Apple

It is a hoax, Wired reported Thursday -- an article that looks like a story on Wired.com and that claims Apple CEO Steve Jobs has had a heart attack.

"A widely-circulated URL which points to an image that purports to be a wired.com story about Steve Jobs health is a hack job," Wired.com said. "We won't provide the URL here but the Twitterverse quickly surmised that the item was not correct." It appears to have first been reported by Mashable.

Someone created a legitimate-looking Web page using Wired's public upload image … Read more

Apple's fiscal first quarter was a blowout by any standard, but it's worth taking a look at one potential concern: retail.

CFO Peter Oppenheimer reported Wednesday that during the quarter just ended, average revenue per store declined 18 percent, from $8.5 million last year to $7 million this year. Margins were also hurt, declining from $405 million to $353 million, perhaps implying that Apple's decision to amplify its policy of matching discounts offered by other retail partners took a toll.

These numbers should be viewed against the economy as a whole, which was not kind to … Read more

In January 1984, Steve Jobs--whom I described in my Macintosh review as "Apple's young chairman"--gave me a preview of the original 128K Macintosh. I was very impressed. Thousands of reviews later, I'm still impressed not only by what Apple accomplished back then but by what the company has been able to do since--especially after Jobs returned to Apple.

So, without any editing, here is what I said at the time. And, yes, along the way, I changed my byline from Lawrence J. Magid to Larry Magid.

Macintosh Shapes Up a Winner by Lawrence J. Magid … Read more

As the Mac celebrates its 25th birthday, we asked CNET readers to send us stories of their most vivid memories of the groundbreaking computer. Here are some of the stories we received.

Mac as typesetter I was working at an ad agency and had just left a client who was complaining bitterly about the high cost of typesetting changes on his catalog. The agency's typesetter was a $100,000 state-of-the-art unit that was an art director's dream but could not manage a simple change from page 23 to page 34.

On the way back to the agency, I … Read more

January 24 marks the the 25th anniversary of the release of the original Macintosh, a computer that--with its whimsical design, innovative graphical user interface and all-in-one form factor--permanently changed personal computing.

Any student of the history of PCs should know that the Mac project was first championed by the late Jef Raskin and then brought to fruition by Steve Jobs. But the team that built the first Mac was, of course, much larger than those two. In fact, the team had a wide range of personalities and skill sets and seems universally to have been regarded as a singular experience … Read more

Twenty-five years after the debut of the Macintosh, the product that is the soul of Apple is not necessarily its vehicle to the future.

It was a quarter-century ago that Super Bowl XVIII viewers saw the now-famous introductory ad for Apple's Macintosh, formally released two days later. Apple had announced back in 1983 that the Macintosh was coming, but for many, that Sunday was their first look at the product that would drive Apple to new heights in the personal computer industry and usher in the graphical user interface as the standard way for regular people to interact with … Read more

With all the economic doom and gloom in the world these days, Apple executives must be wondering what all the fuss is about.

Apple's Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer acknowledged Wednesday that these are uncertain times to be in the retail consumer electronics business. But put aside any doubts about Apple's ability to sustain the first wave of recession. Posting record revenue and profit during its fiscal first quarter, the company shattered analyst predictions on the strength of solid Mac sales and stronger-than-expected iPod sales.

Can it last? Tough to say, given that few can predict how quickly … Read more

Like most people who paid attention to Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, Apple noticed the Palm Pre.

In response to a question from a financial analyst about Palm's new smartphone and its multitouch interface, Apple COO Tim Cook, without addressing the Pre directly, made sure that everyone on Apple's quarterly earnings call Wednesday knew how Apple feels about intellectual property.

"We will not stand for having our IP ripped off," Cook declared, perhaps firing a shot across the bow of Palm and executive chairman Jon Rubinstein, a former Apple employee. To be clear, Cook did … Read more

Updated throughout at 3:30 p.m. PST with details from conference call.

Apple reported on Wednesday first-quarter earnings significantly higher than analysts had expected coming off a disappointing holiday season for most tech companies, but provided its usual conservative guidance.

For the three-month period ended December 27, Apple recorded $10.2 billion in revenue, as compared with $9.6 billion a year ago, and net income of $1.6 billion, as compared with $1.58 billion a year ago. That translates into earnings per share of $1.78, far more than the $1.39 in earnings per share that … Read more