It’s not even 6PM on Monday night and the first Apple fan is already waiting in line for the MacWorld keynote; just 14 hours more to go!
First Apple Fans Waiting For MacWorld Keynote Sans Jobs
January 6, 2009
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Posted by TechPulse 360
TechPulse 360′s Predictions For Apple At MacWorld
January 5, 2009Ok, so I received a letter from Steve Jobs today. But he didn’t tell me what products Apple expects to announce Tuesday when Senior Vice President Phil Schiller gives the keynote address at MacWorld.
A upgrade of the iMac seems likely, but will it have a touch screen?
So without insider knowledge, here is what we at TechPulse 360 are looking for during this non-Jobs year (and final year for Apple at the show).
Hardware:
*A refresh to the 17-inch MacBook Pro, which was skipped over in the recent redesign of the MacBook notebook line;
*An upgrade to the iMac desktop machines. This is the most persistent rumor in the market place and the current models date to August 2007;
*An upgrade of the Mac Mini;
*A smaller and/or cheaper version of the iPhone.
Software:
*More details about the Snow Leopard upgrade to Mac’s OS X operating system, which is focused on performance improvements and bug fixes;
*A refresh to the iLife ’08 for digital photos, movie making, DVD burning and the like. The most recent version was first discussed ages ago in August 2007;
*A refresh to Apple’s iWork ’08 personal productivity software.
Wild Card:
*A Mac server.
1 Comment | computers, hardware, software, wireless | Tagged: Apple, ILife, imac, iPhone, IWork, Mac Mini, macbook, macworld, OS X | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet
Jobs Letter Ends Mystery: Hormonal Imbalance Blamed For Weight Loss
January 5, 2009Until recently, Steve Jobs didn’t know the reason for the mysterious weight loss he has been experiencing – and we have been reporting on – for much of 2008.
Jobs to remain CEO during recovery
In a letter to Mac users and Apple shareholders, Jobs said Monday that a hormonal imbalance his doctors discovered with sophisticated blood testing over the past few weeks has been robbing his body of needed proteins.
The treatment is “relatively simple and straightforward,” he reported, though doctors believe it could be late spring before the missing weight is put back on. Jobs said he will remain CEO as he eats his way back to health.
Here is the full letter:
“For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.
Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.
I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.
As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.
Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause — a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.
The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.
I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.
So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.”
Steve
6 Comments | communications, computers, news, wireless | Tagged: Apple, computers, Health, iPhone, macworld, Steve Jobs | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet
Intel Brings Quad-Core Mobile Chips At Dual-Core Prices; Coming Soon In Apple’s 17-in MacBook Pro?
December 30, 2008
Intel's cheap quad-core mobile processor would fit perfectly in Apple's 17-in Macbook Pro
Intel wants to persuade anyone willing to listen that 2009 will be the year of quad-core processors in laptops.
And what better way to make this prediction happen than to actually launch a quad-core CPU so dirt cheap that OEMs will be dumb not to take it.
How cheap? Well, what about pricing a quad-core processor cheaper than its dual-core little brother!
That should certainly make things moving, don’t you think?
Apple could use Intel’s cheap quad-core processor for its 17-inch Macbook Pro
And that’s exactly what Intel did over the weekend, when it introduced a new mobile quad-core chip, the 2-GHz Core 2 Quad Q9000 for $348 in batches of 1,000; at the same price it sells its current 2.66-GHz Core 2 Duo dual-core processor!
Acer is the first PC maker to introduce a high-end laptop with Intel’s bargain quad-core chip at less than $1,800. Other PC OEMs will surely follow suit including Dell (perhaps in the Adamo line), H-P and Apple which did not update the 17-inch MacBook Pro when it refreshed its MacBook Pro line last October.
One more week before we find out if our prediction was correct!
8 Comments | chips, computers, hardware, news | Tagged: Acer, aspire, Dell, hp, Intel, macbook, macworld, q9000 | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360
H-P Pushes Into Mac Market With Living Room Server
December 29, 2008Hewlett-Packard introduced a server for the consumer market that stores and streams music, video, photos and documents for computers on a home network.
H-P servers runs with Mac and Windows PCs.
The MediaSmart Server will be available on Jan 5 with a 750 GB drive for $599 and 1.5 TB drive for $749.
The product, unveiled in advance of the MacWorld show next week, is for use with Macintosh computers from Apple and PCs running Windows from Microsoft, H-P said.
More households have both Windows and Mac computers, and sometimes thousands of media files and documents scattered across these devices, H-P said.
The MediaSmart Server automatically organizes the files, streams media across a home network and publishes photos to popular social networking and photo sharing sites.
Leave a Comment » | computers, hardware, news | Tagged: Apple, Digital Living Room, Hewlett-Packard, Home Market, macworld, MediaSmart Server, server, windows | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet
Apple Announces Its Last Year At Macworld; No More Steve Jobs Keynote
December 16, 2008
A thing of the past: Steve Jobs at MacWorld San Francisco
In a surprising turn of events, Apple announced today that next year will be the last the company is exhibiting at Macworld Expo.
More shocking for Apple fans is that CEO Steve Jobs will not deliver the final opening keynote, but instead will be replaced by Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing Philip Schiller.
In a statement released today, Apple says it is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, “so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers.” Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris last year.
Can MacWorld survive sans Apple, Steve Jobs?
That now leaves Apple’s WWDC as the only chance for fans and developers to meet and interact with the folks from the Cupertino, Calif. company. Thoughts?
The shocking announcement is going to open the gate for rumours about Jobs’ health status and/or that Apple has nothing great to release at the San Francisco tradeshow.
Although, I think Apple did a good job so far hosting smaller event launches – at its Cupertino headquarters or in San Francisco – which then gets picked up everywhere.
Apple can do well without MacWorld, but can the San Francisco show survive sans Steve Jobs?
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Posted by TechPulse 360
Recession Hits Adobe; Cuts 600 Jobs, MacWorld Presence And Lowers Business Outlook
December 3, 2008
What you will not see at next year's MacWorld Expo: an Adobe booth
Adobe warned today of a sales shortfall for the current quarter and announced a drastic restructuring program to reduce expenses; costing between $44 million to $50 million.
The San Jose, Calif., company will cut 600 jobs – about 8 percent of its workforce – and will not have a booth at the MacWorld Expo conference next January.
For the current quarter, Adobe now expects revenues to be between $912 million to $915 million, a bit lower than the previous range of $925 million to $955 million.
Adobe’s next quarter revenues might fall 20% over last year
More worrisome however is the steep drop – nearly 20% – the software maker is now expecting for next quarter’s revenues, falling $800 million to $850 million compared to last year’s $890.4 million.
Adobe cited weaker-than-expected demand for its new Creative Suite 4 family of products that began shipping in Q4 in North America and Europe as the main cause for the shortfall in fourth quarter revenue.
2 Comments | economy, news, software | Tagged: Adobe, cs4, macworld | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360
Shake Up In Tech Advertising Market: Federated Media Slashes Blogs Ad Rates; Looses Star Blogger To IDG’s TechNetwork
November 28, 2008
Federated Media CEO John Battelle lost one of his best blogger, GigaOM, to IDG's ad network
A shake up is brewing in the cozy world of technology blogs advertising.
Federated Media Publishing – an ad network which delivers advertising to some of the most prominent tech blogs around like TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, Ubergizmo, VentureBeat, Technologizer or Silicon Alley Insider – has “slashed” its ad rates 35%.
Despite deep cut rate, advertisers are hard to find
To add insult to injury, the San Francisco startup is now having a hard time attracting enough advertisers to fill its network of blogs, despite a recent “holiday promotion,” leaving blogs with stories without accompanying ads and cutting even deeper into the blogs’ revenues.
Having seen the writing on the wall, blogger Om Malik decided to split with Federated Media, to partner with IDG TechNetwork, formed last March by large technology media company IDG, publisher of InfoWorld, PCWorld, MacWorld, CIO, etc. This new media network of independent technology publishers will sell ads for Om’s 7 blog properties (GigaOM, Earth2Tech, jkOnTheRun…).
At these low advertising prices, the $100,000 question for Federated Media today is, who’s going to be next to leave the boat?
2 Comments | news | Tagged: cio, Earth2Tech, federated media, gigaom, idg, infoworld, jkOnTheRun, macworld, pcworld, readwriteweb, techcrunch, ubergizmo, venturebeat | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360
Apple Prevents New MacBook Users From Playing Movies On Old TVs, Projectors
November 20, 2008
Apple Macbook's mini Displayport blocks protected video content to be viewed on old TVs
That really sucks if you use a projector to watch protected iTunes video content stored on your new Macbook.
On its latest laptops, Apple used a modern video connector called Mini DisplayPort that checks if the attached displays can keep the video content protected and secure to prevent piracy/illegal copying. Of course, that’s the case for the latest digital flat screen TVs. But not for older TV sets, VGA monitors or projectors (rear or front).
This could become an even bigger problem when the next generations of Mac mini – probably to be launched early next year during the MacWorld conference – will also include the same DisplayPort connector. More so than Macbooks, Mac minis are used as set-top-box connected directly to a TV/projector.
In that case, you’d also have to upgrade your TV. That can’t be bad for the economy, right?!
Leave a Comment » | computers, news | Tagged: Apple, displayport, itunes, macbook, macworld, vga | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360
