apple

I spent much of yesterday down at Apple, and while it's no secret that I'm an Apple fan, even I was surprised by how enlightening the experience was. Apple is not Apple because of its technology. Apple is Apple because of the fervor with which its employees believe in the corporate mission.

That fervor was evident in abundance as I ate in the cafeteria, as I walked the halls, and even in the lobby.… Read more

It seems that a few iPhone users are encountering problems with the iPhone's touch screen, prompting Apple to replace some units.

Posters on Apple's support discussion boards and forums belonging to both AppleInsider and MacRumors have complained of dead spots on their iPhone's touch screen, almost like the old floor at the old Boston Garden. On a phone based almost entirely around touch-screen input, this would obviously be a serious problem.

It's not at all clear how widespread a problem this is. There were several active discussions about the problem on Apple's own support forums, … Read more

Among the announcements at Apple's press event on Tuesday, Steve Jobs talked about the many improvements to Apple's iWork office software. iWork, not unlike Microsoft Office for Windows users, provides a suite of programs designed around productivity. Though the names are different than their Office counterparts, it's pretty easy to tell what each program is for by their names, which include Pages for word processing, KeyNote for presentations, and Numbers for spreadsheets. Mac users who use iWork already love Pages and Keynote, and the newly released Numbers is a welcome addition to iWork '08.

I'm not just here to tell you about each of the updates, however. I'm here to let you know you can download and try it out for yourself! Wednesday, Apple released a 30-day trial for iWork '08, which lets you download and check out each of the programs and their updated features.… Read more

For about the longest time, the background on my Mac had been fairly dull--a Manhattan cityscape plucked from the selection at DesktopNexus. I want my desktop patterns to look good, but I'm not one to put a whole lot of thinking power into it; there are better ways to waste energy.

This morning, however, I switched when I read about Desktoptopia, a new Mac-only downloadable app that lets you easily discover aesthetically pleasing "designer desktop" backgrounds created by innovative digital artists (no generic landscapes here) and switch them up either automatically or manually with a very simple … Read more

Apple announced today a new feature on its 802.11n-based Airport Extreme Base Station. Its Ethernet ports have all been upgraded to Gigabit Ethernet. Sadly, it still offers only three LAN ports, whereas most wireless routers offer four. Otherwise, it's basically the same product we reviewed, at the same price point.

Thanks to an uncommon Q&A session after the iMac and iLife '08 announcements today, we also learned that the Mac Mini has received an update as well. The previous models came with Intel Core Duo chips. The new models get Core 2 Duos; a 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo T5600 chip in the $599 model and a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7200 on the $799 unit.

In addition to the faster clock speeds, adding Core 2 Duo also means 4MB of L2 cache on the $799 Mac Mini, an upgrade over the 2MB on the new $599 … Read more

All of the major Windows PC vendors have improved their desktop designs lately, but after today's iMac redesign announcement, Apple has distanced itself even further from its competition. The trimmer, sleeker iMac, and especially its new keyboard, cut a cleaner profile than any of this year's new PCs from Dell, Gateway, HP, or Sony.

Looks matter of course, but so does value. And with this update, Apple appears to have shed its reputation for going beyond its competition in terms of price. If you compare component for component, you'll find that Dell and Gateway, in particular, offer … Read more

Apple's iWeb, one part of the iLife consumer apps suite, has received an interesting update this morning. iWeb is Apple's consumer-level Web site creation tool, and it gives users a simple way to drag and drop various Web site elements as well as fill in the included templates. The latest version is getting integration with two of Google's services: AdSense and Google Maps. iWeb users can now sign up for AdSense right inside the application, and pick how they want it to show up on their site. From the looks of the screenshots, it's much easier … Read more

.Mac, the popular Web services suite from Apple is getting an update this morning. Among the newer features is a much-needed upgrade to .Mac's Web photo gallery service, which now ties in with the freshly updated iPhoto '08 and the iPhone. Users will also be able to upload photos to their online galleries via a specialized e-mail address. The new iPhone integration mirrors some of the options that are already in place to shuttle off photos from the device, with a new option to "send to Web gallery," which lets you send photos to their.Mac Web … Read more