About this Author
Sandy McMurray is a long-time technology journalist whose work has appeared in Time, the Globe & Mail, the Toronto Sun, Report on Business, Profit, and other sources. Between 1995 - 2002, Sandy wrote a weekly column about technology for the Toronto Sun, and served as Technology Editor for five Sun Media newspapers. He has been publishing on the Web since 1996.
Contact: readme@mac.com
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Monthly Archives
October 26, 2004
Posted by Sandy
Contrary to what you may read elsewhere, the news at today's Apple event was not all about Canada.
- iPod Photo
- iTunes 4.7 released
- U2 Special Edition iPod
Contrary to earlier speculation, Apple did not add photo browsing to existing iPod products. iPod Photo is an entirely new product line, with a higher price tag than the iPod mini or regular iPod.
Editorial note: This item has been updated to correct my bad math.
...continue reading.
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Posted by Sandy
iTunes store for Canada? Not today. Best of luck to the Red Sox.
Update: "Apple today also announced it will launch the iTunes Music Store in Canada in November."
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October 25, 2004
Posted by Sandy
Q: How are Canadian Mac fans like Red Sox fans?
A: We've had our hearts broken many times in the past.
 On the other hand, maybe this is our year --
just like the Red Sox.
On the eve of the U2 iTunes event, iTunes has locked Canadians out of the American iTunes store. Previously, the software allowed Canadian users to browse the U.S. store after displaying a warning; now it just displays the flags of the four current iTunes stores (i.e. USA, UK, France and Germany).
Update: You can still browse using the "Browse" button, but you can't enter other iTunes store(s) the old way.
Will the iTunes store go worldwide tomorrow? Will Canadians be able to buy music from their own iTunes store? My hopes are high, but it's probably better to brace for another heartbreak.
Stay tuned...
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October 23, 2004
Posted by Sandy
The sky began to fall October 22, thanks to this discussion on MacInTouch. Readers learned that the first ever virus for Mac OS X had been found. Again!
No, wait... the sky is not falling. If you read the reaction to the story on Macintouch you discover that "Opener" (aka Renepo) is not a worm or a virus. It's a script that can do quite a bit of mischief if it runs on an OS X system that has already been compromised.
Here's a pithy summary from anti-virus maker Sophos:
Note that any attacker trying to plant this worm in your network would need to get root access on one of your boxes first, meaning that you would already be "owned".
In other words: this is a root kit, not a virus or a worm.
Nothing to see here. Move along, please.
...continue reading.
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Posted by Sandy
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October 22, 2004
Posted by Sandy
Leander Kahney notes that the original iPod had bigger problems than the infamous, overblown battery problem: "...the FireWire port in first- and second-generation iPods suffers from a fatal design flaw. The connector is unreinforced, and the constant plugging and unplugging of the FireWire cable can loosen the solder on the motherboard.
With broken solder points, the iPod is no longer recognized by the host computer, though in most cases, it still charges." I have an early 20 GB iPod with an entirely different problem: the headphone jack is flaky. Sometimes it sounds good, but more often one side or another of the sound cuts out.
Is there a quick and easy $40 fix for that?
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Posted by Sandy
I want to talk about software development on Mac OS X, but I don't quite know how to frame the discussion.
It seems to me that there's been a lot of activity recently in the small developer and single-purpose application space. Is there a shift happening, or am I just noticing a bunch of small developers for the first time?
Maybe sites like VersionTracker, MacUpdate, and Apple's own Mac OS X Downloads page are raising awareness of single-purpose apps?
What do you think?
...continue reading.
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Posted by Sandy
To everyone who has sent "Are you okay?" e-mail messages:
I'm fine, thanks for asking.
Here's where I've been: following a death in our extended family, I spent a week as Mr. Mom, standing in for my amazing wife. That was followed by a long weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving), then a busy week filled with pre-Christmas product briefings. This week has been a blur: software training, more product briefings, and lots of meetings. Not nearly enough writing.
Three weeks away makes a site pretty stale. Good thing Steve Jobs took some time off or there would be much more catching up to do.
Just one more poke at Halo 2, then I'll get back to work.
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October 01, 2004
Posted by Sandy
 Business Week writer Peter Burrows tackles the Macs cost too much argument:
Some say that by sticking to his high-priced strategy, Jobs is wasting an opportunity to grab market share. That's missing the point. Every other major PC maker has struggled to make money while going head to head with commodity king Dell Inc. Only by focusing on innovative, premium products has Jobs avoided that fate. If he can keep delivering on that formula, Apple's future looks surprisingly bright. Burrows notes that Apple's current marketing strategy is focused on the "halo effect" provided by the iPod sales boom. The new iMac is being sold with the line, "from the makers of iPod."
If this doesn't work, maybe they should adopt Burrows' line of thinking and try Apple. We make innovative, premium products.
If that doesn't work, maybe Apple could buy the trademark for It doesn't suck from Bare Bones Software.
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