Still "hooked" after all these months, Mike Wendland (Detroit Free Press) remains smitten with his iPhone. "Every week, I've been getting the latest and greatest of the mobile phones being introduced for holiday sales. And while some are promising, none can come close to the iPhone in ease, elegance and excellence of design. Almost five months now since it was introduced in the United States, it remains not just the best cell phone I've ever used but the most revolutionary piece of personal technology I've ever used."
Esther J. Cepeda (Chicago Sun-Times) has discovered the "voluminous" selection of sports entertainment podcasts available at the iTunes Store, proclaiming, "iPod can be sport geek's all-encompassing radio and TV." She also notes that the iTunes Store features podcasts about "every imaginable subject."
Create a Keynote '08 presentation and you can share it as a QuickTime movie, a PDF document, or as a photo book that can be given to clients after a sales call. Learn how by watching the latest Quick Tip of the Week.
Whether you're in the market for tropical fish, sporting goods, cold remedies, or guitar lessons, iPhone can help you quickly locate a nearby vendor. Just tap on the Safari icon and pay a visit to yellowpages.com. It's just one of the more than 350 web apps available for iPhone and iPod touch on our web apps page. Like information about designing, coding, optimizing, and submitting your own web application? Then visit our iPhone Dev Center.
Farhad Manjoo (Salon) makes a compelling case. "If we're going just by what's better"the ages-old Mac-vs.-PC debate is over. Long over. Yell it from the rooftops; The Mac has won." Now's the right time "to buy an Apple computer," proclaims Manjoo. "Indeed, it's been that time for the past five years." After all, "its Macintosh business is now in league with that of the biggest PC companies in the world." And "everyone who's used it agrees that Leopard, the operating system that Apple released late last month, is to its chief rival, Microsoft's Windows Vista, roughly as Richard Wagner is to Richard Marx." Manjoo even takes the opportunity to "put to rest the myth that an Apple computer will set you back more than a Windows PC. In fact," he says, "it'll cost you less."
In his in-depth review of Time Machine, Ryan Faas (computerworld.com) does some déjà-vuing of his own, conjuring up an early iMac commercial to illustrate how simple it is for customers to use Time Machine to back up the data on their Macs. Calling it "one of the most compelling new features added to Mac OS X in years," he praises Apple engineers for creating "a backup technology that requires little or no configuration, performs backups automatically and invisibly, and makes restoring files from those backups as simple and intuitive as humanly possible."
In his 4.5-star (out of 5) review of Leopard, Edward Mendelson (pcmag.com) maintains that Leopard is "by far the best operating system ever written for the vast majority of consumers, with dozens of new features that have real practical value." Mendelson "found Leopard to be startlingly fast, brilliantly streamlined, and packed with conveniences and innovations. Leopard's rich set of built-in software runs faster than I imagined possible."
After a "swift and easy" installation, Mark Kellner (Washington Times) found Mac OS X Leopard "something any Mac user will want to have." "Offering better integration of e-mail with syndicated Internet news updates, a new backup feature likely to decrease the impact of hardware failures, and snazzy display features by the bushel, the $129 Apple Mac OS X Leopard upgrade is more than a reasonable purchase."
Troy Dreier (laptopmag.com) gives Leopard 4.5 stars (out of five). Praising Time Machine, he predicts that "Leopard will be remembered as the OS that debuted Time Machine, the backup tool that changes everything." Equally positive about Cover Flow, Quick Look, Spaces, Mail, Boot Camp, and iChat, Dreier concludes that "Leopard is worth the price for Time Machine alone, but the sheer variety of improvements and innovation inside this OS give you much more than your money's worth."
Calling Leopard the "apple of my eye," Dwight Sliverman (Houston Chronicle) tells us that as he's played with the newest version of Mac OS X, "I'm constantly being surprised by smart, useful and convenient touches. It is a pleasure to use." For example, he calls Spaces his "favorite Leopard feature, because it instantly multiplies your desktop real estate. Those who use portable computers will particularly appreciate it. On my MacBook it's a godsend."
"The mobile to end all mobiles pipped all the other top-name entries to earn the planet's biggest gadget accolade," according to the editors at Stuff. "The touchscreen device redefined how humans interact with their phones as well as offering almost every feature no self-respecting mobile should be without," they conclude. And iPhone wasn't the only honoree. "Sporting video playback and a scroll wheel," iPod nano made the "Cool List" for 2007 gadgets. And Stuff readers voted iPod "the greatest gadget ever." Cool.
Mac computers, according to Gregg Keizer (computerworld.com), "are the most reliable and its support the most dependable of the five top [computer] vendors. In fact, Keizer reports that in its annual report on reliability, Rescuecom, "a national chain of computer service shops," found that Apple "blew away the competition this year by posting a score of 51% higher than next-best Lenovo." The score, explains David Milman, CEO of Rescuecom, "takes into account not just the quality and reliability of the equipment but also the quality of service."
Since releasing Mac OS X Leopard on Friday, Apple sold (or delivered, in the case of maintenance agreements) more than 2 million copies of the sixth major release of Mac OS X, far outpacing the first weekend sales of Mac OS X Tiger, which was previously the most successful OS release in Apple's history. "Early indications are that Leopard will be a huge hit with customers," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Leopard's innovative features are getting great reviews and making more people than ever think about switching to the Mac."
Born in China's Sichuan province, the highly innovative illustrator and graphic designer Qian Qian uses Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and other Mac software to create art that merges Eastern and Western influences from different eras"from classical Chinese painting and 1930s Shanghai advertising to Cultural Revolution aesthetics, pop art, and the Japanese manga-inspired Superflat movement. "Other people might have training from an early age with pens and brushes," Qian says, "but the Mac is my main tool."
When Christopher Laub "sat in" on a Spanish, social studies, reading, or math lesson, he actually "sat" at home"miles away from his classroom"battling leukemia and undergoing chemotherapy. But thanks to iChat AV and iSight, Christopher could attend classes"even recess"on a regular basis. In fact, videoconferencing via his Mac and iChat not only kept Christopher connected with his friends and current with his classwork; it also let his fellow students learn about leukemia and its treatment, according to principal Patti Purcell. "Through the use of iChat AV, we've had many "teachable moments,' and the kids have learned so much."