Our Macworld Expo coverage ran long this year, so we continue it this week by looking at the trade show through the eyes of a newly minted 8-year-old, explain the logic behind Apple shaking down Intel-based Mac owners for two bucks for a Wi-Fi update, and ask the iPhone some very personal questions, a few of which it refuses to answer. We also pass on the cream of the crop – our Macworld Expo superlatives – and share ways to get Take Control ebooks for free or half-off. Oh, yeah, and Apple made a billion dollars in profit last quarter.
Apple set a new quarterly earnings record last week with a $1 billion profit on revenue of $7.1 billion for the quarter ending 30-Dec-06, the first quarter of their 2007 fiscal year
We got ahead of ourselves last week in "iPhone Seeks to Redefine the Mobile Phone" (2007-01-15) when we said that the iPhone contained the in-progress 802.11n flavor of wireless networking
In "Reality and Digital Pictures," (2005-12-12) and "Editing Photographs for the Perfectionist," (2004-9-27), I recommended some plug-ins by Asiva, particularly Shift+Gain
After several days of rumors, Apple confirmed on 18-Jan-07 that it would, in fact, charge a small fee for the 802.11n enabler that will allow owners of most Intel Core 2 Duo- and all Xeon-based Macs to get the faster network speed
Like so many people these days, I work at home, so for me, nearly every day is "take your child to work day." As often as not, after school my eight-year-old son Tristan helps me balance bank statements or put stamps on envelopes, or "helps" by staying out of the way while I wrap up editing a manuscript or making one last phone call.
But, there's much more to my job than what Tristan normally sees, and some of that "much more" happens at Macworld Expo, an event that is oft-discussed around my dinner table, but that Tristan had never seen
[Tristan, age 8, wrote this piece the weekend after returning from San Francisco, where he attended Macworld Expo with me for a morning (see "Take Your Child to Work Day, Macworld Expo Style," 2007-01-22)
Last week we tried to include everything that was known about the iPhone in "iPhone Seeks to Redefine the Mobile Phone" (2007-01-15) and "iTouched an iPhone" (2007-01-15)
Every year as we walk the show floor, we keep part of our attention focused on what's cool, different, or otherwise worth mentioning outside of the major news of the event
50%-off Coupon with TidBITS Archive CD -- For those who missed the announcement of our TidBITS Archive CD (see "Introducing the TidBITS Archive CD," 2007-01-08, for full details), note that along with more than 6,500 articles spanning all 860 issues of TidBITS from 1990 through 2006, the CD includes a special 50%-off coupon on your next Take Control order
iPhone as an all-in-one remote control -- Why not use the iPhone as a remote-control for your Apple TV, too? This brings up the question of whether TV manufacturers are ever going to start including the programming software in the sets, versus requiring an extra set-top box