For accuracy’s sake, any new Mac-PC commercials may need to make the two characters have a little trouble understanding each other; as stated in a report by eWeek’s Daniel Drew Turner, “companies that rely on Visual Basic for Applications scripts and macros on Macintosh and Windows clients will lose transparent cross-platform compatibility.”

Old Mac-PC commercials will remain truthful, as it’s only the Office 2008 suite that will cause these problems. Still, “Microsoft and others are scrambling to offer options to regain at least a limited degree of compatibility for future Office users,” according to Turner.

If Microsoft and Mac are unable to resolve the problem, it won’t be the end of the world, but it could become a major inconvenience for a lot of people and companies.

Danny Gorog has written an interesting piece for APCmag.com on why most people should buy a Mac.

He makes solid arguments supporting his belief that most people would be better off owning a Mac.

On the issue of cost he writes, “Getting back to the cost, it’s true that you won’t find a Mac as cheap as cheapest red spot specials from Dell or Acer. But have you actually tried buying one of those $799 laptops recently? By the time you spec them up to a reasonable standard, you’ll find you’ll have spent half as much again in extra RAM and an upgrade from basic DVD-ROM to DVD writer.”

To read the full article click here.

They aren’t supposed to talk about their jobs, but Mac|Life managed to get one former and one current Genius Bar staffer to chat about working with Apple’s customers:

“Well, probably something like 70 percent of the stuff we see - laptops, desktops, iPods - are just things that are very simply physically damaged by the customer,” the anonymous Genius says. (Take a minute, as we did, to inventory your recent history of bad-owner accidents. Ours included dropping laptops, spilling Gatorade into our keyboards, and yanking the headphone cord out of an iPod so carelessly that the plastic input ring chipped off.) “Do people realize that when you buy an electronic device, the warranties don’t cover physical or ‘accidental’ damage? You break your iPod and - I’d never say this to a customer - but the Genius Bar is not for you. Go to the store’s front desk and give it to the iPod recycling program, or go to iPodResQ.com. That’d save a ton of time, because we just can’t help you.”

Via Mac|Life

Stefanie Höfling passed along the news that Cocoa Bootcamp will take place August 6-10, 2007, at Big Nerd Ranch Europe:

Big Nerd Ranch Europe is pleased to announce the next opportunity of learning Mac OS X Programming in the most desired Cocoa training course available: Cocoa Bootcamp with instructor Aaron Hillegass. The intensive five-day training taught at the retreat environment of Kloster Eberbach near Frankfurt, Germany is scheduled for August 6-10, 2007.

(more…)

Some people have professed their doubts - while others have already erected tombstones - but a new rumor is circulating that the Mac mini will be eliminated from Apple’s lineup.

“Whether Apple will squeeze another revision from the mini, and how long it plans to allow existing models to linger, are both unclear,” reports Kasper Jade. But he continues, “Ladies and gentlemen, AppleInsider believes in all sincerity that the Mac mini is dead.”

The mini would presumably be replaced by the Apple TV. Still, mini fans need not give up entirely - there’s been no official word from Apple on this subject.