longofest

Less than a month after releasing the latest update to its 5th generation iPods, Apple has released iPod Firmware 1.2.3 via iTunes. Per usual, Apple gives very few details and only states that the update contains "bug fixes." Thanks to everyone who sent this in...

Fortune magazine has ranked Steve Jobs as the most powerful person in business in its annual ranking of the 25 most powerful people in business. Fortune also posts an article on The Power of Steve Jobs. Of course, these types of rankings are very subjective. To support their ranking, Fortune points to Jobs' deep influence on not only the computer industry, but Hollywood, music, retailing,...

Apple has acknowledged to InformationWeek that it has received reports of MacBook hard drive failures and is looking into the problem. Seagate was not immediately available for comment, but Apple spokesman Cameron Craig said the company was aware that there might be a problem. "We've received a few reports that some MacBook consumer notebooks may have hard drive issues, and we're looking into it," ...

The Futurezone blog at Orf.at (Google English translation) reports that T-Mobile has announced that "we will be offering the iPhone next year" in Austria. The announcement was made Monday by Austrian T-Mobile Chief Robert Chvatal at the 2000th T-Mobile shop unveiling in Vienna. Other European countries to offer the iPhone include Germany (also via T-Mobile), the U.K (O2), and France (Orange - ...

Apple's Mac OS 10.5 Leopard launch will go down in history as record-breaking, both internal and external. In Japan, sales went up to 60.5% market share year-on year in the month of October, which was enough to bump Microsoft from the top spot (reports Macworld.co.uk citing a Japanese Business Computer News report) In the six days after Leopard's 26 October launch, combined single-user licence...

Apple has been running a new Get A Mac ad during today's American football games. The ad includes PC getting a consultant "PR Lady" and once again touches on the trouble people have been having with Vista and references desires of some to downgrade to XP. The final screenshot is of an iMac with the Leopard background. As of this posting, the ad has not been posted to Apple's site. Up...

One user has discovered that iTunes 7.5 carries resources indicative of forthcoming movie rental and video on demand functionality. rental-content rental-bag rbsync source-rental-info dest-rental-info getvodaccountselectionlist GET VOD ACCOUNT SELECTION LIST supportsRentals While MacRumors can certify that the strings specified are indeed new as of iTunes 7.5, the jury is still out as to...

Today, Apple launched the iPhone in select European countries. Germany was the first to receive the iPhone via T-Mobile. One Flickr user photo-documented the launch. Courtesy Flickr user iFun Our iPhone Purchaser Meetups forum has been active with the Germany launch and the U.K. launch. Users at various stores report numbers "in the hundreds" coming to the event. Forum member Sneek...

There is news today on potential data loss vulnerabilities in Mac OS and in Apple's notebook drives manufactured by Seagate. The vulnerability involving the Mac OS was first documented by Tom Karpik. Leopards Finder has a glaring bug in its directory-moving code, leading to horrendous data loss if a destination volume disappears while a move operation is in action. I first came across it when...

T3.co.uk claims to have seen a forthcoming update to the iPhone -- firmware version 1.1.2. According to T3: First off, there's support for dozens of languages, so if you happen to be a fluent Cantonese speaker, the phone has all the relevant character sets so you can display your language properly. There's full support for French and German, with special keyboard lay-outs on the ready to...

AT&T has announced new international data plans for iPhone users who are looking for a more affordable alternative than data roaming (other than swapping out for a local carrier's SIM). * $24.99 iPhone International Data Package gives you 20MB of usage within 29 countries * $59.99 iPhone International Data Package gives you 50MB of usage within 29 countries The 29 countries mentioned...

Microsoft has sweetened the deal for imminent Office for Mac buyers that don't want to be left behind come the January launch of Mac Office 2008. From now on, a purchase of ANY version of Mac Office 2004 product (Student and Teacher, Standard, or Professional Edition) will be eligible for an upgrade to the top of the line Mac Office 2008 Special Media Edition for only the price of shipping and ...

A report from AppleInsider points to a release of iTunes 7.5 as early as next week. The release will contain a host of small improvements and bug fixes according to the site, though no radical changes should be expected. Better management of duplicate video and song entries will be included as well as a more stable experience for users upgrading their songs to iTunes Plus purchases....

A security research firm is criticizing Leopard's security, namely the new system's firewall. Heise Security was highly critical of the firewall and declared that it failed every test. The tests centered around Apple's default configuration and whether the firewall configured correctly due to user input. [Leopard's firewall] is not activated by default and, even when activated, it does not...

Just prior to unveiling the public beta of the joint venture Hulu.com, NBC CEO Jeff Zucker had some hot words for Apple's iTunes (via MSNBC). "We know that Apple has destroyed the music business - in terms of pricing - and if we don't take control, they'll do the same thing on the video side," Mr Zucker said at a breakfast hosted by Syracuse's Newhouse School of Communications. The rift between...

Apple has released Login & Keychain Update 1.0. The update, which is recommended for all users of Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, addresses a few issues according to Apple, including: - Logging in with an account originally created in Mac OS X 10.1 or earlier that has a password of 8 or more characters. - Connecting to some 802.11b/g wireless networks. - Changing the password of a FileVault-protected...

Aperture users that have upgraded to Mac OS 10.5 Leopard should beware when using Time Machine. According to an Apple support document, having Time Machine run a backup while an Aperture session is in progress could result in inconsistencies in the Aperture database. Apple recommends that Aperture users set Time Machine to perform manual backups. Apple also says that they will be updating...

Adding to the flurry of software updates released this week, Apple has released Server Admin Tools 10.5. Apple's Server Admin Tools software is used to administer (remotely or locally) Apple's Mac OS X Server products. This latest release requires Mac OS 10.5, however it can be installed on either server or client...

Warner Music Group may be the latest content provider to become increasingly restless with Apple's pricing terms according to The Washington Post. While the iTunes store undoubtedly saved a bleeding music industry, the same can not be said of TV and Movie content. One television studio has gone as far as to pull its content (NBC Universal). The Washington Post states that the difference lies ...

Google today announced IMAP support for its immensely popular GMail email service. Previously, GMail users have either had to connect using POP3 in Apple's Mail client or via Google's mobile web interface. However, POP3 has notable limitations when mail may be accessed from more than one client (i.e. a web client and a desktop mail client). In such situations, IMAP is much more suited to the ...