Here's some tech news that made the cut this week: • Professional social networking site Linkedin has seen its traffic spike over three hundred percent in the last year. I wondered why I started getting all those Linkedin invites recently. • Speaking of social networking, watch out for the Facebook backlash. And, in a related story, what's a site like Facebook worth anyway? • Intel has joined the $100 group (aka one laptop per...... [continue]

It may come as somewhat of a surprise that I, the vehement Apple fan and humble Macist would ever say anything even remotely negative about my favorite computer -- er, sorry "consumer electronics" -- company, but here I am saying just that. After much hype, speculation and furor all across the web and beyond, the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference Keynote went off this morning not with the expected bang, but with a whimper. And...... [continue]

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Ryan in Silverlake. He asks: I'm seriously considering a new Mac but I always hear rumors about newer ones coming out so I always end up waiting. Should I just bite the bullet and do it or should I wait? When to upgrade or get a new piece...... [continue]

Here's some tech news that caught my eye this week. • Have shares of Apple, Inc.? Did 'AppleGate' affect you? I was a little worried there for a second as my stock seemed to be taking a bath. But all seems well now. Although, the fallout for Engadget still remains to be seen. • Also, Engadget's Ryan Block responds to the 'AppleGate' situation. • The iPhone gets approved by the FCC. So close, yet...... [continue]

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Alexa in Beverly Hills. She asks: I know the Mac comes with iChat but is there anything else I can use for IM that lets me use other accounts besides .Mac? When you decide you want to explore the world of Instant Messaging on your Mac, you are...... [continue]

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Mark in Santa Monica. He asks: I'm new to the Mac and was wondering which web browser I should use. Safari, Firefox or something else? Which web browser to use can sometimes be a hard question to answer. The three major ones for the Mac that I use...... [continue]

Some tech tidbits that caught my eye this week. • Yahoo and Microsoft are getting cozy. Is there a marriage in the works? • Wally Schirra, pioneer astronaut and 5th man ever to go into space, died of a heart attack this week. He was 84. • Digg has a bad couple days. Is the honeymoon over? • Speaking of obscure digits that unlock encrypted HDDVDs, the guys who are fighting to protect their...... [continue]

Wow, this has got to hurt a little. People were a little miffed over at Digg last night, to say the least. Although, its interesting to see the power of the internet when people pull together in the same direction. Yes, piracy is bad but so is censorship. In truth, this number has been around the Internet for months so really, what's the big deal and why try to ban it now? Besides, its...... [continue]

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Jill in Silverlake. She asks: I travel quite a bit for work and need to check my email on the road. What's the best way to do that? Accessing your email while out of town and away from your home or office is usually pretty easy to accomplish....... [continue]

Some interesting tech-related news from around the web this week. • Imitation may be a form of flattery (the sincerest kind, so they say) but AOL, I think you might have taken it a bit too far. • AT&T Chief Edward "Moneybags" Whitacre is retiring. His going away present? $158.5 Million. Not a bad present. I bet he won't try to return it. • Apple issues a fix for the battery issues that plague...... [continue]

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Will in North Hollywood. He asks: I know there's a method for updating Mac OSX all the time and sometimes I get the window popping up saying I have updates. Should I always update when it tells me to? That's a good question and an important one to...... [continue]

Some interesting tech-related news from around the web this week. • Blackberry service had an outage this week in many parts of North America and for several tense hours, millions of users had to find something else to do with their thumbs. I feel their pain. But oddly, not in my thumbs. • Despite spending a boatload of cash to advertise Windows Vista, Microsoft has only managed to sell 244 legit copies of the...... [continue]

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Jim in Santa Monica. He asks: I have a bunch of PDF files that I need to combine into one document. How do I do that? That's a good question that I get asked frequently. In fact, I had to do this just the other day with several...... [continue]

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Josh in Los Angeles. He asks: There's no problem downloading .avi files, converting to .mov, and playing on the Apple TV, is there? Or showing .mov files generated by iMovie? Also, does it run with 10.3.9? The answer to your questions are pretty simple, fortunately. Anything you can...... [continue]

• Apple makes a deal with Music giant EMI to offer music at the iTunes Store with no DRM. If you don't know what DRM means, don't worry. It may not be around much longer. • Like Apple, Microsoft is apparently going to be making a deal with EMI for no DRM music too. Microsoft copying Apple? I'm shocked. • The saga continues for VOIP provider Vonage. First, they lose to Verizon. Then, they...... [continue]

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Sam, who lives all the way in Portland. He asks: "Even though Apple and EMI are not going to have DRM on their songs, is there any way to have songs from other companies in your iTunes without DRM to? With Apple announcing yesterday that they, along with...... [continue]

• Its official, June 11th is iPhone day. Start saving now. • Is Google too powerful? Business Week speculates that it might be. • The Treo 755p in the wild. If you still care at all. • SonyBMG music retires the requirement for new artists to submit a demo tape -- at least in Europe. Now, artists can upload demos to the company's website instead. They will probably still be rejected but at least...... [continue]

Welcome to the latest edition of "Ask the MACist", the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Jeff in Santa Monica. He asks: "Ok, I'm tempted to get an Apple TV but what will it do for me and is it worth the price?" Well, as always our readers come up with the best questions. And in this case, the most topical as well considering...... [continue]

• Apple, Inc. takes another step into your living room with the AppleTV -- which started shipping this week to eager early-adopters (like me). Should you get one? I'll let you know very soon after I beat up on it for a few days. • Speaking of AppleTV, over at 'Make', one of my favorite "do-it-yourself" sites, they show you how to violate the warranty on your shiny new AppleTV in four easy steps....... [continue]

Welcome to the latest edition of "Ask the MACist" the column where I answer your Macintosh and technology questions. Our question this week comes from Larry in Culver City. He asks: "I've got a Mac and I've got an XBox 360. Is there any way to get them to talk to each other?" Like Larry, I to am an avid XBox 360 user as well as a Macintosh lover so I have also been...... [continue]