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Macworld Travel Travasty

by Vern Seward on January 6th, 2009 at 5:49 PM

Vern Seward tells a sad tale of flights lost and destinations found.

Piper Jaffray Finds Macworld Announcements “Underwhelming, As Expected”

by Bryan Chaffin on January 6th, 2009 at 4:49 PM

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said that today's announcements from Apple at Macworld were "underwhelming," but noted that this had been "expected." Mr. Munster said that the biggest announcement to come from the event was the new 17" MacBook Pro, though the company's software announcements (iLife 09 and iWork 09) continue to represent a, "competitive advantage for Macs over PCs."

 

The Onion Shows Us Apple’s MacBook Wheel

by Bryan Chaffin on January 6th, 2009 at 3:54 PM

In a brilliantly executed spoof, satirical news organization The Onion is showing the world Apple's newest member of the MacBook family, the MacBook Wheel. According to The Onion, Apple replaced the keyboard on its newest MacBook with a giant iPod-like wheel one uses to choose each letter, allowing one fan on hand for the fake event to compose an e-mail to his friend in only 45 minutes.

 

Was Phil Greater Than the Sum of His Parts?

by John Martellaro on January 6th, 2009 at 3:30 PM

Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller gave his first complete Macworld keynote, replacing Steve Jobs in that traditional role. While Mr. Schiller is a superb presenter, articulate and charming, there was more missing than just Steve Jobs.

 

Macworld Expo Keynote: Software Yes; Hardware No

by Ted Landau on January 6th, 2009 at 3:13 PM

Now we know the real reason that Steve Jobs skipped out of this year's Macworld Expo keynote. He didn't want to give a presentation where the major announcement was a non-removable battery. Or maybe it's the other way around. Maybe, once he decided to pass on the keynote (for whatever reasons), he took all the major hardware announcements off the table, saving them for a future media "special event." Either way, the result is the same: The most disappointing keynote in a decade.

Logitech Intros More G-Series Gaming Peripherals

by Brad Cook on January 6th, 2009 at 2:06 PM

Logitech on Tuesday expanded its G-series gaming peripherals lineup with three new products announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas: the G19 gaming keyboard (US$199.99), the G35 surround sound headset ($129.99), and the G9x laser mouse ($99.99).

 

Mac Box Set Includes iLife ‘09, iWork ‘09, Leopard

by Brad Cook on January 6th, 2009 at 1:50 PM

Recognizing that iWork '09 and iLife '09 require Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard, but not all Mac owners have upgraded to the new operating system yet, Apple Vice-President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller on Tuesday introduced Mac Box Set, which includes the latest versions of the iWork '09 and iLife '09 software suites, along with the Leopard upgrade.

 

Apple Takes the Wraps Off New 17-Inch MacBook Pro

by Brad Cook on January 6th, 2009 at 1:36 PM

Apple Vice-President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller on Tuesday unveiled the company's new 17-inch MacBook Pro, which, at 0.98 inches thick and 6.6 pounds, is the thinnest and lightest 17-inch notebook in the world, he said.

 

Apple Introduces iWork ‘09

by Brad Cook on January 6th, 2009 at 1:11 PM

During his Macworld Expo keynote address, Apple Vice-President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller on Tuesday discussed iWork '09, the company's productivity suite containing Keynote, Pages, and Numbers. Mr. Schiller also introduced the collaboration tool iWork.com, which will soon enter the Beta stage of development.

 

Apple Debuts iLife ‘09

by Brad Cook on January 6th, 2009 at 12:57 PM

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple Vice-President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller on Tuesday announced the release of iLife '09, the latest version of the company's suite featuring iMovie, iPhoto, iWeb, iDVD, and GarageBand. It will be available at the end of this month for US$79, or $99 for a family pack of five licenses.

 

Jing Allows Easy Sharing of Image, Video Captures

by Brad Cook on January 6th, 2009 at 12:08 PM

SAN FRANCISCO -- TechSmith Corp. on Tuesday unveiled Jing and Jing Pro, applications that allow users to add screen-captured images and videos to instant messages, emails, forums, Twitter, social networking sites, and more. The software automatically encodes the capture to TechSmith's Screencast.com service and places a link to it on the user's clipboard

 

Boingo Brings Skype Access to 100,000-Plus Wi-Fi Hotspots

by Brad Cook on January 6th, 2009 at 10:55 AM

Boingo Wireless and Skype on Tuesday announced an agreement that will allow Skype users to make calls from over 100,000 Boingo Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide via a feature called Skype Access, which will be included in the Skype for Mac 2.8 Beta software released the same day.

 

Apple Store Goes Offline Ahead of Keynote

by Brad Cook on January 6th, 2009 at 10:26 AM

Apple's online store went offline Tuesday morning, presumably in preparation for new products to be unveiled during the Macworld keynote to be presented by Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice-President of Worldwide Product Marketing. The Mac Observer will bring all the news from Mr. Schiller's discussion live as it happens. This will be Apple's final appearance at Macworld Expo, ending a run of more than two decades of affiliation with IDG's trade show.

 

 

IntelliScanner Debuts Mini Cubed Scanning Package

by Brad Cook on January 6th, 2009 at 10:19 AM

SAN FRANCISCO -- IntelliScanner Corporation on Tuesday introduced mini cubed, which includes a rechargeable mini scanner, a USB cable, a neck lanyard, pre-printed asset tags, and software in a metallic cube. The mini scanner, which is approximately the size of an iPod nano, features built-in memory for storing information before being synced to the software as well as scan and delete buttons.

 

Organization Software PersonalBrain 5 Debuts at Macworld

by Brad Cook on January 6th, 2009 at 9:52 AM

SAN FRANCISCO -- TheBrain Technologies is exhibiting PersonalBrain 5.0, the latest iteration of its visualization and organization software, at this week's Macworld Expo. The upgrade features an outline view with a broader view of information, visual tagging, a presentation mode with full-screen display, and the ability to save customized layouts created in expanded view, as well as to import outlines and mind maps created with other software.

 

Verbatim, Imation, SanDisk Debut New Storage Products

by Brad Cook on January 6th, 2009 at 9:34 AM

Verbatim, Imation, and SanDisk on Tuesday announced a new ExpressCard SSD, new external hard drives, and a line of one-button backup USB flash drives, respectively. Verbatim is in attendance at this week's Macworld Expo, while SanDisk is exhibiting at the Consumer Electronics Show, which kicks off in Las Vegas on Thursday, and Imation is at the 2009 Storage Visions Conference happening in Las Vegas on Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone, SlingPlayer for Mac HD to be Shown at Macworld

by Brad Cook on January 6th, 2009 at 8:50 AM

SAN FRANCISCO -- During this week's Macworld Expo, Sling Media will demonstrate SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone as well as a prototype of SlingPlayer for Mac HD, which allows Slingbox PRO-HD users to stream content to a Mac.

 

Google’s Picasa For Mac OS X Reaches Beta Stage

by Brad Cook on January 5th, 2009 at 6:34 PM

Google on Monday revealed that the Mac OS X version of its photo management software Picasa has reached the Beta stage and is available now as a free download.

 

EZQuest Announces Cinema Pro Rack-Mountable RAID

by Bryan Chaffin on January 5th, 2009 at 5:06 PM

SAN FRANCISCO - EZQuest announced Monday the Cinema Pro rack-mountable RAID solution, a RAID solution that can hold up to 16 hard drives with up to 24 TB of storage.  The device is hot swappable, and conforms to the 3U rack mount form factor. It connects via an external PCIe bus.

 

O’Reilly Highlights Photoshop Authors for Macworld Expo

by Jeff Gamet on January 5th, 2009 at 2:40 PM

SAN FRANCISCO -- O'Reilly Media and Book Passage started off their Macworld Expo activities a day ahead of the conference's official opening day with a special panel and book signing filled with Photoshop CS4 experts. The panel included Photoshop luminaries Lesa Snider King, Deke McClelland, Derrick Story, and Lightroom pro Mikkel Aaland.

 

Parallels Desktop 4.0 Build 3810 Released

by Chris Barylick on January 5th, 2009 at 2:25 PM

Virtualization software company Parallels released build 3810 of its Parallels Desktop for Mac 4.0 software. The new build, a 171.9 megabyte download, adds a number of new features and other improvements

 

Elgato Introduces New EyeTV Hybrid Adapter

by Chris Barylick on January 5th, 2009 at 2:01 PM

Long-time Mac accessory maker Elgato announced the next generation of its EyeTV Hybrid television and FM adapter for the Mac on Momnday. The adapter, which is immediately available in the United States and Canada, receives both analog and digital TV, including HDTV, by cable and antenna signals and can record said media for later playback.

 

AAPL Up 5% Following Steve Jobs Health Revelation

by Bryan Chaffin on January 5th, 2009 at 1:45 PM

Shares in Apple Inc. rose more than more than 5% on Monday following revelations from Apple Steve CEO Steve Jobs that he was on a treatment for a hormonal imbalance that had caused him to lose weight, and that he would begin regaining that lost weight starting in the Spring of 2009.

 

FileMaker Pro 10 Gets New Interface, More

by Jeff Gamet on January 5th, 2009 at 9:37 AM

SAN FRANCISCO -- FileMaker announced the immediate availability FileMaker Pro 10 at Macworld Expo on Monday. The new version of the database application gained a redesigned interface along with built-in SMTP support.

 

Apple CEO Receiving Hormone Imbalance Treatment

by Jeff Gamet on January 5th, 2009 at 9:06 AM

Apple CEO Steve Jobs offered the world a rare glimpse into his life on Monday when he revealed that he is being treated for a hormone imbalance. He claims the issue is under control, and is the cause of his weight loss during 2008.

 

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Recent Headlines - Updated January 7th

Tue, 5:49 PM
Just a Thought - Macworld Travel Travasty
4:49 PM
Stock Watch - Piper Jaffray Finds Macworld Announcements “Underwhelming, As Expected”
3:54 PM
News - The Onion Shows Us Apple’s MacBook Wheel
3:30 PM
Editorial - Was Phil Greater Than the Sum of His Parts?
3:13 PM
Ted Landau's User Friendly View - Macworld Expo Keynote: Software Yes; Hardware No
2:06 PM
Games - Logitech Intros More G-Series Gaming Peripherals
1:50 PM
News - Mac Box Set Includes iLife ‘09, iWork ‘09, Leopard
1:36 PM
News - Apple Takes the Wraps Off New 17-Inch MacBook Pro
1:11 PM
News - Apple Introduces iWork ‘09
12:57 PM
News - Apple Debuts iLife ‘09
12:08 PM
News - Jing Allows Easy Sharing of Image, Video Captures
10:55 AM
News - Boingo Brings Skype Access to 100,000-Plus Wi-Fi Hotspots
 

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