Appletell

For those of you who are Mac fans at heart, but not at wallet, we have the thing for you: the EFiX OS X dongle The company behind the device claims that with the dongle, you can install any retail version of Mac OS on almost any PC. Just stuff the card into a free USB slot and voilà! The EFiX will supposedly take care of all the necessary cracks and patches needed to run Leopard or another version of Mac OS right on your PC. This has the potential to be very popular among those who already have a PC but have a Mac longing; it also has the potential to alert Apple’s legions of lawyers. 

This product sounds off numerous scam alarms, but an OSX86 developer proves the product to be real. No word on price yet. As for release date, rumors point to later this month. The dongle would have been out sooner had supposed “sabotage” not occurred.

Via [BoingBoing Gadgets]

If that brief news tidbits coming from Commercial Times of Taiwan is any indication of what may come for the MacBooks, we may well be looking at a new MacBook model soon. According to the report, AU Optronics (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoeletronics are splitting up their orders of LCD panels from Apple. Those LCD panels are apparently for Apple’s “new MacBook consumer notebook PCs.”

The report also mentioned that the said new MacBooks are slated for release in the third quarter of 2008 and are expected to shoot up MacBook shipments this year by around 3 million units.

I know this may not be enough reason to get excited about a new MacBook, especially since we haven’t heard any slight hint coming from Apple about this the past few days. Aside from the fact that Apple has been busy prepping up the rumored release of a 3G iPhone. But if ever a new MacBook will come out later this year, I wonder how Apple will brand it this time? MacWind?

Via [Digitimes]

The popular Times Reader for PC is set to get its own Mac version sometime this month. The Mac beta version will get the same core set of features as its PC counterpart including, easy-to-read paginated format, offline access, seven-day archive, text search and font size adjustment. NYT is even throwing access to its Premium Crosswords, how cool is that?

Unlike its the PC version, where the Times Reader’s windows automatically adjust to render a user’s screen, Mac users would be given with four pre-set window sizes to choose from. Ironically, the Times Reader for Mac uses Microsoft’s Silverlight technology to render the Times pages on the Mac Version. NYT reasons out that this was done to make the Mac Version as close as possible to the PC version of the Reader.

Additionally, the search function of the Times Reader for Mac has became more robust, now allowing full text searching of each articles in the seven day period.

As the Times Reader for Mac is still in beta stage, expect some bumps as you do your daily dose of NYT readings. NYT promises to put in more advanced features into their Mac Reader including News in Pictures and a faster synchronization time.

Via [First Look Blog]

Although Safari has a very measly presence in the PC world, those numbers are changing.  With Safari 3.0, Apple had a fairly constant .07% of the PC Internet Browser share.  With the recent automatic download of Safari 3.1 angering and alienating many of those PC users, it was fairly unknown what the impact on the market share would be.  Things seem to be looking up for Safari 3.1, with the overall market share jumping to .21%.  This is seen as a good jump for Apple, but they still have a bit of work to do if they want to further increase that. 

According to Net Apps, the Safari browser is blowing up on the Windows platform… to the tune of three times its last month of total of market share.  No doubt in large part due to (un)equal parts coming out of beta, the great reviews and Apple’s somewhat questionable strategy of slipping the application into the iTunes software update...When you are playing on Microsoft’s field, you have to play by Microsoft’s rules....or when in Rome?- Seth Weintraub for 9 to 5 Mac

Hopefully this will also help Safari in their overall market share, as they trailFirefox by more then 10%.

What browser do you prefer?  Any complaints about a specific one?  Sound off below.

Via [9 to 5 Mac]

Market research firm Gartner released a report Wednesday showing that Apple’s market share for personal computers in the US is now 6.6%, a nice step up from the 5.2% they were at.  Shipping over 1.01 million machines, Apple is now the fourth under Dell, HP, and Acer respectively in the US market.  Unfortunately, Apple has not yet made the top 5 list when it comes to computer producers worldwide.  That list contained HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, and Toshiba respectively.  However, Apple has still made some very steady growth this quarter which is one thing they can be proud of.

One strong point in sales for all the companies was mobile platforms, or laptops.  This is no surprise as laptops are becoming very powerful and people are becoming more mobile.  “Despite declining consumer confidence, U.S. consumers did not put off mobile PC purchases as evidenced by solid mobile growth,” Mika Kitagawa, principal analyst for Gartner said. “This growth was stimulated in part by aggressive price cuts.” Keep up the good work Apple, I would love see you on that worldwide list next quarter!

Via [AppleInsider]

For you not brushed up on you Latin, carpe diem is a popular literary expression meaning, “Seize the day.” What do I mean by this?  If Apple wants to take control of the computer world that Microsoft has dominated for so long, now is the perfect time.  All the planets are aligned, so to speak, and Apple just needs to take advantage of the situation.  If they do it right, the tables could start to turn on Microsoft, leaving them wondering what happened.  Here are three reasons the time is perfect for Apple to take control.

1) Vista. I think it’s safe to say that the majority of the population is fairly disappointed with Vista.  After years of development and delays, it didn’t deliver.  For that reason, the time is right for Apple to really push the idea of switching to Mac OS X and learning how to use an easier, more responsive operating system.  The company needs to take advantage of the fact that Microsoft has been playing catch up with itself after Vista and really start hitting some nails into the coffin.  For example, one area that Apple is really doing a great job of pushing users to switch is in their Get a Mac ads.  Another strong point in this argument is the fact that Macs can run Vista and, in some cases, even better than a PC can.

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Lately Apple has been pushing their windows products, more specifically Safari, and this has got us thinking what the next move may be. Kevin from jkOnTheRun thinks he may know what Apple has up their sleeves and it makes sense, .Mac for the PC.

In this new age we use multiple machines and multiple operating systems. Apple has made major breakthroughs with file sharing and usability between Macs and PCs, but there is still a gap when it comes to syncing up these machines. A new version of .Mac, possibly a “.Mac lite,” could definitely be in the works from Apple for integrating and syncing between your Mac, PC, and maybe even your iPhone.

On the Windows front there are options including Windows Live SkyDrive, a free service with half the space of .Mac. If Apple could launch this service so current .Mac users get a free upgrade or the features for a small fee, Apple could have a hit. Of course, all of this is speculation - we’re basically writing your business plan Apple, no excuses, get to it!

Check out the full post here as it goes into much more detail.

Read [jkOnTheRun]

A user in the French MacBidouille forums claims that he was able to install a Saphire ATI Radeon 2600 card into his new Mac Pro without issues.

The card had not been tested alone, but this is very strong evidence that an unmentioned update to the Mac Pro is the ability to use any graphics card. When NVidia 8800GT card in the new Mac Pros was announced as incompatible with the earlier Mac Pros, Mac Scoop points out this could be because the card is in fact a standard card that could be used in a PC just as easily.

Before the new Mac Pros, the only way to upgrade your GPU was to buy a rare and expensive Mac-compatible card or to buy a regular card and flash it’s firmware using a PC, which could render it useless.

Read [MacScoop]

Apple keeps pushing out new Get a Mac ads, and for the past couple of keynotes including WWDC and Macworld, Steve Jobs has chose to start it off by having a new ad play. At Macworld 2008 this year, Apple played a new “Happy New Year” Get a Mac ad, which focuses on what the Mac and the PC accomplished this year. As always, John Hodgeman is funnier than ever, and Justin Long tries to play along. The PC tells the world how bad of a year he has had, and how the failure of Vista and the success of Leopard, as well as the release of the new iMacs, iPods, and iPhone has ruined his year. Then of course he ends, with a funny remark saying how 2008 is going to be a great year as he copies all the Mac has done in 2007.

Video of the ad is after the break

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