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TMO Reports - Analyst: Apple's iMac Gaffe a Buying Opportunity - On the heels of Apple Computer's public admissionthat it will run out of stock of its existing iMacssome 60 days before it debuts new, re-designed models, one Wall Street stock analyst sees what appears to be a financial blunder as an opportunity for investors to buy the company's stoc

Video iChatting enabled in the air - All you need is an Apple G4 laptop loaded with iChat instant messaging software, an iSight camera and a seat on a Lufthansa jetliner equipped with broadband Internet access

Ive, Jobs 'music giants' - Apple chief designer Jonathan Ive and CEO Steve Jobs feature in Q Magazine's poll of the most powerful people in music.

 iChat AV at 35,000 Feet - It’s a long flight from Munich to San Francisco, even non-stop. But recently two enterprising Apple product managers cut the distance dramatically with a few at-hand tools: iChat AV, iSight, 17-inch PowerBook G4, an Airbus and an orbiting satellite

Apple Rocks Europe - Here we go. The race for global dominance in music downloading is on, although Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) comes as close as you can to claiming it's already over. One week after launchingin Europe, Apple said it has sold more than 800,000 songs across the United Kingdom, Germany, and France

Market, demand and profit contribute to product, service pricing - Perceived value. This is where design, packaging, and marketing come in to play. Apple Computer has learned that a good design can increase the value (as well as the usability) of what might be an otherwise mundane product (computers, MP3 players). A professional-looking Web site and marketing materials can increase your perceived value

Macsimum migration: sales solutions for the Mac, part II - For those new to the column, Macsimum Migration Kits round up Mac compatible products for specific industries such as dentistry, real estate, etc. This week is the second of our multi-part look at sales solutions for the Mac.

The Best Product Designs Of The Year - A click wheel makes it even easier to use than the original iPod and saves space by integrating buttons. The mini, at 3.6 ounces, is half the weight of the original but still holds 1,000 songs. The size of a business card. $249.

Apple does a supercomputer for the Army: ain't no dismissing it this time - Everyone knows the drill by now: Apple could announce an inexpensive plan to cure world hunger, and CNET would step up and condemn it for not using the right brand of ketchup. There is seemingly no extent to which CNET won't travel in order to take a positive development out of Apple, and spin it negatively. This is, after all, the outlet that tried to make the case a little while back that iPod demand was "iffy," and every few months, runs the exact same "Five reasons not to buy an iPod" article on its front page. But in one of the most shameful acts of journalistic larceny I can remember, CNET ran an article back in January (not surprisingly, with no author listed) that used a variety of ridiculous tactics in order to attack Virginia Tech's supercomputer, and to attempt to leave the reader thinking that what Apple and Virginia Tech managed to pull off together wasn't real

Report says Apple can increase marketshare - Those who have counted Apple down and out on the computer front should think again. Last week MacNewsWorld, a Web site of “Mac intelligence for the enterprise,” summarized a published survey that reported that as many as 50 percent of personal computer buyers who considered a Mac over the last 12 months actually ended up purchasing one – but the figure could have been much higher.

Cannes Grand Prix Prediction: Apple Ipod Ad A Towering Achievement in Art Direction - Our best guess for the Grand Prix, though, is for Apple iPod (TBWA). The colorful "Hip Hop" silhouettes are not only striking, they're a rare example of advertising-as-USP, in which the Day-Glo images are synonymous with the unique product they represent

Digital Imaging's Winners and Losers - Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) was the Infoimaging Index's biggest gainer for the second week in a row. The computer maker's shares surged 7.1% after the company launched its iTunes online music store in Europe with about 700,000 songs

Apple on a tear Three new highs for the company in the last week and a half -- a look at what's driving interest. - Apple has become quite the investor darling. Since June 9, the company's stock has risen to three new 52-week highs

Word Refuseniks: Never Upgrade  - Microsoft's brand-new version of Office for Mac OS X has been highly praised in reviews, but for many users it can't hold a candle to the 13-year-old Word 5.1. Released in October 1991, Word 5.1 is for many the apex of Microsoft software

Apple soars to three-year high of $32.74 - Shares of Apple (AAPL) today rose to their highest price in more than three years

Memo to eWeek: get out of journalism - You know, I doubt there's literally a minute that goes by that someone in the mainstream press doesn't publish something that's completely, totally, bizarrely off-base about Apple or the Macintosh. And while none of it is even close to excusable, it's to some extent understandable. Many mainstream tech journalists, who cover the Mac only occasionally, are still relying on third-hand misinformation rather than actually trying to find out anything for themselves. And although it makes me think that they must be living a bomb shelter to be so isolated from tech reality, they appear to have no idea that the Mac's amazing resurgence over the past five years has even happened

Steve Jobs > The Billionaire Hippie - Steve Jobs is known for his grass roots approach, but this earthy innovator earns the kind of cash that will keep him in the clouds looking down on his peers for a long time.

Judge Gives OK For Eminem vs. Apple To Continue - Eminem and Apple Computer are officially still on a collision course. The AP is reporting today that a judge has given the go ahead to Eminem's lawsuit against Apple, TBWA/Chiat/Day, MTV, and Viacom, MTV's parent company, to proceed

Bill Gates Cries Poor: The bully wants all of our lunch money - As we all know, Microsoft is a brutal, criminal monopoly. Thanks to the neutering of the Federal Anti-trust case by the appeals court, the company has been essentially given free reign to do whatever it wants to us with little cost. Clearly, Bill Gates doesn't feel deterred as he warns of raised prices due to legal bills . It is very telling that Gates would find it reasonable to raise prices after settling a court battle about overcharging consumers. It tells us that Microsoft is more flagrantly abusive of its customers and the market than ever before. They will NEVER learn

The Back Page - Apple Death Knell #40, Enderle vs. Chaffin Finale - You knew it was coming: Rob Enderle has let ring his 5th Apple Death Knell in just the last few years. Today's entry in the Apple Death Knell Counter comes in part 5 in the heads up debate between Mr. Enderle and myself in MacNewsWorld's Death Match. This cements Mr. Enderle's lead in the Apple Death Knell Counter; with1/8 of the entries we have chronicled so far, no one else comes even close. As I noted in the ADKC itself, however, there are additional Death Knells from even the last few months that I have not yet entered, but I am betting Mr. Enderle maintains his lead for some time to come.

TMO Reports - Apple Moves Up Electronic Retailer Top 100; 23rd Overall - Thanks to the addition of 22 retail stores in 2003, Apple Computer moved from 34th to 23rd in the annual Top 100 list of North American consumer electronics retailer

How Apple is killing the Mac myths one by one - It's been a banner week for garbage columns about Apple in the mainstream press. Some folks are just plain convinced that Apple has already lost the digital music market that it so thoroughly dominates, while others are equally as convinced that Apple's entry into the digital music market finally allows the company to ditch that silly old Macintosh line of computers that no one (other than 25 million apparently invisible users) uses anyway. Put all the nonsense together, and one might be tempted to conclude that Apple should ditch its failed computer line so that it can devote its efforts solely to failing with digital music. But one thing's for sure: Apple is failing / will fail / has failed. Right?

iTunes competition just keeps getting more laughable - Another week, another journalist hallucinating about how Apple has already lost the digital music market that it so thoroughly dominates. This time, we've got none other than the Motley Fool delivering this gem:" My gut hunch is that either MTV or Wal-Mart will end up being the dominant players."

Windows Stability: Nothing Really Changes - After all, things have apparently improved considerably since I used NT 4.0. My new machine had Windows 2000 Professional on it, so how bad could it be? Well, it seems the stability gap between Macs and PCs has grown rather than diminished

Apple's iTunes Music Store wins two 2004 Webby Awards - Presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, The Webby Awards is the leading international honor for the worlds best web sites

Microsoft security update breaks Samba - After applying this Microsoft "fix" to their systems, users that access Samba file servers - most of which run a version of Unix or Linux - suddenly found it impossible to change passwords from windows machines, when prompted to do so as passwords start expiring.

Why Steve Jobs is still important - It was the mid-1990s. Apple was disappearing. Steve Jobs was irrelevant. And few noncult members wept. Roll the tape. The original dream of using digital technology to change the way we live our lives is being fulfilled not by Microsoft and Bill Gates but by...Steve Jobs

Office, Beware -- Here Comes Workplace - IBM's new Web-based software package aims to let corporations use as much or as little of Microsoft's software as they want -- or none at all

The Back Page - The Rebuttals: Bryan Chaffin vs. Rob Enderle, Round 2 - I get the opportunity to deconstruct Mr. Enderle's amazingly inaccurate arguments to his face, instead of having to wait and do it from the confines of a column. For his part, Mr. Enderle tries to counter my arguments with more inaccuracies that I believe will have to go unanswered at MacNewsWorld.

Mac Death Match, Round Two: Chaffin vs. Enderle - Enderle asserted that Apple must migrate the Mac OS from the PowerPC chip to Intel's x86 platform to survive in a Linux-Longhorn world, while Chaffin contended that advocating a move to Intel demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of Apple's business model, as well as a lack of appreciation of the PowerPC's advantages

Whither Apple? - more exasperating to its critics is Apple's constant knack of reinvention. In its latest fiscal quarter, the company showed its greatest gains not in its lines of Macintosh desktops, notebook computers, Mac OS X operating system or Xserve servers, but in its consumer market iPod audio player

'Never underestimate Jobs' - The report in The Contra Costa Times suggests that Jobs’ knowledge and standing in the industry means that his views should be taken seriously. The report states: "With roots both in Silicon Valley's digital culture and the 1960s counterculture, Jobs has long been an arbiter of what is cool in technology."

Longhorn To Require Dual-Core CPU Running At 4 To 6GHz - Microsoft is expected to recommend that the "average" Longhorn PC feature a dual-core CPUrunning at 4 to 6GHz; a minimum of 2 gigs of RAM; up to a terabyte of storage; a 1 Gbit, built-in, Ethernet-wired port and an 802.11g wireless link; and a graphics processor that runs three times faster than those on the market today

Gartner: Worms Jack Up the Total Cost of Windows - Dealing with widespread worms like Sasser raises the cost of using Windows, a research analyst said Wednesday. Mark Nicolett, research director at Gartner, recommended that enterprises boost spending on patch management and intrusion prevention software to keep ahead of worms, which are appearing ever sooner after vulnerabilities in Windows are disclosed

Visionaries at Google could learn from Apple - Google Inc.'s registration to sell public stock is the modern equivalent of Apple's famous ad. Like Apple of the 1980s, Google proposes to be a hip, iconoclastic, enlightened, good multinational corporation. It will challenge stale wisdom, fight evil and usher an envious corporate America into sunlit pastures.

Bloomberg Reports That Steve Jobs Will Advise John Kerry Presidential Campaign - Billionaire investor Warren Buffett and Apple Computer Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs are advising Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on economic issues

Former Disney director says Jobs could fix company - Dissident Walt Disney shareholder and former director Stanley Gold said Monday that Steve Jobs would be on his short list of people who could fix the troubled company."If I had a list, Steve Jobs would be on a short list of people who could fix this company,"

Dual jobs make Jobs Chron 200's CEO of year - "What he has done is a unique accomplishment,'' said Mike McGuire, research director at GartnerG2 of San Jose. "Both companies ... weren't just successful. They're helping to reshape some industries.''

Microsoft Confirms Bug in SSL Patch - Microsoft Corp. has confirmed in a knowledge base article that its patch for a critical bug can cause some Windows 2000 systems to lock up and fail at boot time

Dvorak blames obsessive compulsive disorder, not Microsoft for virus problems - Sorry to ask the obvious question, but since John neglected to address the rather large Panther in the room - why not just give the end users Macintosh computers running Mac OS X and be done with it, John? Oh yeah, then you'd have to write about people accomplishing positive things, increasing productivity, and having fun computing, instead of making up things to whine about

Analyzing the Analyst's Analysis - I've little use for most analysts. Except for a rare few, most do a magnificent job of underperforming. In fact, our national paper runs an interesting contest every year where an object or animal is used to pick a stock. A group of the best analysts willing to put their reputation on the line also pick a stock. The newspaper reviews the performance of the stocks a year later. Invariably, the object or animal winds up in the middle of the pack

Analysts: Apple safeguards online music lead - Apple Computer Inc. CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday briefed industry analysts and media on the third generation iTunes Music Store, details of which were first revealed on MacCentral earlier this morning. Industry analysts feel the new release will not only increase the pressure on Microsoft Corp., but also safeguard Apple's lead in the competitive online music download marke

Entertainment Technology Digital Digs Bay Area’s top tech firms home in on consumer electronics Music sweeps Apple to head of the class - The portable digital music player isn't the first of its kind, but the iPod line has become the hottest-selling product at Apple Computer Inc. During the past quarter, shipments of iPods even outpaced Apple's hallmark Macintosh computers

Windows users begin to realize the end of floppies is near - We had to look at the date of this article multiple times before we believed it. Apple announced the death of the floppy in May 1998 or almost 6 (six!) years ago with the introduction of the iMac. In fact, Apple was routinely lambasted for dropping the floppy from their computers at the time (and even in some dark, moldy IT corners still today). That this article is actually being published today illustrates the gap between the Wintel PC and Apple Macintosh worlds perfectly

Adobe's CEO: "Our Mac Business Has Stayed Relatively Strong" - When some folks got the news that Adobe was discontinuing its development of FrameMaker for the Mac they took that as a sign that there was a rift between Adobe and Apple. Indeed, many think that Adobe isabandoning the Mac platform after years of a successful relationship.
Wouldn't it be great to have a sit-down with Adobe's CEO, Bruce Chizen, and ask him some pointed questions about Apple, Adobe, Linux, and Windows?

PalmSource refutes Mac snub - A PalmSource representative disputes claims from competitors that it is abandoning customers who link their Palm-powered handheld computers with their Mac desktop computers

Is Mac OS X a secret only for Mac users, Mr. Jobs? - "Apple needs to learn that price is determined by market demand and not its own perception of what products are worth. Its prospects look brighter now than at any point in recent memory, and it still boasts some of the fattest margins -- if not the fattest -- in the business for its PCs. Jobs & Co. has the tools to really turn Apple into a mainstream player if they can boost computers sales by dropping prices," Salkever writes

BusinessWeek: Apple Needs To Lower Prices - BusinessWeek's Alex Salkever has some bottom line advice for Apple: Lower prices. This pearl of wisdom comes in Mr. Salkever's weekly look at the Mac industry, Byte of the Apple

The End of SCO? - BayStar pulling its funding from SCO may be the end not just to SCO's anti-Linux litigation but to the company, says Linux & Open Source Center Editor Steven Vaughan-Nichols.

A tribute to Jonathan Ive - allow me to make a few introductions. Jonathan Ive is the industrial design genius behind Apple and such ground-breaking product designs as the iMac, the PowerBook, and the iPod. At 37 and with no signs of slowing down, Ive was handed Design Museum’s prestigious Designer of the Year award in 2003

Linspire Gives Away Linux OS - Linspire, formerly known as Lindows, is giving away its desktop Linux operating system for the first time as a way to publicize its name change

Father of the Web Uses A PowerBook - The "Father of the Web" was named as the first winner of the Millennium Technology Prize by the Finnish Technology Award Foundation. In the picture at right he's seen with a PowerBook G4 Titanium. Sweet!

Steve Jobs Apple Computer, Pixar - Jobs is different from most of his peers in that he takes personal responsibility for what Apple makes and how those products feel to the user. Jobs directs the design process from start to finish, asking endless questions, expressing often conflicting opinions, unfailingly pushing the company toward better, more useful products

Panasonic and Apple Collaborate to Bring HD Over FireWire  - Panasonic and Apple today announced the world’s first implementation of IEEE 1394 FireWire with 100 Mbps DV-HD (the native video compression of Panasonic DVCPRO HD recording systems) to bring unmatched capabilities and dramatically lower price points to high definition (HD) post-production and content distribution

Ars Technica Newsdesk - Fire up Windows Update, because April's bug count from Redmond is looking rather stiff. Dubbed by some as "unprecedented," Microsoft today released four critical updates covering a body of 20 software flaws. All four updates packages are considered critical, although only 8 of the 20 bugs discovered rate as such according to Microsoft.

Apple Reports Second Quarter Results - For the quarter, the Company posted a net profit of $46 million, or $.12 per diluted share. These results compare to a net profit of $14 million, or $.04 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue for the quarter was $1.909 billion, up 29 percent from the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 27.8 percent, down from 28.3 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 43 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Making customers miserable the Microsoft way - As if the torrents of Windows-related security flaws were not enough, Microsoft has found another way to leave customers with a foul taste in their mouth and an empty feeling in their pocket.
The problem this time centers on Microsoft's Software Assurance program

Apple's Ive drives university design - The University of Northumbria is an international design powerhouse, driven by the huge success of its former alumni such as Apple VP of industrial design Jonathan Ive.

The Mac Really Does "Just Work" - "It just works" is something of a cliche in the Macintosh orbit, but most of the time it's the literal truth. One of the abiding gratifications of being a Mac user is the simplicity, lack of hassle, and plain elegance of configuration and connectivity

Flash Mob Supercomputer - On Saturday 3 April, over 1000 laptop owners will converge on the university gym in an attempt to build a "flash mob" supercomputer. The project's organisers hope that FlashMob will run fast enough to beat supercomputers in the list of the world's top 500 supercomputers.

Storage limits? What storage limits? - Apple Computer can't keep up with demand for its iPod mini digital music player, built around a 4-gigabyte hard drive that's just one inch in diameter. So imagine the waiting list in six years, when the iPod mini's hard drive will hold 55 gigabytes of songs -- enough to play for 39 days non-stop without repeating a single track

MS gets EU fine, orders for server info and WMP-free Windows - In a statement issued today, the Commission concluded that Microsoft "broke European Union competition law by leveraging its near monopoly in the market for PC operating systems (OS) onto the markets for work group server operating systems and for media players." It has therefore punished Microsoft via the fine, and made a number of orders regarding the company's future conduct

Why the next decade of Macintosh will be golden - If you ask the pundits about the Macintosh's fortunes, the answer is likely to be as Doors-inspired as ever: the future's uncertain and the end is always near. But as the Mac enters its third decade, forces seem to be aligning in its favor. In no particular order, here are a whole slew of reasons why the platform is poised to break on through to the other side

For imagining iTunes and Finding Nemo (then ditching Disney) - Renegade of the Year: Steve Jobs

Apple still rules paid music download market - Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store has notched its 50 millionth song that customers paid to download from the Internet, opening distance between the company and its online music competitors

Peter Jackson, David Byrne, Steve Jobs Among Winners of Wired Magazine Rave Awards - Steve Jobs was named Wired's 2004 Renegade of the Year for setting the agendain digital entertainment with Apple's iTunes Music Store and with Pixar's animated hit "Finding Nemo."

Finally, Apple Speaks to the Blind - It's building innovative screen-reading technology into OS X. That's essential for the visually impaired -- and a smart business move

EU states back Microsoft sanctions - European Union states Monday unanimously threw their weight behind a landmark ruling against Microsoft that would find it broke antitrust law and seek changes in how it sells audiovisual software

Cnet, what the heck is wrong with you? - Man. You know, when we used to talk about anti-Mac bias in the press, back in the Bad Old Days of "beleaguered" Apple, this is the kind of stuff we meant

The Next “Killer App” Will Be Developed on Apple’s OS X - There’s good reason to suspect that the net’s next “killer app” will be developed on Apple’s OS X operating system. Among many computer developers, there is a strong movement from Linux to OS X.

Microsoft behind $50 million SCO investment - The software giant's role in the BayStar financing, however, had been unknown until recently. It first came to light last week, when open-source advocate Eric Raymond published an e-mail written by Mike Anderer, a consultant with SCO contractor S2 Strategic Consulting LLC that appeared to suggest that Microsoft had funneled as much as $86 million into the company

Army to Gates: Halt the free software - Microsoft has been mailing free copies of its pricey Office productivity software to government employees, but CNET News.com has learned that at least two federal agencies are warning recipients to return the gifts or risk violating federal ethics policies

Outlook flaw riskier than thought - Microsoft has raised the severity rating of an Outlook flaw to "critical," the highest level, after its initial analysis was challenged by the researcher who found the security hole

iPod, you profit - At the risk of plunging everyone into the walnut-panelled gloominess of corporate thinking, may we report that Steven Milunovich, analyst with international bankers and billionaires Merrill Lynch, sees the iPod as something akin to a new California oil strike

Minnesotans Sue Microsoft for Overcharging - Salon isn't just about humorless movie reviews, it's also carrying a wire service report about a class action suit against Microsoft. This time, a group of Minnesota consumers are accusing MS of overcharging them for Windows and other software:

Apple Death Knell #38: "The Mac Market Is Ending" - Noted Windows fan site publisher Paul Thurrott has announced to the world that "the Mac market is ending." Mr. Thurrott -- whose main job is either obsessively following Apple (the word "Apple" appears 207 times on the home page of " Paul Thurrott's Internet Nexus ," and that's just from February 9th to today), trolling TMO's forums without signing his full name, or lauding the many benefits of whatever product Microsoft has just announced, but not shipped -- made this announcement in response to a Geek.com article questioning how Apple will grow the Mac market.

SCO so despised that chief is armed - Darl McBride, chief executive of SCO Group Inc., says he sometimes carries a gun because his enemies are out to kill him. He checks into hotels under assumed names. An armed body guard protected him at Harvard Law School when he gave a speech last month.

Macs help The Spamhaus Project take on spam - while enforcers in the old days carried guns for self-defense, Linford relies on a different weapon: his network of Macs. We need our computers to be impregnable," he says, "something that Macs have always been famous for.

Apple's Competitive Advantage - Where Apple really stands out is in marketing. The company simply seems to understand what will get people excited about its products, and then it executes on that vision. You don't see the company mainly talking about features or technology, but about how the computer will make your life better

The Mac's 'ultimate remote control' leaps forward - The software, which fuses Bluetooth devices to the Mac, highlights the considerable advantages of Apple's Bluetooth wireless technologies, AppleScript and ease of use over the nearest Wintel equivalents. Microsoft has notoriously dragged its feet over Bluetooth support, and although it has a scripting engine (Windows Scripting Host) it doesn't match the elegance of AppleScript

CNET Names 7 Apple Products As "Best" - CNET has published a round up of top products called " CNET's Top 100 Products ," and seven Apple products were singled out as "Best of" their respective categories

Windows Shorthorn is 'dead-on-arrival' - Microsoft's biggest customers, particularly those who have paid upfront for a Licensing 6.0 subscription, can at least expect some coherent roadmap. They'll be as surprised as anyone to discover that a major release of Windows is a few months away, which is what the current spate of rumors suggest

The Waiting Is the Funnest Part  - After two weeks of same-sex couples lining up around the block to get married at City Hall, the city of San Francisco saw even bigger crowds on Saturday morning for the raucous grand opening of Apple's new downtown store.

February's Top-Ranked CEOs - For more than a year, we have been asking our readers to rate the performance of America's most prominent chief executives on a monthly basis

Apple tops BrandChannel's Global Brand of Year 2003 - Apple was tops in BrandChannel's survey for Brand of the Year 2003 in the US/Canada rankings, but was second to Google in the global survey: "The Global Brand of the Year goes to Google, which narrowly beat out Apple for the second year in the row as the brand that had the most impact on our readers in 2003. "

Computing future lies in Apple's little iPod - How successful is the iPod? This year Apple will sell more iPods than it will sell computers. At a margin of 27 percent, Steve Jobs is laughing (or listening) all the way to the bank with this tiny Lexan and stainless wonder

Jobs ranks No. 262 in world's wealthiest list - Apple and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs, who turned 49 on Tuesday, came in at No. 262 on Forbes' 18th annual list of the richest people on the planet

Apple Should Just Buy Apple - Instead of this messy Apple Computer suit with the Beatles Apple Corp Records, Apple should just spend some of that $4 billion dollar cash pile and buy Apple Corp

Cool Tools - Best of the Tests Award winner, the iSight camera. Apple wasn't the first company to make a Webcam, it just made one that's better than others we've seen

BusinessWeek: Apple's Profits Grew 552% In 2003, Best Among Techs - In a report from BusinessWeek about corporate profits in 2003, the magazine noted that Apple led the pack in profit growth amongst tech companies. Indeed, while the tech industry averaged profit growth of a whopping 210%, Apple's profits for 2003 soared some 552%.

Growing pains hit Dell's customer service - Dell continues to win market share and turn out record quarterly profits, but two recent surveys show that the company has slipped, when it comes to a more subjective measurement: customer service.

Apple tops customer support survey - Apple scored the highest (74 out of a possible 100) among PC makers in the latest Consumer Reports desktop support survey.

Music trio's sensors working overtime - The data generated by the sensors is sent to a microcontroller unit (MCU) on the back of each performer's (specially-made) jacket. Dr Riddell designed the MCU to scan the sensor(s) 100 times per second, which means high quality sound. This data is then sent via USB cable to an Apple PowerBook.

What Microsoft's code leak means to you and me - it's always possible that someone at Microsoft--without any corporate authority--leaked the code. That someone could have done so for any of a number of reasons

Regarding Rania - The secret to Rania's break-the-mold approach to the monarchy may be her background. She was not raised to be a Queen. Her parents are Palestinian — her father was a pediatrician — and she made her own way in Amman's middle class, working as a marketing executive for Apple Computer before meeting and marrying then Prince Abdullah in 1993

Apple's Macs attack fun, entertainment with ease - When it comes to having fun with a personal computer, the newest Macs rule the desktop — and the laptop. Call it the facts of iLife

Silicon Discovery Could Speed Up PCs - In an advance that could inexpensively speed up corporate data centers and eventually personal computers, researchers used everyday silicon to build a device that converts data into light beams.

EEye: More Microsoft bugs on the way - The company that informed Microsoft about the most recent high-profile security vulnerability has said it is waiting on fixes for several more critical flaws

Jobs a 'WIRED Renegade of the Year' nominee - Steve Jobs, CEO of both Apple and Pixar, is a nominee for "Wired Renegade of the Year" in the latest Wired Rave Awards . The honor goes to "the person who had the most significant cultural impact in the wired world in 2003.

When will Windows users learn? - Windows XP is the most stable and secure operating system. Only if you believe what Bill Gates tells you. Yes it is stable and fast, compared to previous versions of Windows, but that’s as far as it goes. Windows XP is not as secure and stable as Mac OS X or even UNIX and its variations. Don’t believe me, read all the news about the newest virus plaguing the Windows environment and all the other viruses that have recently brought systems down

Want to ditch the feds? Get a Mac - "Dave had some surprises up his sleeve as well. You'll remember that I said he was using a ThinkPad (running Windows!). I asked him about that, and he told us that many of the computer security folks back at FBI HQ use Macs running OS X, since those machines can do just about anything: run software for Mac, Unix, or Windows, using either a GUI or the command line. And they're secure out of the box. In the field, however, they don't have as much money to spend, so they have to stretch their dollars by buying WinTel-based hardware. Are you listening, Apple? The FBI wants to buy your stuff. Talk to them!

Microsoft Brings Security Holes to the Mac - eMilkshake writes "There is an MS security bulletin that reads, in part, 'A security vulnerability exists ... because of the method by which Virtual PC for Mac creates a temporary file when you run Virtual PC for Mac. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by inserting malicious code into the file which could cause the code to be run with system privileges

iPod's low-profile creator tops cultural chart - Jonathan Ive, the designer of the iPod, the iMac and the iBook, has been recognised by being voted top of a list of Britain's 50 most influential cultural figures. The list, compiled by leading figures in the worlds of fashion, the arts, media and design, has been compiled for the first birthday of BBC3, the youth-orientated digital channel.

How Microsoft botched another security patch - Last week Microsoft quietly released a patch for Internet Explorer that, among other things, fixed a flaw that allowed phishing scams to operate. Trouble is, you probably didn't know the patch came out. And, even if you did, you probably weren't aware that Microsoft also changed some basic functionality within Internet Explorer that may have prevented you from logging into familiar Web sites

Howard Dean campaign to use Apple "Switch" ad format in Wisconsin primary - The Howard Dean campaign is asking visitors to the Howard Dean website to vote for their favorite of three ads that are based upon the format of Apple's old "Switch" television ads

For those with a Mac, it can be a wonderful iLife - A lot of high-tech companies strive to be the hub of a digital lifestyle, but unless they're pushing an expensive Media Center PC they mostly leave it to consumers to figure out how to make their products work with others. Macintosh computer owners don't face that headache.

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