The bMighty Blog -- Apple

Microsoft's First Update to Office 2008 Is Big. Literally.

Posted by Alan Zeichick 09:31 PM ET | May 13, 2008

Office 2008 for Macintosh is off to a roaring start, according to Microsoft. In its first four months, the software sold faster than any other version of Office for Mac, the company says. And now the software is getting better, or at least less buggy, with Service Pack 1 now available.

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Firefox 3.0 Release Schedule Update

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 08:15 AM ET | May 13, 2008

In a previous post, I mentioned that we would probably see a Firefox 3.0 release candidate before the end of the month. Based on a senior Mozilla developer's recent remarks, that estimate looks to be right on track.

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Apple | Hardware & Software | Internet/Web | Linux | Open Source | Windows

OpenOffice.org Readies Its Mac Attack

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 07:27 AM ET | May 13, 2008

Mac support has never been a big selling point for OpenOffice.org. Fortunately, this is about to change in a big way.

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Apple | Hardware & Software | Open Source

iPhone Update May Be Coming Soon

Posted by Alan Zeichick 07:49 PM ET | May 10, 2008

As of Saturday, May 10, the iPhone is currently out of stock at the Apple Store, including both the 8MB and 16GB models. That can mean one of two things.

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The Next-Generation iPhone: It's Nearly Here, We Hope

Posted by Alan Zeichick 08:42 PM ET | May 9, 2008

The original iPhone is a GSM handset that uses the EDGE wireless network as well as WiFi. While the iPhone is a marvel of multimedia usability, it's not at the cutting edge of mobile networking. That may be about to change, if stories are true about the forthcoming debut of a 3G iPhone.

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Apple

Getting Windows Audio/Video Files into Your Mac

Posted by Alan Zeichick 03:39 PM ET | May 8, 2008

The world is filled with multimedia files, and if you receive files from a Windows user, it may be in a Windows format. The challenge can be to play them on your Mac, and to import them into iTunes.

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Apple

Interop Insight: Why Users Hate IT

Posted by Fredric Paul 06:27 PM ET | May 1, 2008

In case you haven't noticed, today's consumer products and applications routinely outperform -- and out "cool" -- their business counterparts. So no wonder users bristle when forced to make do with second-rate business solutions. But IT folks often make the situation worse.

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Apple | Company Size: 1-49 | IT | Internet/Web

Apple Finally Upgrades to the Latest Version of Java

Posted by Alan Zeichick 05:41 PM ET | Apr 30, 2008

Java is the "write once, run anywhere" platform, developed by Sun Microsystems, which gives applications developers the ability to write powerful, portable cross-platform software. And finally, we can use the latest version on the Mac.

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Not Every Mac Can Drive an Apple 30" Monitor

Posted by Alan Zeichick 12:41 PM ET | Apr 27, 2008

The flagship of the desktop display world is the 30" monitor. I have one, and love it -- it's huge, very high resolution (2560 x 1600 pixels), and can show a tremendous amount of information. While it's great for people doing graphics design, a bigger monitor makes everyone more productive. Sadly, despite Apple's promotion of these huge flat screens, not every Macintosh can drive one.

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Despite It's Friendliness, Mac OS X is Still Mortal

Posted by Alan Zeichick 10:30 AM ET | Apr 25, 2008

Sometimes things go wrong with Macs, and when they do, it can be ugly. Even though we Apple fans tend to pretend (to ourselves and others) that the platform is perfect, it's not.

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Apple Keeps Making Record Money

Posted by Alan Zeichick 09:20 AM ET | Apr 24, 2008

Thanks to iMacs and MacBooks, Apple churned out record profits in its second quarter of fiscal 2008. The quarter encompassed January-March, and resulted in revenue of $7.51 billion, and profit of $1.05 billion. But while sales are still strong, there are signs that momentum is slowing, particularly in its consumer electronics products.

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Apple

Mac vs. PC: Does Apple Cost More -- Or Not?

Posted by Fredric Paul 05:53 PM ET | Apr 18, 2008

Everyone keeps telling me that Macs are no longer more expensive than equivalent PCs, but I didn't believe it. I still don't, but you can decide for yourself.

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Get Ready for Mac OS X 10.5.3 "Leopard"

Posted by Alan Zeichick 01:33 PM ET | Apr 17, 2008

Version 10.5.2 of Mac OS X "Leopard" has only been out since February, but Apple is hard at work on the next incremental upgrade, which will be version 10.5.3.

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How To Send Huge Files Via E-mail

Posted by Alan Zeichick 08:53 PM ET | Apr 11, 2008

I e-mail a lot of files to people – big files. Really big files. Recently, I sent an 80MB video to one person, and a whole bunch of 10MB PDF documents to someone else. A colleague sent me an entire directory of digital photos via e-mail. Yes, via e-mail. I’m going to tell you how.

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Linux Minus Linus: No Big Deal?

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 09:41 PM ET | Apr 8, 2008

There was a time when Linux could not have survived the departure of its creator, Linus Torvalds. Today, of course, the situation is very different -- or is it?

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Apple | Linux | Open Source

Why is Office 2004 Test Drive included with your new Mac?

Posted by Alan Zeichick 08:57 PM ET | Apr 7, 2008

Why is Office 2004 Test Drive included with your new Macintosh computer? Because the Office 2008 Test Drive isn't yet ready, according to a Microsoft spokesperson, who says that while a Test Drive of Office 2008 is planned, the dates for its release haven't been announced. Note that Office 2008 came out in mid-January, nearly three months ago.

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Software/hardware compatibility and new versions of Mac OS X

Posted by Alan Zeichick 02:28 PM ET | Apr 7, 2008

A friend asked me the other day, “I’m still using Tiger, but am buying a new Mac. Will my applications run under Leopard?”

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Apple

Top Secret Leopard Features Unleashed!

Posted by Alan Zeichick 03:01 PM ET | Apr 4, 2008

I missed April Fool’s Day this year – where has the week gone? But I did want to share a funny Web site posting from a couple of years ago, which shares “Top Secret Leopard Features Unleashed!”

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Apple

A book for Mac users moving to Office 2008

Posted by Alan Zeichick 02:46 PM ET | Apr 4, 2008

On March 20, I recommended two Mac books, one for Windows users moving to the Mac, the other for power users and IT staff supporting Macs. Today, I’ll recommend one more for Office 2008 users.

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Apple

Hacker Contest: And The Loser Is... MacBook Air

Posted by Keith Ferrell 10:53 AM ET | Mar 28, 2008

The hacker contest at this year's CanSecWest Conference in Vancouver has produced a winner... er, a loser. The hack--ee? Pricey, trendy and oh so desirable MacBook Air.

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Apple | Hardware & Software | Linux | Security | Windows

Apple's Smallest Wi-Fi Base Station Just Got Faster

Posted by Alan Zeichick 08:01 PM ET | Mar 26, 2008

I have two of the little Apple's Airport Express wireless Ethernet base stations. One of them is hooked up to my living room stereo, so we can play iTunes music from a Mac desktop without running cables. The other one lives in my briefcase, and I use it to set up portable WiFi LANs. This week, Apple launched its first significant update of the nearly four-year-old product, making it as much as five times faster — and with twice the operating range.

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Apple

A great Mac transition book for Windows refugees

Posted by Alan Zeichick 12:53 PM ET | Mar 20, 2008

Many Windows users have trouble making the transition to the Macintosh, and often, it's for superficial GUI reasons. For example, one Windows XP user I know was very frustrated because the way you resize windows on the Mac (pull the lower-right corner) is more "limited" than the way you do it on Windows (move any side or corner). This was enough to make him lobby to go back to Windows, believe it or not.

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The Mac's market share continues to climb

Posted by Alan Zeichick 12:31 PM ET | Mar 20, 2008

Stop feeling like a rebel by suggesting or promoting Mac usage within your organization. As the latest statistics show, Mac adoption is growing rapidly. While there still are more new Windows machines being sold, the gap is closing.

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Use Apple’s .Mac service to keep multiple Macs in sync

Posted by Alan Zeichick 08:09 PM ET | Mar 13, 2008

Apple offers an online service, called .Mac (pronounced dot-mac), which is ostensibly designed for consumers. The $99/year service offers great things for home users, like a @mac.com e-mail address and the ability to share photos with friends. However, the service also has valuable services for business users, especially those who have more than one computer.

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Apple

Ruby on Rails might be the Mac’s killer development platform

Posted by Alan Zeichick 01:50 PM ET | Mar 10, 2008

Many software developers, especially those building advanced Web applications, have jumped onto the Ruby on Rails train. Apple has declared its support for this powerful programming language and framework, and bundles tools for Ruby development with Leopard and Leopard Server.

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Apple