Let the Speculation begin

A BC Man died in a fire about six months ago.

This doesn't really sound like Apple news, but bear with me.

Today, the coroner said the cause of the fire was an overheated laptop, left on a couch.

The coroner refused to release the make and model of the laptop, but CBC quite gleefully has added a picture of an Apple Powerbook, mentioning that this is "one of several computers" that has had problems with overheating batteries.

So, let the speculation begin, but don't expect any answers. Still, I'm glad that I keep my Macbook safely (sic) on a desk with good ventilation....

Here comes the next big cat

Well, after a few episodes of overpromising and underdelivering, Apple is once again on track with meeting or beating their projected ship dates. Not that they announce many products ahead of time, but for Snow Leopard, the expected ship time was sometime in September, which usually means last day of. By beating that expected ship date, Apple is back on form.

Of course, we'll have to wait until then to see if the program is really all it's cracked up to be. The OS has gained a surprising amount of traction, considering the fact that Apple has promised no new user features, with all the performance gains under the hood. Well, that's not quite true, but the fact is there is no new iChat or Mail Program or anything big and flashy. Instead, the upgrade will improve usability, with better assistive technologies for people with disabilities, built in support for Microsoft Exchange Server, and faster wake-up and shut down speeds.

Whew! Now that's flashy stuff. But perhaps users are getting sick of feature bloat, and are really looking forward to a streamlined experience. I know I am. And the $29 price point doesn't hurt, either....

Of course, this update lays down core technologies, like Grand Central Dispatch and Open CL, which will allow developers to take advantage of the processing power of the Mac. And of course, when the sequel to Snow Leopard comes out, expect a number of flashy new features that they've now had a double development cycle to work on, too.

Whoah

Wonder what Jason Calacanis makes of this? While it doesn't respond to every issue he raised in his rant last week, it should cover points three and five nicely.

Or maybe not. By seeking to maintain the high quality of user experience, Apple must maintain more control over the phone than most people want.

There's a few tidbits of information that come out in the letter, though nothing groundbreaking. I would have been interested to see the full answer to the question about which apps have been rejected (and remains so, as they have not been changed to meet app store policies).

Double Digits, here we are!

According to IDC, Apple has 10% of the Canadian PC Market, it's highest rank since...well, ever probably.

The research article is available from the IDC website for the low, low price of $4500 (US, natch), so I'm only going by what I hear from Electronista, by way of EhMac.ca, everyone's favourite Canadian Mac Community.

Thanks, Max!

Oh, the irony

So, the FTC says the investigation of Apple and Google will continue for possible Anti-Trust violations, meaning that because Schmidt was on the board, competition between the two companies is reduced, because his presence implies some form of collusion between the two.

At the same time, the FCC has sent a letter to Apple asking them to explain the rejection of the Google Voice App from the iTunes App store.

So on the one hand, Apple and Google are too friendly, and on the other, Apple isn't playing nice enough with Google? Only in America....

auf Wiedersehen, herr Schmidt

Ever since the announcement of Google's Chrome OS, Mac media has been all a twitter over whether Dr. Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO should remain on the Apple Board of Directors.

Dr. Schmidt has been on the board for three years, but issues have been raised over potential conflict of interest between Chrome and OS X. It was fine when Google was a search giant and an advertising mogul, but now, it appears, that the two companies have too much overlap for Dr. Schmidt to comfortably remain on the board. For the last few months, he has been excusing himself from the meetings when discussions of the iPhone came up, due to the competing Android OS for mobile phones. If he would remain, he'd have to remove himself whenever discussions of the Mac OS came up. Which means basically he'd be around for discussion of Mac hardware and iPod hardware, and that's about it.

So, so long Dr. S, and good luck with that little company you look after.