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TidBITS#1003/09-Nov-2009

Just before press time (whatever that means in the Internet age), Apple released Mac OS X 10.6.2, fixing a slew of bugs and providing a vast number of security fixes; we have some initial coverage. Despite what some other publications seem to believe, email isn’t going away any time soon, and Adam explains why. He also looks into how the 100,000 apps in the iPhone App Store stack up against the competition, and why size may be the App Store’s biggest challenge. Joe Kissell reports from Paris on the opening of the first Apple Store in France and reduced pricing for the Backblaze online backup service. Glenn Fleishman notes the new Google Dashboard service for displaying what Google knows about you, and goes in depth on the new 2D barcode trend. Be sure to enter our DealBITS drawing for a copy of BeLight Software’s Labels & Addresses too! Notable software releases this week include Viewfinder 1.0, Captain FTP 6.2, MacSpeech Dictate 1.5.6, BBEdit 9.3, Sandvox 1.6.5, Kaspersky Anti-Virus For Mac 1.0, DiscLabel 6.1, BusyCal 1.0.3, Parallels Desktop 5, and TweetDeck 0.31.3.

Adam Engst 14 comments

App Store Size: Comparisons and Challenges

This iPhone thing? It's probably going to catch on, if Apple's announcement of reaching the 100,000 apps available in the App Store is any indication. But just because Apple's App Store has 8 times more apps than the second place store doesn't mean smooth sailing unless Apple can conquer the discoverability problem that's scaring off developers.

Adam Engst 11 comments

Why Email Remains the King of Internet Communications

The recent talk about how email usage is waning among certain populations misses two important points: email will never die because it's based on open standards that enable anyone to develop and run servers and clients, and, because of this, email remains the lowest common denominator for interpersonal communication on the Internet.

Jeff Carlson No comments

Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk for 9 November 2009

New threads this week were lighter than normal, something we chalk up to everyone being busy reading all the new articles we've published at TidBITS and continuing to chat about old topics. Among new topics, readers discuss computer monitor viewing angles and desks to support them, utilities for downloading streaming Flash videos, and inconsistent selection behavior in the Finder.