Although finding new products was more of a challenge at this year's show than in the past, the TidBITS staff report back with products that caught their attention.
Once again, Apple has broken sales, revenue, and profit records, selling more Macs and iPhones than ever before, and increasing profits by 50 percent. The only dim spot? iPod unit sales, which were down 8 percent from the year-ago quarter, even as iPod revenue remained flat.
After reportedly losing out to Google in an attempt to purchase mobile advertising firm AdMob, Apple has now picked up AdMob competitor Quattro Wireless. Advertising has never been part of Apple's business model, but it seems that might be changing in the not-too-distant future.
TidBITS readers have spoken, TidBITS readers have voted, and we have the results for you in this year's TidBITS Gift Guide. Forget the stuff that jaded editors think you might want - these are the real items that people really do desire (or plan to give).
Fixes a number of bugs, several of which cause crashes, and tweaks a handful of minor features. ($40 new, free update, $10 upgrade for BusySync users, 4.5 MB)
We keep finding the equivalent of chocolate-filled Easter eggs in Snow Leopard: tiny, undocumented improvements that make Mac OS X even better.
Even Snow Leopard's updates are faster and sleeker. Mac OS X 10.6.1 is out with minor fixes for Apple Mail, Flash security, and printer drivers. A few unacknowledged errors seem to have disappeared, too, although other problems remain. We wax poetic. Or at least prosaic.
The latest update to iPhone OS adds app recommendations using the Genius feature, the capability to purchase ringtones directly, and an option to lock your device remotely using MobileMe. Serious security problems were fixed as well.
The iPod touch is now either cheap or fast, the iPod shuffle drops its price, and the iPod classic enlarges its hard drive.
Notable software releases this week include Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection for Mac 2.0.1, BusySync 2.2.1, TextExpander 2.7, Hazel 2.3.2, Apple Remote Desktop Admin 3.3, Apple Remote Desktop Client 3.3.1, OmniOutliner 3.9, Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0, Bluetooth Firmware Update 2.0.1, and iPhoto 8.1.
The TidBITS Commenting System now offers RSS feeds for tracking either the comments on a particular article or all comments posted across all articles.
The first full-on preview of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard reveals a faster, sleeker cat that's designed to be more compact and efficient, and to take full advantage of the fast multi-core processors in Intel-based Macs.
A major update for the operating system that powers the iPhone and iPod touch ships 17-Jun-09, with a huge array of new features, enabling users to find a missing iPhone, use an iPhone as a broadband modem, buy upgrades and items within iPhone applications, exercise parental controls, and much more.
Apple's new $199/$299 iPhone 3GS looks mostly the same on the outside, but with a faster processor, support for the world's fastest cellular data standard, voice control, and a much more capable camera, Apple has raised the ante once more. The 8 GB iPhone 3G remains available, but at the reduced price of $99.
In an unexpected move, Apple revamped much of its laptop line. The 13-inch aluminum MacBook goes Pro, while the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro models receive performance and spec bumps. Apple also slashed prices on both new and existing models.