Parallels has shipped a significant update to Parallels Desktop for Mac, a virtualization program that enables owners of Intel-based Macs to run Windows and other operating systems within Mac OS X

StickyBrain Replaced with SOHO Notes -- Chronos LLC announced today that its highly regarded snippet keeper, StickyBrain, is being discontinued in favor of SOHO Notes, a product with a nearly identical interface but more features

Microsoft Releases Office 2004 Update -- Microsoft has released yet another update to Office 2004. Version 11.2.4, a 57.5 MB download, patches a security hole in PowerPoint that could allow an attacker to overwrite your computer's memory

Palm recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of the original PalmPilot PDA. I was among the enthusiastic early adopters. I was thrilled that, unlike the large paper organizer it replaced, it featured fast searching and synchronization with my computer

Appeals Court Sides with Mac News Sites over Apple -- In a major victory for online news sources, an appeals court ruled last week that Apple could not subpoena email in order to trace the source of leaked trade secrets

Four iLife Apps Receive Updates -- Apple released minor updates to four of the iLife '06 applications today - iWeb, iPhoto, iMovie HD, and iDVD - both via Software Update and as stand-alone downloads

When I began my duties as TidBITS Senior Editor recently, one of my first official functions was to order some business cards for myself. Although I could simply have plugged my contact info into the existing TidBITS business card template, Adam and Tonya wanted to come up with a new design that incorporated information for both TidBITS and Take Control

Having recently published my ninth Take Control ebook in two and a half years, I finally had to admit that my productivity is slipping. While that level of output may seem prolific to some, my own standards are higher; in the 2004-2005 season of my Interesting Thing of the Day site, for example, I published an article of up to 1500 words every single day (while also writing ebooks and magazine articles, of course); I also wrote an entire novel during the month of November

At a special press event in Cupertino last week, Apple announced the next member of the Intel-based processor lineup: the Mac mini, available in two configurations. One model features an Intel Core Solo (single-core processor) chip, which, according to Apple's tests, runs between 2.5 and 3.2 times faster than the PowerPC G4-based Mac mini, which is no longer available

In addition to the new Mac mini announced at Apple's special press event last week, the company added two new iPod accessories to its product lineup. The least interesting is a $100 leather case, in sizes for the full-sized iPod and iPod nano

The first time I installed a pre-release version of Tiger, I was worried. Unlike most people, who may be concerned about whether or not their machine will work properly afterward, I had an entirely different worry: who would need my ebook about upgrading if the process works this well? Apple clearly paid a great deal of attention to the installer, which is far better in Tiger than in any previous version of Mac OS X

[Interesting Thing of the Day (ITotD) is an ongoing series of articles about any topic I find interesting, including surprising discoveries in food, geography, science, language, history, philosophy, and even - from time to time - technology

When is a backup program not a backup program? A lot of software that calls itself "backup software" does not actually perform backups in the two key senses I discuss in my new ebook, "Take Control of Mac OS X Backups." That is to say, some backup programs do not create additive incremental archives of your files, some do not create bootable duplicates, and some do neither! The latter category includes, interestingly enough, Apple's own Backup application. Unfortunately, because software developers use terms such as "incremental," "archive," and "backup" differently, you may think you're getting certain capabilities when you buy a product that later turn out to be missing

I once worked for a company where a lot of the senior management (and, more importantly, their secretaries) still thought that internal communication revolved around printed memos

Like most people who use Apple Mail, I had high hopes that its improved Junk Mail filter, a much-touted benefit of upgrading to Panther, would live up to Apple's hype