The conventional wisdom — which is seldom conventional — has it that Apple and Microsoft must tout loads of flashy new features to justify asking their customers to pay for their ongoing operating system upgrades. That may be true, all right, but it only presents part of the picture. Now as some of you recall, […]

So a client calls me to set up his spanking new MacBook, an operation that I took to be utterly routine, having done that sort of thing for years with different Macs. Arriving at his home, I realized I had forgotten to take my FireWire cable — he had purchased the white MacBook entry-level model, […]

Around the world, millions of Mac users have seen Apple’s latest Leopard update appear in their Software Update preference panes. The vast majority of these folks will simply accept the installation, enter their passwords and click Restart at the appropriate time. They will then get back to work after their Mac has completed the restart […]

When I read a commentary from John Martellaro of The Mac Observer this week, suggesting that Apple might want to use some of its huge cash reserves to construct a highly-automated manufacturing facility as a hedge against poor working conditions and uncertainties in Asia, I was struck by a single paragraph that contained a quote […]