Gadgetopia

I saw a post for this great case mod today, and had to check it out. Some guy took an old Mac SE/30, ripped the guts out of it, then stuffed a Mini-ITX logic board and a 9-inch grayscale monitor inside the case. He now runs Windows XP on the ...

Microsoft Watch: The Mac Factor: What does it say when Microsoft-Watch.com creates a page for Mac news?

Mac OS Forge: According to this article, this site is endorsed by Apple itself. Mac OS X includes a wide variety of open source software from FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, the GNU Project, and many more projects each its own vibrant developer community. Mac OS Forge is dedicated to supporting the ...

Hidden Costs of Mac Ownership: I read this entire article, and I can't figure out if it's pro- or anti-Mac, so it must be neutral. Once you get your Mac, those costs are done," said Mac Observer editor Bryan Chaffin. "You most likely won't need to pay anyone to reinstall ...

According to a Radar Online article, Justin Long, the guy who played the Mac in Apple's hilarious (but infuriating to some) "Get a Mac" commercials, is done. When the next round of commercials is filmed, John Hodgman will still be the PC guy, but there will be someone else to ...

Triple Boot via BootCamp: Instructions on triple-booting the MacBookPro to Windows, Mac OS, and Gentoo Linux. Via Slashdot.

It's time for a Mac-over!: This guy has perfected the method of re-skinning your PC to look like a Mac. Since I recently began using an Apple PowerBook G4 as my main machine, I've been searching for ways to squeeze a more pleasurable experience from my PCs. It turns out ...

Mac vs. PC: The Truth About TCO: This article about which platform is more expensive to run Mac or PC includes this good point: The Apple theory is that cost savings in support far outweigh the initial higher machine cost, giving Mac a lower TCO. However, noted Kay, ...

Everything s Coming Up Milhouse: Some great commentary on the state of the Mac. Even though I m generally a Mac hater, I don t disgaree with anything written here. The Mac has never experienced sustained growth at this sort of pace. Breaking this quarterly sales record isn’t a fluke — it’s part ...

Apple has beefed up its .Mac service in several ways, but it's still way too expensive. $99.95 a year for a gigabyte of storage space (combined Mail and iDisk), .Mac Backup software, .Mac Groups, your own Homepage, yadda, yadda, yadda... Who needs it? I guess I'm still hacked that Apple ...

Intrepid Mac-Hacker extraordinaire Leo Bodnar, who was the first to show the world how to over-clock a Mac mini, has written about some interesting things he's found exploring the innards of a Mac mini. Or more to the point, things he didn't find. I have noticed a missing unpopulated connector ...

A report on processing performance: This has got to be the mother of all Mac vs. PC comparisons for digital media processing. Fourteen pages worth of statistics.

I know this is late, and you've probably already heard, but today Apple cut loose the new Mac Pro the successor to the G5 Power Macintosh. Prices start at $2,199 for a dual-processor, dual-core 2GHz machine. An extra $1,100 will replace the 2GHz Xeons with 3GHz processors. The exterior ...

First worm takes aim at latest Mac operating system: I think Dorak wrote it. The so-called OSX.Leap.A worm is designed to spread over iChat, Apple's instant-messaging system. Security experts call it the first notable Mac worm in several years, surfacing in a forum on the popular MacRumorswebsite on Feb. 13.

Microsoft Revamps Mac Office Packages: "The company this month will ship a 'Student and Teacher' version [of Office] as well as a Professional release that includes Virtual PC."

Need a job? Don't use a Mac: Couldn't resist this one. When it comes to some big-name companies, Macintosh users may have a tough time landing a job. It's not just that the business world is dominated by Windows-based computers. It's because, at a number of large companies, Mac users ...

'Big Mac' supercomputer one of world's fastest: Fast and cheap the Pam Anderson of supercomputers. "A supercomputer built by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University from 1,100 dual-processor Macintosh G5 PCs looks likely to rank with the five fastest machines in the world, despite costing a relative pittance. In ...

Internet Explorer consigned to the Trash: There will not be another version of IE for the Mac: "[Microsoft] says that the decision has been made to make way for Apple's own Safari browser. 'Some of the key customer requests for web browsing on the Mac require close development between the ...

BW Online | Apple's Real Worry Isn't the Loss of IE: Good article on the future of the Mac and how it's tied in with Microsoft. "...far more daunting is the prospect of Microsoft abandoning the Mac version of its popular Office software. That's because Apple hasn't yet shown it ...

Mac Mini might inspire buyers in mass quantities: Gee, you think? Once Apple gets its manufacturing into gear, the launch of the Mac Mini its first budget computer is expected to pay big dividends for the company, which has been transformed by success of the iPod. Apple has ...

How I PC'd an Apple G5: Mac users will cry over this one, complete with pictures. I got a shiny new Apple G5 for Christmas. I loved the case, but I’m no Mac user. So I....Get a brand new dual processor G5, then...Rip out everything...Cut out the back of the ...

What do you get when you mix an air-cooled V8 powered sedan with a G4 Mac? The Tatra Mac G4, a combination GPS navigaton system, MP3 player, movie player, game machine, built into a Czech-built Tatra 613. It even has its own network with ethernet ports in the armrests, and ...

Wired's Mac blog passes on an interesting post from a forum: I went to the HERA particle accelerator in Hamburg, Germany [...] and what made me smile was seeing more old macs than ever before, all being used as the backbone of controlling every aspect of the collider - absolutely ...

The Contest: Here's a contest to be the first person to boot WinXP on a Intel-based Mac. It started out with a bounty of $100, but it's climbed to $3,097 at this writing, and it just hit Slashdot, so expect it to go higher. My MacBook is shipping on the ...

With all of the Macarazzi watching for every little change, Apple seems to have a hard time keeping a lid on new products. This time it's leaked info on a new Power Mac G5. Adding to speculation that the launch of a new machine may be sooner rather than later, ...

The beleaguered New Zealander Shane Anderson, moderator of The Mac EvangeList (one of the longest running Mac-centric lists, originated by Guy Kawasaki) is ready to hang it up, and is looking for someone to take up the mantle. The why of Shane's giving up the list is a long and ...

Some guy, supposedly a poor college student, is holding an old Mac SE for ransom. He's set up a website where you can PayPal him money to save the thing or burn it. So far, the balance is in the Mac's favor, but there's not much money there yet, so ...

A Month with a Mac: A Die-Hard PC User's Perspective: This is an exhaustive (15-page) review of OS X by a diehard PC user. In the first few paragraphs he explains that he uses and enjoys PCs, but he'll give the Mac a shot. He spent a month with ...

An InfoWorld article by Chad Dickerson tells of his accidental conversion from Windows and Linux to Mac OS X. "On a recent Friday, weary from shopping for a new PC, I grabbed the 3-year-old G4 at my desk and took it home to see what all the Mac and OS ...

'Big Mac' Ranked 3rd Fastest Supercomputer: Yeah, but just try finding software for it. "A supercomputer made from 1,100 off-the-shelf Apple Macs at Virginia Tech now ranks third among the world's 500 fastest supercomputers, many of which handle with ease 1 trillion calculations per second."

I rarely eat at McDonalds, but while on vacation last week our kids talked us into it as we drove across western Nebraska. My wife ordered a Big Mac, and unbeknownst to me, they had a Sony Connect promo going on where you get a free music download with every ...

WebSE - System 7 Simulation: Do you miss Mac OS 7.1? Here's a Flash simulator so you feel a little better. It even has a screen saver if you leave it sit long enough. Roughly what year would OS 7.1 be? We've obviously come a long way. Via Brad Rhine.

A Mac In An Enterprise: This is a good article detailing the travails of one guy trying to use a Mac in a PC-based IT shop. He manages to do okay in the end. "For the last two years, I have had to use a Dell laptop at work running ...

Apple's mean-spirited ad campaign.: Yeah, totally. My problem with these ads begins with the casting. As the Mac character, Justin Long (who was in the forgettable movie Dodgeball and the forgettabler TV show Ed) is just the sort of unshaven, hoodie-wearing, hands-in-pockets hipster we've always imagined when picturing a Mac ...

Sounds like the long expected release of Office 12 for the Mac is well on it's way through the halls of Redmond's Mac Business Unit. The thing most potential customers are looking forward to is a version that will run natively on Intel Macs, but it will also have many ...

Boot Windows XP on an Intel Duo Core Mac and Make Money: Someone has won the contest, and took home the bounty of about $14,000. I can't find many details, other than this: Contest has been won - updates to follow shortly. All further donations will go into an account ...

Mac mini case mods have already begun. This guy took a brand new mini, stuffed it inside a PC case, added a 250GB 3.5" hard drive and some cooling hardware, and ended up with a nice little home file server. The linked article gives a decent step-by-step guide to how ...

So we ordered a Mac Mini last month. Then, last week, we get a box from "ACI," which we astutely reversed engineered to "Apple Computer Inc." The excitement built as we opened the box and pulled away the paper packing material...and then pulled away some more...and some more...and some more. ...

Some guy has taken the Temple of Mac thing way too seriously. Check out the flickr images of his basement. Unreal. One commenter said, "Somehow it just wouldn't have the same aesthetic if it were a collection of Dell's or HP's." Too true. Too true. If nothing else, at least ...

Microsoft's Mac Hebrew snub prompts Israeli AntiTrust complaint: It seems like a small thing, but this has resulted in a suspension of Microsoft contracts with the Israeli government through the end of next year. "Microsoft's refusal to provide Hebrew support in its Macintosh Internet Explorer browser or Office suite has ...

It was 20 years ago today January 16th, 1986 that the Macintosh Plus was introduced. Its introductory price was $2599, and it had an 8 MHz Motorola 68000, 1MB of RAM (expandable to 4MB), no hard drive, and System 3.0 for its native OS. The Plus has the ...

Supply Snag Slows Down Mac Cloner: We wrote a long time ago how this guy was going to get sued into oblivion, but evidently Apple has to make an end-run to get at him they've ordered his motherboard supplier to stop doing business with him. Fraser used Apple-made motherboards ...

Thinking Different, Saving Money: Apple finally beat someone on price. Of course, you need to buy 1,100 dual processor G5 with a healthy education discount, but the more you buy, the more you save. "Lockhart estimates the hardware cost $5.2 million, a reasonable price, he said, for a supercomputer that ...

A Windows user spends a week with a Mac: This is from last year, but it's a good essay about transitioning from Windows to Mac. It seems balanced, and it reinforces my overall feeling: six of one, half dozen of the other. I think Macs are pretty, but I doubt ...

Mark Pilgrim's list of Ubuntu essentials for ex-Mac users: Kottke says Apple should be scared of this. Joe has used Ubuntu and claims that it's borderline amazing. [...] Mark Pilgrim recently switched to Ubuntu Linux after becoming fed up with proprietary Mac file-formats and the increasing use of DRM technologies ...

Apple Computer has a limited-time deal going on; order a new Mac mini from the Apple Store online before Halloween and you can try it out for 30 days. If you don't like it, call them up & ship it back on Apple's dime for a full refund. ...

The Apple Store has a Special Deals section where they sell refurbished hardware, and there are some sweet deals going on (don't let the word "refurbished" scare you off; you get what is basically new hardware and the standard warranty without the new hardware price.) For instance, you can pick ...

Mac Mini: The Emperor's New Computer: Attention: Before you rip the living hell out of this guy, please remember that he went to DeVry. And he has an MCSE. The Mini boots up into a stripped-down operating system which Apple calls OS X, similar to the stripped-down WindowsCE OS found ...

OK, you Mac users have been telling us this forever, but this is the first time I've seen anyone run the numbers: Are Mac Users Smarter Than PC Users [...] In other words, if we knew that Mac users, as a group, were significantly better users of written English than ...

ColorWare is an outfit that specializes in customizing Apple products (and lots of others) with most any color you can wish for. Recent reports suggest that they're gearing up to do the Mac mini in color as well! Some of their colors like Wet, Lilac, Envy & Mystique sound ...

Confessions of the World's Largest Switcher: A lot has been written about Virginia Tech's Mac-based supercomputer. This, however, is one of the more in-depth pieces, concentrating on Dr. Srinidhi Varadarajan the guy who built it and why exactly he chose the now-infamous route he did. "A prime constraint ...

Here's a job posting for anyone who has gripes about the Mac OS user interface, the skills to do something about it, and the onions to actually land the job. Apple's Mac OS X User Interface Group is seeking a senior visual interface designer to conceive, design and develop future ...

I won t argue (at least not against Deane!) that Apple s hardware is a tad more expensive than your run-o-the-mill WinTel gear Not that there aren t exceptions, but for the most part it s true. And a good example is the newly released 8-core Mac Pro, which starts out with a base ...

Apple's new dual-core Power Macs. My dream machine has arrived. Too bad I'll have to continue dreaming about it. I piled on the options to a new quad 2.5Ghz Power Mac G5 and I came up with a price of $22,930. The bulk of which is the premium paid for ...

Microsoft to stop developing media software for Macs: No Windows Media Player for Macs? Egads! How will you ever survive? Microsoft will stop developing a version of its Windows Media Player for Apple Computer's Macs, and will instead offer free technology that lets people play Windows Media files using Apple's ...

You can now buy a piece of the history-making Virginia Tech Supercomputer. MacMall is selling refurbished Apple G5 computers that came from Virginia Tech. In my opinion the Apple-refurbished systems are priced a bit high at $2799, which is only $200 less than a new G5, but they do come ...

Macintouch did a poll this week, asking Mac mini users about their experiences with the machines. Of those responding, a miniscule 3% reported having problems with their minis, compared to 11-12% for the rev. B iMac G5. And according to Consumer Reports, Apple desktops and portables have for years had ...

Top 10 Mac Failures: An interesting look at Apple miscues. Among them, the Flower Power/Blue Dalmation iMac and my personal choice of unforgiveable design, the round mouse. Users were not universally pleased with the new mouse. It was now totally symmetrical, preventing many users from easily telling which way is ...

No Windows Emulator for G5s "Apple Computer Inc. began shipping its Power Mac G5 desktop this month, but the new system will be incompatible with the Mac's top Windows emulator, Microsoft Corp. confirmed Wednesday. Virtual PC, which Microsoft acquired from Connectix Corp. in February, will not run on the G5, ...

Firefox 3 to drop support for older Windows and Mac X 10.2: I think this is wise. There comes a point when you have to move upward and onward. Currently Firefox 3 is scheduled to be officially released in May 2007. When Firefox 3 is finally released it is expected ...

Benjamin Daines was browsing the Web when he clicked on a series of links that promised pictures of an unreleased update to his computer's operating system. Instead, a window opened on the screen and strange commands ran as if the machine was under the control of someone -- or ...

When Apple started selling iPods, they had this theory whereby people would like the iPod so much that they'd sell more Macs. Given that iPods work fine with Windows PC's, I thought that notion was dubious at best, and a scheme to falsely build stockholder confidence at worst. It turns ...

Media Bias and Technology Reporting: John Dvorak makes a flameworthy point: most all tech writers are Mac users. There's a conspiracy to promote Macs. This is why when Microsoft actually does have a good idea, people look to trash it out of hand. With 90 percent of the mainstream writers ...

OS X Makes Slow Debut on PC: Two guys in Germany have built a PowerPC emulator to run OS X on an Intel or AMD-based machine. While this is cool, it's not nearly ready for prime-time yet: Biallas and Weyergraf warn PearPC is only a version 0.1 release and is ...

I'd like to give a hearty thumbs-up endorsement to the Mac as a productivity tool for developers, but I've found a chink in the 'super-cool-and-usable' armor, and no way to plug it: Subversion integration. Yes, you can absolutely install subversion on a Mac and use it in a terminal. But ...

Technically, it's only an Apple, since he's running Linux instead of OS X. My first question would be why bother, since 90% of what makes the machine is the OS. His response? As to the why ... Part of it is simply that I wanted to try something else, and ...

MiniHitch Product Specifications: This is a really neat little idea. The MiniHitch allows you to mount your Mac Mini on the back of your monitor, by making use of the 100mm or 75mm spacing VESA pattern mounting holes found on the back of many LCD monitors. Slick design as well ...

John Wiley & Sons, publisher of the infamous "For Dummies" tech books, is slated to release an unauthorized biography on Steve Jobs "iCon Steve Jobs : The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business'' and The Steve is not liking it a bit. So in retaliation Apple ...

Cornell University isn't playing nice with its Apple-toting students, and they are up in arms. Sort of. Cornell is currently conducting a beta trial of Napster's music rental service, which only supports Windows 2000 and XP, leaving anyone with a Mac in their dorm room out in the cold. To ...

I saw something yesterday about a new computer that Sony just released the VIAO VA TV-PC and my first thought was, "Great. Another cheap iMac G5 knockoff." Then I saw the price. $1,999.99 for the 17" model and $2,199.99 for the 20". Crimony! Compare that to the iMacs ...

While Google is busy trying to allay fears that their free 1GB mail service is too intrusive, SpyMac has already implemented it. And without the content scanning and advertising that Google is planning! Spymac's free membership includes: 1 GB e-mail account, 350 MB combined storage, personal blog, forum, gallery, auctions ...

through the eye of a Mac browser: This site will give you a screenshot of your Web page in Safari running on a Mac. The site getting bombarded lately, and the wait is 23 seconds...for each person in line. Figure there will be several hundred in line in front of ...

Apple introduces dual-boot software Seems Apple wasn't too worried about folks hacking their new Intel Macs to boot windows. They've been working on a solution themselves and it appears to be much more polished than anything a guy who never sees the sun could ever hope to create. Apple today ...

WalMart.com - Music Downloads was formally announced yesterday, and in typical Walmart fashion, they are undercutting the big boys in price -- 88 cents a single and $9.44 an album. But the service leaves much to be desired, as they will specifically exclude not only Mac users, but also the ...

When presented with the task of securing his new Mac Mini in a public place Matt put it where nobody would look for it. In a box nobody would steal. I didn't have a way to lockdown my new Mac Mini, but I did have an old Dell case I ...

KidzMail 1.1 is a full-featured email client designed for children. Kids can also draw pictures and send them (as jpeg attachments); recipients are chosen from a list of pictures and names in the address book. Parents can have full control over the address book. It even has the ability to ...

One thing a PC still does better than a Mac.

You might want to hold off on that Panther upgrade: "Mac users are roaring in rage because of a nasty installment glitch that erases data on external hard drives. After upgrading to Mac OS X 10.3, better known as Panther, they are finding external FireWire drives are no longer recognized ...

As if one needs more reasons, this one is a standout; according to a USA Today and Avantgarde joint study, it takes only 4 short minutes for a clean Windows XP SP 1 machine connected to the net without a firewall to become part of some spammer's zombie network. A ...

Boy, the MacWorld Expo is just full of goodies. First all the new stuff from Apple. Then Bare Bones Software cuts loose version 2 of TextWrangler a text editor for Mac OS X and announces that it's available for free! While TextWrangler doesn't have quite the feature set ...

Schneier on Security: Internet Explorer Sucks: Security God Bruce Schneier tells it like it is. MSIE was 98% unsafe. There were only 7 days in 2004 without an unpatched publicly disclosed security hole. Firefox was 15% unsafe. There were 56 days with an unpatched publicly disclosed security hole. 30 of ...

Developers Developers Developers Developers: This is one area where Microsoft has excelled: getting people to build software for its operating system. I have worked in an IT shop with the subscriptions Joel details below. It's overwhelming to have that much software. "If you're a software company willing to commit to ...

ImageWell: Neat idea for a little utility. It's lightweight image editor designed specifically to modify images then post them to a server. Via Reinvented who call it a "bloggers best friend." ImageWell is the easy way to edit, rotate, crop and resize your image and upload it to your iDisk ...

The Register has an article about a new IBM Japan gadget that would essentially put all the workings of a PC into a tiny (6.4 x 3.3 x 0.9in) enclosure: For now dubbed the PC Core System, the (literally) pocket PC is based on a 1GHz Transmeta Crusoe TM5800 processor. ...

Mac users froth, while Linux users befriend: Here's a pretty funny story about a USA Today writer, Andrew Kantor, who penned a piece about the supercomputer at the University of Virgina that's made out of G5 Macs. We've talked about this computer several times. A Mac site took offense at ...

Here's a funny video from a space shuttle flight that features a Macintosh. I can't tell from the video or the hosting site what mission it's from, but the machine is a Mac Portable, which was introduced in mid-1989. We've talked before about Macs in Space; one thing I didn't ...

Movie critic Roger Ebert recently answered a question from one of his readers regarding the use of Macs by the good guys in movies and Windows use by bad guys. "Since many Windows machines look alike, Apple is one of the few manufacturers that can gain by product placement, which ...

@Stake issues security advisories for OS X Jaguar: From the same company that fired an employee for disparaging Microsoft in a white paper: "Security consulting firm, @Stake issued three security advisories for Apple's Mac OS X operating system late last night. The advisories affect Mac OS X 10.2.8 and lower ...

Linux vs. Windows: Choice vs. Usability: Yes, yes, yes. The lack of standard operation with Linux GUIs (and perhaps more importantly individual Linux applications) is a huge barrier to desktop acceptance. "The multiple-GUI problem illustrates a basic difference in Windows and Linux. Windows has one general GUI interface ...

What's on Your Dock?: I know for a fact that Steve Jobs has a link to his Auto Puppy Kicker script on his dock. Let's just leave it at that. "Follow me, ladies and gentlemen, on a journey into the minds of some of your fellow Mac users. We're going ...

55 different OSes installed on a Powerbook: The only catch is that nearly all are running through Virtual PC. There are almost all that I need, like, and use. Some are there for nostalgia. Some are frivolous (consider EmacsOS), and maybe even ludicrous (consider "HanoiOS within VMware within Linux ...

A certain beer company salutes Real Men Of Genius. Well, today, I'm here to salute one of the Real Men Of Geekdom: Mr. Old Mac OSX Installer. According to the developers, PearPC using generic emulation (the only option on a non-x86) runs "about 500 times slower" than the host CPU. ...

A link I may come to regret showing Deane: DevX has an article on PHP-GTK, which provides PHP bindings to the GIMP Tool Kit, the foundation of the GNOME desktop environment. Now, PHP has begun to carve a space for itself in the standalone application arena as well with PHP-GTK. ...

HTML Tip: Sorting With The OPTGROUP Element: I found a tag today that I had never heard of before. OPTGROUP allows you to have an option in a dropdown that isn't selectable, is seperately formattable via CSS, and that other options are indented under. Until recently, the OPTGROUP element belonged ...

It's hard for good commercial software and shareware to compete with free software, especially when it comes bundled with the OS you're using. So the folks at Panic Inc. must've figured, if you can't beat 'em them being Apple's iTunes you might as well join 'em. Audion, "the ...

Oh great. Walmart is selling iPods. Just think... Now you can in one easy stop get your oil changed, pick up groceries, the latest DVD release, a low-cost Lindows laptop, a fresh pack of underwear, a 100lb bag of dog food, a Schwinn Stingray bike for your kid's ...

The GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program has just released version 2.0, which cleans up the interface a great deal. The GIMP has always been very feature rich, but Photoshop users considered it difficult to use (although many GIMPers would say the same of Photoshop). Started in 1995 by ...

Lots of discussion on MacInTouch the last few days regarding the Opener malware that's been caught in the wild recently: Our take on the whole thing is that it's a Macintosh security wake-up call but not yet an immediate, widespread threat. The two most disturbing aspects are that malware apparently ...

Robert Love points to an interesting article on Kernelthread.com on ten OS-level optimizations built in to OSX to improve performance. I'll bet even you Mac folks didn't know about most of this stuff. This document discusses ten things that Apple did (beyond initial/fundamental OS design and implementation) to improve Mac ...

A couple of interesting things about Google's GMail in this article: FIrst, and not all that surprising, is that GMail is running on Apple Xserve hardware, which is something I'd heard before (reported here earlier.) I'd be interested to find out if they're actually using OS X on them. Another ...

Apple Computer is looking to hire developers to put together a new screen reader app that will add the ultimate usability option for blind folks. We are looking for a Software developer responsible for the design, implementation and testing of a Screen Reader application on Mac OS X that needs ...

On the heels of their Mac mini reliability survey, Macintouch today published the results of the PowerMac G5 reliability survey. While the numbers aren't as good as for the mini, they are still good; of the 6817 respondents to their unscientific web poll, only 10.17 percent reported having problems. Anyone ...

Turns out the Macarazzi rumormongers were right: Apple Computer today announced a new lineup of G5 computers, all sporting dual processors. The $2999 top of the line machine has a pair of 2.5Ghz G5 processors, but also needs liquid-cooling. Liquid cooling is by no means new, but this is the ...

Well Macworld San Francisco 2005 is underway and as expected, Steve had some exciting announcements during his keynote. Some expected and some surprising. iLife '05 - A nice upgrade to an alreday great product. I'm excited because now iPhoto can handle any RAW photos I may take. $79 and ships ...

Mozilla Firefox has hit the big 1.0, and is available for download now. The update promises "Better Tabbed Browsing Controls" and "a horde of other bug fixes..." Free. For Mac OS X and others.

This may turn out to be nothing, but... A week or so ago, an app named iFlicks 1.0 was released by Helixent Technologies (of Mitchell, SD, of all places!) iFlicks was designed to help you organize digital movies, in much the same manner as iTunes does for music. It's unique ...

This is impressive; a rack filled with 22 Mac minis, driving 22 NEC 40-inch screens that make up the Threshold system, an interactive art display at a museum in Perth, Scotland. The mini's drive the monitors, with their display coordinated by Open Threshold, an open source app, which is the ...

Amid all the hoopla surrounding Apple's new iPhone, another newly introduced Apple-related item hasn't received much press; Axiotron and Other World Computing (OWC) introduced the ModBook, the first tablet Mac portable. It sounds like the ModBook is exactly what the name implies; a Modded MacBook. According to Axiotron, they provide ...

In case you haven't seen them yet, Apple has their clever new Mac vs. PC ads online. Great fun, unless you own a PC. But even then, you've got to admit they are funny.

Here's a funny hacked version of Apple's new iMac ad. (Watch the whole thing to better understand the post's title.) I guess when the Mac haters can't come up with any real criticisms they go making things up.

Beyond the obvious author Andrew Day has compiled an extensive collection of vintage Apple TV ads. Amazingly, this guy doesn't even own a Mac. Fire up your bittorrent clients and take a step back in time. Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

I thought this was interesting... I just wanted to tell you about a hack I experimented on my PC (I didn't really know what to do with it since I bought a Power Mac). It was surprisingly simple: I installed OSX86 and then Darwine. These are both simple operations. Now ...

Alex Salkever of Business Week has written an open letter to Apple's Steve Jobs in a recent column that provides some interesting perspectives on where Apple should go next in terms of its computer business. Most of his points are awfully hard to argue with. You've been to Target, right? ...

Wired News reports on Transitive Computing, which is set to unveil a new software called QuickTransit, which claims to be the ultimate platform emulator. A Silicon Valley startup claims to have cracked one of most elusive goals of the software industry: a near-universal emulator that allows software developed for one ...

What's New in Mac OS X 10.3 Panther: Here's a review of new features in Panther. Found via Anil Dash in an item entitled "nice page of features panther stole from windows" with this comment: "alt-tab switching! option to display file extensions! will apple innovation never cease?"

Stardock Corporation - Innovation on demand: Like the Apple Dock but can't afford a Mac? Stardock has you covered. ObjectDock is a free program that allows you to have a nice animated launchbar/taskbar on your screen that reacts to your mouse when you mouse over it. I can't believe they ...

While we re waiting for the first round of iMac G5 reviews to hit the net, MacMinute found Apple s Developer Note on the new system. I found a few interesting tidbits amidst the technical stuff. Available as a fully-integrated, build-to-order option, Bluetooth is an open specification that enables short-range wireless connections ...

What a great problem to have. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world's richest man, said the tax office in the US has to store his financial data on a special computer because his fortune is so vast. My guess is it's not on a PC or Mac. Read more here. ...

OS Shootout 2003: Mac OS X vs. Windows XP vs. Linux: Great article comparing these three OSs in a matrix with rows for UI, wireless support, CD burning, etc. Good place to see what the different OSs are better at. I only read halfway down the list, but it looked ...

One thing PC users can do that Mac users can't...: If you don't like to be offended, don't click here. But I still thought this was funny. The page sums up a lot of how I feel about Macs and their "community," in a really profane kind of way. If ...

Flash Player 7 released "Flash Player 7 now performs almost as fast on a Mac as it does on a PC, the company claims. An improved compiler in Flash, together with improvements in the Player, mean performance has been improved up to ten times in common applications, it said. End ...

What a great idea for a desktop background: It's a series of still shots. What I did was: I took a picture of the monitor and I set that picture as the background on the screen. Then I took another picture of that, etc. about 5 or 6 times. Just ...

Apple releases software to let Macs run Windows: Could this be a joke? Apple Computer Inc. on Wednesday rolled out a software patch that enables its Intel-based Macintosh computers to install and run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP operating system. Apple said that the new software, called "Boot Camp" is available ...

IOGEAR mouse has 32MB of memory: I don't quite understand the point, but it's neat. For Macs only. "IOGEAR has launched Memory Mouse, a mini mouse that can store files up to 32MB using flash memory. It's compatible with Mac OS X. 'The Memory Mouse appears on your desktop as ...

Apple - Mac OS X - Features - Xcode: A solid-looking IDE for OS X. "Xcode is designed to keep you waiting less and coding more. Apple’s ground-breaking new approach to developer productivity streamlines all your most common and time-consuming tasks by fusing familiar user interface concepts with a unique ...

Moving On and Trading Places: And the April Fool's posts are upon us. I've struggled for a while, trying to figure out how to write this. So long, in fact, that I intended to publish this yesterday but kept stalling. So I'll keep it short and sweet. I recently left ...

As long as we're in Mac Mode, check out this visual history of Apple's desktop interfaces, starting with early Lisa prototypes created on the Apple ][ in 1979. Along the way, the loaded up the interface with newfangled gizmos like the "mouse", and "scroll-bars". What's most interesting is that ...

Migrating to Linux not easy for Windows users: Whatever happened to The Linux Desktop Experiment," you ask? Read this article. While I love Linux, it's still for servers in my mind. I could get it to work as a desktop OS, but not as well or as smoothly as Windows. ...

Hardware as art: Microsoft meets Philippe Starck: Since Apple seems to have pulled a Microsoft, we'll balance that out with this story of Microsoft pulling an Apple. No, they're not going to over-price their products in a concerted attempt to achieve and remain at single-digit market share (sorry it ...

ThinkSecret was right! Jobs just introduced the Mac Mini. It has DVI & VGA monitor outputs, plus USB 2, Firewire, 1.25GHz G4, 256MB RAM and 40GB HD (but no mouse or keyboard) for $499! with Panther & iLife 05. About the size of an external CD drive, only taller. Everything ...

Those guys in Google Labs have great taste, but they must have a bit too much time on their hands. The latest of their brainchildren to be cut loose is Google X, which bears more than a passing resemblance to the Dock in Apple's Mac OS X. "Roses are red. ...

And not just to Mac (and Linux) users. Mini seems to think so too. One of the pages on the miniusa.com site will load a Flash animation showing a car trying to parallel park (link). When the driver finds there isn t enough room (and bashes the bumper of the truck ...

Eastgate Tinderbox: the tool for notes: This is become a trend: software to organize all your stuff without having to do anything. This is for Mac only it analyzes your content and puts it in the order and groupings it thinks work best. Tinderbox is a personal content management ...

Apple profit rises 48 pct, helped by iPod sales: This is significant. I guess I can't taunt Mac users with "single digit market share" anymore, at least in the notebook market. Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, said in an interview that the company had a "fantastic quarter," adding that ...

TidBITS: Help Us Choose Among Content Management Systems: Here's a good little article from the Mac site TidBITS on the trials and tribulations of picking a content management system. I can relate, having been involved in a year-long CMS selection process that saw my company buy a system that they ...

[H]ard|OCP - Dell Dimension XPS 400 Evaluation: This is a review of Dell's "gaming PC" line -- the XPS. The review turns into an huge rant about how much crap is installed on a Dell out of the box. These pop-ups were so annoying, and seemed very much like a ...

I stumbled upon this while looking for a deal on TurboTax. I honestly cannot believe they expect customers to spend $300 and then wait 12 weeks for them to send back $270. Then they throw in this little gem: Note: Some rebates in this Tax Software Bundle are UPGRADE / ...

BBEdit 8.0 is out: This gushing testimonial for BBEdit makes me wish I had a Mac. BBEdit upgrades are like Christmas for me. More than any tool on my computer, I live in my text-editor. These upgrades are major quality-of-life enhancers for the likes of me. I spend a lot ...

Mint: Requirements: Here's the requirements page for Mint. It's kinda nice to see IE not supported. In order to view Mint you should be using a modern browser with support for transparent PNGs, modern DOM scripting (including XMLHTTPRequest) with competency in CSS 2. Safari or Firefox, both free, are highly ...

Code Style: Sans serif font sampler and comparison: Here's a great article that answers a perennial question: what fonts can I use in my CSS? Font selection for the Web should be based on a generic font family to ensure an appropriate type style is rendered in any circumstances. Specific ...

SCO irks just about everyone in tech except Microsoft: A fantastic summary of the SCO mess and who's sleeping with whom. If you just don't get it yet, this article is concise, accurate, and pretty funny to boot. "The topic du jour in technology is SCO Group — not just ...

Tofu 0.1 is a text reader for the screen that arranges text files in multiple columns, like a newspaper or magazine, with each column only as high as the window instead of in the usual long vertical column. As you read through the text, you scroll horizontally to see more ...

Wired News: Apple Cube: Alive and Selling: The Apple Cube may be dead, but true to form, Mac addicts have formed a cult around it and are keeping it alive. "Kemplar, an online computer boutique that sells sleek sub-notebooks, fancy cell phones and other trendy devices, has just started selling ...

The Boring State of Operating Systems Today: A manifesto on how current operating systems and the debates that surround them have become repetitive and boring. Personally, I just can't stand anymore the endless debates between the Linux, Windows and Mac users. It's getting old, it's getting boring. These ...

Apple - Education - iTunes U: This is the audio version of OpenCourseWare, I suppose. Apple has gotten a bunch of high-end schools to contribute lectures to iTunes, which are available for download, and appear to be free (I didn t find any with prices attached, at any rate). iTunes U ...

Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Computer, has gone on record saying that he'd sell Dell hardware loaded with OS X, if he could. If Apple decides to open the Mac OS to others, we would be happy to offer it to our customers, Fortune writer David Kirkpatrick has asked several ...

Yesterday Deane put up a post about the chicken picker, which he had seen on BoingBoing; I guess I missed that one when I scanned through the BoingBoing posts because just above that was a link to the most incredible scrap shredder ever. An outfit called Shredding Systems, Inc. (SSI) ...

Apple says could move to Intel, but happy with IBM: Good thing Jobs made this call, or I might be able to run OS X on a $400 white box machine. Horrors. The latest version of the Mac OS X operating system could easily run on Intel chips, but Apple ...

A NewsFactor article has lots of good things to say about Apple's new G5 machines. "According to results on industry standard benchmark tests, the G5 is not only faster than comparable machines, but quite a bit faster." And it looks like the tech writers might finally be understanding what many ...

FireWire Depot just announced the IF8C, a new dual drive internal Firewire 800 bridgeboard, which converts two IDE/ATAPI devices into IEEE-1394b/FireWire800. The main board of the IF8C has a plastic housing and connects directly to the connector on the master drive mechanism, while an IDE cable is used to connect ...

iPod's 'dirty secret' wins Web fans Brothers Casey and Van Neistat, who collaborate on video projects using Mac editing software, said they were told by a technical support representative at Apple Computer that the cost to replace the dead battery in an 18-month-old iPod would be $255 comparable to ...

Mac-Gray Academic LaundryView: Now this is some narrowly-targeted software. LaundryView helps students manage their time more efficiently. As a Web-based system, LaundryView allows them to monitor the status of washers and dryers in connected laundry rooms -- from any computer with Internet access. Students may also receive notification via e-mail, ...

Alex King just released Photos 4.0 (formerly known as Gallery). It's a web-based photo database for storing, cataloging, and retrieving photos, but NOT for publishing web galleries. It can import photos by the folder or one at a time, and stores a thumbnail of each image. It's designed for "Anyone ...

Steve Jobs is out sick this month, but Wired News reports that a group from a popular Mac forum has placed him back in circulation (sort of). Jobs' surrogate is the mini iLeader, a GI Joe doll dressed up to look like the famous CEO. [...] The mini iLeader has ...

If you manage a Web site for more than a few months, you run into problems of content rot. You'll be cruising through some old pages, and you'll find stuff that's...off, for one reason for another. For instance, when this blog first started, I was anal-retentive about enclosing BLOCKQUOTEd text ...

Application UI goes back to basics: Jon Udell discovers WriteRoom, and makes an important point. I'm writing this column on a Mac-based imitation of a 1970s green-screen terminal. Hog Bay Software's WriteRoom, a free program for Mac OS X, advertises "distraction free writing" as its In WriteRoom's default full-screen mode ...