what you are now viewing, I write blog entries. I also occasionally post reader comments to articles on other sites. Every so often, I wonder how many people actually read this stuff. Not my blog in particular (actually, I can get stats on this from the TMO staff). But blogs in general, especially the smaller more obscure ones. And, most especially, reader comments — at any site. Now I know that reader comments on some sites, such as Amazon and the New York Times, get viewed numerous times. But that is probably more the exception than the.. (Read More)

Particle Debris from the Week of April 21 - Posted to StrangeCharm by John

On Monday, I saw that another house had burned down thanks to a faulty power supply in an Xbox 360. "The console owner's house has been reduced to a near shack-like state following the fire," a local TV station reported. It's sad, and it's not the first time this has happened. Fortunately, the owner wasn't home this time. Also on Monday, Eli Hoffmann asked if Dell is "Dead Money" at this point. He cited several reasons why buying the stock at this time is a bad idea. In Wednesday's earnings report, Apple COO Tim Cook mentioned that.. (Read More)

The XO Laptop - Posted to Ted Landau's User Friendly Blog by Ted

As you probably know, the mission of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization is to provide their $200 XO laptop computers to children in the developing world. Back in December, I participated in OLPC's "Give One Get One" promotion. The deal was that I donate one XO laptop and get to buy one for myself. [The deal is no longer offered; you can still donate an XO, but you can't get one for yourself.] I finally received my laptop about a month ago. I have been playing with it, when I have had the time, ever since. From a hardware.. (Read More)

Particle Debris from the Week of April 14 - Posted to StrangeCharm by John

It's been an interesting week. Intuit got through the tax deadline filing without a major hitch, and TurboTax for Mac OS X just keeps getting better and better. No one likes collecting receipts and documents and ploughing through the endless questions, but TurboTax makes it almost fun. A few years ago, H&R Block abandoned its Apple customers for one year without warning and with no explanation. While they're back on the Mac now, that brief encounter with Tax Cut left a bad taste in my mouth. After that fiasco, I'm back to TurboTax and haven't looked back. On Monday, Blockbuster started.. (Read More)

Under the Radar: Apple at NAB - Posted to Jeff talks@TMO by Jeff

After four days at NAB I've noticed that even though Apple wasn't at the event, they certainly had a profound impact on the people that were there. I'm not talking about the Macs that were visible at so many of the booths; I'm talking about all of the iPhones and Apple laptops attendees had. I noticed almost immediately after arriving at the expo on Monday that there was a surprisingly high concentration of iPhones in the crowds. So many, in fact, that it felt almost like I was back at Macworld Expo again. Sure, there were tons of Blackberrys, but the.. (Read More)

CableCARD Conspiracy? - Posted to Ted Landau's User Friendly Blog by Ted

I am currently in the market to replace my 32" Sony LCD television with a larger (37" or 40") model. I like Sony and my preference is to stay with the brand. Looking over Sony's 2008 line-up, I had pretty much decided on a 37" model (KDL-37XBR6), when I made a disturbing discovery: the television did not have a CableCARD slot. The Sony I now own does have a CableCARD slot, and I have a CableCARD in it. I had assumed that Sony's high-end televisions would maintain this CableCARD capability. Not so. The CableCARD allows me to get all of Comcast's.. (Read More)

NAB From the Inside - Posted to Jeff talks@TMO by Jeff

Both Apple and Avid bailed on NAB this year, leaving a bitter taste in some people's mouths, and leaving others wondering if the film and video expo has finally outlived its usefulness. With over 105,000 attendees at the expo it seems there are still plenty of people interested in what goes on at the Vegas event, but it certainly changes the vibe when the two big names aren't around. After chatting with people in the Central and Lower South halls on Monday and Tuesday, I came away with the impression that there were more people feeling positive than negative about the.. (Read More)

In memory of Stan Flack - Posted to Ted Landau's User Friendly Blog by Ted

Today is a sad day for for the world of Mac journalism. Stan Flack, one of the "founding fathers" of all Mac Web sites, died of complications from a pre-existing illness. Former co-workers, Dennis Sellers and Jim Dalrymple have already offered their thoughts, with more I am sure to follow. Here are mine. My memories of Stan date back to when I was first starting MacFixIt. He and Dave Moser were at the helm of MacCentral. The word blog hadn't been invented yet -- but that's what we were all doing. MacCentral was perhaps the first Mac Web site to.. (Read More)

Particle Debris from the Week of April 7 - Posted to StrangeCharm by John

On Monday, MultiChannel News noted that the premiere of Battlestar Galactica got off to a great start. But that's a relative term, since they only had 2.1 million viewers and a 1.6 rating. Considering the fact that BSG is a great TV drama, I don't understand why the audience isn't larger. Come on TiVo users. Party on Friday and watch BSG on Monday, now that we have no more Sarah Connor Chronicles. On Tuesday, TV happenings expert Phillip Swann predicted that Sony and Microsoft would come to terms on a Blu-ray player in the Xbox 360. Sony.. (Read More)

Comcast vs. BitTorrent - Posted to Ted Landau's User Friendly Blog by Ted

The corporate and conservative Comcast has never been a friend of Internet neutrality. The free-wheeling BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol that rose to prominence in the wake of Napster's demise, has never been held up as a bastion of ethical use of the Internet. So you should not be surprised to hear that Comcast has been making it difficult for its subscribers to download files from BitTorrent sites. Comcast shifts gears Last week, as reported in the New York Times, Comcast announced a change in its strategy for dealing with BitTorrent. It would now "take a more equitable.. (Read More)

Particle Debris from the Week of March 31 - Posted to StrangeCharm by John

On Thursday, Channel Web reported that Windows XP, SP3 has been released to manufacturing. That update has to be one of the best kept secrets ever as Microsoft hopes that people will just forget about XP and briskly move to Vista. And on Friday, Bill Gates is so excited about Vista that he talked about how Windows 7 may be coming sooner than believed. Can things get any more confused? Probably. Now for all those who just can't wait to install Vista into Parallels, Microsoft is offering a secret, cost saving ($110) upgrade to Vista by purchasing.. (Read More)

The demise of the optical drive? - Posted to Ted Landau's User Friendly Blog by Ted

Last week, I read Dan Frake's intriguing column describing his re-evaluation of the MacBook Air. Essentially, after extended time using an Air while on vacation, Dan found that he did not miss the Air's lack of traditional features nearly as much as he had anticipated. This reminded me of a question I have been thinking about ever since the MacBook Air was released: What is the future of the optical drive? The Air's "missing" optical drive has often been subject to the same sort of criticism leveled against the original iMac's lack of a floppy disk drive. The iMac did have.. (Read More)