Asked about the declining PC market, Mr. Gates agreed that tablets are growing in popularity, and predicted that it’s “going to be harder and harder to distinguish products” that are PCs versus tablets—the Surface being a prima facie example, combining the “portability of the tablet but the richness of the PC.”

As for iPad users, Mr. Gates contends that “With Windows 8, Microsoft is trying to gain market share in what has been dominated by the iPad-type device. But a lot those users are frustrated. They can’t type. They can’t create documents. So we’re providing them something with the benefits they’ve seen that has made that a big category but without giving up what they expect in a PC. If you have Surface or Surface Pro, you have the portability of the tablet but the richness of terms of the keyboard, Microsoft Office of the…

Continue reading Bill Gates on the iPad: “A lot of those users are frustrated” – but we keep buying iPads

As we get closer to WWDC 2013 in June, rumors are starting to spread regarding Apple’s next update to the Macintosh operating system: OS X 10.9. According to several online reports, OS X 10.9 will continue with Mountain Lion’s trend of borrowing features from iOS for Apple’s iDevices.

Speculation is that Apple is preparing to update the core design and key functionality, making necessary software enhancements…

Continue reading [Rumor] OS X v10.9 to borrow more features from iOS

Continue reading Apple releases OS X 10.8.4 beta to developers

Apple trademarked both names back in 2003 under the common category of “computers; computer software; computer operating system software,” so there’s no impediment to naming OS X 10.9 “Cougar.”

However, there is the delicate matter of the name’s association in the colloquial vernacular referencing the behavior of some women of a certain age. John doesn’t think it’s really an issue for Apple. I’m not so sure about…

Continue reading Could Apple really name OS X 10.9 “Cougar” with no problem?

Moorhead notes that heretofore the enterprise has made sacrifices and compromises in order to access the iPad’s benefits, because since iPad’s inception, no satisfactory alternative had been available. However, technologies have now become available that Moorhead predicts will disrupt the iPad’s enterprise tablet dominance.

Particular points cited in support of Moorhead’s thesis include the fact that some Windows tablets have user-replaceable batteries, connect to much broader array of peripherals (such as laser printers, receipt printers, scanners, card swipers, fingerprint authentication, and smart cards), and can support extended-life batteries, giving them longer effective battery runtime than the iPad’s +/- 10 hours—possibly a deal-breaker for the iPad if it is to be used in a customer service environment where running out of battery juice and plugging the device in is unacceptable, and could mean missing the sale or leaving a patient. The burgeoning Windows 8 tablet devices are both more connectable and more expandable than the iPad with more I/O…

Continue reading Why the iPad’s 3-year enterprise tablet dominance is on the bubble

Apple released OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 on Thursday. I downloaded and installed the update last evening via Software Update, and that went reasonably smoothly except that my first attempt at a (mandatory) restart after the App Store app’s prompt still yielded OS 10.8.2.

Why? Beats me. After a re-scan by the App Store program, Software Update indicated that the update still needed downloading. I clicked the button, but this time the progress bar advanced from start to finish in about 30 seconds, followed by reappearance of the restart prompt. The second restart attempt proved the charm, and after the upgraded system sorted itself out for about 10 minutes behind a grey screen with the Apple logo, the log-in screen popped up and the boot-up completed nicely.

I rarely use Software Update for operating system updates, my usual (and still preferred) mode being to download the freestanding update installer and apply that with all other applications quit. However, I’m trying to preserve what’s left of dwindling hard drive free capacity on my late 2008 Core 2 Duo MacBook while I decide which way to go with a system upgrade, so I went with Software Update for this one.

The entire process took about an hour and a half; the 540.46 MB main update download proceeding in the background while…

Continue reading OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 hands-on; minor software update glitch encountered

Apple has released OS X 10.8.3, the latest update for Mountain Lion, which also includes Safari 6.0.3. In addition to bug and security fixes, it includes the ability to scan an iTunes card using your laptop’s camera instead of manually entering the code.

Features in 10.8.3:

• The ability to redeem iTunes gift cards in the Mac App Store using your Mac’s built-in camera
• Boot Camp support for installing Windows 8
• Boot Camp support for Macs with a 3 TB hard drive
• A fix for an issue that could cause a file URL to quit apps unexpectedly
• A fix for an issue that may cause Logic Pro to become…

Continue reading Apple releases OS X 10.8.3, Safari 6.0.3

Not humongously big in this instance, adult Canada Lynx (Lynx Canadensis) weigh in at 15 to 30 pounds. Known as the “cross-border cat,” Lynx range throughout most of Canada except for the high Arctic, the southern prairies, and, alas, my home of Nova Scotia (we do have Bobcats, a close relative) and neighboring Prince Edward Island. In the U.S., Lynx territory is in Minnesota, Maine, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Alaska and Colorado, where a reintroduction program has been under way since 1999.

CNET’s Lance Whitney reports that according to a MacRumors report back in July, 2003, Apple trademarked several big…

Continue reading Why OS X Lynx would be an excellent name for v10.9

Meanwhile Apple’s new regime is making users more and more dependant on connection with the iTunes / iCloud / App Store mothership, which my friend says puts him in mind of 19th-Century sweatshops. They make people 100% dependent on the factory owner—in this instance the manufacturer of machines we depend on, like the iPhone, iPad, and, increasingly, the Mac as well.

My friend has a nice mid-2010…

Continue reading Apple’s cloud computing “ecosystem” – walled garden or comfortable prison?

By contrast nearly 40% (39.51% in January, according to Web analytics firm NetMarketShare) of computer users overall are still running Windows XP, a version first released by Microsoft way back in 2001, while some three months after its release, only 2.26% have upgraded to the latest Windows 8. Despite Windows’ still overwhelmingly dominant 91% plus share of that market, the latest version of OS X (10.8 Mountain Lion) still has a greater proportion of users overall (2.44%) than Windows 8 has attracted so far.

However, Apple’s two-versions-back OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (originally released in June, 2009, making it slightly older than Windows 7) still has slightly more users than the later OS X 10.7 Lion which came out in 2011. Again according to NetMarketShare data, in January, Snow Leopard remained the OS X version installed on…

Continue reading Is OS X Snow Leopard Apple’s Windows XP? Well, not exactly