Apple

PC Magazine: The Beatles have finally given iTunes a ticket to ride, allowing their iconic music to be added to Apple’s catalog. But while the Fab Four might be the most notable iTunes holdout, they certainly aren’t the last. A dwindling number of artists are still resistant to joining Apple’s music download service. Searches on iTunes for AC/DC, Kid Rock, Tool, Garth Brooks, and Def Leppard will return disappointing results: karaoke and cover tracks, not material from the artists themselves. Reasons for non-compliance with Apple vary. ...

Apple has issued the latest update to its Mac OS X operating system, bringing Snow Leopard users up to Mac OS X 10.6.5. Enhancements include improved Microsoft Exchange reliability, and a variety of performance and stability improvements. But what’s probably most interesting to you is that the update also includes important security fixes. Well over 100 different vulnerabilities are reportedly patched by Mac OS X 10.6.5 – if you want to see the gory details (or at least, those details which Apple is prepared to make public) view their knowledgebase article. ...

Wall Street Journal: It looks like Steve Jobs may have something to be nervous about after all. Google Inc.’s Android platform has taken the lead in the U.S. smartphone market, according to several new reports by technology research firms. In the third quarter, devices with the Android operating system were installed in 44% of smartphones, while Apple Inc.’s iPhone came in second place with 23%, according to market research firm, NPD Group. RIM’s BlackBerry trailed behind in third place with 22%. One big caveat: NPD tracks consumer activity, but doesn’t measure corporate cellphone purchases. ...

Software Magazine: Microsoft has launched the Apple version of its productivity suite, the Microsoft Office 2011. The package comes with a new version of Microsoft Outlook that has been specially built for Apple’s Mac. The suite supports those cloud based services Windows users have since the launch of Microsoft Office 2010 for this platform. The reason for launching Microsoft Office for a competitor’s operating system is simple: although the platform is completely different, there are lots of Mac users in this “Windows-centric” world that need to use Microsoft Office. There are also a lot of users who, although they use a Mac for every other task, they prefer to use Microsoft Office. ...

At its MAX conference, Adobe not only announced Air 2.5 for phones, tablets, and TVs but it also confirmed that it would be bringing Flash Player 10.1 to Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7, RIM’s BlackBerry OS, HP’s WebOS 2.0, Symbian, MeeGo, and the LiMo platform. Unfortunately, there’s still no timeline for a release on each platform; Adobe is only saying that Flash 10.1 is “expected” to hit each mobile OS. These six platforms will join Android 2.2, which has had Flash since June 2010. The current list of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 certified devices is thus not very long, but if Adobe manages to deliver on what it’s promising, it should grow very rapidly. The news today also means that the iOS is the only major mobile platform that will not support the plug-in: Apple won’t let it touch the iPhone, the iPod touch, or the iPad. ...

During a 90-minute presentation on Wednesday at Apple headquarters, Steve Jobs unveiled Apple’s latest thinner MacBook Air 11-inch and 13-inch models, along with the new operating system. The redesigned Mac notebook combines features from the iPhone and iPad with those of a MacBook. The new MacBook Air features a multi-touch that offers you an iPad/iPhone-like experience. Instead of a hard drive, the new thinner, lighter and expensive Mac laptop uses flash storage. Jobs said that all notebooks will be like this someday and added that the Air is the future of the MacBook and all laptops. ...

VLC Media Player, an app that lets you watch videos in several formats that aren’t natively supported by the iPhone, has arrived in Apple’s iTunes store. The app originated on the iPad and is now compatible with iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and “recent” versions of the iPod touch. The features include quick decoding of “almost every” video format, playback in landscape and portrait mode, as well as deleting files directly from the application (bypassing iTunes). Check out an early video review of the application over at 9to5Mac. ...

Mashable: After iOS 4.2, iPad’s screen rotation lock switch, located on the upper-right edge of the device, will become a mute switch, similar to the mute switch on the iPhone. According to Steve Jobs himself, who answered one of 9to5Mac’s readers in an email, the change is permanent, and – although it’s just a matter of a software tweak – users won’t be able to switch between the two functions. ...

Sylvester Caan dropped us a note to tell us (and show us!) his iPad being signed by US President Barak Obama. Take it away, Sylvester: At a rally in Seattle, WA at the University of Washington, the President used the touchscreen on my iPad to give me his autograph. He looked slightly surprised, but proceeded to use his finger to scribble on the iPad using the Adobe Ideas app. ...

The author of this article seems to think Linux in the desktop is dead, with so many missed opportunities, especially during the failure of Windows Vista, they will never break into the market now that Win 7 is so successful. In some ways I agree, but personally, I never thought Linux even had a chance with the average user on a home system. Being in IT, like most peeps in my field, I have become the “help desk” for family and friends; I really do not think the average user is ready for it. Add in the lack of applications and games that are available, it really did not stand a chance. I design and write software, the development costs these days are huge, and the money peeps want a good ROI to out weigh the risks, developing from scratch or even porting an existing app is just too risky. ...