Here's something for all you IT pros out there. Apple has released a video podcast that offers a quick tour of Mac OS X Leopard Server [iTunes link].
There are two episodes available now; "Setup and Administration" and "Managing Your Server." Each features a screencast walk-through of some basic tasks, as well as as a monotone and articulate host in the standard issue black mock turtleneck.
Seasoned Mac OS X Server administrators will find the content pretty basic, but still enjoyable. If you're considering Leopard Server for your work group or small business, these videos are a nice introduction. When you're ready to join the ranks of Mac OS X Server pros, swing by afp548.com and macenterprise.org for additional webcasts and training resources.
This is my favorite story of the week. Major League Baseball fans probably remember the New York construction worker who buried a David Oritz jersey underneath the New York Yankees stadium in an attempt to jinx the team. It seems he unwittingly started a trend.
Back in April, Michael Oh (Tech Superpowers founder and president) crossed the street to the Apple Store's construction site with a shovel and one of his company's T-Shirts. A short time later, the shirt was buried underneath the concrete, where it remains today. Since the story of the Ortiz jersey was breaking at the time, the members of the construction crew thought the idea was funny, and let him do his thing.
Oh points out that he isn't trying to jinx the store, but create a connection between the two retailers.
"We're doing it with a wink ... We are in business because of the great things Apple has done ... This T-shirt in the sidewalk is a symbol that there's a connection between the two sides of the alley." It was Oh who set up the Boston Apple Store Webcam at ifoAppleStore to share the construction process with Apple fans everywhere.
We can only imagine what's next
Burger King buries a cardboard crown under each new McDonald's
Dunkin Donuts leaves a bag of French Vanilla under each new Starbucks
So when you visit the store this weekend, tread lightly. You might be standing on a buried treasure.
Apple just released a new "Get a Mac" ad entitled "Sad Song." In this commercial, PC is singing a country inspired song about how Vista saddens him. This commercial was released and played during the American Idol show tonight on the FOX network. You may remember that Apple also released 2 new Get a Mac ads last night. You can watch this and other Get a Mac ads on the Apple website.
Apple just released two new "Get a Mac" ads -- Pep Rally and Group. In Pep Rally, PC tries to pep himself up despite the fact that the Mac is the "number one notebook on college campuses." Just when PC finishes his rant, the cheerleader squad starts cheering for Mac.
In Group, PC is in a support group with fellow PCs. "You've just taken the biggest step, and that's accepting that our operating system just isn't working like it should," are some words uttered by the PCs. The comedy comes at the end of this one as a PC stands up and says "I am pleased to say that I've been error free for over a week" in a constant loop.
You can view these new ads on Apple's Get a Mac website. Apple has also redesigned their Get a Mac site for viewing these Mac commercials, you can now view them by year going all the way back to 2006.
When I think about a computer, I usually don't think about a 5-ton assembly of brass gears, cams, and steel rods. Yet in 1847 - 1849, Charles Babbage first created his design for the Difference Engine No. 2, a large mechanical computer that used these non-electronic components.
Nathan Myrhvold, former Chief Technical Officer of Microsoft, commissioned the building of a Difference Engine No. 2 based on Babbage's design. It's on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, and will soon grace the living room of Myrhvold's home.
What does this have to do with Apple? In this MarketWatch video, it's mentioned that Babbage had problems getting funding for a device that was considered to be ahead of its time. It kind of reminds me of Apple's Newton MessagePad. It was the progenitor of all PDAs and smartphones, but failed in the marketplace because of its price and the fact that few people understood what it was good for.
The video also highlights Daniel Janisch, PowerBook Guy, who upgrades and sells antique PowerBooks (8-year old "Pismo" PowerBooks, for example). You can run Tiger on the Pismos, but they're often abandoned for the new kids on the block.
Unfortunately we don't have much more than a splash screen on this one, but Stuart Carnie sends word that he's used the Apple SDK to port a Commodore 64 emulator on to the iPhone. He has yet to put in a Save/Resume state mechanism, a way to browse for files and disks, or a virtual keyboard/joystiq to control it with, but the hard stuff is done, so by the time the App Store comes around, we may have a working C64 emu in there ready to go.
As long as it's ok with Apple. In point of fact, we have no idea how any emulators might work in the App Store -- actually, we have no idea how any apps will get in the App Store. Sure, it would be cool to play the original versions of Sim City or Maniac Mansion or Elite, but without Apple's OK to let any of those on the platform, we may not be able to do so without jailbreaking the thing anyway. We'll see -- if Carnie, once his work is done, can't get an official emulator in the App Store, maybe we'll be able to try it out and put it to use in some other, less official way.
Peter Cohen over at Macworld continues his sideline analysis of Apple's gaming chances with a post about how the brand new faster iMacs are indeed faster, but still not fast enough for gamers. And to a certain extent, he's right -- gaming on the Mac is like that old beat-up, "someday I'll fix it up" convertible your father's had in the garage covered with a tarp since you were a kid. Getting it out and putting a new engine in it might help it run better, but it's still not going to turn it into a car that anyone wants to drive around.
But (and we talked about this extensively on the Talkcast a few weeks ago with Brian Akaka from Freeverse) it's a step. A faster video card, even if it isn't blazing, will run games better than before, and it'll do a little to bring not only gaming customers but developers back to the Mac. Cohen is right -- that old convertible needs an actual mechanic to take a look at it, and it needs the seats to be reupholstered, and sooner or later it's going to need a new can of paint (not that, like your Dad's actual convertible, these things aren't ever going to happen -- we continue to hear rumblings that Apple is aiming for gamers).
But something is something -- the very fact that Apple is offering faster video cards is a sign that they're interested. And, other than simple profiles of games on their website and cameos by game execs at keynotes, that's more than we've had in a while.
As usual, we have no idea if this is the real thing, a prototype, or just a little Photoshop fakery. The most obvious difference between what Engadget saw first and what's posted here is the color on the back, but then again, why wouldn't Apple release iPhones in different colors? They've certainly done that with iPods.
None of this guarantees anything, but I will say that if I was shopping for an iPhone, the AT&T memo would be enough for me to hold off on a purchase until mid-June at least. There is an iPhone update storm coming, and the thunder and lightning seem to be getting closer together.
It was just a couple weeks ago that Apple bought PA Semi, a custom PowerPC chip design firm. But now that a few details about the acquisition are leaking out, a new light has begun to shine on this subject. According to an EETimes post, Apple considered buying PA Semi back in 2005, prior to the Intel switch. Oh yeah, and one minor detail ... Apple has been an investor in the company since that time. When Apple started using Intel chips, that move sent a death threat to PA Semi.
Per the EETimes story, Apple came along to purchase a new chip from PA Semi. PA Semi didn't have enough investor funding to undertake a new project. So, what does Apple do? They pay off the investors and buy the whole company. Apple bought PA Semi for $278 million -- no pocket change, that's for sure. How important could this chip be for Apple to pay that much money? Well it might just be for a new tablet Mac (remember, you heard this rumor here first).
A new Apple retailer has opened in Lahore, Pakistan. It's not an official Apple Store, but a joint venture between Apple and Pakistan-based retailer Raffles. Called "iRaffles," the store was officially opened by US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson late last week.
This marks the first store for Pakistan. If you're a TUAW reader in the Lahore area, please send us any pictures and stories you have! Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
It was ten years ago today that Steve Jobs mounted the Flint Center auditorium near Apple's campus and revealed the product that would save Apple, and become the best selling computer of all time: the iMac. It is hard to believe that this cute little guy is ten years old, but it is true.
The original iMac came stocked with a 233MHz G3, 32MB of SDRAM (though you could bump it up to a whopping 128MB), a 4 gig harddrive, 2 USB ports, a CD-ROM drive (not a CD burner, Apple was late to that party), and an IrDA port. These specs might not make your heart skip a beat nowadays, but the iMac is the product that started Apple's amazing turn around. It was the first mainstream computer to break with the past and offer only USB ports, no legacy connectors here. And it is worth noting that the iMac can also be attributed as the killer of the floppy disk.
I recall the howls from the tech community about the iMac's lack of a floppy drive. 'People love their floppies!' 'This is nothing more than an expensive toy!' All charges leveled against the iMac, but the decision actually helped create a market for USB accessories as most people bought their iMac and a USB floppy drive (I know I did. I used that floppy drive twice: once to make sure it worked, and another time to copy a file).
The iMac wasn't available for purchase until August of 1998 (for the base price of $1299), but today is a date that should be circled in Bondi Blue for any true Mac fan.
Check out our gallery of screenshots that show Apple's website the day after the iMac announcement. All screenshots was taken using the Wayback Machine.
Apple's Science page has a profile up for the folks over at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- apparently two MITers, Deb Roy and Rupal Patel, are using Macs, including "five Apple Xserves and a 4.4TB Xserve RAID," to record and track every single moment of their son's early childhood.
Not only are they assured to get his first few steps on tape, but they're also studying early development and how young children gain the skills to interact with other human beings. In order to do this, they're dealing with huge amounts of audio and video data -- about 250TB. And they're also building an analysis application on the platform called TotalRecall to scan through all the audio and video and pick out interesting parts and patterns (creating the kind of image seen above -- apparently that means something to them).
Of course, there is one thing they do that Apple can't -- when the time came to figure out how to transfer 200GB a day from the home environment to work, they eventually settled on a "sneakernet" approach, packing up the digital tapes in a case and carrying them to work. Here's hoping Apple will announce their own proprietary version of iSneakernet at the next WWDC (with a stylish design and a reasonable pricetag, of course).
There's no love lost between Steve Jobs and Dell founder Michael Dell. Back in 1997, when Michael was CEO of Dell, he famously told a group of IT big wigs, ""What would I do [if I were in charge of Apple]? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."
Oh, Michael. That's the kind of statement that waits in a corner for years, thinking, "I'm going to bite him in the backside ... hard."
According to The Star, Canadian communications firm Rogers Wireless has finally announced plans to carry the iPhone.
"We're thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year," they said in a statement. "We can't tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned."
This comes after nearly a year of back-and-forth between the two companies and the Canadian public. In April of last year, Rogers made a point of telling CBC News Online that they had not reached an agreement to carry the iPhone. At the time, they were the only GSM carrier in the country (all others used he CDMA standard). So no Rogers meant no iPhone.
Then, an article in The National Post suggested that Rogers would price the iPhone out of the hands of most Canadians, comparing it to their "Right Fit" plan, which offered (as of July '07) 250 anytime, zero weekends, 25MB of data and an additional fee for texts for a whopping Canadian $97/mo.
That was speculation, of course, and today's cryptic message from Rogers doesn't offer any contradictory details. However, the brief announcement should make many Canadians happy.
Much has been written about whether or not Psystar's Mac clone, the Open Computer, actually exists, let alone if it's legal. A Gizmodo reader sent in some video of his Open Computer booting up and running Leopard. Software Update doesn't work, and the chances of Apple supporting this thing are less than zero.
I'm not against the idea of Mac clones (though I doubt Apple will ever officially sanction it) but if I were in the market for a Mac clone I would want one that was well built. As soon as the Open Computer is turned on the fan is running at full tilt, and it is far from whisper quiet. That's not exactly the mark of craftsmanship.
What say you, TUAW readers, is a super loud fan and boring case design outweighed by the savings and customization that a Mac clone offers up versus gear from Apple?
Here's something for all you IT pros out there. Apple has released a video podcast that offers a quick tour of Mac OS X Leopard Server [iTunes link]. 
This is my favorite story of the week. Major League Baseball fans probably remember the New York construction worker who 
When I think about a computer, I usually don't think about a 5-ton assembly of brass gears, cams, and steel rods. Yet in 1847 - 1849, Charles Babbage first created his design for the 
Unfortunately we don't have much more than a splash screen on this one, but 
Peter Cohen over at Macworld continues his 
It was just a couple weeks ago that 
A new Apple retailer has opened in Lahore, Pakistan. It's not an official Apple Store, but a joint venture between Apple and Pakistan-based retailer Raffles. Called "iRaffles," the store 
It was ten years ago today that Steve Jobs mounted the Flint Center auditorium near Apple's campus and revealed the product that would save Apple, and become the best selling computer of all time: the iMac. It is hard to believe that this cute little guy is ten years old, but it is true.
There's no love lost between Steve Jobs and Dell founder Michael Dell. Back in 1997, when Michael was CEO of Dell, he famously told a group of IT big wigs, ""What would I do [if I were in charge of Apple]? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."
Much has 
