On the surface, an iPad comes across as a pretty innocuous gadget. It’s just a rectangular object with a display, and buttons for volume and muting (or rotation lock if you prefer). It’s a blank slate in the best sense of the term, meaning it does nothing till its turned on and you start running […]

Not so long ago, some people ragged on The Night Owl because they misunderstood my statements that the Mac Pro might be an endangered species in the near future. My point was not that it would happen this year, or the next, but that the future might be bleak for its continuation several years from […]

It wasn’t so many years ago that Apple’s Mac market share was a mere blip compared to the Windows PC. Some suggested it was mostly noise, and very little signal, but that’s also when the tech pundit of the week suggested Apple was dying any day now. For the past 19 quarters, Apple’s sales growth […]

Over the years, Apple has been urged time and time again by customers and media analysts to build cheaper gear. When they respond at all, the answer is usually the same. Apple won’t build junk, and they cannot find a way to cheapen Macs, for example, without sacrificing quality and features. At the same time, […]