Lily Sussman is back from Egypt with the laptop that got "blown up" at the Israeli border

Photo: Lily Sussman

Three weeks ago, an American student working in Cairo was questioned for two hours at the Israeli border before security officials confiscated her Apple (AAPL) MacBook, called in a sapper, and shot it full of holes.

Lily Sussman, 21, told the story on her blog, where it drew more than a thousand comments and a fair amount of coverage in the Mideast press.

Before she flew home for the holidays, she gave The Daily News Egypt the video interview posted below the fold.

UPDATE: By luck or careful aim, Sussman's hard drive emerged unscathed. "I've managed to recover all the data!" she writes. "Yayy…It's a survivor. I have yet to hear back from the man handling my case about when and what I will be compensated."

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

A Florida university is providing each of its student athletes with a MacBook Pro

USF Bulls with MacBooks. Photo: Joseph Gamble

They get the glory. They get the cheerleaders. And now they get free MacBooks.

In what it claims is a first, the University of South Florida announced Wednesday that it is loaning all of its student athletes — some 460 in all — 13-inch MacBook Pros so that can keep up with their studies while on the road.

As part of the program, USF will be adding new lectures to iTunes U, the section of Apple's music- and video-download service where educational material is posted.

The university declined to put a price tag on the program, but a spokesman said that the cost of providing the MacBooks for the spring semester was in the "six figures," even after a special Apple (AAPL) discount.

Handing out the laptops. Photo: Joseph Gamble (USF)

According to NCAA rules, the computers will remain the property of USF and will be checked out from and returned to the athletics department at the start and conclusion of each semester. The rules also prohibit students from endorsing or recommending Apple products or services.

And if some students would rather use their Windows or Ubuntu machines than a MacBook Pro?

"All student-athletes will receive one if they chose to accept," says Chris Freet, USF assistant director of athletics. "Right now, we won't force them to move away from their existing computer if they are reluctant to use the MacBook."

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

But some people may not be getting the computers they hoped for this holiday season

Image: Amazon.com

On the eve of Cyber Monday, Apple (AAPL) Macs held the top three spots on Amazon's (AMZN) "Most Wished For" laptop list, as well as the top four spots on the desktop computer wish list.

But wishes are not horses — or premium-priced Macs — and judging from Amazon's "Most Gifted" lists, some of those Christmas wishes might be filled by more affordable Microsoft (MSFT) Windows machines.

On the laptop "Most Gifted" list, the top two spots Sunday morning went to a $549.99 Toshiba Satellite and $418.98 Acer Aspire, respectively. The $1,199 MacBook Pro had been pushed to No. 3.

On the desktop computer "Most Gifted" list, three of the top four were still Macs, but a Hewlett Packard (HPQ) Compaq had moved into the No. 2 spot.

On Amazon's "Bestseller" lists — a broader measure of what's being purchased on America's largest online retail store — no Macs topped either list Sunday morning. But four Macs were among the top 10 bestsellers for both laptops and desktops.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

Photo: Apple Inc.

Apple's (AAPL) surprise announcement Tuesday of four new or updated product lines — iMac, MacBook, Mac mini and a touch-sensitive "Magic Mouse" — does at least three things:

1. Builds on the momentum created by the blowout earnings announced Monday
2. Gives customers a reason to reconsider Apple's desktop machines
3. Keeps the press from writing about Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows 7 — set for release Thursday — for at least another day.

The second point was underscored in a note to clients issued Tuesday afternoon by Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster. He points out that Apple achieved an 17% increase in computer sales last quarter despite fighting the "headwind" of desktop machines that had grown increasing long in the tooth. Desktop unit sales were down 16% year over year last quarter, compared with an astonishing 35% increase in MacBook sales.

The new machines — especially the thinner, faster iMacs — could change that.

"In other words," writes Munster, "the headwind that existed in the Sept. quarter due to aging Mac desktops has now turned into a tailwind for Mac units in the Dec. quarter."

The best place to learn about the new machines is probably Apple's own website. We're particularly fond of the little video industrial designer Jonathan Ive recorded about the new iMacs, pasted below the fold.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

The rumors of a flurry of new machines were true

Photo: Apple Inc.

UPDATE: Apple's online store came back online shortly before 1 p.m. Eastern with new iMacs, a new MacBook, a new Mac mini and a new "Magic" Mouse (the Mighty Mouse having run into trademark problems). The products are displayed on the reconfigured website and described in a series of press releases:

• The new iMacs
• The new MacBook
• The new Magic Mouse

Apple's website describes a new "mightier" mini, but no press release on that yet.

- – - -

Apple's (AAPL) online store went off line Tuesday morning, adding fuel to rumors that it held its quarterly earnings call a day early to clear the decks for the release of some new hardware.

The Apple blogs have been predicting this for weeks, none more succinctly than Daring Fireball's John Gruber, who responded to a provocation from Dan "Fake Steve Jobs" Lyons with this cryptic note:

Dan Lyons Apparently Thinks Yours Truly Hasn’t Heard About the Redesigned Plastic MacBooks, Redesigned (‘Impressive’) iMacs, Updated Minis (Including One That Ships With Mac OS X Server), the Multi-Touch Magic Mouse, and, as the Wildcard I’m-Not-Sure-I-Re

Unseemly for the Fake Steve character to be so wrong (or, frankly, even to care) about what I know.

By Thursday, I'm sure everybody will be talking about Windows 7 again.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

Apple's (AAPL) fiscal year, which ends Saturday, finished on a strong note.

The company won't release its earnings for a few weeks, but shareholders can already see the most visible rewards — a stock that returned gains of nearly 45% over a 12 month period in which the S&P 500 lost 15%.

The last eight months were particularly impressive. The stock climbed from a 2-year low of $78.20 a share on Jan. 20 to close Friday at $182.37 — up 133%.

The stock's roller coaster performance over the first four months were driven in part by broad economic trends and in part by concerns about Steve Jobs' health. But its recovery, I suspect, had less to do with Jobs' return than with the company's underlying strength.

Below the fold: The year's highlights (with links to Apple 2.0's coverage).

• Oct. 14, 2008: Steve Jobs introduces new MacBooks (link)
• Dec. 16, 2008: Apple announces it is pulling out of Macworld (link)
• Jan. 5, 2009: Jobs says he has a "hormone imbalance" (link)
• Jan. 6, 2009: Phil Schiller delivers Apple's last Macworld keynote (link)
• Jan. 14, 2009: Jobs takes a medical leave (link)
• Mar. 17, 2009: Apple previews iPhone 3.0 software (link)
• Apr. 23, 2009: 1 billionth iPhone app downloaded (link)
• June 8, 2009: iPhone 3GS, $99 iPhone 3G announced at WWDC (link)
• June 19, 2009: iPhone 3GS launches, 1 million sold in first weekend (link)
• June 20, 2009: Jobs' liver transplant revealed (link)
• June 29, 2009: Jobs is "back to work" (link)
• Aug. 28, 2009: Snow Leopard launched (link)
• Aug. 28, 2009: China Unicom announces deal to sell iPhones in China (link)
• Sept. 9, 2009: Jobs returns to stage, unveils new iPods (link)
• Sept. 23, 2009: FASB approves subscription accounting change (link)

"We just met with Apple executives at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, CA, including Peter Oppenheimer, Greg Joswiak, and Eddy Cue."

Thus begins a note to clients sent Thursday by Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes. The note ends with Reitzes raising his Apple price target to $208 from $188 — one of the sparks that sent Apple (AAPL) shares up 1.88% to close at $168.42 for the day.

In between, Reitzes rattles off a list of new products he expects Apple to introduce in the months ahead. Although he insists the Apple execs he met didn't divulge any major secrets, Reitzes sounded pretty sure of himself. Among the coming attractions, as he sees them:

• New iPods with cameras (likely September). He expects a launch, possibly before the end of August, of iPod touches with cameras and video capabilities and perhaps even an iPod nano with a still camera — prompting another round of iPod upgrades. "We believe that imaging ties in well with Apple's strengths in software and can help drive more Mac sales over time."
• A new tablet computer (likely in first half 2010, but possibly before the end of the year). He sees it priced between $399 and $999, and eventually becoming the fourth leg of Apple's business model. "We believe this type of product would open Apple up to more opportunities in mobile gaming, navigation services and other content related growth – which could all be distributed through iTunes."
• New low-end MacBooks (Q4 2009) He believes the MacBook line needs to be revamped (there is only one MacBook available now, an old white model). He expects to see new MacBooks before the end of the year that are priced below the low-end MacBook Pro.
• An upgrade for Apple TV (Q1 2010). "We believe Apple TV can eventually become a platform that integrates gaming and other new features."
• An iPhone for China (by year end). But as early as this September, according to his sources, with China Unicom as the most likely partner.
• A new iPhone upgrade cycle (2010) "We believe more can be done with product width, battery life, speakers, gaming controls and more. Also, many developers realize that Apps may need to be recompiled for new screen sizes and Apple may be taking steps behind the scenes to ease any transition."

Meanwhile, in other Apple news, buzz is growing for an early launch of Snow Leopard, perhaps on Friday, Aug. 28, which would put the latest major upgrade of Apple's flagship operating system in stores nearly two months ahead of the scheduled Oct. 22. launch of Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows 7. See here and here.

And leaks from the music industry suggest that there may be an Apple event scheduled for the week of Sept. 7, the usual time frame for new iPod introductions. See here.

It's starting to shape up as a busy fall.

Apple (AAPL) blew past expectations — its own and Wall Street's — to report record third-quarter earnings Tuesday.

Buoyed by strong sales of its new iPhone, an explosion of iPhone applications and price cuts on its flagship MacBook line, the company earned $1.35 per share on revenue of $8.34 billion — up nearly 12% year over year.

Analysts were expecting earnings of $1.17 on revenue of $8.2 billion, according to Thomson Financial.

Apple's shares, which had closed at $151.51, down 0.91% for the day, rose sharply in after-hours trading. By 5:49 p.m. its shares had climbed 4.3% to $158.03.

The stock has been one of the market's best performers of 2009, having risen nearly 80% against the Nasdaq's 21%.

The strong results in the face of a global economic slump could be viewed as vindication of the company's decision to stay out of the market for low-cost netbooks — which now dominate the consumer PC business and are squeezing the profit margins of Apple's competitors.

Apple did cut prices a bit in June. It knocked $100 off the retail price of the older iPhone 3G and trimmed prices on most of its MacBooks by 10%.

But basically, Apple stuck to its long-term strategy: selling high-margin machines that offer better support and superior end-user experience.

It's a strategy that seems to have paid off in spades this quarter.

“We’re making our most innovative products ever and our customers are responding,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in a prepared statement. “We’re thrilled to have sold over 5.2 million iPhones during the quarter and users have downloaded more than 1.5 billion applications from our App Store in its first year.”

Although it was rumored that Jobs might participate in the earnings call Tuesday afternoon, he was not among the listed speakers.

Highlights from Apple's earnings report include:

• Mac sales: 2.6 million units, up 4% year over year
• iPhone sales: 5.24 million units, up 626%
• iPod sales: 10.2 million units, down 7%
• Gross margin: 36.3%, up from 34.8% last year
• Cash holdings: $31.1 billion, up $2.2 billion for the quarter.
• Guidance for the September quarter: revenue between $8.7 and $8.9 billion, EPS between $1.18 and $1.23, and gross margins of 34% — considerably higher than expected.

COO Tim Cook, who ran Apple while Steve Jobs was on medical leave, was asked repeatedly during a conference call with analysts how he plans to compete with netbooks that cost $399 to $499.

Cook stuck to his mantra: that Apple's goal is not to build the most computers, but to build the best computers.

"The Mac," he pointed out, "has now outgrown the market a staggering 18 out of the last 19 quarters."

Apple's press release is available here.

A replay of the conference call will be available for the next two weeks, starting at 5 p.m. PDT. The instructions are here.

For our analysts of how the analysts did, click here.

See also:

• All eyes on Apple's earnings
• How to predict Apple's gross margins
• A guide to Apple's guidance

Photo: Apple Inc.

Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster issued a note early Monday morning warning clients that for Apple (AAPL) to sell the 2.45 million Macs the Street was expecting this quarter, there would have to be good news in the data due out from the NPD Group Monday afternoon.

"Mac NPD for the month of June needs to be flat in order for the entire quarter to be tracking in line with Street Mac consensus," he wrote, adding — in a golfing metaphor salesman slang — that he expected "slight upside to the flat bogey for the month of June, between flat and +5%" year over year.

Well, the NPD numbers came out and they blew past even his most optimistic expectations. Rather than up 5% in June, as he hoped, they were up a whopping 16%.

According to Munster's second note of the day, that implies sales for the entire quarter of 2.6 million units.

That's more Macs than any of the analysts we polled over the weekend expected and more, even, than Apple sold in Q2 2008, before the global economy went into free fall.

The average sales price of those Macs in June was down 4% month over month, however, thanks to the same price cuts that drove up volume.

We'll find out how all this affected Apple's bottom line when the company reports its full quarterly earnings after the markets close Tuesday.

Meanwhile Apple shares, which had climbed as high as $155 early Monday, slid back down to $151 in mid-afternoon trading. The stock closed at 152.91, up .76% in a day on which the Dow rose 1.19%

See also:

• All eyes on Apple's earnings
• How to predict Apple's gross margins

It's been three and a half months since Microsoft (MSFT) put owners of Apple (AAPL) computers on the defensive with the first (and perhaps the best) "Laptop Hunters" ad — the one featuring a perky actress named Lauren who does a price comparison and decides she's "just not cool enough to be a Mac person."

Lauren, you may recall, started with a $1,000 budget but ended up with a $699.99 Hewlett Packard (HPQ) machine.

Someone in Redmond must have liked the way that $700 price point played in the focus groups because a cut-down version of the original Lauren ad was back in heavy rotation last week, and this week it was joined by a new TV spot in which an equally photogenic laptop hunting family starts with a $700 budget, rejects the $999 white MacBook, and ends up, like Lauren, with an HP Pavilion dv7.

Brace yourself for another round of Pavilion dv7 bashing (“It is the epitome of what people dislike about PCs,” wrote Computerworld’s Seth Weintraub when Lauren bought hers) and statements of the obvious: if you start at $700 you've already priced yourself out of the Apple notebook market.

More to the point, perhaps, is that none of this seems to have put a dent in MacBook sales, as All Things Digital's John Paczkowski pointed out earlier this week. The 13-inch MacBook Pro, starting at $1,199, seems to be selling particularly well. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster called around and found that it was out of stock in 7 of the 10 stores he telephoned (see here).

Here, in case you missed it, is the latest Laptop Hunters ad. The original "Lauren" spot is pasted below the fold.

See also:

• How Microsoft put Apple owners on the defensive
• All about Microsoft’s ‘Lauren’
• Is the Apple press falling into Microsoft’s trap?
• Apple slaps Microsoft with rubber chickens