Apple Archive

How many hardcore gamers do you know who are also avid Mac users? Probably not many. Windows users have thousands of titles to choose from, and cheap hardware to run their games on. Despite the many virtues of the Mac platform, it is not the first choice of serious gamers. Even the speedy new G5’s will not change that.

A few days ago we published an editorial suggesting that Apple should be selling the eMac for 500 bucks or a bare-bones G3-based machine for $200-300 USD, in order to compete with the "cheap PCs" trend today. I was wrong. Creating such price differentation between the G5 and the G3 or eMac would cannibalize the sales of the high-end machines (where more margin for profit exists) and even worse, it would destroy the Apple brand name. But hey, you know me, I am as stubborn as it goes. I discussed the situation with some more people around me and we came up with an alternative plan, which in my opinion, makes more sense business-wise and it has some good potential.

Adobe Systems plans to announce new versions of its video-editing software Monday, including a Windows-only application that marks another high-profile defection from Apple Computer's Macintosh operating system, News.com says.

The "Rise of the Machines" might be taking the cinemas by storm these days, but the Rise of the Apple lately also is taking the IT industry by storm with the introduction of the Power Mac G5 and Mac OS X Panther 10.3 last month. Let's see what the OSNews readers are thinking of the Macs. Come in and vote in our two Mac polls.

Are you a long time Windows user curious about the Apple Switch campaign? Are you wondering if you should try it? Read below for my experience with the whole thing... twice. Just over a week ago I purchased a new 12" Apple PowerBook G4...

"Apple's future doesn't ride on the speed of its Macs. In fact, Apple's future doesn't ride with Macs at all anymore. No, I haven't been off in the desert downing peyote. What I saw from my sideline perch is that the Mac's day has come and gone." Read the interesting editorial at BusinessWeek. Elsewhere, Maccentral has a round-up article: "Developers, Analysts weigh in on the G5, Panther".

The Inquirer has an editorial about Macs, the 64-bit market and how they compare with AMD Opteron.

Many would argue that market share is not the same as user base. But it doesn't ultimately matter. What really matters is to have as many users as possible, so it will attract more developers and create an actual "market" around the platform. Less users, less money flowing, less third party development, which ultimately leads to the death of a platform. I was reading today this and this editorials, even journalists now buy the "cheap PCs with Linux" deal. Apple has to wake up before is too late and should offer a cheap solution. Apple should learn from NeXT's mistakes, not duplicate them. Update: Look inside for one more idea by some of our readers.

Analysts and others are raising questions over Apple Computer's claim that its new Power Mac G5 is the world's fastest personal computer. Articles at News.com, ExtremeTech. Apple is defending their benchmarks. In the meantime, the first reference of how faster the G5 is against the G4s, is available.

I was present at Apple's WWDC yesterday and witnessed one of the historical moments in Apple's history, the introduction of their 64-bit platform. Am I impressed? The answer is complicated. I was happy to see Apple moving on and deliver. But I would have expected nothing less from a 4 billion tech company who had the need to catch up with the "other" platform, the 32-bit PC. You all heard by now what's new in yesterday's press releases and news coverings. But here is a wrap up of the first day of the conference and a commentary on what Apple really announced yesterday, underneath its surrounding distortion field.

"Steve Jobs should take his own advice and sacrifice some profit margin in exchange for some market share. When Apple releases 970-based Macs, they may well be better than their PC counterparts, but Apple's current price structure will drive the masses off to the competition." Read the editorial at MacObserver. C|Net News.com says that Apple is preparing to introduce a new line of machines that are built around IBM's speedy new PowerPC 970 chip, analysts say, a move that won't erase the "gigahertz gap", but should at least narrow the chasm. Elsewhere, Shake 3 is out.

A number of web sites reported that the database that holds the Apple Store data has been accidentally updated (and later its webmaster took down the whole Store website). While the headline in the final rendered web page is still calling it a "G4", the specs are mentioning the following:

Apple resellers are becoming increasingly disgruntled with the product expansion and aggressive pricing of the vendor’s online presence, Apple Store. While a level playing field exists for hardware – allowing resellers to take advantage of face-to-face contact with customers and value-added service levels behind the sale – channel partners are worried about discrepancies appearing in the pricing of some third-party software and peripherals.

Bangkokpost says that the dev tools on Macs are not so great. And there is already a rebuttal article on the subject. Elsewhere, Roz Ho, the general manager of Microsoft's Mac Business Unit, has confirmed that no future versions of Internet Explorer will be released for the Mac. In the meantime, Apple Security Update 2003-06-12 for OS X Server 10.2.6 only is out and available for download.