Building upon Mac OS X Snow Leopard's aim to improve overall performance for Mac desktop users, Snow Leopard Server will similarly seek to improve scalability and reliability for Mac server users. That is particularly evident in improvements to its email and directory services.
Microsoft has announced plans to dive into the challenging retail business with its own corporate-branded outlets to take on Apple's growing visibility among consumers.
Apple is believed to be wrapping up a new feature in iTunes 8 that will allow users to stream their iTunes video purchases directly from the company's servers for playback anywhere, anytime without eating up local storage.
Despite licensing the proprietary ActiveSync Exchange Server protocol from Microsoft for use with the iPhone, Apple is building its own Push Notification Server for messaging services in both the iPhone and Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server using open, interoperable standards.
An architectural overhaul to Apple's QuickTime media software due as part of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard may ship with a media player that bundles once-premium features at no cost.
Apple's expanded support for ZFS will premiere in Snow Leopard Server before trickling down to the desktop version, according to sources familiar with the company's plans.
Apple has set up an online survey to find out more about how recent buyers of Apple TV make use of their box and what they do and don't like about it in an effort to improve the system.
As part of Apple's plans to help trim the footprint of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the new system will cease the customary installation of several gigabytes of printer drivers and instead load only the files necessary for existing devices, relying on Software Update to obtain new drivers in the future as needed.
Microsoft's answer to portions of Apple's MobileMe service was expected to be called SkyBox, but the company is now rebranding the mobile data sync service as My Phone, according to pages posted to the company's Windows Mobile website.
Once past the fairly painless installation of the Windows 7 beta, Mac users will be struck with deja vu. This new version of Windows looks more like Mac OS X than any previous edition ever offered by Microsoft.
iPhone 3G users stuck in an AT&T dead zone at home or at work will soon be able to plug in a device that provides a strong local signal for up to 10 phones and four simultaneous voice or data connections via a connection to broadband Internet.
Mac users who have a need to run Windows applications or games may have good reason to keep an eye on the development of Windows 7, due for release later this year. Among its features are easier setup and installation.
A report detailing handheld gaming adoption by mobile phone users says that downloads of mobile games are up 17% over last year, and that iPhone users are nearly ten times as likely to have downloaded games compared to other mobile phone users.
Microsoft’s public beta of Windows 7 is similar enough to Vista that it is fairly easy to install on a Mac, either using BootCamp to install it natively, or within a virtual environment. Here’s what’s involved with obtaining the beta and installing it using Sun's free VirtualBox software.
Various clues on the next version of the iPhone are being collected that point to a major architectural overhaul that could bring dramatically improved graphics performance to Apple's popular smartphone.
One of the original pillars of Apple's iLife suite, iDVD, has increasingly been given the cold shoulder to the point where it is not even depicted on the retail package anymore. How much longer will the app stick around now that the company has focused on pushing media sharing online?
Microsoft's Zune hit the ground even harder in its third holiday quarter. After two years of annual sales that barely reached the million unit mark, the company reported a major new drop in device sales for the winter quarter.
With unit growth and revenues that beat the Street's expectations, Apple's resilience in the face of global economic woes is great news for its investors, but bad news for competitors, according to a note Connexiti issued by supply chain analyst Richard Davenport.
While Microsoft is working to refine its flagship operating system to be more palatable to a wide audience of PC users, Apple is working to keep Mac OS X a key attraction to Mac hardware to woo potential switchers and retain its loyal users. Here's what's known about Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
As the previous segment detailed, Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard aren't competing directly; instead, each is part of competitive strategy to either grow the Mac user base at Microsoft's expense, as Apple has been doing, or in Microsoft's case, to stop the hemorrhaging market share losses and reclaim leadership of desktop operating system development.
Despite rough economic conditions in the US that are hitting the retail sector particularly hard, Apple released record shipments of iPods and claimed the second-highest quarter of Mac sales in the company's history, thanks to strong international growth, retail strength, new MacBooks, and diversification from Apple's core business.
Purportedly left for dead and mocked by pundits, Apple TV has actually turned into a productive hobby for Apple that will see continued development in the future, with sales rising threefold over the past year, according to acting chief executive Tim Cook.
Apple exposed its complete lack of interest in building a stripped down, voice-only iPhone or a Mac-based netbook during its fiscal first quarter conference call Wednesday afternoon.
Apple just released the new QuickTime 7.6, which includes updates for encoding quality, reliability, compatibility, and security enhancements.
A new US survey reveals a general decline in mobile phone growth, a mass exodus from Sprint to other carriers, a significant but relaxing demand for the iPhone, a failure of the Android G1 to have much impact for T-Mobile, but continued strength in the smartphone segment.
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Prince McLean and Kasper Jade
