If you accept the conventional wisdom, Consumer Reports is the best product review publication in the U.S. The reason is that it’s run by a non-profit corporation that not only doesn’t accept advertising, but actually purchases the items it tests, most often from regular dealers. In other words, it’s incorruptible. So how can you beat […]

As I speculated in yesterday’s column, the makers of competing smartphones are trying to mirror Adobe’s approach on the Flash controversy with smoke and mirrors responses to Antennagate. Whether HTC, Motorola, Nokia or Samsung, the spin control reads the same, using near-identical talking points playbooks. They know all about antennas, and Apple doesn’t, and is […]

When someone predicted Apple would release that highly-anticipated fixer-upper Thursday for at least some antenna-related issues on the latest and greatest iPhone, I was skeptical. How could anyone outside of Apple possibly know. Yet a Greek-language site, iPhone Hellas, had it right on, all the way. Now unless I’m missing something, the only advertised fix […]

When you don’t know what’s going on with Apple, it’s perfectly reasonable to look over their product lineup and see what gaps might be filled. That, alas, can be a double-edge sword. Take the desktop lineup. Three models, but no affordable expandable model. The Mac Pro is simply too rich for most Mac users, and, […]