AppleRecord Quarterly Earnings for Applefiled under Apple Apple's reported net quarterly profit was US$320 million, up from US$61 million in the same period last year. Much of this can be attributed to sales of the iPod, with steadily increasing sales during each of the last nine quarters. However, Mac computer sales are also up significantly with a 65% gain in desktop sales and an 8% gain in laptop sales over the same period last year. Meanwhile the recent Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger release was the best-selling software in Apple's history, bringing in more than US$100 million in revenue. At MacNN, there are reports on Apple's earnings conference call, and on the statements by Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich that Apple is becoming a "mass market company". Record Quarterly Earnings for Apple [eWeek,MacNN]Macworld Expo Boston 2005 Beginsfiled under Apple Generating little press, due to the lack of an Apple presence at the East Coast conference since its move from New York to Boston, registration for the Macworld Expo opens today at the Hynes Convention Center with events beginning tomorrow. Macworld Expo Boston 2005 Begins [Macworld]Publishing a Podcast on iTunesfiled under Apple Via MacSlash, here is the specification from Apple on publishing a podcast to the iTunes Music Store. Defines the iTunes-specific RSS 2.0 tags needed to add metadata like categories, image, and author to the iTunes data. Publishing a Podcast on iTunes [MacSlash]Byte Magazine's 1984 Mac Reviewfiled under Apple
Podcasting and Misguided Media Companiesfiled under Apple With media execs and advertisers meeting at Banff this week to discuss getting people to pay for one-inch flickery movies on iPods and cellphones, British sociologist Michael Bull warns them to expect disappointment. His research shows that iPod lovers, especially the advertisers' favorite demographic of well-heeled young professionals, increasingly use technology to filter what they see and hear. Their iPods are used to screen out dull ads and content, while podcasting extends this user control over broadcast radio. In this interview at ABC News, Steve Jobs discusses podcasting in the latest version of iTunes and on iPods. He emphasizes that, as a user, "what podcasting does is it lets me pick out those precise things I'm interested in". Via LifeHacker, here is an article at Apple on recording your first podcast with GarageBand, and have it sound professional. Podcasting and Misguided Media Companies [ABC News, MacNews, LifeHacker]iTunes 4.9 with Podcastingfiled under Apple
According to reports at Mac Rumors and AppleInsider, the latest iTunes is riddled with text resources referring to the upcoming iTunes cellphone. In other Apple news, the iPod Photo is no more, with color screens and photo support becoming the standard for all iPods. iTunes 4.9 with PodcastingForbes: Apple "Big Winner" in Salesfiled under Apple Forbes reports on a Credit Suisse First Boston analysis of year-over-year computer sales growth for May. Apple is the big winner with 79% growth overall and 94% growth in the retail channel. In comparison, overall PC hardware growth was only 6% year-over-year for May. Note that only retail and distribution were considered, so a company like Dell that sells direct to consumers was not included in this analysis. Forbes: Apple "Big Winner" in Sales [Mac Observer]iTunes UI Leads to Patent Infringement Suitfiled under Apple AppleInsider reports that Apple may be on the wrong end of an overly-broad software design patent registered 13 Feb 1996 by David C. Contois of eMusicGear. Contois would like some money please, Apple, else no more iTunes for the music-loving masses. In a statement that seems to undercut Contois' case, his lawyers state that Apple employees "borrowed" ideas from his software in 1995. Once again, the design patent was filed at the start of 1996 (prior-art anyone?). Expect this one to end in tears, massive legal fees, collection agencies, and the emusicgear.com domain becoming available sometime in 2006. iTunes UI Leads to Patent Infringement Suit [AppleInsider]Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement addressfiled under Apple
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Flash-back to 1984 with Byte's original review of the 128K Mac. Kind of cool to see how far our beloved Macs have come in the past 21 years, while still retaining much of the original's spirit. Byte wisely suggests you buy 512Kb of memory with your Mac (why did Apple even sell it with an underpowered 128Kb?); similarly, make sure to upgrade that Mac mini to 512Mb (why do Apple even sell it with an underpowered 256Mb?).
iTunes 4.9 is available for download through Software Update or from the 
Apple CEO Steve Jobs' address at the Stanford commencement ceremonies, June 12th. Some interesting stories from one of America's most famous college drop-outs about the benefits of apparently obscure learning, about being fired from Apple, and about his brush with death.
Targeted at those familiar with other versions of Unix, applies your knowledge to Mac OS X Tiger. Covers Spotlight and HFS+ Metadata, CUPS, X11, compiling and linking code, package management and creation, and Mac OS X Server.
