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Apple = Free Pass Linux (every flavor) = Free Pass

As others have pointed out, that's because Apple doesn't have a monopoly in the field desktop operating systems and that has now been tested in court

As for Linux, I count about a dozen different web-browsers on offer in the Ubuntu distribution. - and all the EU required of MS was to offer a choice, not to unbundle IE.

However, I am inclined to agree that 1994 is on the phone and wants its problem back.

Notice I said, Can be added. The Wii does have Flash but not the latest version which does suck. Nintendo should update it.
From what I hear the Pre will have Flash,
But for Android.. http://gizmodo.com/5091778/flash-10-on-the-android-g1-its-getting-there
Flash on the iPhone.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/31/adobe_apple_working_together_on_flash_for_iphone.html
Flash for Windows Mobile http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/wm.html
Flash for the S60 http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/nokia_s60.html

Supposedly it will take up less hard drive space and memory, but I'll believe that when I see it.

I think it's safe to believe the part about less hard drive space, because Apple will save a lot of space with a very simple method. According to AppleInsider, Snow Leopard will trim the standard install size by "several gigabytes" (4GB according to Ars Technica) by only installing printer drivers for currently connected printers. Drivers for newly attached printers will install over the network and Software Update, so this works best with an always-on connection.

Personally, I'm blown away by the fact that printer drivers alone take up anything close a one gigabyte, let alone 4GB.

Even if they fail, I'm glad they attempted this cleanup, even if it just inspires Microsoft to do some similar scrubbing with Windows 8.

I think netbooks have done enough to "inspire" MS (I prefer the word "panic") to scrub their OS.

Probably, but Apple is working out parental controls for iPhone games (currently its only in place for music and video in iTunes and Apple's mobile devices), which is the rationale for not allowing adult content.

Once that is delivered in iPhone 3.0, Apple's objectionable content restrictions are likely to ease.

Apple hints App Store rules may loosen with iPhone OS 3.0

Well actually not I, but Apple have - see this patent filing story

In fact, they mention using air as the actuator, as far back as 2007.

I would personally like to see the iPhone available on other carriers, but at least for now this doesn't look likely as Tim Cook has stated that he is happy staying with AT&T and GSM technology: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/04/22/apple_happy_with_att_indicates_no_plans_for_cdma_iphone.html

It could easily turn around with a new successful operating system by MS

They could however, there are some key things against them. An example would be the cost advantages of linux, with it being good enough for most uses. You may say so what but there are some ARM based computers in the works (see below) that can be sold for $200 dollars at profitable margins (whether they will be is another matter). Keep in mind that netbooks if cheap enough sell with Linux on them, as 2008 showed (with more windows share for higher priced netbooks, for various reasons). Others will follow if ARM based computers succeed.
Apple is also not stagnant, as can be seen here from their patent applications for a 3D GUI, the register and appleinsider also carry more details. How flat would MS party for windows 7 be if jobs announces this interface as the new interface for snow leopard, just as Linux takes a even bigger chunk of their market share.
Skytone
OLPC
Pegatron

What are you blabbering on about?

http://www.google.co.uk/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUK294&=&q=macbook+pro&btnG=Google+Search&meta=lr%3D

All Macbooks Pros are around 1100-1600 pounds. That's POUNDS, not dollars. Mine was 1300 a couple of years back.

Second, http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/06/04/21/apple_underclocking_macbook_pro_graphics_cards.html

If you're going to call someone stupid, try doing a little research first, or you'll end up looking like an imbecile. Like just now.

They're seriously copying Apple with that name.

well they're honest about not hiding their sources...

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/05/10/apple_filing_reveals_multi_sided_ipod_with_touch_screen_interface.html

Low iphone sales in Japan is FUD to which the blogosphere and the WSJ caught on. In fact, Japan ranks second in iphone sales. Of course the U.S. is where the majority of sales are, but the idea that iphones aren't selling in Japan is the result of somebody trying to manipulate Apple's stock price. It's all exposed here.

You're right. It is definitely possible that they have been able to move a lot of iPhone inventory since they started giving the phone away for free.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10172786-37.html [cnet.com]

copy pasted from the thread above this one.

I prefer this report, which says a lot more than the Wall Street Journal.

Low iphone sales in Japan is FUD to which the blogosphere and the WSJ caught on. In fact, Japan ranks second in iphone sales. Of course the U.S. is where the majority of sales are, but the idea that iphones aren't selling in Japan is the result of somebody trying to manipulate Apple's stock price. It's all exposed here.

Mac OS X Leopard .. screenshots

Interestingly, one of the rumours for the summer is a new hardware version - with video. They released summer 07 and summer 08; I'd be surprised if they didn't put out a new hardware version this summer.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/03/20/source_apples_next_gen_iphone_has_video_camera.html

New device strings have been found in the firmware (which isn't that reliable) but more telling, retailers have been unloading their existing stock and not getting more.

One of the nice things about Apple is that they follow the philosophy of Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky says: "A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."

With the LLVM Compiler and GrandCentral, Apple has been working for years now on a way to better take advantage of machines with many cores. Once again, they are making a leap that Microsoft will not be able to match for many years.

Of course, with the way multicore architecture has come to the forefront, I kind of wish Be OS had survived since it was designed to be multicore from day one. I have a feeling it's pervasively multithreaded nature would kick Apple and Microsoft's ass on modern hardware.

I know you jest, but seriously:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/03/20/jesus_phone_3_0_touches_diabetic_blogger.html

Yet another additional surplus extra "me too" in the market.

P.S. For reference, see:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/03/18/apples_iphone_3_0_expands_the_yawning_competitive_gap.html

Maybe it's because you're constantly paying for the iPhone? (Perhaps AT&T funds some of the development cost, or maybe Apple gets some money from your service fee.)

Or maybe it's something like the Intel Macbook 802.11n firmware upgrade, that Apple said they charged money because of something in the Sarbanes-Oxley act. Linky. Of course, I'm still skeptical as to the validity of that claim.

I agree it's dumb, though.

I am starting to think a controlled leak is the best way to manipulate your stock.

The 300-point rally yesterday combined with today's news from Kaufman Bros. that their new desktop lines are experiencing stronger than expected sales might have something to do with it as well.

From what I've read, the reason that Apple didn't allow Flash on the iPhone was because Adobe couldn't produce a version of it that didn't consume a lot of power. Apple very much values the battery life of the iPhone, and putting an inefficient Flash port on the iPhone would threaten this.

Look here for a proper discussion:
> http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/31/adobe_apple_working_together_on_flash_for_iphone.html

That makes absolutely no sense. And out of that bunch, this article was the most interesting to read:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/02/28/japanese_hate_for_iphone_all_a_big_mistake.html

Not only is the iPhone completely Adobe Flash-free, but iPhones also make up around 50% of mobile web traffic worldwide. That means in the mobile realm, Adobe's platform is approaching irrelevance. What Flash does exist on smartphones is usually Flash Lite, which is not a desktop Flash at all. And many devices that supposedly support Flash actually use some old version. Flash is only ubiquitously functional on the Windows PC, where it's largely unnecessary.

Flash Wars: Adobe in the History and Future of Flash

But Apple's share of the desktop market has skyrocketed recently to 15%

Inaccurate, close to 10%.

Microsoft's apologists have been saying for years that this was only because Windows' market share made it the more attractive target. But Apple's share of the desktop market has skyrocketed recently to 15% without any outbreaks of viruses targeting the Macintosh.

Really?!!

20000 infections that fast is not a small number. The bad guys are just beginning to discover this new "market" and adapting to it. The biggest threat to security have always been users, a cross-platform element. I just upgraded a friend's Macbook to Leopard, he has never installed Apple updates, security patches or otherwise. Same for Office for Mac updates. Was he in trouble? Not yet. Could he be if the bad guys wanted? Of course.
And there are millions out there like this friend of mine.

Hey, I GOT HIM. Even made a photo for you.
Now sack him and send the bounty to my paypal please.

This is the guy who is currently officially responsible for windows being vulnerable to worm and malware attacks.
There have been others in the past but your bounty explicitly asks for the person responsible for this current "conficker" worm, so here you go.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/06/27/solving_the_mystery_of_snow_leopards_shrinking_apps.html

Most applications installed by default with Snow Leopard are 1/3 or less the size they are in Leopard. The article guesses that its because of simple background compression. Other reasons could be dropping 32-bit code, no more ppc support, resolution independent svg's everywhere, and/or just plain old cleaned up code (Snow Leopards TL;DR is: Leopard refracted and optimized + a few major (or minor depending on what your coding) developer features).

I suspected that was your point, but it is not what you said.

You said (my emphasis) "Here's the difference. You can buy OS X and install it on any machine you want. Apple won't stop you; however, don't expect Apple to support it as it runs on non-Apple hardware. Now the moment you create a business to start selling it, you become a re-seller. As a re-seller, Apple can dictate what you can and cannot do."

My point (of which you're probably aware) was that Apple actually does try to dictate to everyone that OS X may only be installed on Apple hardware. However, unlike the RIAA, they don't seem to think it's worth it to sue each individual user. Though that view doesn't stop them from trying to use the DMCA to keep the information from users http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/06/02/17/apple_serves_dmca_notice_to_osx86_project.html. The only difference between an individual and a group to Apple is how much effort they are willing to expend to stop you from using OS X in violation of the EULA.

If you're an investor, owning shares in a company that has almost all of, but a shrinking share of a shrinking market isn't a happy place to be, especially if they have no room for growth and are trimming their failed attempts to find new markets. Add that their flagship product is running in the single digits, their Marketing efforts are the not only the butt of much comedy but may cost more than the GDP of Haiti and you have the perfect storm.

It's more fun to be holding a company that's growing share, sales and profits too. A company that only holds 10% of its target markets. A company that can report record profits in a bloodbath holiday quarter in the middle of a dire recession? A company whose advertising is so enjoyable that it's viral. A company that's innovating and inventing new markets. That's more fun. That's a winner.

And that winner isn't MSFT. Their stock is where it was 10 years ago. Over the same period Apple is up 1000%. Unlike Microsoft they have 90% of the established market to get yet, and the prospect of undiscovered country.

/14 links? That's informative. Pretty sure you regret posting that now. Let's go again.

If you're an investor, owning shares in a company that has almost all of, but a shrinking share of a shrinking market isn't a happy place to be, especially if they have no room for growth and are trimming their failed attempts to find new markets. Add that their flagship product is running in the single digits, their Marketing efforts are the not only the butt of much comedy but may cost more than the GDP of Haiti and you have the perfect storm.

It's more fun to be holding a company that's growing share, sales and profits too. A company that only holds 10% of its target markets. A company that can report record profits in a bloodbath holiday quarter in the middle of a dire recession? A company whose advertising is so enjoyable that it's viral. A company that's innovating and inventing new markets. That's more fun. That's a winner.

And that winner isn't MSFT. Their stock is where it was 10 years ago. Over the same period Apple is up 1000%. Unlike Microsoft they have 90% of the established market to get yet, and the prospect of undiscovered country.

/14 links? That's informative. Pretty sure you regret posting that now. Let's go again.

Appleinsider also covered the same subject, so I'll you decide if it is any better:

Heated Christmas call from Jobs secured iTunes changes

My first idea in response to this was to put the camera somehow behind the display. Maybe by having a translucent display or perhaps there is some technology out there in which the display emitters could also be used as detectors.

So I jump on to Google and it turns out Apple has already patented my idea. How did that pass the test of novelty and non-obviousness for a patent claim?

The Macbook Air is for roadwarriors. Unfortunately, it too has an integrated (non-user replaceable) battery. However, the replacement process nevertheless appears to be easier than expected.

You need to check out how Snow Leopard is built a little better, as it will not be 100% 64bit. It will be 'more' of a hybrid, but still not a full 64bit OS.

I don't profess to have a knowledge intricate enough to claim SnowLeopard is 100% 64-bit, not to mention that Snow Leopard isn't actually out yet and things may change. What I have learned is best represented by the graphic on this page where there is an end-to-end path of 64-bitness for Snow Leopard that wasn't there for previous iterations of the OS. To me that means a 64-bit OS. Perhaps to you it doesn't.

Because it DOESN'T matter in the Windows world. 32bit applications get performance benefits on the 64bit OS. Also if developers want to provide a full 64bit version, it is a simple recompile, you don't have to re-write the application like a lot of people (Adobe for example) find they have to do on OS X. This is why if you want a 64bit version of Adobe software, you need Vistax64, as the development APIs Apple sold Adobe never got moved to 64bit as promised.

You claim it doesn't matter for the windows world and then pick out a counterexample for an application written in Carbon. You're either deliberately obfuscating the issue or not understanding what's going on.

1. If you write your application in Cocoa a 64-bit version is a recompile away just as in Windows
2. Apple never sold Adobe anything, the devtools are free
3. What never got moved to 64-bit was the Carbon framework which was more of an interim measure to support software written for the PowerPC days and Adobe, understandably, were reluctant to do a complete re-write (using, I believe, Codewarrior)

All MS API sets(development platforms) move to 64bit, even old 16bit applications can be recompiled as 64bit applications. (You can't do this with System 9 applications, nor even the whole early 32bit transition APIs Apple provided.) Understand?

Perfectly. I don't disagree at all. Of course a lot of this was necessitated by the transition to OS X and from the PowerPC architecture to x86.

For everything the application (Apache in this example) that touches the OS, an OS API, or asks the OS to do, gets processed in 32bit mode. So if Apache asks OS X's kernel for a file from the File System, this is all happening in 32bit. Every API Apache uses that goes through the OS X kernel is processed in 32bit mode - not only in the OS, but the CPU is shifted to 32bit mode to process the call as well. Understand?

Yes, why do you keep asking me that?

You are defending Apple on something they don't need to be defended on and are more a problem in the industry when it comes to this subject than some 'noble' company. Do you remember the Apple ads talking about the FIRST 64bit Personal Computer? How ironic that this many years later it still isn't even running a native 64bit OS, where Windows has been doing 64bit versions since the mid 90s. (Yes NT 4.0 versions had 64bit modes and used 48bit addressing space on hardware capable of it, like the DEC Alpha) Apple is out of their league and making a fool of themselves in the process.

I don't quite get what you mean by 'noble' company. Apple certainly don't need me to defend them and I do remember the ads, though I remember it as the first 64-bit laptop (though that was also false). Yes, they were misleading, but Apple's certainly not alone in that game. They did a similar one for the FASTEST PC on the planet...

I'm not disputing windows was there first*, what I'm saying is that while Microsoft has its feet in both 32 and 64bit OSs Apple is trying to move the entire product line. If Snow Leopard delivers what is being promised Apple will not be able to claim beating Windows to 64-bit. What it can claim is to be the first away from 32-bit*.

Understand? ;-)

* for comparisons between Apple and Microsoft at least

I would imagine that trying to run OSX on non-64-bit hardware would be a recipe for disappointment.

It wouldn't be. The OS X kernel isn't even 64-bit yet; it's 32-bit with the ability to run 64-bit processes. Snow Leopard will have the first 64-bit kernel.

1) The iPhone is the biggest selling single phone on the market, hell they've a 1/3 of the whole market with one device

The OP misspoke slightly, but sometimes stuff can get confusing. The iPhone is the biggest selling phone in the United States, yes, even more than the freebie RAZR (cite). They had 28% back in February of 2008 and now have 30% as of December 2, 2008 -- although the later figure seems more suspect (cite, cite). The supply drop of iPhone-2Gs in the 1Q diminished their numbers quite a bit. Also, the market is smart phones, not just touch screen ones. The largest player in smart phones in the US is Blackberry -- which, well, has been having a less than stellar time with the attempt at the touch screen Storm.

You may not like that this article isn't flattering to Windows AT ALL, but it does reveal physical memory addressability limits, which may help your understanding of the problems: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/09/03/road_to_mac_os_x_snow_leopard_64_bits_santa_rosa_and_the_great_pc_swindle.html

You may not like that this article isn't flattering to Windows AT ALL, but it does reveal physical memory addressability limits, which may help your understanding of the problems: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/09/03/road_to_mac_os_x_snow_leopard_64_bits_santa_rosa_and_the_great_pc_swindle.html

"It was later revealed that the document was about a year old and only caught the attention of industry watchers after Apple recently updated it"

"Apple has removed a widely publicized support document from its website that encouraged Mac OS X users to install antivirus software, explaining that its operating system was designed with safeguards to protect against malicious attacks on its own."

1. Fragmentation. Defragmentation is not built in, customers must know how to run it. Without defragmentation of files on the hard drive, computers become very slow.
2. Temporary files. A study we did showed temporary files store in more than 40 places. Temporary files on computers we analyzed showed operation enormously because Windows becomes slow when the operating system partition is slow.
3. General sloppiness. It's difficult to maintain Windows because there are so many areas of sloppiness.

Somebody on AppleInsider brought up this very interesting point:

http://forums.appleinsider.com/showpost.php?p=1344735&postcount=13

I agree.

There are no shortages of bottom feeding trial lawyers looking for a meal at Apple's treasury.

Think of the liability, if Apple wasn't cautioning users about security and the steps they should consider, when someone finally cracks OSX, and OSX malware finally breaks into the wild.

This is just smart business.

You mean HDMI. HDCP (High definition content protection) is supported over HDMI, DVI, and Display port.

Macs DO use HDCP and will prevent playback of some itunes content on non compliant monitors.

See: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/11/18/apples_new_macbooks_have_built_in_copy_protection_measures.html

Do note, this is the US market only, and only in July/August of this year. It was 17.6% in June. It worse world-wide, 4.6% in March. Of course, these are sales, not installed base, which make Apple look better (you can find installed base numbers, also called market share, out there; basically halve the numbers).

The Steve was quick to point out that "Actually, all of the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2."

See it on Ars.

Apple has always been a step ahead of the industryâ"anyone remember when the original iMac debuted, and companies suddenly got off their duff and started making USB peripherals? Or the cries of suffering when it launched with OMG NO FLOPPY? Users may find it frustrating, but FW400 is going to that great technology dustbin in the sky.

Bling. Glossy looks more expensive and quasi-futuristic. That's it. As many people as there are complaining about wanting matte now, there'd be a hojillion more asking why the high price tag when the screen looks "all old and stuff."

On another note, you call $999 an "aggressive price point?"

And where's my new sanely-priced mini? Come on, keep the current specs and drop it to $300-$400.

No need for the TV itself to have storage.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/13/apple_tv_dvr_interface_revealed_in_patent_filings.html

The content goes onto your iPod like remote (which might, in fact, be an iPod Nano / iPod Touch with connectivity) which means you can take it with you and display it on any Apple TV.

I'm surprised no one has pointed out this link yet.

32-bit operating systems on x86 can get around this with PAE. Windows XP and Vista don't have support for it, though.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/09/03/road_to_mac_os_x_snow_leopard_64_bits_santa_rosa_and_the_great_pc_swindle.html

The half gig "lost" is because x86 is a memory-mapped architecture. The graphics card memory and all your peripherals are mapped over the top part of your memory address space.

It fits into the 2006 list. Symbian market share is now down to 55%, just as Microsoft's WiMo fell from 23% back in 2004 to today's 12%.

Nokia is taking over Symbian and making it into an open source foundation because royalties are dropping rapidly. Nobody wants to pay for OS software. Without revenues (down 14%), Symbian can't afford to invest in modernizing.

The era of Windows-like software platform licensing is over. From here on out, it will be integrated proprietary platforms (RIM and Apple) or free platforms (Google and Ubuntu). There's no need for paying for a commercial software OS. Symbian is adapting, Microsoft is pretending the climate isn't changing.

Ballmer changes tune while dancing around Apple's success

Choosing between a family vacation and a new iMac isn't going to go in Apple's favor. If they are going to remain relevant in a tough economy, they are going to have to seriously lower their prices

While I can't explain why, while we are in a tough economy now Apple's sales are actually good.

In case this Google news topic disappears:

• "Survey: Next 90 days look good for Apple"
• "Survey: Plans to buy a Mac hit an all-time high"
• "Survey: Apple riding high on news of economic woes"
• "Next 90 Days Look Good for Apple despite Consumer Electronics Spending Down"
• "Mac sales may hit record highs despite decline in consumer spending"
• "Consumer electronics spending down, but not for Apple"
• "ChangeWave: Apple Mac planned purchases for next 90 days hit new all-time high"
• "Demand for Macs remains high in spite of spending"
• "Report: Mac Spending Up Despite Poor Outlook for Consumer Electronics"

Falcon

10 cents is the real number for Apple. Don't believe it? Not my fault. It's commonly known. For example, here.

The reason this does not square with your numbers is two-fold. First, Apple batches purchases whenever possible, so that the per-transaction fees get divided amongst many different tracks. Second, Apple is a large company with more money and clout than you or I can even imagine, and is therefore able to negotiate better deals than most.

And 99c a track is a rip-off. In some cases works out to more than you pay for the CD. That's fucked up.

Last year, a Pacific Crest Securities analyst estimated Apple's profit at about $0.10 per song, while $0.20 goes to pay for processing fees and expenses, and $0.70 goes to the label (which then gives ~$0.10 of their cut to the artist).

Also, iTunes gets albums cheaper than singles wholesale, and processing fees are lower on a single album purchase than a bunch of individual tracks, so iTunes charges you less if you buy an album — usually $9.99 or less, but some labels negotiated for more money on hit albums — than if you buy all the tracks individually.

So iTunes couldn't drop prices that much if they wanted to, and when they do save money they pass it on to the customer. Seems reasonable enough to me.

Of course, iTunes wouldn't be the number one music retailer in the world if most people thought they were a "rip-off". Most people are willing to pay 99 cents a song for the convenience and selection the iTunes store offers.

And for what it's worth, "micropayment" means any payment small enough that transaction fees take up a significant percentage of the total price. $0.99 is at the high end of micropayments, but still a micropayment; smaller retailers would spend $0.25 or more of that on credit card fees.