TheAppleBlog

With the release of 10.6.2, Apple killed unsupported support for the Atom processor — the processor used in low-cost netbooks. Certain models of netbooks could run OS X quite easily, and people used them to make the Little Netbook Apple Refuses to Make. While it’s a stretch to say Apple has killed the hackintosh market, [...]

Over the years, I’ve been forced to redefine my definition of “native” game clients for OS X. At first, I was a die-hard, nothing but true native code for me, thanks. Then, as the harsh reality of understanding that true native code is about as likely as Congress putting aside their differences and acting on [...]

Installing a new operating system on Day One is often a foolish undertaking. Yet, there I was, installing Snow Leopard the night of the 28th.
I took the plunge day one for two reasons: as a tech journalist specializing in the Mac, I felt I owed it to our readers to offer timely insight on Snow [...]

The punditry were divided on whether Jobs would even show for today’s press event. Those opining he wouldn’t show claimed it was a nothing announcement — just a product refresh; no iTablet, why bother? He was done being the public face of Apple and was turning the keynotes over to Phil Schiller, VP of Marketing. [...]

Originally introduced in OS X Tiger, Automator is a drag-and-drop form of scripting. You can create workflows to easily speed up many tasks. With each version of OS X, Automator has seen some improvements, but with Snow Leopard, it finally realizes its full potential.
It realizes it by allowing you to create your own Services. Unless [...]

For a while the blogosphere has been running its mouth off about how “Snow Leopard is just a service pack Apple has the gall to charge for.”
TechRadar.com reports, “Despite all of the necessary ‘under the hood’ improvements in Snow Leopard, this release has the inescapable air of a service pack about it.”
Gina Trapani says, “Even [...]

Friday the 21st was the day Apple, Google, and AT&T had to hand in their long form essay responses to a series of questions from the FCC. Surprisingly, Apple published its entire response here, and Engadget has both AT&T’s and Google’s.
I found the answers to the questions surprising on several levels. Let’s be honest here, [...]

On August 6th, 1997, Steve Jobs stood on a stage in Boston and announced that Microsoft had purchased $150 million in non-voting stock and promised to continue to develop Office for five years. While the crowd reacted as if had he announced his love of Pabst Blue Ribbon, it’s one of the moves that’s widely [...]

The London Times has a rather interesting profile of Steve Jobs on its site. According to MacNN, Apple tried to kill the article. That’s not surprising. Apple always strives to stay “on message” and nothing is more “off message” than any discussion of Jobs’ health. Well, with the possible exception of the oft-rumored iTablet. I [...]

Much like a migratory bird is genetically driven to fly south for the winter, I am driven to bloviate online. And so over the years I’ve accumulated my fair share of blogging accounts. I’m very active on Twitter, have a WordPress blog, a Flickr account, Facebook, and a rarely-used LiveJournal account. Keeping them all updated [...]

With the academic year about to begin, and having already tackled the important issues of iWork vs. Office, it’s time to turn our attentions to the iPhone. With over 65,000 apps on the App Store, even subtracting all the iFart and iTip applications there are five I feel are indispensable for any college student’s life. [...]

I’m a huge fan of Cultured Code’s Things (both on the desktop and iPhone). A few weeks ago, I sent them what I thought to be a simple question: “Can I sync Things on the iPhone with two different desktops?” I’m giving some thought to getting a netbook and hackintoshing it and was curious if [...]

When it came out that Google Voice had been refused entry into the hallowed halls of Apple’s App store, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. While I don’t have a horse in this race, or was driven to riot, I’ll admit to a certain amount of supplying villagers with pitchforks and torches.
The New [...]

David Wantanabe has announced that a preview of his torrenting program, Xtorrent 2, is now available. If you purchased Xtorrent Pro with lifetime upgrades, it will be a free upgrade when it’s released. While it says preview, it’s still a beta for all intents and purposes.
“Xtorrent 2 is now available as a public preview from [...]

If you’re like me, your iPhone does double duty as your average, everyday camera. While I have a dedicated point-and-shoot camera, since my iPhone is always with me, it’s great for quick shots. Sure, the camera isn’t the best, but the convenience is worth the tradeoff.
I heard Alex Lindsay over at MacBreak Weekly offer Autostitch [...]

This time of year, it seems almost inevitable. There’s a forum post somewhere, a plea for help in the middle of the night, asking a time-honored question. No, it’s not “the answer to Life, the Universe, Everything!” It’s more profound than that: “I’m starting school this fall and I want to know what to get, [...]

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from Apple’s Board of Directors. Given the conflicts of interest, this is not unexpected — Schmidt had already recused himself from any iPhone discussion, and now that Google is getting into the OS business, I guess that would leave Schmidt free to talk about hardware.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs issued [...]

According to the Wall Street Journal, the FCC is opening an inquiry into the Google Voice app rejection debacle.
In a statement Friday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the FCC “has a mission to foster a competitive wireless marketplace, protect and empower consumers, and promote innovation and investment.” The inquiry letters “reflect the Commission’s proactive approach [...]

When the Palm Pre/iTunes Syncing fiasco started, especially when Apple blocked the hack Palm was using and people started screaming about Apple’s monopolistic practices, I pretty much shrugged the whole thing off. In Apple’s eyes, iTunes exists for one reason, and one reason only: to sync with iPods and iPhones; Apple is under no obligation [...]

As I mentioned in the My Netbook: The iPhone article, my iPhone is central to my life. But one area that’s been a challenge is getting text to and from it. As I mentioned in the article, most of what I write on the iPhone is blog posts where any formatting is done after the [...]