Less than 48 hours after the iPhone 5s went on sale, a group of German hackers claimed to have lifted a fingerprint and created a fake finger that could spoof Apple's "advanced" biometric technology. But anyone who's been paying attention to biometrics wasn't surprised.
How do you supersize a simple music manager? Ask Apple. The Windows version of iTunes 8 takes up nearly 200MB of space on a Windows PC, including kernel-mode drivers, multiple system services, and at least one add-in. It takes a supersize helping of chutzpah to create an ad that criticizes Windows for its “bloat” and then deliver an upgrade with as much unnecessary junk as this one. If you’re like most people, you don’t need any of that additional junk. In this post, I’ll explain how you can figure out which parts of the package you need, and then show you how to wrestle control of iTunes back.
If you allow yourself to look at big corporations through the filter of conventional wisdom, all sorts of distortions emerge. Case in point: A couple of premier Web 2.0 sites this week praised Yahoo and Apple for "getting" what Google and Microsoft don't. But a closer look at the example they used shows that it's just business as usual.
Apple cultists are gushing over Steve Jobs' latest Apple announcements. Browsing your music collection by album cover? A box that connects your home theater to your networked PC and plays music and movies? Someone better tell Steve it's all been done before, and better.
Years ago, IBM tried to sell OS/2 with the tagline "a better Windows than Windows." They failed, because it simply wasn't true. But Apple has the opportunity to succeed where IBM failed. Just look past Boot Camp.
Apple has formally introduced a utility called Boot Camp that lets owners of Intel-based Macs run Windows XP: Boot Camp simplifies Windows installation on an Intel-based Mac by providing a simple graphical step-by-step assistant application to dynamically create a second partition on the hard drive for Windows, to burn a CD with all the necessary Windows drivers, and to install Windows from a Windows XP installation CD.
All Office editions are not created equal. Microsoft's support lifecycle for Office on Windows provides for 10 years of support. But Office for Mac doesn't qualify for extended support. That means a widely used Office version has reached the unsupported phase sooner than you might expect.
Apple has a virtual monopoly in the digital music download business, thanks to its iTunes Music Store. But there's plenty of competition. Here's a closer look at six services trying to deliver your favorite MP3s for less than Apple charges.
Being a beta tester for an unfinished operating system is risky business. But some would-be beta testers of Apple's upcoming OS are reporting problems even getting to the beta bits after receiving their invitation from Apple.
One common reaction to my recent Fixing Windows Vista series has been "Why should this thing need so much fixing?" To which I say, give me a freakin' break. My career has been all about helping people make Windows work better, and I have dozens of peers on the Apple side of the universe who do the same. In fact, it took me no time at all to find books, magazine articles, and even a three-part series on how to fix the Mac OS. Why are people so surprised that computer operating systems need fixing occasionally?