The Digital Good Life

Santa Clarita’s slogan is “Where the Good Life Takes You.” In choosing a temporary locale, we had to bypass the hometown of ATPM managing editor Chris Turner. Following Mr. Turner’s Twitter activity we understand he’s busy in the great state of Texas pursuing where the digital good life takes him. It’s not that Chris isn’t capable of overseeing our virtual operations while on the go. The issue is wherever he travels with his Apple gear it tends to attract a crowd. Chris isn’t one to pursue public attention. It’s the dandy devices he carries that build a crowd. Always distracted by the throngs of followers seeking to admire his favorite portable devices, it’s challenging for him to sit anywhere and make command decisions. We’ll move back to New Hampshire next month after Michael digs through the snow and Chris finds a place to sit quietly as more people buy Apple products of their own.

At ATPM we celebrate the “personal computing experience” and where the digital good life might take you. We thank you for joining us this month and every month as we explore the best uses of Apple’s popular personal technology products.

Enhance The Digital Good Life, Reap The Profit Rewards

If there’s a lesson in Apple’s continuing success it’s that high quality products that enhance the digital good life bring about fiscal rewards. For the three-month period ended in December, Apple reported record revenue of $26.741 billion dollars and record earnings of $6.43 per share. Thanks in large part to the success of the iPad, Apple’s revenue in the December quarter was 2.25 times the revenue of two years before. In the December quarter, over 56% of revenue was derived from two products—the iPhone and the iPad—that did not exist in the marketplace four years before. It’s obvious our managing editor isn’t the only one buying the latest Apple products.

The Mac Is Back, But Few Take Notice

Last fiscal year, Apple sold 13.662 million Macs. This fiscal year the number of Macs sold may reach 17 million units. It’s easy for the Mac’s success to be overshadowed by the more than 160 million iOS-based devices that have been sold in less than four years. There’s no doubt now the PC-centric era is over. Today there’s less need for the traditional PC as consumers the world over migrate to handheld devices for communication, entertainment, and commerce. This makes the Mac’s resurgence even more remarkable. In the recent conference call with analysts, the company’s management mentioned what many us already know. There’s a halo effect with Apple products. One Apple product tends to entice the consumer to buy other Apple products. The Mac is back and unit sales are bigger than ever. In the December quarter, the new MacBook Air and the popular MacBook Pros were standout products that pushed Mac sales higher by 23% year-over-year.

Celebrating the Personal Computing Experience

Whether you’re snow bound in New Hampshire, on the go in Texas, or situated here in sunny Southern California, computing products in many shapes and sizes fit our needs and our circumstances. Much has changed over the past 16 years, and the editors of ATPM continue to chronicle the personal computing experience one month at a time. Please join us each month here at ATPM and consider following our managing editor via of Twitter as he pursues the digital good life each day of the month at a time. On Twitter he calls himself retrophisch. We don’t know quite how to pronounce that but it looks kind of cool in print.

ATPM Wants You!

The editorial staff of ATPM is comprised of talented writers who started their relationship with our publication as readers of our monthly issues. When we say that we “celebrate the personal computing experience,” we mean it. If you’ve ever had the urge to share your personal computing experiences with a large and influential readership, please contact us at editor@atpm.com.

Please join us each month of the new year for our unique blend of views, news, and product reviews.

Our February issue includes:

Bloggable

A monthly summary of Wes Meltzer’s blogosphere news, originating from his Pinboard feed. This month: Between a Rock and Verizon, other Mobileverse news, and The Future of the Internet Is In Your Hands.

MacMuser: Here We Go Again

Mark Tennent laments how technology of this generation ceases to function so quickly, noting that his 16-year-old Apple LaserWriter 8500 is, more or less, still running strong.

Next Actions: GTD for iOS/iPad

Ed Eubanks Jr. discusses how iOS devices play into the future of Mac task management.

How To: Making the Most of What’s Already on Your Mac

In the next installment of this new series, Sylvester Roque covers the features that control or enhance what you see and hear in Mac OS X.

Desktop Pictures: Astronomy

This month features an editor-selected collection of images originally featured in the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day collection.

Out at Five

Matt Johnson’s new series, Out at Five, looks at the workplace and its boundaries from all angles, revolving around many of the same characters from his former series, Cortland.

Review: NeatReceipts and NeatWorks

Wes Meltzer finds a very nice receipt scanner that ships with mediocre software.

Review: Raptor-S16 iPhone Stand

A big gooseneck holder/stand for your iPhone or similar device.

Copyright © 2011 Robert Paul Leitao. Robert Paul Leitao is a contributing editor at ATPM and is author of the Posts At Eventide and The iPad Chronicles blogs.