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"What drives the purchase of an Apple machine isn't the OS itself -- it's the packaging, the cabinet design, the quality of the graphics. I don't question that Mac OS is an easier operating system, but I don't think that alone drives Apple's sales anymore. A Mac is almost an appliance like a home entertainment center or a big-screen TV," said Charles Tatum II. In a recent column, I asked users of Windows-based PCs if they were tempted at all to switch to a Macintosh , as I am considering doing for my next home computer. As is often the...

Appleinsider claims that according to "reliable sources", Apple has contracted out the motherboard design for the next-generation PowerMac to Intel. According to the rumor site, Apple has its current resources spread so far across the planned Intel iMacs, PowerBooks, iBooks and Mac minis that outsourcing the PowerMac motherboard design may help them keep a targeted ship date of the 3rd quarter of 2006 for the next-generation PowerMac. The design is expected to take place within the Intel Apple-Group which was quietly formed in November. Outsourcing PowerMac motherboard design to Intel may have some interesting consequences regarding control and exclusivity of...

Apple can alter its business plan slightly and become the well-liked dominant force in the technology market. Everything Apple needs sits right in front of them for the taking. We're just sitting here waiting to restart global innovation and take the PC to the next step.

Apple is planning to release its first entry-level iBook laptops with Intel processors next January at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, highly reliable sources have confirmed to Think Secret. It is not known exactly what processors or price points the new models will debut at, but it is thought Apple will expand the iBook line with one additional model and will lower prices—in some cases possibly $200 or more—to entice current Windows users and prove to the market it will be more competitive with the likes of Dell, Gateway, HP and Sony.

Steve Jobs might not approve, but Apple's latest operating system can be installed on any x86 hardware. How well does it function? Read our preliminary labs test to find out. Back in June, when Apple boss Steve Jobs announced the platform change to the x86 architecture, some Apple-watchers could not believe their ears. Had Jobs not preached for years that Intel's architecture was much too slow? But Apple's slogan is not 'Think Different' for nothing. Its decision to support the x86 architecture lies in the unsatisfactory performance of the incumbent PowerPC processors - particularly in the lucrative and growing notebook...

APPLE PUNDITS are predicting that the entertainment gear maker is set to take on Microsoft in an operating system war again. According to Architosh, an Apple insider has told it that Apple's Messiah Steve Jobs is planning to make an announcement about expanding the Macintosh market share soon.

TheStreet provides an analysis of Apple's current market position with respect to its recent popularity. TheStreet also weighs in on potential product releases at tomorrow's Media event. Despite most recent rumors that the event will simply introduce upgraded regular iPods and new PowerBook/PowerMac (dual Core PPC) configs, the article still speculates on the possibility of a video iPod. That said, the article provides an interesting statistic from the NPD Group: Through August, Apple's share of the U.S. retail market for computers, excluding online sales, grew to 6.6% from 4.3% in the same period last year, according to market researcher NPD...

Apple may not be able to roll out its Intel-based Macs on schedule as it had hoped, because Intel won't be releasing its Woodcrest and Merom processors until the third quarter of next year. A report from The Inquirer notes that "Apple is big, but not nearly big enough to bully Intel," and that the company is attempting to put pressure on Intel in the hopes that the chips will be delivered early. Intel is apparently not providing Apple with preferential treatment, despite the pressure, according to the report.

When Apple Computer announced in June that it planned to move to Intel chips, one of the companies left in the lurch was Terra Soft Solutions. The small Colorado company had carved out a nice niche specializing in selling Linux for Macs and other machines that use IBM's PowerPC chips. In the days following Apple's bombshell, Terra Soft quickly announced plans to seek out alternative hardware on which its Yellow Dog Linux could run. This week, Terra Soft is announcing it has filled some of the void created by Apple's move. Under a new deal, Terra Soft will resell PowerPC-based...

Mac enthusiast sites reported Friday that Apple Computer's operating system for Intel-based computers, which is currently in the hands of developers, has both been leaked to the Internet and cracked so that it will run on non-Apple hardware.

10) Freedom. In the end, it's all about freedom. And while OS X's core is based on the open source and libre Darwin Mach/BSD derivative, very little else is - there is very little freedom within the Mac space. It's either Apple's way or the bye-way. 4) Expanding the Comfort Zone. I can't prove it, but gut-feel tells me that any user who migrates from Windows to the Mac will be far more comfortable in subsequently migrating from an OS X interface to a Linux interface (KDE/Gnome). It's fairly self-obvious really: if you've discovered that a Windows interface isn't the...

"It's fast," said one developer source of Mac OS X running on Intel's Pentium processors. "Faster than [Mac OS X] on my Dual 2GHz Power Mac G5." In addition to booting Windows XP at blazing speeds, the included version of Mac OS X for Intel takes "as little as 10 seconds" to boot to the Desktop from when the Apple logo first displays on screen.

Dell Says He’d Sell Apple’s Mac OS For the first time, a PC player publicly welcomes the notion of selling machines loaded with Apple’s software. I've mentioned several times in the past few months that executives from several PC companies have told me of their interest in Apple's Mac OS X operating system. Sadly my sources would not let me attribute these assertions; PC executives are pretty leery of offending Microsoft, which holds enormous power over their businesses. So, many readers have challenged me on this point. But Dell (the company) has for several years fearlessly—and lucratively—sold servers loaded with...

Thinking MacTel. On an airplane, over Montana perhaps? I read it too, and I knew about it as a rumor months ago. Hell, this is the Internet! REPEAT: 1. I do not hate Windows. 2. I do not hate Intel. 3. No one else for that matter. I just said that I felt that Mac was more security attuned than WinTel for all sorts of reasons that we are talking about here. One of the main reasons is that the Mac integration of OS, HW and BIOS provides additional security over the open architecture approach of many different vendors attempting...