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New and Noteworthy: Piper Jaffray: Apple a top pick for H2 2006; John Dvorak: The Mac attack formula; more

New and Noteworthy: Piper Jaffray: Apple a top pick for H2 2006; John Dvorak: The Mac attack formula; more

CNET staff
3 min read

Piper Jaffray: Apple a top pick for H2 2006 Analyst firm Piper Jaffray has identified Apple as one of the top picks for the second half of 2006. "For Apple they see two identifiable Catalysts: increasing Mac market share with the transition to Intel nearly complete and release of iPods with new features/higher capacity. Outperform, $99 target." More.

John Dvorak: The Mac attack formula John Dvorak lays out his formula for agitating Mac users in an ABC News column. "So here's the basic formula, as I've outlined it before and on the video: Find something critical to say about the Mac that may or may not be true. [...] Let's face it, anytime I write about a Mac, I'm trying to get mileage out of weak material. By this I mean: How controversial is saying a Mac peripheral is overpriced? How many times do you have to say it before people notice? Even the "girly iBook" column was a stretch. I had to use a lot of skill to go anywhere with that. So I opened the arsenal and used ridicule. I probably overdid it, but it was fun for most readers, although it was probably sadistic in some way. I really have to stop doing this. But these Mac-nut people (as you will see) keep coming back for more. The worst of the mob all tell the others to stop reading me and linking to me (a boycott was recently proposed), but they never stop. They are just encouraging it, and they all know it." More.

Hacking the Apple ambient light sensor MacNN reports that Mac developer Amit Singh has posted details on Apple's ambient light sensor found on Apple's MacBook Pros (and some newer PowerBooks). "Although Apple has not provided any details on the API for the light sensors, which are used to adjust the brightness on the notebook's illuminated keyboard, Singh has offered details on its operation and some example code. In particular, the developer offers details on retrieving readings from the ambient light sensor, retrieving and setting the LED brightness value of the backlit keyboard, and initiating an LED fade to a target brightness value over a specified duration." More.

Apple acknowledges user frustrations over roadmap ZDNet reports that Apple has conceded corporate IT workers are "always" complaining about its secretive product roadmap. "People always complain that Apple doesn't give systems admins or systems architects enough of a roadmap of where our technologies are going," the vendor's Asia-Pacific head of developer relations, Craig Bradley, told an audience of third-party developers in Sydney yesterday. More.

Flock: The browser for Web 2.0 ExtremeTech has a review of Flock, a Web browser (available for Mac OS X) that incorporates various Web 2.0 standard sites. "The Internet is supposed to be interactive, right? It's not just about being a passive watcher of Web sites, but about sharing your input, as well. The Flock browser is an attempt to bring some of the Web 2.0-style concepts right to the application that gives you a view of the interweb. Built on top of FireFox, Flock incorporates 'mashups'-the hip buzzword for web service integration-with social bookmarks (with del.icio.us and Shadows), photo sharing (with Flickr and Photobucket), and blogging-with tools built into the browser for posting to your blog. In fact, it's this integration on which Flock's creators intend to build their business model, cutting deals with other web services." More.

Technology to block digital cameras Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have completed a prototype device that can block digital-camera function in a given area. Commercial versions of the technology could be used to stymie unwanted use of video or still cameras. "The prototype device, produced by a team in the Interactive and Intelligent Computing division of the Georgia Tech College of Computing (COC), uses off-the-shelf equipment -- camera-mounted sensors, lighting equipment, a projector and a computer -- to scan for, find and neutralize digital cameras. The system works by looking for the reflectivity and shape of the image-producing sensors used in digital cameras." More.

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