books

Some owners of Apple's new Retina MacBook Pro are finding that instead of a smooth interaction with the OS X interface, the systems display relatively choppy behavior and may be slow to respond with moving windows, scrolling, and using Expose among other similar tasks. This problem seems to happen primarily when using Safari, Mail, and Mission Control features, but it also occurs in other programs.

Since the debut of the Retina MacBook Pro there has been some discussion over whether the system's hardware is capable of handling the computational throughput required by the Retina Display. In a recent … Read more

The Justice Department's proposed settlement with three book publishers over alleged e-book price fixing is "fundamentally unfair, unlawful, and unprecedented," Apple said in a legal memo today.

In an antitrust lawsuit filed in April, federal prosecutors accused Apple and five book publishers of conspiring to artificially hike prices. The same day, the Justice Department announced it had reached settlements with three publishers but said Apple and the other two publishers had opted to fight the charges.

The proposed settlement -- with Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group, News Corp.'s HarperCollins Publishers, and Simon & Schuster (owned … Read more

I'm going to resist the easy Spinal Tap reference and skip right to the part where I tell you Boom is a Mac app that can increase the volume of your Mac's speakers. The app costs $6.99, but its developer, Global Delight, offers a free, seven-day trial. If you are often underwhelmed by the audio output of your MacBook's speakers, Boom is worth taking for a spin.

The free trial is available at Global Delight's Web site. After installing, the app places an icon in the menu bar. Clicking on it reveals a simple volume … Read more

Mac-centric peripheral and upgrade supplier Other World Computing has released new solid-state drive upgrade options for Apple's latest MacBook models. These upgrades allow you more flexibility in the configuration options for your MacBook system over the CTO options that Apple has supplied through its online store, especially for early adopters of the systems.

Apple's latest MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Retina Display systems have all been crammed with more features in smaller chassis designs, which has resulted in Apple shying away from industry-standard form factors for components to more proprietary designs that it can morph around the … Read more

Apple's Retina Displays are drop-dead gorgeous. But be careful what you wish for.

Like many, I got the third-generation iPad because of the 2,048-by-1,536-pixel-density Retina Display. And, like many, I didn't see a huge difference at first.

That was then. Now it's painful to pick up my Dell laptop with its 1,366x768-pixel 13.3-inch display and Windows 7 fonts (note: font-smoothing utilities go just so far).

And while my 11.6-inch MacBook Air fares better than the Dell (it packs the same number of pixels but into a smaller area giving it a higher PPI … Read more

I just pray that Microsoft doesn't cave to pressure from partners to punt on Surface.

The first public plea came this week from Acer, which, in effect, begged Microsoft to drop Surface.

If that happens, Microsoft will lose the consumer to Apple for good. Probably sooner rather than later.

And if Acer is that worried about Surface, then it should out-design Microsoft or look elsewhere. Right now I don't see anything from Acer that would make me chuck my MacBook and iPad.

But Surface could. And it gets even more interesting when I see that Redmond is already working on Surface 2. … Read more

Apple didn't make any big design changes to the 2012 MacBook Air, but the company did upgrade the machine's hardware. In this week's episode of Cracking Open, I take you inside this year's 11-inch Air and show you what's changed.… Read more

Hewlett-Packard lost ground to Acer, Asus, Apple, and others in key markets in Europe, according to market researcher Gartner.

The Western Europe PC market recorded weak overall PC shipments across all countries, according to Meike Escherich, principal analyst at Gartner.

But some are doing better than others. Acer is gaining on HP in Europe and increased its market share by 2.7 percentage points. Asus was the top performer among the top five vendors and moved up to the No. 3 slot, according to Gartner.

In the U.K., which is one of the worst markets, "the real worry...… Read more

I love books. I also love bundles. Typically, the latter consist of things like indie games and productivity software and give you some pretty serious bang for the buck.

If only some clever developer would combine these two loves of mine.

Done! The StoryBundle Big Bang Bundle lets you name your own price for five "indie" e-books. And if you pay at least $7, you'll get two bonus books.

This is StoryBundle's first offering, and hopefully it won't be the last. As with any number of game bundles I've covered before, this one lets … Read more