When Apple began filing lawsuits against some of the Mac rumor sites, you began to wonder if their days were numbered. I started to think what may daily online routine would be like if people were afraid to speculate about future iPods and Mac products fearing they might get it right and face the wrath of Apple. You could almost sense the chill in the air.

Yes, I’ve said many times that we don’t truck in rumors here and we don’t encourage developers and others to break confidentiality agreements. On the other hand, I have no qualms about indulging in speculation from time to time. Well I don’t reduce myself to consulting tea leaves or crystal balls, I like to examine trends and take them to their inevitable conclusions. Or inevitable from my point of view. But we all love gossip. Whether it’s a weekly entertainment magazine, a so-called supermarket tabloid, or just sitting back and chewing the fat, idle chatter is fun, so long as you don’t hurt someone of course.

Continue Reading...

Related Articles:

• About All Those Apple Rumors
• Do the Mac Rumor Sites Have Near-Total Freedom?
• Is Apple Losing Its Innovative Spirit?
• Apple Stays the Course
• The Real Losers in the Think Secret Settlement

The news that a relatively small Arizona school system ditched textbooks in favor of iBooks may seem a curiosity, but when you actually get to look at the system in action, you come away incredibly impressed.

On Wednesday, I made a 140-mile trip to Empire High School in Vail, Arizona to see the fledgling system first-hand, and to say I came away impressed is an understatement. Within a complex of buildings that’s dusty from new construction lies one of the first educational systems to truly embrace the possibilities of the 21st century.

First, let me repeat what many of you know from the published reports. Every student at Empire gets an iBook that contains all their lesson materials, plus copies of Microsoft Office. There are no printed textbooks. They can take the iBooks home with them, and, of course, their parents are responsible for its care, although a low-cost insurance program helps reduce the costs in case the laptop is smashed to smithereens.

Continue Reading...

Related Articles:

• Crafting Apple in Your Own Image
• Is Microsoft Ready to Lose the Browser Wars?
• The iPhone and Lawsuits Revisited
• The Things We Now Take for Granted
• Apple’s Unfortunate Economy of Words

It’s tempting. We live in a world of instant analysis, so when something happens, expected or otherwise, you can bet there will be a thousand and one interpretations of the meaning of the event within the first five minutes. You aren’t supposed to just sit back and sort through the maze of facts and fiction for yourself, not when others are ready and waiting to tell you what to think.

And, sure enough, the online talking heads were busy as bees churning out speculation, reasoned and otherwise, about what really happened in the wake of the announcement that Apple was migrating to Intel processors. One commentator pronounced it a lame-brained move that would eventually result in the death of Apple Computer. Oh well, they’ve been saying that for years, and Apple still won’t take the hint, thank goodness.

Continue Reading...

Related Articles:

• The Apple/Intel Report: The Pressure Mounts
• The Apple/Intel Report: Will Apple Be Forced to Rush MacIntels?
• Revisiting the Apple/Intel Connection
• The Apple/Intel Report: About that Rosetta Trademark
• The Apple/Intel Report: About that Rosetta Trademark

After a few years of promising and then failing to deliver its industrial-strength operating system, Apple changed its tack. First, there was a Public Beta version in September of 2000 to prove Mac OS X was for real, and then it clamped down. New versions are now demonstrated and then seeded to developers strictly to give them a chance to check their products for compatibility, but the rest of the Mac universe has to wait for the final release.

All right, it’s true that some developers don’t take the nondisclosure agreements they sign to gain access to prerelease builds very seriously, and walk, or perhaps run to the nearest available Mac rumor site to spill the beans. Others can’t wait to post a pirated copy on an illegal software site. But that’s really beside the point. I really want to compare Apple’s marketing approach with that of Microsoft.

Continue Reading...

Related Articles:

• Newsletter 416 Preview: The Downsides of Mac Tips and Tricks
• Living with Leopard: Book VI — I’ll Never Go Back!
• Living with Leopard: Book IV — Spaces, Spaces and More Spaces
• So Do We Really Know Everything About Apple’s January 27th Event?
• The Dangers of the Unauthorized Use of Apple Products