Apple

Borderline hysteria was in the air at the massive Apple booth at San Franciso's MacWorld in January when the titanium PowerBook was introduced. Steve Jobs, he of all things silicon and digital, had aimed to jump-start his struggling company; the new PowerBook G4 was hailed as the resurrection, the renaissance and real cool, too. Your faithful correspondent waited in lines 10 deep to get his hands on one of the G4 laptops, but, as with most things, it...

Among his fellow political reporters, R.W. "Johnny" Apple was - to use a phrase he sometimes applied to subtle dishes - "an acquired taste." But there was nothing remotely subtle about his appeal. He was always on stage, whether covering a presidential campaign or reviewing a small restaurant in Provence, always speaking louder or writing more colorful prose than everyone else, usually unabashed in claiming credit, deserved or not. I knew him for more than 40 years as he dipped in and out of the political beat, covering a presidential campaign, then dashing off to spend two years as the New York Times' London bureau chief or a year in Africa.

ROUND ROCK, Texas -- It sounded like a bonanza for suburban Williamson County: high-tech, high-wage jobs, 1,500 or more by the turn of the century, from a Silicon Valley giant. Apple Computer wanted to build an $80 million office complex on a patch of ranchland just north of Austin.But shortly after Apple executives and county officials announced the plans, in tandem with a $750,000 property tax abatement for the company, two of the five county commissioners raised objections.Apple, they noted, is one of a small but growing number of corporations that confer health benefits on the unmarried partners of their employees.

A few weeks back, I wrote a piece praising the plain beige box and poking fun at computer makers who try to squish, squash and otherwise jam their PC's into strangely shaped containers. Not long afterward, Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO-for-life, demonstrated once again his firm belief that there's a sucker born every minute when he took to the stage at MacWorld and announced with his usual flourish that the company had succeeded in jamming its superb PowerMac G4 computer into an 8-inch cube.

Certain shiny little things make me weak in the knees and the wallet. I am helpless in the face of that perfectly designed something that performs beyond its weight class. Tiny diamonds that sparkle big. My previous car, a little silver Miata with a big, throaty throttle. Sliders. Which is why Steve Jobs should have had me at, "So, let me show it to you now," when he unveiled Apple's newest sleek sliver of desire, the iPad. But all I could think of during Wednesday's rollout was: iCan't.

Harper's Choice resident Naomi Nelson is a crafty lady whose trademark product is a handmade stuffed apple made of silk and lace. She is one of the many artisans who will be exhibiting their wares Oct. 17 at the new Street Fair at Howard County's fifth 50+ Expo, the popular health fair for seniors. "I love to make things," said Nelson, who is retired from a government job at Fort Meade. "I make everything. I make stuffed teddy bears with matching photo albums. I make stuffed cats. I make decorative hats and floral arrangements out of dried flowers and silk."

As a PC kind of guy, I rarely suffer from Mac envy, but I'll admit turning green last year when Apple announced its iPod digital music player. The elegant, 6.5-ounce gadget - about the size of a pack of cigarettes - featured a tiny but capacious hard drive and a slick, friendly interface that made competing players seem downright clunky. Now Apple has an iPod for the rest of us - or at least those who have the right PC and recent versions of Microsoft Windows. As expected, it's a pleasure to use, with superb sound and a beautifully simple control panel.

AppleWorks 6, Apple's veteran production suite, has been officially declared "end of life." Its page on Apple's Web site now redirects visitors to the iWork suite page. Though not surprising in view of the recent addition of the Numbers spreadsheet to iWork, it nevertheless brings a bittersweet end to a legendary program. Introduced as ClarisWorks in 1991, the software offered an early Mac alternative to Microsoft's offerings. ClarisWorks differed from most other productivity suites in that it combined six programs - word processing, database, spreadsheet, drawing, painting and a terminal program for communications (later replaced by a presentation program)

Are Galas, Fujis, Granny Smiths, Staymans and Romes the apples of your eyes? Then you'll want to visit the Adams County Apple Blossom Festival at the South Mountain Fairgrounds near Arendtsville, Pa., on Saturday and May 6. You might not know where to begin -- gastronomically speaking -- when you see the delectable apple delights being offered. Try the apple sundae, the apple crisp or apple pie. Have a bit of apple butter or some apple dumplings. Or enjoy fresh apple cider or apple juice.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Attention, shoppers: There's some unusual merchandise moving onto store shelves alongside television sets, power tools and children's clothes -- Apple computers.In the latest move by computer manufacturers to take their wares to where people shop, Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Computer Inc. has announced a deal with Sears to let the retail giant sell several models of Macintosh computers.Apple's Macintoshes will initially sell in 70 Sears stores that have Office Center outlets.