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Apple announces Design Awards deadline

Posted on May. 6, ’08, 1:30 PM PT by David Dahlquist
Category | Apple » News

The Apple Design Awards (ADA), held at the Moscone West, take place annually during the World Wide Developer Conference. They recognize the best efforts in Mac and iPhone development in a number of categories including user experience, Leopard application, and Leopard student product.

Winners will take home cool prizes that include 15-inch MacBook Pros and 30-inch Apple Cinema Displays. And with the addition of a new iPhone category, we can expect some pretty innovative entries.

Oh yeah, the deadline. It’s 5PM (PDT) Monday, May 12, so get on it!

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Apple now worth 4x Dell’s market value

Posted on May. 2, ’08, 2:10 PM PT by David Dahlquist
Category | Apple » News

dell.jpgApple has come a long way since the mid 90’s, and we mean a long way. Case in point: on October 6, 1997, Dell founder and then CEO Michael Dell was asked the question of what he would do if he was in charge of Apple Computer. In front of a crowd of several thousand IT executives he answered “What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.” Big words, little man. Big words.

Well guess what, Mr. Dell? It looks like the times have changed, big time. Not only did Apple end up doubling Dell’s market value by July 2007, they have now quadrupled Dell’s market value, rising $6.05 today in NASDAQ trading to close at $180 and bringing the company’s market value to $158.66 billion vs. Dell’s puny, laughable $38.97 billion.

Now is the time for Steve Jobs to hunt down Mr. Dell and get in his face shouting “how ya like me now, Mike? How ya like me now?” or something equally awesome. Seriously, if you were Steve Jobs at this point and you happened to run into Michael Dell, what would your means of gloating be? And don’t say you wouldn’t, because you know you would.

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WWDC extends early registration pricing

Posted on Apr. 29, ’08, 3:00 AM PT by David Dahlquist
Category | Apple » News

Apple has extended early registration from April 25th to May 9th, giving late birds a second chance at early savings. If you sign up between now and May 9th, you’ll save $300US—almost enough to buy an iPhone!

WWDC ‘08 will be held June 9-13 at Moscone West in San Francisco. It features over 150 scheduled sessions, broken down into three tracks: IT, Mac, and the new iPhone track. Plus, you get to see the real life Steve Jobs deliver his famous keynote address. Joy!

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3GHz iMac’s CPU overclocked, not really next-gen

Posted on Apr. 28, ’08, 4:00 PM PT by David Dahlquist
Category | Apple » News

overclocking.jpgFor those of you frothing at the mouth for the new 3.06GHz iMac, we have some news that you may find a bit disappointing. It turns out that the new iMacs are part of a special run of Intel’s existing technology rather than an early introduction of the anticipated Centrino 2 technology.

Essentially, the 3.06GHz processors are current generation chips modified to take in more power (55 watts instead of the typical 35-45 watts) and to support the faster system bus speeds (1,066MHz up from 800MHz) so that they can be revved up to the impressive 3.06GHz Apple is advertising.

This is a big difference from the upcoming Centrino 2 processors which are expected to consume 25W to 35W and to achieve the faster processor speeds through all natural, organic, free-range methods rather than through barbaric, unnatural overclocking. Either way, a 3.06GHz processor is still a 3.06GHz processor regardless of how the speed is achieved, and that’s fast, so we’re not complaining!

[Via Electronista]


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Apple shoots to 103 on Fortune 500

Posted on Apr. 21, ’08, 3:45 PM PT by David Dahlquist
Category | Apple » News

fortune.jpgApple just keeps on outdoing itself. Just last year, Apple climbed from 159 on the Fortune 500 to 121, and this year it’s kept up its momentum, shooting up to 103.

Ranking Apple as the 8th most profitable tech company, Fortune cites the introduction of the “instantly iconic iPhone” as well as “record sales of Mac computers (that) sent Apple’s profits soaring 76% to $3.5 billion on revenues of $24 billion” for their increased ranking.

Of course Dark Lord Microsoft still reigns in the number one spot for most profitable tech company, and IBM takes second place, but with Apple’s strong momentum showing no sign of slowing down, it won’t be too surprising to see them slowly make their way closer and closer toward numero uno over the next few years.

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The mysterious man behind Psystar speaks up

Posted on Apr. 21, ’08, 1:15 PM PT by David Dahlquist
Category | Apple » News

psystar.jpgThere’s been plenty of coverage about the mysterious vendor known as Psystar, that’s been offering to sell “Open Computers” that can run Leopard while selling for much less than a Mac. Controversy ensued as people noted that running a Mac OS on a non-Mac violates Apple’s licensing terms. Then there were the calls of “Hoax!” when no one could locate Psystar’s physical presence or contact anyone from the company.

Well Forbes has finally been able to contact the man behind Psystar, company president Rudy Pedraza, and he insists that the company is for real. According to Pedraza, the reason behind the apparent disappearance of the company’s website and lack of a physical address is simply the overwhelming demand for their products, which caused their credit card processor, PowerPay, to lock down their account for processing too many credit cards, and forced them to move to a larger location so they could produce their machines faster.

“It’s not that we can’t provide the product or [that] Apple can stop us from providing the product,” Pedraza says, adding he’ll be able to start taking orders again soon. “The truth is, we can’t process your credit card.”

Construe this how you will, but I still think this story reeks of sketchiness and foul play. Pedraza refused to give Forbes basic details that most startups are quick to share, like his educational background, professional history or previous ventures, which strikes me as odd, to say the least. What is it you’re hiding, Mr. Pedraza? Anyway, the Psystar website is back up, so check it out and let me know if you feel this is as sketchy as I think it is.

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Wifi issues lead to suspended Mac shipments to NYC schools

Posted on Apr. 18, ’08, 12:00 PM PT by David Dahlquist
Category | Apple » News

apple.jpgLooks like trouble’s a-brewin’ in the Big Apple, and this time it doesn’t involve logo drama. According to AppleInsider, a big shipment of Macs to schools run by the NYC Department of Education have been temporarily suspended due to issues with connecting to the DOE’s WiFi network.

Apple is busting its hump trying to address the connectivity issue which seems to stem from the Leopard OS, and a fix appears set to be included in one of the bug fixes of the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5.3 release.

In the meantime, Apple has been quite gentlemanly about the whole issue, apologizing for the delay in an email to faculty, and even offering to help compile a list of any orders for Macs that the district doesn’t plan on using with WiFi, so that they can be sent immediately. How sweet!

Let’s hope they get this issue worked out quickly, because there’s a lot of bummed out kids in NYC who were expecting to get their hands on a Mac.

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Apple files for head-mounted laser display patent, ponders how to make head-mounted laser display not absurd-looking

Posted on Apr. 17, ’08, 5:55 PM PT by David Dahlquist
Category | Apple » News

4-17-08-apple-glasses.jpgIt seems like Apple is ready to bravely explore territory that no remotely stylish company would dare tread. That’s right: head mounted displays. Or in this case in particular, head-mounted laser displays.

Apple today filed a patent for such a device, but to move away from the stereotypical, unsightly monstrosities that have been associated with head-mounted displays in the past, Apple plans on putting all the image processing and generation hardware in a belt-clipped processing box.

The visual info will then travel through a fiber optic cable and into wedge optics that could potentially lie in normal-looking glasses, and wham-o! There ya have it; the future of portable video. Pretty exciting stuff, but it’s going to take some serious Apple engineering magic to keep this gadget as stylish as the rest of the Apple product line.

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Latest MacBook users experience graphics glitches

Posted on Apr. 14, ’08, 3:10 PM PT by David Dahlquist
Category | Apple » News

746px-MacBook_Pro.jpgIt seems like the latest Penryn-based Apple MacBook and MacBook Pros are suffering from graphical ailments that are irking users around the globe. Both laptops have experienced widespread reports visual corruption issues in which text duplicates, documents fail to scroll properly, or videos and animations flicker.

And before you go advising Broke-Mac Bob to do a factory restore on his MacBook, read this: it doesn’t work. So it seems that the issue is hardware- or OS-related. Apple reps have reputedly acknowledged the issue to at least one user via email:

“Apple has received reports similar to the behavior you are describing and we are investigating those reports. Further information will come in the form of a Knowledge Base article, Software Update, or Software Release.”

Hopefully the issue will be resolved with a timely software update, but if the problem really is hardware related, this could spell trouble for Apple’s customer satisfaction levels.

[via Ars Technica]

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Apple and American Idol team up to bring joy to children in need

Posted on Apr. 11, ’08, 3:15 PM PT by David Dahlquist
Category | Apple » News

american idol.jpgAre you getting tired of American Idol-related news? Neither are we!

American Idol and iTunes are teaming up yet again, but this time for the noble cause of raising money for charity. As we’ve covered before, iTunes is selling American Idol songs, but here’s the catch: net proceeds from the download of each song performance from the Idol Gives Back broadcast will be donated to charity.

The 2.5 hour Idol Gives Back fundraising event aired on Tuesday, April 9, and proceeds form the downloaded songs and videos from this show will go to a charity that “will help children and young people in need in the U.S. and around the world.” My cold, black heart is warming just at the thought.

Idol Gives Back songs are selling for the standard $0.99 each, while full video performances are $2.29 each. The American Idol website features direct links to the iTunes music store, so if you’re into this sort of thing, download away. Do it for the children!

Disclaimer: The author of this post doesn’t really enjoy American Idol related news, nor has he ever watched a single episode of said show. No really, he hasn’t.

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