Type of Article: MacTech Blog

The OS X Dashboard is a bit of a mess, although one with potential. There are lots of possibilities, but it’s somewhat disorganized in its current iteration. Could this be tweaked in the upcoming Mountain Lion?

Apple has been granted a patent (number 8166415) by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for an user interface for backup management — namely, for its Time Machine software in Mac OS X.

Okay, maybe I’ve been wrong. Though I’ve long been a fan of Blu-ray — still the best home viewing choice for movie lovers when it comes to top quality — and have long hoped Macs would offer Blu-ray playback support, apparently I’m in the minority.

Fewer U.S. consumers are buying and collecting DVD and Blu-ray discs, according to new data from the IDC research group. Less than one-third of survey respondents report buying a DVD or Blu-ray more than once or twice a year, and over half of purchasers say they are buying less than they did a year ago.

Forget Think Different. iPad users Shop Different, according to new data by RichRelevance, a provider of dynamic personalization for the world’s largest retailers and brands.

The company’s report, “The 2012 Q1 Shopping Insights Mobile Study” (http://www.richrelevance.com/insights/mobile-shopping/), finds a steady rise in mobile share of revenue from 1.9% in April 2011 to 4.6% in March 2012, with the iPad driving nearly all shopping, browsing and purchasing in this emerging channel.

According to the study:

Is Apple on the verge of dominating the digital movie market and revolutionizing television, as well? Those answers are “looks like it” (digital movies) and “outlook cloudy” (television viewing).

When it comes to digital movie sales, Apple already controls 65% of the market, according to research by IHS Screen Digest. Now as as Apple expands digital offerings into the cloud via iCloud, it threatens to dwarf Hollywood’s own UltraViolet cloud initiative with the only credible challenge coming from Amazon and Google, not the movie industry.