Geekology

From Reg Hardware "TDK has gone ahead and produced the 200GB Blu-ray Disc it announced a few weeks ago that it was working on. And while it appears to have failed to compress four standard dual-layer 50GB discs together into a single unit, it has nonetheless come up with a novel alternative. According to a subscription-only report on Japanese-language site Techon, the 200GB BD contains six data-storage layers. Now, with a standard dual-layer BD offering 50GB of storage capacity, you might well assume that the 200GB model contains not six but eight data layers." This could be a big bonus for the companies in the Blu-ray camp. I still haven't taken a side. Although, I don't have an HD TV so it doesn't affect me at the current time. I will probably base my decision on DRM issues and iPod video content when I do decide though. I think it is just to early to say.
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From Apple Insider "Apple Computer has recently filed for patents on several interesting technologies that cover iPods wirelessly communicating with TVs, an online teleconferencing whiteboard, an integrated sensing display, and virtual keys of a touch-screen virtual keyboard."
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From Think Secret "Apple held its annual meeting for company shareholders at its Cupertino, Calif. campus this morning. The meeting is the only time during the year when shareholders can ask a question to Apple executives and receive a live, immediate response." The last part of the article is as follows "In a response to a question about Microsoft's Media Center, Jobs replied, 'we hear you loud and clear.'" Is Jobs hinting that Apple might release some kind of media center in the near future? I will let you be the judge.
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From iPod Hub "According to anonymous film industry insiders Apple has been asking studios to include iPod video content on Blu-ray discs. Though movies on Blu-ray discs are expected to start shipping next month and a large screen iPod is still probably months away, Apple wants to make sure that when their next-generation iPod is released it will have a sufficient library of playable content already available for customers to watch."
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From ifoAppleStore "The flagship stores and others have had a chronic problem with visitors hogging the display computers and using them for hours on personal business, rather than demo’ing the computer or software." The article goes on to say "Now Apple has taken notice of the activity, but not from a crowd point of view. Rather, the stores’ Internet connections are apparently taking a hit from all the bandwidth activity. According to visitors, Apple is now blocking the MySpace.com Web site to cut down on net activity."
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Apple has just released the 17" version of the MacBook Pro and their website. It is priced at $2799 and includes a Intel Core Duo processor at 2.16 GHz, a 120 GB HDD, and a 8x Superdrive. It has a screen resolution of 1680 x 1050 and is stil only 1" thick.
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"Needham & Co analyst Charles Wolf is maintaining a 'Hold' rating on Apple stock - but has hopes that Mac sales will surge once the entire range move to Intel. He expects the full product transition to complete by the first quarter of 2007. And he thinks that Boot Camp will be integral to future success. "Mac shipments could surge on the strength of the ability of Macs to run Windows applications," he wrote." The article goes on to explain other resons why Apple could gain market share.
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It looks like someone else has screenshots of what appears to be another variation of a Google Redesign. It looks legit and other users have reportedy seen this too. I think that Google should combine this design with the one from the previous screenshots.
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From T3 "In the wake of the touchscreen iPod delay, Apple will be launching new 8GB and 10GB iPod nanos in the summer. At least that’s what Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is saying." This seems a little odd to me because they would have to cost more than the current 4GB iPod. That would mean that the prices would be close to the 30GB Video iPod. I'm not sure if a lot of people would go for that. Unless Apple decided to replace the 2GB and 4GB models with the 8GB and 10GB models. That still leaves the 1GB, but I don't see Apple doing this. It's all just rumors. All we can do is wait and hope that Stevey J. will announce something cool soon.
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From an article on the Intel Developer’s Forum in Taipei: "Apple customers may be the first to enjoy Intel’s new CPU goodies, with the Woodcrest family of processors making it into Macintosh workstations as early as the third quarter. Woodcrest systems will be symmetric multi processing (SMP), with dual processors with up to four cores each. One such machine was demonstrated at IDF, running benchmarks under Windows XP 64-bit edition, showing eight active cores." This is just pure speculation, but it could mean that Apple will be announcing the new Powermacs sometime in the semi-near future.
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From Infinite Loop "Some of us will never understand the allure of a 17" portable. Regardless of this, the PowerBook G4 iteration of the 17" phenomenon seems to have sold well. For professionals, the combination of portability and desktop real-estate was just too much to resist. With the onset of the Intel transition, the 17" PowerBook lost some of its appeal—its younger, more sleek 15" brother was almost instantly upgraded to the Core Duo while the 17" was stuck with yesterday's technology. According to the Register, those of you who have been holding out for Intel goodness in your behemoth might not have to wait much longer."
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"The flagship Apple notebook is expected to debut at speeds faster than the company's 2.0GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro and pack additional storage capacity, well-placed sources have said. The over-sized portable, which will be built around a stellar 17-inch TFT widescreen display and look very similar to its 15-inch counterpart, will round out Apple's professional line MacBook Pro notebooks, those sources have said." The article goes on to say that Apple is not expected to release a 12" MacBook Pro and instead will release "a pair of "MacBook" consumer notebooks sporting a 13-inch widescreen display and Intel Core Duo processors" that have been delayed till "next month."
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"A cloud is rising over Mac OS X and its future unless Apple makes its boldest move ever: turning OS X into an open-source project. That would make the battle between OS X and Linux the most interesting one on the computer scene. With all attention turned in that direction, there would be nothing Microsoft could do to stem a reversal of its fortunes," says John C. Dvorak in a column for PC Mag. Yes, it would be totally awesome if Apple did this, but there is no way it will ever happen. Apple has said that it is a software company. I want to hear all of you guy’s opinions on this. Feel free to leave a comment.
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Steve Jobs has decided not to write the foreword to Steve Wozniak's autobiography. "I was a little disappointed -- Steve Jobs had indicated he'd write a forward. But he'd never written a forward before and I said, 'Just write what we were like back then,' Wozniak revealed in an interview with Seattle Times reporter Kim Peterson. "We sent him the book and he said, 'Oh, I saw some excerpts, and I'm going to decline writing the forward.'" Steve Wozniak goes on to say "I don't know why" he declined, explained Woz, "because I'm nice to him, so there must have been something he didn't like."

"The roll-out of Apple's forthcoming video iPod has been delayed substantially after the company encountered problems with the display and touch-screen interface, Think Secret has learned. As late as early February plans were in motion for Apple to deliver the most innovative iPod to date in April, possibly a tie-in with its 30th birthday, sources said. Instead, Apple's birthday came and went without fanfare." And I thought we could go a whole week without a video iPod rumor... silly me.
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Google Calendar has been luanched and is called "Google CL2" You can log in with an existing Google Account and take advantage of some of its great features. You can easily import calendars from Outlook and iCal so you can start using it right away.
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Edit: Looks like it was just an April fools joke.

"Rumors are floating around about significant Apple OS X updates that could possibly blow the doors off of Windows Vista in the near future." If you don't want to read the whole article then at least read number 2, 6, 11, and 17.
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I ran across this comic at userfriendly.org and thought I would post about it. It is about DRM and it is totally true.
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Here are the ads for the Firefox ad competition. They are really good. My favorite is Double-Click Relief. Check them out. Hopefully there will be more soon. Go ahead and submit your own.
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AT&T is forwarding all traffic from there network and its peer network's users to the NSA. This is not only a major privacy issue, it could be a threat to the constitution itself. Here is a link to the EFF's page.
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As most of you already know, April 1st was Apple's 30th birthday. If you are not familiar with the History of Apple, or you would just like to refresh your memory, here are some articles about Apple and some of the original Apple employees.

Steve Jobs: The Man Behind The Mac

Company History of Apple

Steve Wozniak

Apple's Wikipedia Article

Also check out the latest episode of TWiT where Leo talks to four of the original Apple employees Bill Fernandez, Andy Hertzfeld, Daniel Kottke, Randy Wigginton, and one of the founders Steve Wozniak. Direct Link To MP3.

It appears that not only can you boot Windows with Boot Camp, you can boot Linux too. Check out these screenshots of the install. It also appears you can have OS X, Windows, and Linux installed at the same time. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
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I have decided to disable comment moderation and turn on word verification instead. I am going to try it out for a while and see if it can stop spam sufficiently. Please let me know what you think.

Apple has released a public beta called "Boot Camp" that allows Intel Mac owners to dual boot Windows XP on their Mac without much tech knowledge at all. "More and more people are buying and loving Macs. To make this choice simply irresistible, Apple will include technology in the next major release of Mac OS X, Leopard, that lets you install and run the Windows XP operating system on your Mac. Called Boot Camp (for now), you can download a public beta today." You still have to go out and buy a copy of Windows, but I think it is good that Apple is doing this. Ultimately, this just makes it easy for "normal" people to run Windows on there Mac without having to manually install the boot files and patch the Windows CD.
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In a comment on a Think Secret post about the true video iPod someone who works for Apple says that they are planning to release the new iPod tomorrow. He also says: "The ipod will have a 3.5 inch display starting at 50GB and going up to 100GB. It will also feature bluetooth technology. The battery on the ipod will playback up to 30 hours of music. And 15 hours of video." We will just have to wait and see what happens tomorrow. The comment is at the bottom of the page by a person names Hashmir.
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From TAIPEI - "Asustek Computer Inc has secured a contract from Apple Computer Inc for iBook notebook personal computers, estimated at about 1.2 mln units initially, the Commercial Times reported, without citing sources. The laptops will be powered by Intel Corp microprocessors and equipped with 13.3-inch liquid crystal display panels. " The article also says that Apple will start selling them in June. Could Apple hold a keynote this month and announce them? We will just have to wait and see.
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Apple is releasing "Revision D" MacBook Pro that address issues such as heat, the whining noise, and AirPort problems. The new "Revision D" MacBook Pros have the serial number ""W8611". If you have a Macbook Pro that has a heat issue and becomes to hot to hold you can take it to the Apple Store and they will replace it with one of the new ones.

Hmmm. Interesting. It looks Area 51 has some visitors. Click the link "Area 51" if you have Google Earth. If not then click the "Read More" link.
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"When you think about it, love is just another search problem. And we’ve thought about it. A lot. Google Romance™ is our solution." Remember it's just a beta.
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