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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--I was waiting to talk to Steve Wozniak last night at the 25th anniversary celebration for the Commodore 64 when I overheard him say his favorite video game of all time was Tetris for the Gameboy.

My eyes practically lit up when I heard that because, in a lot of ways, I have to agree.

In fact, as I told him a couple minutes later when I went up to talk to him, one of the things I made sure to do before I left for my Road Trip around the American Southwest this summer was go … Read more

Hi there,

I'm looking for a couple of Mac fans who regularly post on CNET News.com or Crave regarding topics related to Apple. I'm working on a story about the Mac community, and really want to talk to at least a couple of you about Apple, its products, and your passion for those products.

Please send me an e-mail (tom dot krazit at cnet dot com) if you're interested. I can quote you by your real name or your CNET user name if you prefer, but we can discuss that kind of thing in more detail … Read more

Just when you think the world has been figured out once and for all, it changes. One recent example is the music industry, which thought it had everything settled until digitization came along and spoiled the party. That "party" is set to become much more interesting and profitable for the studios again as digitization moves into the mobile world, as The Times points out.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on one's perspective) for the studios, they're no longer in charge. Apple is, because it has figured out music, then mobile, and is now wedding the two. Now the mobile operators are trying to catch up all of a sudden thanks to Apple's iPhone...

...which has set off an avalanche of traditional mobile phone operators into the music market. They fear that a vital source of revenue could be seized from under them.

The market has huge potential: consumers could be spending as much as $32 billion (?15.5 billion) a year buying music on their handsets by 2010, analysts believe. And the success of the iPhone - Orange sold 30,000 in five days - has served to focus Vodafone and its rivals on trying to snare a chunk of the revenue....… Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--I don't want to date myself, but when I was in high school, one of the things I remember was that, among the geeks like myself who hung out in the computer lab, a bit of a culture war was under way.

No, it wasn't Macs versus Windows. But Apple was a player in this battle.

In fact, it was the Commodore 64 versus the Apple IIe, and while the school had a collection of Apples in the lab that all of us had to use, those of us who had C64s felt like we … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--"Hi, we've never met before."

With those words to Commodore founder Jack Tramiel on Monday evening, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak ended what may be one of the most improbable non-relationships in the history of computers.

It's hard to imagine how Woz and Tramiel could have possibly not ever met before, given that the two were such important figures in the early years of personal computers. With Woz's Apple II and Apple IIe and Tramiel's Commodore Vic-20 and Commodore 64 dominating the personal computer age of the early 1980s--along with the … Read more

After putting a two-unit limit on purchases of the iPhone back in October, the company has quietly raised the limit back to five.

iPhone Atlas spotted the move on Friday, and Wired also confirmed on Monday that Apple is still not taking cash for the iPhone. At the time the limit was announced, Apple said it wanted to ensure there would be enough supply in hand for the holiday shopping season, which is well under way.

So, either they've ramped up production, which would make sense following the European launches, or demand has waned. I don't see anything … Read more

According to a recent study by research firm ChangeWave, Apple's Macintosh line of computers is well on its way to gaining a sizable portion of the computing market in the coming months.

Polling customers about their computer buying preferences over the next 90 days, ChangeWave Research found that 29 percent of respondents claimed they would be buying a Mac over that period, while 24 percent will buy HP desktops and 31 percent will buy Dell desktops.

Amazingly, just two years ago, only 16 percent of respondents indicated that they would plan on buying a Mac notebook, while 11 percent claimed they would buy a Mac desktop.

But perhaps most important, Tobin Smith, founder of ChangeWave pointed out that, "these are not just the Mac-heads who are buying." And most consumers (24 percent) are choosing Macs because of Leopard and their distaste for Vista.

And while there are still quite a few fanatics out there who wouldn't buy a Mac just because it's made by Apple, I firmly believe an increase in Apple market share is not just good for Apple, it's good for all consumers too.

After all, if Apple brings innovation and progress to the industry, wouldn't it force other companies to do the same?

Suffice it to say, Apple is the world's best trend setter. And a world where Apple is commanding such a large portion of the market could be quite appealing to all of us.… Read more

Bjork fans sing along: It's oh, so quiet / Shhh, shhh / it's oh, so still / Shhh, shhh...

Few manufacturers want to interrupt the holiday buying season with new product announcements; why make the stuff currently sitting on shelves seem obsolete? Besides, two major shows--CES and Macworld--are just around the corner. So this week was filled with a little news and a lot of speculation.

First up: Apple. Matt Elliott redefined our notion of gadget lust in his write-up about the LED-backlit MacBooks, which are reportedly on the way in time for Macworld. But who wouldn't get a little … Read more

It was freezing cold and snow was starting to come down, but at 2:30 p.m. EST there were already several hundred people waiting in line at the new Apple Store on West 14th St. in Manhattan's Meatpacking District, which which opens at 6 p.m. One estimate put the crowd at about 600 people with several hours still to go.

The first person in line, a high schooler, had showed up at 1 a.m. That's not a typo. He told CNET News.com that by 3:30 or 4 a.m., more people started to … Read more