News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
It’s been a long while since I’ve owned a new Mac. In fact the last one I bought for myself was a 667MHz PowerBook G4, nearly seven years ago. I’ve used subsequent models (my job affords me the luxury to try before I buy) but haven’t been prepared to put down my money. Until now. It’s not that I haven’t thought the various PowerBooks and MacBooks were worth the money. It’s just that I, like everyone else in the technology-buying world, have been hesitant to part with my money for fear of something better around the corner. Yes, there is always something better around the corner – I know that as well as you. And I know it’s true now as well. It’s just that this time I don’t feel that a huge refresh is around the corner any time soon.
Matthew JC. Powell | Oct 24, 2008
Apple has a chequered history with industry standards. It was almost solely responsible for popularising USB, for example, leading many people to think it was Apple’s invention (it was Intel’s). Its support of its own FireWire standard has been spotty, and of course it came late to the USB 2.0 party in an attempt to prop up FireWire. And let’s not forget how long it clung to ADB — long after everyone else had abandoned it.
Matthew JC. Powell | Oct 15, 2008
The headline on this article is slightly misleading. Google doesn't have a vendetta against the iPhone, at least as far as I am aware. Sure, it recently updated its maps application for Java-based mobile platforms like BlackBerry and not for iPhone — but that's mostly Apple's fault (Apple develops the Maps application for iPhone, Google simply provides the map data) and I can't blame Google. However, I now have conclusive proof that Google has it in for me. And its weapon is Maps.
Matthew JC. Powell | Sep 20, 2008
Apple has officially decided to be a monopolist, and to abuse its monopoly power to the detriment of its partners, competitors and, ultimately, its customers. I feared this would happen, and had heard intimations that it might, but I held out hope that it would not be true — that good old Apple would not be like big bad Microsoft, that Obi-Steve would not follow the dark path of Darth Bill. I was wrong. And now that Apple has chosen this path, forever will it dominate its destiny. It's a pity.
Matthew JC. Powell | Sep 15, 2008
This is the place to come for our live update of the "Let's Rock" event in San Francisco as it happens. We'll be bringing you text and images from the event live from 3am. As soon as we know Australian pricing and availability of any announced products, it will appear right here as part of this feed. Just keep hitting refresh to keep it coming. UPDATE: 4:14am The event has now concluded. Read on for details of the new product announcements, including Australian pricing. Thanks and good night.
Matthew JC. Powell | Sep 10, 2008
The long-anticipated lawsuit brought by Apple to stop Psystar selling unlicensed Mac clones has begun in earnest. Of all the lawsuits Apple is involved with at the moment, this is the most interesting, calling into question the license agreed to by every user of Mac OS X. All along, Psystar has implied it had an ace up its sleeve that it wouldn’t reveal until the time was right, and last week, the time came: Psystar has counter-sued Apple for abuse of its monopoly power. Hang on … what?
Matthew JC. Powell | Sep 3, 2008
Owing to a total lack of vocal chords on my part, this week's podcast is not going to happen. The good news is, this spares you the agony of trying to understand the husky remains of my voice (I hate Spring colds). The bad news is, this week's podcast was when we were going to announce the winners of our iPone 3G competition. Instead, you get to read about them here. We posted fifteen of the best to Youtube, but there can be only two. Congratulations to our winners, and many thanks to all who entered.
Matthew JC. Powell | Aug 22, 2008
OK, maybe not humanity so much as phonemanity. Or something. Our iPhone competition -- whereby you can win one of two unlocked iPhones and an Altec Lansing speaker system and dock -- closes tomorrow afternoon at 5pm AEST, and more entries are as we speak being uploaded to our channel on YouTube. Some of them are brilliant, some are hilarious, and some are deeply, deeply disturbing. Some of you really don't like your phones much. Have a look and see what you think.
Matthew JC. Powell | Aug 15, 2008
Want a free Apple t-shirt? Get down to Chatswood Chase, where an hour before opening time the queue is easily outnumbered by Security. The Apple Store staff are, as with the George Street opening in June, chanting and clapping and getting geared up, but actual customers don't seem to have wanted to brave the cold Chatswood morning.
Matthew JC. Powell | Aug 9, 2008
By any reasonable measure the transition from .Mac to MobileMe was a debacle — a slapstick shambles of vaudevillian proportions. The only upside is that if Apple's claims that only one percent of users were affected are true, there's about 100 times as many MobileMe users as I thought. But there is another benefit: if users had been able to use the service, they'd have seen just how limited it actually is. Hardly anyone's noticed that even on a good day the default e-mail client on iPhone kinda sucks. There just haven't been enough good days.
Matthew JC. Powell | Jul 25, 2008
The transition from .Mac to MobileMe could have gone a little smoother. OK, a lot smoother. Let's face it, it was a debacle. When a company like Apple — notoriously reluctant to admit anything is wrong — is forced into two apologies in a week, something is definitely up. What's more, the time may well be ripe for a third. Apple has apparently decided the right way to win friends and influence people is to install software they don't want on their machines — software that advertises MobileMe.
Matthew JC. Powell | Jul 23, 2008
You’ve probably read by now that some people who went to the Apple Store Sydney opening last week have begun selling their commemorative t-shirts on eBay and similar sites. This, in a sort of mixed-up way, makes sense to me. It means, after all, that what they were lining up for for so long actually has monetary value to them. What makes less sense to me is the fact that people are buying them — at least at these prices.
Matthew JC. Powell | Jun 27, 2008
As I type these words, I am waiting for Apple's Developer Connection web site to ease up sufficiently for me to download the long-awaited Software Developer Kit for the iPhone (and iPod touch, just by the by). In a way, I hate developer-oriented announcements — "here's a really cool thing we're working on, and it's available now, and hoi polloi can have it in about six months". Actually, it's the six months I hate.
