Apple

Mac sales are surging and Microsoft is making money

Last year's rise in Mac sales made plenty of money for Apple, but the renaissance also was profitable for Microsoft.

At Macworld Expo on Tuesday, Microsoft's top Mac exec declared that 2005 was the "best year ever" for the unit. Macintosh Business Unit general manager Roz Ho then announced that Microsoft was formalizing its commitment to the Mac with a new five-year agreement to keep making Office for the Mac.

An earlier agreement expired in 2002, though Microsoft has said that it would keep up its Mac business as long as it made financial sense. However, … Read more

Apple's share price an in-joke for Intelites

In a bit of unintended humor, Wall Street closed Apple's stock Tuesday, the day the company unveiled its first Intel processor-based computers at Macworld, at $80.86.

That may mean nothing to the average person, but techies will no doubt catch the accidental reference to Intel's 8086, the 1978 processor that spawned the x86 architecture that PC users are so familiar with.

Now, it's pretty unlikely that Wall Street was able to manipulate Apple's share price, given the thousands upon thousands of people who no doubt bought and sold the stock Tuesday. But it's little … Read more

German court backs Apple against "Spod"

A German court, at the request of Apple Computer, has temporarily barred a Stuttgart technology company from marketing its brand "Spod" for a cell phone podcasting service, according to the German company's executives.

Liquid Air Lab has been offering a service since late last year that provides broadband-capable mobile phone users with access to radio shows, music downloads, ring tones, and other services.

The company had registered the brand names "spod" and "spodradio" for its services. In a press release, executives said that Apple asked a court to block Liquid Air from marketing … Read more

Judge says no to Jobs' demolition plans

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has overhauled consumer electronics and is helping to revamp the music industry, but his plans to remake his home in Woodside, Calif. are being thwarted.

Jobs has sought to demolish a 17,000-square foot home he bought in 1984 to make way for a smaller dwelling. Preservationists sued to halt the destruction of the "Jackling House," built for Utah Copper Co. magnate Daniel Jackling.

A San Mateo Superior Court judge recently ruled that the town improperly granted Jobs a demolition permit, according to the Associated Press.

Jobs' attorney told the AP he will likely … Read more

Headset turns video iPod into big screen

A Bellevue, Wash.-based company plans to release a new headset this year that makes it seem like you're watching the video iPod on a big-screen TV, according to a story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

eMagin's "EyeBud" displays video from the iPod in front of one eye, using optical technology designed to make the picture appear larger and with a higher resolution than the iPod's screen, according to the story. The company's CEO likened the headset, expected to retail for as much as $599, to watching a 105-inch display from 12 feet away, the … Read more

And the cutest iPod baby winner is...

A panel of "celebrity" judges recently awarded Madison of Minneapolis the "World's Cutest Baby" title in a contest put on by the iPod My Baby retail site.

Be forewarned, if you're a sucker for cuteness: Madison, daughter of Mike and Michelle, had some pretty stiff competition, as evidenced by this gallery.

Madison's prize was a whole "family" of iPods--a video iPod, a Nano and a Shuffle--all delivered in time for Christmas.

Rhode Island-based Kevin Muoio, who co-founded the site just four months ago with David Schroeder of London, said they received … Read more

Where iPods meet sock hops

If you're an iPod accessory collector who's beyond chargers and speakers, but not quite ready for an iPod BMW, you might consider Wurlitzer's Bubbler CD jukebox, now available with an iPod dock.

The "One More Time" jukebox sells for $9,500 and is a descendent of the model made popular in the post-war 1940s. It holds 100 CDs and features Bose speakers, floating bubbles and lights that change color.

Douglas Skor, who manages Wurlitzer's U.S. branch, said although the One More Time jukebox is a commercial machine, it's sold primarily to homes … Read more

Plenty pine to pocket iPod for pennies

While the iPod Nano can be somewhat hard to find at any price, one store is selling the device for 99 cents--at least a couple of them.

99-Cent Only Stores plans to sell nine Nanos for 99 cents when it opens its latest outlet on Thursday in La Quinta, Calif., near Palm Springs.

While the iPod giveaway is fairly recent, the publicly traded discount chain has long marked new location openings by allowing the first few customers to buy something quite valuable for 99 cents.

"We used to have 19-inch TVs, either Sharp or Panasonic," said company spokesman … Read more

Sony "rootkit" CDs had designs on iPod

The Princeton researchers that have done much of the work deconstructing SonyBMG's recent controversial copy protection software have found an interesting new tidbit. According to their new findings, the Sony software had a hidden component that could convert songs from the CD, or other ordinary MP3s, into a file compatible with Apple's copy protected FairPlay format.

That would mean that the songs could be played on iPods, which hasn't been the case with copy protected CDs in the past. It apparently accomplishes this by using open-source, yet copyrighted code, a practice deemed a no-no in programming circles.… Read more