Heffee uses a formula that takes into account the input from websites, moderators and expecially the users to decide which news across the internet is the most important. Users can create their own customized feeds, save pages and articles from across the web, and subscribe to their favorite news outlets.
Incoming Sites
All Articles for MacNewsWorld
|
I am an unrepentant gaming enthusiast, and there are lengths I will go for my hobby that might puzzle normal people with normal lives. I'll stand in the rain for a Nintendo Wii on launch day; I'll surf the Web at all hours for the latest gaming reviews or demos; I'll scream creative obscenities at hordes of Covenant aliens and grotesque Flood monsters who keep me from advancing to the next level of "Halo 3."
Mark Cain felt like a rock star. The chief technology officer of medical imaging software company MIMvista got that sensation as he stepped onto the stage at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9 to demonstrate a new program that delivers medical scans to an iPhone. Suddenly he was in front of an auditorium packed with thousands of Apple faithful, reporters and bloggers.
Yes, the new 3G iPhone will cost much less than the first generation of the groundbreaking multimedia cell phone; that is, if you're one of the lucky ones who qualify for a discount. And it's not that Apple and AT&T don't trust those of you who might want to hack or modify your new iPhone, but you will need to have it activated at the store when you buy it, under the watchful eyes of sales staff.
Will VimpelCom be the first wireless operator to sell the iPhone in Russia? If Chief Executive Alexander Izosimov has his way, it will. "Nobody's struck a deal with Apple yet, but we would love to," he says. Izosimov says no negotiations are taking place, and he has no idea whether his company will win the rights to sell Apple's coveted device.
RealNetworks' Rhapsody thinks it knows how to end Apple's dominance of the online music distribution scene: remove the digital locks on its songs; make key deals with A-list names in media, wireless providers and social networks; and let consumers preview entire songs, not just 30-second snippets.
Security software vendor PC Tools has watched the rise of two cause-and-effect security factors in the Mac OS X world -- first, the growing popularity of Macs along with increasing market share, and second, the accompanying attention of malware that's targeted directly at Mac users. Consequently, PC Tools has launched a beta edition of iAntiVirus, a new antivirus and antispyware tool designed specifically for Mac.
A lot of us are focused on Microsoft and Bill Gates this month as Bill's last day at the company he founded and ran to dominance passed last Friday. I've met Bill several times but only really once spoken to him. From a personal aspect, he has mostly been cordial and he once personally came to my rescue back when my career as an independent analyst first started, something I'll never forget.
Since the release of the iPod, the market has flooded with accessories ranging from the mundane to the radical. All are meant to further incorporate the tiny device into another aspect of daily life. Many of these add-ons are innovative solutions for common problems. Others are just gimmicks targeting consumers with a taste for silly novelty items.
Apple's presentation at WWDC of an alternate approach to background processes for the iPhone, compared to Microsoft's ActiveSync, has implications for both developers and users. It requires developers to invest in new systems and takes away some of their direct control of the iPhone, but it also improves the user experience and allows Apple to develop an enterprise revenue stream.
Two particularly interesting topics caught the attention of the Apple-focused blogosphere this week. iSuppli released a projected tear-down cost list for the 3G iPhone, sparking interest in the new $199 price point that contract signing buyers will pay come July 11. Also, the Mac Business Unit at Microsoft, which is one of the world's largest Apple software development organizations, is apparently on a hiring frenzy.
A Trojan targeting Mac computers in the wild used to be a rarity, but this type of malware is now turning up with alarming frequency. The latest Trojan is rudimentary, at best, although when coupled with a Mac platform vulnerability that came to light earlier this week, it could deliver an extra wallop. The Trojan is masquerading as a program for Mac OS X called "PokerGame."
In its latest survey of practices among makers of electronic gadgets, Greenpeace has raised the bar of what the environmental group believes is required for "green" corporate citizenship. The analysis of the products and procedures of 18 major electronics manufacturers, released today, ranked two Silicon Valley giants -- Hewlett-Packard and Apple -- in the middle of the pack.
Earlier this month, Steve Jobs gave a hint -- and only a hint -- about Apple's next-generation operating system. A "preview" that was shown to software writers attending Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco indicated the new OS, Snow Leopard, might run only on 2-year-old or newer Macintosh computers powered by Intel processors.
First Apple built personal computers, then portable media players, and now the company is manufacturing cell phones. Apple also has its own branded set-top box -- Apple TV -- and its iTunes store is one of the biggest e-commerce marketplaces for music and videos in the world. What's next for Apple? What product categories might the company in Cupertino leap into?
Softbank, the carrier that won the coveted right to sell the iPhone in Japan, said Monday that Apple's device will sell for $215 -- comparable to the marked-down U.S. price for the hit gadget. The iPhone is due to debut in gadget-loving Japan on July 11, as Apple rolls out a new version and expands the availability to 20 countries.
Many of the millions of iPhone 2G users are looking forward to buying the iPhone 3G on July 11 and have been thinking about what to do with their old iPhone. AT&T has provided some answers. AT&T has announced that when the new iPhone 3G ships on July 11, current iPhone customers will be able to buy a new iPhone 3G for $199 and start a new two-year contract.
Last week I was in Japan doing a deep dive on Panasonic, a firm I've observed for decades but never really got to know until recently. I've studied Apple in depth since the '80s and I find the contrasts between the firms and their key founders Konosuke Matsushita -- for whom Panasonic was originally named -- and Steve Jobs fascinating.
Apple's iPhone, birthed last summer, is a force to be reckoned with. Combining a mobile phone with a digital music and video player, handheld photo album and full-strength Web browser, it's a great device. A new version was announced June 9 and is likely to stoke even more "iMania," given that it has a lower price and more features than the original.
With the rise in popularity of Apple's Mac computers and the OS X operating systems they run, dangerous malware, viruses and Trojans are now being targeted for the Mac, too. The most recent case in point comes courtesy of a security advisory released by SecureMac. The advisory warns that multiple variants of a new Trojan horse -- out in the wild -- is ready to run roughshod all over OS X 10.4 and 10.5.
Recently, AT&T announced that its revenue-sharing agreement with Apple's iPhone has been terminated. That left some people wondering what Apple is getting in return. Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner thinks he knows part of the answer: a $325 up-front subsidy plus an extra $100 for subscribers signed up in Apple stores.
The Dock Pack is a stylish iPod speaker system and dock from European audio manufacturer Scandyna Speakers. The dock and speakers are relatively compact, with attractive modern styling. The design is strictly minimalist. Notice that neither the dock nor the speakers offer any knobs, switches or buttons -- the system is controlled exclusively with the minimalist wireless remote.
After 15 years of development and beta testing, the first stable version of Wine is now available, its developers announced Tuesday. Wine is an open source implementation of the Windows application programming interface on top of X, OpenGL and Unix that allows Windows applications to run on other operating systems, including Linux and Mac OS, without the need to run Windows as well.
Just like many users, Adobe wants to see Flash on Apple's iPhone, and it looks like the company is getting closer to making that happen. Adobe has apparently been hard at work developing a version of its multimedia environment for the iPhone, but isn't ready to bring it to the public yet, according to CEO Shantanu Narayen.
Despite the buzz generated by the June 9 unveiling of the first major makeover of Apple's iPhone, there's one place on the planet the U.S. brand isn't likely to generate much buzz, at least in the near future: South Korea. The country is one of the most advanced mobile Internet markets in the world, and electronics companies have worked hard to make sure tech-savvy Korean consumers don't fall for foreign brands.
Sprint Nextel will be taking on the iPhone with a lower price for its own touchscreen smartphone, the Samsung Instinct. The carrier said Wednesday that the Instinct will cost $129.99 when released on Friday. That compares with $199 for the cheapest model of the new iPhone, which goes on sale July 11 with AT&T as the carrier.
Young iPod owners are walking around with an average of 842 illegally copied songs, according to research by the University of Hertfordshire. The survey, which questioned 1,200 participants, also revealed that nearly two-thirds of young people download music tracks illegally. The average is 53 songs per month.
Apple could see $1 billion per year in iPhone App Store revenues in calendar 2009, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. Often one of the most bullish analysts when it comes to Apple, Munster called the $1 billion figure aggressive in a research note to clients. Munster based his projections on his estimate of a user base of 78 million iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPod touch users by the end of calendar 2009.
In the geological record of cell phones, there's before the iPhone and after the iPhone. Had you placed the enV2 cell phone in my hands two years ago, during what one might call the industry's Jurassic period, I'd have been amply wowed. What's not to like about a full-blown keyboard and a big color screen tucked away neatly inside an incredibly slim handset?
I started off the week with dueling events: the Apple WWDC, where they talked about Snow Leopard and the second generation iPhone, HP's massive product announcement, and Microsoft's TechEd, where I learned more about Unlimited Vista. I was taken by the fact that Apple missed with the iPhone with the product coming late, incomplete and blatantly copying Microsoft Mesh.
The new iPhone and the way it will be sold look set to shut down a small industry that arose to make the first version of the iconic phone available around the world. The original iPhone, which launched in June last year, was initially available only in the U.S. and only for use on AT&T's network.
The guy who ended up with Kim Lingel's stolen MacBook and iPhone wasn't counting on Joey Carenza III. "When he gets the scent of something and it really intrigues him, he's on it," says Lingel, 25, who counts Carenza as one of her best friends. "He's tenacious." You don't want Carenza on your trail. He is a high-tech, crime-fighting superhero. The guy knows his way around Apple's operating system.
The Apple-focused blogosphere is swirling around like a hurricane this week. At the center of the storm is Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, where CEO Steve Jobs took center stage to announce the much-anticipated 3G iPhone. A wide range of other developer-focused news came out of the conference, including more details about the next version of OS X.
If you did a quick news search on Apple this week, you could easily conclude that CEO Steve Jobs took the stage Monday morning, talked for 20 minutes about a new 3G iPhone, then called it quits. But the bulk of Monday's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address, during which Jobs gave Senior VP of iPhone Software Scott Forstall plenty of stage time, was focused on -- you guessed it -- developers.
A 3G iPhone wasn't the only new offering Apple showed off during the keynote presentation at its Worldwide Developers Conference Monday. Its new online service, MobileMe, also made its debut. Described by CEO Steve Jobs as "[Microsoft] Exchange for the rest of us," MobileMe syncs the user's push e-mail, contacts, calendar, picture gallery and data over multiple devices.
The new iPhone is built for business -- and that makes it a real challenge to the BlackBerry and other corporate cell phone systems for the first time, tech analysts say. Unlike its predecessor, the 3G iPhone can connect with most corporate e-mail systems and handle Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.
Before Monday, the arrival of a 3G iPhone at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference was more than just a rumor; it was basically a foregone conclusion. Trusted gadget blogs proclaimed confirmation from unnamed inside sources; spy photos taken from the bushes surrounding supply depots were posted on the Web, and the usual lineups of fake -- or possibly real -- photos were easy to find.
PGP Corporation announced Monday it has added pre-boot authentication to the PGP Whole Disk Encryption for Mac OS X systems deployed in enterprise environments. This latest release, version 9.9, adds pre-boot authentication to the company's data encryption technology for Intel-based Mac OS X systems Tiger and Leopard, providing protection for data on desktops, laptops and removable media.
Last week was Computex but today everyone is focused on the likely launch of the iPhone. Given that some of the announcements at the show will have an impact on the future of devices like this, and that some of you will likely want to read something while standing in line, let's look at Computex vs. the iPhone.
As Apple prepares to unveil the next version of its iPhone on June 9, fans will be focused on how much better the new device is than its predecessor. It will likely be able to run on speedier wireless networks, it may boast improved navigation services, and it's expected to support a batch of new software tools and features made by third-party developers.
Newly revealed court documents have Yahoo squirming. It now appears the company may have spurned an offer from Microsoft worth $40 a share way back in 2007 -- months before all its hand-wringing over a much-publicized, much-lower bid. Yahoo apparently also declined an earlier offer of a search advertising partnership with Google -- something it later sought out as a way to keep Microsoft at arm's length.
