Stories by Jason Snell

Tablets, led by the iPad, have the potential to shake up the comic-book industry even more than ebook readers have begun to change the world of prose books.

As an adolescent, I loved to read the science fiction magazine Analog. One of my favorite Analog stories was "Hindsight" by Harry Turtledove. (I still have my copy of this "special spoof issue," dated mid-December 1984, in my garage.)

Words that spring from an iPad are not necessarily the same words that would come from other devices.

It's been a little more than five years since Apple released the original iPhone. During that time the world has changed. People now expect fast, reliable Internet connections and bright touchscreens on devices they can fit in their pockets.

One year and one week since the release of OS X Lion, Apple is back with Mountain Lion, also known as OS X 10.8.

Five years ago, I was sitting in a tent up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, writing a review of one of the most technologically advanced products I'd ever seen in a remarkably non-technical location. My review of the original iPhone had collided with a long-planned, unmovable family vacation, and so there I was reviewing a phone in a place so remote there was no phone service.

Users who rely on Apple's Mac Pro system were disappointed when the raft of WWDC announcements didn't include Apple's tower Mac, but Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed in an email to an Apple customer that the company is working on "something really great" to address the professional market.

Apple CEO, Tim Cook, kicked off the Wall Street Journal’s tenth annual D: All Things Digital conference, appearing at the same event that his predecessor, Steve Jobs, had headlined several times before. Answering questions from conference hosts Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Cook said his company is doubling down on Siri, played coy about Apple’s approach to the gaming and television markets, and spoke emotionally about Jobs’s death.

The new-model of Apple TV looks and acts exactly like the previous model. I've spent the last week with the new, 1080p-compatible version of the Apple TV, and I'm here to report that it's exactly like its predecessor in all but one way.

For years, many Mac app developers have had to design their own ways to get your attention. But with Mountain Lion, a true systemwide notification service will finally arrive.

Two of the new iOS-flavored apps to move to the Mac with the release of Mountain Lion this summer are Notes and Reminders. Here’s a sneak peek at how they work.

iChat is dead—long live Messages. With Thursday’s announcement of Mac OS X Mountain Lion comes the news that iChat is being upgraded and renamed to Messages, with support for the iMessage chat system introduced with iOS 5.

Apple updates its iOS mobile operating system once a year. But why should the iPhone and iPad have all the fun? Apple has announced that it will release a new version of OS X—Mountain Lion—this summer, just a year after the release of OS X Lion.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Neil Young says that he talked to former Apple CEO Steve Jobs about offering higher-quality digital music downloads, but that since Jobs’s death, discussion with Apple on the matter has ceased.

Never before has an announcement about textbooks been the subject of so much conversation. But that’s what happens when Apple holds a media event: People talk, even if the subject might otherwise seem obscure or uninteresting.