Apple's WWDC 2013: The hottest tickets in town

• Apple's iTextbooks: 3 days, 8 titles, 350,000-plus downloads

  An impressive start, but how many of those 350,000 downloads were freebies? 

  Apple (AAPL) certainly got the attention of educators and the educational publishing community with the iPad textbook initiative it announced last Thursday. And no wonder. It's been a long time since anybody lavished that kind of attention and glitz on what has traditionally been an unglamorous -- albeit highly profitable -- corner of the book industry.

  The first measure of MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 23, 2012 3:08 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, IBook, iBook Author, iBookstore, iPad, Mac App Store, Publishing, Schools, Tablets, Textbook

• Apple: 500,000 apps, 18 billion downloads, 100 million for Mac

  Cupertino responds to a Google milestone with a flurry of nice round numbers

  Last Tuesday, Google (GOOG) announced that Android users had downloaded more than 10 billion apps from the Android Market and that the number of downloads was growing by 1 billion per month. To celebrate the milestone, Google was going to make a new set of "awesome apps" available on the store every day for the next week for only 10¢ each.

  The week MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 12, 2011 10:31 AM ET
  Posted in: 148Apps, Android, Android Market, App Store, Apple, Google, iOS, Mac App Store, Mobile, PCs

• The Apple Store is back up

  With OS X Lion, a new MacBook Air and a new MacBook mini

  In Wednesday's apple.com splash screen, Apple (AAPL) is highlighting "the new, faster MacBook Air."

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 20, 2011 8:50 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Apple Store, Lion, Mac App Store, Mac OS, Mac OSX Lion, MacBook Air, Macs, PCs

• Apple issues a Final Cut Pro X mea culpa -- sort of

  After 600 negative reviews and a 5,000-signature petition, it offers 4 'not yet's and 2 'soon's

  Eight days after releasing Final Cut Pro X, the latest update to its popular professional video editing software, Apple (AAPL) issued an FAQ designed to answer what it describes as "a lot of discussion in the pro video community."

  "A lot of discussion" is an understatement.

  The program was lampooned on Conan O'Brien. It triggered the current MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jun 29, 2011 11:17 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Conan O'Brien, FAQ, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro X, Mac App Store, PCs, PetitionOnline, software, Video editing

• Conan O'Brien's video editors spoof Apple's Final Cut Pro X

  More fallout from the botched update of the Mac's professional video editing software

  Four days after Apple (AAPL) released Final Cut Pro X, the latest version of its top-of-the-line video editing software, the repercussions are still rippling through Hollywood and the tech press.

  David Pogue, who gave it a positive review in Thursday's New York Times, was forced to revisit his assessment that afternoon. "In 10 years of writing Times columns, I've MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jun 25, 2011 11:44 AM ET
  Posted in: Conan, Final Cut Pro, Hollywood, Mac App Store, New York Times, PCs, Video editing

• The Final Cut Pro X debacle

  One day later, 501 reviews, 229 of them negative

  "Since the early 2000s," according to its Wikipedia entry, "Final Cut Pro began to develop a large and expanding user base, mainly video hobbyists and independent filmmakers." By 2008, according to a survey published by the American Cinema Editors Guild, more than one in five members had abandoned Avid's (AVID) Media Composer and were doing their post-production work on Final Cut Pro.

  Which MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jun 22, 2011 6:34 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Avid Technology, Final Cut Pro, Mac, Mac App Store, Media Composer, PCs, software, Video editing

• Apple's Back to School promo: No more free iPod touch

  Instead, students this year get the usual 10% discount and a $100 software gift card

  We always thought of the iPod touch that Apple (AAPL) offered students as part of the company's annual "Back to School" sale as the equivalent of a narcotics dealer's free sample: a gateway drug that left users craving for an iPhone.

  To the dismay of much of the class of 2011, Apple has dropped the popular loss MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jun 16, 2011 9:31 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Back-to-School, iPhone, iPod, iPod touch, iTunes Store, iWork, Mac, Mac App Store, Microsoft, Microsoft Office, PCs

• Today in Tech: Android 3.0 videos, Mac App store hacked

  A curated selection of the day's most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web.

  Though Mark Zuckerberg has stated he's in no rush to take Facebook public, a 100-page deal memo from Goldman Sachs reveals the social network intends to pass that key 500-shareholder mark this year, putting it in a position to either go public or begin disclosing its financial results by early 2012. (CNNMoney)
  Apple's Mac App store launched MORE

  JP Mangalindan, Writer - Jan 7, 2011 7:56 AM ET
  Posted in: Android, DimDim, Facebook, Google, Google Talk, GTalk, Honeycomb, iLife, Mac App Store, Mark Zuckerberg, Mobile, Skype, Sony Playstation Phone, TechCrunch, YouTube

• Mac App Store to open on CES Day 1

  The launch of Apple's software platform coincides with the opening of a big electronics expo

  Here's one way to keep your news from getting lost in the avalanche of press releases that hits the tech press every January at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas: Break it three weeks early.

  That's what Apple (AAPL) did Thursday when it announced that the Mac App Store will open for business on Jan. MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 16, 2010 10:44 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, iPhone, Ivan Seidenberg, Mac App Store, Macintosh, Steve Jobs, Verizon