This weekend, Ryan Block put up an interesting post on gdgt entitled: Will the Mac App Store have enough to sell? He raises a number of good points for why Apple may not be able to replicate their current App Store success with this new desktop store. But I’m left wondering if the store won’t lead to a new class of app: a sort of micro-app for the desktop.
Block makes the following points: a) high-end software like Photoshop won’t be placed in this store because Adobe won’t want to give Apple a 30 percent cut of all sales. b) most paid desktop software is dead or dying due to free replacements on the web. c) Apple’s strict rules will prevent developers from using this new store for test or demo software. I agree with all of those points. And that’s why I’m wondering if this store won’t instead lead to this new type of app environment. → Read More
Is there really any doubt the Mac App Store will be anything other than a huge hit when it debuts in 90 days? Seven billion downloads on the current App Store would suggest that Apple knows what it’s doing (and that people really love to slingshot cartoon birds into buildings). And the benefits of the App Store are clear: it’s an easy-to-use, one-stop source of safe, tested software. Usually. Maybe not all of that software is worth your time—how many fart Apps do you really need?—but the platform itself is sound, and Apple is keen to make sure it stays that way. But the platform is closed. Only with Apple’s approval (not to mention its 30 percent cut of the action) can your App find a home on the App Store. But is that scenario ideal when it comes to desktop operating systems? → Read More
Today during their Back to the Mac event today at their headquarters in Cupertino, Apple gave a first glimpse of the next version of OS X. As anticipated, OS X 10.7 is going to be called “Lion”. What perhaps wasn’t so anticipated (though we guessed), was how inspired it would be by iOS.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted that iOS came from OS X. But he noted that with IOS, they’ve invented new things and perfected others. And now it’s time to bring those features “back to the Mac” as well, Jobs noted. → Read More
Today, during their Back to the Mac event at their headquarters in Cupertino, CA, Apple kicked things off with some numbers they wanted to share. COO Tim Cook took the stage to rattle off these numbers. Specifically, he wanted to talk about the Mac.
Of all of Apple’s revenues, Macs represent 33 percent of the revenues in the past year. This means the Mac is a $22 billion business. This means that if Apple were to spin off the Mac business, it alone would be the number 110 business in the Fortune 500 list of companies, Cook noted. “We have no plans to do that,” he joked. → Read More
You don’t need to look any further than Apple’s stock price over the past several months to know that they’re on a roll. A year ago, the stock price was at about $190 a share. Today, it closed at $317.93 a share — an all-time high. In fact, they’ve hit several all-time highs this month alone. Their market cap is quickly approach $300 billion. And now the company has just announced their Q4 earnings. And once again — boom. But a boom with a couple caveats.
Just as with last quarter, Apple easily beat the earnings estimates. The company posted $20.34 billion in revenue and $4.31 billion in profit — both new records for Apple. EPS was $4.64 (Wall Street consensus had been $4.06 and Apple’s guidance had been $3.44). A year ago, Apple posted revenue of $12.21 billion with a profit of $2.53 billion ($2.77 EPS). All that said, gross margin did drop a bit, to 36.9 percent down from 41.8 percent a year ago. → Read More
As you’re well aware by now, this morning, Apple sent out invites to an event taking place in one week at their headquarters in Cupertino, CA. The invite reads, “Back to the Mac.” and asks those invited to “Come see what’s new for the Mac on October 20, including a sneak peek of the next major version of Mac OS X.” But the most interesting thing about the invite has to be the picture. It’s an Apple logo cut out a sheet of metal that has been slightly turned to reveal what’s behind the sheet: a lion.
Apple began using big cat nicknames with initial release of OS X. 10.0 was “Cheetah”, 10.1 was “Puma”, 10.2 was “Jaguar”, 10.3 was “Panther”, 10.4 was “Tiger”, 10.5 was “Leopard”, and the current version, 10.6, is “Snow Leopard”. Initially, these were internal code names at Apple, but they eventually became a part of the marketing for the OS. And it certainly looks like OS X 10.7 is going to be dubbed “Lion”. → Read More
For the longest time, all I’ve wanted is a solid native Mac client for Gmail that supports starring of messages. Sure, there have been some out there, but they’ve all been lacking. Today, I may have finally found a good one.
Sparrow is a super-simple Mac client for Gmail. If you’ve used Tweetie for Mac (which is now owned by Twitter, but development is more or less frozen), you’ll feel right at home here. On the right hand toolbar you’ll find a big icon for you account (again, just like Tweetie), your inbox, your starred items, your replies, your drafts, and your trash. Along the top of the window, you’ll see an option to compose, reply to, archive, or delete. Naturally, there is also a search bar as well. → Read More
Good news for Mac gamers: Left 4 Dead 2 is coming tomorrow. If you already own it for the PC, you will own it on the Mac. If you don’t own it yet, go buy it. Steam is including all of the previously released DLC as well, so you won’t miss out on any of the L4D2 gaming goodness. See the press release after the jump. → Read More
Much love has been thrown in Google Chrome’s direction of late, not least of which because, well, it’s quite snappy. But let’s not forget the trailblazing browser that helped open the door for all these non-Internet Explorer browsers: Firefox! Yes, Mozilla is closing in on version 4.0 (I’ve been running the betas for some time now, and I’m a fan of the new Mac interface, while the Windows one looks sorta weird in Aero), and now Mac users have a rather specific reason to be excited: hardware acceleration. → Read More
You know what comes out on Tuesday, September 14? Halo: Reach, right, but besides that? Parallels 6, the virtualization software that makes certain Mac users’ lives a little bit easier. It runs on 64-bit processors this time around—woo! → Read More
QUOComputer, a company that jumped in on the tail of the Psystar saga, is manufacturing a $3,765 Mac clone using lots of nice parts including an Asetek liquid cooling system. Why? I have no idea, but a $4K Mac clone sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. A $4K PC with some nice liquid cooling… yeah, I could get behind that. Press release after the jump. → Read More
If you’re like me, your MacBook Pro is “gently loved”, and the lid is a little scratched up. Or maybe you just want something that looks a little more custom then what the rest of the Mac users are packing around. Whatever the reason, Recover’s skins are made in my home town of Portland, Oregon from real wood veneer. Compared to the prices you see from some vinyl sticker companies charge for cheesy graphics or cheap stickers, I’ll go with the feel and look of real wood. For example, Recover’s product for my pre-unibody MacBook Pro is just $35. That’s right around the same price many vinyl sticker companies charge. You can also get real wood veneer for your iPhone 4, iPhone 3G/3GS, or iPad. Go check them out, and if you see me at CES, I suspect my MacBook Pro will have real wood covering the lid. → Read More
Remember when the iPad was unveiled and some people tried to paint it as a lose-lose for Apple? The line of thinking was that even if the iPad was a hit (which many were skeptical of at the time), it would likely cannibalize sales of the Mac. You know, the higher-priced, and more importantly, higher-margin Apple products.
If the iPad was the future of computing, it was going to come at a cost to Apple, was the thought.
Yeah. Good call on that one.
When Apple announced its Q3 2010 earnings yesterday, the big news was not only that iPad sales were huge (3.27 million), but that Mac sales were even bigger (3.47 million). Incredibly, it was the most amount of Macs Apple has ever sold in one quarter. Yes, ever. And again, this was the first quarter that the iPad was available. → Read More
Of all the stellar numbers Apple released today with their Q3 2010 earnings, the most impressive has to be this: Apple sold 3.27 million iPads during the quarter. To put that into context, that’s only 200,000 fewer units than their entire Mac division sold. And it was the best Mac sales quarter ever.
In other words, in just about any other quarter, the iPad would have outsold the Mac. And this is the first quarter that Apple is releasing sales figures for the iPad. Next quarter, you can expect the iPad to blow past its counterpart in terms of sales. → Read More
Just a heads-up to let you Mac users out there that Counter-Strike: Source, “the number one online action game in the world,” is now available on Steam for Mac. → Read More
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it 1,000 times: the best way to stay safe online is to keep your wits about you and not to venture off into the darker corners of the Internet, if you know what I mean. I bring this up because there’s a nasty bit of kit out there that means to attack unsuspecting Mac users. It sorta makes sense from the malware creator’s perspective: Mac users tend to operate under the assumption that they’re immune from malware because A) their numbers are too few to be a juicy target B) their system is inherently more secure. You can debate point B all day long, but as Apple sells more and more Macs you can bet that miscreants will be targeting the platform with increasing frequency. → Read More
Have you launched VLC today? If so then you’ll already know that it has been updated to version 1.1.0. The biggest feature in this version is the addition of GPU decoding for Windows (Vista and 7 only) and Linux users. That is, you can use that fancy GPU of yours to help decode that 1080p MKV you’ve got there, leaving your CPU with enough room to breathe, or whatever. Fair warning: if you’re on Windows, hope you’ve got an nVidia GPU… → Read More
Remember back when anti-mac fanboys use to say that “the Mac doesn’t have gaming, it’s not 1337”. Then Apple entered the gaming world as a noob, and now look, OS X is running Steam. → Read More
So you’re at the coffee shop, and you’ve walked over to the counter to order another half-frap-double shot raspberry no fat mocha, and left your iPad (or iPod) plugged into your laptop. Suddenly, that skeevy looking fellow who was sitting two tables away makes a grab for your iPad, and runs for the door! You don’t see him because you were looking away, but you still know your kit has been boosted! How do you know? Well, you had the PadLock installed. → Read More
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