This week Apple introduced the new Macbook Air in an event which was very appropriately announced as “Back to the Mac”.  While the new Air is probably a harbinger of new things to come throughout the Mac line, it was in the software, usability and business aspects that things got really interesting. While I have been away from writing about the Mac for well over a month I couldn’t let all these new developments go by without calling attention to how they will probably affect Apple’s Mac business. Apple’s new iLife’11 applications are pretty impressive and as always...

Gartner published preliminary information on Apples sales market share which indicates that while general computer sales were up this quarter, Apple’s sales were still significantly more.  With this growth Apple moves back to the 4th place in computer shipments, reclaiming a position lost to Toshiba a couple of quarters ago. IDC also published its estimates which are reasonably different, but also show Apple occupying the 4th place in US computer shipments. Chart: Gartner (via...

Apple has sent out an email to developers that are registered in their web developers program indicating that they should start submitting their Safari extensions in order to appear on the Safari Extensions Library. As with the App Store this is going to be a curated space with Apple deciding which extensions get to be listed.  In fact, the way this library is described by Apple it would seem to be even more selective than the App Store as they indicate that they will be featuring extensions which offer an “innovative user experience”. Extensions is a new feature in Safari, introduced...

iTunes 9.2 also supports iOS 4 in the iPod Touch which will be receiving the update free of charge.  With the iOS 4 update all iPhones and iPod Touches will be able to read eBooks and PDFs through the iBooks application.  The new version of iTunes allows you to sync you PDF files to your iPhone or iPod so that you can read them on the go. Another new feature is the ability to organize he your device’s applications in the new folders that are supported in iOS 4. Backups of iPhone and iPods should also be faster with iTunes...

As the closing act of a day marked by expected and surprise releases, Apple just made available a new update to OS X.  Snow Leopard, OS X 10.6.4 is now available for users to automatically update their systems. The release of this new version of Snow Leopard came as a surprise just as that of the new Mac mini and of Apple’s online store for iPhone.  Both of these were released today, a day which already had Apple as a focal point for the attentions of the technology aficionados due to the programmed start of pre-orders for the new iPhone 4. OS X 10.6.4 includes Apple’s new Safari 5...

Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference this year had a strong focus on iPhone OS (or now iOS) based devices.  That is not surprising as Apple has just released to great success the iPad and was about to announce the new iPhone.  Some have taken this to mean that Apple is giving up on the Mac and moving away from personal computers and about to focus only on mobile devices. I don’t think this could be further from the truth. I believe that in fact Apple has and has had a long term plan for OS X and the Mac that is very closely related to what is happening with the spread of iOS...

CrunchGear has published a report from a market research firm on sales of MacBooks in Japan indicating that they were not only up in May but hugely so.  Apple’s participation in the Japanese market in April was 3.5%, but in May it was up to 11.5% surpassing by a wide margin that of Sony with 9.6%. It seems that the general interest in the iPad and its growing sales numbers aren’t really hurting Mac sales, but rather improving them as more people make repeat visits to Apple Stores around the world. Recently as speculation that iPad sales have surpassed those of Macs many people have taken...

Both Macrumors and AppleInsider are reporting that Apple has issued a press release indicating the release of Safari 5, today.  The application isn’t available for download from their websites yet, but we should be seeing it soon. I haven’t been able to grab a hold of the press release itself yet, but Macrumors transcribed a part of it… Apple today released Safari 5, the latest version of the world’s fastest and most innovative web browser, featuring the new Safari Reader for reading articles on the web without distraction, a 30 percent performance increase over Safari 4,* and...

For the past couple of years all MacBooks have had multi-touch enabled trackpads which has led Mac software developers to start adding support this type of input.  More recently Apple introduced a multi-touch enabled mouse, which lets users of iMacs use gestures in the applications that support them. Does anyone think that this is in no way related to Apple’s very successful multi-touch based products: iPhone, iPod Touch and now iPad? I certainly don’t. iPhone OS is derived from OS X, sharing most of the code with the desktop and notebook OS.  The reasons for this close relationship are...

As every year, right before Apple’s WWDC conference the rumor mill is working overtime.  There are rumors about updates to the Mac Mini, to the Mac Pro and even Apple’s Cinema displays that everyone and his dog has been predicting will get a 27-inch model to match the panels used in the iMacs. Instead of joining in the attempts at predicting what Apple will do, I’ll take this opportunity to describe what I would like to see it release. There area a lot of different uses for a Mac mini and one of them is to used in conjunction with a large TV for watching movies from iTunes, of slide...