Those of you who don’t like PayPal should be pretty happy to hear this news- the Wall Street Journal reported online Friday that search engine giant Google is planning to roll out it’s own payment proccesor sometime later this year.  This could be bad news to PayPal owner eBay, since the payment processor accounted for 23% of eBay’s revenue in the first quarter of this year.  Google could pose a major financial threat to one of it’s biggest advertisers, but that might not be such a bad thing.

Expanding into online payments might make Google less dependent on advertising, which accounted for nearly all of its first-quarter revenue of $1.26 billion. The merchants who run auctions on eBay are major buyers of Google’s ads, which appear alongside search results.

Read More | USA Today

Gallery: Google To Offer Healthy Competition To PayPal

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Michael Dell, of Dell Computers, has noted that should Apple “decide to open the MacOS to others,” they’d be glad to offer it up over at Dell.

Over Steve Jobs’ dead body, I’m guessing the answer will be.  Some of the panicked mac-enthusiasts, however, are blinded by paranoia after the announcement that Intel will be Apple’s new chip supplier starting in 2006, and see a bleak future for the OS.  I’m going to put a stop to this here and now, everyone. When are people going to get it through their heads that just because Intel is going to be Apple’s new chip supplier, the world isn’t ending?  It’s hardware, the OS is to remain the same.  Apple isn’t going to offer MacOS on non-Apple computers, they’ve already said it.  I believe MacDailyNews said it best:

It’s a processor. A lump of silicon. Would we have preferred to have PowerPC if it could deliver what Apple needs? Sure. But, if Apple thinks they can get better performance in the future from Intel than from International “Where’s That 3GHz G5 You Promised Us Last year?” Business Machines, so be it. What’s next, are some Mac users going to burst a blood vessel if Apple changes hard drive suppliers?

Seriously.  If people really think that just because Apple switched to a different supplier for one of their components, we’re likely to see MacOS X running on Dell’s computers, I’ve got a mile of oceanfront property in Nevada to sell them.  Ain’t gonna happen.

Dell Would Sell OS X | TUAW.com
Read More | MacDailyNews.com

Gallery: OSX on a Dell?  Over Steve’s Dead Body!

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Apple shocked the developer world once again by announcing plans to include WebObjects as a free application, included with OS X 10.4 Tiger Developer tools package.  It’s a strong tool that is extremely versatile and is the muscle behind Apple’s iTunes Music Store, and many other high-profile e-commerce projects.  While WebObjects isn’t very well known outside the development and design community, those who develop web applications for not only the Mac platform but also the PC, are buzzing about this new announcement.  So, you may ask, why all the fuss about WebObjects, and what does it do?

MacWorld UK explains:

WebObjects is a Java-based application-server and builder for Web publishing and internal application building. It’s often used for e-commerce applications, and can even produce pure Java applications that can be run on non-Mac platforms.

In other words, this is one hardcore, powerful tool (and very spendy, even after an extreme price drop from $50k to $700 in 2000). Apple previously released the WebObjects deployment software for free with the XServe and OS X Server in 2002 but now plans to offer the powerful tool free of charge with their developer tools bundle.

Read More |  MacWorld UK
More About WebObjects |  Apple

Gallery: WebObjects Released Free with Tiger Developer Tools

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Does Microsoft even know what they are up against?  It’s as if they still consider Apple to be a “garage based” company in some kid’s basement. iTunes isn’t exactly some garage-based idea.  It’s a big chunk of the legal music download industry. Is the Goliath of the software industry taking the wrong approach?

Microsoft is planning to bolster its own online song store with a new subscription service later this year as well as is “considering a more direct attack on Apple, seeking rights from copyright holders to give subscribers a Microsoft-formatted version of any song purchased from iTunes so they can be played on devices other than an iPod…

Read More | MacNN.com

Gallery: Microsoft Sets Sights On iTunes

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It looks like Comcast is moving forward with their plans to migrate all of their analog cable subscribers to digital cable, despite having the infrastructure to support analog for some time to come. It appears it is an attempt to increase the monthly fees on these accounts, as the analog-only plans are the most inexpensive. Here is their letter:

Dear Comcast Customer:

In a continuing effort to bring you the best entertainment value possible, we are making some changes to your current channel lineup.

As a result of these changes, the premium channel(s) which you currently subscribe to will be available exclusively to those customers who have digital converters, and any analog packages or promotional offers you currently have that include analog premium channels may no longer be available.

However, you will be able to receive these channels on our digital lineup for a special discounted price.

Now, while they mention a discounted price, the fact is that the bill is more. The price reflects a per channel discount, yet digital cable by default includes many more channels than its analog counterpart.

Read More | Detroit Free Press

Gallery: Comcast Forcing Customers To Switch To Digital Cable

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Now do note that this is all purely speculation - but there is a lot to be taken from it. Why did Apple choose Intel when AMD seems like such a better fit for the company? Why did they announce the partnership two full years before it is expected to be complete, if Rosetta would make it pretty much seamless anyway? Will Steve Jobs really be giving keynotes over the next two years hawking new Apple PC’s that will be considered by the average user to be obsolete in a couple of years since they don’t have an Intel chip in them? These are all questions that deserve a deeper look. Could is be that Apple and Intel are joining forces as a way to defeat the almighty Microsoft?

Read More | PBS

Gallery: Will Apple and Intel Merge?

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After losing $1.1 billion during the first quarter of this fiscal year, GM has plans to cut 25,000 jobs by 2008.  Rick Wagoner, GM’s chairman and CEO, has justified his plans by stating that it could save the company $2.5 billion a year.  It will undoubtedly save the company money, but its competitiveness will not be reaffirmed by cutting jobs.  Hopefully the 25,000 jobs figure will be cut, but that’s wishful thinking - good luck to GM and good luck to their employees.

Read More |  New York Daily News

Gallery: GM Cuts 25,000 jobs

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Macrovision is in the business of helping content creators keep their works safe from being pirated, providing enterprise level DRM solutions. They recently did a survey on video game piracy, and found that up to 40% of gamers have pirated a game at least once. They have a few very interesting ideas going forward to protect content, such as inserting what are essentially little bugs into games that will self-recognize they have been pirated, changing the game mechanic altogether. We chat with Robert about this and more. Click here to download the MP3, or you can just subscribe to the Gear Live Podcast feed.

Voices: Andru Edwards, Jesse Easley, Robert Ellison - Macrovision Director of Product Management
Length: 9:24, 8.6 MB

Vote for us on Podcast Alley

Listen  | Macrovision Interview

Gallery: Gear Live Podcast: Macrovision’s Robert Ellison, Director of Product Management

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So the rumors were true.  Apple did indeed announce today that they are ditching IBM in favor of Intel.  But now what?  This heralds a total architecture change — are we going towards a more “PC-like” build?  What is to come of the technology that Apple has so prided themselves on?  Many Mac geeks are distressed over the announcement at Keynote today that Intel and Apple are indeed teaming up, and as a friend of mine aptly said “It just doesn’t sound right.  Or feel right.” He’s right.  It just doesn’t.  The whole Mac scene is buzzing about this shocking announcement, after days of everyone shooting down the rumors as “media garbage.”  A step backward?  Or maybe a keen move ahead that none of us can anticipate, slim though that chance may be.  However, it is only a few hours following the announcement, and that is far too early to tell what that tricky old Steve Jobs may have up his sleeve.  Let’s hope it’s an ace, because this is starting to look a little ugly.  Yikes. As one anonymous game developer said:

This is the death of the platform. Unless Apple integrates DirectX, the port time would only decrease by roughly 33%. We really only spend about a 1/3 of our times AT MOST on Endian issues (ie, byte-swapping). The rest of the time is spent converting DX and Windows OS calls to OpenGL and Mac OS. The big problem is that for the next few years, developer time will increase. You now have to make sure the software runs on two completely different architecture sets. We’ll still have to do all the byte-swapping mess for the older PPC Macs. So say a game today takes 12 months to port. That time will be increased to probably 14-16 months, simply on the basis of having to do additional testing and debugging on the Intel architecture.

However, Andrew Welch of Ambrosia Software provides a counterpoint:

If you can run Windows games on a Mac, will it kill Mac gaming and the need for ports? Yes and no. If you have a machine that will dual-boot under Windows, it’s certainly possible that some people who might not have purchased a Mac due to lack of games (or what have you) may now do so. They will be able to dual-boot the machine. This may result in developers not wishing to spend the money to port games to the Mac, certainly. But people who prefer one platform over the other will always rather not have to dual-boot, just as folks still clamor for native Linux games, despite the dual-booting ability.

The death of the platform?  Or a slick marketing maneuver?  Only time will tell.  In the meantime, let’s not get carried away worrying. Read More | Inside Mac Games

Gallery: Apple and Intel:  Now What?

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United Airlines has announced that they will be the first commercial airline to offer WiFi Access in-flight.  Now, this is still in the works because the frequencies that will be used have not been finalized and approved for broadband use yet - though it is expected to be finalized sometime this fall.  No concrete details of price or speed have been announced either, but the frequency that they’re looking at is 8Ghz which will be split into several smaller frequencies. The service will be provided by Verizon.

Read More | WiFi Net News

Gallery: United Airlines To Provide WiFi While You Fly

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