MacSparky Shop

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I’m getting ready to pay for another year of hosting fees and related expenses and finally got around to setting up an Amazon associate account.
I’ve installed a widget that allows you to purchase Snow Leopard upgrade on the sidebar and a separate page, appropriately called “Shop” with some of my favorite software and hardware. If people show interest, I will begin adding other products. Please don’t feel compelled to shop here. If you do want any of these products, however, buying them through my link does help support the site. Thanks.

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Pixelmator Giveaway

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The nice folks at Pixelmator, the fantastic photo and graphics app I reviewed a few weeks ago, have agreed to give away two licenses to MacSparky readers. If you are interested, send me an e-mail with the words “Pixelmator Contest” in the title. Please only one entry per person. I’ll announce the contest winners in a week. In the meantime, go download the Pixelmator demo and make something beautiful.

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Phil Explains

Since I wrote about the Ninjawords hubub yesterday, I thought it worth pointing to the Daring Fireball post today where Apple senior vice president, Phil Schiller explained what happened.
I think perhaps the most significant part of Phil’s statement is the fact that he made it at all. Apple is the most tight lipped company on the planet. That they are weighing in on this with an actual explanation (as opposed to a two sentence soundbite) is significant. Let’s hope this means they are fixing the App store problems.

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Some Old Fashioned Censorship

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I haven’t commented much on the developing App Store fiasco. In case you’ve been living under a rock, I’m talking about Apple’s baffling system of denying and withdrawing application approvals in what appears to be completely random fashion. John Gruber wrote today about the most asinine decision yet. Apple, after approving numerous dictionary applications, decided that one particular dictionary, Ninjawords, isn’t allowed to have naughty words. That is right, they censored a dictionary.
Not only did Apple force the developer to remove objectionable words, it also made them resubmit the application and start over. Enough is enough. It is nonsense like this that could allow Apple to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with the touch platform. I know there are explanations for some of the shenanigans that have taken place but for Ninjawords, there is no possible excuse.

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Path Finder Update

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My favorite Finder replacement, Path Finder, just got updated to version 5.1.4.
The latest version of Path Finder adds a handful of new user-requested features:
* Back to my Mac support
* The option to remove the Finder icon from the Dock
* Desktop grid spacing adjustments
* Trackpad swipe gestures to move back and forward
* Display of local WebDAV volumes

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Microsoft’s Flawed Strategy

This week, John Gruber wrote an excellent piece on the slow decline of Microsoft. Interestingly, just a few days later Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer explained to a group of financial analysts Microsoft’s new strategy, to raise prices.
Balmer explained, “The theory [cutting prices] was wrong …You’ll see us address the theory. We’re going to readjust those prices north [using Windows 7].” I’m not sure this will work for Microsoft. In the last several years, they’ve dropped the ball and people have opened their eyes to other operating systems. Put simply, a significant number of users have moved to OS X and Linnux based platforms. They’ve discovered they can compute just fine without anything from Microsoft.
While Balmer’s comments were made in the context of raising PC prices, it seems the only way Microsoft could do that is by raising the license fee for its operating system to the PC manufacturers. The problem is Microsoft has spent bucket loads of money trying to sell itself and PC’s as the “cheaper” alternative. It seems to me Microsoft’s move to now raise prices will only accelerate people’s interest in Linnux (cheaper) and OS X (better) operating systems. Microsoft has only itself to blame.

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