There’s been lots of news lately, starting with the Tiger event. I went to the Walnut Creek (N. Calif.) store, where a person dressed up in a Tiger suit stood in line with everyone else…and was then admitted to the store without an eyeblink by the two security guards. Apple enthusiasts–what a group! As usual, there were lines at all the stores, generating a long list of news stories. Kudos to the OS X product managers who fanned out across the U.S. to answer questions at retail stores, and to the in-store theater presenters who talked almost non-stop Friday night.

What’s up with that Bullring (UK) store grand opening. No overnight camp-out, and by 8 p.m. there was no waiting line?! Looks like the combination of a 6 p.m. opening and the location made for some really low levels of enthusiasm. Are we becoming that blasé about the retail stores?

The release of Tiger has generated thousands of Web pages about features, migration and problems, but perhaps none as comprehensive as the MacInTouch Web site, whose reader reports take the pulse of everything that’s happening. They have a list of reported problems and incompatibilities, a huge secction just on Mail 2.0, and a long review of Tiger.

Those two Best Buy concept stores, cleverly named “Studio D” and “Escape,” sound really interesting. Just as interesting was the photo in the Wall Street Journal–it showed the Escape store panorama, with an Apple Powerbook very large in the center of the photo! So not only does Best Buy steal the sales concept, but they actually use Apple products to implement it? Whoa, gutsy move, guys! Of course, since it works for Apple, maybe this small-store concept isn’t so gutsy after all.

Financial analysts from UBS Investment Research recently met with Apple execs, and came away with some startling news–”We also believe that Apple will be adding two additional stores in New York City in addition to its existing location in SoHo within the next year,” they said in a newsletter to customers. Old news. The Genius Bar at SoHo will be open longer hours–old news–and Apple is “considering” expanding the Studio concept to other stores–yes, we knew that. The analysts could have saved themselves the visit to Cupertino. The analysts apparently were not interested in Apple’s international retail plans, both for its own stores and authorized resellers. For the record, it’s full steam ahead.

Podcasting has hit the big time–Disney will podcast as part of the kick-off of its 50th-year celebration! Check out the various offerings on the Disney Web site.

Google has created one of the Web’s best user interfaces with Gmail, and now another company has a good-looking, efficient and speedy interface–Kayak.com, a airline travel site cranked up by former Orbitz.com founder Steve Hafner. The screen contains only the necessary elements, is pleasing to look at, artfully uses DHTML to hide/display lots of useful information, and is quick. Someone obviously knows what travelers want to find, and how they want the results displayed! You don’t have to register to use the Web site to find airline flights, so give it a spin. And if you haven’t tried Gmail, get yourself an account (you do need an anonymous account!) and see why Google is so successful–they know interfaces and Web technology.

Check out this Rocketboom video on “Mac vs. PC?,” and watch to the very end!

Interested in iPodding? It’s still a wild-and-wooly endeavor, and you have to use a collection of software, configured just right in order to get a decent recording onto your hard disk. So far, Audio Hijack Pro and Soundflower are must-have pieces of the puzzle. You also need a decent microphone, headphones and perhaps some other interface gear–check BSW for their complete iPodding packages.

First Steve Jobs is accused of taking a jab at Apple’s authorized resellers, withholding products from them, charging them more for various services, making it more difficult to handle warranty repairs, and generally making their lives a living hell. Then Jobs opens retail stores of his own, plunking down almost a $1 billion to build, lease and operate the stores according to his own design. Now, his mighty sword has turned to….his own retail stores?! Yikes! Jobs has yanked all the Wiley & Sons Inc. book titles from Apple retail stores, apparently in a fit of disgust over an unauthorized biography that Wiley will publish shortly. So, apparently no one is safe from the wrath of Steve, even customers who want to buy one of Wiley’s “….For Dummies” books, including many titles by Mac guru Bob LeVitus.

The press is ramping up in anticipation of the release of OS X Tiger next Friday, prompting me to repeat what I’ve said more than once: Macintosh is platform for people who want to get things done, rather than deal with problems. I’ve spent 5 minutes since last October (new G5) handling computer problems: glitches, viruses, bad file formats, crashes, blue screens, etc. On the other hand, I’ve spent hours and days of productive time performing writing, creating graphics and videos, listening to music, watching videos and much more. And even more to the point, I’ve done all this enjoyable, creative work totally unimpeded by the anticipation of future problems–”Oh, should make multiple copies because it’s going to crash any moment?” or “I sure hope another virus doesn’t wipe out my e-mail directory!” I just compute, and enjoy it. That’s the real point.

The press is ramping up in anticipation of the release of OS X Tiger next Friday, prompting me to repeat what I’ve said more than once: Macintosh is the platform for people who want to get things done, rather than deal with problems. I’ve spent 5 minutes since last October (new G5) handling computer problems: glitches, viruses, bad file formats, crashes, blue screens, etc. On the other hand, I’ve spent hours and days of productive time performing writing, creating graphics and videos, listening to music, watching videos and much more. And even more to the point, I’ve done all this enjoyable, creative work totally unimpeded by the anticipation of future problems–”Oh, should make multiple copies because it’s going to crash any moment?” or “I sure hope another virus doesn’t wipe out my e-mail directory!” I just compute, and enjoy it. That’s the real point.

Behind the Scenes: There’s a tremendous amount of information that I don’t post on the Web site, including material I can’t verify, stories about specific people or employees, whining and just odd experiences that people tell me. I also try to keep the focus on the stores, not Apple, products or Steve Jobs. Sometimes the rejected material is pretty obvious, while other times it takes me days to track down its origin or truth. For example, I was recently tipped to an Apple store opening in Luxembourg, of all places. Well, it sure looked authentic–I tracked the original source to an Apple Europe employee quoted on a public Web site. The location seemed a bit odd, however, since the country is less than 1,000 square-miles. On the other hand, it is conveniently located in Europe for shoppers. Either way, a little digging and some e-mail pinpointed a language distinction–”Apple store” in this case means “Apple Web store,” not a physical Apple store. So, no story.

Were you surprised that Corey Greenberg used his TV position to attract $25,000 clients, apparently including Apple? You have to realize that everyone on TV news has an agenda, although in most cases it’s just to do a good job at journalism, generate some revenue and go home. But those morning shows-whew! They’re a money-maker! After you appear 5-10 times, you suddenly get the idea–hey, I could do this and offer to promote some products for companies! Pretty soon, you’re doing paid promotions somewhere, while you’re still appearing on NBC’s “The Today” show. And really quick, it’s not easy to separate the products that someone paid you $25,000 to promote from the ones you really like. One week you’re raking in cash from Kodak and giving them paid exposure, and the next week you say their digital cameras are “really nice.” The public certainly can’t tell the difference in your earnestness–and neither can Greenberg! So, like all TV, use your brain while you’re watching.

I received a note from someone soliciting donations of computer gear–Apple computer gear–for a worthy non-profit cause. I suggested writing a letter to Apple, which the person did. Actually, the person sent it to Steve Jobs himself. Sure enough, a letter comes back from a Jobs assistant, saying that, regretfully, the company doesn’t make equipment donations. But in this case, the writer was almost as excited that someone at Apple actually took time to read, consider and write back.

You’re either “in” or you’re “out” with Apple, and it looks like TiVo is definitely in the “out” category. Why else would TiVo CFO David Courtney tell a University of Pennsylvania audience the company has no plans to make TiVoToGo available on the Macintosh platform? Yikes! The guy writes off perhaps 60% of TiVo users who also have a Macintosh, and who are generally early adopters of technology. Apparently there’s a cost issue…which sounds like TiVo actually talked to Apple about the link-up, but got some bad news. And that bad news was no doubt something Steve Jobs said. So for anyone who thought that Apple would purchase TiVo and take it to the next level–forgetaboutit! The best you can hope for (and it ‘aint much), is that TiVo is working with the networks to download commercials directly to TiVo, and which will be attached to your shows so you cannot bypass them. Now, if that doesn’t demonstrate that TiVo has no clue, I don’t know what does. That’s the reason that people purchased TiVo devices in the first place–to more conveniently watch TV and skip the commercials. Put the commercials back in? What’s next…make people watch TiVo in real time? TiVo = OutOfTouch.

[Now a TiVo spokesperson says Courtney's comments were taken out of context. TiVo is working on Mac compatibility, but no release date has been determined.]

Apple’s Retail segment financial results were generally positive, especially compared to the previous quarter that included the busy holiday shopping season. Overall retail revenues were up slightly ($571m from $561m), but profits took a bigger hit ($29m from $45m). Sales of CPUs at the stores was up 21% to 144,000 units. Most significantly, store traffic was up 21% to 13 million visitors during the quarter, or 9,800 per store per week. It indicates that more people are coming into the stores to investigate Apple’s products, and even make some purchases. That’s an encouraging trend. So I’m not discouraged by the drop in profits, since that can go up and down for many reasons. It’s the revenue and visitor figures that are really important.

Overall, Apple said “direct” sales–those through its own retail stores, the on-line store, iTunes Music Store and U.S. education–increased to 48% of all sales during the quarter, compared to 44% in the year-ago quarter. You could scratch your head over this figure for hours, trying to make sense of it. Apple says it has thousands of resellers for its products, many of those for the iPod line. But despite an ever-increasing number of alternate outlets for sales, Apple seems to be gathering more sales to itself. Perhaps it’s just the result of increased Internet commerce, more consumer focus on music, and improved education sales. On the other hand, perhaps it’s the trend that Apple resellers have been dreading–consolidation.

During the analysts’ conference call, CFO Peter Oppenheimer had no news about future stores–he reiterated that Apple expects to have 125 stores open by the end of October, including 10 outside the U.S. But based on the hard tips I’ve received, and Apple’s preference for opening stores before the holiday shopping season, the last three months of the year should be a blockbuster for store grand openings–there could be as many as 11 in just three months.

Microsoft is on the hook for up to $4.5 billion to settle antitrust lawsuits, including a $150 million payment to Gateway in a private lawsuit settlement. The payments represent about 11% of Microsoft’s annual revenue, so it’s not an insubstantial amount. The payouts certainly put a perspective on the company’s operation, which like Dell seems to be slanted towards “bigger,” rather than “better.” There are thousands of companies that would kill to have annual revenues that for Microsoft amount to just penalty payments. But for Microsoft, it’s just toss-away money. Yikes!

Well, I guess it’s time to start listening to the whining that always accompanies an Apple operating system upgrade. Boo-hoo! $129! Hey, you don’t have to upgrade, and still your word processor, spreadsheet, browser, and most other software will continue to work. If you want to be on the cutting edge, you pay the price. And after all, how much would you pay to have all the benefits of the latest Mac operating system? More than free, right? Now, having said that, I’ll agree that it’s an “Ouch!” when Apple requires you to have the latest operating system in order to apply the latest security updates. But that doesn’t happen so often. So, either pay the price or don’t whine.

Speaking of OS X Tiger, I’m expecting lines to form in front of Apple’s retail stores for the introduction on the 29th. As I mention on Page 1, the stores usually close the hour before the introduction to roll out supplies of the software and switch graphics inside the store. I’ll be visiting a Bay Area store that evening and will report on the activities there the same night.

By the way, you’ll pay $129 in the United States for OS X V10.4, and in other coutries: Australia – $154, UK – $168, Europe – $166, and Japan $137.

Dell is at it again, with plans to reach $80 billlion in revenues within the next 3-4 years, from about $49 billion now. I’ve ranted before that revenues may serve the shareholder, but do little or nothing for the customer. President Kevin Rollins also told a stockholders meeting that desktop PCs should no longer be considered the yardstick for Dell’s success, as they move into a more diversified market, including a focus on printers, storage equipment, laptops and corporate computers. Talk about a company with no innovation but lots of success! Dell is simply supporting the world of computing as it stands now. A company like Apple is actually carrying the industry further down the road.

Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP) has been a runaway success, selling 500,000 units during the first two day it was available. Already, Mac users have come up with several ways of linking the PSP to their computers, and at least one company is offering software to provide full iTunes, iPhoto and video integration with the Macintosh. It’s not surprising that the PSP is compatible via third-party software. But it’s more surprising that Sony and Apple, who are already working together on video projects, didn’t directly support a Mac-PSP connection, especially for photos and video.

I’m working on a T-shirt project, and am scratching my head over a slogan on the back of the shirt. I’m considering several that relate to grand opening camp-outs, etc. It can’t directly refer to Apple or use their logo, but should have some reference to the retail stores. It’s like coming up with a personalized car license plate–you only have so much room, but you have to be so clever! Send me your ideas.

If you’re a news junkie, you no doubt surf Google’s news regularly. It’s great for reading the details of news stories, but there’s a better way to get the gist of the day’s events–the Newsmap Web site. They take Google’s news items, and then visualize each item by topic and number of stories–the more stories, the larger the headline on the page. It’s a fascinating way to quickly judge what’s the “biggest” story.

Also check out the other projects on the Web site, including the ‘AI Bug’ and ‘Flickr Graph.’ Totally entertaining!

And lastly, check the Mappr Web site, which takes recent Flikr photos, tries to determine where they were taken, and then displays them on a map of the U.S. Pretty clever!