You know, this explains so much about the persona of "Steven the Dell dude."

Bill Fox fans the flames of my gear lust with his review of the PowerLogix 1.2 GHz single processor upgrade for the G4 Cube.

Apple announced today updated Xserves, as well as the new Xserve RAID. The new servers feature up to dual 1.33 GHz processors, up to 720 GB of storage, FireWire 800, dual Gigabit Ethernet, optional 2 GB Fibre Channel, and unlimited client licenses for Mac OS X Server. The new Xserve RAID is a 3U rack-optimized enclosure that offers up to 2.52 TB--that's terabytes--of storage, dual 2 GB Fibre Channel ports, full redundancy for continuous uptime, and powerful remote monitoring. The Xserve base price drops to $2,799, and the Xserve RAID pricing starts at $5,999. Apple is certainly looking to kick some butt in the enterprise market!

From Damien comes this encouraging news on the TiVo front.

Panic released an updated version of their FTP client today. Mostly a bug-fix release, it does include an oft-requested feature: a preference that allows the user to define what the app does when a file is double clicked. From my limited beta-testing of this release, it remains solid and adequate for my GUI FTP needs. (I tend to use Terminal most of the time.)

My favorite antivirus application has been updated. .Mac subscribers should log in and download the new version, which includes an automatic virus definitions update feature.

A colleague just sent me this link to a baked Apple. Please note that there are links at the top of the page to more pictures other than those immediately displayed. What frickin' rocks is that the PowerBook still boots and they've installed Mac OS X 10.2.

Four and a half years after Apple declared the floppy disk was dead with the introduction of the iMac, the rest of the computer industry is finally starting to follow suit. Dell, of course, is “innovating” ahead of the other PC box companies. I truly love this quote:

“What Dell has done, I expect every major vendor to do in the next 12 months.”

This from Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology consulting firm in San Jose. Where was Tim four and a half years ago, when it was Apple announcing it was removing the floppy disk drive from its systems, beginning with the then-new iMac?

If you are one of those folks who just cannot let go of WordPerfect for the Mac, you can download the last version, released free by Corel, here. (Thanks to a Macintouch Reader Report.)

Even though I'm late in the day reporting this, Apple released upgraded iMacs today. The 17" iMac now sports a 1 GHz G4 processor, while the 15" strolls along with an 800 MHz G4; the flat-panel iMacs sell for $1,799 and $1,299 respectively. The 17" iMac sports a faster system bus, 133 MHz, uses DDR SDRAM memory, a 4x DVD-burning SuperDrive, and a NVIDIA GeForce4 MX video chipset with 64 MB of DDR SDRAM. It is also Airport Extreme- and Bluetooth-ready. The 15" iMac remains compatible with the original Airport, and can use Bluetooth only with a USB adapter.

Thanks to Mike for the link to Kodawarisan Oheya's step-by-step disassembly of a 12" PowerBook G4.

Apple has posted for download iPhoto 2, iMovie 3, and as has been the case, iTunes 3. The full iLife package began shipping earlier this week to those who ordered it to get iDVD 3.

MacMinute is reporting that iLife is now shipping from Apple. iPhoto 2 and iMovie 3 downloads have yet to be posted online, however.

A member of the Cube email list reports that he is unable to log in to his Hotmail account with Safari. He does say this "is limited to the browser login check. If you fire up MSN Messenger and click on the Mail icon with Safari set as your default browser, it will take you right in with no problem." Another member reports that once he logged in with this roundabout solution, he was able to log in again directly through Safari.

Apple released new desktops today. Processors ramp up to 1.42 GHz in the high-end model, as well as a new 4x SuperDrive. Like the PowerBooks released at Macworld Expo earlier this month, the new Power Macs either incorporate or are ready for the latest tech: FireWire 800, Bluetooth, and Airport Extreme.

Apple also dropped the price on its 17- and 23-inch LCDs, to $699 and $1,999 respectively, and introduced a new, 20-inch LCD for $1,299.

Speaking of Mac browsers, Opera’s Jon von Tetzchner whined to CNET about competing with Safari, and losing out on providing the Opera engine to Apple, which chose KHTML to drive Safari instead.

Fellow ATPM staffer Chris Lawson brought the article to our attention, and several interesting comments have been raised, which reflect my own feelings:

Lawson: "...because it sucks and is two versions behind the Windoze version and you keep trying to charge $40 for it. It would be one thing if it were a really fast, slick browser, but it's not.

“Then again, maybe I’m still bitter about the fact that they announced a Mac browser in 1996 ‘in a few weeks’ and didn’t deliver until late 2001…”

Michael: “I’m more distressed that anyone would print a story like this without checking the facts (like whether Mac Opera is any good). It’s irresponsible of CNet to act as von Tetzchner’s mouthpiece.”

Michael also rightly points out that there is nothing stopping Opera from using open-source alternatives, as Apple chose to do by using KHTML. Michael points to Chuq Von Rospach’s rockin' analysis, as well as the dead-on commentary from Eric Albert.

So Mr. von Tetzchner, let’s run the down the Mac browser market, shall we?

• Microsoft Internet Explorer, free
• Netscape, free
• Mozilla, free
• Camino Chimera (Navigator), a Mozilla branch, free
• OmniWeb, free trial, $29.95
• iCab, free or $29 for a "Pro" version
• Opera, $39

Quite simply, people do not expect to have to pay for a web browser any more. Just ask Netscape, and thank Microsoft for it. I know there are many people, myself included, who would pay for a wicked fast, slick-looking, web standards-compliant browser. Unfortunately for Opera, their product isn’t any of those things on the Mac. Like Eric says in his post, the Omni Group still believes there’s a market for a commercial browser; why doesn’t Opera?

I’m very happy with Safari, even in its beta form, and I have Camino Chimera to fall back on, and worse case, IE. If Opera wants to plow the same kind of development into their Mac product that they do for Windows, I’ll sit up and take notice. If instead, Opera wants to leave the Mac market, no tears will be shed here.

Bob Levitus, a.k.a., Dr. Mac, thinks it just may be:

"Safari is wicked fast, with a clean, uncluttered interface and a feature I love--a special field in its toolbar that lets you search the Web via Google without going to the Google Web page first.

“I’ve been using Safari for several weeks, and even though it’s still in beta, it has become my browser of choice. It is much faster than the others, and it may very well be the best browser ever created. Not bad for a program that’s not even done yet.”

So I decided to drag my butt out of bed at 6 am Saturday morning to join a friend for the opening of the new Apple Store on Knox Street in Dallas. This is the Dallas area’s second Apple Store, the first being in Plano at Willow Bend.

My pal Michael, and two of his friends, had already arrived at the store by the time I got out of bed, but were kind enough to save a spot for yours truly, who rolled up at 20 after 8. :)

Though I failed to capture the moment on camera, Michael was the first official customer of the Knox Street store, as he picked up a software title for his wife. I did take lots of other photos.

UPDATE (10:45 am): Michael emailed me links to a gallery that features his first purchase, as well as a shot of yours truly checking out the 12" PowerBook G4. A second gallery shows us waiting out front, though my back’s turned, and an open doorway shot of me, in profile, waiting to look at the 12" PowerBook G4. (Hint, I’m wearing a dark LSU cap and brown jacket.)

Michael notes a history of ClarisWorks posted by Bob Hearn, one of the software package’s creators. The quote Michael highlights stands out in my mind as well.

ClarisWorks was partially responsible for my switching to the Mac back in the mid-90s. I began using the Windows version of ClarisWorks while working at CompUSA, and it became my favorite application when I brought home my first Mac. The rebadged AppleWorks that is its successor actually feels more bloated and “heavy,” and I miss the lightweight but powerful ClarisWorks 3 and 4.

These days, I tend to do most of my text editing/word processing in Tex-Edit and BBEdit. Database stuff is done in FileMaker Pro. What little spreadsheet work I have is done in Excel, but that’s just because I have Microsoft Office through my job. Without Excel, I’d likely be in the spreadsheet module of AppleWorks.

Though he hints at it, what Hearn doesn’t come right out and say is how ClarisWorks totally annihilated Microsoft Works on the Mac. It simply ceased to exist. A truly impressive accomplishment, considering Microsoft’s track record both then and now.

Something I know will be of interest to Michael. (SpamSieve uses Bayesian analysis to identify spam.)

(from Lee)