New and Noteworthy: Apple Shares Rise After Blowout Earnings; Blu-ray drive for Macs; Dot Mac Dead?

Apple Shares Rise After Blowout Earnings The Associated Press reports that shares of Apple Inc. rose more than 6 percent early Thursday, continuing to soar above $100 for the first time. "Investor optimism in the trendsetting company may have also been bolstered by a vote of confidence the board of directors gave Apple's chief executive officer, Steve Jobs. The board on Wednesday defended the iconic CEO from new accusations by a former Apple executive who alleged Jobs may have had a more significant role in the company's backdating of stock options than previously stated." More.

Blu-ray drive for Macs FastMac is offering a Blu-Ray drive that is compatible with most Macs except for MacBooks and 15" MacBook Pros. "FastMac's Blu-ray Drive is compatible with all DVD and CD recordable media including DVD±R/RW Dual/Double Layer, DVD-RAM, and CD-R and CD-RW. It comes bundled with the award-winning Toast 8 Titanium and includes one 25GB Blu-ray rewritable disc so you can get started right away." The drive is priced at US$500. More.

Dot Mac Dead? Alan Graham laments the state of Apple's .Mac services. "After 7 years as a faithful user, I'm thinking about taking the plunge and severing my bank account from Apple's .Mac service. I'm seriously getting fed up with the delays and obvious omissions from Apple's online strategy, and I tend to believe that if the iPhone has been responsible for delays in OS X Leopard?where are Apple's .Mac/iLife priorities? Much further down. In the past seven years I have paid them about $1,000 for these services, and I'm starting to think I'm getting the raw end of the deal. I think that Apple's .Mac service is dead, it just doesn't know it. And while my hopes are high that we'll see some amazing .Mac offerings when Leopard comes, I'm not holding my breath. So I'm starting my own .Mac death clock." More.

Previously on MacFixIt:

• Apple posts 88 percent profit growth, shares jump past $100 in after-hours trading
• QuickTime/Java security flaw affects Safari, Firefox, other Mac browsers; protecting against
• Tutorial: Flash content will not play in Web browsers, resolving
• Security Update 2007-004 (#5): AirPort connectivity issues: definitive fixes; FTP security issue

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