Thursday, May 29, 2003

Apple tops Consumer Reports tech support survey. Based on responses from more than 7,400 subscribers to ConsumerReports.org surveyed in February 2003, Apple bested all other computer vendors in technical support, the magazine reports. "Data were standardized to eliminate differences attributable to a computer's age and usage; differences of 5 or more points are meaningful," Consumer Reports notes. "... if everyone were completely satisfied, the reader score would be 100; 80, if respondents were, on average, very satisfied; 60, if fairly well satisfied." [MacCentral] comment []6:46:28 PM

iMac G4 wins Silver D&AD Award. Apple won a Silver D&AD Award (Yellow Pencil) for its flat panel iMac G4 in the Product Design category at last night's 2003 D&AD (Design and Art Direction) awards. D&AD describes its Yellow Pencils awards as "the Oscars of the creative industry," according to Macworld UK. Apple's Xserve had nabbed a Silver nomination, but won no award. Last year the iPod took home a Gold Award, while the iBook and Titanium PowerBook G4 were previous Silver award winners. [MacCentral] comment []6:45:57 PM

NY Times: iTunes Music Store is online music's future. Writing for the New York Times, Neil Strauss says that Apple has found the future of online music sales with its iTunes Music Store. (Viewing the article requires a free subscription.) Strauss calls the iTunes Music Store "the first real success story" in the effort to sell music online. He calls Apple's figure of three million songs sold in iTunes Music Store's first month "impressive," considering the comparatively limited number of computer users who can access the service. The store is limited to iTunes 4 users for now, and that requires Mac OS X 10.1.5 or higher and a G3/400MHz or better -- Strauss figures that this number totals about 1 percent of the nation's home computers, only a fraction of which have a broadband connection big enough to make downloading a comfortable process. [MacCentral] comment []6:43:14 PM

Apple iTunes update irritates fans. Apple has updated its iTunes service to limit how people can share their music over the net. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition] comment []3:28:37 PM

Microsoft, again: Apple's old nemesis. While the Mac maker commands today's headlines, it faces a series of obstacles from the Windows empire ranging from software licenses to influence in media industries. [CNET News.com] comment []3:26:06 PM

© Copyright 2006 William T Goodall.