Tag archive: Macintosh

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Apple disclosed that it has awarded new CEO Tim Cook an award of restricted stock units (RSUs) valued at some $376 million, designed to serve as a “promotion and retention award.” Under the deal, Cook would receive one million RSUs: half the stock options would vest on the fifth anniversary of Cook's assumption of the CEO role; the other half would vest on the… Read More

Computing pioneer Dennis Ritchie died this past weekend at age 70, becoming the second technology giant to pass within a week — the other, of course, being Apple's Steve Jobs. Although Jobs was unquestionably the better-known figure, Ritchie was the creator of the C programming language and one of the primary developers of the Unix operating system, both of which have had profound impacts on modern technology. Unix and C lie at the heart… Read More

Apple is rolling out its new, much-touted iCloud service, promising to take all the pain out of keeping computers, phones, and tablets synchronized. Unlike most existing cloud-driven services and apps — which are basically add-ons — Apple has built iCloud support right into iOS 5 (available today!), OS X 10.7 Lion, and other major Apple apps. Sign in, and iCloud transparently takes care of syncing music, video, pictures, email, calendars,… Read More

As the entire technology industry remembers Steve Jobs fondly, I can't help but fear for its future. Without Steve Jobs, the the tech and entertainment industries would be no where near as vibrant as they are today. And without his unique ability to execute new ideas and push the tech industry where it needs to go, we'll all be a little worse off.   The Onion may have been joking around in its story: “Last American Who Knew… Read More

Apple is one of the most-watched — and most admired — technology firms in the world. After all, the company essentially launched the personal computer business way back in the 1970s, re-invented it with a graphical interface in the 1980s, mainstreamed the portable media player business in the 1990s, kick-started the smartphone business, and most recently jolted the tablet market into existence. The company is a world-recognized brand leader,… Read More

For some Macintosh users, the download-only availability of Mac OS X Lion is no big deal: pay your $29.99 and let your broadband connection do all the work of pulling in 4GB of data. But if you don't have a broadband connection—or anticipate needing to install or recover Lion while away from the Internet—that lack of an installable DVD version of Lion might be a serious problem. Apple is now shipping it's solution: for… Read More

In addition to launching Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” and rolling out new MacBook Airs today, Apple also released an update to its entry-level desktop system, the Mac mini. Initially launched as a bare-bones system aimed at “switchers”—folks converting to Macs from Windows—the Mac mini has turned into a compact mainstream system for folks looking for the performance of mainstream iMacs, but without having to pay for… Read More

Apple has released Security Update 2011-003 to deal with the MacDefender malware and known variants that have been attempting to bilk Macintosh users out of their credit card information and money to fix non-existent problems on their computer. The update is available for Mac OS X 10.6.7 and Mac OS X Server 10.6.7, and patches Snow Leopard's built-in file quarantine system to detect MacDefender and known variants. And, in case new… Read More

Apple opened its first two retail stores ten years ago today, with two locations in Glendale, California, and McClean, Virginia. At the time, most industry watchers—myself included—thought Apple's venture into retailing was a poor choice: why should the company pay for premium space in upscale shopping centers when it commanded only a minuscule portion of the PC market—and particularly when computer makers like Gateway… Read More

JBL's futuristic On Air Wireless AirpPlay speaker dock isn't available yet…but that isn't stopping the audio gear maker from teasing iPad, iPhone, and Macintosh fans with a little bit of a preview. Designed to work with iTunes 10.1 or later along with iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches running iOS 4.2 or later, the circular speaker dock system is compatible with Apple's AirPlay technology, so users can stream their… Read More

Market analysis firm Gartner has revised its forecasts for PC shipments during 2011 and 2012—and the news isn't that good for PC manufacturers. Gartner still predicts that PC shipments will increase by 10.5 percent in 2011 and 2012 as the world economy recovers, but that figure is a downward revision of an original growth estimate of 15.9 percent. The reason? Gartner believes China's PC market will be weaker than it initially… Read More

Apple has posted its financial results for its first fiscal quarter of 2011, which includes the end-of-year 2010 holiday season, and the figures are stunning: the company had record revenue of $26.74 billion for the quarter and earned a record $6 billion for the quarter. Year-on-year, the figures represent a 71 percent growth in revenue and a 78 percent growth in earnings, and sales of almost everything—from iPhones to iPads to the… Read More

Computer shoppers, we have bad news: PCs cost 6 percent more than they did in 2009. Worse, prices may continue to rise. According to a report by NPD, the average retail price of a PC in the United States was $615, up from $580 in 2009, though 2009 represented a record low for prices. Customers may not be happy, but the rise is a sigh of relief for PC makers. Until this year, intense competition has driven consumers to purchase cheaper and… Read More

Sometimes things move fast in the Macintosh universe. On Wednesday, Apple announced a beta version of FaceTime for Mac as part of its “Back to the Mac” event, on Thursday users quickly discovered it exposed Apple ID account information to anyone with physical access to a Mac using the application, and as of today Apple has worked around the security problem by blocking the beta application's access to account information.… Read More