Floop, a recently launched iPhone app coming out of stealth mode on Friday, lets you instantly poll the world, your friends or your neighbors, and track the results through real-time visual feedback. Floop is a sophisticated tool with amazing potential, but also some hurdles to jump.

Among my friends and family, I am The Apple Guy, a title which stemmed from a single computer purchase years ago. So how did a brand become so inextricably tied up in who I am as a person, and what are the consequences of that link?

According to a new survey, more than half of all smartphone owners are ready to jump ship to another device. iPhone owners are most loyal, with 59 percent saying they’ll stick with Apple’s device. But what do the figures really mean for the market?

As today’s announcement of The Beatles on the iTunes Store illustrates, the thing about visionaries like Steve Jobs is that what’s important to them is important to us, even when it’s not. This is just the latest example, and probably not the last.

Outside the diminutive circles of Mac enterprise IT, the end of the Xserve will hardly be noticed, but perhaps it should. Up until today, there were four categories of Mac desktop, and now there are three. How long before there are none?

I got an email today that made me a little bit sad. It was from Apple, and it was about how great Ping is. It left the distinct impression that many don’t agree. An email won’t convince people Ping is worthwhile. So what would?

In September 2009, Intel demonstrated a new technology, dubbed Light Peak, that many were hailing as USB’s successor. Thirteen months later, and CNET predicts that Light Peak will be featured in new Macs in 2011 when it finally arrives. I’m not so sure about that.

In an article on AppleInsider, Josh Ong details changes in the upcoming iOS 4.2 update. It seems to blur the line between MobileMe and a user’s Apple ID. It’s a subtle addition, but it might just be the seed of a revolution in personal computing.

Generally speaking, I buy accessories for my devices either to protect them, or to improve usability. For the iPhone, that’s led to a number of different case purchases. Now I find myself searching for a new kind of supplementary hardware, and I’m not alone.

As a musician, I’ll never forget seeing Logic for the first time and thinking, “Here we go baby!” Back then, GarageBand paled in comparison, so any semi-pro audio-technician would only use it for quick work. But iLife ’11 is blurring the line between the two programs.