Apple

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded Apple several patents this week on technologies inside the iPod, iMac, and Apple software.

MacNN summarized the four patents, awarded based on applications filed as far back as 2002. The most familiar ones involve the scroll wheel for the iPod and the flexible support arm used on the iMac, but the other two appear to involve sound or video editing on a split screen and speech recognition. Patent reading might just be the missing cure for insomnia.

If you're interested in further details, check out the patents themselves for the … Read more

Look, people, it's 2008: You're responsible for what you install on your PC.

The outrage is spewing forth over Apple's move to include Safari 3.1 as part of its Software Update program. The new twist is that Windows users who never had installed Safari are now seeing it pop up in Software Update, where they are accustomed to seeing updates for iTunes and Quicktime, and that's not sitting well with many who inadvertently installed the browser.

Short attention span syndrome strikes again. This practice, of trying to get people to install your software through coy … Read more

The wireless backup feature that disappeared from Apple's promotional copy for its Leopard operating system has snuck in through the back door.

Macworld did a little poking around with the recently released Mac OS X software update for "Time Machine and Airport" and realized that Time Machine now recognizes a generic USB hard drive plugged into an Airport Extreme base station, allowing Airport Extreme users to wirelessly back up their notebooks with Leopard's Time Machine. You need to mount the external hard drive using Finder to make sure Time Machine can see it, according to Macworld.… Read more

Mac shipments were up dramatically in the fourth quarter of last year, and if recent NPD data is any indication, Apple's doing pretty well again this quarter.

AppleInsider spotted a research note from Pacific Crest Securities citing NPD Group data that Apple's Mac shipments grew 60 percent in February compared with the same period last year, while the entire market grew just 9 percent. NPD's data tracks computer purchases made at U.S. retail stores, which means it excludes much of Dell and all online purchases in general, but it does serve as a weather vane for … Read more

Apple has announced the dates for its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, once again scheduled for San Francisco in June.

Apple developers will occupy the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco from June 9 through the 13, according to Apple. No keynote plans have been announced as of Thursday, but usually a guy named Steve gets up onstage to talk about stuff.

Three tracks are planned for this year's WWDC: Mac, IT, and iPhone, which will likely be the most closely watched technology at the conference. Apple has said it plans to release the formal versions of both the iPhone software development kit and the iPhone 2.0 software … Read more

Just how far might Apple be planning to take Apple TV, Take Three (or maybe four)?

An Apple patent application unearthed by AppleInsider shows a proposed system for using an iPod-like device as a remote control for an Apple TV-like device with DVR capabilities. (They never use the actual product names in the applications, but it's not too hard to tell.) It also suggests that Apple is thinking about making a version of Apple TV that could watch and record live television programming.

Apple TV got a little more interesting in January with the release of the second version … Read more

It's just way too easy to pile on the Transportation Security Administration.

Sure, they've got a blog and all, but the TSA is not high on business travelers' lists of efficient, tech-savvy organizations. That's not going to change with the revelation that the TSA detained a new MacBook Air customer because they couldn't figure out what type of unusual laptop-like device he was carrying.

Michael Nygard related the tale on his blog last week, explaining how gate agents were flummoxed when the X-ray machine couldn't find the hard drive. A younger member of the TSA … Read more

Apple CEO Steve Jobs fielded several wide-ranging questions from Apple shareholders Tuesday at the company's annual meeting, covering ground from the iPhone to the plans for a post-Jobs Apple.

For the most part, Apple's shareholder meeting is just as boring as anyone's. This year was a little more interesting, as a non-binding shareholder proposal was approved advocating that the board of directors give shareholders input into executive compensation. But the most compelling part of the meeting was the hour or so in which Jobs, COO Tim Cook, and CFO Peter Oppenheimer fielded questions from a wide range … Read more

Apple has begun shipping Time Capsule, its latest external hard drive that is pretty much the only game in town if you want to do wireless Time Machine backups from your notebook.

Time Capsule was first introduced at Macworld. It's an 802.11n Wi-Fi base station with either a 500GB or 1TB hard drive that allows you to back up files to the drive or share files across a network without having to connect a cable. It will set you back either $299 or $499, depending on the storage size chosen.

It's a solid product in its own … Read more