Every high school and junior high student in the Ballinger school district near San Angelo has been given a brand new MacBook. Lucky them.
Let’s assume that most of these youngsters have not owned a Mac before. What advice should we give them? What tips would make their computing life a happy one?
Here’s my list, which in some respects is similar to Alex Payne’s, linked above:
- don’t let your Mac automatically log you in. Pick a good system password and make sure you have to enter it to gain access
- back your stuff up. If your computer is going to die, the chances are good that it’ll die the day before you have to hand in that important assignment
- don’t overload your Applications folder with stuff you don’t need
- use a text editor to write. Only use a word processor for final formatting, if it’s necessary; even then, TextEdit or Bean are just fine for most of the basics
- learn about properly quitting apps (not just closing their windows); about using disk images and installing software from them; about grabbing screenshots with Command+Shift+3 and Command+Shift+4; about Expose and Spaces and Quick Look
Just a few tips off the top of my head. If you were in that school hall while those MacBooks were handed out, what advice would you have been giving the kids?
Written by Giles Turnbull on September 17th, 2008 with no comments.
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Image via Gearlog
Emulating Apple’s propensity for using media “events” to unveil new technology, T-Mobile sent an “invitation” to technology press Tuesday, encouraging attendance at a New York City event on September 23rd that will mark the debut of Google’s Android smartphone and the software it’s powered by.
The event sets up the first public challenge to Apple’s domination of the touch-screen smartphone market, with the thoroughly-leaked and publicly previewed phone, once known as the HTC Dream but now called the G1. Reportedly tricked-out with features including a slide-out display that exposes a full keyboard, as well as a BlackBerry-like trackball, the phone has been rumored to be the launch device for T-Mobile’s nationwide 3G network and may also boast GPS navigation, a tilt sensor and Wi-Fi connectivity.
We hope that Wi-Fi rumor proves true if the G1 hopes to go toe-to-toe with iPhone.
Via AppleInsider
Written by Lonnie Lazar on September 16th, 2008 with no comments.
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Image via Flickr by sasurau
The market for Apple’s iPhone may turn out to be less than half the size once expected in Japan, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. With worldwide sales of the 3G model approaching 6 million units since its July 11 launch, and at least one analyst predicting total 2008 sales to reach 7 - 8 million units, Japanese consumers may snap up fewer than half a million out of a previously predicted 1 million, writes Journal reporter Yukari Iwatani Kane.
“The iPhone is a difficult phone to use for the Japanese market because there are so many features it doesn’t have,” says Eimei Yokota, an analyst with MM Research. More than 10 domestic handset manufacturers compete for a slice of Japan’s cellphone market, one of the world’s largest with annual sales of 50 million phones. Nokia Corp., the industry leader in global shipments, has less than 1% share in Japan. Instead, Sharp Corp. leads the Japanese market, with about 25% of shipments. Models currently sold by Japanese cellphone makers typically contain a high-end color display, digital TV-viewing capability, satellite navigation service, music player and digital camera. Many models also include chips that let owners use their phones as debit cards or train passes.
While Softbank, Apple’s cellular phone partner in Japan with 19.5 million wireless subscribers, says the iPhone continues to be popular, Yokota, the MM Research analyst, says one small but must-have feature often cited as a deficiency in the iPhone is the lack of “emoji,” clip art that can be inserted in sentences to jazz up emails.
Takuro Hiraoka, an analyst for GfK Marketing Services Japan Ltd., says the problem could be a lack of education. “Japanese users don’t know what to do with an iPhone,” he said. “Sales could grow if Apple provides specific examples of how it can be used.”
Written by Lonnie Lazar on September 16th, 2008 with no comments.
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The US back-to-school promotion’s done, but its equivalent has now fired up in the UK. Brits can now grab Apple laptops or iMacs, an iPod nano or iPod touch, and then get a rebate of up to £95 (which doesn’t actually cover the cost of even the cheapest iPod on offer, but still).
The most interesting part about this is the offer’s closing date: the spooktastic October 31. It’s pretty rare for Apple to start shipping new Macs when this kind of promotion is still running, so does this mean we now won’t be seeing new Mac laptops and iMacs until November? Or are British students just getting ‘encouraged’ to clear Apple’s UK inventory, readying the company for its autumn/fall assult?
Written by Craig Grannell on September 16th, 2008 with no comments.
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Microsoft has maintained a publicly announced schedule for releasing Windows 7 in early 2010, but its internal calendar has June 3, 2009 as the planned release date, according to a report by InternetNews.com.
Stung, perhaps by the relentless ribbing its Vista operating system has taken at the hands of Apple advertising, along with countless jibes from pundits on the Internet, Microsoft plans to release a beta version of the new system at its Professional Developers Conference next month.
Inside sources confirm that internal builds of the redesigned platform have already been made available to partners for hardware and software certification. Windows 7 is not a whole new OS but an evolution of Vista, and will reuse the old kernel and device driver model. That means it would use the kernel in its newer state, when Microsoft updated it with Vista’s first service pack. It also means existing device drivers for Vista will work on Windows 7.
Good luck with that, guys.
Written by Lonnie Lazar on September 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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