mac

Toshiba will begin shipping a 256GB solid-state drive, matching Samsung, its bigger, badder rival.

Another nail in the hard-disk-drive coffin? Well, not quite. But Toshiba's drive rivals magnetic drives in size while delivering better performance.

Solid-state drives are more expensive than hard-disk drives but are also generally more power efficient and faster.

Toshiba is trying to keep pace with the 800-pound SSD gorilla, South Korea-based Samsung. Samsung is the largest flash memory chip supplier in the world and has stated in the past that it would sample a 256GB SSD in September. Toshiba is ranked No. 2.

And the … Read more

The Interwebs are atwitter with a single blurry cell phone shot of what may or may not be one of the newly redesigned MacBook laptops we've been reading about.

The pic briefly showed up on a French Web site, and just as quickly vanished, but not before several sites (from Valleywag to Wired) were able to grab copies of the photo. (The original post is now up again.)

Some Apple faithfuls are crying "fake!" while others think it's the real deal--we should all know for sure at Apple's next big press event in mid-October.

We … Read more

The MacBook redesign is just around the corner, and further proof has surfaced that it's going to look a lot like its siblings.

AppleInsider reports that new MacBooks and new MacBook Pros have been spotted by people-in-the-know, and that as expected the new systems will get aluminum-based exteriors similar to the ones found on the MacBook Air and iMac. This will give Apple some consistency across the Mac notebook lineup entering the holiday shopping season; for years, the MacBook has had a distinct look separate from the MacBook Pro.

One interesting part of the report also suggests that Apple … Read more

Newsweek's Dan Lyons digs into Vista's problems in a recent article. While not the first to highlight Vista's many problems, Dan's focus on Vista's macro problems is timely and interesting.

"Nobody here looks at Vista as a fiasco," says Brad Brooks, a Microsoft marketing vice president. If that's true, and nobody at Microsoft thinks Vista has been a public-relations nightmare, then the company is in trouble....

Meanwhile, Apple's Mac computers, which run Apple's OS X operating system instead of Windows, have been gaining share, reaching 11 percent of the U.… Read more

Spotlight, Apple's exceptional desktop search program, is great for finding files on your Mac. I also use it to launch programs, look up dictionary definitions, and do the occasional math problem.

While Spotlight is excellent on the desktop, it doesn't know beans about the cloud. Enter Precipitate.

I just came across the cool open-source Precipitate program, which was released this summer. It allows you to search Google Docs or Google Bookmarks from the comfort of Spotlight (or Google Desktop).

How does this work? According to Google's Web site: "Precipitate works by creating files on your machine … Read more

Our No. 404 fanboy Dee Wren takes time out of his busy filming schedule to bring some positivity to our Monday morning. After revealing some news about the upcoming Google Android release tomorrow, we talk about the weekend box office, touch on Facebook porn, and make an overall attempt to shade ourselves from Jeff's rays of hate (unsuccessfully). Happy Monday!

To make up for all the lives we've ruined with The 404, we invite our buddy Dee Wren into the studio to pimp his philanthropic project, From Us With Love. It's a nonprofit organization that supplies aid to children in South Africa and Dee is helping to shoot a documentary on their efforts to send a group of them to Australia for the Homeless World Cup. We'd love for you to contribute as much time, money, and resources as you can to their foundation. The best part of this endeavor is that For Us With Love is already corporate-sponsored, so the full 100 percent of your contribution will go directly into the project, no filters. It's a very noble cause, please check out the Web site and do what you can to help!

I've been a pretty big fan of Microsoft's Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld ads. No, it's not because I'm such a Seinfeld fanboy (I am though) or that I enjoy watching Bill Gates perform the robot on cue.

Instead, I look at the Seinfeld ads as a way for Microsoft to turn the company's poor public image into a positive image that will help it finally fix its Vista PR woes.

But after buckling under the pressure of "what is this about?" articles, Microsoft has shelved the Seinfeld ads (they may or may not come back) and has instead started attacking Apple by explaining exactly what a PC is. (Editor's note: Microsoft says the move away from the Seinfeld ads was always planned.)

What a bad move.

I don't blame Microsoft for trying to battle Apple ads and I even commend it for doing just that. But now is not the right time to do it: Microsoft didn't improve its image yet. And if it hasn't been able to do that, how can it possibly expect to compete with the single company in this industry that has the best image of all?

It's PR suicide.… Read more

Ted Landau

September 2008

The App Store is no doubt one of the best things to have happened to the iPhone (and the iPod touch). Users are happily adding a wide array of apps to their devices, usually with little or no difficulty. Still, occasionally things go wrong. At such times, beyond the standard troubleshooting advice you'll find here at MacFixIt, it pays to know at least a bit about what's going on "under-the hood." Here's a Q&A detailing 5 things you should definitely know:

1. Where are iPhone apps actually stored on … Read more

According to Forrester, Apple has finally reached the single milestone that could change the dynamic of the computing business for good: its U.S. laptop market share has reached 10.6 percent during the second quarter of 2008. Just one year ago, it captured just 6.6 percent of the same market.

Globally, Apple's market share is reportedly hovering at just about 3.3 percent--a far cry from its success in the United States--according to one report, but Net Applications places it closer to 5.5 percent. Which estimate is correct? You decide.

Either way, it illustrates an important point: Apple is successful, and its popularity is growing each day. Years ago, no one thought that Apple would survive another year, let alone capture 10 percent of any market. But today, it's sitting atop the technology industry, and companies in every major market are looking up.

But how did this happen? Is Apple's success in the computing market a by-product of Steve Jobs' insight and uncanny knowledge of what people want? Or is it pure luck, thanks to questionable moves by competitors and being in the right place at the right time?

Apple zealots would undoubtedly contend that Apple's success has nothing to do with luck, while Microsoft fanboys would argue against that point. In reality, Apple's success in the computing market is the by-product of both skillful positioning and a healthy dose of luck.

Here's why:… Read more