Microsoft has released the much-rumored Office for iPad, which is free for reading Office documents, but editing requires an Office 365 subscription.

When the fifth Apple II rolled off the assembly line in 1977, it went to Team Electronics in Minneapolis inside a leather case festooned with an Apple logo (mysteriously lacking a bite mark). That makes the Team Electronics store, which eventually became Twin Cities institution FirstTech, the first and oldest continually operating Apple reseller. Alas, FirstTech is calling it quits, citing pricing pressure from national resellers after Apple recently loosened restrictions on minimum prices. FirstTech has already closed its Rochester, Minnesota store, which opened just months ago, and will shutter its Minneapolis headquarters on 29 March 2014. A TwinCities.com report by TidBITS contributor Julio Ojeda-Zapata has the fascinating details, plus a video excerpt from the “Welcome to Macintosh” documentary with background on how FirstTech came about and its historical importance in the Apple world. “And it all started in Minnesota,” the video notes.

In the third of a series of articles looking at solutions for mobile workers, the St. Paul Pioneer Press’s Julio Ojeda-Zapata, a lifelong Apple fan, gave the Microsoft Surface a chance and was surprised by what he found.

In the second of a series of looks at perhaps-unexpected hardware choices for Apple users, the St. Paul Pioneer Press’s Julio Ojeda-Zapata turns his attention to Chromebooks, laptops essentially built around a Web browser that turn out to be surprisingly compelling for certain audiences.

In the first of a short series of articles looking at perhaps unexpected hardware choices for those in the Apple world, Julio Ojeda-Zapata, reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, explains why the iPad Air is the perfect tool for his trade.

If you want to watch your favorite TV shows on your Mac - or your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch - whenever you want, a bit of hardware and software from Elgato will let you do so without spending money in the iTunes Store or relying on dodgy BitTorrent sites.

Unsatisfied with your current Twitter client, but overwhelmed by the number of options out there? Julio Ojeda-Zapata, tired of using Twitter from his Web browser, tries out three new Twitter applications for the Mac: Nambu, Lounge, and the just-released Tweetie.