Appletell

Mozy is one of the leading online back-up services. It’s been available on Windows since its launch, and a beta version for the Mac was released not too long ago. The service from EMC allows consumers to back up data on their desktops and laptops to a remote data center, then recover it later if their systems crash. Mozy claims that MozyHome for Mac is the only online backup service out there for the Mac platform - however MacMiniColo.net, a much smaller company I mentioned yesterday, already offer Mac Mini and Time Capsule external hosting (this is great for users who want to take advantage of Time Machine and online backups).

MozyHome lets users upload as much as 2GB of any type of content for free, with no expiration date, according to EMC. Though, for unlimited capacity, the service will cost you $4.95 per month. MozyHome encrypts the files with 448-bit Blowfish encryption and transfers them via a 128-bit SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) connection - in case you were worried about security.

Via [Macworld UK]

Right after a recent patent application that sparked rumors of new stores, Nielson Online is reporting that Apple’s online web traffic and sales has grown significantly.  Last year at this time, Apple had a three month average unique visitors amount of 42.9 million, but that has now reached 48.4 million.  On top of this, total minutes spent on the site increased from 9.4 billion to 10.5 billion over the same time span.  From this extra time, the amount of purchases on the site has increased from 322,000 to 424,000, also.  Those are some pretty impressive numbers and really show that Apple is gaining popularity.

What is your thoughts on these numbers?  Is this another sign Apple is increasing its market presence, or just an expected growth due to the hype around new Apple products such as the MacBook Air?

Via [a href="http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/04/22/apples.web.traffic/">MacNN]

In light of a recent patent application from Apple, a redesign to the Online Apple Store and the iTunes Music Store may be in the works.  The new store would be radically different, replacing the “sterile and isolated” environment of online shopping with a huge, interactive site resembling that of Second Life.  The patent, titled ”Enhanced Online Shopping Atmosphere”, shows the above picture, along with details about how customers could literally “walk” around the store, and interact with customers.  You could communicate with other customers, ask for advice from the Geniuses, even ask peoples opinion on something or ask why they abandoned one product for another.  There is also talk of interactive forums and group chats within the store.  One of the main arguments behind the patent is that with an online store, users cannot “Window Shop”, but with an interactive environment such as the one presented, window shopping will be enabled and thus increase potential sales from Apple.

Voice your opinions about the pros and cons of an interactive store below in the comments.

Via [MacWorld]

For Web designers who need to upload things they make in photoshop, there is a a new easy plug-in for Photoshop called SiteGrinder 2 that lets you convert documents directly to Cascade Style Sheet (CSS) code right in Photoshop.  Both the basic and the pro versions the ability to upload everything from videos and slideshows to flash animations and interactive menus directly to a website, while keeping the same layouts and design exactly as it would appear in Photoshop

“We’re very excited to be releasing SiteGrinder 2 for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard,” said Thomas Summerall, co-founder and President of Media Lab, Inc. “SiteGrinder 2 puts extremely powerful and easy-to-use webpage creation capabilities in the hands of our customers, letting them focus exclusively on their designs rather than on confusing webpage code. SiteGrinder 2 lets customers take ownership of their websites like never before, and at an extremely reasonable price point”.  The program costs $129 and $349 for basic and pro respectively. Media Lab, inc. and Sitegrinder have quite the reputation (Media Lab’s products, including SiteGrinder, have been used in multiple Hollywood movies, along with productions at Disney World), so hopefully the product will live up to its name.

Via [MacMegasite]

Visitors of the Airport Express Page on Switzerland’s online Apple Store may notice that they are greeted with a description of the Airport Express that clearly identifies it as a new model, as reported by MacGeneration.

“Connect to the Internet, print, and share music from iTunes with any room in the house. Everything without wires. Now with 802.11n as standard,” the description (which has now been removed) read, translated from its original French.

Apple promises as much as five times the speed as the earlier 802.11g standard with the new Airport Express, which is used by the current model for sale from Apple. The price, core USB printing, and disk sharing features also appear to be the same as the older model.

Apple is not known to make mistakes on any of its online stores, and while this possible leak is potentially real, it can also be some sort of joke or error on Apple’s part. Apple has now removed most of the “leaked” information, meaning that they might not have meant to display it in the first place.

The (accidental?) slip has not appeared on any of Apple’s other international online stores but would signal the likely change of the Airport Express hardware, which has remained the same since it was introduced by Apple in June 2004.

MySpace may be the biggest social network in America, but it isn’t big in the music downloading industry. Reuters recently pointed out that they may soon be releasing a music download service of their own. Reuters does not know for sure, but it is speculating that it may be a white box version of Amazon ‘s DRM-Free UnBox music service.

They may be launching a version on the web for streaming and a version for downloading music. Reuters pointed out that it is expected to offer the the service for free, meaning the music would be free. All free things come with a catch, and you may have to put up with ads in your music or some other form of advertising. I doubt that MySpace will succeed with this, as I still can’t figure out why they were popular to begin with.

Via [Reuters]

This week on “Lawsuits against Apple” we have a double-whammy. Apple is off to a good start this week with 2 lawsuits filed against them. One pertaining to online receipts, and the other to their notebook power adapters. I also hear that Apple’s legal team in entering the Business Olympics in the lawsuit category, but that is still unconfirmed.

The first lawsuit was filed by two Miami-Dade citizens that claim Apple has “recklessly disregarded” consumer’s rights to have credit or debit card information kept secret. This is under a section of the US federal government’s Fair Credit Reporting Act. This act prevents companies from printing a customers credit/debit card’s expiration date, as well as more than the last 5 digits of the card’s number on receipts. The law firm suing Apple says that Apple has ignored this law and that receipts show more information than allowed under the FCRA. The concern is that if someone gets a hold of one of these receipts, some might be able to use the information steal the identity of the customer.

The second lawsuit is about a patent. Thomas Harvey filed a seven-page complaint alleging that Apple is infringing upon one of his patents. The patent pertains to using an LED at the end of a notebook recharger. If Thomas is successful in his lawsuit, Apple will have to pay for lost profits and pay out triple the damages for the actual infringement itself.

That is all for today’s lawsuits, but stay tuned to find out what Apple gets themselves into next.

Via [AppleInsider]

Apple has given a much needed boost to the .Mac service. Offering more storage, better integration with iLife ‘08 and even server side SPAM filtering for email.

The online storage has been increased from 1GB to 10GB for individual accounts and from 2GB to 20GB for family packs. Web Gallery will require iPhoto ‘08 and will allow you to upload and share pictures and video from either iPhoto ‘08 or iMovie ‘08. You can also let friends and family upload photos by email or browser or print out images at up to 16x20. The .Mac email now allows for attachments up to 20mb and has spam filtering available. To activate the spam filtering go to your webmail preferences in your .Mac account.

The updates and upgrades to the .Mac service will be given to the current users automatically and should take effect no later than August 14th. New users can sign up for $99.95 a year for an individual or $179.95 for a family pack with a 30-day free trial available. Overall this seems like some much needed improvements, I would say it’s still far from perfect but in my opinion it is now worth the yearly cost.

Read [Apple]

For those of you who have an iPhone that isn’t cardboard or dispenses mints, you have probably experimented with the many iPhone applications available for use. If you aren’t satisfied with the many applications available, Plusmo has more than 20,000 widgets that you can use on your iPhone. Ever stop and think “Gee, wouldn’t it be great if I could have a Peanuts comic strip in an easy to read widget that updates each and everyday? Maybe you didn’t have that exact though, but the point is now you can.

The Plusmo service supports not only the iPhone but also most other Java-enabled phones such as the Blackberry. You can create and customize your own widgets from sources like XML and RSS, so if you haven’t found the widget you are looking for after searching all 20,000 of them, you can just create your own. 

This service, to me, sounds sort of like an online equivalent of the Dashboard. All widgets are free and are already up and online for you to enjoy.

On another note, The Duggars just had their 17th child. Yes, 17. I think this family could use an iPhone.

Via [iPodNN] + [Neatorama]

It has become the norm to see that each week yet another lawsuit is filed against Apple. Last week we saw Apple sued over the iPhone battery, and this week has started of with Apple being sued over the iTunes Store. Rapper Eminem and his music publishers are taking Apple to court saying that Apple doesn’t have permission to be selling his music on the iTunes Store. Even though Apple pays a portion of the money collected for the tracks to Universal, Eminem’s music publishers claim that they never authorized Universal put the music up on iTunes.

At issue is is whether record labels have the right to turn an artist’s CD recordings into digital music downloads on the Internet, or whether further permission is needed from the music publishers who hold the copyrights to the lyrics and sheet music.

This quote from AppleInsider shows what it seems Eminem and his publishers are fighting for. I am not really sure what Eminem is up in arms about. Now that the iTunes Store is the third largest music store in the US, I would expect that Eminem is selling a fair amount of music on iTunes. If Apple loses the lawsuit and is forced to remove Eminem’s music from the store, who is it really hurting in the end?

Via [AppleInsider]