Bug or Feature?

Leopard's "Back to My Mac" feature lets a .mac user control their computer remotely via their .mac account. It's a fantastically useful idea, but there's some controversy over the first release not requiring your computer password as well as your .mac one. This paragraph concerns me though:

Most of us will use a “weaker” password for our .Mac account than for our Mac itself. It’s certainly what we’ve done to date anyway, since .Mac services were nowhere near as critical.

My .mac password is, id anything, stronger than the one for my computer since I figure I'm sending it over the Internet routinely, and it provides access to my IMAP email. My Mac itself is protected by its firewall, by disabling remote control services, and by controlling physical access to the machine itself. This is, surely, just as it should be. What I expect to see from Apple is an update, requiring your login password or, better still, a separate remote password.

Technorati Tags: .mac, Apple, Mac OS X, security

Mac sales benefit from 10 year brand refit

It's not the iPod halo, but a slow rebuilding of the Apple brand that's driving Mac sales growth:

Yet, Jobs knew the brand was suffering. “Even great brands need care and feeding,” Jobs said back then. “We have to nurture this brand.”

Technorati Tags: Apple, Computing, iPod, Mac OS X, Macintosh, Microsoft

Apple hears our Leopard Dock pain.

Awesome:

Apple has updated the Dock so that it has a 2-Dimensional appearance when it resides on the side of the screen. When residing on the bottom of the screen, the Dock retains the 3d shelf appearance.

Technorati Tags: Apple, broken, Design, Leopard, Mac OS X, Rumors, UI

Obvious

Cult of Mac » Blog Archive » Mac Design Holding Pattern Needs to End:

Worst of all, Apple has the best touch interface in the world on the iPhone and the iPod touch. Why on earth hasn’t it shown up in a computer yet(?)

That'll be because it's only been on the market for a few months in any usable form. But then this is from someone who thinks the fugly Compaq 2710 is "gorgeous".

Technorati Tags: Apple, Computing, Design, gadgets, iPhone, iPod touch, Product Design, technology

The price of creative freedom

How Much Did Radiohead Make? It Doesn't Matter - Silicon Alley Insider:

Radiohead is likely to make a nice sum from "In Rainbows," but the real advantage that its giveaway stunt has conferred is freedom: Radiohead, not a music label, will own the songs it recorded (EMI owns all of Radiohead's earlier work, for instance). Radiohead, not a music label, can decide how to market, promote and distribute the songs -- if it wants to do any of the above. And Radiohead, not a music label, can decide when, where and how it wants to release its next album.

For the record, I paid £4.99.

Technorati Tags: Business, Creativity, Music

Kicking the ass of Cookies

If you aren't excited about this then explaining it to you won't change a thing. Suffice to say, the web developers reading it will be licking their lips in anticipation. Think of Google Gears and built it into a web standard. Silverlight or Apollo, minus the Evil.

WebKit Does HTML5 Client-side Database Storage:

The client-side database storage API allows web applications to store structured data locally using a medium many web developers are already familiar with - SQL

Technorati Tags: Apple, futureofwebapps, Safari, Web, WebKit