Apple's Safari web browser may be hot stuff on the Mac, but since launching a Windows version a little while back, not too many Windows users have bothered to install the browser. So what does Apple do? Simple, the company sneakily adds Safari 3.1 to the Apple software update utility so that you download it automatically if you have any Apple software on your PC -- even if you've never installed Safari on your computer. In other words, a whole bunch of Windows iTunes users suddenly found a copy of Safari on their computers.
While a lot of folks criticized Apple for shoving unwanted software at the general public, the strategy appears to have worked. Net Applications reports that Safari's market share of the Windows browser space rose from .07% to .21%. That's still a ridiculously tiny number. But it's bigger than it was. So the message is clear: Give the people what they don't want. Some will be too lazy to uninstall it. And they might even try using it. Ugh, did we just write that?
There's no question that it's faster to purchase a movie from the iTunes store than your local video store -- assuming you have a speedy internet connection. But if you want to get the latest releases as son as they're out on video, you're probably better off making the trek to the video store. Or at least that's what we would have told you yesterday, when it could take weeks or months longer for movies to show up on iTunes. But now Apple has announced that many movies will be available on iTunes the same day as they are released n DVD.
Apple has reached deals with Fox, Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal, Sony, Lionsgate, Image, and First Look. That covers a lot of territory. New releases will typically set you back $14.99. The press release doesn't make it clear whether this applies to the $2.99 movie rentals, so if you want to rent a video for just a few bucks, you might still better off using Netflix or walking to a bricks and mortar store.
You've got to hand it to Apple: they listen to their detractors, and listen fast. When they dropped the price of the iPhone soon after its launch, and the responding outcry was fierce, they doled out credits to the Apple Store as an apology. The 10.5.2 update, while fixing many other issues, was also a response to customer complaints about the new Leopard feature Stacks.
The most recent Apple fiasco had to do with pushing Safari for Windows via Apple's Software Update. The sticky wicket was putting Safari in a software update as if it were a necessary update, or an update to a piece of software already installed on your machine. Detractors claimed that amounted at worst to trickery, at best to an unfair advantage in the ongoing browser wars. Frankly, we kind of agreed.
The newly released Apple Software Update now has two panes instead of one: Updates, and the new pane, labeled New Software. This small but significant tweak allows users to easily discern whether a product is an update to an existing piece of software on their machine or a new offering.
Some might say that the change is still not enough. After all, the Safari install is still checked by default. We're also left to wonder, in the intervening time between offense and repentance, how many new Safari "users" can Apple claim?
As much as Amazon mp3 would like to be a thorn in the side of iTunes, the data indicates that the service has had little effect on iTunes' dominance in digital music sales.
According to a new study by The NPD Group, only 10 percent of all purchasers at Amazon mp3 are converts from Apple's service, while the rest are switching from other services or new to the whole direct-download music scene.
While 10 percent may sound like a lot to us ordinary folks, it wasn't worth the eyebrow raise of a single analyst.
The bottom line is, if Amazon mp3 sees itself as the David to iTunes' Goliath, then their work is definitely cut out for them. Amazon currently sits in fourth place in US music sales, with iTunes and Wal-Mart fighting it out for the top spot, and Best Buy in third.
The troubling statistic for Amazon is that only a tenth of their music sales come from Amazon mp3. The rest come from those archaic compact discs; if you don't know what we're talking about, check out your parent's music collection-maybe they have some laying around.
The question is, my friends, what is keeping Amazon mp3 from biting into sales on iTunes? Is it the poor browsing experience? Is it because Amazon is seen as outside of the iTunes-iPod ecosystem? Are people willing to part with 10 cents more, and put up with DRM, for the sake of iTunes simplicity?
How many of the applications you use on a daily basis are web-based as opposed to locally installed native applications? For me, the answer is way more than I ever would have expected.
Had you asked me this question a few years ago, I would have vehemently denied that the future of development is on the web. As much as I could see and understand the value of a ubiquitously available web-based application, there's just no way to approach the level of power and integration (not to mention the ability to be always-available) that is possible with well conceived and developed desktop software.
Of course, back then I didn't imagine that web applications could become as useful as Google Calendar or Remember the Milk. I also didn't imagine that light - yet still useful - versions of these apps would be available from my mobile phone almost wherever I was.
Most of these are probably pretty familiar names, but one is a newcomer in the web space: Evernote. Still in beta, the new version of Evernote contains a full-featured web version, but synchronizes seamlessly with desktop software on either Windows or Mac platforms. And it's a breath of fresh air.
When the iPhone Dev Team announced on April 1st that their team was being dismantled, and their intellectual property was being swallowed down the gullet of some fat-cat enemy of the people, Some sites took the bait (albeit with a small dose of skepticism).
Now that the fog that is April Fools Day has lifted, the iPhone Dev Team has revealed that, like Hilary Clinton (and Rocky), they are not going to abandon their mission. In fact, just to show that they are good sports, they gave Engadget a hands-on walkthrough of their new Pwnage tool, which will let you load any firmware you want on your iPhone, including patched firmware not signed by Apple (bring on the Linux!). The video is available here.
Update: The Pwnage tool is now officially available from the iPhone Dev Team; though, for now, the tool is Mac only.
There's a rumor floating around this morning that Apple has surpassed Wal-Mart to become the top music retailer in the US. Ars Technica reports that Apple has sent a memo to employees showing the results of an NPD MusicWatch survey in January. There's just one problem. In February, Apple publicly stated that it was now the number two music seller in the US.
As Engadget points out, there may have been a spike in January because a whole bunch of people picked up new iPods and iPod gift cards for the holidays in Decemeber. Suffice it to say, if Apple was really the top music retailer in the country right now, they wouldn't be passing around an internal memo. They'd be sending out press releases with pictures of Steve Jobs stepping on a smiley face with blood poring out of its nose. Wait, smiley faces don't usually have noses, do they? We're fairly certain that digital music will surpass physical media sales one day. That day just doesn't happen to be today.
Update: Nope, apparently that day is today. Apple has issued a press release stating that NPD's numbers show the company was the top music retailer in January and March.
Some people claim to be addicted to their Apple products. Turns out it might be true. Everyone always assumed that Apple gear (iPods, Macs, iPhones, etc) have sold well because they are well built and user friendly, but a recent police investigation has determined that they are actually infused with small amounts of LSD, that the user absorbs slowly through their skin, creating a sense of wonder and euphoria.
One of the first to get suspicious that something might be rotten with Apple was legendary music producer Quincy Jones. Jones, one of the world's foremost music experts, found that a song was always better when heard through his iPod than when he listened through his top of the line, outrageously expensive stereo system. "I thought maybe it was the experience of wearing headphones, isolating me from the world that made the music more incredible" says Jones. "Turns out it was because I was high as a kite." At his urging, a research team from Columbia University began testing Apple products and found the drugs were present in almost every item Apple sells -- the only notable exception, the Apple TV, which still sells poorly no matter how high the consumer base.
Scientists say that the amount of LSD absorbed through the skin is not enough to harm a human being, though it has been shown to be fatal in laboratory mice. The dose is just strong enough to make the user relaxed and happy, explaining why people become so attached to their Macs and iPods. Researchers also say this might explain the pretentiousness and strange superiority complex that almost all Mac users seem to have, though they say further study is needed to be sure.
-- Editors note. This story was edited on a Mac. Dude. Pretty colors.
The iPhone SDK has been out for couple of weeks now and I've been using it to develop an application for my work as a technology demonstrator. My experience thus far has been largely positive. I wasn't surprised by how well-made the SDK is, even at this beta stage. The amount of work involved in releasing any SDK, let alone one that is so tightly scrutinized, cannot be underestimated.
Consider that I am learning three new things simultaneously: programming in Objective-C, learning how to use Xcode, and what is available in the iPhone SDK, I am going to describe the whole experience instead of just confined to the SDK.
If you liked the iPod/Nike+ gadget to help you with your runs, you may be excited to know that was merely the beginning of what seems to be a much larger pie Apple has been working on (pun absolutely intended).
AppleInsider appears to have gotten its hands on some patent filings made for what looks like a comprehensive "fitness companion." At this point, it looks like a bunch of iTunes-esque prompts for a "fitness inteview" to help you get a fitness program for your goals, and flow chart type displays of how these programs might look as you are using them.
Considering that it is still in the patent stages, we have no idea if Apple is really going to follow through. But at least we can be hopeful. Whether this will work on current iPod Touch/iPhone technology or on next generation models isn't clear, especially with rumors of new iPods coming on the market later this year.
Or maybe we can just memorize our workouts and write down our progress on paper. Old school, but it works.
Earlier in the year, at least one blogger was stopped by drooling unprepared TSA agents rightly wary of the so-far-unseen beast known as a MacBook Air. Of course, the incident brought to the TSA's attention the fact that the MacBook Air might not be your conventional laptop, and that agents might mis-identify the machines as something more suspect. Thankfully, the administration responded, giving MacBook Airs the green light, and promised to try and X-ray a MacBook Air.
True to their word, the TSA has announced that they have indeed X-rayed an Air, and published a video for all the Apple-loving readers clearly wanting to gaze in awe at an X-ray of Cupertino's finest. By now you're wondering: "Why on earth is this posted here at Download Squad. I don't want to see no photos of a MacBook Air!". So here's where this tale takes a rather ironic turn: the video's certainly online, but for Mac-using fans (arguably the main target audience of the video) it's something of a non-starter because the video can only be found in the most Mac-incompatible format known to man: Windows Media Video - the antithesis of Mac-friendliness, surely?
While we're guessing Microsoft would love to make Windows Mobil customers out of each and every iPhone user, that doesn't mean the company doesn't see a business opportunity in Apple's cellphone. After all, Microsoft has been selling Office software to Mac users for years, so now that Apple has provided an SDK for the iPhone, why not port Office Mobile and other Microsoft applications to the iPhone?
Fortune Magazine reports that a team of Microsoft developers has been poring over the iPhone SDK. While the company still has to determine whether it would make business sense to develop for the iPhone, doing so shouldn't be hard. After all, Apple is licensing Microsoft's ActiveSync and Exchange Server technology to provide push email capabilities.
What Microsoft applications would you like to see for the iPhone? We're going to assume Office Mobile is a given, but what about Windows Live Messenger? What we're really hoping for is Virtual PC 2007, but we're not going to hold our breath.
For some time now, Apple has been widening its presence on the Windows desktop. While it has always offered QuickTime on both Windows and Mac as a web standard, Apple's port of iTunes made big waves and has propelled Apple to the number two spot of music sellers. Some fans of the program end up buying Macs as a result, seeing the computers as a big iPod of sorts.
Now, Apple is slowly gaining more territory in the world of Windows software. Some users have noticed that the Apple Software Updater, a program that is optionally installed with iTunes, is offering to install the Safari web browser, even to people who have never used it before. Some critics say this is invasive on Apple's part, we don't really see how. It doesn't install Safari without asking, and there are plenty of companies like Yahoo that are much more pushy. Give it a shot, you whiners, it's a pretty good browser!
Apple's iTunes customers have the option of buying TV shows for $1.99 per episode, or paying a flat fee for a full season. Now, most of the time, you save a few bucks by paying for the whole season at once. But there was this little writer's strike thingamajig this year, which kind of threw a monkey wrench into that equation. Some television series, like NBC's Heroes had just a handful of new episodes this season, which means iTunes season pass holders got the short end of the stick.
But Apple is apparently trying to remedy the situation. The company is sending emails to customers who have purchased season passes to shows with abbreviated seasons. In a nutshell, Apple says that any show that's still producing episodes for this season even after the season would normally have ended will be sent along to customers. Additionally, if there are fewer episodes of the show at the end of the season than you'd been expecting when you bought the season pass, you'll get a refund for the difference.
Apple is also giving at least some customers free credits that can be used to download 2 TV shows, music videos, or short films from the iTunes store.
Apple has released an updated version of the Safari web browser with a slew of performance, compatibility, and reliability tweaks. Safari 3.1 also adds support for CSS 3 web fonts, HTML 5 audio and video elements, and other web standards. Safari was the first browser to pass the Acid2 standards test, but like pretty much every other browser available today, it fails to pass the Acid3 test.
The update also includes:
Improved JavaScript performance
Enhancements to the Windows version including localization in 16 languages, Improved back/forward performance, and better pop-up blocking
Double clicking on the tab bar opens a new tab
URL metadata is included when images are dragged or saved from the browser
Supports trackpad gestures for back, forward, and magnify on MacBook AIR and Pro computers
For some time now, 
