Articles

Seasons come and seasons go. Generations past. Today's Mac is nothing like Macs from the turn of the century, and one more generation is about to pass. macOS Mojave will be replaced by macOS Catalina in a few months. Yes, the Mac gets a new OS version about every year, so what's the big deal? macOS ... Read More »

That did not take long. Barely 10 years after the advent of iPhone, we may very well have entered The Golden Age of Smartphones, and, of course, that age was started by iPhone and then copied by Google's Android. Tim Bajarin thinks we may be entering The Golden Age of Mobile Computing, and that covers ... Read More »

Anyone who has purchased and used multiple Apple products through the years has an understanding of the so-called Apple Tax. There once was a time when I could afford-- and used-- the best Apple could offer. I bought a LaserWriter printer for $7,000. I bought a couple of cheese grater Mac Pros-- one ... Read More »

Apple customers have long had a love hate relationship with iTunes on the Mac. Way back in the days of Rip. Mix. Burn. iTunes was little more than an app that let you manage your music collection and burn it onto a CD. Then along came the iPod and iTunes Music Store. Through the years, Apple's iTunes ... Read More »

Despite obviously different business models, Apple and Google have decidedly similar approaches regarding smartphone platform choices. For now, the world is divided into two camps. iPhone and iOS vs. Android. Apple provides customers with a level of built-in stickiness that keeps them on the iPhone, ... Read More »

How many web browsers are on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad? One? Certainly. Apple's Safari is the second most used browser and the most used browser for the company's 1-billion or so customers. What else? The single most popular and most used browser is Google's Chrome, which also is the second most used ... Read More »

Nearly every year for the past half dozen to a dozen years has been labeled The Year of Linux on the Desktop. Does that mean the free operating system will displace Windows and the Mac? Nope. In fact, not much will change despite the declaration. The reality is this. As of 2019,Linux is almost everywhere ... Read More »

Quick. Can you name all of Apple's App Stores? There is the original which now doubles as the iOS App Store for iPhone and iPad. The Mac has its own App Store; somewhat anemic by comparison. Even Apple TV has its own App Store. What else? Which one is missing? Apps for Apple Watch are available ... Read More »

What constitutes a computer interface? It varies, of course, but for most of humanity the interface of the 21st century is a touchscreen display; a PC keyboard for the rest of us. The touchscreen display is predominant on smartphones and tablets, less so on PC notebooks, but total numbers do not necessarily ... Read More »

Let's face it. Technology has moved humankind into a different model for using technology; one where ownership of what we think we bought has become suspect, an era rentals and leases are the new norm. THe most recent example is Microsoft. The Windows maker gave up and closed the company's digital ... Read More »

Which do you have the most? Amazon's Echo with Alexa? Or, a Mac, iPhone, or iPad which runs Siri? One of the professional guesstimators of business gadgets in the marketplace says so-called smart speakers will hit 200-million installed units by the end of the year. Smart speakers? You know; like ... Read More »

Could you do it? Could you switch from Mac to Linux? Or, from Windows to Linux? And why would you switch? What are the advantages from switching from Mac to Linux? I dabble and my trust dusty non-butterfly keyboard MacBook Pro is home to a variety of operating systems. macOS, Windows, and a few flavors ... Read More »

The computer world seems to be divided into two distinct camps. One that fights malware. And one that does not worry about malware. No, this is not a Windows vs. Mac or Android vs. iPhone issue, though ecosystems play a part. Does anybody care about malware anymore? My own personal survey of family, ... Read More »

Apple Inc. has long been considered something of an affordable luxury company for the masses. Not all of humanity, but for a growing percentage of the earth's populace who prefer a higher class of customer experience via Mac, iPhone, iPad, Watch, and other hardware. Yet, today we read about Apple ... Read More »

How many ways can you compare products? As always, the answer is "it depends." When it comes to the iPhone, or any major product from Apple, I see two basic shoot out comparison options. The first is obvious. Pit one iPhone model to another. iPhone XS Max is not, in any way except one, an iPhone 7. The ... Read More »

What's new under the sun? Not much. And everything. It depends mostly upon whom you ask. There is an ongoing battle between Apple's iPhone and Google's Android-based smartphones for market supremacy. Who's winning? In the U.S., guesstimators seem to think Apple has the edge, and, indeed, the company ... Read More »

Until Siri becomes a best friend or Apple's brain wave technology takes over as the interface to our gadgets, we need keyboards. Power users have known for many years that the fastest, most efficient, most productive you can be on a Mac or Windows PC is via the keyboard. That means it's OK to skip ... Read More »

How many cameras are on your iPhone? For most iPhone users, the number is two. For iPhone X, iPhone XS, and XS Max users, the number is three. Is that enough? No. How many cameras should a smartphone have? Three? Four? How about, uh, oh, I don't know-- six? Anton Shilov explains: The key ... Read More »

How does Apple design and build so many products? Engineers. To be more specific, about 300 engineers. It might be 100 engineers. Based on how many new products Apple ships these days, I doubt if the company employs more than 300 engineers. Why so few? Apple has over 130,000 employees, so why so few ... Read More »