Apple

Apple on Friday quietly updated its high-end Mac Pro computer with an option for a faster processor.

(Credit: Apple)

First noted by AppleInsider, the 3.33GHz quad-core Intel Xeon option will add $1,200 to the price of the base configuration, which currently sells for $2,499. An option for the 2.93GHz processor, introduced in March, is still available for an extra $400 over the base model.

The current Mac Pro base configuration ships with a 2.66GHz quad-core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processor.

The custom configuration options for the Mac Pro also enable buyers to add up to 16GB of RAM, as many as four 2-terabyte hard drives, and a variety of graphics cards, in additional to other components and software.

When it introduced the Intel Xeon-based Mac Pro in March, Apple added options for the Nvidia GeForce GT 120 and the ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics cards, as well as three channels of memory designed to cut latency by up to 40 percent on the machines.

While Apple's iMac and Mac Mini are recognized by most consumers for their design, the Mac Pro is the machine of choice by many IT, graphics, and audio pros for its superior power.

Although a judge recently ruled in favor of Apple in its copyright infringement case against Psystar, the two companies have reached a new settlement, according to Computerworld and other reports.

Details are sketchy at this point, and there's no confirmation from Apple, but Psystar claimed in a motion filed Monday that a partial settlement has been reached.

"Psystar has agreed on certain amounts to be awarded as statutory damages on Apple's copyright claims in exchange for Apple's agreement not to execute on these awards until all appeals in this matter have been concluded," noted Psystar's motion filed in federal court in San Francisco. "Moreover, Apple has agreed to voluntarily dismiss all its trademark, trade-dress, and state-law claims. This partial settlement eliminates the need for a trial and reduces the issues before this Court to the scope of any permanent injunction on Apple's copyright claims."

Psystar also seems to be looking for a loophole against any injunctions. Apple had asked the court to prevent Psystar from selling clones not just with Leopard, but also Snow Leopard, which was released after the lawsuit began. But in its filing, Psystar argued that it should be allowed to sell its Rebel EFI utility, which lets customers install Snow Leopard on clones sold by the company, thus moving the legal burden away from Psystar.

Psystar's motion also indicated that another motion with further details would be filed Tuesday with Judge William Alsup.

Apple's lawsuit against Psystar began in July 2008 after Psystar started selling Mac clones with OS X installed on them. Apple has argued that its end user license lets people install its operating system on Apple computers only.

On November 13, Alsup ruled in favor of Apple, finding that Psystar's use of OS X on its clones was not "fair use" as the company contended and further finding that Psystar violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by "circumventing Apple's protection barrier."

Since then, Apple has been keen to shut down Psystar's Mac clone business permanently, calling for an injunction against the company and potentially millions of dollars in damages, substantially more money than the clone maker has.

Alsup's findings and Apple's fervor in going after Psystar raise the question of why Apple would agree to any kind of settlement at this point. A hearing was set for December 14, with a full trial scheduled to start in January. But if the latest news from Psystar is true, then the company may be able to avoid further courtroom drama.

Neither Psystar nor Apple has responded to requests for comment. We'll provide further details of this latest development as court documents become available.

Update 2: Apple's U.S. Black Friday sale is up, and while not spectacular, there are some rare discounts to be found. To go back to the same examples we used for the U.K. and Australian Apple stores, the base model 13-inch MacBook Pro is $1,098, down from $1,199.

In fact, it looks like all MacBook Pro models are exactly $101 off, while the $999 white MacBook is not discounted at all. The 32GB iPod Touch is $268, down from $299.

This sale is good online and in Apple's retail stores and runs until 3 a.m. EST on November 28.

Update: Even though it's not quite Black Friday in the U.S. yet, it's past midnight in some other parts of the globe. Notably, Australia and the U.K. have both seen their respective Apple Web sites updated to reveal Apple's one-day sale. While we can't say yet that the deals in the U.S. will be exactly the same, there's no reason think they won't be.

On apple.com/uk, we saw a 13-inch MacBook Pro, originally £1,149, marked down to £1,078. On apple.com/au, the same unit was A$1,868, marked down from A$1,999.

Similarly, a 32GB iPod Touch is £208, marked down from £229 on the U.K. site, while while in Australia, it's A$358, down from A$399.

We've also examined some Black Friday deals from other retailers.

Our original post continues below:

According to purportedly leaked documents on the tech rumor site Boy Genius Report, Apple is gearing up to offer a series of post-Thanksgiving bargains on products from iPods to MacBooks.

The deal, allegedly good only on November 27, lists "up to" discounts of 30 percent on iPods (excluding the Shuffle and iPhone), 25 percent on Mac laptops and desktops, and 15 percent on accessories, software, and other hardware.

The Boy Genius Report Web site says: "One of our connects just hit us up with some intriguing Apple information. According to them, what you see detailed above is a shot of Apple's yearly Black Friday deals. It's reported to be something Apple will email out shortly."

Of course, with the vague use of "up to" and no specific products listed, we can't be sure if these will be good deals or not. But if you're interested in being the first in line to check them out, the leaked doc also says that select Apple stores will be opening at 6 a.m. on November 27.

(Credit: Boy Genius Report)

I have nothing against smoking, save for the difficult odor that emanates from every part, breath, and piece of clothing belonging to a smoker. I could no more live with a smoker than I could live with a third ear perched off the end of my nose.

However, I am embalmed in a curious sympathy after reading a report from The Consumerist concerning two Mac users whose AppleCare warranties appear to have been voided due to the presence of cigarette smoke in their homes.

One, named Derek, recounts the tale of his overheating black MacBook. He took it into the Apple store in Jordan Creek, West Des Moines.

He told The Consumerist: "Today, April, 28, 2008, the Apple store called and informed me that due to the computer having been used in a house where there was smoking, that has voided the warranty and they refuse to work on the machine, due to 'health risks of secondhand smoke.'"

He continued: "Nowhere in your AppleCare terms of service can I find anything mentioning being used in a smoking environment as voiding the warranty."

Will a Marlboro Lights habit makes this cute thing inoperable?

(Credit: CC Galaygobi/Flickr)

Derek's resulting appeal to the office of Steve Jobs bore him no joy, so he resorted to blowing some compressed air at the machine, leading it to restart its wondrous functions.

Then along came Ruth, who took her son's iMac to an authorized repair center. After five days, they apparently told her they couldn't work on it because it was contaminated with cigarette smoke and was therefore a bio-hazard.

Is Apple an enterprise software or hardware company? That's the question Gartner's Nick Jones asks, ultimately answering with "you have to have a pretty relaxed definition [of enterprise] before Apple fits it."

"Enterprise" is defined by the company you keep.

With this definition in mind, Apple clearly fits the "enterprise" moniker, whether Apple wants it or not. As BusinessWeek reported back in 2008, the Mac is finding its way into enterprise computing, with or without the IT department's blessing. Ditto the iPhone.

Is it somehow less enterprise because the CIO didn't issue a policy giving permission?

Maybe "enterprise" means something more than "gets used a lot within the enterprise." In fact, Jones points out a few reasons he, personally, doesn't feel Apple is an enterprise vendor:

Apple does the bare minimum for enterprises, they aren't deeply committed to security, management, road maps, low TCO and so on. And they don't open up the architecture of iPhone enough for third parties to fill the holes.

But, again, is this really how we should define "enterprise?"

It reminds me of the criticisms leveled at open-source software early in its adoption. Originally Linux, for example, wasn't considered "enterprise grade" or "enterprise ready," presumably because it didn't meet Jones' hurdles above.

Now, however, Linux is considered an essential enterprise technology. What changed? Nothing...except adoption.

Here's a test for Jones: while Gartner pooh-poohs Apple's iPhone as an enterprise mobile device, perhaps for a variety of good definitional reasons, will it hold to such a rationale once the iPhone's market share within the enterprise dwarfs that of Windows Mobile, which has lost a third of its market share since 2008?

Seriously, at some point it won't be enough to listen to Microsoft's Ray Ozzie deprecate the iPhone's enterprise credentials because its 100,000-plus applications are "not very deep" and lack the "thousands of man years" that have gone into the applications that run on Windows. It won't make sense. Why? Because no matter how "enterprise grade" those Windows Mobile applications are, few within the enterprise are using them.

Enterprise is as enterprise does. Would you rather work for the company that builds software for the enterprise, or would you prefer to work for the company whose software gets used by the enterprise?

If you can have both, great. But it's silly to say Apple isn't an enterprise company simply because it sells to the enterprise without even trying.

(Credit: CNET)

Last month we blogged about a bug marring Flash playback on the latest 27-inch Apple iMacs. Users on several Web sites, including the Apple Discussion Threads, noticed a problem with the Flash player that caused choppy audio and video playback, but it appears that the newest Mac OS X v10.6.2 update fixes the issue that was apparently caused by a conflict with the Airport driver.

According to Apple, the update "addresses video playback and performance issues for iMac (21.5-inch, late 2009) and iMac (27-inch, late 2009) computers that may occur in some situations while AirPort is turned on." Since our own 27-inch iMac also experienced slow Flash streaming and intermittent sound hiccups with the AirPort turned on, we downloaded the 10.6.2 update and left it to sleep overnight.

Prior to the update, the Flash Player consumed 114.4 percent of system resources, but 24 hours after the update we're happy to report 26.8 percent usage in the activity monitor and smooth performance across all popular streaming video Web sites like YouTube, Hulu, etc.

Much thanks to the Apple Forums and Apple itself for quickly addressing the needs of its community. If you haven't updated yet, simply choose Software Update from the Apple menu to install OS X v10.6.2.

Apple's new store on the Upper West Side opens on Saturday at 10 a.m.

(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET)

NEW YORK--Apple hopes to grow its market share with an increasingly aggressive retail strategy that includes opening bigger stores in more locations.

At a media preview of its fourth store here, which is located on the Upper West Side, Ron Johnson, Apple's senior vice president of retail, said Apple's retail strategy is all about getting consumers to switch from PCs to Macs.

New Manhattan Apple store on the Upper West Side--photos

"Our Apple stores are a magnet for switchers," he said. "About half the people who come into our retail locations are first-time Mac buyers."

Johnson said that Apple's Genius Bar, which provides face-to-face customer service and support, and other services, allow people to switch from a PC to a Mac with confidence. For example, Apple offers its One-to-One service, which allows new Mac users to drop off their old computer so that files can be transferred from the older computer to a new Mac.

The new Apple store on the Upper West Side is the first to have a glass ceiling.

(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET)

The service, which costs $99 for one year, then allows users to meet one-on-one with an Apple representative to discover where the new content is on the computer and to learn how to use more advanced features. Customers can use the one-on-one instruction service as much as they like for that one-year period.

Johnson also said that the Apple stores provide a good way for customers to test out and play with new products before they buy them. Even if customers don't buy their Mac, iPhone, or iPod in the Apple store, the experience they get from looking at it in the store is often enough to help them make a purchasing decision.

The strategy seems to be working. Apple has been increasing its overall sales and market share for its products over the past year, particularly for its Macs. In the third quarter of 2009, the company sold about 3 million new Macs, which was a 17 percent increase compared to a year earlier, according to IDC. This was well ahead of the overall global PC market, which grew by only about 2 percent, according to IDC. For 19 of the last 20 quarters, Apple has outpaced the market in terms of sales.

Even though overall sales have increased, Apple hasn't made huge gains in market share. But it has made modest improvements. Over the past year, the company has managed to bump its market share up to 9.4 percent in the third quarter of 2009 from about 8.6 percent in the third quarter of 2008. Apple is in fourth place in the overall computer market, lagging PC makers Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Acer.

In 2001 when Apple opened its first store, plenty of people questioned whether Apple's retail strategy would even work. But eight years and 279 stores later, the retail business has become a big revenue driver for the company. In fiscal 2009, Apple generated $6.6 billion of the company's $29.9 billion in revenue from its retail stores, Johnson said.

Some of the stores, such as the Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan, which sits below a glass cube across the street from the Plaza Hotel, have become tourist destinations.

Apple purposely puts stores in high-traffic areas to attract customers, Johnson said. And in the case of big stores like the ones in Manhattan, it's also important to put them where people visit. Worldwide some 170 million visitors entered an Apple store in fiscal 2009.

Apple's flagship stores, or as the company calls them "significant stores," are especially designed to draw in visitors with eye-catching design and architecture. And the new Upper West Side store at Broadway and 67th Street is no exception. The new store features a glass roof, the first ever for an Apple store. And it also features 45-foot-tall stone walls, a large ground floor to showcase products, and a glass spiral staircase that leads to the lower level of the store where Apple provides service.

Apple plans to open between 40 and 50 new retail stores in 2010. More than half of these new stores are expected to be outside the U.S. Some of the countries where Apple will open new stores include the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, and China, Johnson said.

Apple's main competitor, Microsoft, is trying to emulate Apple's retail success by opening up stores of its own. Recently, the software maker opened locations in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Mission Viejo, Calif.

Apple's latest Manhattan store on Broadway at West 67th Street will open to the public at 10 a.m. EST on Saturday.

Corporations can be heinous places. All day, people wander around, playing politics like so many Lindsay Lohans in "Mean Girls."

So today, one wonders just what machinations are being endured by Simon Aldous, the Microsoft Partner Group manager who was Wednesday quoted by PCR as suggesting that Windows 7 was rather inspired by the simplicity of the Mac OS. Indeed, Aldous declared that Microsoft's new operating system was designed to "create a Mac look."

In what appears to be a somewhat hurriedly written post on the Windows Team blog titled, "How we really designed the look and feel of Windows 7," Microsoft showed that perhaps some of its underwear is currently a little twisted.

The post read: "An inaccurate quote has been floating around the Internet today about the design origins of Windows 7 and whether its look and feel was 'borrowed' from Mac OS X."

This would suggest that Aldous was, in fact, misquoted.

However, the post, written by Brandon LeBlanc, continued, "Unfortunately, this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7. I hate to say this about one of our own, but his comments were inaccurate and uninformed."

"I'm Steve Jobs, and Windows 7 was my idea?"

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Some would therefore now conclude that he was quoted accurately, but he didn't quite get his facts right. This is entirely possible, though one might wonder why he would have made comments with a ring of such endearing honesty.

However, perhaps the most interesting aspect of this Windows Team post is a comment left by someone with the handle "i-dont-do-tat".

This commenter wrote: "I know Simon Aldous, having worked in the same U.K. subsidiary as him for a few years. He's a good guy who, for me, is telling it like it is. He's paying testament to the common view that a Mac is cool and a great template to copy."

As many in the world of business will tell you, copying happens all the time. The competition is scrutinized religiously, and the best articles of faith are taken and sometimes even improved. This happens in every product category.

The "i-dont-do-tat" poster concluded that perhaps honesty might not be such a bad thing: "Denying this to your customers just makes you look stupid because the very look and feel of Windows 7 is desperately trying to look like a Mac OS--just admit it."

Oh, of course one mightn't expect honesty in the mass-market arena. It is a very dangerous place in which to say anything at all. Equally, though, in a tech world interview, perhaps a little nod toward the opposition is not such a bad thing. It might even lull it into a little complacent smugness.

One can only hope that Simon Aldous had a good breakfast Thursday and that he hasn't endured any untoward communications. Unless it's a job offer from Apple, of course, which he should accept only if the company gives him a better deal and appears to come from nicer people.

That's how the corporate world works, you see. Like high school, it's all temporary, so you have to make the most of it while you can.