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Weekly News Wrap-up |
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 Well, last weeks news wrapup didn't go over too badly, so I guess I'll try it again. If you missed it, it's where we take a look at what happened in the world of Apple. We take the good, the bad, the ugly, a bunch of fishsticks, some cheese fries, a dozen superballs, a stap of flapjacks, some pennies and a Chairman of the Board DVD, toss 'em all together in a pot and cook it up. The end result of which is a hodgepodge of factoids that no computer user should be without!
Apple
To get started, this week didn't bring any new products, other than the iPod mini - which is now shipping and should be available for purchase at Apple retail stores. It's worth noting that Apple had over 100,000 preorders for the iPod mini!
On the software side of things, Apple released iSight firmware 1.0.2 and iSync 1.4.
Apple is now a debt-free company for the first time since the mid-90's! Steve Jobs sent a company-wide letter that Apple paid of it's last $300 million of debt and that "It sure feels good".
As the end of 2003 marked U.S. companies best gains in 31 years, Apple was at the front of the pack with "a 552% jump in annual profits to $137 million, thanks to strong sales of its computers and the iPod". That's right, out of the entire computer industry, Apple "recorded the largest increase for the group".
The good news keeps on rolling though, as Apple scored highest in a survey of Customer Service (although CNET still manages to hide this information way down in the middle of the article).
Mac OS X has also been declared one of the world's safest operating systems: "The world's safest and most secure online server Operating System (OS) is proving to be the Open Source family of BSD (Berkley Software Distribution) and Mac OS X based on Darwin."
The G5 also gets some more vindication, as it is called the Ferrari of Computers: "While most computer manufacturers have been talking about putting 64-bit processors in PCs for a while now, Apple is first out of the gates with a machine that will change the future of computers forever"
The Wintel World
Meanwhile, let's look at how things are shaping up in the PC world.
Steve Jobs has proven to be right in ignoring the tablet market, as tablet PC's are not selling very well: "300,000 tablets were sold in the first three quarters of 2003, says researcher IDC, so it's unlikely sales will reach the research house's original prediction of 500,000. 'The overall market demand is not there,' says John Villejo, vice-president at First International Computer Inc., a Taiwanese manufacturer that builds tablets for a top Japanese company. He says his company is shipping 2,000 a month -- about half what management had expected."
The smiles are fading at Napster, as the music service isn't doing nearly as well as they'd hoped:
Napster is losing money, and top executives have left the company, including its president, chief financial officer, vice president of programming and head of corporate communications as well a key board member. On Wednesday, Roxio began laying off people at its Napster division. A Roxio spokeswoman said the company was ``eliminating redundancies in the organization'' but declined to say how many people lost their jobs.
Napster also "sells only about a quarter the number of downloads from their artists as Apple's market-leading iTunes store. Napster refused to release download figures."
On top of that, it turns out that HP was going to go with Napster as their music service but that they "suddenly -- and without explanation -- returned Napster's $250,000 check and canceled the agreement to install a link to Napster's online music service on its computers." Think about HP's deal with Apple to make a blue HP iPod, and HP is seeming smarter and smarter (Granted they're no Apple, but definitely making sensible business moves - go Carly! *meowrr*)
Also, Intel is playing catch-up with IBM and AMD and has just released a 64-bit server processor, although it's not directly compatible with 32-bit apps: "Itanium is not directly compatible with today's x86 software, but it can run such programs through a slower emulation mode."
Lastly, a reminder of what some Windows users suffer through. Viruses can infect your computer, turning it into a SPAM ZOMBIE! (Insert spooky music here) "David Lawrence, 43, owns such a computer, which turned into a "spam zombie" when a virus infected it in October. Five or six spammers were using his cable modem to remotely send pitches for products like Viagra and boosters for cell phone signals."
Tidbits
How crazy would it be if you were surfing the Web and found out your Mother had abducted you, taking you away from your Father and the rest of your family? That's exactly what happened to a Los Angeles county High School student recently. The teen will soon be reunited with the rest of his family in Canada.
Lastly, but not least... er ... ok, well yeah actually it is least.... Fatboy Slim goes GarageBand: "GarageBand continues to inspire music-sample producers to deliver new and better loops for iLife musicians, with AMG releasing samples in Apple Loops format from Fatboy Slim and Erasure's Vince Clarke."
So, that's the news for the week and I am outta here! And please use the comments and let us know if this sort of thing should be continued or put out of it's misery!
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February 21 2004, 12:01 PM EDT, by
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Comments:
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| moiety5 |
2/21/04, 10:32 PM EDT |
Definitely should keep this thing going, although it does run counter to your claim that one shouldn't turn here for facts.
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| Jack Armstrong |
2/22/04, 10:53 AM EDT |
i agree... hey moiety5, good to see ya here!
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| moiety5 |
2/22/04, 4:33 PM EDT |
You too Jack. You've gotten me hooked on these weird guys.
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| Jack Armstrong |
2/22/04, 7:30 PM EDT |
Eh, that can happen...
but anway, back on topic.....
.... no comment.
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| sweetjimmyhugs |
2/23/04, 9:11 AM EDT |
Where were the cheese fries and fishsticks that you promised?
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| Robert Chabot |
2/23/04, 12:44 PM EDT |
Continuez votre bon travail ! Je ne rate pas d'occasion de vous lire.
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| Jonahan |
2/25/04, 8:46 PM EDT |
Wow....French praise! We rock!
I think I may try to do something like this again, but spice it up with some more goofyness :)
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