Category — the Media

Prince McLean, AppleInsider

In one of his characteristically terse email replies, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has reportedly told one Mac user that changes in video camera technology have reduced the need for FireWire on his company’s 13-inch MacBooks.

Jobs responds to outrage over MacBook’s missing FireWire

Daniel Eran Dilger
Research in Motion, the Canadian company behind the BlackBerry, has served as the smartphone industry’s darling ever since the company emerged from years of research to set two-way pagers in motion around the new millennium.

As a proprietary platform, RIM offers the closest parallel to Apple in the smartphone business. But will RIM and Apple remain in isolated independent market niches or battle each other over sales? Will RIM check Apple’s growth or be left shattered in the wake of the iPhone? Here’s a look at what’s involved.

iPhone Myths
Five More iPhone Myths
Myth 6: iPhone Developers will Flock to Android
Myth 7: iPhone Buyers will Flock to Android
Myth 8: iPhone will lose out to Steve Ballmer’s Windows Mobile 7 in 2010
Myth 9: iPhone Unable to Penetrate Europe Due to Symbian Dominance
Myth 10: RIM’s BlackBerry Will Contain iPhone Expansion
[Read more →]

Daniel Eran Dilger
Continuing upon the previous eight iPhone myths, this one insists that Apple will be wholly unable to find a market for the iPhone platform in Europe because of the strength of Nokia’s Symbian platform, which currently leads smartphones in worldwide market share. That’s wrong, here’s why.

iPhone Myths
Five More iPhone Myths
Myth 6: iPhone Developers will Flock to Android
Myth 7: iPhone Buyers will Flock to Android
Myth 8: iPhone will lose out to Steve Ballmer’s Windows Mobile 7 in 2010
Myth 9: iPhone Unable to Penetrate Europe Due to Symbian Dominance [Read more →]

Daniel Eran Dilger
Continuing upon the five iPhone myths in the previous segment, another myth relates to idea of Apple losing its iPhone platform to Android as developers defect to Google’s more open mobile platform. That’s wrong, here’s why.

iPhone Myths
Five More iPhone Myths
Myth 6: iPhone Developers will Flock to Android
Myth 7: iPhone Buyers will Flock to Android
Myth 8: iPhone will lose out to Steve Ballmer’s Windows Mobile 7 in 2010
Myth 9: iPhone Unable to Penetrate Europe Due to Symbian Dominance [Read more →]

Daniel Eran Dilger
In its efforts to hijack Apple’s Get a Mac ads and embrace and extend their message to suit itself, Microsoft apparently forgot to actually watch Apple’s clips. User Sigma902 remixed the two for comical effect (well, probably not so funny to Microsoft after it spent $300 million brainstorming it all), but his post managed to get waylaid in my spam filter. So here it is in full glory.

Microsoft $300 Million Ads
Microsoft’s Mojave Attempts to Wet Vista’s Desert
Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment Exposes Serious Vista Problems
Paul Thurrott calls Apple “the Bad Guys” of Microsoft’s $300 Million Ads
Gates, Seinfeld and the $300 Million Ad to Nowhere
Microsoft’s $300 million ad campaign tumbles with new PC ads
Microsoft’s “Windows vs Walls” Ad Tries to Think Different, Fails
Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” Millions Actually Promoting the Mac
Microsoft’s ‘I’m a PC’ Campaign Keeps Getting Stranger (With Videos
I’m a PC too… touché
[Read more →]

Daniel Eran Dilger
Poor Microsoft. In its efforts to ‘embrace and extend’ Apple’s Get a Mac advertising for its own purposes, it has only managed to funnel $300 million into Mac brand awareness. Here’s why Microsoft’s latest “I’m a PC” campaign is such an epic fail.

Microsoft $300 Million Ads
Microsoft’s Mojave Attempts to Wet Vista’s Desert
Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment Exposes Serious Vista Problems
Paul Thurrott calls Apple “the Bad Guys” of Microsoft’s $300 Million Ads
Gates, Seinfeld and the $300 Million Ad to Nowhere
Microsoft’s $300 million ad campaign tumbles with new PC ads
Microsoft’s “Windows vs Walls” Ad Tries to Think Different, Fails
Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” Millions Actually Promoting the Mac
Microsoft’s ‘I’m a PC’ Campaign Keeps Getting Stranger (With Videos)
I’m a PC too… touché
[Read more →]

Daniel Eran Dilger
Part of Microsoft’s new campaign to spend $300 million in damage control for the Windows brand is the new “Windows vs. Walls” ad, which seeks to lift the message of Apple’s “Think Different” ads from ten years ago and apply the same sentiment to its own product.

Microsoft $300 Million Ads
Microsoft’s Mojave Attempts to Wet Vista’s Desert
Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment Exposes Serious Vista Problems
Paul Thurrott calls Apple “the Bad Guys” of Microsoft’s $300 Million Ads
Gates, Seinfeld and the $300 Million Ad to Nowhere
Microsoft’s $300 million ad campaign tumbles with new PC ads
Microsoft’s “Windows vs Walls” Ad Tries to Think Different, Fails
Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” Millions Actually Promoting the Mac
Microsoft’s ‘I’m a PC’ Campaign Keeps Getting Stranger (With Videos)
I’m a PC too… touché
[Read more →]

Daniel Eran Dilger
After dumping its $10 million contract with Jerry Seinfeld after just three ads (only two of which even aired) Microsoft has created new ad copy where regular people and a few celebrities say, “I’m a PC!” One problem with the campaign’s credibility: the ad work was created using Macs.

Microsoft $300 Million Ads
Microsoft’s Mojave Attempts to Wet Vista’s Desert
Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment Exposes Serious Vista Problems
Paul Thurrott calls Apple “the Bad Guys” of Microsoft’s $300 Million Ads
Gates, Seinfeld and the $300 Million Ad to Nowhere
Microsoft’s $300 million ad campaign tumbles with new PC ads
Microsoft’s “Windows vs Walls” Ad Tries to Think Different, Fails
Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” Millions Actually Promoting the Mac
Microsoft’s ‘I’m a PC’ Campaign Keeps Getting Stranger (With Videos)
I’m a PC too… touché
[Read more →]

Daniel Eran Dilger
After initially dismissing the notion that Apple could ever break its way past entrenched rivals and make any significant impact on the smartphone industry, tech pundits are now aghast that Apple is running its business the way its executives see fit. Critics charge that the iPhone and its mobile software store amount to a monopoly and a restriction of free trade. They’re wrong, here’s why.

Apple and the New Software Market
How Apple Is Changing the PC Software World… Back
iPhone Apps Store Growing Twice as Fast as iTunes Music
The Other iPhone Apps Store
SDK 3.3.3: The iPhone Podcaster Surprise Myth
Banned iPhone Apps and the John Gruber Podcaster Defense
The iPhone Monopoly Myth
[Read more →]

Daniel Eran Dilger
According to a growing swell of supposedly outraged developers, the creator of the Podcaster app had no warning that Apple might restrict the app from the iPhone App Store because there are no clear guidelines about what apps might be rejected or why. They’re wrong, here’s why.

Apple and the New Software Market
How Apple Is Changing the PC Software World… Back
iPhone Apps Store Growing Twice as Fast as iTunes Music
The Other iPhone Apps Store
SDK 3.3.3: The iPhone Podcaster Surprise Myth
Banned iPhone Apps and the John Gruber Podcaster Defense
The iPhone Monopoly Myth
[Read more →]

Daniel Eran Dilger
While Microsoft and the John McCain presidential campaign might not share many political views, there are striking similarities on how both advertise and promote their respective products. Here’s ten parallels between the two that demand attention.
[Read more →]

Daniel Eran Dilger
Paul Thurrott celebrated Microsoft’s new $300 million ad campaign as a promising new attempt to stop “the bad guys” at Apple from further eroding Microsoft’s monopoly grip on the desktop PC market. The problem is that the new ads don’t accomplish what they set out to do. Here’s why.

[Artwork contributed by Alf of faq-mac.com]

Microsoft $300 Million Ads
Microsoft’s Mojave Attempts to Wet Vista’s Desert
Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment Exposes Serious Vista Problems
Paul Thurrott calls Apple “the Bad Guys” of Microsoft’s $300 Million Ads
Gates, Seinfeld and the $300 Million Ad to Nowhere
Microsoft’s $300 million ad campaign tumbles with new PC ads
Microsoft’s “Windows vs Walls” Ad Tries to Think Different, Fails
Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” Millions Actually Promoting the Mac
[Read more →]

Daniel Eran Dilger
An author who has devoted his career to deriding Steve Jobs’ Apple as being “irredeemably evil” and portraying its users as a “cult” has scribbled up a new missive for Wired that attempts to hijack the company’s upcoming iPod event and replace any discussion of new technology with a tasteless personal attack of the company’s CEO.
[Read more →]

Daniel Eran Dilger
While praising Microsoft’s new $300 million ad campaign, Paul Thurrott, a Windows Enthusiast who regularly complains about any criticism of Microsoft’s questionable business practices and its shoddy product quality and who portrays himself as an unbiased user of Apple products to court the favor of his readers, has called Apple “the bad guys” in exposing Vista’s flaws.

Microsoft $300 Million Ads
Microsoft’s Mojave Attempts to Wet Vista’s Desert
Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment Exposes Serious Vista Problems
Paul Thurrott calls Apple “the Bad Guys” of Microsoft’s $300 Million Ads
Gates, Seinfeld and the $300 Million Ad to Nowhere
Microsoft’s $300 million ad campaign tumbles with new PC ads
Microsoft’s “Windows vs Walls” Ad Tries to Think Different, Fails
Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” Millions Actually Promoting the Mac
[Read more →]

Daniel Eran Dilger
Pundits have insisted that SSL email in MobileMe would prevent users from being hijacked to a different domain by elite hackers. However, both Gmail and MobileMe have presented enough spurious Vista UAC-like certificate warnings to users (not to mention other web sites and plugins) that nobody pays any attention anymore. Users will simply click it and forget it, turning Google’s SSL Gmail feature into a false sense of security.
[Read more →]