I’m not a big fan of the Kindle, but some people do like it. Amazon already has an app for the iPhone, but now the company released an app for Mac OS X too. The app requires Mac OS X 10.5 or higher.
The app allows you to download Kindle books you already own, and read them at leisure on your Mac; synchronization of your progress through the book is automatic, and will keep track with your Kindle or iPhone reading.
Jerome York, 71, has been hospitalized in Michigan, after collapsing at his home on Tuesday night. According to his wife, he suffered a a massive cerebral hemorrhage. York has been a director at Apple since 1997.
Apple on Wednesday added a few new features to its iWork.com Web site, including the ability to share documents on social networking Web sites. (more…)
If you’re one of the millions of people on a social networking Web site, you should be aware that the U.S. government may use the sites for undercover work. For most law abiding citizens, it won’t matter much, especially if you only add friends that you know.
The Obama administration has considered sending federal police undercover on social-networking sites, including Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.A confidential U.S. Department of Justice presentation (PDF) on social-networking sites made public Tuesday said online undercover work can help agents “communicate with suspects,” “gain access to nonpublic info,” and “map social relationships.”
Really, it shouldn’t be a big surprise that Microsoft employees love the iPhone, right? Everyone seems to appreciate the design and functionality of Apple’s iPhone. What may be surprising is that 10 percent of Microsoft’s worldwide workforce accessed their email using an iPhone.
One Microsoft worker said he knows several colleagues who try to disguise their iPhones with cases that make them look more like generic handsets. “Maybe once a year I’m in a meeting with Steve Ballmer,” said this employee. “It doesn’t matter who’s calling, I’m not answering my phone.”
In the era of 99 cent apps, GPS-based driving assistance for the iPhone has up to now been a big financial nut to crack, with apps regularly costing $70 or more. Navigon, makers of MobileNavigator, have addressed this by introducing Navigon MyRegion, a regionalized GPS navigation system priced regularly at $30, but available for a limited time for $25. (more…)
Sometimes I get criticized for being too opinionated, but I love it when people say what they think. So, if you were thinking of buying one of Motorola’s new Backflip mobile devices, you should take a look at Sascha Segan’s review. It’s quite entertaining, to say the least.
It is an abomination of design, encrusted with bloatware and built on top of a platform that should have been retired six months ago. Motorola, AT&T, and Google can all do much, much better than this, and I hope they will soon.
Roland on Tuesday began shipping the AC-33 acoustic guitar amplifier. The amp has the ability to run on batteries or be plugged in to a power outlet. (more…)
I’m not much of a gamer on Windows systems — it’s just not what I use virtualization software for. However, it is something a lot of people want to do, so it’s important for Parallels and VMWare to make sure their software can handle games as fast as possible. A big part of that equation is graphics. MacTech posted a video with side-by-side testing today and the results are quite interesting.
The speculation around the Web has been that Apple sued HTC to get at Google. By suing its biggest licensee, Apple hopes to hurt Google’s operating system business — at least that’s what people think.
Apple has good reasons to fear Android. In the three months from December to February, Android’s US smartphone subscriber share shot up from 2.8 perent to 7.1 percent. Worldwide, in 2009, Android smartphone market share — based on sales — rose from 0.5 percent to 3.9 percent, according to Gartner (The first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, shipped in late 2008). Last month, Google CEO Eric Schmidt asserted that 60,000 Android handsets are shipping by the day.
Joe Wilcox gives eight reasons why Apple chose to sue HTC.
Technologizer founder, Harry McCracken, is at South by Southwest this week and took some time to try out the Opera Mini Web browser for iPhone. I must admit, I’ve never been a real fan of many alternative browsers for the Mac (except Camino), and haven’t really thought about needing something else for the iPhone, but as Harry says, “Apple’s response will be one of the bigger litmus tests in iPhone history to date.”
AT&T said it was prepared for SXSW this year and by all accounts, the network is holding up. The problem is that they didn’t really fixed the underlying problem. AT&T put in mobile cell towers to handle the extra bandwidth consumed at the show, but the network is still broken. That’s what needs to be fixed.
There’s trouble in paradise. A self-professed “pissed off wife” is posting openly on Twitter about her husband leaving on their anniversary weekend to attend South by Southwest (SXSW). The bio for @ScrewYouSXSW is a gem:
My husband f****d off to Austin on our anniversary weekend for South by Southwest. Asshole. Follow me to see what happens in his absence.
So what happens is his absence?
Uh Oh. New text from hubby “We need to talk when I get home on Tuesday.” Should I tell him that I’m leaving for Hawaii on Tues?
Anniversaries come and go, they say. Divorce settlements only come around once, maybe twice in a lifetime.
Worst text to-date from husband “wish I could check-in to your pants this morning” WRONG F*****G DAY TO BE SAYING THAT ASSHOLE.
Apple gave its Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook, a $22 million performance bonus on Friday. The bonus was split between a cash bonus of $5 million and the rest as restricted stock. Cook’s bonus was approved by the board on Friday after being recommended by Steve Jobs. He was apparently given the bonus for his performance while filling in for CEO Steve Jobs while he was off on medical leave.
It’s a good news, bad news story for AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson when looking at his 2009 pay package. The bulk of Stephenson’s pay was in the form of stock awards, which were valued at 12.1 million, down 8 percent over the 2008. (In case you didn’t know, that folks, was the bad news). The good news is that Stephenson earned a $5.85 million performance bonus pulling his 2009 salary up 35 percent over 2008 to 20.3 million.
My favorite audio plug-in maker, Universal Audio (UA) on Thursday released an update for its plug-in platform. UAD 5.6 includes many fixes and three new plug-ins. (more…)
Strange but true. “Law & Order” actor Richard Belzer (Detective Munch) has been accused of harassment by an Apple Store employee. According to the employee Belzer “grabbed her by the shoulders, shook her, choked her and barked, ‘I need help!'” Belzer said he put his hand on her shoulder, nothing else. Apparently, the incident was captured on surveillance tape and after viewed by police, no charges were filed.
I’ll admit it. I get very frustrated reading opinions from people saying the iPad has problems and it may be better to wait until the next version to buy one. Most of these people haven’t even touched one, but yet they feel compelled to give an opinion. (more…)
I saw a new album on the iTunes Store today that I just had to share: Jimi Hendrix’s “Valleys of Neptune.” Best of all it comes in Apple’s iTunes LP format, meaning there are extras. These are previously unreleased recordings of Hendrix captured right after he recorded “Electric Ladyland.” I’m downloading it right now.
Get this. Dell will call its forthcoming tablet the “Streak.” I kid you not, that’s what reports are saying today. If Dell needs a theme song for its marketing campaign, they could contact Ray Stevens about his 1970s classic song, “The Streak.”
At this week’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, Icarus Studios announced the Mac beta release of Fallen Earth, a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game. The new Mac beta release – available now – requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.5 or later. (more…)
