The Mac is certainly a landmark product, one of the many to make its way out of Cupertino in the last quarter-century. But not everything Apple touches turns to gold. We asked TidBits editor Adam C. Engst to list a half-dozen Apple efforts that probably seemed like good ideas at the time.
1. Macintosh IIvi and IIvx
2. Macintosh TV
3. Pippin
4. Power Macintosh 4400
5. Twentieth Anniversary Mac
6. Apple USB Mouse
Raise your hand if you remember when a Mac was a Mac and a Windows machine was a Windows machine, and never the twain shall meet. I sure do.
Change has come.
Long before fish swam in Macquariums, hipsters got Apple logo tattoos and thousands camped out for days to get into computer store openings, there was a machine.
Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of the original Macintosh, the first personal computer to draw masses, introduce the mouse and incorporate a graphical user interface, relying on images instead of text.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly investigating the circumstances around the announcement that Steve Jobs was taking a leave of absence from the company.
Bloomberg is reporting that the SEC is reviewing the sequence of events around the announcement to make sure investors weren’t misled. Shares rose after Jobs announced he was suffering from a simple hormone imbalance but then fell when he announced his leave of absence shortly afterwards.
During its quarterly earnings call Wednesday, Apple reinforced its skepticism in netbooks, saying their low-powered CPUs, cramped keyboards and small displays are not enough to satisfy customers.
"We've got some ideas, but right now we think the products there are inferior and will not provide the experience to customers that they're happy with," said Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer. Cook added that netbooks are "principally based on hardware," and throughout the call he repeatedly stressed that Apple believes "software is the key ingredient."
Apple has update QuickTime, fixing a number of remote code execution flaws. One security researcher expects malware writers to launch exploits via drive-by attacks. A new version of QuickTime plugs security holes that leave users open to remote code execution attacks by hackers.
In version 7.6, Apple covered seven such flaws that could be exploited by malicious media files or other techniques. The upgrade is available for Mac OS X v10.4.9 - v10.4.11 and Mac OS X v10.5 or later, as well as Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows XP SP2 and SP3.
In the lull between Christmas and New Years, Intel released its new Q9000 quad-core mobile processor, and PC maker Acer almost simultaneously its Q9000-powered Aspire 8930G-7665 “extreme gaming” and multimedia notebook computer with an 18? 1920 x 1080 pixel 16:9 aspect ratio display.
It looks like the iPhone Dev Team are now hard at work for the long awaited jailbreak for the iPod Touch 2G. From the iPhone Dev Team blog:
A Chinese-language blog with a debatable track record claims Apple is working on a 15-inch MacBook Air with more information to come in the "second half" of this year.
Translated from Chinese by Google Translate, the recent entry on Apple.pro said, "It is understood that Apple is producing more than the current MBA size MacBook Air (15-inch?)." (Apple's current MacBook Air, of course, ships with a 13.3-inch display.)
In addition to the benefits detailed in previous articles in this series, the move to 64-bits in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard will enhance Apple's efforts to secure its operating system.
Over the last eight years, Mac OS X has enjoyed a tranquil existence in stark contrast to the high profile security threats and attacks suffered by mainstream Windows users. Microsoft's monopoly over the PC world has long meant that anyone interested in creating extensive, easily spread damage through software exploits would focus their efforts on Windows.
