In the end, the PowerBook G5 turned out to be the biggest vapor non-story in Apple laptop history

The PowerBook G5: Long Rumored, Never Produced

I have no inside knowledge, but I predict the following.

• Tuesday, February 19th: MacBook Pros updated. Maybe Mac Minis
• Tuesday, February 26th: iPhone SDK released. A few third party apps that had previews to it will release beta apps.

My Palm TX and my iPod Photo are dead to me. literally. I think the batteries in both of them no longer hold a charge.

It started with my Palm TX about a month ago. One minute it would work and the next it wouldn't despite the battery showing a full charge before. Charging via USB wasn't helping it, I hooked it up to the wall wart charger which allowed it to operate for a few minutes.

My iPod Photo only lasts about 30 minutes on a charge. The battery indicator will indicate that it's mostly fully before it dies. Last year it would go a whole 8 hours.

I'm a person who lives off his PDA. Being without it for the last month has left me lost and naked. I'm not adjusting to life without it very well. I never listened to the radio with thanks to my iPod. Now I'm having to adjust to life without either. 16GB iPhone: where are you?

If you view subscribe to this site's RSS feed and click on a link to one of my pages only to find a "not found" page, its all thanks to idisk. The problems first start with RapidWeaver, which still insists to publish the whole site instead of just new pages. During the course of publishing 1200+ pages my idisk will disconnect for no apparent reason.

Tiger had some problems like this but Leopard is a whole lot worse. Since the rss feed page is one of the first files to get uploaded, it shows up right away. The rest of the pages can take hours or days to be uploaded. If there's something you want to read, come back in a day or so and see if it finally was uploaded.

CompUSA is going out of business. I'm not sure what it is, too much competition, high prices, they can't figure out what it is they sell? Back in the day (early 1990's), they were one of the few places one could find Apple computers and accessories. My second Mac, a Centris 610, was purchased from a CompUSA in Arizona. I recall writing on a AMUG BBS about this computer's 20MHz 68LC040 being "blazing fast".

The actual purchase of the computer was not so blazing fast. I went to the salesman and said I want to buy that computer. The salesman goes to his little WYSE dumb terminal type machine and comes back with paperwork for me to fill out. I fill out the rather long form then wait like an hour to actually get the computer brought to me. Then i take it up front to pay for it.

Once in New Mexico, CompUSA was the only computer store to sell Apple products. Despite it being on the other side of town, sometimes taking a hour to get there, I used to visit frequently. I actually bought Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" there when it came out since there was no Apple store in town at the time. It's probably been a good year since I've been there, prices are too high and their selection was poor.

Just because something is technically feasible doesn't mean that it's a good idea. A seekingalpha.com article gives 10 reason, none of which are very good, that Apple should buy AMD. Let me give you my top 4 list of reason Apple shouldn't and won't buy AMD.

1. Intel kisses Apple's ass
2. Intel gives Apple pretty sweet deals
3. Intel current has better technology than AMD
4. Apple didn't have to buy Intel to get the first three items

It might have been a good idea for Apple to buy AMD when they were switching from PowerPC, but now it's just silly.

Disclaimer: I work for Intel. These are just my opinions, I have no inside knowledge.

Leopard 10.5's "Alex" voice singing Depeche Mode's Just Can't Get Enough". Comedy gold people, comedy gold.

Look what CD I found in my stash. MacAdvocate 2 from the Fall of 1997, 10 years old. I also have a Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9.2 CD. Ahh... Good times...

The FedEx guy arrived at about 9am on Friday to deliver my copy of Leopard. I've read different things that suggest that Apple requested FedEx to deliver copies of Leopard as soon as possible or to get them as close to 6PM. I doubt either is true. In any case there was no T-Shirt in the box. I would have loved to go the Albuquerque Uptown Apple Store, but what a pain in the ass it is to get to that side of town. Thanks Mom, for going to the San Tan Apple Store in Az and getting one for me!

The first thing I did once getting it installed was to hook up an external hard drive and get Time Machine running. I haven't yet been able to allow it to copy the entire drive yet. I really like that Time Machine quits gracefully and without complaints when I disconnect the drive.

Spaces is the other feature that I have been using heavily. How i did I ever live without it? I love uncluttering my desktop with windows by moving them to separate windows.

UI wise, I don't have a lot of complaints. Chris Pirillo has a long list of issues, which I agree with. They don't bother me that much however. I don't like the transparent menu bar. It's very distracting and I will use the first hack to disable it. I used NextStep in the 1990's for a programming class pretty heavily. This is the most NextOS looking UI yet. It's interesting to see the core ideas of the early Mac OS (and much of that was in the NextOS) start to show themselves after so many years.

I'm looking forward to using iChat's screen sharing to fix people computers, as soon as they all get Leopard installed. Using Apple Remote Desktop was a pain.

Leopard will be released on Friday, 26 October.

Apple had some interesting announcements for the ipod and iPhone today. I know a lot of people who bought 8GB iPhones are pissed at the price drop. I don't have any sympathy for you. I bought the iPod Photo for $599, only to have the iPod Video released a few months later $200 cheaper.

8GB wasn't enough memory for me, so I didn't buy. I'm patiently waiting for a iPhone with more memory. I'm surprised that there is a iPod touch with 16GB, but the iPhone is only available with 8GB. Could a iPhone 16GB be too far away?

I think iLife'08 was suppose to come out earlier, but since Leopard was delayed, they had to fix it to work on Tiger.

A massive update to the iPhone is coming. The iPhone update will have 3rd party application support, better syncing, a notes application, etc. They will all require technologies in Leopard that Apple doesn't want to give away.

The AppleTV will also have some major updates. Once such update could be Safari and the ability to browse the web on your TV (good by WebTV). One such feature will eliminate the need for a keyboard since you will manage and sync bookmarks from Safari on your computer. It also illustrates the need to have Safari on Windows

Apple is scrambling trying to get band-aid fixes in place so people don't loose interest for the next few months. What do you think, am I way of base?

Apple has a press release detailing the service plans for the iPhone.

All iPhone monthly service plans are available for individuals and families and are based on a new two-year service agreement with AT&T. Individual plans are priced at $59.99 for 450 minutes, $79.99 for 900 minutes and $99.99 for 1,350 minutes. All plans include unlimited data (email and web), Visual Voicemail, 200 SMS text messages, roll over minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile and a one-time activation fee of $36. Family plans are also available.

Not a bad deal, or expensive. Depending on your view point. I was right when I predicted it would cost like $70 a month to get a data plan. It appears that you could get a non data plan option, but if you don't get the prepackaged iPhone data plan you dont get visual voice mail.

For the lowest cost plan, your paying $40 for 450 minutes and another $20 for unlimited data. Some seems screwy when you can get unlimited data cheaper than limited voice and limited SMS. What a freaking scam these phone companies have. Though, I might actually find the service plan worth it if the iPhone did all the things I need it to do.

Ive been watching the iphone rumors since I started this blog. There's no one that's a bigger fan of an Apple cell phone than I. But my excitement has waivered and I wont be buying one.

1. Nothing to do with technical issues, but I simply cannot afford a large purchase at this time.
2. How much are they going to over charge for a voice and data plan. Why won't they say before June 29th? Because it's going to cost a freaking arm and a leg.
3. It has to replace my Sony Ericsson K750i on T-Mobil. It appears that it can replace all the applications on the SE and will sync with my address book. But will it be able to work with Salling Clicker? Will it take the beating that my SE does (I drop it all the time and it works as good as if it was new). Seems unlikely.
4. T-Mobil sucks at my house. I barely get a signal. Will AT&T be any better? I doubt it. I can't roam onto AT&T or Cingular because I can't get their signal at home either.
5. It has to replace my Palm TX. Since real applications cannot be written for the iPhone, i would still have to carry around my Palm, web based apps wont cut it.
6. I sync my Palm with Outlook using PocketMirror and sync between my Palm and Mac using Missing Sync. It works pretty flawlessly. Not sure that will work with the iPhone.
7. It has to replace my 60GB iPod Photo. I could cut out some of my playlists, but i'm not sure 8GB is enough room for music and photos.

People at work know what a Apple fan boy I am. I constantly get asked if I have pre ordered my iPhone. Uh no, bitches, YOU CAN'T PRE ORDER A IPHONE. Then I try to explain to them why I'm not buying one, but I usually just get blank stares.

Maybe 2.0 will be better

Cover Flow in the finder seems to be getting a overwhelming "meh" from those that have seen it. I think it's a great idea since it provides the same visual sorting of documents that I use for sorting my mail and other physical paper documents to the finder. It moves through documents quickly and focuses on one document at a time (unlike the icon view). I'm not saying it should replace search functions, but its another way to find something when the search function doesn't cut it because I don't know the name of the document.

I'm holding off on ordering for the moment, hoping in will find a better deal. In the past Amazon has had cheaper prices on the OS, but I've seen some local stores match it.

Both the single and family versions are #1 on Amazon's best sellers list

The solution is to download the Windows Install Cleanup program from Microsoft. I had to remove Apple Software Update, Itunes and Quicktime. Since I don't use iTunes on my Windows machine, I didn't worry about backing it up. But if i did use it, would have backed it up.

I went back and reinstalled all the Apple programs without any problems

There a possiblity that other things could be released including iMacs, iPhone stuff, an ultra-portable? Who knows. MacRumors runs down the possibilities.

I will be watching live updates of the keynote via one of the various sites offering updates. There's plenty to choose from. nikfletcher offers a ichat room and a applescript that will open up 10 sites in your browser.

Apple sure likes taking things to the last possible second. The iPhone will be out by the end of June. The second to the last day of June: Friday, June 29th. Check out the new iPhone commercials at Apple's site. Pretty amazing demos.

Apple iPhone Commercials

My MacBook Pro isn't able to go to sleep. As soon as I put it to sleep and pull the plug the system completely turns off. This is due to the battery problems I have. SafeSleep helps.

Normally when you close the lid the system suspends-to-ram. This halts processing and other energy draining procedures but it still takes up battery life.

With SafeSleep the system will suspend-to-disk. Eating up as much power as if it were completely shut down. The upshot is in battery savings, the downside is it takes longer to suspend/resume from disk than to ram.

Saving to disk is normally considered hibernation. So far I have to say my MacBook Pro wakes better from hibernation than it does regular sleep.

Via O'Grady's PowerPage

This doesn't sound good if I want to get my MacBook Pro repaired, which has similar issues. I might as well hold off and buy a new one

Last week a MacBook Pro 15”, 13 months old, came in for repair because the battery would not charge, and the machine had stopped responding to the power button. This machine had been “heavily” used, and did not have AppleCare. In this case, the machine required at the very least a replacement logic board, a part that costs over $1000. Generally, out of warranty machines can be sent in to Apple for flat-fee repairs. This program requires a machine to show no signs of accidental damage—no significant dents, scratches, bowing, or liquid spills—but this machine had lots of dents, plenty of bowing, a separating top case, and damage to the screen.

Apple will still repair damaged computers as mail-in repairs. They have a tier system for the extent of damage, and this one was a Tier 4, the most costly. The MacBook Pro was sent in, and had most every component—inside and out—replaced as part of the Tier 4 dispatch.

Rapid Weaver 3.6 was released today with some significant improvements. One of which is multiple categories in the blogging module. I won't go into the whole list here so check out the MacUpdate page.

I've been watching the development of RW for a while and I think it's good enough to use as my Blogging platform. Unfortunately there's no way for me to import the 1300+ entries I had my Blosxom blog. It's also missing a few other things that Blosxom can do, but does a lot of things it can't.

A link to the old site is here until I can figure out a way to import the entires. The RSS feed should remain the same.

Colleagues at my former outlet, PC World magazine, have told me that Editor-in-Chief Harry McCracken quit abruptly today because the company's new CEO, Colin Crawford, tried to kill a story about Apple and Steve Jobs. The piece, a whimsical article titled "Ten Things We Hate About Apple," was still in draft form when Crawford killed it. McCracken said no way and walked after Crawford refused to compromise. Apparently Crawford also told editors that product reviews in the magazine were too critical of vendors, especially ones who advertise in the magazine, and that they had to start being nicer to advertisers.

Epicenter - Wired Blogs.

MacNN: Apple's 30% sales growth outpaces HP, Dell. Resitance is futile...

Sales of Macs largely kept pace with significant growth in overall PC shipments during the first quarter of 2007, two market research firms concur, yielding Apple the title of fastest growing manufacturer with regard to U.S. computer sales. Both Gartner and IDC issued statements today indicating that while the shipment of Microsoft's Windows Vista was help drive increased PC sales in the first quarter of 2007, Apple was able to match the market with stronger portable sales and an increase in units moved through retail channels, despite stagnant Mac growth predictions from Gartner earlier this year.>

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Bloxsom uses individual text files as entries and it uses the date of those files as the date for the rendered blog. Bloxsom actually uses the modified date of the file to set the date (this seems dumb, but apparently there's a good reason for it). This results in a undesirable effect if you make a change to a entry, the publish date changes to the current date.

The entries_index plug in solves this problem by caching the dates of the files. There's still a problem with the dates of the files not matching the entries_index cache. This Applescript will read the entries_index cache and set the entries (text files) dates back to the dates as defined in the cache.

Download Fix Dates From entries_index.scpt

I haven't written anything about the AppleTV since getting it. Mainly because others got theirs before me and pretty much everything that can be said have been said. I do think this is the future of TV and video podcasts will change everything.

There's a lot of content out there now, but for me only a few float to the top.

• DiveFilm High Definition - Incredible underwater video in high definition.
• "Tiki Bar TV - "Cool drinks in a swank pad". Well edited and entertaining. You would think these guys are professionals.
• Wallstrip - A financial news type program, but more interesting than CNBC.
• ABC World News - I looked at many news programs and liked ABC news the best. Besides the fact they don't have a lot of commercials for themselves, they bookmark the podcast. THis makes it easy to skip the individual news stories you don't care about.
• Diggnation - A couple of guys on a couch, reading the tops stories from Digg.com. Not sure why I like it but I do.
• MacBreak - A mac specific podcast with Leo Laporte.

You don't need a AppleTV to check these out. You can download and watch them in iTunes for free. So far, I don't know of any podcast that costs money.

Way to go Apple, the second time around they are shipping my order on time. 1:01am Apple Time.

Hello Gregory Smith, We wanted to let you know that your order has shipped. If you ordered multiple items, you may receive separate shipments with no additional shipping charges. All shipments except those delivered by the U.S. Postal Service require a signature on receipt. Visit Order Status to track or pre-sign for your shipment. If you'd like to request a return, print an invoice or view your account history, please log in to Your Account. Best regards, The Apple Store Team			Order Number: WXXXXXXXX Order Date: JAN 09, 2007
Shipment Information
Shipment Date: MAR 20, 2007	Delivers by: MAR 23, 2007		Shipping Address:
Carrier Name: FEDERAL EXPRESS	Tracking Number(s): XXXXXXXXXXXX
All shipments except those delivered by the U.S. Postal Service require a signature on receipt. The name of your carrier is listed with the shipment information above. Tracking information may not be immediately available. U.S. Postal Service and other carriers may not provide tracking information. If you have questions about this shipment, please read Frequently Asked Questions about shipping.
Shipment Details
Product Name		Product Number	Unit Price	Qty	Subtotal
APPLE TV-USA		MA711LL/A	$275.00	1	$275.00
Additional Information
For order status and answers to questions, please visit Customer Service online. Or call 1-800-676-2775, Mon-Fri 7 a.m.-10 p.m., or Sat-Sun 9 a.m.-6 p.m. CT. Please have your Order Number available. Get the latest news right from the source. Subscribe to Apple's free newsletters and find out about the latest products from Apple and its partners, plus special deals and much more. This order is subject to Apple's Sales and Refunds Policies. Privacy Policy			Purchase Order Number: XXXXXXXXXX
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Standard Shipping Allow five business days for delivery. Delivery Note: All shipments except those delivered by the U.S. Postal Service require a signature on delivery. However, we offer an easy way to sign for your package even if you can't be present. Click here for details.
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You can also order from the Apple Store by calling 1-800-MY-APPLE (1-800-692-7753). Copyright © 2007 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.

A iTunes update is out today. It add's a simple interface for the AppleTV. The AppleTV that hasn't shipped yet and won't be in my hands for about another 20 days.

Apple Gazette has some scans from a 1983 Apple Computer gift catalog with some (now) vintage swag. What caught my eye is the Apple Hot Air Balloon poster on page 9.

I would love to have this poster, or at least a high res scan of this poster. I googled "Apple Computer Hot Air Balloon" but no one seems to have this poster or any other pictures of it. I'm also curious as to what happened to the balloon. Apple should bring it back, after all, Intel has it's "Floating Point" Hot Air Balloon.

Do I file this under "Apple Computer" or "Albuquerque"? Whatever. It's coming, the Albuquerque Apple Store is coming! Cult Of Mac has revealed it's exact location in the Uptown Albuquerue shopping center next to the withering Winrock.

Like a true Mac nerd, I plan to be there for it's opening.

Does Microsoft want to make stuff for the Mac or not? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. With the announcement at MacWorld that Office would be made for at least another 5 years the answer would seem to be yes.

Speaking during Apple CEO Steve Jobs' Macworld Expo keynote, MBU General Manager Roz Ho said the company had entered into an "official agreement" with Apple to "continue shipping new versions of Office for Mac for a minimum of five years".

"This commitment should leave no doubt in your mind that we're here to stay and in [this market] for the long term," Ho told attendees.

Yet, they are no longer going to Make a mac version of the Windows Media Player

Despite pledging its support for Apple's platform, Microsoft has backed out of future releases of Windows Media Player for Mac, and the company's Web site now directs visitors to download a third-party application from developer Flip4Mac.

Yet, they are going to make a Mac only keyboard and mouse.

The wireless keyboard also will come with a mouse specially designed for the Mac. Slated to debut this summer, they will be sold for about $100. Prototypes are on display under glass at Microsoft's booth at Macworld this week.

Microsoft clearly has no overall Mac strategy. Where there's money to be made they will put out products. As the Mac market share increases (yes, I think it will increase) we will see more stuff from Microsoft. Good or bad.

MacWorld 2006 is right around the corner (Jan 9th - Jan 13th). Not a lot of detailed rumors out yet, lets take a look at what's out there.

Think Secret says that there will be a Intel based iBook ready next week. I would have to say that's true based on availability of the Yonha processor. I think that everything that could run the lowend processor will be released (read iMac, iBook & mini). Will there be more than that? I have some circumstantial evidence (that I can't reveal) to suggest that there will be pro laptops. I hope there will be pro laptops, I had this 1GHz Powerbook for 3 years now and I'm very ready to get a new once. A fancy new Intel powered one.

Motorola's Rokr E2 apparently won't have iTunes built in. Very strange indeed, don't you think? Was the original Rokr such a dismal failure that Apple-Motorolla gave up on it all together? I don't think so. I think Motorola helped Apple design their next cell phone, which will totally be a Apple product and the Rokr was just getting their feet wet.

I'll keep this updated as new rumors come in. Should be a good one!

Update 01/04/05 6:36 PM: Jason O'Grady has his top 10 things Apple could announce at MacWorld. First: Why doe he get a zdnet blog? Second: does he have some inside info? I've seen some rumor-ish like things at PowerPage before. He gives 50-1 odds on the Intel Powerbook but nothing for the iBook (though he does list it as a possibility). He also mentions that it will be first to be lacking a FireWire port.

Apple may be pushing USB because Intel invented it and includes it in their chipsets. Which makes it easy to put it in everything with Intel inside. However I doubt they would dump it all together, hopefully not anyhow.

Update 01/05/06 11:42AM: Oopsie! Looks like Apple let iLife '06 slip by putting a web page up with links to it. Included in iLife '06 is a program call iWeb. What could iWeb be? A Bloggin application? MacRumors has all the dirt along with a screen shot.

Update 01/05/06 6:50PM: More info on iWeb or Webpages 1.0 from Appleinsider. Looks like it could be some sort of general web page program. Check out NSLog's "guess".

Question: What is 'iWeb?' My Answer: I don't know. Or at least that's my official response. If I were to guess and have some fun with it, I'd suggest that it's a tool that ties into .Mac and iTunes and Safari and iPhoto and iMovie. iDVD, sadly, will not have much to do with it. But hey, that's "just a guess."

Update 01/06/05 8:00PM: What's the hell? PowerPage now has some juicy rumors that Apple will release ViiV enabled 42" & 50" plasmas displays. Sounds like built in DVRs in big ass monitors. Dam I wish I hadn't bought this 60" Sony. No wait, I'm not sorry.

Update 01/05/05 10:46AM: I found the following message on my .Mac homepage.

.Mac will be undergoing scheduled maintenance from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST on 1/10/06. All .Mac services will be affected. We apologize for the inconvenience. Last Updated: 1/6/06

This sounds like a defininte .mac related anouncement is coming to MacWorld.

Update 01/09/06 11:59PM: Perhaps the last bit of rumors before the big event, Kevin Rose posts

I've heard: 15" intel Macbook - order tomorrow, ships Feb (thinner, dual core) iPod FM receiveriWork/Life '06 New remote of some type Photocasting (iPhoto) OS X.4.4 w/new widgets

Brushed Metal: No? iTunes 5 is still on? Then why the fuck am I not there?

John Gruber's blog is annoying, but sometimes he comes up with some good stuff. Like this post on Apples not following it's own Human Interface Guidelines and the demise of the Metal interface in iTunes 5.

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that Apple's scroll ball would make a excellent interface to a Mac OS powered handheld or tablet based computer? Once of these things would make it really easy to navigate a cursor on the screen where a regular mouse wouldn't be practical. I'm not saying, I'm just saying...

The dark side may not be our friends in Seattle, but it may turn out to be this little chip made by Intel. The chip in question (best way to get to it is to click on this link, then find the real link on the page) "builds trust into every computing transaction."

Cory Doctorow went apeshit over this today after discovering that there is support for the TPM (Trusted Platform Module) in the MacOS X that works on Intel based computers. As far as I can tell, it seems the only thing this does is ensure that this version of MacOS X doesn't run on anything other than the developer hardware (as opposed to running on a plain jane Intel box).

This by itself isn't that "bad", however there is concern that this sort of integration could be used to limit everything you do on your computer (say DRM). Having every transaction on my computer under someone else's control scares the crap out of me, and it's even worse to consider that Apple may be the first to make this work.

Apple has put a cap on .Mac bandwidth, according to MacNN. I checked my account setting sand sure enough I have a 10GB limit.

Apple has introduced a new bandwidth/storage upgrade option for its suite of .Mac web services, effectively placing a limit on the amount of data each account can share. Previously, Apple had been generous with the allocation of bandwidth from user accounts, only shutting those accounts it found abusive. The new option offers greater storage flexibility as well as allows users to share more photos, files, and videos or transfer more data to/from their iDisk. The standard option offers the same 250MB of combined email/iDisk storage offered to users in the past and 3GB of monthly transfer. The upgrade offers the ability to purchase 1GB of storage and a 10GB monthly transfer limit for $50 and may be needed by some users as Apple pushes developers to integrate their applications with .Mac and focuses on seamless integration of .Mac with the operating system, including recent Tiger-specific features. .Mac is available for $100/year or for $180 per year for a family pack.

One of the things I liked about .Mac was the lack of limitations. So my question is how much am I using? I haven't a clue. I would hope that the .Mac control panel is updated to show this information.

I guess the rumors of the ipods death is greatly exaggerated.

Apple shipped 1,182,000 Macintosh units and 6,155,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 35 percent growth in Macs and 616 percent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter.

I never thought in a million years that this would happen. Intel based Macs will be out next year. I'm sitting here besides my self...

Apple to Use Intel Microprocessors Beginning in 2006

WWDC 2005, SAN FRANCISCO—June 6, 2005—At its Worldwide Developer Conference today, Apple® announced plans to deliver models of its Macintosh® computers using Intel® microprocessors by this time next year, and to transition all of its Macs to using Intel microprocessors by the end of 2007. Apple previewed a version of its critically acclaimed operating system, Mac OS® X Tiger, running on an Intel-based Mac® to the over 3,800 developers attending CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote address. Apple also announced the availability of a Developer Transition Kit, consisting of an Intel-based Mac development system along with preview versions of Apple’s software, which will allow developers to prepare versions of their applications which will run on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs.

Wow, this is quite a week for Apple Rumors. Now there's talk of the Apple table with some guy saying he's used it and the whole Intel chip thing is related to it. We will see...

I have no less than 5 sources saying an Apple Tabletannouncement is due soon. Or something, as some ofthese press people (Apple diehards at that), whonormally cared not about Tablets, and thought it wasall just Microsoft vaporware, are suddenly sointerested in the Tablet PC concept, and asking tonsof questions. Pretty easy to read those tea leaves, sosomethings up.

Another rumor that Apple will use Intel chips. Personally I don't care what chips are in their computers, but I find it hard to believe that they would just switch the whole line over to a new processor and dump IBM.

The report, citing two industry executives with knowledge of recent discussions between the companies, said Apple (Research) will agree to use Intel (Research) chips.

Neither company would confirm the report and an Apple spokeswoman told the Journal she would characterize it as "rumor and speculation."

Update 05/24/05 7:59am: This is exactly what I think too.

ut Kevin Krewell, editor in chief of newsletter Microprocessor Report, said he smells an orchestrated media ploy by Apple to pressure IBM to improve its supply problems, which have led to delays in some Apple products. ``I believe this is a purely negotiating move by Apple to grab some attention and headlines and to point out that they're feeling underappreciated by IBM,'' Krewell said.

Updated 05/25/05 08:22 PM: I wouldn't have expectedthis comment.

Pressed about security by Mr. Mossberg, Mr. Otellini had a startling confession: He spends an hour a weekend removing spyware from his daughter's computer. And when further pressed about whether a mainstream computer user in search of immediate safety from security woes ought to buy Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh instead of a Wintel PC, he said, "If you want to fix it tomorrow, maybe you should buy something else."

The The Cult of Mac Blog hasn't had a update since 14 March 2005. What gives?

Via Slashdot, Jef Raskin, inventor of the modern GUI, passed away yesterday Saturday February 26th, 2005.

I'm sure there will be more news in the coming days.

See this write up at Cult Of Mac.

I can't blame him, Michael Ramsey, the Chairman of Tivo, got "sick and tired of the problems with Windows" has switched to a Mac. It looks like he got his IT department to think different as well.

Still no real dirt on Apple buying Tivo, but I don't think it's going to happen at this point. Though it's good to see some anti-microsoft comments. That's always good.

Eddy Tofslie has put together a really cool "poster" of Apple's various machines from 1976 to 2005. (via MacRumors)

You may have seen the Matt Groening Apple ad. I'm a lucky Mac Zealot to have this poster that was created around the same time (1989) that was targeted toward students. It's titled "Bongo's Dream Dorm". Click on the picture for a larger version.

Mac mini

The Mac mini (with a lower case 'm') has been released, as everyone expected. It looks like a 1/2 size Mac Cube. It's very nice and I will be buying one just as soon as the $800 bill from my truck I will have to pay today is paid for. The specs are as follows:

• Fast G4 processor (1.25Ghz or 1.42Ghz)
• Up to 1GB memory (starts with 256)
• Dedicated graphics processor (ATI Radeon 9200 with 32MB of DDR SDRAM, not a gaming machine)
• DVI connector, VGA adapter
• Slot-loading Combo drive
• Spacious hard drive (40GB or 80GB)
• Built-in Ethernet and modem
• Expansion via USB and FireWire (USB 2.0 and FW400)
• iLife 05, Mac OS X v10.3, Panther, Quicken 2005 for Mac, Nanosaur 2, Marble Blast Gold
• Optional wireless (You pay extra for the bluetooth and WiFi)
• Slot-loading Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) (Pay extra for a Slot-loading SuperDrive (DVD+/-RW/CD-RW))

Cost: $499.00. Not a bad value, lets see how it sells. I'm interested to see if there's demand for this. I will buy one to use as a Home Server to put in the living room.

iPod Shuffle

There's a lot of discussion on whether this is worth it becasue it doesn't have a way to navigate the music, unless you do it bilindly. But music is mostly about listening, not looking. I like looking at the song titles but most of the time I'm just navigating through the songs I don't like in shuffle mode. This is perfect for me and I would work perfect while skiing. Not to mention it's cheap.

• Personalize your iPod shuffle with iTunes:
• Autofill from your entire music library for a fresh mix
• Autofill from specific playlists
• Drag and drop songs
• Control your music with the simple button interface
• Take it everywhere ? it weighs only .78 of an ounce
• Wear iPod shuffle with the included lanyard
• Run, jump or shimmy down to skip-free playback
• Enjoy up to 12 hours of continuous playback
• Play MP3, AAC and audiobooks (and WAV)
• Fill iPod shuffle in a flash via USB
• Charge in four hours via USB or optional Power Adapter
• Store files along with your music (Works like regular flash drive)

There's some photos floating around purposing to be some secret Apple Media Center called iHome. Looks cool but it's probably too good to be true. Still, one can wish.

Recently Think Secret released several rumors about upcoming releases at MacWorld San Francisco 2005. That was enough to really get Apple's attention, since now they are suing them.

"Apple has filed a civil complaint against the owner of ThinkSecret.com and unnamed individuals who we believe stole Apple's trade secrets," Apple said in its statement. "We believe that Think Secret solicited information about unreleased Apple products from these individuals, who violated their confidentiality agreements with Apple by providing details that were later posted on the Internet."

This isn't the first suit for Apple, recently suing several others for releasing other secrets to Think Secret and AppleInsider and those who released Tiger (MacOS X 10.4) via Bittorrent.

Again, as much as I love to hear prerelease information I can't blame Apple for going after these guys. It's their trade secrets and failing to enforce them could result in them being copied by competitors. I don't think its so much of an issue of Apple Fan Boys like me knowing what's coming out but Dell or Microsoft finding out, soon enough to make their own "version".

Update: Think Secret responds:

"We're confident that Think Secret's reporting is consistent with the right and privileges granted by the First Amendment," dePlume wrote. "The complaint is being reviewed, and Think Secret defers further comment until it has been analyzed."

Update 2: Interesting reading from Daring Fireball.

So dePlume is left with two choices: fight in court, or cough up the names of the sources. It?s possible Apple would continue to pursue legal action against Think Secret even if dePlume revealed the sources, but I think that?s unlikely. Once given the names, Apple will surely terminate the leakers? employment (if they?re Apple employees or contractors), and/or pursue further legal action against them. But Apple can?t take action against the leakers until they know who they are, and the only way they can identify them is through Think Secret. Hence, the suit against Think Secret.

The entire post is pretty much how I've though about what Apple's motives are. It also answers the questions of intentional leaks.

I know some people are still using MacOS 9 for somethings. Heck some people are even using really, really old stuff from 1991. So I ask you, dear reader, are you still using OS9? If so answer the quiz question and put a comment on what you use it for.