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In one of the new Mac vs. PC commercials from Apple, the PC guy, John Hodgman, has written two books. The first one is about buying a new computer, the point being there are so many choices in the Windows world that it's confusing and intimidating. Fine. The second one, though, is called "I just bought a computer. Now what?" That really hit home.

Back in 2003, I created a class called "So you bought a new computer. Now what?", that I taught a number of times both for a PC user group and at … Read more

CNET News.com readers almost blew out my inbox Tuesday morning.

I had a pretty good idea it was going to happen, after posting a request in this space from Mac readers for comment on the story I posted today, "Why do Apple customers care so much?" At one point, I received about 50 e-mails in 50 minutes before I had to ask people to stop.

I asked readers to consider a simple question: Why are Mac users so passionate about Apple? And why is that hardcore, unyielding group of Apple users unable to accept any criticism of … Read more

The question inevitably comes up when I meet people and they learn I write about Apple for a living: "So, what's that like?"

I usually answer, "It's crazy." There perhaps has never been a more interesting time to write about Apple and its growing impact on the computer, telecommunications, and music worlds. Unfortunately, it also means that I have to witness (and sometimes join) a daily descent into a pit of mudslinging.

Their size and degree of organization can be debated, and it's usually overstated. But there is no question that Macintosh users … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--I was waiting to talk to Steve Wozniak last night at the 25th anniversary celebration for the Commodore 64 when I overheard him say his favorite video game of all time was Tetris for the Gameboy.

My eyes practically lit up when I heard that because, in a lot of ways, I have to agree.

In fact, as I told him a couple minutes later when I went up to talk to him, one of the things I made sure to do before I left for my Road Trip around the American Southwest this summer was go … Read more

Hi there,

I'm looking for a couple of Mac fans who regularly post on CNET News.com or Crave regarding topics related to Apple. I'm working on a story about the Mac community, and really want to talk to at least a couple of you about Apple, its products, and your passion for those products.

Please send me an e-mail (tom dot krazit at cnet dot com) if you're interested. I can quote you by your real name or your CNET user name if you prefer, but we can discuss that kind of thing in more detail … Read more

Just when you think the world has been figured out once and for all, it changes. One recent example is the music industry, which thought it had everything settled until digitization came along and spoiled the party. That "party" is set to become much more interesting and profitable for the studios again as digitization moves into the mobile world, as The Times points out.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on one's perspective) for the studios, they're no longer in charge. Apple is, because it has figured out music, then mobile, and is now wedding the two. Now the mobile operators are trying to catch up all of a sudden thanks to Apple's iPhone...

...which has set off an avalanche of traditional mobile phone operators into the music market. They fear that a vital source of revenue could be seized from under them.

The market has huge potential: consumers could be spending as much as $32 billion (?15.5 billion) a year buying music on their handsets by 2010, analysts believe. And the success of the iPhone - Orange sold 30,000 in five days - has served to focus Vodafone and its rivals on trying to snare a chunk of the revenue....… Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--I don't want to date myself, but when I was in high school, one of the things I remember was that, among the geeks like myself who hung out in the computer lab, a bit of a culture war was under way.

No, it wasn't Macs versus Windows. But Apple was a player in this battle.

In fact, it was the Commodore 64 versus the Apple IIe, and while the school had a collection of Apples in the lab that all of us had to use, those of us who had C64s felt like we … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--"Hi, we've never met before."

With those words to Commodore founder Jack Tramiel on Monday evening, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak ended what may be one of the most improbable non-relationships in the history of computers.

It's hard to imagine how Woz and Tramiel could have possibly not ever met before, given that the two were such important figures in the early years of personal computers. With Woz's Apple II and Apple IIe and Tramiel's Commodore Vic-20 and Commodore 64 dominating the personal computer age of the early 1980s--along with the … Read more