Intel Inside?

In the latter days of May, our friends on Wall Street heard a rumor Apple Computer was in talks with Intel about using the chipmaker’s processors in Macintosh computers. This is a recurring rumor that finds itself on the Street and on the news rather frequently. Whether or not there’s any truth to the rumor this time around is left to the imagination and investor speculation. The rumor sparked a rally in Apple’s stock, moving the price back over $39 per share.

Apple’s persistent processor challenges are well storied. Hampered by the lack of resources the company’s original chip partner was applying to development, Apple moved from Motorola to IBM for development and production of the G5 processor. Despite the popularity of the iMac and G5 mini-tower, Big Blue has apparently fallen behind schedule in the production of faster G5 chips. Still, the OS and application development that would be needed to properly port OS X to the Intel chip family would be a time-consuming task.

Switch Which?

By most accounts, Apple’s multi-million dollar Switch advertising campaign aimed at consumers had lackluster results. While the ads made somewhat of a cult figure out of a teenager with allergy issues, it didn’t inspire a mass migration of consumers to the Macintosh way.

However, a subtle change is occurring in the IT world as more enterprise-level customers consider the Macintosh platform a viable alternative to the virus- and security-plagued Windows environment. This is happening without the advertising fanfare Apple used in its efforts to get consumers to switch. But in the long run, a gradual migration of IT customers to the Mac will lead to an increase in consumer sales. Switch which? It may be IT customers and not consumers who take the lead in pushing Macintosh market penetration.

See You See Me at WWDC?

Apple’s annual conference for Macintosh developers opens less than a week from press time. The Mac maker has witnessed an increase in interest in the conference and overall conference attendance as Mac OS X continues to mature and the Macintosh continues its gains in market share. This year’s conference offers a broad array of workshop and lab topics that evidences the growing number of Macintosh users in a variety of fields.

In recent years, WWDC has been used as a staging place for new Macintosh product announcements. A myriad of rumors surround this year’s event, and the likelihood of a conference surprise. We’ll cover the major conference announcements in our July issue.

iPod Power Continues to Flower

The popular Apple iPod is both a pop culture phenomenon and an extraordinarily successful product. The iPod has established its own industry for peripherals and accessories while raising the worldwide appeal of Apple branded products.

Now the iPod has fostered a new craze called “podcasting.” Podcasting involves the downloading of pre-recorded content for playback at a preferred time. Apple is supporting this new market for content by making podcasts available via iTunes and the iTunes Music Store. Many suggest that podcasts may change the way radio reaches millions of listeners, much the same way the iPod changed the way consumers purchase and enjoy music.

Our June issue includes:

The Candy Apple: Age Has Its Advantages

Just because something is old does not mean it is worn out.

Bloggable: Upgrade Madness

If you’ve wondered why the user interface in Tiger is different, or how Spotlight works, you are not alone. This month’s bottomless Bloggable is all over the 10.4 upgrade, from a 40,000-word review to a list of tweaks big and small, plus eight unrelated news items from May.

Pod People

The long happy life of a first-generation iPod.

Segments: Mac mini—The Modular Tower of Power

The Mac mini is more than the sum of its parts. It is possibly the industry’s first truly personal computer. Look at Mac mini as a building block, a platform for so much more than traditional computing.

Segments: Tiger’s New Stripes

Tiger brings new features to the table, some good, some bad, but most of all: interesting. Tom Bridge takes a look at three key features of the new version of Mac OS X.

Outliners: Outlining and Styles

This month’s outlining column deals with styles, marking, and associated user interfaces.

Customizing The Mac OS X User Interface: Part III, Appearance Themes

One of the big gripes regarding the user interface in Mac OS X is that with each OS release Aqua has become inconsistent and too varied in its appearance. So what can users do to overcome these UI distractions? We can give Aqua a makeover using third-party Appearance Themes.

How To: Widescreen in iDVD 5? Almost, Not Quite

After a lot of re-rendering and re-burning a DVD-RW disc over and over and over, and a lot of searching online, Lee Bennett finally found the solution to a pretty glaring bug in iDVD 5.

How To: How to Catch and Install a Tiger

The wait is finally over. A new cat is on the prowl in the Mac world. You know you want to catch it, but how do you do it as painlessly as possible?

Cartoon: Cortland

Cortland gets to know some new clients and takes a break to watch Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with his friends.

Desktop Pictures: Moraine State Park

College student Dan Klein shares photos from Pennsylvania’s Morane State Park.

Frisky Freeware

Frisky the Freeware Guinea Pig checks out AppleJack.

Review: AppleScript: The Missing Manual (book)

Eric Blair explores what previously unanaswered questions are covered in AppleScript: The Missing Manual.

Review: iceKey

“Never having been a fan of laptop keyboards, I didn’t expect to like the iceKey—yet I do.”

Review: iLugger

“The iLugger case does exactly as advertised. It allows a user to ‘lug’ an iMac G5 easily enough that it can be used on a daily basis.”

Review: NetNewsWire 2.0

One of the original Mac news readers turns 2, and Eric Blair looks to see what’s changed in this newest version.

Review: Shoebox Pro 1.2

If you thought the words “shoebox” and “pro” were a contradiction in terms—hold that thought.

Review: Unreal Tournament 2004

Every time I try to walk away, it calls me back for just one more match. Unreal Tournament 2004 is one of the most addictive first-person shooters available for the Macintosh. Check it out and see if it’s what you should be gunning for.