Macintosh & Apple

Ten pros and ten cons for choosing the Droid over other phones like the iPhone, the Pre, the G1 or a Blackberry.

Apple's iPhone App Store, as long expected, passed the 100,000 app mark today.  Apple has been counting down the milestones since the store opened, last mentioning 85,000 in a conference call last month.  There are some interesting trends developing, however, that put that number into perspective.

Has Apple decided that among its top potential customers for switching to a Mac are Windows 7 pirates? Based on ads that Apple is buying on Google that might be the case --- search for "download Windows 7" and you'll see an Apple ad urging PC users to switch to the Mac. But search for "buy Windows 7" and you'll see no such ad.

Now you can jailbreak and unlock your iPhone -- even a 3G or 3GS with OS 3.1.2 or baseband 05.11.07. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers bow down and worship George "Geohot" Hotz. Not to mention really strange black & white photos...
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AT&T is suing Verizon for their recent "There's a map for that" ad campaign.  They complain that the maps that Verizon publishes could confuse people (even though they are clearly stating "3G Access") into thinking the white spaces on the map represent areas where AT&T doesn't have coverage.

Has Apple tweaked the new build of Snow Leopard to prevent you running Mac OS X on a netbook? Reports say that it won't run on Intel Atom hackintoshes any longer. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers wonder if it's a deliberate block or just a side-effect of something else. Not to mention movie timelines...
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MediaMemo today reported that Apple has been shopping a $30/month, all you can watch TV service to the networks that would compete with Hulu and to a lesser extent cable.  The service would be built into iTunes and run across all of Apple's products.  To me this has tablet written all over it.

NetNewsWire is the most popular RSS newsreader client on the Macintosh. It isn't just my favorite; the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg and many others mark it as their favorite way to read news on the Mac.

I thought it would be interesting to talk to Brent Simmons, the developer behind NetNewsWire, about the recent changes in the application and where it is heading.

Steve Jobs famously touts AppleTV as "just a hobby". –Like something they work on on weekends, sometimes. If they get around to it.

Google today introduced a beta of their navigation app for the Android 2.0 powered Motorola Droid. The application is an extension of its Maps.app for Android but it has a lot of the qualities of personal navigation software products from TomTom, Navigon and Garmin.

Now that Windows 7 and Snow Leopard are both out and Ubuntu 9.10 is all but out, it's time to revisit which one is the easiest to upgrade.

This may sound strange, but I believe there exists a certain subset of users out there who may be tempted to upgrade their PCs to Mac OS X rather than Windows 7. Here's why.

Unlike in baseball, when it comes to operating systems, it's two strikes and you're out. Given that Microsoft missed with Vista, if Windows 7 isn't a big hit, Microsoft is in for serious trouble

Apple hasn't had a flagship Macintosh lately; each model has had its area of specialization. The Mac Pros have always been the fastest but they have a very limited appeal. The MacBooks are the most popular. The Pro laptops are probably the ones to be seen with when out and about.

All of that just fell by the wayside. The new 27-inch iMac now is the "Mac to have".

Y'all know how this works right? Apple Store goes down. Fanboys go nuts. Apple Store comes back up bearing gifts?