apple

Cosmo: Apple stores the place to meet men

I'm not sure this is what Ron Johnson had in mind when he set out to create Apple's chain of retail stores, but recently the shops unexpectedly topped a list of hot spots.

Cosmo says that if you are looking to meet a man, you can't do much better than heading to your nearest Apple store.

The magazine notes that guys are natural gadget lovers and with Apple's sales soaring, "more men than ever are stopping by Apple boutiques."

"The vibe at the stores is conducive to man meeting too: You can check … Read more

Woz: 'I'm trying to figure out a way to make the Air part of my life'

Apple co-founder and sometimes Steve Jobs antagonist Steve Wozniak was characteristically outspoken when talking to reporters this morning in Sydney at a tech conference. According to a transcript posted by APC Magazine, on the subject of the new MacBook Air, Woz minced no words, telling a group of reporters:

"At first, I thought, it's so feature-missing...I burn DVDs a lot to pass files to other people. I watch movies on airplanes. I need one that will go an entire flight and switch batteries, when there's sometimes no power on the plane."

But he liked how … Read more

Subscription music's future, Part 1

Rhapsody launched the first high-profile subscription music service in December 2001, in the middle of a revolution. The first iPod had just hit the shelves, streaming Web radio sites like Live365.com were in full bloom, and the masses were just warming to the idea that they could preview and discover music online. A service like Rhapsody, which promised subscribers unlimited access to its growing music catalog, made music junkies salivate. It also pointed the way to a brave new world where people no longer needed physical or virtual media.

The future didn't go quite as planned, however. Because … Read more

MacBook Air one month check (Verdict: It's great)

For all of those who were concerned about the lack of DVD, battery life, etc. on the MacBook Air I can tell you that I have been using the computer very successfully with no issues for a month now.

While I am sure that I will be bored of this machine in a few months it's a non-issue compared to the alternatives: the burden of a pretty giant MacBook, or switching to Windows.

The only problems I have run into are the same things that I have experienced with every Apple laptop; the fact that 'sleep' doesn't always … Read more

What Guantanamo Bay prisoners are forced to listen to until they confess

EPISODE 47

Back from the weekend, Randall's parents get rid of their home phone...so that Randall can't call anymore. Nine Inch Nails is another band releasing their album free online. Seth MacFarlane is back in business with Fox and may release a new Family Guy spinoff, Cleveland. Semi-Pro was semi-awful, and if you want to meet men, go to the Apple Store.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Apple's MacBook refresh ... not so fresh

Apple refreshed its MacBook and MacBook Pro product lines last week. I was hoping for more significant improvements, but the changes were minimal.

The updated models come with new Intel processors, larger hard disks, more main memory, and more graphics memory.

The new Penryn processor was expected to improve battery life, but I noticed something when I compared the specs for the old MacBook Pro to those of the new model. The new machine's stated battery life has dropped from six hours to just five. However, Apple now refers to five hours of "wireless productivity," whereas the … Read more

In testing: Time Capsule

Update:

After spending some time with Apple's Time Capsule this afternoon, we have some impressions for you. We'll dig deeper before our full review on Monday, but here are some initial thoughts.

We paired the Time Capsule with a MacBook Pro with a home cable modem providing the Internet connection. In order to keep it simple, we relied on hard-wired Ethernet all the way, linking the cable modem to the Time Capsule, and the Time Capsule to our laptop. Setup is easy. All you need to do is plug all of the appropriate cables in for your network … Read more

Why wouldn't Apple document performance-boosting APIs?

Vladimir Vukićević from Mozilla's Firefox team eventually managed to turn Firefox 3 into a speed demon on Mac OS X. But Apple sure didn't help with the process.

Apple may not have been trying to cripple non-Apple applications on Mac OS X, but the fact that it's not open source means that the world is beholden to Apple's whims, as Vlad writes:

I do not think that Apple is in any way trying to purposely "cripple" non-Apple software. I also do not think that undocumented APIs give Safari any kind of "significant performance advantage" (as Firefox 3 should show!). … Read more

This week in laptops

This week Apple updated its MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops to include Intel's newest Penryn processors, with the Pro models also getting the multitouch track pad introduced on the MacBook Air earlier this year. Initially it looked like Apple had also updated the laptops' battery life expectations with lower numbers, despite the promise of power savings with Penryn. But as Dan Ackerman quickly pointed out, the apparent drop (from 5 hours to 4.5 hours on the 17-inch MacBook Pro) was the result of a change in how Apple reports battery life and not the battery life itself. Phew. … Read more