To understand what the Apple Store meant to me, let me tell you a personal story. In the 1960s, I had a hobby, building radio and general audio gear. Some of it I bought for myself, others I assembled for friends — at no charge. Well, I was a teenager, living at home. I wasn’t […]

In recent years, Apple has allowed customers to take a huge chance. As with members of Apple’s developer program, you can get early access to Apple’s operating systems, for better or worse. And sometimes it can be for worse. While Apple wasn’t doing public betas of what was then called the Mac OS in the […]

At one time, a number of newspapers featured tech columnists. I was one of them for the Arizona Republic, before we were declared obsolete in the endless rush to reduce expenses. True, there are some tech writers who still labor away on their columns at local papers; more so on national papers such as USA Today. Some […]

Back in the 1990s, I wrote a weekly column, “Mac Reality Check,” for the Arizona Republic. The column was later picked up for a time by USA Today, and you can guess the subject matter. I wrote 750-1,000 words debunking myths about Macs, and the Apple universe. I expected hard-nosed PC advocates to attack me, […]