Apple Inc.'s operating system market share slipped last month as Microsoft Corp.'s Windows halted its slide for only the fourth time in the past 12 months, a research company reported. In July, Apple's Mac OS X powered 7.76% of the computers that accessed the 40,000 sites Net Applications monitors for its clients, the company said Friday. The Mac's share of the OS market was down 0.18 percentage points from June's 7.94% and was lower than May's 7.83%. Windows, meanwhile, posted a small gain in overall share, climbing 0.13 percentage points from June's 90.89% to end July with 91.02%

The Mac server account creation, permissions setting, and password generation tool * Got Users? * Lots of them? * Get them into your server the Mac way!

Are you using the latest version of Mac OS X efficiently? Try our tips and watch your productivity soar.

Bottom line: Macs aren't "way more" expensive than PCs. So where do things get really hairy with Apple? Upgrades. Apple really stabs you in the face when you're upgrading your Mac. All goes well when you want to buy a base system, but as soon as you want to add options, be prepared to be murdered. I'll talk about this later.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster thinks Apple will introduce new iPods and new model laptop at a special event in September. It's not entirely speculation - the analyst observes Apple to have held such an event for the last three years. And while the analyst doesn't expect an iPhone nano or MacBook touch to appear at the show, he does anticipate some major revisions of Apple laptops. Munster predicts redesigned MacBooks at lower prices, along with a redesigned MacBook Pro. "We note that the MacBook has had the same design since its launch over two years ago, and the MacBook Pro has had essentially the same design since its launch over 2.5 years ago, which was very similar in design to the PowerBook G4 released over 5.5 years ago," he told clients.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog has posted a short story on the top five mistakes made by new mac users. It includes closing an application window, thinking it has quit, downloading software and then running it from the disk image (runs slowly, can't eject disk image), Windows .EXE files littered around the desktop after they've tried to download software and install it.

Graham Lee, senior Mac engineer at Sophos, shares a number of steps that Apple Mac users can take to improve the physical security of their laptops.

Apple has staked its reputation on tight control of a few carefully designed, faultlessly executed products. Now, as Apple expands its reach from computers into music, video, consumer electronics and phones, it's getting harder and harder for the company to make sure all of its products "just work," as its marketing slogan goes. Its growing army of customers is getting more difficult to satisfy, and they're finding a host of new problems, ranging from tapeless camcorder issues to buggy iPhones.

Another quarter and another hope that Adobe's Flash will someday make an appearance on Apple's iPhone.

Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) 3 is the latest release of Apple's desktop management software, enabling administrators to distribute software, manage assets, and remotely administer Mac OS X systems via a network. ARD 3 takes advantage of innovative technologies in Mac OS X Tiger such as Automator. Automator is built on the concept of actions - discrete tasks such as opening a file, cropping an image, or sending a message. With Automator users can string together a series of actions into a single Automator workflow document. Much like a script, a workflow document can be executed, triggering each action and passing any data generated by the action to the next action in the workflow. Using the Automator actions installed with ARD and custom actions you create, you can develop workflows to automate repetitive system administration tasks. For example, workflows can distribute software, create detailed software and hardware reports, and remotely configure systems using ARD.

Automator is an application that lets users automate repetitive procedures performed on a computer. Developers create Automator actions--loadable bundles that perform discrete tasks--that users link together in a workflow. Developers can implement Automator actions using AppleScript, Objective-C, or a combination of the two. System administrators and end users can also supply their own shell scripts as Automator actions. Actions can access the capabilities of individual applications (including the Finder) and a wide range of system services.

In the U.S., the oft-touted "halo effect" from Apple's iPods and iPhones looks to be encouraging consumers to try the company's computers as well. Apple saw U.S. sales jump 38.1% in the quarter, according to Gartner (31.7% says IDC), pushing the company into third place, behind Dell and HP, with an 8.5% market share, compared to 6.4% last year.

Intego, the Macintosh security specialist, today announced the release of VirusBarrier X5 10.5.3, an update to its acclaimed antivirus software that Macworld calls "the gold standard". This new version adds the ability to scan the iPhone and iPod touch for malware. VirusBarrier X5 is the only antivirus software that can eradicate malware from the iPhone and iPod touch.

While taking pictures on the beach in Waikiki, I discovered that one of these accidental pictures featured a bizarrely distorted image of a couple of kids playing on the beach. It wasn't blurred -- it was twisted and distorted unlike any other picture I'd taken with any other camera.

The Five Stages of the Kübler-Ross model The iPhone has become such a part of our collective consciousness that soon entire books are going to be written about the sociological impact of such a groundbreaking, Insanely Great device. Why, it's so dammed important, that it's probably pointless to write about any other pressing computing or technology issue.

Windows 95 was a remarkable moment in personal computing. Its successor has come. But not from Microsoft. Apple has launched the defining platform of the early 21st century. The PC is dead-or will be. Long live the smart phone, er, iPhone.

Google calendar can be a great tool for organizing your life. Sure, it's not as powerful as other desktop-based calendar applications or even personal digital assistants. But it's free and it works on just about any Web browser. You can even use it across multiple computers-you don't need to stick to one machine, as most other desktop-based calendaring applications are limited to. However, sometimes you would still want to use your own desktop application. Google Calendar does have limitations. For one, there's no internal means to handle tasks or to-do lists. And the interface can be a bit slow when you're working on slow connections. Fortunately, Google Calendar allows for syncing with external applications, by virtue of SyncML, and through one-way syncing via XML. For instance Apple's iCal, which is built-into Mac OS X, can be used to subscribe to your Google Calendar, and will automatically check Google Calendar every few minutes to check for new items.

A to G is a simple, free utility for Mac OS X that exports your Apple Address Book contacts into a Gmail-readable text file. Once exported, simply click Import in the Contacts section of your Gmail account, choose the file you exported, and you're done! A to G will bring over your contacts' phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, companies, job titles and notes so that you can have info you need wherever you have Gmail.