[MyAppleMenu] Wednesday, Oct 29, 2003

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu Newsletter
Wednesday, Oct 29, 2003

MyAppleMenu : Top Stories
-------------------------
Students Rave Over iTunes Sharing Service (Eva Dehlinger, Stanford Daily)
<http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=12163&repository=0001_article>
Weeks after Apple launched a Windows version of iTunes, many Stanford students have made the switch from traditional file-sharing programs to Apple's alternative, citing its speed, reliability and the fact that it is legal.

Can Panther Fit Into A Windows-Dominated World? (Charles Arthur, Independent)
<http://news.independent.co.uk/digital/features/story.jsp?story=458400>
How does Apple, with Panther, fit into a world that is dominated by Windows and Microsoft? The answer: very quietly, but very, very thoroughly.

Online Music Business, Neither Quick Nor Sure (Neil Strauss, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/29/arts/music/29POPL.html>
In the last month the music-downloading landscape online has shifted once more with these five major events, not all of them good.

MyAppleMenu : News
------------------
Note To Developers: Apple Is Changing The Rules With Xcode (Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer)
<http://www.macobserver.com/article/2003/10/29.1.shtml>
For Apple to compete with Windows, Mac developers have to have best-in-class developer tools. With Xcode, Apple has assured that this will be case. It may be subtle, but welcome to the revolution.

Apple.com Traffic Surges In Wake Of iTunes For Windows (MacMinute)
<http://www.macminute.com/2003/10/29/netratings>
Users flocked in to download the recently released iTunes for Windows software.

Microsoft Fires Employee Over G5 Photos, Blog (MacNN)
<http://www.macnn.com/news/21786>
A Microsoft employee has been fired for his blog posting titled, Even Microsoft wants G5s, which includes photos of delivery of Power Mac G5s to Microsoft's Redmond Campus.

Supercomputer Spurs Scientific Computing On Macs (Matt Hicks, eWeek)
<http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1365901,00.asp>
A recent supercomputing coup for Apple Computer Inc. may help the computer maker make larger inroads into high-performance, scientific computing.

Apple Charges US$129 For Security Fix (Patrick Gray, ZDNet Australia)
<http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/security/story/0,2000048600,20280282,00.htm>
Apple has not yet released patches for the security issues. Internet security research company @Stake has advised Mac users to upgrade to Panther, which is not vulnerable to the identified flaws.

Sixth Anniversary Discounts At Apple Store (MacNN)
<http://www.macnn.com/news/21782>
MacNN readers report that the Apple is offering special discounts to some of its Apple Store customers.

Student iTunes Usage Rising After KaZaA's Legal Demise (Elisheva Weiss, Columbia Daily Spectator)
<http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/10/28/3f9e2a48b30b6>
Many Columbia students seem to think the new iTunes is up to the task, though many Windows users on campus are unaware of the program's availability.

Spam Pitches Are Mutating Faster (Ryan Singel, Wired News)
<http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,60941,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1>
Antispammers say spammers are rapidly creating and adapting new strategies to get past the growing numbers and types of filters protecting inboxes. Spam is evolving, they say, in reaction to antispam measures that range from the simple -- such as keyword-blocking rules in an e-mail program and domain blacklists -- to the technically clever, such as Bayesian filters that are now widely available in programs like AOL 9.0 and Apple Computer's Mail.

Diablo II Patch Improves OpenGL Performance, More (Peter Cohen, MacCentral)
<http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/10/28/diablo2/>
Despite the minor version increment, this is a major update to the perennial favorite action game, and at long last offers performance improvements for Mac users who prefer to use the game's hardware-based graphics acceleration.

MyAppleMenu : Opinions
----------------------
Ideas For The Post Panther Mac (Can Sar)
<http://www.stanford.edu/~csar/blog/archives/2003/10/29/ideas_for_the_post_panther_mac.html>
The difference between local computers and those on the network must be minimized.

Upgrade Could Lead Apple To Bigger Bite Of Market (Mike Wendland, Detroit Free Press)
<http://www.freep.com/money/tech/mwend28_20031028.htm>
I think Panther is going to bring about a major increase in the number of people switching to Macs from Windows. Let's face it, Windows is a security nightmare.

The Panther Report: Is It Imitation Or Flattery? (Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl)
<http://www.macnightowl.com/#flattery>
One thing is to accept the inevitable and allow your product to have a short shelf life. Or, as Dan Wood did with Watson, add value to the program in the form of extra features and performance, so it would be still be worth paying for.

MyAppleMenu : Reviews
---------------------
Apple iTunes Music Store For Windows (Troy Dreier, PC Magazine)
<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,,1366343,00.asp>
The store contains the same clean, white-themed interface and easy navigation that made iTunes an instant hit when it was introduced. It also delivers very good jukebox capabilities that certainly give MusicMatch and Windows Media Player stiff competition.

NetNewsWire 1.0.6 (Bryron Hinson, ActiveMac)
<http://www.activewin.com/reviews/mac/apps/netnewswire/106/>
There are so many good things to say about NetNewsWire that      it is hard to find anything wrong with it.

Apple's Panther Makes The Grade (Arik Hesseldahl, Forbes)
<http://www.forbes.com/2003/10/29/cx_ah_1029tentech.html?partner=lycos>
If for some reason you're a Mac user who's still clinging tenaciously to Mac OS 9, the time is right to let it go once and for all.

The Great Product Activation Massacre (Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl)
<http://macnightowl.com/#massacre>
One of the worst recent offenders is Macromedia, with a scheme so absurdly irritating that I have to speak up.

Attack Of The iPod Clones (Walter S. Mossberg, Wall Street Journal)
<http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20031029.html>
For the first time, Apple has real competition in this market. I expect the Dell, and possibly even the Samsung, to steal sales from the iPod in a way that no previous competitor has been able to do.

Apple's Panther Outruns Jaguar (Alex Salkever, BusinessWeek)
<http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2003/tc20031029_8670_tc056.htm>
Panther is sort of like a York Peppermint Patty for your desktop. It's not alienware that turns the whole computing paradigm on its head. Rather, Panther is a familiar, friendly flavor -- only better.

Apple Update Has 'Em Standing In Line For Good Reason (Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times)
<http://www.suntimes.com/output/worktech/cst-fin-andy28.html>
Panther delivers considerable and assertive bang for the buck, tempting the sensible wheat side of you that wants new, useful features as well as the sugar-frosted side that wants everything to be fast, easy and cool. It's compelling; it will easily become the Mac's de facto OS by the end of the year.

Missing The Boat On Panther (Jasyn Jones, Mac Observer)
<http://www.macobserver.com/editorial/2003/10/28.1.shtml>
Minor quibbles aside, the new Finder is a work of art.

Adventures In Broadband Video (Keith Shaw, NWFusion)
<http://www.nwfusion.com/net.worker/news/2003/1027netlead.html>
If most of your remote workers use Macs, then look no further [than iSight]. However, on a mixed network, the camera will work well for the Mac users, but quality will decline a bit when they use other software to videoconference.

The New G4 iBooks And So Long G3 (Charles Moore, MacOPINION)
<http://www.macopinion.com/columns/roadwarrior/03/10/28/index.html>
The introduction of these G4 iBooks narrows the gulf between PowerBooks and iBooks substantially, and Apple may be more than a bit worried that the new iBook will cannibalize PowerBook sales somewhat. They may have something to worry about.

MyAppleMenu : Wintel News
-------------------------
Longhorn: Hurry Up And Wait (Ina Fried, CNET News.com)
<http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5098086.html>
Given the company's track record with Longhorn's predecessors, Windows XP and Windows 2000, that means that two to three years is a likely time frame, meaning that Longhorn would debut in late 2005 to early 2006.

More Wintel news at <http://www.myapplemenu.com/wintel/>

MyAppleMenu Tomorrow: News & Opinions
-------------------------------------
New Ways To Skirt DMCA... Legally! (Katie Dean, Wired News)
<http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60996,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1>
The U.S. Copyright Office gives consumers the right to work around certain provisions of the controversial law. Digital-rights advocates worry the exemptions don't go far enough.

Print Yourself A Roll Of Semiconductors? (John Borland, CNET News.com)
<http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5098635.html>
Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center has developed a way to use inkjet printing techniques to create cheap, flexible sheets of transistors -- a process that could radically change the way flat-panel screens are created.

Google Searches For Winning Ad Strategy (Stefanie Olsen, CNET News.com)
<http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-5098295.html>
Google's acquisition of Primedia's Sprinks division could lead the company to re-evaluate how it delivers contextual ads to ordinary Web pages, a relatively new advertising technique search engine marketing spawned that's still finding its legs.

MyAppleMenu Reader: Science & Tech
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The Mystery Of The Missing Links (Mary Wakefield, The Spectator)
<http://www.spectator.co.uk/article.php3?table=old&section=current&issue=2003-10-25&id=3647>
It is becoming fashionable to question Darwinism, but few people understand either the arguments for evolution or the arguments against it.

MyAppleMenu Reader: Life
------------------------
Twilight Of The Dorks? (Ian WIlliams, Salon)
<http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/10/29/dork/index_np.html>
Geeks and nerds produced the art and science that define the modern age. But now that everybody's climbing on the dork bandwagon, where's the rage and resentment that fueled their creativity going to come from?

In The Temples Of Supersizing, Eating Light Draws Converts (Marian Burros, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/29/dining/29WELL.html>
In the world of fast-food restaurants, long home to extra-value meals crowded with double cheeseburgers with fries, washed down with a 20-ounce soda, strange new words are emanating from the loudspeakers in the drive-through lanes.

MyAppleMenu Reader: Expressions
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Low Barometer (Robert Bridges, Slate)
<http://slate.msn.com/id/2090357/>

MyAppleMenu SingaporeSurf : Top Stories
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Surprise Government U-Turn On NEL (Christopher Tan, Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/topstories/story/0,4386,217050,00.html?>
As realities of high overheads hit home, Transport Minister says SMRT can take over new train line or consider merger.

MyAppleMenu SingaporeSurf : News & Opinions
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Direct Bus To Senai? Don't Hold Your Breath (Goh Chin Lian, Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,4386,217035,00.html?>
Transport Minister hints that LTA may not approve bus link for budget carrier AirAsia due to 'national interests'.

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MyAppleMenu is edited by Heng-Cheong Leong. This site is not affiliated with Apple Computer, Inc., or any other companies in any manner. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, Power Macintosh, PowerBook, iMac, iBook, iPod, and eMac are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. All other brands or product names are trademarks of their registered holders. Copyright (C) 1996-2003 Heng-Cheong Leong. All rights reserved.