Most of our news revolves around the Mac this week, as a reminder that we’ll know what Apple is going to announce on Wednesday when they announce it, and not before. Most notably, Apple announced record sales and profits today, selling more Macs (and iPhones) than ever before. Also, Mozilla has shipped a notable – though not entirely in a good way – new version of Firefox, Apple has finally updated Boot Camp to support Windows 7, and much of the community buzz of late surrounds a grassroots movement to create an email client for power users. Joe Kissell contributes an extensive look at why photos from Photoshop Elements can look so much worse on the Web, and Adam covers Amazon’s futile attempt to steal Apple’s thunder by opening the Kindle up to developers. Notable software releases this week include Phone Amego 1.1.9, Firmware Restoration CD 1.8, Things 1.2.9, Spell Catcher 10.3.3, TextWrangler 3.1, Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.4, Xserve EFI Firmware Update 1.2, and Security Update 2010-001.
After a frustrated post from NetNewsWire developer Brent Simmons, a grassroots movement has formed to develop Letters, a new Macintosh email client aimed at power users.
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.
In what appears to be a blatant attempt to steal Apple's thunder, Amazon has announced that it will open the Kindle to developers and will offer a more-attractive royalty structure to authors and publishers of inexpensive ebooks.
Mozilla has released Firefox 3.6, a notable update to the popular Web browser. Foremost among the new features is the capability to make your toolbar and tab area unreadable via personas, but other minor features make the update worthwhile anyway.
Apple released not just one, but a whole series of updates that finally enable most (but not all) Intel-based Macs to run Windows 7 via Boot Camp.
Do photos that look great in Photoshop Elements appear dull and lifeless on the Web? Joe Kissell investigates the problem (at the behest of a well-known Parisian food writer) and finds a solution or two.
Notable software releases this week include Phone Amego 1.1.9, Firmware Restoration CD 1.8, Things 1.2.9, Spell Catcher 10.3.3, TextWrangler 3.1, Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.4, Xserve EFI Firmware Update 1.2, and Security Update 2010-001.
As we desperately try to ignore all the pointless speculation about what Apple may or may not announce this week, we found ourselves reading somewhat more broadly than usual. Google is updating high-resolution satellite images of Haiti to aid relief efforts, the White House has released an iPhone app, GigaOM collected lots of App Store stats into a single infographic, and the Stanford Hospital is using a cutting edge (from the 19th century) networking technology to move lab samples around the building.