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This article points out that most of the Torrent sites are shying away from hosting a copy of Tiger in fear of lawsuits from Apple.

No the links do not say that. They don't support your case.

Of course, lets not let the facts get in the way of your zealotry. And I quote:
From a technical standpoint, Apple have also been criticised for having a closed and proprietary architecture with the original Macintosh, and a "not invented here" syndrome against adopting open standards. That trend has been largely reversed with OS X, and the company now has an official policy of adopting open industry standards where they exist. Apple have now used industry standard hardware technologies for many years, which has helped to lower prices significantly.

Hell, go to Apple's site and check their specs yourself. Radeons, Geforces, Seagate hard drives, Micron RAM, the list goes on. But I suppose in your bizarro-world reality, those are all apple design, though, right?

What about the huge issue with motherboards on Powerbooks, the ones which would sizzle and die? How about the LCD problem a couple of months ago? I'm not dreaming these problems; I've got no problems with people who use Apple computers, but I *do* have a problem with such users who think that there have never been any problems with the hardware.

Read some examples here if you don't believe me. Google cache of Flaming 'Books too

here. To see screenshots, press the link in the buttom (I sure do *grin*)

Eh? Aren't there much larger margins on software than HW? After it's been developed, it's like 95% margin.

Apple has a margin of on average 28%-30+% gross margins on hardware... obviously resellers and VARs don't have anywhere near that, but it's what Apple gets. We won't talk about their RAM where it is more like 400%...

Assuming 30% on average, for every $3k tower you buy, Apple makes $900. Buy that tower with a $700-$2.5 Apple display, Apple pockets $1.1k-$1650 on the deal... not even withstanding the $300 extended warranty which covers less and less. Even selling a mid-range iBook will get them ~550 when you add in AppleCare. Plus Apple can count on probably 2 OS upgrades per system it sells over the years on average, or for another $260... not to mention any other Apple peripherals you might pick up.

So basically (obviously not hard numbers, but you get the idea) depending on the system sold, Apple is looking at $700-$2,600 in gross profit. If they sold MacOS X on X86 hardware for $199 they'd need to sell 25 million copies a year to to equal the gross revenue they pull in from selling ~1 million macs or so per year (bit over 5 billion).

Well, sure you say... they're making a lot of revenue but not a lot of profit. So if they only sold 1 million copies of x86 OSX at $199 for $199 million all they're doing is pressing the discs and distributing, so it's all gravy train... except Apple's development, support and other costs have gone up exponentially due to the nature of the x86 world. Thousands of models to support instead of a score, hundreds of thousands of configurations instead of thousands. And it's still gonna have to develop the tasty iApps, all pulled from that $199 a copy.

When you realize Apple can pretty much count on two OSX upgrades at $130 apiece over the life of every mac sold, or $260, the economics of Apple moving to a purely software model aren't very appetizing unless their new-fangled music thing really takes off and brings in a few billion per quarter.

Oh sure it could happen, but not without wiping out the stock and pairing Apple down to a shell of what it once was. The shareholders would end up making more money just selling everything, putting it in a bank and pulling 4% interest.

drunkenbatman

I read this article
MacNet article
And they mention that AAC is crap quality compared to Mp3, and that others have said the same. Any slashdot comments on this? Certainly no point in paying $.99 for crap. The entire article is good.

When was the last time you heard anything about the IBM chip?
I haven't heard a peep.
http://macnet2.com/more.php?id=338_0_1_0

MacNet forum topic on how to increase greatly the range of Airport on Titanium PowerBooks, with a screwdriver and a few efforts.

This is an Apple-Support-suggested manipulation, but it's still at your own risk.

The problem is easily fixed, in most cases, by opening up the battery compartment by the "approximately 5 cm long plastic strip" and pressing "the side wall of the powerbook against the frame." See the posts on MacNet by webdiva at http://www.macnet2.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1095 for the specifics.

The problem is easily fixed, in most cases, by opening up the battery compartment by the "approximately 5 cm long plastic strip" and pressing "the side wall of the powerbook against the frame." See the posts on MacNet by webdiva at http://www.macnet2.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1095 for the specifics.

Link

I posted this link in another comment above, but thought you'd be sure to see it. It basically describes a hardware problem in the TiPB that makes the internal antenna not stay in proper contact. This simple proceedure supposedly greatly improves things. Hope it works.

I like *not* having an external antenna on my TiPB. My laptop constantly goes in and out of my school bag. I prefer not having to pay extra attention to a little peice of plastic sticking out in these and other such situations.

Besides, there are ways to improve the range of the built-in card (I get great range). This discussion thread gives some interesting info.

A friend of mine found this fix on the macnet2.com message boards. I have tried it on 5 TiBooks so far and it works great. The fix involves popping out our battery and squeezing the side of the case where the serial number label is. I don't understand why it works because the antenna cable runs in the ofther direction. But it does work. I have about 4x the WiFi reception/transmission range since I fixed my TiBook.

I bought a Mac because Apple has the best support in the industry. Check out this glowing review from MacNet:

It used to be that when people were asked what made them Mac users people would always say that the Mac OS was better than Windows (which it was) and that it was easier to use and so forth.

For a loyal Mac user to finally be released from the 'reality distortion field' it can be devastating but at the same time "liberating". For me these last few weeks have been very stressful and not at all what I had had in mind as the publisher of MacNETv2. I can see clearly now and what I see will take some getting used to.

There was no way to know just how many people would contact me after reading my last two columns. I wrote them to get something off my chest. I'm the publisher of a webzine that professes to "Celebrate The Mac!" and here I was doing anything but. The truth is the 'reality distortion field' was weakening and I was getting angry at what I saw.

First there was the news that Apple's Retail Stores were not doing very well and the blame fell squarely on the shoulders of whoever was in charge of building a sales force. I knew first hand how ridiculous things were on the store level and after Charles Haddad broke the news in his Business Week column it gave me an opening to share with my readers the experiences I had had with Apple Retail.

I vented my anger at Apple in that column because with the millions of dollars they were investing in this brilliantly bold move to bring Apple to the masses they were blowing it big time. I'm far from a billionaire but even I know what it takes to make a retail store successful. Even I know how to sell computers to the 'everyday people' better than the bigwigs at Apple. So I let them have it and I was rewarded (?) with nearly 400 emails from people who thought the same way I did. Not a single email disagreed and many shared experiences with me that they had had at the Apple Retail Stores and it wasn't pretty.

Then, after getting the run-around from Apple on a new $3000 Tower purchase I found myself writing another damning column. It wasn't just this Tower experience that finally made me write about Apple Tech Support and Apple Customer Support. It was last October's PowerBook fiasco and last month iBook debacle. Here's some background to let you know why I decided to "go public".

PowerBook G4

Last October my PowerBook G4 racked up it's fourth visit to Apple/Austin for repairs and I was fed up. So I decided to climb up the "Apple Complaint Ladder" until I reached the 'Executive Relations' department. Four major repairs on a computer the entire world lauded as the best in the world were, at best, ridiculous.

After careful review of my service record the woman in Executive Relations agreed with me that I should receive a replacement PowerBook (Gee, ya think?). In a matter of days I was shipped a "like-kind" brand-new PowerBook G4. Although it took two visits too many to Apple/Austin in order to get a replacement I was delighted that it seemed as though someone cared enough to go the extra yard. That didn't last long.

You see, after I received the new PowerBook I spent half a day installing software. After an hour I noticed the PowerBook was getting unusually warm. After two hours it got hot, after three hours I began to worry that Apple had installed a nuclear reactor in it and after the fourth hour I came real close to having the PowerBook blow up in my lap. The computer started smoking and the LCD screen started flickering and I started freaking out. I unplugged the unit, disconnected the battery and called my contact at Executive Relations.

After conversations with Executive Relations and Apple Repair we came to the conclusion that this brand new PowerBook G4 didn't have a working fan. In half a day I managed to pretty much burn it up. Imagine my disappointment.

Executive Relations admitted to being really embarrassed and proceeded to make it up to me by offering another new PowerBook, only this time it was the newer model...more hard drive, more speed, more RAM...not a bad deal. I received the new model PowerBook in two days and promptly returned the burned up computer. I figured that after all these months with a problem PowerBook Apple was making a real effort to make it up to me. I still believe to this day that they tried to do right by me.

Well, the new PowerBook (my third one now) had a problem that took me a few days to find. (Not that I was looking) Seems no matter what kind of RAM you put into this computer it recognized the RAM as incompatible. Yes, I used right RAM...even Apple's own RAM at one point. The PowerBook still called the RAM incompatible. But it worked fine so I decided I could live with it.

Then the time came to use Norton to optimize my hard drive. If you installed nine gigs of software over the course of a few days you simply would have to optimize the drive. So I tried to boot from the Norton CD to run the tests and do the optimization. The PowerBook wouldn't boot from it. Then I tried Tech Tool Pro 3 and got the same result. It wouldn't boot from Tech Tool either.

After trying 6 other bootable CD's, including the OS X and OS 9 CD's that came with the PowerBook I couldn't get any CD to boot...except one...the Apple Hardware Diagnostic CD. Go figure.

Okay, what would you do if you were me? Well, I called Executive Relations again and offered to pay to have it overnighted directly to Executive Relations so they could see for themselves that I wasn't crazy and this new PowerBook refused to boot up from a CD. The last I heard was they were going to get back to me about getting yet another replacement or a fast repair. That was in mid-October, I'm still waiting.

If I were the person on the Apple end of the phone I would have sworn that this person (me) with three bad PowerBooks was trying to pull a fast one (although I couldn't imagine what would be gained), and I imagine they thought the same thing, so I after they hadn't called me back I sent one email. Never got an answer.

So I dropped it. I refused to get involved with Apple again. I was too busy to have to keep complaining about a $3500 PowerBook. I kept the PowerBook. I'm writing this column on it. Lucky for me Apple announced an upgrade path to the Combo Drive so I figured that I'd just wait and upgrade the drive and that would probably fix the boot problem. Never mind that it would cost me $300, after all I wanted a Combo drive anyway. But I was always a little disappointed that Executive Relations never called me back. By the way, I called on February 1st to get the combo drive and I was told it would take three weeks before I received the box to return the PowerBook. I'm still waiting.

And as far as having to boot with Norton or any other CD my problem was resolved by getting a SmartDisk FireFly hard drive. I installed OS X, OS 9, and all the repair utilities I had on this tiny FireFly and I boot from it whenever I need to. I would not have been able to keep this PowerBook running had it not been for the great people at SmartDisk.

iBook

Last month my iBook (Dual USB that I got for Christmas) had a problem. Well, wait, it had a problem the first day I bought it, but I had heard that most of the iBooks had the same problem so I never bothered Apple about it. The problem was the keys on the keyboard kept popping off. No big deal, I never lost one and I learned to keep an eye out for loose keys that were about to pop out and I learned to type by lightly tapping the keys.

The problem that did cause me to call Apple was the CD-ROM drive. One morning while I tried to place the new Garbage CD in it to rip it in iTunes it didn't want to stay closed. I have no idea what happened, it just one day decided not to stay closed. So I called it in. I told them about the keyboard and drive and they sent a box 3 days later. I did not involve Executive Relations, I mean, what's the point, right?

A week later the iBook showed back up at my home and Apple fixed the Drive. But they didn't touch the keyboard. Did I call them back and complain? No, I didn't. I let it slide.

2002 Quicksilver

The day I spent three grand on a new Dual GHz Tower I began to have serious issues with it. Last weeks column runs down the chain of events that caused me to finally write about the horrible state of Apple Tech Support and Customer Care so I won't repeat it here.

The very day my column was published I received a call from Executive Relations...Only this time it was Executive Relations in Cupertino, not Austin. And yes, they insisted they replace my Tower. I haven't received it yet but I have no doubt that I will. Whether it solves the problem or not, who knows? But instead of having to return the Tower to Austin they want it returned to Cupertino.

What I can't figure out is why did Apple call me? There are literally hundreds of people suffering from the same problem I am and Apple hasn't called them to set up a replacement so why did I deserve this special treatment? Okay, they did set up the capture problem but no one on the Apple Discussion Board apparently received one.

I have been pondering the answer to this for several days now. Did Apple want me to write about how great they were at getting to my problem and replacing my machine? Did they expect me to take my column down? I couldn't figure it out. They never even mentioned the column, but they certainly mentioned MacNETv2.

I was grateful that I was getting a new Tower, after all spending $3000 CASH for a new machine only to have it so screwed up I couldn't work on it was a little much, but was I happy with Apple?

In a word? No.

I remember talking to Apple Tech Support early last year when I had my first big problem with the original PowerBook G4. I remember telling him that I used to have to call Apple all the time in the mid-90's, back when they had Kodak Tech people come to your office or home for onsite service. No matter what Mac I owned I was always on the phone or sitting around talking to the Tech guy while he replaced a logic board or something. Those days must have cost Apple millions.

I also told him that I hadn't had to call Apple in the last 3 years because all my Macs ran perfectly. I never had a problem with any computer I bought since Steve Jobs came back. I was assured that this was a fluke and that Apple's quality was still first rate....

So was I just having a string of bad luck with my recent purchases? Was it just me?

After more than 700 emails since I published last week's column I think the answer is apparent; Apple has some real problems that either they don't care about or don't have an answer for.

I received email from people that have more serious horror stories than I did. Some people were so angry and so disappointed that their feelings came through the email like a bolt of lightning. I was literally stunned by the amount of email and the seriousness of the terrible support Apple is offering it's loyal customer base.

Several people urged me not to drop this issue. They implored me to keep it going, keep Apple's feet in the fire until they change their ways. But is that even possible? After all, I started publishing MacNETv2 because I wanted to help evangelize Apple. "Celebrate The Mac!" "Celebrate The Mac"...

Unlike many publishers of Mac-centric web sites, this is my full-time job and only source of income. I have employees to worry about and investors looking to turn a profit in the next year or two. How do I find the right balance of continuing to evangelize the Mac while holding Apple accountable for their quality of products and their quality of customer care? How do I remain true to my readers, my employees, not to mention my investors and myself?

John Manzione

Publisher

Under the truly amazing VPC 6, you can run Linux, Windows, &etc. I had submitted this story a few days ago, but it was rejected -- there's just too much Apple news lately. FWIW:

New for Mac OS X -- Virtual PC 6 from Connectix looks pretty incredible. As Wired says, "You can load DOS, Linux, OS 2, Windows 2000, 95, 98, ME, XP Home and Pro, and of course OS X and Mac OS 9. You can run any combination; RAM is the only limiting factor." Runs under MacOSX and MacOS9, though under MacOSX you can network different instances of VPC together, for filesharing or network programming. VPC 6 also allows you to "undo" -- revert to past sessions, including reboots (you can't do this in the real Windows). Apple and MacNet2 both review it warmly, and
CreativePro says: "I installed Red Hat Linux 7.1 and 7.2 without difficulty, though the drag and drop functionality does not work in Linux." If you're upset because MS Access or MS FrontPage weren't included with Microsoft Office for the Mac, you can run them under VPC. Prices go from $80 to $200. It's also available for windows.