A new Apple television ad for the Power Mac G5 began airing today, which features a Mac user literally being “blown away” by the new system. The commercial shows a young man being blasted from his desk through several walls of his home until he finally hits a tree in the yard. It ends with the voice of Hollywood actor Jeff Goldblum — star of “Jurassic Park” and Apple’s previous television ads — saying, “Introducing the Power Mac G5.
Read MoreMicrosoft will reportedly revise its Office v.X product line next month with price cuts and two new editions of the business suite, according to Microsoft Watch. Microsoft plans to offer a new “Student and Teacher” version for US$149 as well as a “Professional” edition for $499 that bundles Virtual PC, which the company acquired from Connectix in February.
Read MoreFirewireDirect tomorrow will introduce the MachIV line of 2.5-inch FireWire and USB 2.0 hard drives. The portable drives are available in capacities from 20 to 80GB and offer a “small and sleek titanium-style” enclosure. The drives start at US$189.95 and ship with the SpeedTools utility suite, which includes DeviceTuner, Disk Defrag, Integrity, QuickBack and QuickBench.
Read MorePatrick Seitz of Investor’s Business Daily has put together an extensive look at Apple’s strategy of opening its own retail stores in a bid to grow market share. In the article, Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of retail, and several analysts give their views on the company’s approach. Also noted is that Apple has gained significant market share in the US consumer segment in the two years since it opened its first stores.
Read MoreHelios Software today announced that its ImageServer 2.5 server software now creates preview files of QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign documents. “Utilizing these previews, local and remote users can preview and control InDesign and QuarkXPress documents from creation to final output, without needing access to the applications, documents, fonts, or images.” ImageServer 2.5 is part of Helios’ 4th generation family of network and prepress server solutions. Pricing is available from the company’s Web site.
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