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That may be part of it, but the other part was because Apple caught Microsoft with their hand in the cookie jar (the settlement was on top of the stock investment).

Keep in mind, Mac Office makes money for MS - to drop it just to spite Apple might make a shareholder or two upset.

If I were Mr. Jobs, I would have had this conversation with Mr. Gates or Mr. Baller at some point:

"Look guys, it's in your interest to keep Mac Office around. You see, because of the dominance of MS Office, the lack of Office for the Mac might result in a drop in Mac sales. If Mac sales drop off enough, Apple could be in serious trouble, and perhaps go out of business. If Apple were to go out of business, my last act as CEO would be to release all (non-3rd-party-licensed) Mac OS X kernel and GUI code under the GPL. I'm betting you really don't want that to happen."

:)

What you may see instead is the Copy Protected Disc logo, as seen here.

I bought one of those by accident yesterday. Fortunately the copy-protection is completely software-based, and I have autorun disabled on all drives. EAC read it just fine. Presumably it had a data track with WMA files on it, or something...

See, the thing is, they (the RIAA etc) have quietly been dropping the CD logo for some time now. It used to be fairly prominent on the exterior packaging and on the disc itself. Then, they started embossing it on the inside of the case (top right/lower left corners around the disc inlay). Now, they just leave it out entirely in many cases.

What you may see instead is the Copy Protected Disc logo, as seen here.

So it is no longer a Compact Disc, red book standard. It is a Copy Protected Disc.

On another note - that copy protected logo is a terrible piece of logo design. When I look at it I think "Play Record Play Record"... probably not the message they want to be sending...

I'm willing to bet IE is more secure then Firefox. Think about all the patches and updates they've had to do because of attacks on exploits.

FireFox is less targeted for attacks, that's why I use it.

Just like the Mac Myth, "Mac's don't get viruses or spyware because they're secure."

MacSlash, a horribly bias type /. for Mac users, clames "...truth be more readily told: the Mac doesn't have "few" viruses; it has "NO" viruses. Big difference."

Mac's don't get viruses or spyware as often as PC's because they're not being targeted. They only have 3.7% of the market share.

Number of PC viruses in 2004: 30
Number of Mac viruses ever:26

Do the math. Oh, and most of the stuff that SAM flagged...

MS Word macro viruses: 533

Sources:
Mac Viruses by the numbers
30 PC viruses played havoc in 2004

Ever heard of the BriQ? (Picture) It's an entire PowerPC computer in a 5.25" drive form factor. Very cool. I'm not entirely sure if it is still available though as the link I have bookmarked isn't coming up. Either way, I figured it warranted mentioning.

I just love how you continue to pull statistics out of your ass. Gartner would tend to disagree with you about your figures. Worldwide, Apple only accounts for 1.8% (Q3, 2004) of the entire market. I don't have a clue where '16%' comes from, but it's wildly inaccurate. As for userbase, what you're essentially telling me is that there would need to be 5 or more people using every one mac in the world. Start posting supporting links, or just stop posting. Your comments just drip with zealotism.

Seriously, has anyone ever read anything by Mossberg about Apple products that wasn't either glowing, stellar, or outright raving?

Sure. He finds the "Mighty Mouse" inferior to the Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 5000. Check out this article.

Rush Limbaugh is a die-hard Mac user.

Have a nice day. :-)

Apple sues Sorenson
http://slashdot.org/apple/02/05/01/2012217.shtml?t id=107

Apple sues to stop leaks
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/08/03/012024 0&mode=thread

Apple sues Think Secret
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/06/06 57245&tid=123&tid=3

Apple sues Future Power
http://www.macobserver.com/news/99/july/990701/app lesuesfuturepower.html

Apple sues domain name owner
http://www.slashstar.com/blogs/tim/archive/2004/12 /08/1126.aspx

Apple sues eMachine
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-230054.html?legacy=c net

"You are aware of the difference between CDs sitting on a shelf unsold and an OS actually installed on a computer?"

Spare me the theoretical ponderings. Here's a link: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-979064.html

What theoretical ponderings? I have explained to you *twice* that the publisher of the report you cite later clarified things. It is the publisher who says the numbers you cite refers to CD's shipped:

"IDC's Al Gillen, research director for systems software, explained to The Mac Observer that the number quoted is not for PC market share, but actually Linux's market share of new, licensed operating systems shipments worldwide.
...
For competitive reasons, IDC does not release specific numbers of the installed base, but Mr. Gillen confirmed Apple's market share was "nearly double that of Linux," putting it in second place behind the dominate OS leader, Windows by Microsoft Corp."
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2004/02/20.6.sh tml

"My basis was that around 1990, give or take a couple of years, I was downloading compiler source code from BBS' I found indirectly though Dr Dobb's journal, the C User's Journal, or Byte Magazine."

It is, of course, hard to assess this without a copy. It could be anything. Most likely, it was a 16-bit version for DOS, if it existed. In any case, it clearly never went anywhere.

Never going anywhere is irrelevant. My point stands that gcc was convenient but not irreplacable with respect to x86 Linux. Other compilers existed. The BSD dev's mentioned a host of other compilers. I was able to download compiler source in those days. A friend working with a National Semi 32032 CPU at home had compiler source, he was under no obligation to redistribute so it was not gpl. It is a bit naive to dismiss everthing you are unaware of as 16-bit DOS.

"Actually around 1990 I was writing a 32-bit x86 multithreaded kernel for hosting telecommunications applications on custom designed hardware."

That's nice. Get a few comlete *nix ports done to a new CPU and we'll talk. Porting a full-fledged *nix distribution and getting it ready is a completely different matter.

Sorry, but you digress. You mentioned the difficulties with the C compiler, I mention experience in getting C Std Libs hosted in an embedded environment so that normal apps and utils can run. Getting such apps/utils running is the topic, not delivering a complete desktop. The fact remains that using one compiler or another is one small piece of a large project. Even *if* some other compiler had needed some additional work it would have affected the ultimate delivery of Linux very little. Gcc was merely a convenience.

I think you are getting a little confused as to my original point, a refresh: If gcc was not used something else would have been used for x86 Linux and the world would be little different. Gcc was convenient for x86 not essential, gcc only becomes more important in the context of non-x86 platforms, and frankly non-x86 was also merely convenient, not essential to Linux's growth.

;-)

The wizard thing is just, in my mind, a fundemental problem. With Windows connecting to a wireless network requires a couple of dialogues and a pop-up. OSX just finds the network and connects. There's a subtle difference, but I find it all over the place. Yes, you can dismiss wizards and even disable them, but some are the primary way to use things, like digital cameras.

Furthermore, ACDSee and Photoshop Album are both handled by iPhoto--which is free, how much were the two programs?--and I can't think of an equivalent to GetRight, but I'm sure something exists.

Lastly, you don't need to know anyone who has a Mac, you can borrow one for 30 days.

You may not like OSX, you may not like the Mac Mini or any of the other machines, but I think it would be interesting for you to try one. And, I know Chevy mechanics--good ones at least--who also work on Fords.

At least make a honest choice.

I only bring up the issue, not as an "anti-Apple fanboy", because there is a sense that Apple is somehow a better company when it comes to customer satisfaction than most other companies. Their large and vociferous customers are proof of this.

Yes, there are other companies that put out shoddy equipment and software. Microsoft, lest you think I am a "pro-Microsoft fanboy", is one of the worst violaters of releasing unpolished products that require "third time's the charm" service packs just to get them workable.

However, when it comes to Apple, for all their touted customer centricity, a lawsuit was required to get them to face the iPod battery issue. And when they finally faced the issue, they charged an outrageous $99 for the replacement.
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2004/02/10.6.sh tml

Certainly you'd expect more from a company with a loyal customer following. Those customers are loyal because Apple does a lot of things right, like returning Canadian levies to the purchasers. But it is difficult to look at a small gesture like this and view it as anything other than a publicity stunt to improve their image when they are loath to face difficult and expensive customer problems like the battery issue (and the logic board issue, and the G4 iBook battery issue, etc).

I will reiterate, I have a great deal of respect for Apple. I think they have a very good idea of what computers should be like and how they should work. It just amazes me that many otherwise intelligent people are sucked into the "cult of Apple" and close their mind to anything that causes negative energy in their distorted field of reality.

I agree, but let's not forget about Cormack and the Doom series that uses OpenGL!

Does anyone remember this?

[sarcasm]
Too bad they're going out of business any day now....
[/sarcasm]

True story:

"You know that Apple's going to be bought out by Microsoft eventually," my father told me.

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How do you figure that?"

"Well, they've only got 3% of the market, and now they've got a problem with iPod inventories building up. People just aren't buying enough iPods."

"Oh. Well, I know I'm getting Emily a 512 MB iPod Shuffle for Christmas, since she's started listening to her own music."

"I have one of those." He pulled into the parking lot at Best Buy. The task was to find a set of 801.11g XR transmitters. It seems that my sister was sucking down all of the bandwidth in the house with her stuff, so he wanted to keep her on the g (54 Mbps) while he coasted at g XR (108 Mbps), so he'd have priority on the downloads.

"Yeah, I remember." My father had received a free 512 MB iPod Shuffle for appearing at a CIO convention or something like that.

"I really like it, but I had to upgrade to the 1 GB Shuffle for more space."

I looked down at the dashboard, where his 60 GB iPod Photo sat in its iPod charger/radio transmitter. "This one's to hold more of my music," he said, changing the tracks from country to blues.

We went into Best Buy. It turned out they didn't have the router, but they did have iPods, of which he bought a 30 GB iPod Photo for my sister. "I got Deby one, and once I had Dejah use iTunes she bought some music, but it doesn't work on her Rio, so I had to get her one. I got Amber a Shuffle too not to long ago." Amber was my niece, his granddaughter.

Once we were home, he went into the back room for a bit and came out with his old iPod shuffle in a purple protector case. "Here - this is for Emily. I don't need it any more."

Emily, of course, was so excited and gave her Grandpa all the thanks in the world. Along with the shuffle came another two protector cases, a set of iPod socks made by Apple, then the dock adapter we had to get so it could be charged away from a computer.

"Gee, too bad that Apple's going out of business because they're not selling enough iPods," I mused.

"Well, Microsoft will just buy them out." Dad started inserted CD's into his laptop, ripping his entire collection to his hard drive to take with him on his portable music player. "Want to help your sister figure out her playlists in iTunes?"

"Ah - sure."

And that is how Emily got an iPod. And I learned that Apple may go out of business in the next bit - but odds are, my family alone will keep them floating for quite some time.

Will this be the worlds first /. 'd snail mail box?

Nope. Remember what we did to Alan Ralsky :-)

There is already a Magellan project, a 2 telescope optical interferometer

Grandparent has a point though. This naming convention is a poor choice. What will they call the next one? "OMG The Really REALLY Big Ginormous Magellan Telescope"? And the one after that?

Marketroids (and apparently the ivory tower residents responsible for naming telescopes) need to learn from the debacle of USB Hi-Speed vs Full-Speed. Future-proof the meaning of your technology's name by assigning it based on absolute, and NOT relative, criteria. "Giant" has no real meaning. "25.6m" (the resolving power of the GMT) does have a meaning that will persist into the future.

Didn't he just say the opposite, oh yeah.

Mr. Jobs addressed the issue of video on iPods when asked by Mike Wendland of the Detroit Free Press whether or not Apple was looking to add features to the iPod. "We want it to make toast," replied Mr. Jobs. "We're toying with refrigeration, too."

While intended to get a laugh, which it did, Mr. Jobs also offered a more substantive answer as to why Apple had heretofore not added too many features to the iPod. "One of the things we say around Apple, and I paraphrase Bill Clinton from the 1992 presidential race, is 'It's about the music, stupid.'"

Mr. Jobs says that there is a big difference between the way people listen to music and other activities like watching videos. Specifically, he said, you can listen to music in the background, while movies require that you actually watch them. "You can't watch a video and drive a car," he said. "We're focused on music."

Sources: one
two

Reference to some incidents I referred to.

The loads of people you know acounted for only 1,046,000 Macs as of a recent quarterly earning report from Apple.

Now, ok, admittedly IBMs new "clients" haven't started selling their PowerPC (or Cell) based consoles yet, but look at the lifetime sales figures for consoles...

• Microsoft Xbox: 20 Million+ (In 5 Years)
• Sony PS2: 90 Million+ (In 4 Years)
• Nintendo Gamecude: 19 Million+ (In 4 Years)

And as you know, these numbers are bound to rise as the console (virtually everyone of them powered with an IBM chip) transforms into a media hub for the living room... so who's bitch would IBM be then?

For long-time Apple watchers, this was pretty much anticipated.

Back in the 1996, when Jobs was still at NeXT, he gave an interview where he said, "The PC wars are over. Microsoft won a long time ago. If I were the head of Apple, I would milk the Mac for all it's worth and then move on the next big thing."

Granted, the Mac has come a long, long way since 1996, and for the first time is being taken seriously in the enterprise, with its Unix underpinnings. But Apple's chance of dethroning Microsoft? Practically nil, and Jobs knows it. The Mac is destined to forever be a boutique computer. But hey, it's still generating a lot of revenue for the company, and when Apple goes to the bargaining table with IBM or Intel, it allows them to factor in several million more processors that they need when arguing for a volume discount, so it serves a purpose.

I'm kind of surprised that Apple hasn't yet latched onto the idea of using the Mac Mini as a media center PC, but maybe that's still coming. Especially if Apple is developing a video iPod; record TV on your Mac Mini, upload it to your iPod for later viewing. Or connect your iPod to the Mac Mini, and stream content to your TV (rather than trying to watch it on a 2" screen).

Honestly, how popular are movies going to be on the iPod and the PSP? I really can't see that segment of the market being more than a curiosity.

So, no clear market, expensive, yet cool. Gee, I've seen that somewhere before.

This time for sure... Presto! (About 16,600 English pages for apple's demise death with Safesearch on via Google.)

Here we go again...

Am I the only one that finds it mildly ironic that Apple also has a patent for the iTunes UI? Granted the patent was awarded only last year, so depending on the results of this (crap) it could in theory be revoked.

Apple works hard to provide a quality user experience.

Somebody begs to differ here.

And no, it's not (just) me.

The other person's name is Wozniak:

Wozniak: Apple, Microsoft "Don't Really Care About Quality"
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2005/06/16.6.sh tml

Apple co-founder says innovation is no longer the driving force for PC firms
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebu sinessnews/view/153069/1/.html

W.

A ridiculous amount of money?

Back in 2002 they all but threatened to cancel Office for Mac if sales didn't pick up because they were not satisfied with how much it was making.

Didn't NextStep have some kind of Windows software foundation that allowed NextStep programs to run under Windows?

A few moments of search proves that other people are thinking along similar lines.

That being said, my reaction to the linked article is that if someone's saying there's no danger to Linux, it's quite possible that there is. If MacOS X were to work on commodity hardware, its $129-odd price wouldn't be that much more than the current deluxe packaged versions of Red Hat or Suse Linux. Remember, for most people Linux actually isn't free; it's bought in a package from a store.

However, Steve doesn't really want that to happen, at least not yet. And as long as it doesn't happen, yes, there's no real danger since his hardware is always going to be significantly more expensive than what mainstream people want to pay.

But trust me, if the issue is raised, the odds are that there is danger. Or, more properly put, competition. And I think that's a good thing. Both Windows AND Linux could use it.

In the end, platforms that have been popular past a certain point have a very tough time dying. Far as I'm concerned, Linux, MacOS and Windows are all going to survive for many happy (or not so happy, in the case of Windows) years to come.

D

The company says that running Mac OS X for x86 requires a special boot ROM that locks the new OS to Apple branded hardware.

The company says that running Mac OS X for x86 requires a special boot ROM that locks the new OS to Apple branded hardware.

"We didn't buy that "MHz Myth" stuff any more than our customers did," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "The Velocity Engine is just so much pipe smoke, and it was time to hook ourselves up with the real power in the computing world, Intel."

"It has been embarrassing to run those highly specialized Photoshop® bake-offs to try and say that the G4 was faster than the Pentium® line, and now this way we don't have to," said Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

It's even more interesting that Apple would come right out and declare its own marketing ploys like the MHz Myth to be so much baloney. You wouldn't think the company's execs would do that, would you?

here was a live coverage of keynote done over at the Mac Observer.

This is quite remarkable. http://live.macobserver.com/article/2005/06/wwdc20 05_keynote.shtml

It seems to be true:
http://live.macobserver.com/article/2005/06/wwdc20 05_keynote.shtml

The AMD link isn't really about how it'll hurt AMD, but about how Apple couldn't choose AMD because AMD can't reliably keep up with that level of demand.

Since a producer that has 16.9 percent market share, can't support a producer that has 3.7% market share? Sounds unlikely at best. Granted, there would have to be a ramp-up, but with a commitment from Apple, I dont see how a 25% capacity growth is a lot.

Kjella

You left out anti Apple. http://www.macobserver.com/article/2002/10/28.8.sh tml

Enderle states that Apple will be obsolete by end of 2003. I love this prediction for the simple fact that I'm posting on a powerbook.

Does anyone remember the dreadful FishPC iMac wannabe, not to be confused with the eMachines iMac knockoff?

"Does anyone really care about writing for a webbrowser with a marketshare ceiling of ~3%?"

Yes, when that 3% tends to include the smartest and wealthiest among us:

. . . And it turns out that users of Apple computers are a more desirable demographic to advertisers than are PC users.

"With above-average household income and education levels, the Mac population presents a very attractive target for marketers, both online and offline," says NetRatings director and principal analyst T.S. Kelly.

The report notes that Mac computer users tend to be creative, loyal and tech-savvy. . . .

http://news.com.com/2100-1040-943519.html?tag=fd_t op
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news2002/jul02/ju l22/1_mon/news4monday.html
http://www.internetnews.com/stats/article.php/1403 581
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2002/07/15.1.sh tml

That's not the only reason Apple might be considering using Intel chips. An Intel chip might be a better and more modern solution for some Apple hardware. I think that "cheaper Mac mini" comment was just fun speculation by the submitter.

Currently all of Intel's stuff runs hotter, so Apple would have to work significantly harder at heat dissipation issues in all but their tower designs.

Not all of Intel's stuff. The Pentium M and Mobile 915 chipset were designed specifically for notebooks and run very cool (unlike the Pentium 4 architecture). Just this past January, Apple's VP of Worldwide Sales and Operations called a PowerBook G5 "the mother of all thermal challenges." A Pentium M PowerBook would not be a thermal challenge at all.

For desktops and servers, the G5 is great and I see no good reason to use Intel chips for those platforms. For 1" think PowerBooks, however, the G5 may never be a good solution because of thermal challenges. The G4 processor is so slow and outdated (but maybe "good enough" for now), that Intel's budget notebook processor, the Pentium M-based Celeron M, is better than the fastest G4.

And what, pray tell, do you expect them to do with little-endian issues, backwards compatibility, and all those little details?

That's a good point, and I have no idea. That's why I say the Pentium M might be a good chip for PowerBooks.

I can't imagine that it would be that big a deal to switch out the drive from true Blue-Ray to whatever the new standard would be before the PS3s ship. Costly, certainly. Maybe requiring a small programming change on the PS3 motherboard. But other than that...

"Google kicked our butts, but we're working on something much better. It will be out before the end of the year"

"The BlackBerry is great but we're bringing a new approach"

"As good as Apple may be, I don't believe the success of the iPod is sustainable in the long run. You can make parallels with computers: Apple was very strong in this field before, with its Macintosh and its graphics user interface -- like the iPod today -- and then lost its position."

"Speaking before a meeting of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, Mr. Gates took verbal shots at the Macintosh maker saying it was "great" that the general press was "writing about operating systems," but refused to respond to questions that Mac OS X Tiger came out earlier than Microsoft's next version of Windows with a number of features the software giant could only describe."

Man, you almost got me there. Good one! See, you came in, talking about financials like you knew something and I had to actually follow your like to find that you are totally full of crap.

From your own like, YHOO P/E is 54.5 while AAPL is 30. Certainly a premium for a company that makes nothing and got their asses handed to them by some kids from Berkley a few years back.

Secondly, shares outstanding for AAPL, 817 M compared to 1.385 B for YHOO - hmm, someone has been diluting the hell out of their company to get financed and retain employees. Now Apple does this too, but Apple controls itself.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, you start your flame with a discussion of market capitalization - a calculation of price per share times number of shares which just tells you how much the company could be worth if someone ever bought the company off eTRADE (hah!)

So it's no wonder YHOO has a 48B mcap vs. AAPL's 27B - YHOO trades at a 45% premium over AAPL because of the sky high P/E for a company that ... well, you recall those kids from Berkley?

Look, all joking aside, take some sage wisdom here and sell YHOO while it is getting a good deal of attention. When YHOO disapoints on this Music Unlimited thing because it can't make any money with an all you can eat $5 buffett, Walstreet will destroy it. If that isn't good enough reason, know that the P/E can't go much higher - that's why when Napster and Harmony dropped 25% on YHOO news, Yahoo only moved inches. No where to go but down.

What to do with your money if not put it in YHOO? You can come join me over in the AAPL ownership circle. It's a great time to buy AAPL. (It may be a Mac news site, but they are quoting Pipper Jaffray's Gene Munster.

http://www.macobserver.com/images/viewimage.shtml? src=/images/news/2005/20050510tablet/figure7.gif

His thumb is as long and lanky as his other fingers, and he's completely missing his pinky except for a nub. Presumably he lost his pinky in a tea drinking accident at the catillion.

Not to mention he appears to have had his legs amputated and yet is capable of standing via hovering in mid-air. No doubt, he made a deal with Satan to grant him such forbidden magicks of the ancients of the templed pillar-cities of lizard people.

Last but not least, the man's face indicates to me this individual is none other than TV's Dave Coulier, sitcom actor from Full House and our favorite host of Out Of Control. Hah-hah! CUT-IT-OUUUUT!

A mirror of the photos^H^H^H^H^H^Hillustrations is here.

Ummm.. what is exactly the point of the mirror site? The thumbnails of the illustrations are fetched from http://www.macobserver.com/ and the URLs linked from them for the larger images also point to macobserver.com. Shouldn't a mirror actually keep copies of the files so that users do not hammer the original site?

It seems that Network Mirror exists only to attach advertisements. I wonder if they change the ad referers from MacObserver to Network Mirror as well.

Mac ownership is still at less than 2% and Linux can't really be considered to be a more secure and desktop-ready alternative to XP or 2000.


According to Gartner Mac market share is at 3.7% for Q1 2005. Not to mention that Macs tend to be used longer (still using a 400mhz G4 from 2000 as my primary computer when my PC from the same time has long been recycled).

As for Linux, maybe not desktop-ready, but clearly more secure than Windows? Oops, I fed the troll.

I don't remember the exact words, but during the WWDC 2004 keynote Steve Jobs himself said Mac OS X was the worlds biggest UNIX distribution.

http://live.macobserver.com/article/2004/06/wwdc20 04_keynote.shtml

Sounds like the old EvangeList...

The correct term is beleaguered Apple .

Learn it, love it, use it.

IIRC you can buy a premiere type membership and get downloads of software before the average schmeddly.

But Terrasoft's huge business is in reselling Apple hardware. For example they've sold hardware and software to Lockeed-Martin and they also sold 260 XServes to the US Navy http://www.macobserver.com/article/2003/08/07.8.sh tml

• 18.8% iRiver
• 18.6% Rio
• 15.8% Digital Way
• 8.8% RCA
• 6.2% Samsung