Everyone and their band seems to be leaping on some kind of wagon with an Apple logo and attempting to rob it of its jewelry and gold coins.
The latest to try to capitalize from poking a little fun at Apple's treasure chest are the Florida Keys and Key West.
In an ad that would feel like it was for the iPhone if it was executed with slightly more style, the Keys hope to persuade you that "There's no app for this."
"This" refers to the fun of wondering if a disgruntled local houseboat resident who believes tourists are venal vermin might ruin your vacation.
No, wait, I think I have read one too many Carl Hiassen novels, in which pretty much every resident of Florida is trying to cheat every other resident of Florida (or unsuspecting visitor) out of house, home, dog, wife or, well, life.
So, in fact, what I meant to say was the the Keys believe that no iPhone app can substitute for a real Florida Keys experience, in which the sun will set beautifully, the canoe will never capsize, and no shark will ever approach you as you snorkel your way to a new level of consciousness.
If you were to choose an app over a vacation, one imagines that several schools of psychiatric medicine had already given up on your ghost.
I am concerned, though, that should someone from Apple be making like Grumpy the Dwarf, they might be upset at the Keys' use of the iPhone's rather characteristic finger wipe.
Apple on Monday released an update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard, bringing the current version to 10.6.2.
(Credit:
Apple)
An important issue that caused data to be deleted when using a guest account has been fixed, according to Apple. While the bug didn't affect all users, it was widespread enough to cause concerns for users over the past couple of weeks.
In addition to fixing a number of security issues, Mac OS X 10.6.2 also addresses 14 problems found in the operating system, including an issue that caused some users to be logged out of their systems unexpectedly.
If you use Exchange contacts, you'll be pleased to know that your Spotlight searches will now show those contacts in the results. Setting up an Exchange server shouldn't cause Apple's Mail app to crash with the new version.
The update also includes what Apple calls "general stability improvements" for iWork, iLife, Aperture, Final Cut Studio, MobileMe, and iDisk.
Apple also updated Mac OS X Leopard Server to version 10.6.2, addressing issues with the company's server product.
The server update fixed problems with adding and removing imported users in Server Preferences, syncing content using a Portable Home Directory, and filtering incoming mail messages.
Other issues fixed with the server version include creating images using Apple's System Image Utility and automating the installation of NetRestore images.
Mac OS X 10.6.2 client and server are available as free updates from Apple's Web site.
The Pyramids at Giza sound like the perfect place for an Apple Store.
(Credit: Crave UK)Apple has opened an Apple Store at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, an upscale shopping center beneath the famous Louvre art gallery. We reckon Apple products will look right at home in an art gallery, and we've come up with some suggestions for where Monsieur Jobs should open the next branch of Apple Store.
The new Magasin du Pomme, which opened this weekend, is located beneath the Louvre Museum. It features the usual white decor and split-level glass staircase.
The Paris shop is the first Apple Store in France. A branch in Montpellier was ready sooner, but the opening has been held back until Saturday to let the Paris branch grab the headlines. Microsoft, which is branching into its own dedicated stores, has a cafe on Rue Sebastopol where Parisians can try out, but not buy, Windows 7.
So where next for Apple? Here are our suggestions.
Read more of "Apple Store opens in the Louvre: Where next?" at Crave UK.
Well, this hacker has quite the sense of humor.
Reports started spreading this weekend that iPhone users in Australia had been falling victim to "ikee," a worm that replaces default wallpaper with a picture of Rick Astley, the British pop singer whose song "Never Gonna Give You Up" has gained eternal infamy thanks to the mainstreaming of the "Rickrolling" prank craze. The photo is accompanied by the message "ikee is never gonna give you up," and it's apparently quite difficult to remove. According to security firm Sophos, this is the first worm detected that targets the iPhone.
The vulnerability is pretty specific: the phones must be jailbroken in order to be affected, and it appears to spread by searching an infected phone's contacts to find other jailbroken-phone users who have installed the Unix software SSH (secure shell) but haven't yet changed their passwords from Apple's default root password, "alpine."
Sophos says that it has not heard of any occurrences of the worm outside Australia, and that while it doesn't appear to do anything worse than irritate and embarrass affected users, that it highlights the vulnerabilities that jailbroken phones face.
The new Verizon Droid, like many a high-profile smartphone just coming onto the market, has been hailed by some as a potential--you know what's coming--iPhone killer. (Chronicling the very first Droid sales in Manhattan the other day, CNET's Maggie Reardon observed that the gadget may actually turn out to be more of a BlackBerry killer.)
But does Verizon Wireless want to deliver a knockout to the iPhone? There's long been speculation that the carrier would sooner or later be offering the Apple smartphone, which since its launch has been solely in the hands of AT&T in the United States. (In some other countries, Apple has deals with multiple carriers.)
The latest posting to suggest an imminent rapprochement between Verizon and the iPhone comes from the AppleInsider blog, which on Friday said that it's gotten wind of Apple having contracted to build a Verizon iPhone that would debut in the third quarter of 2010.
More broadly, according to AppleInsider, the new "hybrid iPhone" will work on both the GSM/UMTS and the CDMA systems, meaning that Apple will be able "to sell a single global handset to all carriers, and specifically to Verizon Wireless in the US." In the U.S., carriers AT&T and T-Mobile are in the GSM/UMTS camp, while Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel are in the CDMA camp. (For more on that topic, see "Going abroad? Don't be afraid to pack the cell phone.")
The "world mode" phone reportedly would have a 2.8-inch screen--that is, roughly 20 percent smaller than the screen on the existing iPhone.
AppleInsider cites a report from the investment research firm OTR Global, which in turn cites "sources in the Taiwan handset supply chain." According to AppleInsider:
The report by OTR Global, provided to AppleInsider by an industry analyst, says the new "world mode" iPhone will gain compatibility with CDMA2000 networks (including Verizon's US network, which is currently incompatible with existing iPhone models) while retaining compatibility with UMTS 3G networks globally using a new hybrid chip produced by Qualcomm.According to OTR's sources, Asustek subsidiary Pegatron will build the new hybrid phone devices for Apple rather than Hon Hai, the iPhone's current manufacturer. This decision was reportedly made to prevent the company from being "constrained by a single-source assembler."
In the third quarter of 2009, Apple shipped 7.4 million iPhones worldwide, raising its global market share slightly to 17 percent, according to market researcher IDC.
Apple, Verizon, and OTR were not immediately available for comment.
See also:
• Inside the Motorola Droid, an iPhone likeness
• Slow start for the Motorola Droid?
• Survey shows iPhone threatens BlackBerry; Palm holds steady
Consumer demand for smartphones seems to be unstoppable.
In the third quarter, vendors shipped a record 43.3 million devices, up 4.2 percent from last year's third quarter and up 3.2 percent from this year's second quarter, says a report released Thursday by market researcher IDC.
(Credit:
IDC)
Among smartphone vendors, Nokia still enjoys the greatest market share, according to IDC, with a 37.9 percent slice for the third quarter. ... Read more
Last month Apple CEO Steve Jobs made his first public appearance since coming back from medical leave after receiving a liver transplant earlier this year.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)Love him or hate him, you have to admit that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has had a helluva decade.
Consider that, under his helm, Apple defined the portable music player market with the iPod, has shaken up the mobile industry with the iPhone, rocked the retail music business with iTunes, and re-invented the computing business with OS X in a way that the PC business--with less than 10 percent of market share--is no longer the bread-and-butter of the company.
Add to that the brilliant marketing behind Apple and the loyal, almost cult-like following of Apple's fans, and it's no wonder that Fortune Magazine today named him the CEO of the decade. The opening lines of a story written by Fortune editor-at-large Adam Lashinsky (which also includes a nice video segment) explain it nicely:
How's this for a gripping corporate story line: Youthful founder gets booted from his company in the 1980s, returns in the 1990s, and in the following decade survives two brushes with death, one securities-law scandal, an also-ran product lineup, and his own often unpleasant demeanor to become the dominant personality in four distinct industries, a billionaire many times over, and CEO of the most valuable company in Silicon Valley. Sound too far-fetched to be true? Perhaps. Yet it happens to be the real-life story of Steve Jobs and his outsize impact on everything he touches.
Read more of "Congratulations to Steve Jobs, Fortune's CEO of the decade" at ZDNet's Between the Lines.
As Apple and Research In Motion have won a greater share in the Wi-Fi handset market over the past year, Nokia has lost share.
Though Nokia is still the leading vendor for dual-mode smartphones (Wi-Fi and cellular), its market share dropped to 35 percent in the second quarter, compared with 50 percent in the same period a year ago, according to a report released Monday from In-Stat.
The report "Wi-Fi in Mobile Phones: Dual Mode Becomes the In Thing" tracked the major Wi-Fi phone vendors, including Nokia, Apple, Research In Motion, HTC, and Samsung. Among those, Apple has enjoyed the greatest growth in market share, from 3 percent in the second quarter of 2008 to 20 percent in this year's second quarter.
Market share for both RIM and Samsung has also weakened the past few quarters, though less so than Nokia's. RIM's 15.7 percent chunk of the market for the second quarter of the year was down from its first-quarter high of 17.6 percent. Samsung's share has been relatively flat but usually dips a bit from the first to the second quarter, notes In-Stat.
In sheer unit volume, Nokia has done well the past few quarters, with 9.3 million Wi-Fi handsets shipped in the second quarter of the year compared with Apple's 5.2 million shipments. However, Nokia's shipments have dropped since the first quarter of 2008 when it saw 12 million units fly out the door. Over the same period, Apple, RIM, and HTC have seen their shipments grow.
As the No. 2 Wi-Fi handset vendor, Apple has also outsold third-place RIM in dual-mode phone shipments, says In-Stat. Though RIM still has a larger market presence, not all of its Blackberry devices include Wi-Fi. HTC and Samsung rounded out In-Stat's list as the fourth and fifth top Wi-Fi handset vendors, respectively.
(Credit:
In-Stat)
The report also detailed the growth of the Wi-Fi smartphone market overall. The industry shipped 37 million handsets in 2007, and 103 million units in 2008. That rise is because of several factors, notes In-Stat, including greater functionality, lower prices, and carrier promotions. Initially targeted to the business market, smartphones are also now an entrenched hit with consumers, which In-Stat attributes to the success of the iPhone.
Wi-Fi handset shipments are expected to rise just 25 percent to 128.4 million units for 2009. That compares with a nearly 180 percent jump in 2008.
But In-Stat sees gains ahead. By 2010, the growth rate is likely to climb to 43 percent. Though that rate may not be sustainable, it should remain strong in the coming years. Wi-Fi will also become more prevalent in mobile phones. This year, 11.5 percent of handsets include Wi-Fi; by 2012, that figure will grow to 25 percent, predicts In-Stat.
To compile the report, In-Stat relied on its own data as well as interviews with Wi-Fi equipment vendors.
Parallels on Wednesday released Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac, a new version of its virtualization software that allows Intel-based Macs to run Windows and Linux alongside Mac OS X.
According to Parallels, the new version of its software is up to 300 percent faster than the previous version, Parallels Desktop 4. The company also hired Crimson Consulting Group to do performance testing on Parallels 5 and said it was 22 percent faster than its nearest virtualization competitor when running Windows 7 64-bit on a MacBook Pro.
While the competitor wasn't named by Parallels, it is widely thought the virtualization market is ruled by Parallels and VMWare's Fusion for Mac.
Speaking with CNET, Parallels CEO Serguei Beloussov said company had three main goals when making Parallels 5 for Mac: make it faster; make it smarter and easier; and make it more powerful.
Beloussov said the company achieved those goals by adding support for gestures, supporting a broader range of 3D features, and optimizing Parallels to handle virtual hardware and drivers more efficiently.
Parallels 5 also adds a new viewing mode called Crystal, which is similar to Coherence, where Windows completely disappears from your desktop. However, Crystal adds the Windows taskbar items on the top of the Mac OS X menu, allowing easy access.
Apple also offers a way to run Windows on an Intel-based Mac. It's called Boot Camp, but it requires the user restart the computer and run Windows separately from the Mac OS. While that may be inconvenient for many users, the native speed of running on the hardware was always seen as a major advantage. Parallels says they can now beat that.
"Parallels is faster than Boot Camp," Beloussov said. "Most slow downs with Windows is not because of computational problems, it's handling drivers. We offer optimized virtualized hardware and drivers, making it faster."
Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac is available for $79.99 or $49.99 for an upgrade.
More than 100,000 apps are now available for download from Apple's App Store, making it the largest such retailer in the world.
App Store icon
(Credit: Apple)The App Store launched in July 2008 with just 500 applications. The store is now available in 77 countries, which has contributed to what Apple said Wednesday is well over 2 billion downloads.
Apps from the App Store work with both the iPhone and iPod Touch.
When introducing its new iPod Touch in September, Apple positioned the device as a superior gaming platform to Sony's PSP or Nintendo DS. Apple said its rivals charged too much for games and didn't offer enough selection. At the time, Apple had more than 21,000 game titles in the App Store, while Nintendo had 3,600 titles and Sony had 600.
The message apparently has gotten through.
"The App Store has forever changed the mobile gaming industry and continues to improve," Travis Boatman, vice president of Worldwide Studios at EA Mobile, was quoted as saying in Apple's press release Wednesday.
Not everything has been perfect with the App Store, however. Most notably, Apple's app approval process has caused frustration with developers, who are sometimes left in the dark about the reason an app is rejected.
