mac

Apple's MobileMe service set to debut

Update at 10:08 a.m. PDT, with clarification on how users' e-mail will be handled.

Apple's MobileMe service is primed to be relaunched this week, ahead of the Friday launch of the iPhone 3G. That means subscribers to .Mac will find the service taken offline for a six-hour stretch as Apple makes the transition, according to a post in MacRumors.com.

The www.mac.com site will go down on Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. PDT, leaving .Mac subscribers unable to access the site or use .Mac services, except for .MacMail via their desktop … Read more

Battle of the breeze: MSI Wind vs. MacBook Air

Remember back in the day when we went nuts and compared a Samsung Q1 Ultra to an Apple Newton? We've been eating the crazy pills again. Today, we woke up and decided we'd do another mental comparison--the MSI Wind versus the similarly gusty MacBook Air.

Despite the price disparity, they're both laptops, they're both ultraportable, they both have keyboards and screens, and they're both so gorgeous they cause random strangers to accost you in the street, demanding to know where you got them from. So which is best? The great silver hope from Apple, or … Read more

An optimized Firefox for the Mac

OK. I can't actually call it "Firefox" due to trademark concerns, but a colleague sent me this link to "Minefield," which is a version of Firefox optimized for the Mac.

Is it any good? Well, according to one user, "Starts up faster, scrolls smoother, resizes windows smoother...It's like it's Safari." In other words, a bit like the new launcher icons for OpenOffice.org Aqua, but probably better.

Does this mean it will close the gap with Safari as the world's fastest browser? (Mind you, the gap wasn't very … Read more

Apple MacBook: Change is in the Air

The Apple MacBook Air has been a ground-breaking first-generation product (in my opinion). So, what will Apple do to top it when an update comes later this year? There are some telling indicators already. This is what I expect--and hope for--as a user.

First, a disclaimer. I am not an Apple fanatic. The MacBook Air is the first Apple product I have ever used for more than a few days. For well over a decade, I have been wedded to Wintel (Windows-Intel) laptops.

Before I dive into upcoming features, I should also mention that I have been extremely pleased with … Read more

My Mac problem: Too many and too alike

Here in the Asay home we have a growing problem: Each year we add a Mac to the fold, making it increasingly more difficult to tell them apart. My wife, eldest daughter, and I each have MacBook Pros. Soon, no doubt, my nine-year old son will get one. I love the way the Macs look, but it becomes a problem when they all look the same.

That's at home. Imagine what it's like at work, where we have scads of MacBook Pros.

Yes, we could litter the laptops with stickers, but that's a bit like sacrilege (though some disagree).… Read more

Looking back, looking ahead: The week in laptops

Ah, summer. Summer means long sunny days, vacations at the beach, and--if you're in the United States--the Independence Day holiday. Which is why this weekly wrap-up is coming a day early: tomorrow my colleagues and I will be busy eating grilled meat and watching fireworks, all in the name of patriotism.

Because it spans the middle months of the calendar, summer can also be a time of reflection. We took the opportunity this week to look back on all that's happened so far this year and came up with a list of notable notebooks from the first half of 2008. … Read more

Weekend project: Sync your .Mac bookmarks one last time

Are you a .Mac subscriber who's been using the built-in bookmark syncing app? Come Sunday that service will no longer exist as part of the MobileMe transition, so if you want to do one last sync you've got to get it done this weekend.

Shortly after the MobileMe announcement last month Apple sent out an e-mail to current .Mac subscribers detailing this change. Friday, the company extended the transfer deadline to July 6, along with providing a how-to guide to make sure you've got everything synced up one last time. You can get full instructions on how to do the sync here. … Read more

Apple cuts price of flash-drive MacBook Air

Updated 2 p.m. PDT Monday to clarify that Apple has cut the price of a MacBook Air with a solid-state hard drive and faster processor by $500 total.

Apple has quietly reduced the price of the flash-memory version of the MacBook Air.

Appleinsider tipped us to the new price, which can be found at the online Apple Store. Before today, you would have paid a $999 premium if you wanted a MacBook Air with a solid-state hard drive, but Apple has reduced that premium to $599. It's also now cheaper to upgrade the processor from 1.6GHz to … Read more

The Mac approaches 8 percent market share: Is it ready for popularity?

In June, Apple's market share for Mac OS X hit 7.94 percent, according to Net Applications. At its current growth rate of 0.18 percent per month, this means that the Mac should claim 8 percent of the global desktop operating system market by the end of July. Linux, while still holding a tiny 0.8 percent share, is also rising.

The only major desktop OS to decline? Windows. In fact, as the Inquirer notes, while the Mac is up 32 percent, Windows XP actually declined a full percentage point while Vista scraped together a measly 2.56 percent. Overall? Windows was down 2.45 percent.

Mac sales are outpacing PC sales at 3.5 times faster rate. Two big questions are looming:

At what point will the momentum accelerate even faster? In other words, what's the tipping point for Mac adoption? Is Apple set up to handle this success? Does it want it?… Read more